Training Log Archive: O-ing

Lighter session. L knee sore. Not quite limping, but restricted. Knew I was doing damage on Sunday but thought it was worth it.

C • a badge 4

Big Bush, St Arnaud, M60, Long, 1st. Steep, thick beech forest with random boulders. Nice. Interesting putting your foot down and not knowing what was going to happen - solid footing, twist, slip, punch through a few cm, get grabbed. The shoes were not ideal - needed metal dobb spikes. Came through for my first national long distance age group win. It was pretty easy in the end - I was basically slow and careful through the bush and opened it up on the easy street/park finish. Lost around 1 minute early on number 3 - I knew there was an extra gully not on the map but couldn't make myself go to the right one quickly enough or in the right direction. Also dropped around 20 seconds near the end when I drifted off a small path. Ended up 13:40 clear of Lizzie's Dad (who won the Oceania Long near here in 2009 - I was 5th that year after winning the sprint and middle earlier).
Cuisine NZ - freshly caught trout from Lake Rotoiti on toast.

Routegadget
Winsplits

Black Hill, St Arnaud. Middle. 1st, after my 4 minute man caught me on the way to no. 2 (he was going in as I was coming out). Scraped the win by less than 2 minutes.
Number 1 was a road run, then into a thick wall of green - I had two gos at it; bailed out after the first attempt (-2:00). Bad route choice to 2, stuck in green again for over a minute (-1:30). Tentative to 6, ended up high but that got me a good route to the nearest attackpoint (-0:20). 9 was dangerous, down a steep hill, so aimed off to get a track which actually went uphill again for a bit. Took a bit of time to identify the right boulder (-0:30). Lost a bit of time coming out of 10 and then near 11 checked one thick gully too early (-0:30).
So, could have been 4:50 quicker at 22:20, which would have been good enough for 3rd on the course behind M16 Calum Sutherland who did 19:49 (but only 20 seconds quicker than Marquita).
GPS fail; it turned itself off when I was stuck near no. 2.
Gourmet home cooked Chinese for dinner washed down with WA Cape Mentelle. Lovely.

Event: NZ Orienteering Champs
 

Nelson. Short Champs, M60, 1st. Great map and area. Very brave of NZ to hold this race basically beside the city centre with open roads and it worked. Detailed map and challenging course. First time I've competed on Easter Friday for many years and thoroughly worth it. Three small time losses, but had a couple of minutes in hand. Faster than the M55s as well.
Fine dining experience continued with slow cooked beef cheeks (we had a sensational lasagne yesterday with home made pasta).