Training Log Archive: devil

Australian long on the Golden Fleece. It was a much better day than yesterday and a nice short drive from St Helens to the event. A bit shaky into 1 as I dropped too low down the hill, maybe the 2.5m contours. From there was going steadily and hitting the controls pretty well. Went left to 5, which apparently confused jimbo enough to send him off towards 9. Got a bit off line after the first creek crossing then ended up in a bit too much green, although somehow came out in about the right place and headed up the hill to the control. Went out to the track to 6, which seemed to be about the same as straight as one of the girls who'd also been in the green with me took about the same time for the leg. Then a whole group of the girls including grace converged on 6 and there was a bit of a pack around the hill until I went down to 9. Back through the green to 10 where I saw mark gregson who'd started four minutes back from me. We took different lines to 11, then around 12, tim robertson and brian keeley came past. We got a bit of a tow to 13 then they gradually pulled away on the long leg to 14. I managed to find a deep channel of water here which was about chest high. Another queenslander joined us here and craney sped past. I went a bit high at 20 and lost the others but recaught them at 25. Mark cut across the white to 26 after crossing the river, while I went along the track a bit further then up the clear area, never saw mark again and it turned out he dnf'd after missing that control. Was still running OK at the end, so endurance is good, but lacked a bit of speed. Was happy with the way I read the map, especially in the tin mining, which I quite enjoyed.

Not a very long warm up and warm down

Long 1 - Splits

Australian sprint championships at Bicheno. It was pretty wet and windy for the morning elite races. The map had a bit of everything, town, rocks, bush, jetties..... but with the rain the rocks were always going to be slippery. I decided on inov8 315s as these are usually OK on rocks and better for running on roads than spikes. Started pretty well, helped by geoff still looking for 1 and then fatrat stuffing 2. Was a bit slow off the beach so didn't manage to catch fatrat then lost sight of him round the little loop from 3 to 5. Took a couple of seconds to choose the left hand route round the hill, most took the right. There wasn't a lot in it, but it was hard to pick where the olive green patch ended to cut to the control. I then made a bit of a mess of getting out of 9, losing a minute and geoff caught back up. We were together for the rest of the run which was OK but a bit slow on the rocks. A slightly disappointing run after a good start. The area would have been great if it wasn't raining.

On the model for the long, there was some danger of shopping legs as Lizzie needed to stop at a shop to spend the voucher she won in the sprint. I think I got off lightly compared to the boys from a schools team that craney saw in there sitting on a step looking a bit bored. Model map was quite useful for figuring out what was and wasn't mapped in the tin mining.

Attempting to warm up in the driving rain, eventually followed jimbo's lead and put a thermal on which helped a lot. A bit of jogging around the carpark afterwards.

Sprint 1 - Splits

Bilbys intervals round lake G. This week it was 10x 2 min (1min). There was a good group of quicker runners so the pace was solid the whole way.

Just a quick run on the ridge while it got dark