Training Log Archive: slow-twitch

While it was a very nasty turn of the ankle yesterday and I'm still a bit down on the whole thing (both the initial incident seriously reducing my Oceania participation, and now this just as at least the road running was coming right) I just need to look at the quick recovery I've already made once over the last couple of weeks and try to revisit it. So I'm feeling a bit more positive than you might expect. Once I'm through the regular RICE period will get back into the contrast immersion and exercises etc. Just a little short on the incentive front so I will try to post updates here as a way of making myself keep at it (don't worry, not on a daily basis)

Stage 5 The Slip (aka Rowe Road). Mass start stage. The main goal was ankle protection so I could get a complete result and beat the mispunchers but unfortunately didn't quite pull it off this time despite dusting off the boots again. Knew there was a risk of getting overexcited about the mass start so let myself drop right off the back of the M40 pack right from the line. Then caught up with the tail again as they all followed John R around the RH route choice and I did my own thing going relatively straight. At a walk/jog was keeping with the tail through to about 6 and still often had Paul T-S in sight after that (apparently there were a few somewhere behind me too) From 8, got surrounded by the W50(?) pack (I think our 8 was their 2) which probably pushed me along a bit faster than I was intending to go. Then on a nice flat, even bit of ground on the way out of 12, rolled all the way over on the ankle. Fuck. So was a long painful walk up to the event centre from there.

Incidentally I could probably give myself a perfect score for the controls I made it to, but as I almost started down the wrong re-entrant to 8 that can be my token flaw.

Stage 3 Kaiwaka. Gorse maze on a riverbed inter-braid, then a neat little gulley system on farmland. Unfortunately I couldn't have too much fun as my key goal here was ankle protection so I'd be able to get through the series with a complete result and beat the rapidly mounting up mispunchers. So went out with boots and an intent to walk. The boots worked well as there were a couple of near misses that may have been ankle turns if I was wearing o- or running shoes. The intent to walk disappeared pretty quickly as much of the early parts of the course were surprisingly good underfoot so was comfortable to jog around (but still kept a very close eye and feel for changing ground conditions). You'd think the going slower would have helped the navigation but had a run of silly moments through 4,5 & 6 (had to double back from 3 to get back on to my intended route choice to 4 when I probably would have been better off carrying on with the other option, confused about which open area was which on the way to 5, and navigated right to the corridor to get to 6 but wasn't convinced that was the right spot until I'd then relocated off 7)

Stage 4 - Napier Central. Mostly city blocks with some finely balanced route choice legs. Felt best running I have for a long time, which is good because there's nowhere worth easing back the throttle on this map. Felt like I was hitting the wall by 8 but got the legs back somewhere over the next few legs. Lungs got a very good workout though - there may have been reports of a steam engine heard in the CBD. While there was plenty of debate with Allan, Dirk, Hugh etc about what the best routes were and I often had different ones, there's only 2 that in retrospect I'd do differently (13 and 19). I also would choose not to bollix up the 2nd control though. For some reason felt I had to go past the back of 2 buildings, not 1. Winsplits says I only lost 30 odd seconds here but it was enough for Hugh F-F to catch me so even though he was on fire out of the start I still reckon it would be closer to a minute.

Event: Sprint the Bay 2013
 

Sprint the Bay Stage 1 - Woodford House. A mixture of tight building maze and long open legs. Best bits were what I imagine some of those European races through medieval cities were like (ie: awesome), but most of it was fairly standard sprint stuff (good standard, and I liked the changes in "style"). Started off slow but got the pace up once the initial climb from the start was over, but then had to pull it back a bit in the more rural sections of the map. Lost well over a minute at 8, tried to take on the direct route through the green stripe - a bad idea even with fully functional ankles AND failed to notice the depression was perched on a terrace so stayed down in the gulley. Think I had this same site the only other time we've raced here... and think I made exactly the same mistakes! Otherwise the only mistake as such was route choice 4-5 - I convinced myself there wasn't a legal way through on the more direct RH route than the one I used, but don't think there was more than 10 seconds lost. Also lost 30 secs on the confident fence climbers at 15, but apparently others lost even more and I haven't counted this as a mistake as I don't think that section of the fence is more crossable than some of the other forbidden ones on the map. Despite a bit of walking on the designated hill climb was still 8th fastest on that split!

Stage 2 Splash Planet. Started off with some pretty basic route choice legs around Karamu College then the sprint leg from hell to get into SP, then absolutely intense from there. Took me long enough to get into the map once in the funpark I'm probably lucky to not have had some real blowouts. I have a sneaking suspicion the first part of the course was designed specifically to get people's tempo right up to be too high for the main part. Was moving fairly quick and mostly barely noticing the ankle. Gained 6 places on the long leg although the legs and lungs did not enjoy it. Worst time losses were c 20 secs exiting 7 in the appropriate direction for the wet route choice to 8 despite not having seen it as an option so doubling back onto the dry route choice, and 1 minute when things went completely haywire on 18-19, I really don't know what I was thinking and when I realised I'd gone wrong it took far too long to figure out where I actually was relative to where I should have been. On the other hand, picked up a couple of blue splits, I think for the first time in a decent sized field!