Training Log Archive: peterk

Event: 2013 Oceania Carnival & WC Races
 

Day 1 of Oceania Challenge

Rounded sand dunes and pine forests. 2.5m contours. Some features difficult to read. Still no excuse for drifting left on the first control. As always some features did not fit. I lost 2m work out where I got it wrong. Next few controls were spot on using the straight line aproach confirmed by features near the straight line. The far western side of the map was technical with low visibility. I had 3 controls in this area. The first two I aproached slowly and was glad to hit them bang on the third control Idrifted too far right and missed it entirely. I found a control on someone elses course but could not work out which of the many knolls it was situated. Eventually I hit a moter bike track and knew instantly where I was. I lost 5-6m here. The rest was uneventful but slow. Overall not bad.

Breifly I though I was in Europe when a Finnish lady asked me where she was. Why was she doing orienteering when she was standing in the middle of a major track and adjacent fence with features either side of the track?

Event 1 C 6 - Splits

Loop walk to Dawson Falls in Taranaki National Park

Walk in Taranaki or Mt Egmont National Park. Set out with intensions of climbing well above the tree line over a 4hr circuit. However when we got higher the wind was strong and cold so we setled for the lesser Veronika Circuit which stays just below the tree line. We learned later that winds of 100km/h were forcast for the higher parts of the mountain

Borowed hotel bikes to ride along the New Plymouth foreshore Huge onshore wind made some legs harder. Fitted in 15 min up and down climb of the towns most prominent hill.

Had a really good run or so I thought. Everything seemed to fit without no significant difficulties finding controls. One warning should have been coming out of control 10 when the mapping seemed to be astray, but I corrected to a good line for control 11. Only when I got back did I found out I misspunched 10 on a similar feature close by. Bugger

Day 2 Course 3. More pine forested sand dunes. Reasonable run up to 3 then nothing seemed to fit on the map. I hit a road too early and at the wrong angle and I should have seen the control before that. I took a while (7m?) to work out I had done a 180, by turning the map upside down. Another mistake on the way to 7 sent me too far to the right. Worked out where I was by unexpectedly seeing the only water tank on the map. Boring finish on the last 3 controls. Finished way down the list with multiple elites doing the same course.

North Auckland Event in pineforested sand dune country north of Auckland near Helensville. This is a prelim event to the Oceania Champs. Day 1 of 3.

Set of very cautiously and as someone who has not done a lot of running for a while. That was reflected in the time taken to the first control. It did however allow me to get a feel for the map which in turn made me very comfortable with the route choices. I knew were I was all the time and only made minor mistakes totalling maybe 4 minutes. Happy with the time.