Training Log Archive: Bertbennett

First park-O for me this year. Legs felt very heavy after yesterday's hill interval session which is to be expected however I still managed to push hard through the course. Found I was starting to lose form about 1/2 of the way through so I had to back off a little bit to keep it clean around the ponds. Picked up the win by 1 min over Macey who was not feeling 100% and apparently left a small souvenir out on course. I'll claim the win as it's unlikely to occur too frequently!

Had a good chat to Rob Vincent afterwards about orienteering. He's definitely a fountain of information on how to train and how to race and think about orienteering.

Apparently my "amazing" time today caused some controversy. lol.

Course Long - Splits

1 lap of the usual Glenrock loop. Had to stop at one point after one of the steeper hill sections as I was getting some really bad pressure build up in the calf leading which was also causing pain in the foot and some pins and needles. Had to back off the pace a little bit during the single track sections to allow that to alleviate. Weirdly during the single track sections even the up hill sections I felt fine. In fact I felt super smooth and fast on the single track going into the low 4min/km ~ high 3min/km without too much effort.

Unable to make it to the usual track session this week because of work, hopefully I can get the time shifted for next week cause I really think the track work is doing me a world of good.

Didn't feel like I really got it all out of me this morning and I missed track intervals so I decided on a hill interval session. 8 * between 63 and 67 seconds up the hill. with 100 seconds of rest while running down.

Long distance style course set by Andrew out at Balickera Hills. Last run for the "camp" over the weekend. Enjoyed the course and felt pretty smooth apart from the little technical part at the end. That part of the map always confuses me.. was able to execute my plans well which is a great feeling. Bit wide on the way to 3, after a fall.

Bearings felt really nice too! The vegetation on the map is completely on point so it paid off to avoid the green and skirt around. Good times!

Fell pretty hard on my way to 2 on the track. Knee feeling a little ginger afterwards and definitely wasn't running as smoothly after the fall. Hopefully it's just a short term thing.

Day 2 of the Newcastle Preseason Camp.
Started with a middle distance on Southams Road West set by Josh. Brain took a while to wake up with a little wiggle on the way to number 1 but settled into the course nicely after that. Directional errors particularly on #4 and #5.

Control #7 I hit the track not knowing exactly where I was and approached the gully very tentatively. Hit #7 dead on, had there been a control there I would have punched it and kept going. But I didn't think I was in the right spot so I went a bit higher up the gully, then because the route to #8 was not making sense from that point I went back and got the control again. Andrew and Macey ran through me there but I'm not taking that mistake too badly because it wouldn't have been a mistake if there were flags. Managed to catch back up to Andrew then to Macey then ran together for the last bit. My pace feels very good in the forest which is a great feeling and apart from early directional errors my compass was pretty on point. Really looking forward to the season starting and hopefully transferring current form into good results.

Some nice intervals set by Alex at The Chimney. Actually felt pretty good most of the time in the erosion gullies. Nice and accurate mostly. Had a couple slight wobbles and hesitations but nothing too bad. Most of my hesitations were to do with making sure I was at the correct control site which is unavoidable unless you're supremely confident. Only did 4 of the 5 intervals as the rest of the guys quit after 3 and I didn't want to keep them waiting. (Plus the last one went through some pretty thick green).

Salomon's are on their death bed unfortunately. Big choice now as to whether I should continue with Salomon on try Inov-8s again or maybe branch out!

Night-O at brush creek. Made a couple errors but most of what looks like mistakes on QR is just dicking around trying to find a track because I cbf going through the thick green. Didn't finish the course because people were waiting back at the cars for me to finish.

Ran together with Andrew who was feeling sick and also had a very dim headlamp so was holding back a bit. Felt great physically and actually found the night wasn't too much of a factor, other than needing to be more accurate with Nav.

Unreasonably hot for a 9oclock start...