Training Log Archive: markg

Event: Australian Middle Distance/Relay Championships
 

Aus Middle Champs at the Gib near Bungendore, 15th overall, 10th Aussie and 6:42 down on Matt Crane. I tried to put the cold out of my mind, focus on my goal and go hard. I started nervously and carefully on the first control, but spiked it, albeit slowly and had a good run through to #6, picking up the pace where I felt able. I was actually in 6th place at this point and a minute down, most of which (40s) came from the the first control. A bad attack on #7 cost 15s and started my slide through the places. Was pretty clean from here through to #14 (lost a little time being slow and uncertain on #10, a fairly straight forward contouring leg), and passed Greg Barbour. I lost focus a bit here and didn't read #15 well enough. I spiked it but left myself a big climb into the control and really struggled to keep moving up. Took a bit of a safe and lazy option on #17, coming in the back of the control circle, which I think cost me 30s and then slogged slowly up the hill to #18 - I had no strength left for the hills and rocks. At this point I was in 10th, 3min down. I wasted some time making up my mind which route to take to #19, eventually deciding on going around to the left, figuring I was best off sticking to open running. Attacking the control from this direction turned out to be difficult and I lost contact in the last 150m. I got it fairly directly but it was slow and I dropped 2:17 on Matt on this leg, probably a minute lost. I then mucked up the tiny next leg after misreading the map and dropped another minute. Was fine then to the finish.

I was happy with this run given the virus but still disappointed that those errors crept in and I lost my good early placing.

Oz Middle Course 1 - Splits

Short plod around the back of Stromlo, Arachnicopia, with dad. The wind had stopped and the sum was out so it was a beautiful morning if chilly. Unfortunately, I've got a mild cold and I'm not feeling too flash.

Public race following Aus Schools Relays. A bit tired today but nevertheless ran too fast with too little focus resulting in a spectacular 2:30 failure on #4 and a few other wobbles including 1:00 lost running across an open field to #19 ... a good reminder of how not to orienteer!

Public race at Wild Deer Sands following the Aus School Champs. Had a pretty good run today and pulled out the second fastest time on this course 3:25 behind Tim Robertson running the official race (I'm impressed he's still at school!). I managed to push hard the whole way and only made one significant error, about 30s on #10, and a couple of directional wobbles. It's not every day I do 5:30/km in a bush race!

Wild Deer Hard1-Men - Splits

Feeling better than I predicted ...

C • is that.. 2

Aus Long Champs at Slap Up Ck. 23rd and well down on both Matt Crane's scorching winning time and where I think I should be finishing. Quite a disappointing result, especially after yesterday's good one. The first main story of the day were three big mistakes: 1:30 on #12 because I navigated to #19 by mistake, a massive 4:30 parallel error on #17 when I lost focus around some other runners, and another 1:30 at #15 when I just couldn't spot the damned boulder. That last error was typical of numerous other small mistakes when I didn't get it right in the circle, sometimes picking the right feature but not spotting the control, which accounted for another minute or so worth of errors.

The description of the forest areas as 'pleasant running' was a cruel joke or perhaps the author was a champion hurdler. I found keeping any sort of pace up in the deadfall really hard work and by time I screwed up #17 I was flagging badly. The gel I took at #16 kicked in for a while but I struggled to lift my pace to even moderately competitive levels. My hamstrings and calves were starting to revolt late in the course and I had to stop quickly a couple of times to stretch and ward off a cramp.

Feeling quite down about it - I'd thought with a fairly solid season of training I'd be more competitive than this. I'm not sure what I need to do to improve my long distance races ...

LONG Course 1 - Splits