Training Log Archive: nmulder

Flew back from Ukraine to Johannesburg.

0615 - A loosening up jog after WOC around Hydropark map, an island in the Middle of the Dnieper in Kiev. Went with Jeremy, catching the metro to and from the island. Nice run on small and medium footpaths. Quite a lot of revellers on their way home, but quite out in the forest.

1200 - Pirogovo. 1:10'000. 5m. WOC Relay. I ran the first leg for the SA relay team. Normally this is a position that I don't like, but the thinking was that better me than Richard or Jeremy. Normally I'm too slow for an early leg. After the start, this was the case, as I hung onto the back of the field for the first 2. However, when the climb started on 3 and 4 I was immediately back with them, running with Ireland, China, USA and a few others. I made a small route choice error early on as I adapted to the map (green was very runnable for a change... this was the same map for the Classic final, so the people who ran it had an advantage). I made a big mistake though at #10. I thought I had read the map well, but did not double check, running up the wrong gully in highly eroded terrain. I ran up the wrong ridge, got to the top and saw Ireland (30 secs behind) punch the correct hill top two ridges away. Took me a while to get there. I then made my next mistake by changing my following route as I was starting to feel very weak (probably due to illness in last 3 days). I decided to run around all the erosion, rather than back through. I ended up doing significant extra distance, plus I still had to climb and drop through numerous gullies. My time estimate is a loss of 3 min + 4 min. I though I would be way out of it, but at the spectator control, they gave me a time split of 1 minute to Ireland (Andrew having a worse day than me). The next loop was easy, I made no mistakes and re-caught Taipei. I brought the team in in 35th position, surprisingly 2 min ahead of Ireland. Richard L than had a good to fair run to bring the team home in 33rd overall. Jeremy ran 3rd and also had a few big mistakes. We finished 36th overall, well below our goal of improving our seeding of 33rd. 10 minutes faster would have pulled us up about 3 places. Nice terrain, once again more easy to run in than originally expected. Very little in the training camp was applicable to WOC.

Have been feeling somewhat ill the last few days. I think its a combination of hayfever, the muggy conditions and sleeping in a warm draft.

1031 - Bortnychi North. 1:10'000, 2.5m contours. WOC 2007 Middle Distance Qualifier. Had a good start over the first 5 controls, catching Pavel the Israeli (started 2 mins ahead) before 1 and running together till 5. Then he sped up. The rest of my race wasn't too great. I did not have enough contact with the map, and I was slow and uncertain on the medium and long legs. A few times I was out at the control, and a few others I got lucky as I didn't read within the circle well. In the end Pavel ran away by 4 minutes from me. Even if I had stayed with him, I would still have been 3.5 mins away from the 30:35 qualifying mark. Finished 27th out of 41 runners, including a few dsq'ed because of mispunching and over-timing. I've now got nearly a week of rest before the Relays.

Golosiivsky Park. 1:15'000. 5m contours. WOC 2007 Long Distance Qualification. As opposed to yesterdays heat and high humidity, this morning was nice and cool, perfect running weather. My bus was on time (unusually) to the start, so I had a nice, but painful warm-up. Got off to a decent start, but was a bit despondent due to the large number of running legs. After the first water control (#6) I made my biggest mistake in years by heading for #8. Got 70% of the way there before realising and returning for #7. Mistake was about 4 mins. From there I settled down a bit, but lost a bit of interest, thinking that I was now well out of it. My fitness pulled me through though and I made no more serious mistakes. Crossed the finish line and was surprised to see so many people behind me by big margins (10 min plus). Took a lot of scalps. I had a total of 5 mins of mistakes, but this only would have put me up 1 or 2 places, nowhere near qualification. Finished 24th / 36 competitors. Probably my best WOC result yet in terms of position, but definitely not as a % of the winner's time. Left Austria, Belgium, Serbia, Romania, Turkey, Moldova, USA, Canada, Ireland, Kazakstan, Portugal, Hong Kong behind me. China finished 2 secs ahead of me.

C • Awesome 1

Event: WOC 2007
 

Golosiivsky Park. 1:5'000, 5m contours. WOC 2007 Sprint Distance Qualification. Men A heat. 33th / 39 runners. I was a bit hurried at the start due to delays in the organiser's transport system. Only had 20 minutes to change and warm-up. Didn't think too clearly for the first two legs, but didn't make any disasters either. Had a pretty clean race all round, only loosing about 20 secs on mistakes / poorer route choices. Felt a little tired on the last hill but otherwise very happy with my time. Was 3:27 behind winner on my course, which is purely down to my lack of speed. Richard L had a good fast run (best of SA's), whilst Jeremy not so great, as he felt tired and slow.

1000 - Brovary. 1:10'000. WOC Model Middle Distance training. The usual greenery under the forest. I managed to avoid most of the nettles. Pretty green map, so it's not going to be too nice on the Middle Qualie. I just waltzed around a bit. Looking at runability of green areas.

1230 - Feofaniya. 1:15'000 and 1:5'000. WOC Model event for Long and Sprint Distances. Less greenery under the forest, but mainly for the sprint area. Nice parkland and little rubish for a change. Once again, did a slow plod around the course, mainly looking at interpretation of vegetation types.

The SA Team has started a blog for WOC in Ukraine.

http://www.rsaorienteers.blogspot.com/