Training Log Archive: O-ing

Event: Australian Middle Distance Championships
 

Foxes Lair, Middle, M60, 2nd. Yet another opportunity thrown away near the end with a numbskull thrashing about in green, looking behind boulders. This was not orienteering, this was incompetence on a very high level. No plan, no picture, just run and hope - how do I let myself go like this at crucial points?

OK, so after yesterday's thrashing, the body still felt good, nothing in the achilles, legs felt ready to go, so I went flat out where I could. The warning signs were there when I fluffed #1 - bad direction 20 degrees off to the left landed me in the wrong clump of detail. GPS shows I was heading roughly OK but veered off left halfway. Stopped, read the map and saw a track among the boulders I hadn't picked up before which gave away the flag. 20 seconds binned, but lots of people had issues here included TH (1 second slower).

Fastest to 2 and 3 and when Jeff fluffed 4 I had the lead, which I kept till 9 even with a really stupid overshoot at 6 (-15 seconds) and a stupid veering off at the circle at 8 (-15 seconds).

Then 10. Stopped way too early (100m!!) after the Start valley and found myself back in the clump of rocks near 1 that I had looked in before (-20 seconds).

So did I panic?? It looks like it. I swung south but didn't go far enough and went into the green way too early (actually the control was on the other side of the green, I could have just run around it). There were a lot of boulders in there that I looked behind. I was in there for 2 minutes, which included about 15 seconds searching for a dropped SI stick. 69th out of 71 on this leg. Probably lost ~1:30 and the race - fastest back from that point but lost to TimH by 1:15.

C7 - Splits

Event: Australian Sprint Championships
 

Narrogin HS, Sprint, M60, 2nd. Sluggish, not flowing well. Just one fastest split before the run-in and lost the split count 2-13 to Tim H, so was never really in it. Two significant errors as well - good course setting caught me out at 12: needed to turn sharp left (to the top of the stairs) but I went around (to the bottom) even though I had specifically looked for whether stairs were top or bottom at the pre-start (-10 seconds). Worse was the penultimate control - just ran past it to the next doorway (-20 seconds). Probably chose the wrong route there too (-15 seconds). So was never going to close the gap to Tim (1:11).

C7 - Splits

Event: Wandoo Wander
 

Bluff Knoll. Hard.

Middleton Beach

C • Double the normal distance 2

Castle Rock in the Porongorups.

Green Pool, Denmark. Not as cold as Canberra.

Event: Australian 3 Days Championship - Day 3
 

Umuna, Easter Day 3; M60, 1st. Legs/Achilles felt fine so went flat out where I could. Had a huge buffer of 13 minutes, so could afford to stuff up mightily. Mostly ok but scrappy at 2, 3, 5, 10, 12, 13 and a real mistake at 11 where I completely lost direction and followed the easy course tapes in hope.

M60A - Splits

Event: Australian 3 Days Championship - Day 2
 

Hill Park Dale, Easter Day 2, M60, 2nd. Played safe after major stuff ups last times I ran here (2006, 2008). Got through Ok, with minor hesitations/errors at 3,7, 12 and 14. One major issue, wrong track at 9, but saved it with double checking and lost only about 1 minute. Running OK and nothing in the achilles. More analysis later.

M60A - Splits