Training Log Archive: Keith

Mass start race - The slump.

Inbetween the world cup races. Had been a bit flustered trying to sort a couple of things out before the race (like where have Piret's and bryn's bags gone....) and didn't really drink enough. As it was 30deg, but i didn't realise this to 15 mins before, which was too late.

Was quite suprised when we got to the start that it was ungaffled - so the xc race began. As i actually looked at my map in the runout, had quite a good route to #1 and still on the end of the pack. which dissaperred on the way to #2 &3/. Which left me and greg having some banter. Greg got away on the track run to #11, but not before some humourous orienteering from the leaders.
The infamous block of white i took as white (even though it was badly printed scattered trees). I guess i've done enough orienteering to realise that the vege is often a bit random. So was very suprised too see Todd running down the gully towards it. Then much later on came carsten & michael running the wrong way! Then passed jamie sat down under a tree on the way to 11, who seemed cheery when I went past, but said later he was actually a bit rough. Apperntly they had all been bashing around in the block of white some distance away.
Walked a bit of the track on the way to 11 and all the hill. Was just suffering through the heat. considered a drink from the lake - thought it looked pretty scoddy. Then on exit of 15, heard riki shout out (he'd also been one of the leaders gone AWOL). So pushed a bit so i could beat him for the first time this carnival. Promptly fluffed 16 a bit, but managed to hold him off.
Never enjoyed a cup of water so much.
Cool race, though steep.

WUD

Event 7 - Course 1 - Splits

Smedley

Felt much better running today. Had a shocking start.
Went left on #1, which was a very poor route, and had to backtrack out of the green stuff at one point. I'm sure some kind of gully or gully/right route would be opitimum. Then complelty fluffed 2, after getting quite close and having to relocate.
Then realtivly slow but enjoed it (apart from the long slog to 12). Some fairly knarly gully exit/entrys.
All good training.

Event 2 1 - Splits

Relay Glenlean Wairarapa

Just ran first leg in a team by myself, so no pressure.
They lined us all up with 21's on the right and then we had to left... Which Ed seemed to suspicously realise early on. First few cleanly, but lost touch of pack at #3, then cruised, only real mistake was 18, where i did a poor route execution, and the map was rough, though it was vaguly where it was marked.
Heavily gaffled, and a gaffled last control...
Hot, and tired.

Ocenia Long - Ngatawhai - Wairapa

A bit of an epic. Was quite looking forward to this. A bit rough on the first 2, and number 3 wasn't quite right. Then exit/entry to 8 was poor, so quite unsetlled. On #9 I decided to go out to the right. This turned out to be a very poor route choice. There was a block marked as white that was full of green shite, they'd obviously never been in there. So wastred a lot of time, then had to bail out and go up the hill anyway. Then descended down through the bit of white that ended up in a wall of fight, and bashed down to track. Tryed to get it off the veg boundary, but there was more going on here then mapped (though the formline below does show more what it looked like, but i never noticed that at the time). Bascially there were 2 scandis bashing around like maniacis in the shite, and i waited until one of them found it, and then punched the control. Overall a fairly unfair control.

Then on the way to 11, I tryed to cross a fence with a lean on it. Nearly feel off the thing, which was on a bridge over a stream. dropped the map on the manky stream pool, had to fish it out with a stick. The only thing that would've been more comical would've been me falling back into it too. Ah well at least i didn't run into a road cone.

After this my mood picked up, and did some good legs, though started to suffer physically with the heat/ distance and climb. Some nice legs, though the gully was fairly wild. Really suffering on the way to #24, but glad to have finished. I think my longest orienteer ever.
Even Gueorgiou would be strulling to do that in 95.

There was some talk about that it would've been cool to have this as a world cup race. I think some kiwis would've done well. But the map and controlling would've needed some work.
It was fairly obvious that the mapping was not done by Bryan, and was quite poor in places.
I guess the IOF controller had bitten off more than she could chew this week. Probably the first lesson for her.

Epic.

Long Champs - 1 - Splits

Bronze for Lizzie in the sprint. Awesome work.

Ocenia Sprint Race - Welly College and Government House.

Watched the world cup, after a good pragmatic decision to not quaratine everyone - cheers peoples!
Great to see Lizzie take a medal. A fantastic personal performance and an inspiring one for the home crowd. I hope NZOF captalise on it.

Had quite a good warmup on the way to the start. Then was straight into it, one of the most challening sprints I've run. Up there with JK Belfast & Bristol Uni. Think the run yesterday definitly helped. Went left on 1, and up the bank on #2 and then left on #3. Was wearing road shoes which was a bad move, and whilst not debilating would've cost me ~ 20s, and altered some route choices because of it. Descent to #3 was vertical. Went right to #4. Through these early ones you just had to mkae a rapid assessment and stick with it.

Went right to 7, but made two small errors getting through the building, and died a bit up the hill (30 s). Government house looked like a sweet place for a party. Nice pad. Did a maverick right path route to #10, which i think from the splits paid off as the best option. Ran slightly high on #11 - 5. Should've avoided stairs on way to #13. Then back left to #14. Mucked up #15 a bit with bad route, and then went under the stairs.

Overall pretty pleased with race. These kind of technical sprints suit me. If I had a bit of speed would've been even better.
Slightly dissapointing that NZ got the winning times so wrong, but overall another very postive world cup race.

Winner M Kyburz 17.52

WUD

Sprint Champs - C1 - Splits

World cup qualify at Parliament.
Great atmosphere during the worldcup qualifier. Good too see lots of the girls quailfy. The mens was tight. Intially thought Rhys/Tane would go through, but then the times got a bit quicker.... Dissapointing to see Chris/Tane/Rhys miss out but consolation was that two swedes got knocked out too.
Fantastic arena.

Intresting watching the start at how much more comfortable the men were technically coming out of the start compared to the ladies. The majority of girls coming out were very shaky and failed to cleanly go through the start triangle and pick the right gap to go down. This included the top end ie Tove Anderson. The guys seemed all under control, even the lower ranked atheletes. Would make an intresting (and potentially controversial) study.

I went for a run round the mens course afterwards. Nice work in the planning. Going down steps (3-4) was very slow, and something i hadn't previously considered in route choice. Thought 10 was tricky. Not sure what time I did, ran solidly but not hard.