Training Log Archive: immy

First day of training with Alastair and Jean Cory-Wright. We did a warm up through the forest near Rimmer Rd trying to avoid being seen near an area where there was filming going on. I'm not sure what for? They didn't really want us there anyway... Weird.

Cool pairs exercise: we all started at the start triangle in a clearing, and each person was given a map with a control on it. We ran to the control and back, then had to draw a map for our partners so they could find the control we had just visited (without looking at our own map). Good fun! The first leg we didn't know what was happening, so I don't think our maps were as good, but they improved. I was with Ang and she drew me some good maps, I didn't have too much trouble finding the controls :) Good simplification practice.

Running back to the car.

Control picking on Pot Luck sand dunes. I felt pretty energetic for the first exercise, but by the time we did this one I was so tired, so was very slow. There were toilet paper controls out with smiley faces on them for the correct controls, and some others with frowny faces which weren't real controls. I managed to avoid the frowns apart from one, but that was on the way to the real control :) Couldn't find 13 for ages as the re-entrant was quite broad and the toilet paper was on the ground... also had some confusion around 11 as the map is so strange there. Then some less than optimum routes towards the end as I was tired and just wanted to finish.

Had a few really good chats with Jean today, she makes some good points about noticing the detail and trying to be as accurate as possible. It's so easy to let your navigation get sloppy... She said we should not be making more than 2 minute mistakes...! Actually I don't think I did this weekend, but I'm still worried that I could... it's good to hear that she has high standards and expects this of everyone. Even 2 minute mistakes should be eliminated if you have really good technique I reckon :)

Nice aqua jogging session with Angela and Lizzie and then hot pool after :)

Legs felt a bit heavy after a week of no aqua jogging!

Warm up on Coast Road with Greta.

Nationals Relay at Stag's Roar. Our team this year was Toby, Andrei Popovici, me. Toby came in 4th, and Andrei had a pretty awesome run, so I went out in around 4th place! I pushed as hard as I could for the whole race, it was fast and furious - didn't make any mistakes aside from going around the wrong side of the hill to 10 (cost up to 30s) and a bit of a strange direction to 17 which maybe cost 10-20s? A lot of the time I was just wishing I could run faster, but I had nothing left, especially on the second loop. Nick, Tim and Carsten all came racing past at one point or another, and I was powerless to do anything about it... caught up Amber near the end though, but didn't have the energy to pass her.

So we were 7th in the end. It was a fun race on a fast woodhill map :) Now I just need to work on my endurance and speed through the terrain.

Map 1
Map 2

Warm down with Kate and Angela. Pretty tired now after 4 days of racing - really not used to this!

I'm very sad now that nationals is over for another year, all that waiting and then it goes by so fast.

Warming up on Inland Rd. Not too nervous today - I love woodhill :)

Nationals Middle at Middle Earth, a new map in Woodhill. Map was awesome! You could compare it to the WOC terrain in France last year, but without the rocks and green patches. I had a mostly decent run, except I felt like my speed was letting me down. There were a number of times where I knew exactly where I wanted to go, but just couldn't get there fast enough! Of course I did make a few mistakes, but they weren't huge - direction a bit wrong for 5, rather hesitant to 14 and then very slow to 15, 17 was nearly a problem... I was especially slow in the last loop when I just didn't have the stamina I wanted through the terrain.

The results turned out to be pretty tight - I was close, but not quite as fast as I could have been.

Overall I'm happy with this weekend as I've been consistent, and while there are still lots of things to work on, I've definitely made progress on my orienteering and my confidence :) hopefully onwards and upwards!

Map 1
Map 2

Did a decent warm down, but only because I couldn't bear to be near the event centre and hearing all the speculation about incoming runners and their times etc... I was one of the earlier starters, so really had no idea how well I had done until later.

C2 - Splits

Running around on the warm up map and around near the start. Didn't do much of a warm up in the end - didn't get around to it for ages as I was talking to everyone.

Nationals Long at Waioneke. 7.2km with 480m climb.

Really fun course and an awesome place to run! Great mapping too. The main problem today was that I was really nervous (as it was a selection race for WOC/WUOC)... It was sort of ok through to about control 11, then I realised I was doing quite well which started to mess with my head... I wasn't too fast on the first controls to be honest, was a bit hesitant but was really trying to be accurate. So happy with the long legs today though, to 8 and 10 - planned my routes, executed them and ran well! yay :)

But yeah, I messed up 12 by being too high; my route was good but then spent a while on the spur just not seeing the control. Then after the spectator I was slow and messy, it wasn't great at all :( I was just stressing that I was going to mess everything up, when I really just needed to focus! Also was quite tired by that stage, and had forgotten to take my gel... by then I thought it was probably too late so just didn't bother.

So overall, there are lots of things to improve on, and I get very frustrated looking at winsplits and thinking about everything I did wrong... But on a positive note, despite everything my time was pretty good, and though I made mistakes, they weren't massive.

Carsten and Tom gave me some useful tips about nerves after the spectator control - Carsten said to pretend you are starting again, and the spectator control is like the start triangle. Forget everything and refocus. And Tom said that he just repeats his control numbers/descriptions in his head to block out those unwelcome thoughts. Might try some of these tips next time :)

Another point to remember is that the gel probably would have been useful, and I should have taken it maybe after 30mins or so.

And it is pretty amazing to think that I've only just recovered from a stress fracture and have done practially no proper running training. I am really very grateful to be running so well after that!

Map

2 - W21E M20A M21A M35A - Splits

Event: New Zealand Orienteering Championships 2012
 

Nationals sprint!! I have been looking forward to nationals for aages, so was a little nervous and over-excited before the race... had to resort to cleaning my room this morning to calm down. We were in the quarantine area for over an hour before starting which was kind of boring, and basically everyone just picked faults in the warm up map ;)

Anyway, about the race itself... I actually don't think it went that well! Was on the wrong side of the green patch for 1 and dithered around there for a bit, and then was very slow and confused for 18-19 (as most people were). But I guess the main thing was that I didn't feel on top of things - I kept hesitating before practically every control, or stopping and having to look around corners trying to find controls. And I was terrible at planning ahead, really couldn't do much of it at all. It was a very technical map and so difficult to read while running. Route choices were the other thing - I didn't feel like I had any time to choose the best one, so I just chose anything that seemed reasonable! Don't think that's the best way to do it...

I could really tell that it has been a while since I've run this hard... suffered a bit after the long road legs. Despite everything, I'm happy with the result though :)

Woah, just had a look at winsplits and the mistake at number 1 was a lot bigger than I thought - about 30s! Shocking. Lucky I didn't think too much about it and just got on with the course.

Map

Warming up on the warm up map and then some jogging in the finish quarantine area - boring!

Womens Elite - Splits

Had to do some training today for peace of mind, despite having very little time. I was at that stage where you have so much nervous energy that you have to burn some of it off before you can concentrate on your work anyway. So I did aqua jogging. Warmed up for about 10, did intervals then warmed down for 10 minutes.

2 x (6 x 2:30) with 30s recoveries and 2 minutes between sets. I felt good warming up, and then good during the intervals, but I wasn't as fast as I have been... I haven't done so much aqua jogging lately so maybe I'm going backwards?! A bit faster and stronger towards the end though.

I think I need to keep doing this at least 2-3x a week if I want to maintain a good level of aqua jogging fitness... though whether this is important for anything or not, I have no idea.