Training Log Archive: markg

Day 2 of Easter. Long race at Shanty Gully. Spur gully with a variety of nasty seedy plants and lantana. Despite a wobble on the first leg ran very well until 8, had caught Mikko at 2 min and Olly at 6 min. Things went downhill from there. Had a mig-leg wobble on the ultra-long leg 9 and dropped back behind Olly and Mikko and then navigated to 11 instead of 9. Was thirsty and tired at this point and was really not enjoying it. Eventually pushed myself onwards, stopped at 12 for a while, then did another 3 controls and decided to pull the pin. A good day to forgot (except for future event organisers ... )

Day 1 of Easter. A big mistake on 2 ruined an otherwise steady run. I started #1 safely by following the fence but lost contact soon after and was very lucky to stumble over the control when I thought I was a couple of hundred metres away! 30s-1min lost here. On number 2 I set the theme for the weekend by running well off line in the vague area and hit the rocks well east of the control, costing 4 min. After that I was alright and got a push along from Muzza who caught me at 8. I also lost close to a minute at 7 because of picking a route with some thicker vegetation and then missing the control a little. Disappointed to make the mistake on 2; I just don't seem to be able to eliminate one big dumb mistake per race.

After making a final preparations I went out and ran the long prologue course and then the short green course. I had thought I would try to set a good time to compare to the guys racing today but I wasn't really motivated and didn't push myself at all. Managed to do the whole thing without looking at the map - I know that little area pretty well now! I was alarmed to find out that Aston Key later did the green course faster than I did!

The prologue went really well on the whole. Almost everyone gave very positive feedback, they found it fun and it was obviously challenging while still remaining sprint-like in nature. It was pleasing that the challenges that we had planned were challenges in reality and people made mistakes in ways we had predicted. Anna and I followed the event with a few well earned beers :)

Spent 9 hours out at Wilmot's Waterholes putting out controls for the prologue tomorrow. Wasn't difficult, just slow and tedious. Had some unexpected stand maintenance to do when some of the rivets holding the SI plates busted off while I was bashing the stands in. It was a long day and wasn't feeling enthusiastic about the whole thing. Saw one of the red-bellied black snakes Anna and I came across previously.

Shortened Mona's fartlek session up at the reservoir - only did 2 x 1min instead 4x. Felt slow and unfit.