Training Log Archive: TheInvisibleLog

I intended to not exercise today, but after spending the morning and early afternoon watching Jukola and working on the club website, I looked outside. Compromised and went for a bike ride. I think this terrain would make Melbourne riders drool. In a moment of unethical weakness I may release my base map efforts for an MTBO map. Bit of work to do yet. I think we can use the area for real orienteering, and hence i don't feel guilty about track logging.

A Mount Tarrengower "warm-up"

Only blemish was stopping a few seconds before control 10. Three legs had route choice challenges. I know I chose the wring option on one of them,,, 11-12. I went down the gully. I ran in parallel with Derek Morris who took the up and along the road option. I think that cost about 15 seconds. Not sure about leg 5-6. I traversed the steep hillside. was it worth taking the road option up the ridge at the cost of 35 metres climb. Unsure.
No relapse of virus today, but I think I might take tomorrow easy, just a ride for 90 minutes.

Got home quite late last night after a visit to the Yiddish heart of Melbourne (Kadimah Centre) to join a Klezmer workshop given by visiting US musician and musicologist Michael Alpert. Listening to cantorial style singing of Russian Klezmer dance tunes was a very new and wonderful experience. Pity I was slow at learning the tunes by ear.
Woke up this morning after far too little sleep suffering from a virus. I knew it was there yesterday, but it progressed from incipient to dominant. I will get to work, but I think running would be silly. It will probably be silly tomorrow, but I'll probably still do it anyway as it will be an event.

Dodder extended. As seems usual, my heart rate peaked at 181 in the first 5 minutes, then dropped rapidly to between 120 and 130.

C • Extreme pulse rates 11

Hills and a bit of warm up and warm down. So I must have learnt at least one lesson after a week of owning a heart monitor... warm up! One lesson I still need to learn is to grab the chest strap when I grab the watch in the morning. No heart readings today.

It was raining and misty. These are dreadful conditions for someone who wears glasses. I spent the first half of the race trying to read through fogged glasses. Started well, running in a pack with Jymbo and others for two controls. I think they were foxing as I wasn't straining to keep up with them. The format encouraged strategic behaviour on the first loop. Then my personal fog descended. Couldn't look at the map without wiping glasses. Couldn't see far into the distance much of the time either. Needed to wipe every minute or so. Totally fouled navigation on the next four controls. Lost, in order, 1.30 minutes, 4 minutes, 30 seconds, 6 minutes. That was 12 minutes lost in the space of 30 minutes orienteering. I was on the point of giving up and down to a walk. Then Prez_Now_Retired passed me. I decided drastic action was required. Took off my glasses for the rest of the race and carried them. I was reduced to reading the map 10 cm from my face and relying on map memory. This was the better strategy. In the next nine controls I lost about a minute. I think its time to look into the contact lens issue again. My eyes were too astigmatised and covered with scar tissue for the technology 10 years ago.
Error rate: 12%. Quite a comparison with Sunday.
My personal challenges were quite a pity, because I thought this was a great event and think the format deserves another run. What I particularly liked was the lack of worry about the results at the end. It wasn't 'fair' but it was fun.
Put your route on gadget! GPS even better. It will be interesting to watch the runners converge.
http://www.bendigo-orienteers.com.au/gadget/cgi-bi...

C • Garmin 6