Training Log Archive: TheInvisibleLog

Giving the knees a rest.

Thanks to Derek for the foresight in providing a real orienteering course on a weekend when the only other option would have been some sort of MTBO event near Castlemaine. This week it was 7 k on Sedgwick. It felt a lot tougher than the 7 k on Mosquito Creek last week. It didn't feel as navigationally difficult though. Derek had set some legs with wide options to the right and left, but none of them looked better to me than the red-line approach, so there was a fair bit of climb. The time would have been under an hour except for two blemishes. I'll take responsibility for one of those. Consensus is that the second control was a gully too far, like the famous bridge. The course setter agreed the week before because we all found the tape in the correct spot, minus the control. Seems the stress of driving from Melbourne and then putting out controls before midday was a little too much for Derek. No-one was upset. When you run 30+ events a year on a shoestring organisational arrangement, its going to happen no and then. Better than the alternative on offer.... I lost 3.30 here, but I did work out where the control had to be, so I punched it. The other blemish was second last control, a very faded kite on a stand in a shallow depression. the GPS confirms I ran right past this and didn't see it, and then wandered around losing 2.45. I came in from two other points and ended up at the same position, and was standing there wondering what was happening when I glanced down the hill 5 metres and finally saw the kite. Time to retire it I say.

Geoff Hudson dropped by after the event. He had been surprised to discover that our local events are based on SI for all courses with pre-marked maps. I was surprised that he was surprised. Seems the news of the quality of local Bendigo events hasn't spread as far as I had thought. Geoff is heading off to camp a few nights at Kooyoora to run some practice courses. I gave him copies of recent courses on the Mount. His plan is to put his GPS tracks up on the existing routegadget pages. He was interested in some advice of where to run on the way back to Melbourne. He was thinking Mandurang, but when I showed him last weeks course on Mosquito Creek and some of the impressive GPS traces, and the names associated therewith, he fell for the option hook line and sinker. Saw it as a great opportunity to outdo Louise in particular. Mmm. I don't think he quite understands the risks of running out there with no controls. May well be that Louise gets the last laugh on this one.

Long term readers of my trog will recall my enthusiasm for some mining terrain in NE Victoria and my suggestion it be used for the Oceania Middle next year. Well, enthusiasm is building amongst others. Alex Tarr has tried to adapt a small part of the existing 1:5,000 map by Leigh Privett for the required IOF scale. There are still some issues, but his assessment of the terrain is:
"The area is more complex than any existing gold mining area known to me."

C • And .. 4

Turned out as last run as a Maiden Gully local.

Boring tracks this time. Easy to decide on an efficient route to cover them all. And no unknown tracks to complicate matters.

Yet more Welsford Tracks. There were a couple I did not know existed.

Welsfrod tracks.
Is there ever an end?

C • no 4

Welsford tracks