Training Log Archive: Bruce

Event: Australian Ultra Long
 

Australian Ultra Long Championships
Creswick Forest
M21E
5th place

Map 1


Map 2


Map 3


It was going to be a long day. I prepared an energy drink, banana and chocolate at the map change over at the end of the first loop. We were told that the first loop was long, so I took 2 gels with me in my pocket.

As the race started, I settled into a moderate long distance pace. There were 4 or 5 guys ahead of me on the track, but stayed near the rear of that pack. It turned out that David Brownridge and I had the same loop combinations on map 1, so we saw a lot of each other for the first 2 hours. We were pretty clean, and punched control 14 at the end of the butterfly just after Ezy and Keely.
I was tiring a bit on the way to 21 and David started to pull away. I lost him at 23 which was on the right feature, but did appear to be a bit further south on the ground than shown on the map.
I punched 25 together with Max, but he had more speed left and I couldn't stay with him on the track to 26.
At this point I dropped back to a pace that I would attempt to get me through to the finish. I walked most of the up hills, and took some longer rests at the drink controls. There were a few long legs to finish map 1, which was a bit of a slog. I finished the loop with about 24kms!
The second map was more interesting, with nice gold mining erosion terrain. I had to walk a bit, but I kept it reasonably clean.
On return from map 2, I was disappointed that the organisers had packed up my map, drink and energy food from the clothes line. I thought that this was quite rude of them after they clearly set the course too long for the Men's elite.
I was the last one to finish, but still came 5th. I took a while, but I was pleased with my efforts. Again I was disappointed that there were no prizes left at the end and most people had gone when 5th place came in.
If the organisers are going to set such extraordinary long courses, then there needs to be a bit more support and recognition for those that do finish the Ultra Long course. Otherwise, the event won't survive.
I was never going to be in the running for the overall prize, but it did feel like the Elite Men were up against it, having to run for over 3 hours but still being expected to run significantly faster than the courses with winning times under 2 hours.
Well done to Lachlan Dow on a great performance to win the Elite Men's race.

Thanks to Blair who was still there and helped me by driving home.

C • awesome 5

I received this message from Ted van Geldermalsen after his analysis of the Easter winsplits:

"OV president, Bruce Arthur, completed all four days of the Easter orienteering carnival without a single error. He is the only person out of the 800 odd competitors who does not have a pink cell in the Winsplits results for any of the four days (at the default conditions for a mistake of 20%). What’s more Bruce ran the longest courses with the most controls, so in all he found 95 controls and 4 finish lines without a single error (and he wasn’t going slow!).

Regards
Ted"

Unfortunately I can't quite claim no errors. I did have a few wobbles in the rocks on Sunday, but I managed to keep them small and under the winsplits "error" threshold.

I was very clean on Friday, Saturday and Monday though, and had 3 good runs with almost zero time lost. Unfortunately a calf strain restricted my speed a bit on Monday, but I still managed a reasonable time going at about 90% of my race pace.

Blair seemed to be close too. I think he only had one pink cell in his winsplits over the 4 days of competition.

C • Like 6

Easter Day 3
Crusoe
M21E 16th place
10th place over all 4 stages



I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to race. My left claf was still sore from straining it yesterday.
After an extended warm up, it felt ok to run. I would just need to be careful not to push too hard.
It was tight on some of the climbs, and noticeable on the long leg from 2-3 where I lost close to 2 minutes on the leaders. Once I got into the second half of the race and it was mostly downhill, I was able to increase my pace with more confidence.
My run was solid with no mistakes, but not fast enough in this terrain.
Congratulations to Keely on a well deserved NOL race win.

Day 3 M21E - Splits

Easter Day 2
Mt Alexander
M21E 14th place



Injured my left calf running on a track between 20 and 21. I finished off jogging, but I have pulled up sore.
I am not sure whether I will be able to start tomorrow.

Day 2 M21E - Splits