Training Log Archive: fletch

Event: NavDash 5 - Mandurah (Australian Sprint Championships)
 

Good warm-up. Got nice and loose, felt better than expecteds after not initially feeling flash after last nights little trundle. Had a little chat to an old bloke to tell him what was happening, then my plannede casual saunter and mental prep went out the window a bit as I realise how close to my start it had gotten. Got to the pre-start with about 90 seconds to spare.

I'm sure Simmo said something about the length of the descriptions. After destroying my long description holder with about 3 controls to go at Easter, I too kmy old short one for this race. It wasn't long enough, and I lost the descriptions for the last 4 or 5 controls. Didn;t end up costing me too much though...

No cool down. Pretty stupid in terms of tomorrow's race, but didn't really care.

Probably the only person in the field who didn't have someone to chase, with Andy on commentary rather than running. Started hard and aimed left of the control. Surprised to hit it dead on, even more surprised when I read the code and realised that mine was the control 30m further along the bank. Lost a touch more time at #2 when I assumed we weren't allowed in the garden and ran to the end of the wall to find a surprising lack of control. Probably a good thing that I didn't know how far off the pace I already was. Apparently was a bit slow on the short direction change to 3 as well, but smooth through 4,5,6. Surprised to see the long leg to 7, but saw a route that looked alright straight up and just decided to hammer it. NW, across the bridge and the middle island etc. 8 and 9 OK also.
Intended to angle across the big vacant block to 10, but it looked sandy and there was a fence on the far side and I couldn't handle disrupting my running rhythm, so went around.
Went NE out of 10 and around to 11. 12 and 13 straight forward. Was a little hesitant checking the placement of 14 and getting down to it, then picked a poor route to 15. Went up, then straight over the bridge and then SE. Thought I had picked a shortcut up a staircasse and through the hotel, but couldn't see it as I approached, so bailed rather than risking it and went around the foreshore. 16-19 were clean. A bit hesitant to 20. Didn't see the gap in the veg and went zig zag, then left. 21, 22 OK. Very hesitant through 23 and 24, but ended up in the right place without any major errors. Left 24 in the wrong direction for a few steps before correcting. 25-26 probably not a great route. Smooth into the last one, but I wasn't convinced it was mine, and my description holder was too short to display all the descriptions, so unfolded my map to double check before bolting up the shoot.

Splits would suggest that if absolutely perfect I could have run in the low 18's. Best legs are the long ones, where reading detail in the circle is less important, so I guess there's still room for improvement, but I'm pretty happy with that effort.

Would have been equal 9th in juniors, but they don't count, so nabbed a 7th place. Best result in an individual Oz Champs race ever, even as a junior...

C • Well done 2

Course 1 - Splits

Wanted to do a gentle loosener of a jog today, but given how much it has hurt (left achilles) trying to walk all day, I gave it a miss. Kind of like the first couple of steps in the morning, but didn't improve all day :(

After 6 nurofen a day since Tuesday last week, finally went without them today. Back is still sore, but not affecting running (or sleeping too much) and I'm not convinced that the nurofen are making much difference anyway.

Both achilles are sore. Left worse than right for the first time in ages. Stiff and a little sore when I wake up, take 5-10 minutes of warm-up to loosen up. Are then OK while I race, but sore again within 10-15 minutes of finishing. So... what can I do to get them to slowly improve rather than slowly worsen without taking an extended break from running?

C • eccentric loading. 3

Post-Easter thoughts...

I have done enough navigation and map reading work recently to start to feel in control on courses for the first time in ages. There were large portions of every day where I was running confidently and expecting controls to be exactly where I was headed rather than just running and hoping.
The downside is that I seem to need to slow down too much relative to other people to maintain this level of control.
Prologue I started TOO conservatively, but was happy to make it through without destroying my entire weekend.
Day 1 Felt really good except for #14. Looking at the map since I must hav eeither lost focus because I saw how close to the finish I was, or because I was starting to fatigue, because it was a really silly error.
Day 2 I was generally happy with. Annoyed with my vagueness at the critical time on the way to 13 and not quite as clean as Day 1. Disappointed that my improved running training this year doesn't seem to have translated as well as I hoped to terrain fitness. Struggled much more than I was expecting to in the second half of the course. Could well have been my longest O race in 8 years, which may have had something to do with it. That's gonna be a hard one to fix without investing a lot more time into terrain or at least steep hill training. Not sure I have the extra time available to do this. If I decide I don't, then I suspect my elite comeback will end next Sunday. Prior to this year I have run less than 40 hours of orienteering (including a chunk of metrO in 4 years. And probably less in the 3 years preceding that). Funny how that's not enough :(
Day 3 - Didn't read the warning signs into 7. Had been pushing hard and had an uphill paddock run into the fallen rubbish. Wasn't careful enough / didn't adjust technique enough. Silly.
Probably marginally better than my Easter effort in 1998 (the terrain there was much more to my liking - navigating in rock detail is not my forte) and a vast improvement on 2003. Also much better than any of my attempts as a junior, so overall a positive weekend.
Very soon it will be decision time as to whether I wasnt to put the time and effort in to get up with the rest of the elit 'pack' or whether I decide that was enough nad pull the pin...

Had grave doubts about my ability to handle this course when the warm-up felt awfully hard slowly jogging up a slight incline. Felt a bit better after run-thrus and had nothing to lose being about 3 minutes behind a pack, so decided to be a little more aggressive today anyway and see what happened.
The first 2 controls were really rough, with fallen timber everywhere. I picked a nice line wide left on the second, but missed the control and had to run back up the hill to it. Pretty clean through to 6 and tried to push the pace a little in the paddock legs today. Picked up Graham as we left 6 (4 minutes), but as we crossed into the fallen crappy bush heading in to 7, Grant came flying past with Bruce and Evan in tow. Not surprisingly, he was well over 2 minutes ahead of me... and was about to go much further so.
I struggled to hold a line in all the fallen timber, and drifted left. Mis-identified a small knoll as the more significant one further south, and ran vaguely from the wrong spot to a wrong spot further away where I hit a group of massive rocks, checked a couple, then figured I had better work out where I was as Wil helpfully told me I was between 8 and 9. Crap. Still not clean getting back to the control from there. Lost a couple more minutes getting pushed way left on the way to 8 and correcting poorly. By the time I had crawled my way through the fallen timber to 9 and 10 just a little sketchily and made it out to the fenceline for a long paddock run, I was pretty much over it.
Amazingly caught sight of Graham again in the second half of the fence run, but lost 30 seconds or so at 11 when I didn't check my direction properly on top of the knoll. Felt like I did most of the course fairly well from there, but the damage was done.
I suspect that the splits will confirm that I wouldn't have gotten very far even with a clean run today. Legs just didn't have it.

C1 Day 4 - Splits

Long day. Had a bit of a bobble in the circle at 3, but it didn't matter, because the control wasn't there anyway - just Tooms and Uncle Jim doing their best impersonation of a control flag. Thanks guys. Saw Glenn chasing me down heading through some early controls. Turns out he could see me for a fair chunk of the course but only caught me at 22 or 23, before fading worse than I did. Relatively clean through to 12, but as I headed into the paddocks, Big Ev came through. Ran the bottom of the hill, then up through the lines of rock slabs, but had picked up the pace a bit, and despite feeling totally in control for most of the leg, I lost it where it mattered most, and was slow and vague until I hit the creek line way to high and had to relocate. First sighting of tRicky for the day, but we went our separate ways again after 15. Knew I was starting to fade, and my race was pretty much over heading up and over the hill to 18 and the map change. Had a little more time loss at 20, then fell over and my hammy cramped as I was leaving the control. Robbie came through just before we hit the paddocks again, and I was stuffed when we hit the next hill. Minor misses in the circle at a couple and general crap tired walking got me to the finish.
There seems to be a major fitness difference in doing long easy runs of the flat compared to classic length orienteering races...

a token 5 minute shuffle afterwards was all I could muster. Most of a proper warm-up. Was running a touch late for the start.

C1 Day 3 - Splits