Training Log Archive: Craney

At Petticoat Gully - came 3rd, 1.19mins behind Nick Hann (again), first Australian resident... Really fun course again in some very cool gold mining terrain. Map wasn't printed quite as clear as yesterday IMHO and #1 was (and still is) a load of blurred squiggles to me. So I binned ~45secs there despite standing still and staring at the map. Reacted well though and just got on with it. Theo caught me 2mins at #4 - couldn't believe I'd lost that much and got a bit distracted thinking about all the training with Thierry he must do. Got lost on #7 (~25 secs) but Theo led me into it. He paused on the long leg to #9 and went right, so I went left and gunned it. Got there first and then calmed down and ran a much smoother race. Thoughts of getting a good position were out of the window after all that, so I just tried to orienteer as well as I could. Went straight on the long leg to #15 which involved a thick bushy creek as I thought I may as well take a few chances. Punched the last difficult control and heard Toph's commentary say I was 1sec ahead of Simon. Suddenly the race situation came back to me, so I sprinted the last 2 and run-in hard and got 3rd by just 3 secs. Lucky to have that advantage. Then it turned out Theo had only started 1min after me, which explained a few things. Still, it put the willies up me and I was glad to turn a potential disheartening situation into a good run.

Final results were funny - the top 4 get more Australian as you work down the list. So a bit of a teaser as to where the line gets drawn. Precedent gave me the trophy but no-one seemed very clear on what the actual rules are. Good day for the Crane household with Gracie's 2nd - and first Aussie resident :)

C • Congratulations 3

C • Theo started 1min after me 2

C • #1 3

At Creswick Diggings - came 4th, 1.36mins behind Nick Hann who won - could tell it would be a good day as soon as I opened my race pack and was presented with number '007'. A good run that I was very happy with. A bit lucky on #1 as I had no idea in the gorse what was going on. Got into a good groove after that til #8 where I felt quite good and navved well. Loving the complex mega mining features. Caught Toph and consequently bummed #9 by ~50 secs. Got back into it again though and executed the rest of the race pretty well. Turned out I made some over-conservative choices near the end which cost me some time. But all up couldn't have asked for much more. Felt like I finally understood how gold mining is mapped.

Lunchtime shakeout at the wetlands including a ~1km effort that happened to coincide with a strava segment.

In Sydney.

Night run including a double ascent of Taylor. Felt alright.

Lunchtime run around Parlo house and the edge of Lake BG.