Training Log Archive: Craney

At Snow Hills, came 3rd. 12.1km with 11 controls, very wild and remote but no risk of needing a cagoule: the essence of orienteering. Unfortunately my cold/cough was pretty bad but I couldn't miss a fun adventure like this, so did it anyway. Felt alright running at slightly-harder-than-steady and, given the scariness of the terrain (vague contour shapes, low-vis green, very few paths, very few controls) it would've been difficult to make myself lift the handbrake even if I'd wanted to. Got round with a couple of minor wobbles, and a scary moment on #7 where I was lucky to bump into #2 before potentially running off the map. Coughing a lot at the finish but, ho hum, next proper o race isn't for a while.

Ooh routegadet: http://routegadget.bigfootorienteers.com/cgi-bin/r... - makes a change

Hard 1 - Splits

Moving through the usual symptoms.

Coughing a bit but not too coldy otherwise. Tired and achy though.

My dam wall of ibuprofen, diflams and lemsip, which did such a great job of deferring my cold over Easter, appears to have finally broken.

At Foxlow Flats, came 4th, 1:54 behind Simon. 2nd overall 1:25 behind Simon. Well an exciting end to the weekend and hard not to feel a pang of disappointment. But I felt really drained this morning for various reasons (cough starting to break through my defences) and am actually pretty happy to still get a 4th place in a NOL. Defending 29secs against Simon was always going to be taxing.

A bit low on #1, which was demoralising. Picked the agressive route (straight) on #2 - worked well yesterday, but maybe I should've been more defensive today? 30 secs back after this leg, although I was indecisive in the circle so the choice probably wasn't critical. Kept on going well to #5 but could feel I was losing aggression in my running style. Caught out on #6 where only 2 of 3 erosion gullies were mapped with watercourses in, so I didn't make out the other one on the map. 40secs lost there, so now 1:10mins back on Simon. Got through to #13 ok before a final long leg back to the arena where I decided to stick to the path and go through the start. Possibly cost another 30secs, although I was tiring significantly so maybe was just me - brought the deficit up to nearly 2mins.

Successful weekend all told and nice to still be clinging on to the top end of the leader board for now. And very glad to not be at the JK.

C • JK... 3