Training Log Archive: O-ing

Lane Cove x 3 in about 19-20 minutes

Greenwich Baths. Nice area, bit cool (20) but water good.

Might have run yesterday had it been a bush event (or if I'd been at the Newcastle event).

PS Note: right knee is starting to get better - yesterday was the first time since Easter Sunday avo that I did a fair bit of walking without a noticeable limp. Maybe not too far off running?

Lane Cove, Talavera Rd. Felt good.

Note: babysat (sans baby) at the NSW Night Champs. We brought a Danish orienteer out who is stranded in Sydney due to the Volcano. As a regular WOC runner and some time leader of the Tio-Mila, he knew a bit about night orienteering. A pity that the organisation couldn't get him a run on the long course, but he wasn't that bothered. At least he was in good company on the longest Entry-on-the-day course - Fat rat, Shannon and Mace. Arguably, Enter on the Day was the strongest class.

C • sans baby 6

Physio today for knee. He taped my hips.

C • ...interesting... 2

Usual calf exercises. The achilles wasn't an issue at all over Easter, but I'm continuing these in any case. The knee is still giving me grief.

C • Good to see 2

Got a cold flying to Perth. Good post-Easter timing.

Glenbrook, Long Distance. Great area and course, really enjoyable orienteering. Frustrating not to be able to run properly. Knew I wasn't going well, but didn't know how badly until I saw the results - 12th on the course, with only a single mistake of about a minute?? That was on the second long leg when I hit the fence a bit high and struggled to pick where I was on it. Guessed correctly and ran down to the correct spur, but then stood still for another 30 seconds or so again trying to make the map fit.

Buckendara, Middle Distance. Was hoping for a good recovery, like last October when I got over the Aus Champs and a knee trauma in time for the following weekend's WMOC sprint, but no. Absolutely flat, no drive. My fastest split to no. 1 uphill easy control on the fence corner is frankly ridiculous - what was everybody else doing? The previous weekend I would have been maybe 30 seconds faster on that one. An early mistake didn't help either as I couldn't get to a 5m boulder from my AP on the edge of the circle. 2 and a half minutes gone there as I wandered around in the bushes. Whatever energy I had early soon dissipated completely and I walked to 6. I was too hot as well, wearing the wrong outfit and took my top off on the way to 6 till 15. Then lost time on the second last, stopped too early on some distinctive looking boulders that were mapped as a boulder field.

C • What were we doing? 3

Walking with a limp all day, but not feeling as bad as expected. Looking back on Easter I could have made it a lot easier for myself with just a couple of adjustments in technique. Virtually all of my time loss on Day 1 was down to just two mistake types, multiple times each:

1 Changing plan mid-route to follow a good looking path in the terrain: 1 (-1:00), 6 (-2:00), 16 (-1:30),

2 Lack of precision from attack point: 1 (-0:30), 3 (-0:40), 4 (-0:20), 20 (-1:00)
So total time loss on those two race flaws - 7 minutes. That would have made thngs much easier.

Day 3, Collector Hill. Since the patellar tendon snapped in 1998 multi-day events have not been my thing. A good result on Day 1 followed by losses on subsequent days are a very familiar pattern . So was 4:21 enough? Largely this is a fitness thing as I've struggled to get enough base training to be able to back up successive days. In fact I deliberately take a rest day or days (or weeks) between running for recovery.

However, this was a bit different. My r knee was very grumpy this morning and unsupportive. This is probably patellar-femoral syndrome due to imbalance and the lack of core-strength training over the last six months since the move to Sydney. On the plus side, this was Easter, I was in the lead and I already had Kevlar wire holding my patella to my shin, so I knew it wasn't going to snap again.

Signs weren't good to no. 1, I took the obvious track route up the hill around the back (thanks to the setters for a good warm up). What I didn't realise was that THatley took back 1:06 on this leg alone. I was taking careful, direct routes where possible, aiming off more than I usually would - trying to eliminate the 5 minute mistake. This worked well until no. 6, where I aimed off too far left and had to work my way along the cliff line, losing another 30 seconds.

Tim was running faster and getting time back on nearly every leg. I drifted left on a fairly subtle contour interp leg to 10 and lost another 30 seconds, and veered off line on the long leg to 11, losing another 1:20 to Tim, who had now whittled back 3:38, leaving me only 43 seconds in front overall, with the last third of the course to go.

Finally a mistake from Tim on the fairly easy leg to 12 - he somehow lost 21 seconds here - and will probably be regretting that now. No. 14 was another fairly easy leg with a long up hill and it was now clear I was getting really tired and Tim was running faster - getting 28 seconds back on this one. Thankfully the last loop had a lot of downhill and I was able to hold my own taking back a useful 19 seconds on no. 19. Tim kept coming with fastest splits at 18, 20 and 21 but fell just 19 seconds short.

Pretty happy to finally get an Easter win - this is one of three events where my best result has been second place (Aus Long and Oceania Long are the others). The knee held up far better than I expected and was reasonably supportive throughout.

Day 2, Kowen East. I was looking forward to this venue, having mountain bike O'd here previously and knew it was probably runnable - and how! While I was pleased with the win from yesterday I hadn't got the buffer I really needed and could have had. Here was a chance to actually run and maybe improve on that lead. Plus, the body was holding up and I actually felt good in the desultory warm up.

Got out well and even though I had been careful, 5 minutes into the race at no. 4 I already had 1:40 on Hatley, 2:24 on Smith, 30 seconds on Mella and a minute on Dowling. The first two came back at me during the rest of the race as I tired, particularly on the long leg where Tim got over a minute back.

But then it was that beautiful downhill section from 12 to the finish where I was fastest. Only three fastest splits though; mainly due to Simon Phillips who although finishing 30 minutes back still had 8 fastest splits on the course.

Job done, I was first again and opened up a further 1:23 on Tim while Bjorn's fitness told as he dropped out of second place, losing 4:45. Was my lead of 4:21 enough to hold off the Day 3 blues?

Early start, so had to run. A lot faster than a normal warm up and, writing this on Day 3, a lot faster than I ran at any time on Day 3. Got there with 10 minutes to spare, so no repeat of WMOC. These organisers had enough toilets.

Day 1, Gudgenby. Horror start, on the way to the start triangle saw that the best way was from the map boxes immediately right. Trudged up to the start triangle anyway, intending to turn around and go back down, but after touching it convinced myself I could see a little path heading my way, so set off along the power line. Wrong, it ran out after a while. Struggled along till my attack point, a nice cliff on the power line and went in on a bearing. Arrived on a slope covered in boulders and stood there for a while before heading down, and as I caught sight of the feature I could see Bjorn Mella heading for it too.

Bjorn is the Australian Long Distance M45 Champ from 2009, and was supposed to start 2 minutes in front of me, but was late and started a few seconds behind. [Note: well done to the organisers for letting him off almost immediately he arrived, rather than making him wait. We parents on split starts need this kind of understanding].

No. 2 was steep uphill and I left Bjorn way behind, but I stumbled on 3 when I got to my attack point (watercourse) and headed off on to the spur but couldn't see the 3m boulders a bit below in the bush. Another sub-optimal approach to 4 (too high again) and Bjorn had got past me. A short leg to 5 and we were off on the long leg. I chose the right route, although got a little bit high and had to drop onto the saddle. Halway down to the river, where I was going to go and come back around to the control, once again I convinvced myself I could see a little pathway into the green/rocks which I thought would drop me right onto the flag. Wrong again [-3 minutes], what a farce this was turning into.

Got going again, and the terrain opened up again. Looking at the splits I had by now pulled myself up to 4th place (3 minutes down on Darryl Smith) from 13th after no. 1 by a process of attrition with other people making more mistakes than I had in the granite terrain. But now it was time to run and I turned on the turbo to run past Bjorn (again) and I had the next 7 fastest splits in a row to move to second.

However, we were now back in granite and I got much too high again on 16. I had tried to run below the first group of rocks but decided once again to take a short cut on an animal trail which ran out. I was in the first group of rocks and couldn't get out, getting forced ever upwards right to the massive boulder. Then a little trouble getting the flag and I could see Bjorn gaining on me again.

The hardest part was over now, and I pushed on towards the finish, having now taken the lead after Darryl's issues on 15 and 16. There was one last twist when I fluffed a short downhill leg to 20 after an uphill surge and Bjorn got over a minute and was back in front. The finish was too close now and I opened up after Bjorn punched 21 just ahead and I was 32 seconds quicker over the last two splits for an overall lead of 2:27 after his 2 and a bit minute late start.

The terrain and difficulty decimated the field of challengers, but Tim Hatley survived for third 2:58 down, with Mike Dowling at 3:02 the last of the serious contenders. Darryl had lost 6 minutes on no. 16 and at 6:47 down in 5th looked too far down - you can't win Easter on Day 1 but you can lose it.

Event: Orienteering Easter twenty10 Carnival