Training Log Archive: O-ing

Sappa Bulga. QBIII Day 2. Butchered no. 1 - the theme for the weekend. Another mental failing to fix! I've had a good run in recent years of fast starts, usually with the fastest split. This seems to have deserted me temporarily. This time the mistake was not looking at the compass. Contoured round the first hill to the saddle - but was too high, missed the saddle and kept going till I was heading south instead of northwest.

Didn't get my attackpoint at 7, so lost more time there. Breathing severely restricted by cold. 15th (!) on the course.
M50A (15) 6.0 km 230 m 12 C
1 70 Grant McDonald 57 AO A 57:45
2 157 Mark Darvodelsky 59 UR N 59:29
3 184 Ian Prosser 60 AO A 64:36
4 105 Russell Blatchford 59 NC N 65:02
5 124 Alex Davey 57 WR N 70:36
6 26 James Lithgow 55 GO N 73:32
7 295 Geoff Peel NC N 76:11
8 284 David Poland 59 BS A 78:02
9 209 Geoff Todkill 57 NC N 78:04
10 14 Tony Garr 57 PO A 78:32
11 172 Eoin R*thery 56 BF N 81:24
12 197 Malcolm Roberts 58 NC N 86:27
13 55 Phil Walker 58 PO A 89:11
14 214 Rod Eckels 59 GO N 92:21
15 98 Peter Effeney 59 UG Q 100:23

Its been a long time, but I've got the monkey off my back. I mispunched for the first time since 1979. How did it happen? Well I made 4 mistakes in the first minute of the event - First I ran off without locating the start triangle. OK, so there was a large out of bounds to my left and everybody else had run off that way, but the result was that on this complex course I was almost halfway to no. 1 before I found the triangle. So, mistake no. 2, I rushed the analysis of the leg and ran to the wrong building, and mistake no. 3, although I did check the code (I routinely check all codes) I rushed it and got it wrong. Finally, mistake no. 4, I failed to realise something was wrong, when I could see no. 2 directly rather than having to go around a building.

I'm reasonably sure that this won't be the start of a trend. I'd hate to think I was joining the ranks of those that mispunch on a regular basis. Actually, the last time I mispunched was a similar case - no. 1 of a multi day event (JK79), the locations were similar (ride junction v veg boundary at the JK, two NE corners of buildings here), the flags were close (34m here), and the codes were similar (244 v 245 here).

The cold was worst on Thursday, but still restricted me here, so happy to get 14 fastest splits from the first 17 controls. Fastest overall by 35 seconds, but it doesn't count. QBIII Day 1
M50A (13) 3.0 km 0 m 21 C
1 70 Grant McDonald 57 AO A 16:03
2 55 Phil Walker 58 PO A 16:37
3 105 Russell Blatchford 59 NC N 16:49
4 197 Malcolm Roberts 58 NC N 17:00
5 124 Alex Davey 57 WR N 17:08
6 26 James Lithgow 55 GO N 17:09
7 157 Mark Darvodelsky 59 UR N 18:00
8 209 Geoff Todkill 57 NC N 18:31
9 98 Peter Effeney 59 UG Q 19:30
10 14 Tony Garr 57 PO A 20:28
11 284 David Poland 59 BS A 20:34
12 295 Geoff Peel NC N 21:39
172 Eoin R*thery 56 BF N 15:28 mp

Injury of the week - while waiting in the physio's waiting room yesterday, was doing some stretches and felt sharp pain in foot. Have been limping since. Massage with feldene gel and pointy ball has seemed to help.

Meanwhile rotator cuff is much improved and I might be out of the woods, but with some way to go.

C • Does it beat the famous Speed Bump Injury? 2

C • I thought you'd want to be ... 2

C • Stretching 2