Training Log Archive: O-ing

Mt Ainslie. M55, 1st. A hollow victory - stuffed up #4 and no #10. EDIT - actually 9th on the course behind Aidan Dawson, Barbara Hill (maybe should be "Mountain" after her storming first leg over Mt Ainslie), and Linda Sesta. Need to iron these kinks out bigtime. Went right on the first long leg, and left on the second - both right I think. Happy that I was able to back up after yesterday with not much going on in the knees.

Event: Capital Orienteering Festival
 

Bruce Ridge. Middle Distance, M55, 8th. Overshot 1 and 5 badly, at which point I jogged home.

AIS Sprint, first leg, 2.1 Okm. Or, the second leg after Linda came in with a good position. Saw Geoff Lawford at #2 which was common after he had the longer split to #1. Upped the pace at this point. Minor glitch at #3 set me back about 5 seconds, and Geoff had the shorter split to the next common control - the dastardly uphill fence at #5. But, I could see him and that was all that mattered. Clawed my way back through the rest of the course, although we kept splitting - was on him by #8, but then he had the lower control, and I had to climb 5m to the upper one, so he got a slight gap again. Got it almost back when he overshot the veg change after the Skoda Car control and overtook him on the finish to give Linda the lead.

AIS Sprint, last leg, 2.7 Okm. [Note =1st place on leg time with Geoff] Linda did great and came in just behind Jenny Bourne. I had a big advantage here, having been behind Geoff on the first leg - I had seen where he went on virtually all the other splits. So I knew I had a longer #1 and so ran past him on the way and legged it. Came out at #2 a bit behind, but retook the lead on the next split to #5, where I had the shorter one. Was pretty confident at this stage, as I thought I had two more shorter splits to come, plus I was confident in my finish kick. Hmmm. Well Geoff took back the lead over the next two shorter splits, including the uphill one he had to do.

So It came down to the last common loop. I was pretty tired climbing to the termite mound, but held on and got back on the downhill to the next one. At this stage my brain failed. For some reason I decided to take different routes to both the second last and the last. The second last wasn't too bad - after Geoff went left, I went right and we came out in the same position, Geoff just ahead. But the next one wasn't a good decision. Instead of doing a u-turn at the control and following Geoff down the gentle slope, I kept going and turned right down the steep slope onto the flat. Turning for home Geoff came out onto the road with a 10m lead. Clawing that back was hard work. Now it was time to try to get to the last control first, so I got on his shoulder and made to go past. At which stage we both started sprinting. Geoff held on, and unfortunately the thought crossed my mind "Well I'll still get him in the finish chute". Unfortunately the pace up till then had taken its toll and I had nothing left; cracked halfway to the line and stumbled home. Geoff ended up with the fastest finish split of the day - well done he is one tough nut.

Colm and Ange's wedding

Campsie. Bit off more than I could chew - 8:37 late (-90 points). It all went wrong after about 15 minutes where I was well ahead of schedule to about 20 minutes where I was well behind.
Took the minute I was standing at the pedestrian lights off.

Callan Park. Sloppy, too many little mistakes. Hilly, but no excuse not to read the map on the way to 3 and work out the best way to 4 was left. Similarly, should have used the field across to 6 to plan the way out and again the long contour to 9 to plan the direction to 10. Also failed to see nice tracks straight to 12 and 14.

C • no.4 2

C • Consistent 2

Sprint - Splits