Training Log Archive: O-ing

NSW State League 2, Hill End. M60, mp. So it’s been 7 weeks off running since I tweaked my Achilles. Legs weren’t the best this morning and the Achilles felt “dodgy” so set off in trepidation. Was planning to skip any boring long spur fully legs. An inability to read the map going through the town rendered that meaningless as I wasted 5 minutes and decided to stop racing. I kept going at a jog just to do something, read some of the town signs on the way back through and went to visit an adit near 10 (skipped 7,8,9). Coming in to 11 I was behind James and Alex so picked up the pace again with hopefully no repercussions.

NOL/SL2 day 2 Hard 5 - Splits

Event: National Orienteering Leagues 1&2 / NSW State Leagues 1&2
 

NSW State League 1 Dhuwugarra, Hill End. M60, 2nd. First proper run since I tweaked my Achilles. But my Achilles today was Route Choice. Made 2 really bad decisions and lost 2 minutes on each. Otherwise navigated well and ran ok, with no lower leg issues. So going to 6 I got the first half of the route right (right round the spur) and inexplicably decided to go left, across the red line (bad) and into two sets of green. Then I repeated the dose even worse at 7 - again got the first half of the route right (left to the road) and again inexplicably decided to go at 90 degrees across the red line (bad) and approach through green and ravines. On both legs had I stayed on the first choice route I would have had an easy approach through yellow.

SL1 Hard 3a - Splits

including 1 km (lap) at 45kmh.

Stromlo, Criterium, Masters 7. A very small field like last year. Tony had moved up to Masters 8 but they ran the classes as one race which caused a bit of confusion at times as the Masters 8 guys attacked every so often and if us 7s were dawdling, one of us would get on their wheel. Anyway this was a cat and mouse race from start to finish. I had the advantage of knowing Owain's record (winner of the ACT TT last year where I was more than 20% behind, and bronze medallist from the National Vets TT and Road race) which meant that I was very unlikely to get away as he could TT back to me. So it came down to whether he could sprint or not. Steve, the other M7 in the race obviously had the same idea as he stuck to Owains wheel from the outset and didn't take a turn at the front until the very last lap!
I did get a couple of breaks here and there but soft pedalled once I saw Owain coming back. Owain tried multiple times to break, but either Steve or I reacted quickly enough to get back on within a few metres. Actually the best breakaway attempt was after 200m and it was by the M8s - Owain went after them and it took almost a full lap to get back on.
Owains attempts started to flag after a while and he tried to slow down enough (20kmh!) to get us to take the lead but no dice. That was good for me as my heart rate peaked at halfway and it got easier after that with the micro-rests.
The bell went and halfway around Steve decided to lead out (?!). This after the M8s had gone earlier, not sure whether he was trying to win the race or the class. Owain got on his wheel up the last hill and there was a bit of hesitation into the straight before the sprint. I managed to come around the right hand side and take the win fairly comfortably in the end.

C • Heart rate 2