Training Log Archive: slow-twitch

Lovely afternoon up Kahuterawa. No idea how long we were actually out for but 2 hours seems a reasonable summation-of-effort. Marred only by an ankle twisting incident right near the end. Doesn't seem to bad the morning after but frustrating to add another chapter to the whole one step forwards, two steps back saga of recent months.

Have added route gadget links to nationals sprint and middle post mortems. Still wondering if there's any point drawing up my long "race"...

C • ha 2

After yesterday, actually was pleased to be the entire Taupo OC contingent so unable to form an official relay team. So therefore not obliged to run the long leg!! Ran leg 3 for an international, all male, composite team (might as well break ALL the rules!). First two controls on the flat possibly the hardest I've encountered in the NZ relay for a while, and had a bit of a panic when the direct route to 1 didn't work. Settled down after that and for the hilly part of the course found the cliffs and erosion gullies useful to simplify things. Bad mistake at 9 (couple of minutes?) heading up wrong re-entrant branch and crossing wrong fence then wondering why things didn't look right. But overall a good enough run to get my spirits back up. Also was actually able to run! Even up some of the hills! But legs have been very sore since.

Thought I'd been passed by at least as many people as I passed, but apparently picked up a few places for the team....

Bad start, double checked compass at the triangle and still headed off 45 degrees in the wrong direction. More time lost at 2, had a bit of a self-talking-to about how I hadn't been very good this weekend at developing plans, good 3-5 and started to feel like my fitness would get me through as well. Then ran past 6, not big time loss but demoralising to come just when things were beginning to come together. On the way to 7 started getting pissed off about the number of fences (I was having an awkward fence crossing day) so not in the right state of mind to encounter the mother of all fences on the way to 8. By the time I'd negotiated this I had little interest in continuing, but decided to carry on at least until I stopped transferring my pissed-off-ness from myself onto the organisers. Climb up to 11 finished my legs off, and from there it was a long, slow, sore, but mostly accurate, walk round the rest of the course.

Map. Wavering off the line in this case I think says more about a general lack of confidence rather than poor navigation.
Slow and no orienteering flow... Hang on, better write something different! Awesome map (except I'm still trying to find on the map the big rock outcrop that would have been a very handy attackpoint for 5 and 8). Felt like a poor day technically as well as fitness/terrain running, but in retrospect not so bad. Main problems were getting caught in a dead end creek on the way to 2 (didn't see the small offshoot of a cliff), not being able to figure out much of the terrain on the way to 5 & 8, and 11 dropped too low and went too far. I think it felt like a bad day because for much of the course I wasn't navigating confidently instead picking my way from feature to feature and double-checking far too much. OTOH very happy to string together a series of spikes 13-21 and even started to get into a bit of a flow. Also enjoyed the downhill finish, especially 23-24. Drop the mistakes and I should be under the hour but not close to the 50 minutes I SHOULD have been aiming for

Event: New Zealand National Orienteering Champs
 

Map
Slow and no orienteering flow. What you get with well over a month pretty much off I suppose. Still, can't complain on the accuracy front. Only over-ran 2 by enough for Bryn to catch me earlier than he was supposed to. Though I'm not sure about all my route choices, possibly too safe too often. Frustrating that I could probably have dropped at least a couple of minutes just in speed if I'd been in the same shape I've been from time to time in the last couple of years.