Training Log Archive: slow-twitch

Score event, visited 24/37 controls and picked up the 5 bonus points which would have somehow been enough for an outright win, but I decided to fess up about not noticing there was a normal question to answer as well at the bonus control so dropping a point there tied me with the young guys whose names I really must try harder to remember and they were into the finish before I was... No Boswell brothers tonight - but beat Ang! Really thought it was a tactical error to go over the river to get the bonus (I just did it because it looked like the nicest bit of the map for a run) but can't make the comparison as all the quick folks did the same. Must have made an efficient plan when I was back over the river, though I really felt like I was bollixing it up the whole time. Looking at how the 29 controls were distributed on the "home" side of the river, I guess you'd have to really know what you were up to to get them all in the 45 minutes, so really clever course setting by Andie. Despite still coughing and spluttering all day, didn't feel I was struggling on the flat (died on every uphill though) so feeling a bit happier about where I'm at than I did on Saturday. Will be interesting to see how k-rate compares to the rest of this series, though the hill in the middle of the map will have had a major influence and with no contours I've just put in an arbitrary figure for climb

Went for a walk today but as it was mainly for the benefit of my headspace and only raised a sweat because the cloud cover broke up and the temperature shot up while I was out, won't add it to the log... ;-)

From Wellington St Beach, attempting to do a garden circuit with as much hills as possible. Terrible, really sluggish to start with but started to get into it but then just fell apart at about the 25 minute mark (which of course was about as far from where I'd parked as I'd planned on getting) so a mixture of slow running and walking back to the car. Surely can't have lost that much fitness in just 2 weeks, so maybe I'm still carrying whatever it was that had knocked me off in the first place. Really frustrating now, do I listen to the little voice that's saying be sensible and take the time to recover properly, or the other little voice that says the 2 short term goals I have are completely achievable, as long as I get back to work now, tick tock tick tock?

C • Goals 6

Back into action, Hamilton urban score event. Picked up 23 controls out of 40 which doesn't compare that well to Ang's 32 but the engine was not firing on all cylinders. Also kind of screwed up in the middle and forgot the plan I had for the southern corner of the map - zagging where I should have zigged so suddenly 2 controls were way out of the way rather than direct en route so got dropped. Need to get quicker - hopefully just need the last of last weeks illness to go away.

Bleah, absolutely shattered all day. Hopefully (A) my theory is correct that all I need is a decent night sleep for the first time in far too long and I'll bounce back miraculously & (B) it happens tonight. Otherwise could turn out to be an apparent easy week....

C • No sleep at all? Just what ... 1

Old Mountain Road. A fairly easy course but good to be in terrain with a map, and have "the process" go a bit better than at Waiuku last week, especially in terms of looking/planning ahead as much as possible (a fair bit of track running in the early sections of the course helped get into that habit). Cold probably at its worst and not much sleep over the last few days so was never going to be a brilliant physical effort but that helped treat the whole thing as a training run. Even started taking on the most testing route choices for the last couple of controls even though they would have been probably slower than the ones requiring less diligant map contact. It was one of these that prevented me from a perfect run, contouring round the steep faces to 10 I started dropping when I should have been gradually climbing, so had a bit of extra grunt work to get back up to it. I've also decided 7 can't count as a spike as I didn't spot the distinctive tree immediately and had no idea where it should be relative to the stuff I could see. Also the course had 1 trail-o control. Didn't encourage me to take this up anytime soon but I guess if I ever end up in a wheelchair or similar at least it would be better than nothing.

Collected a couple of controls that didn't fit into the main obvious loops. These were on the shorter easier course, although I reckon one of them was harder than anything on the long course - I guess without doing a full check of the map (especially with regards to whether the white corridors through the greener parts were still open) it would have been difficult to incorporate into a longer course. Nice forest though.

Street score event. 38-2 points out of a possible 40 something, Bozzy got his revenge (after I beat him last week) by getting the same score but without the penalties, while Bozzy Junior got all the controls but came in later than I did. Feeling a bit snotty and a bit sluggish until I really got going, but the way the last 10 minutes disappeared I suspect I was going a bit slower than I thought, and gradually getting slower too. Happy with route, I think I should have expected to get all I did within the time limit, the one control that stands out as one I should have missed to come in in time was a 2 pointer anyway, so I'll argue I got a longer run for the same price. Not sure I got the needed benefit of time with map in hand though as apart from around home and the CBD, it's probably the part of town I know best (my former office is on the map)

Hopefully the cold will peak tomorrow if it hasn't already done so, as it's likely I wouldn't be doing anything more until the weekend anyway

Before and after. Some of the other people who turn up to these things - their warm down pace looks faster then my race pace!

C • I know the feeling. At one ... 1

Eastside 5km, 2nd attempt. The cold that has been threatening for what seems like months finally hit today, and could feel the bruises and cut from my fight with a fence on sunday all the way round, so really I'm happy to be just half a minute down from last week. Felt slightly sluggish and knew I wasn't at full lung capacity but not too bad really during the run, but sick enough immediately afterwards to suggest maybe I should have given it a miss tonight. Didn't take long for that to pass though. Was having to do a lot of speed changes up until the bridge (about the first half k) working through the crowd (not a skill that's really needed in orienteering - well maybe if I ever do Jukola) but from then on found a number of good pacers I felt I could stay with for a while - maybe could have got on to some slightly faster ones earlier as I tended to be dropping them then moving up to the next one, rather than being dropped. But after the final turn (a bit under 2km to go) the little guy that I'd been with for a while ran away from me so I was mostly alone from there (when I could have most used the push) Didn't dig in too soon for the finish this time too - so now that I've learned when to hit the gas, next week they're going to reverse the course direction!

Auckland-Mass-Start-Teams race at Waiuku North, which while not quite as beautifully groomed as I remember it is still a much nicer forest to attempt to run around than Waiuku South. Unfortunately I navigated like an I-phone today, and the physical side was not much better as on the uphills I felt every hour of sleep that I haven't had this weekend. Using control 6 as my attack point for 1 was an early indication of how things were going to go (it would have actually been a neat trick... had it been intentional) and too often was failing to put any sort of orienteering process into action. I have two months to retrain myself that "Go that way" does NOT constitute a route choice plan.