Training Log Archive: slow-twitch

Rain rain rain! Feeders in the Te Rere, one last time before R7 & 44 get closed. The plan was to try to catch the last few unbanded birds hanging round 45 and R7 but handling wet birds is about the worst karma you can get in my line of work. So an early finish to the field part of the day, with a nice spot of skiing down track 20, and an afternoon in the company of the laptop.

After a bit of a much needed mope-round-the-house day Saturday, went out pretty much just so I'd done something for the weekend. Up to Silverstream Bridge and back, on a very wet day. Rain hitting quite hard on the return leg made life a bit unpleasant. Felt good during the warmup phase, but then sluggish on the "main body" of the run. No idea why, but I was a bit off colour last week, and sleep has been a bit lacking lately...

Getting round the core feeders/public tracks with a nice early start as needed time for a big clean up and a boat to catch. Pretty tired - it was Sara's turn to be feeling sick last night and she did it so much better than I, so I think I was never more than half asleep in case the call came from the next room for a nurse, or a rescue helicopter. All over by morning of course. Hopefully just too much sun, if it's something catchable I don't want it! Really tired by the end of the rounds, the slight rise from the bottom of the track to the whare felt almost as big as the island itself. Legs feel like I've been racing today. Hopefully will have a good sleep but even so will be interesting to see if my new-found training commitment holds up this weekend! =)

More tired but less lethargic - does that make sense? Translation, not getting a useful amount of sleep, but whatever was dragging me down a bit has faded off. So mostly felt better on the hill today, especially after dropping off the 15 litres of sugar water needed at various points up the Trig Track. Last visit to the 56 feeder for the season, so no more trying to find ways across the mid Kahikatea Valley that don't involve losing a whole lot of height that has to be got back in a hurry. And finally end of the way-too-late-try-to-count-birds-not-using-feeders post breeding stitchbird census.

Still a bit lethargic, but thankfully not carrying a huge load. Working in the Te Rere. Attempted to short cut from the 44 feeder down to the stream, very nearly ended up dropping into the nasty nasty gorge, but somehow recognised enough terrain from the last time I did that several years back (must have been even more traumatic than I remember) to pull out and contour across to the actual marked short cut. Lots of sitting round today watching some of the last few unbanded juvenile stitchbirds having a look at the catching cages then decide they're not hungry after all....

Legs feeling very heavy, not just exhaustion, might have a slight bug... so happy to just work round the core feeders and public tracks

First leg - mass start - game on!
No climb figures given but it was lots. Course set in 3 loops, happy with how quickly I cut through the first, the odd "genuine" elite still around me by the 3rd control, which must be some sort of record, then the long middle loop got more and more punishing, and the last which should have been fun, wasn't. Only two misses were at split controls (8, 17) where I found the other one(s) first - there were at least 3 other splits that I behaved myself on, but #11 I kinda luckily blundered into just when I was figuring how to relocate if I'd missed it, so haven't counted that as a spike!
Dead at the end, another great nationals over, but I wish I had a desk job to go to tomorrow!

Jogged a few warm up stretches on the long walk in to today's start

It all started when I shocked myself and won M21AS in this race last year - you can't defend an A Short title surely??? So had to make nationals weekend even tougher by stepping up to M35 - course 2, same as the elite women... and picked a very physical nationals to start that with. Man this race hurt! Didn't help that I lost enough time at 1 to be caught by William (as first starter in the class I needed to get round without seeing anyone!) then while fluffing around near 4 Rolf caught me - when he saw me at 5 he thought I'd caught him, and we spent the rest of the course both trying to "regain" the time we'd "lost" on each other... which is why I've rated this at intensity 4 when it should have been 3! The two controls mentioned were the only big mistakes. In both cases I was probably not adjusting to first run on 1:15000 for some time, and the map being more of a generalisation than others, but still somehow overran 1! Other than that I'd guess a few minutes total loss with not the best route choice or coming into the circles a little too high (meaning there was climb I did that I didn't need to? great.)

Attempted warm down, though legs weren't really co-operating!

Taking on the M21E's again... Today's key word was "discipline" - since adding middle to the race types that I'm prepared to take on the big boys, every attempt I've been fired up about has gone badly wrong and usually in the first few controls. So I specifically aimed to take it easy for the first 3 and get through unscathed, and ignore Austrian Jan and Grail (only starters after me) when they came through me. Apart from not quite nailing 1 (but no significant time loss) that went to plan, and even survived the next discipline test seeing Rhys through the trees on 3-4. Rest of the race controls appeared when they were supposed to (nice feeling when it happens over and over again), except 4 route choice didn't quite work and came in a bit low, and 15 (starting to get pretty tired) was a bit tricky figuring which wiggles in the contours were which. Only regret a couple of legs I simplified down nicely but still sort of picked my way from feature to feature rather than charging. Best race of the champs and happy to break 50 mins!

C • If only you'd been kind eno... 2

Event: New Zealand National Championships
 

Woohoo, Nationals are here! Stinking hot afternoon, not the world's most technical sprint map - but the course setting made the most of what was there, so really nothing more to do than run hard out... Had a few issues with vegetation (possibly the mapping thereof at some points, but some of it was definitely me) round the south end (controls 11 and 12), then on 13-14 for some unknown reason chose to go way wide of the red line, must have imagined there was something in the way. Not much wrong but enough to take me over my target of winning time + 50%. Not helped by that young freak of nature Reynolds going under 15 mins - awesome run!

Easier to be disciplined about warm down jogs when you have the right company....

Bulking the feeders up for easter, and keeping the pace up so as not to miss the boat, makes for a harder than average day even if not straying far from the public tracks. Maybe not the ideal thing to be doing day before a sprint race... Got to contemplate yet again how often on a day I'm going off there are groups of attractive young women visiting the island, and how Sara always manages to book me on the boat they're NOT on!

Working in the Kahikatea Valley - would have been a very light load but took the opportunity to take up a few feeder bottles for tomorrow. Contemplated a detour up to the summit by any of a number of routes I haven't or hardly used this season (with the excuse I might bump into some of the stitchbirds that aren't visiting feeders!) but weather turned a bit blah and the pack was just heavy enough to discourage unneccessary steep climbs. 3 more survey sessions, picked up a few new birds, some of which seemed to be following me around...?

Te Rere valley feeders today, with a moderately light load even though for two stations this will be the last fill for over a week. Track 20 is always a cruel way to start the day! Three survey watches, the first two typically dull, but quite a few birds coming into 45 feeder, which also nicely catches the afternoon sun. Seems to be the hotspot for unbanded birds, so I guess I'll be spending a few hours here next week trying to remedy that! Took the Mckenzie track home for the first time in ages, forgotten what a quick descent it is, but I don't recommend being the first one to use it after hookgrass seedset. Getting a bit of a twinge in the left knee, bad timing. But I think it was happening just before Waitangi as well so hopefully no worries

No Sunday boats so got to work this morning which pretty much stuffs up half the day. So decided to leave the outlying feeders for tomorrow and Wed, and just went round those on or near the public tracks. 2 survey sessions - NO stitchbirds at what was one of the busiest spots at the height of the breeding season, and ONE at the junction. At least at the latter spot I had the tamest robin on the island adopt me as it's own personal playground/watchtower, so not completely without entertainment...

Nice workout in the Belmont Hills with gruver and an old course on the Glenroy map - about as relevant as possible for nationals terrain. Hopefully will help keep some of the likely route choice options, traps etc in mind for next weekend... About half and half paved roads and dirt tracks, and a tiny little bit of real terrain running thrown in just for fun as we cut through the south part of the Belmont Bunkers area that kiwi attackpointers should know

Into both valleys today - with feeder use declining might be almost last time I need to do both in one day. Have often thought it would be interesting (depressing?) to take an altimeter on this round, just to see how far above the actual summit (520 m) of the island I get on total climb. Had an assistant today, so very little extra weight carried. Banded a few more juveniles (just a few to go now), got in another census watch (no stitchbirds!) and a few other odd jobs done. And got a phone call regarding a job interview - time changed so have to take tomorrow off, meaning Sara gets to do the hardest day of the week for me, and I don't get to beat the AR crowd in total logged hours for the week ;-)

On and around the public tracks again, with a lightish load again so another relatively easy day. Three two hour feeder watches, one with a reasonable number of birds seen but it still looks like this is one of those years the post breedinng census will be a bit of a joke!

Lighter load today and no side trips into Kahikatea or Te Rere valleys = much easier day. Hard part was staying awake for first day of post breeding census - one stictchbird seen in 4 hours of feeder watching!

Anyone questioning whether "walking" belongs here can come and do my current job for a week - bulk sugar water haulage across a fairly serious lump of terrain! Certainly feeling the 2.5 weeks away, and yesterday's 2.5 hours orienteering today, especially starting the day with 17 litres of bird fuel.

Harakeke Sanddunes, maybe 15% open, remainder in forest.
More correctly, about 1hr40 orienteering and about an hour standing round looking confused. First two controls went well then screwed 4 in a row, then another big miss at 12, and a few other glitches along the way. Of the 5 "big ones", two were down to a combination of not picking up important information off the map and losing contact - not enough focus? One was after navigating beautifully to the circle, trusting the (wrong) control description over the map, and not chosing to ignore the description quickly enough. The other two? Hard to say when I struggle to see how I got from last point where I was where I should have been to the place I ended up. Alien abduction? There is some nice terrain just off the northern edge of the map though!
And just to add injury to insult, gave my ankle a hopefully minor yank between last control and the finish...
Positives? Ahhhh... terrain has little relevance to nationals in 2 weeks? and I was surprised to be under 3 hours so physical side must have been OK...

Not much time this morning, so up the intensity instead (helped by Margaret on the bike again). Ran fast pace down valley to riverside (streets) then short distance down river (park) - sorry, no idea of distance. Feeling a bit tired but pushed through it all the same. Then back at a lighter pace but with a few diversions to some small sharp climbs (<50 metres total)

Solo run, Raukawa Loop, no idea of distance but at least 7km, 180 m climb minimum. Distance wise prob 50/50 road/off road (tracks) but skewed towards the latter time wise. Thighs still sore but still went out hard for first 20 or so mins, including first 100m climb up Holborn Drive. Slower along ridgeline, especially once past Delaney reservoir, with steepness, then narrowness of track (gorse hasn't been cut here for a while!) leading to more and more outbreaks of walkitis. Also difficult to maintain a run down track from ridgeline to Raukawa St - steep and overgrown. But made myself keep to running speed all the way back home once back on the streets. Scratched up a bit but feeling good.

First run for a few weeks, possibly first since Waitangi Carny, and far less hard walking than usual too. Family has been the NUMBER ONE priority in that time, but for the same reason I'm turning over a new leaf training-commitment wise, hence my debut on AP! Today's mission - Silverstream Bridge and back, very approx 9km return, c 1/3 road 2/3 riverside park with some slight undulation. Slow cyclist for company and to keep the pace "honest" (but not hard). Thighs hurting for a few days after but otherwise felt good.