Training Log Archive: slow-twitch

The Gardens. First half was a nice course with more route choice options or traps than apparent at first glance, second half less exciting, but still a few moments where you needed to keep the nav effort up. One big woopsie (1-1.5 minutes) over-running #12 (the one time I dutifully ignore 'the other guy', he gets it right and I don't...), and a bit of wavering on the way to 4 and 8 for minor time loss. But physically a real struggle, probably at least 75% due to the Muggy conditions, the rest from having ramped up the effort in the last few days.

Started off slow because I figured in tonight's conditions survival was going to be the key, but over the course of the first 2 km got up to a pace that comfortable but good. By the 4th kilometre it was starting to get hard work though. Hit the 4km mark right on 20 and convinced that I would be walking a fair bit of the way home from there - but pushed on somehow and in the process of keeping myself going ran a pretty good last km!

The temperature seemed to noticeably drop just before the start of the race... which means that the 5 minute warm-up beforehand actually felt like harder work! Silvereyes (40)

Short evening jaunt in the Waitakare (short, but just enough to hit my target for the weekend). The absence of real hills in my usual training haunts hit home - I maintained a run for the whole of the first (and I'm pretty sure steepest and longest) climb, but pretty much every bit of uphill after that involved more walking than I'd have hoped for. Except for the very steepest pitched board-walk steps the downhills were fun though. I was apparently too busy watching where my feet were going for wildlife-spotting.

Got out a bit later than I'd intended, so happy to be reasonably comfortably in the time range I was looking for - doubt I would have pushed much further had I been an hour earlier/cooler. Piranha Park down to the gardens (pretty much to the near end of the cemetary) and back again. No idea of the distance but I think I can now be reasonably relaxed about the 7.5 km (on the current team make-up) road run coming up in 4 weeks.

Welcome swallows, goldfinches, song thrush, a grey warbler and a tui (last two of note in the native wildlife desert that is Hamilton) spotted on the way (39)

Two laps of The Lake - one a bit further taking in some of the Lake Domain hill, and pushing a bit harder (about 21:50), then the second taking it a bit easier and sticking close to the lake shore (about 20:10 then I suppose).

Good session for the slow-twitch. Saw mallards, coots, pukeko, paradise ducks, Canada and feral geese, feral pigeons, Indian mynah, starlings, house sparrows and greenfinches (34). The lake is usually good for a shag or 2, but none tonight (go on, do your best with that, paul...)

Calf and ankle stuff - the combination made for what felt like a long session, but I didn't think to check the time before and after

Back into it after a nice little break, with a sprint at Hamilton Boys. With sport ident and everything - it almost didn't feel like Hamilton ;-)

Everything clicked, and apart from feeling the humidity on the first long leg, was feeling pretty quick too. I guess it helped get into it that the Marion School loop, where I could remember all the control sites from putting out and collecting last year, was right near the start, but a near-perfect run regardless. Maybe 10-20 seconds lost almost going into the wrong gap to get to #8, and seconds here and there hesitating. Ankle a little bit soft - I wouldn't have been comfortable in terrain - but didn't slow me down here. Calfs will probably remind me tomorrow that I should have stretched more before and after.

Collecting a handful of controls after (obviously)

Mapping, Restills Reserve for about 3 or 4 hours.

Lake St Clair. Again, walking time is an 'equivalent effort' rather than actual time. Went out either side of nightfall to see what sort of critters would come out. Before dark, added superb fairy wrens, yellow-throated and strong-billed honeyeaters, yellow wattlebirds, grey fantails and Bennett's wallaby to the list (19), but no platypus unfortunately. After dark I found a wombat, enough brush-tailed possums to make a NZ ecologist Very Twitchy, a BIG tawny frogmouth (I think we both got quite a fright) and some ring-tailed possums, which are very cute (23). There was also a bat (unknown species) that came and took insects from my headlight beam which is almost cool enough to make up for there being no quolls or devils to play with.

Also I gave my ankle a bit of a roll... I guess I was planning on having a bit of an easy week post trip anyway...

Up to the start - a worrying amount of breaking into walking on the more uphilly bits. I don't recall seeing anything of interest.

My last hoorah for this tour, so was aiming for a bit of redemption, and given the circumstances I'll take this. Probably my best navigation performance on a 4 or 5 star course/map, only let down by a complete absence of terrain speed (and there was enough undergrowth/deadwood in the forest for that to really count. On all but 3 controls I was spiking them beautifully, and for the most part, the control itself not just the feature, just a shame I almost never realised how spot on I was, so was slowing right down in the circle way more than I needed to! And this was mostly running on bearings and/or contouring across featureless slopes - the two technique options that normally I'd get most nervous about relying on in a race. Lost quite a bit on 2 (again! a mix of being a little out on orientation and keeping too high) but not nearly as much relocation-damage as in the sprint, a little bit on 4, out of the green a bit too high and maybe 20-30 secs looking at the control from above, deciding that maybe it WAS mine, and quite a bit on 17, succumbing to end of course loss of focus and visiting everyone else's penultimate control before mine. Thought at the end there I'd blown the sub-hour run that I otherwise deserved, but just made it! Lovely map, both the terrain and the mapping.

Saw lots of little skinks, but no idea what kind.

At Cradle Mountain with traditional Oceania-tour-rest-day company, Paul. We were out much longer than 2.5 hours but only because between us I think we stopped and took photos of everything. Paul has a new camera, I'm not sure whay my excuse is. So I'll claim the estimated expected time for the walks we did (Dove Lake circuit including a side trip up to Wilks Lake, and the Enchanted walkway). Crescent honeyeaters, black currawongs, green rosellas, Tasmanian thornbills, dusky robins and a couple of ECHIDNAS all turned up to join us at various points (13)

A decent warm up, even if most of it was spent getting back to the toilets perched above the event centre. No warm down as I was over it by the time I'd got through the long unshaded queue to get my relay course corrected so the download would be accepted.

Oceania relay. A great first leg by Fraser meant that I was (A) only just ready to go in time, and (B) heading out metres behind the Aussie M40 and (?) junior teams. Was pleased to keep Blair in sight for most of his first leg (which was shorter enough than mine that I think that was the last I saw of him) - even more pleased that Fraser had also managed to send me out just in front of most of the W21E teams, so had some company early in the course. Following one of the Swiss (Sara L or Sarine J I think) up a steepish climb was nice motivation to keep going. Nailed the farmland section, sticking mostly close to the red line, and would have been about 16 minutes crossing into the forest (15 min at control 5). Then things slowed down considerably and it took far too long to switch tactics from 'straight is great' to 'look for the clean running'. Lost quite a bit of time on 8 (3-4 minutes?) I think because what I thought was the ride leading most of the way to the control was just a slightly wider gap between the tree rows. Then 9 and 10 maybe a minute in total going to wrong rocks, before settling down a bit and getting to the finish mostly unscathed. Was aiming for anything under an hour, so without that one big whoopsie would have been happy.

Didn't see any wombats around the wombat dens between 3 and 4, but flushed a red-bellied pademelon out of cover early in the forest section (7 - mammals count, just to prove I'm not a proper twitcher!)

'warm up' doesn't seem the right term when you've been spectating in the very hot sun all day, but still made sure to get it in. And a longer warm down (more a de-aggravation session really) post run, with some cute Tasmanian native hens (6) for company.

Worst. Race. Ever.

Dropped 30 seconds on the way to #1, but given how little in contact with the map I was feeling I should probably consider myself lucky to have got there in time. Then somehow got 90 degrees out on my exit, fitted the buildings around me to the ones I should have been seeing, ignored the little voice screaming something about things not looking right and delivered myself out into a big sloping open field where I was expecting another row of buildings... It is not easy to relocate when you are so far off the intended route you're not even looking at the right part of the map. Not sure whether to call it a 5 minute mistake or a 2 minute one leading into a 3 minute panic attack. And then when I finally got to the control I discovered stairs I'd missed seeing on the edge of the circle which would have allowed a much more direct route than the one I'd attempted....!!!! After that things improved, but I was noticing every little bit of roughness in or near the circles, and certainly not having fun.

The silver lining is that even without those early mistakes I would have been unlikely to get any higher in the placings, but still disapointing in the only race I had a snowball's in. I can't blame this, but I'm surprised how many course setters don't get the reason you have a start line and a start triangle as two separate things.

I was not able to identify to species the vultures I saw circling while I was looking for the 2nd control, and they may have been imaginary anyway, so no further twitches today

Event: Oceania 2015 and World Cup Round 1
 

Ran the men's B heat sprint qualification course after all the cheering and shouting was over. Tried to take it easy but inevitably the pace increased throughout the course! Probably had a bit of an advantage at least on the longer legs in and out of the event centre from having seen the elite action, but didn't find the course particularly hard. Still wouldn't have qualified for the final though... Lost a bit of time looking too low in a re-entrant for one control - once I figured it out I thought the map was a bit deceptive but looking at it later it was my misinterpretation. And a few seconds almost running down a wrong track - if I hadn't noticed it would have turned into a much bigger oops.

While there was some nice wildlife around (fairy wrens and two flavours of wallaby), no addition to the slow twitch - I don't think I could count the peacock I almost ran over as 'wild'.

Dual purpose run around Launceston - again to try and loosen up a bit and also to make sure I knew where to go for Cataract Gorge tomorrow and how much time to allow to get there. Felt good, even on the climb through and beyond City Park which was a bit more hill than I was planning on.

The great 2015 Slow Twitch got off to an inauspicious start, spotting blackbirds, red-billed gulls and spur-wing plovers that I could easily find anywhere in NZ, and spotted turtle doves that I could track down in Auckland if I really had to. But found a nice flock of chestnut teal at the far point of the run for something uniquely Australian. (5)