Training Log Archive: slow-twitch

Taking us out of the way of the relay area but into the depths of the WOC long area

Long, Buar Stromstad Ost. Finally a fun race and when I was expecting nothing more than a suffer fest. We don't really get course setting like this back home, I don't think I've ever had a 24 minute split on a leg that I pretty much executed perfectly before. Apart from some minor wobbles in control circles that are too trivial to count only leg 6 got in the way of a perfect race. There I drifted north of my intended route choice but not too much damage there as that put me onto a route I had considered and I recognised this early on. But then lost a few minutes at the end of the leg through not checking the compass and getting lured into an area very much identical to the control site only rotated 90 degrees. As for my ongoing battle with the mapping, I think I have got it into my head how clearings etc are used to indicate bare rock, while the smaller scale inconsistencies weren't an issue with fine detail interpretation not really part of the technical challenge today. Bashed the body around a bit so easy to stick with the decision to miss tomorrow's race

Another trip off to the side of the WOC map and back.

Middle distance Buar Stromstad Ost. I figured out why the public races are branded 'Rocky Orienteering Circus': they gave the nearly finished maps to some clowns to finish off the rock detail. Somehow still have a reasonable spike rate on what felt like a really crap run but I guess going to the unmapped rock face at 4, getting puzzled over which sheer sided granite knoll was which around 11 and finding it easier to believe the boulders I passed before dropping down to 14 weren't on the map than that I had drifted off my bearing, were all expensive mistakes. The rest was just a lack of terrain speed and too much time trying to figure what was what.

Tanum middle distance. Most technical so far in Sweden and for a while there felt like I was going to be found out. But a reasonable midfield result and apart from the first control where I came somewhat off my bearing the mistakes were small in-circle ones. Just felt slow and messy like I wasn't orienteering well all the way around. 2 mistakes in the first 3 controls does that I guess. Have mostly got my head into the rock mapping (or not) but I think it still contributed to 2 of the smaller oopsies.

Start and finish far enough away and timing to the start tight enough I actually got some wu/wd running in

Stromsvallen middle distance. Urban fringe so the areas that might have otherwise been the most technical that I had struck so far in Sweden had plenty of tracks to use, either running them or ticking them off while crossing them. Mostly a clean run just the few problems were more expensive than they should have been. Particularly 9 where I wasted at least 3 minutes finding every potential saddle in the circle. With the stuffing around in the early part of 3-4 because I didn't really have a plan for exiting the first forest block I can easily see a sub 40 time that I would have been very happy with.

Event: WOC 2016
 

Woc public race, sprint at Stromsvallen. Kind of OK race but a few places I was struggling with map interpretation especially in the 6 to 10 stretch where it became apparent that Swedish mappers have moved on from refusing to map bare rock to mapping it some of the time. Which I would not really say is an improvement. Not feeling 100% so the first mostly paved part of the course wasn't hitting the sort of speed I should but found some running legs through the last few controls

Lunds OK club middle distance champs, Risen. More of an orienteering challenge than the sprint a couple of days ago but I still think I'm being lulled into a false sense of how easy Swedish terrain is. Nice forest though. Poor route choices on 4 , 6 and 9, all trying to go fairly direct when track running at least in part may have been better and 9 turned into losing several minutes as I lost contact a bit mid leg. Other than that probably lost a bit of time all the way around through unnecessary hesitation

Popped my Swedish orienteering cherry at a sprint race in Malmo (Oxie Kullar). Mostly a fairly basic sprint though I was handicapped a bit by Swedish only control descriptions, not that I use them enough in sprint races but they might have helped with time lost in the circle a couple of times. Only just now picked up another mistake, missed a marked gap in an uncrossable fence that would have saved some distance to #12 although maybe not time as it would have meant running through rough open rather than on paved road.

Thought it would be best to sit out the last race so just had a bit of a wander in the forest with map and camera. 50% disappointed because there was much about the course that looked fun and my kind of orienteering. 50% sensible as it also looked physical and there was over 6km of it and my start time was near the end, would have been far too tough for me today!

Srednji. Effectively a forest sprint but perhaps at the longer end of the ewt range. Mostly nailed it, so happy. Basically perfect to 8 and was sitting 8th or 9th, before being attacked by a tree running into 9. There may have been some brain cells in amongst all the blood loss as I made my most significant mistakes at 10 and 12 and also was a bit off-line to 11 but didn't seem to lose time there. Lured off 10 by a control that I knew wasn't mine but uncertain enough about my direction across a broad shallow valley I still had to check (1 min loss at most. And left 11 as if I was leaving 12, realised just in time for it to be maybe a 20sec error rather than a big one. 18 doesn't feel like a mistake as I knew where I was almost the whole way but did drift wider off the line than I needed or intended which might have cost as much as half a minute given the loss of leg speed by that point. So no more than 2 mins lost and have a much better idea of where I should sit in this field. If it wasn't for the small hole in my head I'd call this a very happy day.

C • hole 1

Niska. The fun, fast part of today's course(if a little on the easy side with all the rock walls). Felt I was going quite well both physically and technically but the splits show that I was already hanging around the back of the field through here.

The ultra rocky bullshit part of the course and walking back through the last few controls which could have been fun again if I hadn't lost all enthusiasm. Still managed to make the 2.5 hour cut somehow and would have probably not been slowest to complete the course if I still had bothered to keep pushing.

Event: Bubo cup 2016
 

Creski maslinici. Crazy olive grove map. Not actually all that technical as the map is basically a mass of linear catching features but that in itself with the unusualness of the terrain creates some confusion! Thought I had gone well with only 3 errors each of which cost about 30 sec. To 11 thought I could see the north wall of the croft so ran to that without checking compass, turns out I was looking at the high point in the same rock pile but off to the east. 13 initially stopped too soon, not sure why. 16 went to the wrong rock pile Junction. But turns out I was well off the pace all the way around. Probably way too much caution and hesitation especially early on, but also the top guys must actually somehow be able to run across all that loose rock!

Now 2 days rest before doing it all over again only in Croatia