Training Log Archive: slow-twitch

A not-full figure 8 of both Hagleys in the lovely and warm middle of the day. So lovely and warm I either should have gone earlier or chosen a lighter top! Plodding.

McLeans Island - flattest forest map in NZ? 90 minute score and a surprisingly good hangover cure. May have been a blessing - made me stick to a pace I could actually keep up for the whole time (OK, ... most of the time) rather than starting too fast and tanking out at the far end of the map. Thought I'd pick up everything in the east block and then would be a matter of how much or how little I could add, but at the hour mark was actually starting to wonder if I could attempt to clear the map... Good thing I stayed sensible and conservative - as not long after lost a bit of time drifting off line to a couple of controls and started to flag physically a bit when there was still the long leg back towards home to come. But after a bit of a panic only dropped 1 30 pointer in that return home section, which I might have had just enough time to grab after all...

Mt Richardson (Mt Thomas Forest). A bit of navigation issue getting there (in part through not having fully decided where we were going by the time we left Christchurch - but it just meant the new car got a bit more to its first out of town cruise). So didn't have time for the full loop that I had in mind, just up to the summit and back. On the way back, thought I'd take in the Glentui loop just to meander down the other side of the valley. Bloody DOC, they put time and distance on their track signs, they don't tell you there's a secret big climb on the alternative track which was not just what was needed after going up and down the mountain!

Not surprisingly, no kea. But 2 more squares on the map coloured in.
https://survey.keadatabase.nz/surveys/619

Double header OY Sth New Brighton, Round 1. Very rusty and never looking much ahead. But despite that the nav was pretty clean, just all a bit stop start. No major time losses, even though it took about 4 or 5 controls for the scale to get programmed in. Cautious running in terrain, no scares with the ankle though. Caught Rob Wayne at about halfway then we never quite shook each other off, taking turns leading each other into controls until I got away right at the end - which helped keep the speed up even though my legs were clearly shocked by the sudden burst of activity.

C • slow twitch is back 1

Round 2 (Southshore). Walking down from the first event probably helped keep my legs ticking over, but not enough to get me through the whole day - it was a cruel trick having the only real potential fast running section of the course right at the end. I think I could have had better flow than in the morning race if it wasn't for: A number of times I felt penalised for good orienteering (taking what should have been a better line than the people around me and having them beat me to the control after I'd got entangled in thicker vegetation); And a couple of controls not well placed, I think only #1 was really in the wrong place but a couple of others weren't placed as described, which in this kind of veg can make a bit of a difference as to whether you go straight to them or not. But also got penalised for bad orienteering, with a 1-2 minute mistake I can't quite make sense of on what should have been one of the easiest controls and I thought I was taking the safe option on it, and a couple of small errors here and there. Think I was thrown a bit by one control not registering as the big mistake was shortly after.

Very little sign of the cold symptoms that hit as soon as I started getting back into things a week or 2 back, still generally fatigued, but maybe this time will successfully get things rolling!