Training Log Archive: slow-twitch

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...