Training Log Archive: slow-twitch

First leg of double sprint, Auckland Botanic Gardens. I gave my map back in case they ran out but forgot to grab it or copy the course onto my 2nd map afterwards so I'm struggling to recall how the race went nav-wise. Think I'll concede I didn't take the best route choice on the looong first leg (went left), but the only variant on the right hand choice I saw before I had to make the call was quite complicated - missed seeing a track section that would have made it a lot simpler. Other than that, all I can remember is just a bit more unecessary hesitation than I would have liked, though had done pretty well at planning ahead early in the course, and a few moments of seeing the flag just in time to same me from a mistake. Physically, was hard going in the heat but I was feeling pretty quick everywhere except in the NE corner of the map where the contours felt a lot bigger than they look on the map.

Race 2. After the first course, some idiot took a look around at who else had turned up and suggested to a couple of close rivals - "let's have a chasing start" So it was me at 0:00, Allan at 0:36, Dwayne at 1:16 and Ionel ..a little further back. From the race 1 splits I could tell that Allan and Dwayne were actually running faster than me, just sometimes they were doing it in circles (and not purple ones with numbers next to them), so really the pressure was on me. Got off to a bad start when I thought I'd blown the first leg but a small path appeared on the map just where I needed it to recover. Still wasn't a huge surprise to see A on his way into the control when I was on my way out. 2-5 were very smooth and I suspect I got my advantage back and possibly then some. Slow to 6, the heat was starting to really kick in, but I guess it was the same for the other guys. 7 to 11 all nice and clean and got my legs back a bit - had a glimpse of A behind me in the middle of this section but he seemed about the right distance behind (of course at least in the open areas he was able to lock onto target and start winding me in). 11-16 was a very nasty little section - several legs that looked like there should be routechoice but with a big black fence and big chunks of olive without through-tracks it seemed to be one choice zig-zagging some distance from the red line ...and one trap. Each time I went the right way, but there were seconds lost desperately looking for a better way, and I didn't enjoy coming face to face with Allan AND Dwayne while working through the doglegs - so basically we were all together at 16. Lost what little lead I still had in the blobs of garden going into 17 then got my nose back in front with some clever stuff 18-20. Handed Dwayne the race by confusing a couple of track junctions on the way to 21 (you picked a bad time to follow me Allan!) then he tried to give it back to us (still not sure how) but I proved unable to count to 1 and ended up on a slow small dirt track rather than a fast path to 23. Again we all met at 23 but with no navigation required to get to the finish, no surprise to finish in reverse order from the first race. Looking at where the genuine mistakes start kicking in I think I'd have to say I don't do these pressure situations all that well?

Even taking the mistakes into account, k-rate will be a bit less spectacular compared to the first race as there was a lot more deviation from the red line required - never before have I been so tempted to start jumping through forbidden olive green!

Incidentally those who stayed away because of the slightly spotty history of the gardens map might be interested to learn the impossible contour seems to have disappeared, and north seemed to be in about the right direction....

C • Cool (clearly not the weather) 1

A couple of minutes trying to stop the legs from tying up completely between races (I'd turned up early so had the longest wait by far before our little chase got underway) and then a longish jog sometime after the 2nd race (kept getting distracted chatting on my way to a short warm down so needed to get the muscles back into action before a stretch session)

Also, if you're ever keen to know how effective your chosen brand of sunblock is, I can recommend "missing a spot" as a technique to find out. Next time I might aim for smaller spots than large sections of the backs of my legs though. Ow.

Some saturdays just seem to disappear as I get all hung up about the day not being long enough to do everything I could be getting done so seem to decide the fairest thing is to do none of them. Really must not let that happen again. Ah well, was far too jungly out to go for a run....

Score event Ngaruawahia. 15 points versus best of 16. Felt really slow and sluggish but apparently was churning along quite nicely, though I suppose some of those long legs I was staying pretty close to the "red line", so if I was measuring actual distance run on these things the improvement over the last couple of weeks might not look quite so spectacular. Unfortunately the navigation side of things was a little embarrassing for a town map with a couple of mistakes, worst one was missing a track junction which lost me one control and mucked up the plan I had going. Thought I'd mucked up my plan B but after a good look at the map don't think I could have done much better... Was definitely aware of the calf by the end, but no sudden stiffening like last night

Wasn't too sure if I should have done this, especially as my plans to have a test run on the course over the weekend came to nothing, but had been feeling the most unsick for a long time today. Definitely felt very heavy and slow but more to do with the legs than lungs I think. Couldn't stay down at an appropriate pace so if I'd been able to keep going the whole time might have been surprisingly close to the magical 25. But unfortunately had to have two little walks in the last couple of km, and the only reason it wasn't 3 was I had someone tuck in behind for the last km and start yelling at me whenever i started slowing down. Calf got really tight (top of Gastro) just after I finished which I do not like, but feels ok so far this morning