Training Log Archive: slow-twitch

Starting to get into the part of the block where even if it's a relatively short survey day the walk in and out contributes quite a bit. Failed to find the watch I lost on today's lines in spring. Also failed to find the robins whose territory I passed through today, until bumping into the male somewhere completely different. So that's 1 robin today for me, but 5 (!) for the team. I put that down to superb team leadership.

Finishing off bits that got missed as a result of yesterday's fun, and the next line over. Much easier day both physically and mentally. 1 robin today (the same one as the other day, he lives around the main way into the block so might not be the last encounter either)

Bit of an accidental adventure today. Completed one line with no issues other than some heavy going at times, then was not able to climb the big escarpment required to get to the next line (about half way up there was a Nic-high sheer section with only one hold most of the way up. Looked like there were more options along the far edge but lost my footing trying to get within reach - eek). So had the bright idea that it wouldn't be far to follow the stream down to where the line crossed it. Unfortunately they must run almost parallel for some time as there ended up being quite a lot more wading and rock hopping than I imagined. Even more unfortunately it only became apparent after we were committed to this option that my height related confidence issues that got us into this were more than matched by swift water related confidence issues for the volunteer I had with me. But nobody died. No robins today either.

Another shorter day but this time because we were all a bit quicker than I expected on the tasks I'd assigned for the day. A bit of a full body workout at times on my survey line with some climbing practice in and out of the stream gullies. 1 robin today.

Urban rogaine, Bell Block. Using 2/3 of the available time (the difference between hurting and not hurting at the end) got 1980 (including a 70 point bonus) out of a possible 2400. Which doesn't mean that if I had 2 hours of running in the legs that I would have cleared the map - remaining controls were widely scattered. Think I optimised order pretty well except for some of the controls I added to the plan late in the piece. Not sure of distance, if map 1:10 000 then straight line was c 6.6km but even given some wide deviations from straight that seems quite short

StatNav February update:
5629 points (no change - not surprising as I haven't done any ranking events in the month!)
223rd overall (up 7)
16th M45 (no change)

So the plan was every non field day I'd get some sort of run in. However by the time I finished what needed doing it was absolutely pissing down and continued to do so for the rest of the day. If I'd had to go out anywhere that might have made the difference but as it's pretty clear that a number of locals think the narrow country roads here are multi lane highways I wouldn't go running from base in any conditions let alone today's

Rain stopped play by about 2, which actually gave us a couple more hours than I was expecting. No robins today for me, but others in the team did score the first known independent juvenile, which is good news.

Advertised as a sprint race but not really (hence wrong shoes), Te Rewarewa, New Plymouth. Pretty easy, even all the sand dune bits but still a good opportunity to practice good orienteering process at speed. Except towards the end where a bit of lack of focus led to some in-circle time loss at 14 and failing to notice a big thick flax obstacle on the way to 15. Not sure what to blame for the dumb route choice to 5: straight through the worst rough open ever completely failing to notice the nice bright yellow just a short deviation away!