Training Log Archive: huon

The last day of the carnival, for me at least :(. My team got off to a OK start, with Alex Massey first leg, he was winning, but made a smallish mistake for which he apologised profusely, but he still had a much faster time than me (running ability, yet again).

I started towards the back of the pack, the leaders were 2 mins ahead with 6 teams in between, and didn't do much (just followed a large pack for a few controls and then didn't follow when they went a different way), that different way must've been the wrong way, or at least it was longer, as 4 of the 7 teams in front had more mediocre 2nd legs than mine, so we were 3rd (by about 2 mins) coming into the last change-over.

Kasimir Gregory took the team to victory, with the Tasmanian (the team in front at that point) overhauled quickly, Kas and Olliver Poland (ACT) (they started at the same time) were neck and neck for the whole course, except the finish chute. Kas won it for us with the fastest time in our age group. Go NSW!

The navigation was really easy, the programme said it would have 'moderate' navigation, and that's what it had, it was almost a sprint.

M16 C 8-c Relay - Splits

The big race! Yet again stuffed up number 1, got drawn into the wrong gully going over a flat spur, v annoyed after that, but I don't think that changed my race much. The main technical failing of mine (and why I rated it 'intense') was the water courses, on the controls in the creeks (3, 4, 5, 6, 10) I fiddled around trying to find them, I should've read the map more closely to actually work out what I'm sposed to be doing :(. I ended up only 15min behind the winner, which is pretty good for me considering my result at the qld long champs. Used the spurs and gullies for the second half of the course, in the first half you couldn't really run up and down them, it was mostly running across them, but I tried counting them, and mostly succeeded, as I ran (or walked/crawled/rolled) across.

My first sprint! It was good fun and I did alright as well (9th). The smaller (or larger, which ever you want to call it) scale almost caught me out, I was almost past the first control before I realised how far I had gone (but I've heard its a common mistake so Im not too concerned). Felt pretty good, even after the sand volcano on thursday, and ran well for me (I jumped 2 fences... I still feel happy). My whole relay team for Sunday finished in the top 10, which must've been a good omen. I think the only reason I did well was the terrain is similar to what the sydney clubs run on most sundays, so I (and a whole pile of other sydney people) did really well (at least for me I did well compared to my previous results).

The grandstand was cold, there was a wind blowing the whole time, and the sun was setting behind the grandstand (it faced east), so there was a quite a few people, myself included, shivering after their races.

Yet again, me being slow, I only made small errors on a few controls (5 - went up the gully 20m to the south, 6 - got to the fence bend, 10-went between the 2 lakes, 14 - overshot the control), I just cant run fast enough/for long enough to get a decent time! I guess that means more training. Being slow has one advantage though: I get more hours on AP, even though I do the same course :P.

I've got an excuse though, but it's really weak and everyone should ignore it, I'll blame the hair, I don't have a photo (yet) but it was coloured blue (NSW!), and 'glued' into 3 spikes, it felt really weird, but it was all part of the fun. At least I was a reserve on the NSW schools team, because neither of my performances in the 2 races were anything to phone home about (yes! I get to use that expression, I don't think I've ever even said it before).

Anyway my team was failed, I was slow, Tom (Carter that is) MP'ed (but still had a similar time) and Kas was marginally faster than me, but we were all slow compared to the winners (~35 minutes each).

Stuffed number 1 (damn it), but otherwise pretty good navigationally, just slow (and unfit). Used the spurs and gullies a lot more than I had the previous days, thanks Nick! Broke up the long legs (7 and 11) it worked well for number 7, but I changed my plan for number 11 and ignored my own decision, which probably didnt change a thing except it saved me half a contour.