Training Log Archive: jennycas

WMOC 2017 long final area again although less physical than yesterday. I'd arranged an early start because of a 4pm flight out of Auckland and so it was still raining & very dark in the forest, but perhaps that was good because it forced me to slow down & read the map properly (need headlamp as well as glasses?). I read my notes from last year's race which said that I should have taken tracks more, and this time I took my own advice. Couldn't cure my habit of always going to the top of hillocks so that I could get a better idea of the lie of the land, so did probably do a bit of unnecessary climb, but only lost a couple of minutes all up, and tried to run hard, partly because of the circulating thunderstorm (the closest flash-and-clap came as I was passing through the spectator runthrough, in about 64 min, which was good race practice for a long final) and managed to stay focused until the end.

I can't believe how good value for money these races were - only $100NZ all up - and it was a really fun weekend with the only sad note being that the overnight rainstorms caused the demise of the newborn lambs in the paddock next to our accommodation (but seriously, lambing in June?).

C • Lambs 5

Haha, this was embarrassingly bad :( The first part, where my course didn't go at last year's WMOC, was really good, both in terms of pace & navigation, but then once I'd crossed the road into the coastal strip, legs fell off and brain fell out. Kept having to stop to scoop it back in...not really, I just did some super-dumb things because I was getting tired and lost what Winsplits tells me was a total of nearly 19 min across half a dozen controls. Was tripping & stumbling all over the place (only actually stacked it once) and failing to read the map or my compass because I was too busy watching my feet, which wouldn't lift at all by this stage. The last control* being slightly uphill wasn't helpful and an elderly gentleman walking with a stick beat me to it!

*a giant red beach ball, which represents a jaffa, because the acronym for this carnival is JAFA, which stands for Just Another Friendly Auckland-region event - and very good events they are too even though the misspelling is doing my head in. (Now I'm thinking about chocolate, but the chocolate moratorium has to remain in place until WMOC.)

C • Chocolate moratorium? 3

This map was last year's Oceania Long and I'd enjoyed it, especially the low-vis stuff among the pampas grass. I nailed that section ok this time around too, but was getting the vague-and-hungries by the time I'd crossed the road into the open-but-confusing lumps & bumps of the fun manuka section, and managed an impressive 45-degree error which resulted in my going to 12 before 11. Tried to take it more carefully after that but gambled and lost on the ascent of the escarpment back into the vortex of pampas central, which eventually spat me out at the correct place after nearly 10 minutes of searching - oops. Clearly I was running faster than I was thinking today because it's so long since I've done a proper forest race. But it was so much fun, and I couldn't stop smiling afterwards, because...orienteering!

This afternoon's race was a reverse order chasing start but because of my prior incompetence I didn't have anyone else in 21s coming after me for about 7 min and so I made it through the pampas on my own (annoyed to lose 2-3 min on 4 by getting suckered into the wrong shallow gully) and then probably foolishly took the through-green-brashings route out to the east (managed not to quite fall and break my neck when I tripped coming down an embankment - these shoes are half a size too big so I keep catching my toes) and Bridget hooned past me in the lovely open forest while I struggled to put one foot ahead of the other because I have no terrain fitness. Found a 1-2 min vortex at no. 13 too - this map is almost as much fun as the Bermuda Triangle!

Don't reckon I got any more sleep by flying to Melbourne last night and overnighting in the plastic capsule hotel then flying to Auckland this morning with Blair, than when G & I spent overnight on the plane in April 2017. So I wasn't feeling very awake for a run on this year's NZ Champs W21 sprint course (same venue as last year's WMOC sprint final) but got around ok despite the fact that much of the time I couldn't read the control site detail at all and had to go purely by what the description said. I may have to think again about glasses, which I haven't really worn for some years...

C • capsule hotel 3

We'd parked at the back of the Domain, so there was kind of an uphill on the way back to the car. Also a massive traffic jam on the way out of the city towards Muriwai, which is why I don't live in Auckland.

Tempo-ish run across to Mitcham & back on a nice cool morning. Quite pleased to squeak in under 40 for this route despite knee twinging rather more than I'd have liked.

600, 600, 600, 200, 400, 200 with 200m floats plus warmup/warmdown laps. Still very slow compared to everyone else :(