Training Log Archive: MCrone

9 x 2 minutes (1 minute rest)

Warm up/down

Walked a bit of the blue course from the middle. I can definitely see how some of the vegetation is mapped, at speed it just doesn't make sense though and there is a lot more on the ground.

Red - Splits

Event: Gauteng Cross Country 4 - Mokubulaan, Lydenburg
 

Not really sure what my head was like going into this...but it definitely wasn't into it...

3: Forced to relocate off the road, had tried to use the vegetation going in but it didn't work.
4: Went way too far to the south of 4 and ended up on the other road. Huge mistake...
5: Little bit confused in this area...
7: Thought that I had hit the ridge perfectly and used it as an attackpoint into the control. A lot more green here and vegetation is everywhere. Ended up using Brad coming out of 8 to find 7.
10: Too far south and placed around there a bit...
11-12: Should have taken these a lot slower and focused on the orienteering.
13: Too far south and confused the ridges.
14: Stopped too early on the hill and then relocated from there.

Overall a pretty terrible race. My head wasn't in it and I haven't been able to concentrate while orienteering for a while. It is quite worrying... I was definitely able to concentrate a lot better on sunday while doing the red course and a bit of the blue course.

Worst of all I rolled my ankle again... not very much colour coded orienteering planned for the next few months. My base training starts this week and I need to start working on my speed. With world games only 14 weeks away I can't afford to be an idiot...

Brown - Splits

Spent an hour and a half in traffic and so had to run the 3000m in the dark with the aid of Sarah's headlamp :P. Not the nicest track with very thick grass and I struggled to see the outline (it was red on the green field).

Was an interesting experience ;). Not as fast as last time, but I haven't done very much speed training at all because of my last block (had to make up time for when I went away to Portugal). I am now back into base training and will slowly build up to World Games (hopefully) in August.

Event: Gauteng Short Course 4 - Waterstone College
 

Physio today, my left hip flexor is screwed because my left leg has been compensating for the sprain on my right ankle. Quite painful and no real power when I tried to have a high knee lift yesterday. Physio has said that I need to make sure that I rehab my ankle well.

At least now I have an excuse for yesterday :P. Felt like I really wasn't able to push. I think that I pushed too hard at the metrogaine (which felt really good in the moment), but then I was actually compensating and so it caught up with me on sunday...

Oh well, some good ankle exercises to do. Thank goodness I am basically back to base training for a few weeks, so high mileage and generally low intensity. Will probably have to throw in some swimming and cycling to let the ankle heal properly.

Event: Gauteng Short Course 3 - Tshwane University of Technology
 

Men - Splits

Just trying to recover after some hard weeks of training and racing. Went over my ankle at the sprint (after going over it in Portugal). Still quite swollen.

Also managed to pick up a bit of a cold. Just hoping to get over it soon.

Metrogaine on thursday!

4: It sucks to be colour blind... I saw it as being rough open instead of light green so headed for an area that seemed to be slightly more open (there is an area of felled trees just east of the controls). Found the exact same feature, one that was actually more significant, there. Was confused and tried to relocate but still couldn't work it out. Used Ake (started 3 minutes behind me) to relocate off of and go into the control. Still not sure that the control was in the right place and I do think that the mapping is off here. ~4:11 lost here. Accompanied by lots of swearing and a hit to my confidence because it happened so early in the race.
6: Should have gone straight across the dam wall. Ake went that way and basically beat me to 6, even though I had punched 5 just before him. (~10 seconds)
8: Not a bad route but failed with execution toward the end. Ended up too far east toward the vegetation boundary and so had to carry on running from there. ~30 seconds.
10: Too hesitant into this control. Should have just bombed down the hill but I was afraid that I would miss it. In the end it was pretty straight forward. ~20 seconds
13: Could have done with a few slope lines here. Initially thought that it was a hill. Bit of faffing here and there. ~5 seconds
14: Too far to the east so had to run down the slope to the control. ~10 seconds
15: Control is misplaced here. Tried to race another guy around the top (he was going around the bottom) and he managed to punch before me even though it should be 50/50. (~10 seconds)
17: Not sure about the map in this area. Earth wall was not very obvious. It also seemed to be closer to the scattered trees than it should have been. ~50 seconds
18: Just slow...
23-25: At this point I was a bit tired and annoyed. Was slow across the reentrants and didn't push very hard. Had been hoping for a water point to have a goo, but there weren't any so made the call to just suck it up and concentrate to the end.

Again not an outstanding race. Battling against myself more than anything (though Tim did have a very good race). The early hit to 4 didn't help me much. Would have had far more confidence for the rest of the course if I had hit it.

Ankle is quite solidly swollen. Went over it again on the sprint yesterday. I strapped it really tightly for the middle so that it wouldn't go over again. Was forced to do that again but there was definitely quite a bit of pain on each stride. Need a bit of a recovery before my sprint prep for the rest of the season. Hopefully I will have a few good races so that I can build up my confidence again. Haven't had a really good race since Middledam.

Long Distance Course 1 - Splits

Event: Western Cape Orienteering Championships 2013
 

Event: SA Sprint Champs 2013
 

1: Smooth start to 1
2: Not sure about the map just around the corner of 1. Path seems to come off a lot later than it seems on the map. Also a bit of hessitation into 2
3-6: Pretty good, slowly catching Nic ;)
7: Cock up of the day. Silly mistake on an easy control. Ran right through the ditch and across the road on the other side. Had just seen Nic moving away from it... need to not do things like this. (~35 seconds)
12: Struggled to get across the river behind Nic. Lost about 6-8 seconds here.

A bit of a silly mistake to 7 and I'm quite glad that it didn't cost me. I would have been well clear of everyone else. Need to focus on not losing my head with people around me, especially when it is catching someone.

Won 14/17 splits.

C • congrats on winning the spr... 2

2: Apparently the completely wrong route choice. Went left around and took quite a lot longer than everyone else. (~10 seconds)
4: Think that this was on the wrong knoll. Was heading toward the right one, reached the right knoll... then turned to my right and saw it 40 meters away. (~10 seconds)
7: Probably lost a bit of time here. Nic is convinced that it is on the wrong thicket. I went north and then east along the road and then cut through the green at the last minute. Probably cut through the green too early and then basically went east again along the road. Did feel further than it should have been. (~15 seconds)
12: Went to the wrong feature. Pulled by another control that was there. Silly and so had to climb back up to the control. (~20 seconds)
14: Silly mistake. Looked for the forest corner but was then pulled by the forest corner with the road (very far north). Ended up climbing instead of contouring. (~90 seconds)
15: This feature isn't correct. Surprisingly it actually extends far further west on the previous map. Hit the ditch and expected to run west... turned out that it was 50 meters to the east. ~10 seconds


Not a great day of orienteering that wasn't aided by a few controls that were slightly misplaced. Can only blame myself for my mistake to 14 because it was really silly... Definitely cost me a gold. In orienteering you are actually just competing against yourself...

SA Sprint Course 1 - Splits

Middle Distance Course 1 - Splits

I am getting excited for SA sprint champs and WC champs... Should be fun :). Out of all the international training camp people Nic and I seem to be the only ones that aren't sick. Time for some really fast running in some forest.

In other news...legs feel pretty good and no real niggles or strains other than a slightly swollen ankle. Trip to the physio tomorrow (for a service ;) ) before the weekend.

Studying for my clinical exam and my internal medicine MCQ paper. Yay...

Final training in Portugal (and a much better training for me). This area was similar to the area on the first day and I enjoyed it a lot. I was really glad that I felt like I could orienteer again...

Some problems with 24 but other than that a pretty clean run and I was able to read the features really well.


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