Training Log Archive: MCrone

Seems like I haven't lost my sprint touch just yet.

Relatively clean race with just a few hesitations. Probably could have really pushed a bit harder on the easier, longer legs.

Nice new map and a great area and course. Felt a bit like a WOC qualification.

M21A - Splits

Nice easy session to get the weekend out of the legs.

10 minute warm up

Stretching

5 x 50 m strides (50 m jog, 50 m hard)

3 x 150 m accelerations

5 minute cooldown

Long stretch

Intervals and "control picking"

Had definitely expected a very different session based on the name. Control picking usually implies many controls in a detailed area requiring quick changes of direction and good flow. This turned out to be much longer legs.

A bit of an issue on the first control (seems that the vegetation has changed a little bit), but other than that a goodish first loop other than the exit towards the finish (tried to avoid the shoulder high blackjacks around the ruin and Brad seemed to get a much better line with relatively few blackjacks). No problems from there. Brad went back after the second loop (had stubbed his toe and would later find out that he had a stick in his foot as well [an opportunity for me to play doctor]). I wanted to continue so I continued by myself just leaving off the controls that I considered dog legs. Good to get into the area that I considered quite technical at the Big 5 O during the fourth loop.

When I got back I had to help Brad dispose of his shoes :P and also remove a 1.5 cm stick from his foot with pliers. Seems that my training (not that it was really needed) might be of use on occasion.

The (in)famous star relay

In this session I tried to focus on execution, especially when placing the controls (doesn't help to put them in the wrong place). Having Ephraim directly after me was a little bit stressful, but he did really well and I tried to give him a good angle to leave the start from. Hadn't expected to do well, but I enjoyed all the controls being in (roughly) the correct places.

A twist this year in that the first three teams were disqualified for putting a control in the incorrect place (probably 150m from where it should have been). I had a partner that was putting controls in the wrong place (although along the right line) last year, it was definitely annoying at the time because it detracts from the usefulness of the session.

Oh well, there ends another training camp. Not as much technical training as I had hoped with outdated maps in some places or very familiar areas in others. This close to Western Cape Champs I did not need the physical training. However, there were a few sessions (like the corridor, parts of the route choice exercise and the interval exercise) which I did enjoy and tried to make the most of.

Thank you to the coaches who put in the effort planning the sessions!

Route Choice training with Nic.

Decided after the first few controls that forcing road/straight was not a good option because we would never do that in a race. We therefore often decided on what would be the best option and tested other options, or decided on two route choices to test.

One nightmare control through an undergrowth section of forest with lots of blackjacks. I tried to contour but ended up a lot lower down than intended. Tried to work on contouring after that section.

Map memory

Yay for blackjacks! Struggled a bit with the two controls in a row because it was very difficult to work out the correct exit angles. Had a horrible first loop, but a much better second loop. Sometimes I was forced to use the map at the first control to help me to the second control. Not having a solid plan in some places was detrimental because you could plan to use the green vegetation to guide you, but then that wasn't accurate so you didn't have much else to go on other than compass.

Relocation with Dylan

Tried very hard to get Dylan lost. Was only marginally successful on some controls. Other controls were a bit too close to the road and so you were forced to head in a particular direction. Other controls were too far away so there again wasn't much choice.

I know this section of Langkloof a bit too well to get lost in. (I'm sure that the other seniors do too). Therefore it was not a good choice of area for the relocation at all (perhaps better for the line O? and then the relocation in Vlakplaats?)

Again said no to night O and had a rather enjoyable evening relaxing. I think that it is often difficult to turn down a session because we all have the "fear of missing out", but at the same time it takes a little bit of courage to know what your limits are and what is best for your own training.

Started off with the corridor. I enjoyed it and didn't have too many problems until the very long section without any features (there were many overgrown clearings and I couldn't see the rock just before the main clearing). Then just after the open section I struggled to get the right angle from the clearings and so I crossed the roads at the junction (rather than probably 50 meters before that and so missed the cairn).

Line-O. Couldn't really gain anything from this session. Road was removed which made a tricky start. Map is very old and so there are new clearings everywhere (difficult when you are meant to go around certain clearings). Contours also did not reflect the terrain. Was meant to be a race but I gave up halfway and tried to salvage what I could from the session.

Good news was that although this was an old map there were probably far less blackjacks that the other maps used for the weekend.

Contour only exercise.

I probably had the worst first loop... Straight through the blackjacks on a very long leg. Runnability through the open area (with more blackjacks than... than... I have no idea) was not great at all.

I enjoy contour orienteering so was a bit disappointed with the pain caused by the blackjacks. My second loop was slightly better and I did a loop planned by Nic which included some very cool short legs where you could get your speed up.

Went back into the nightmare area to collect controls...

Decided to say no to night O. It was not the fact that it was Night O in this case, but rather the fact that I didn't feel the need to overdo the training and it was in the same area as earlier in the day (i.e. lots of blackjacks and an old map).