Training Log Archive: roar

Still no Garmin data >:|
This time I can see it on my watch though so I might be able to get it when I get home I hope. Jog up the steep hill to the start and a few bits of pottering and striding once up there. Feeling okay.

Istanbul 5 days, stage 3 - Map Map

Much better, in terms of result and big mistakes anyway! The legs were not in the best shape and all of the hills killed me. Already on the way to number 1 I was feeling it. Had quite a few misses early on, 2, 4, 5, 6, 10 & 11 but they were mostly small. 5 was the worst where I just didn't use my attackpoint and wandered around the forest looking for it, the others were small though. Afterwards I got my act together and was clean through the rough green/hashings part and avoided any time loss where others had quite a bit. Happy with this part.
Some big hills at the end were destroying my legs but I managed to hang on. with some pace. Not to first position though :( Was winning from 13 to 22 (of 23) with loads of fastest splits in the tricky slow orienteering part but lost 28 seconds on the last long flat running leg through the town and came 2nd by 3s. Would have been nice to have a 100% win rate orienteering in Asia!

Up to 3rd overall now, with the 2 Marcuses about 200 points ahead and 4th 200 points behind with tomorrow being the last day.

Went for a loosener since there is another race this evening!

Warm up from the hotel to the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul with Marcus. Did some random laps of tourist attractions then. Very warm evening out.

Istanbul 5 days, stage 3 Supersprint Grand Bazaar 2.58km - Map

This was really fun. The scale was 1:1500 so everything was came really quick. It was mostly indoors on super slippery marble floors.

At the start I put my headtorch at the low setting since the lights were on inside and started slowly to try and read the map. I had heard rumours of multilevel orienteering and green controls so wanted to check that out. Suddenly I was in a dark alley with pillars everywhere. 2 was the first upstairs control and the circle was green. Went up some steps where everyone else was going and found it. Couldn't for the life of me work out where the steps were on the map and was thinking I was just going to have to randomise. More cool controls followed. 3 was in an alley essentially the rooves. Miss on 4 and 5 was fine. For the longer legs like 6 I thought I could either plan ahead or just floor it. I mostly went for floor it as most legs were less then 200m.

The labyrinth from 7-12 was pretty easy I though, probably one of the easier parts of the course in some ways! I had some confusion around 15 with what was on the top and bottom floors and lost a few seconds. Hand't planned 17 and foolishly though I could go straight. Flew down a corridor leaping the litter at the intersections and suddenly realised I couldn't go straight, and I didn't know where I was. I went for heading east until I found a long street and that worked.

Got confused leaving 17, the brain was in oxygen debt by now, and was in the courtyard looking at some steps that I ultimately wanted to go up but convincing myself they weren't on the map. I got some good flow up near the end and was running hard on the last few long legs. 24 was hidden in a crevice and I hesitated just before it but got it ok then. Big sprint for the finish.

I really enjoyed this. Was 2nd 1:08 down when I finished. Probably lost that with hesitations though if you had run here before you could be much quicker.

Jog back to the hotel with Marcus.