Training Log Archive: slow-twitch

Canterbury/South Island middle, Kairaki. Feeling absolutely shattered so expected to be pretty slow. But once started got into what felt like a pretty quick pace (perhaps helped by track running about halfway to #1) and kept pushing hard until ...not quite the end, I think I had all but emptied the tank coming off the beach the last time from #18. Unfortunately with all the worrying about the physical toll of the last couple of days I may have underestimated the mental toll. Was really good through the first 4 then had a bad run with 5 (biggest miss, not careful enough with a bearing, the clearing I ran through before hitting the detail was a close enough match for the one I was expecting, and then had a fair bit of rough open to traverse between where I ended up and where I should have), 7, 8 & 9. Worst thing was by the end of that series I was using safe options but still stuffing up by not registering the features I was planning on using. Met Croxford at 9, from there we were mostly together, I had a few chances to get away but was just messy enough for him to keep coming back with his typically steady nav.

Boxing the controls Bruce had put out. Mostly fun and even got up to a run occasionally. Should work out the distance for these various missions but not right now.

Odds and ends, including collecting the various controls used in the closing stages of the red courses. Very impressed with the accuracy of some of the elephant tracks going into that small vague re-entrant in the rough open/young trees.

Lots of long times but I think only 4 was over-long. Other courses had winning times pretty much on target so the long tails simply reflect that it doesn't take a big mistake to get punished hard on this map. The orange course had worried me but I think only a handful really found it too challenging. Given the not exactly smooth path to bringing this race together, while I don't think I'd put it up there among my best work, still pretty happy how it turned out.

Controls going out (and overgrown tracks required for white and yellow getting marked and pruned). Can I just say to anyone who struggled - you had flags to tell you when you were at the right place!