Orienteering race (world cup prologue) 32:22 [5] 3.4 km (9:31 / km)
World cup prologue. Hot morning, and didn't feel comfortable warming up. I started with Tove and she took off straight from the gun. there was no way I was going to be able to keep up with that, and I knew we'd head straight for the gaffles so I just made sure I was doing my own thing. The terrain was as expected, but the grass was really long, and taller than the control flags which added some unexpected difficulty. I thought I did ok through the loops, but then really died on the last controls to the finish. my calves had finally given up after too much running in terrain - swollen calves meant lots of shin pain and legs that refused to run. lost a fair bit of time over the last couple of controls to the finish.
got completely smoked in the finish by fel.
a swim in the river and lots of back stretching between the races to see if I could get my legs working again.
struggled with the heat a bit and had trouble eating.
Orienteering race 46:22 [5]
World cup chasing start.
Started towards the back of a long procession of runners. Decided on left to the first control, but saw the pack crossing the fence to to right. I think my route choice was a bit better cos I caught a little here. gained a bit on the next leg also, with the pack messing around, but then lost some on the fast running through 3 and 4. having lost the group I decided to take a more direct route on 4 and crossed the bottom of the sinkhole, but it didn't pay off and the runners behind caught up. over the next loop the group ahead split up a bit, and a few of the runners around me dropped off, but Signe caught us. I was pretty happy with how I'd run through the first part of the course, but then made a mistake running to 12 where I had a brain fart and ran towards a control that wasn't mine, despite it being much too early on the leg. didn't lose much, and a good reminder to concentrate hard.
I ended up running with Signe and Annika Rhima through the second part of the course - both were a little faster, but not accurate on the controls, so we swapped the lead a lot. The last 10 mins were a major battle to keep running and concentrating with the heat and effort. Both girls had enough of a lead at the last control that a sprint finish wasn't an option.
Totally cooked at the end.
Running warm up/down 1:00:00 [2]
warm ups and warm downs for the 2 races
generally quite pleased with how the second two world cup races went (although the first was a total disaster). I think my limited training (starting after aus champs) was quite good, and I managed to improve a lot in a short time. the challenge now will be to stay un-injured and build on this towards the selection trials and woc.
definitely time for some rest now though!