Training Log Archive: syd

Bike - Mountain 2:34:49 [3] 16.75 mi (6.5 mph) +501m

The Redwoods (mountain biking): We were kind of tired of hiking, so we found a big trail system (140 km!) and rented mountain bikes for the afternoon. The bikes were hardtail Giants that were bottom of the line, it gave me a renewed appreciation for my bike! But the trails made up for the crummy bike. We started off on a few easy trails near the rental place and then headed farther out. There was a huge, clear cut hill that had a downhill trail with massive jumps. That was far beyond our skill, but we started up the dirt road to the top to try an easier trail down. We had originally planned to go all the way up, but the hill was bigger than it looked, so we bailed onto a trail maybe half way up. The trail down was awesome. Lots of little jumps and nice flowy trail. I think I would really enjoy downhill mountain biking. We worked our way back to the start after this point. Found a couple other trails that had super fun jumps/tabletops. I was only somewhat successful at jumping, but I had a blast trying. The last trail we rode was a grade 4 (we had been on grade 3 or below) and it required walking in a few places, so I'm glad we didn't do more of those. Fun afternoon of biking.



Kerosene Creek (no tracks): This wasn't really a hike, but we went to a creek where the water was close to 100F. It was clear, flowing water that felt like a hot tub! Amazing!

Mud Pools (no tracks): Also not a hike, but the sound of bubbling mud was kind of awesome.

Hiking 5:47:49 [2] 13.26 mi (26:14 / mi) +870m 21:47 / mi
shoes: Salomon Speed Cross 4

Tongariro alpine crossing: The holiday park we stayed at offered a shuttle service for this one-way trek. Got on the bus at 7 a.m. and we were dropped off at the start about 30 minutes later. This was by far the most popular hike we did, our shuttle was full and there were lots of other shuttles running too. The route took us up a volcanic valley. It was so cool, it didn't even look like we were still on earth with volcanic rock everywhere. And then we topped a ridge and walked through a giant crater with snow capped peaks on either side. I was worried it was going to rain, but it turned out to be a nice morning and it was actually quite warm in the sun. The last part of the hike took us by a few thermal pools with steaming vents on the edges. The clouds started to move in as we made our way past the last pool, but the hike back down the other side wasn't nearly as scenic. Just tussock covered hillsides. We hiked as slow as we could, but we still beat the shuttle to the bottom and had to wait a while to be picked up. It was a nice day to sit in the sun though! Very neat hike.

Orienteering 1:31:45 [3] 7.4 mi (12:24 / mi) +290m 11:03 / mi
shoes: Salomon Sense Mantra - Blue

Nelson Lakes NP: We were getting bored of sitting in the car so decided to stop at the Nelson Lakes NP visitors center and see if there were any short hikes we could do. As we were on our way out of the building, Kevin saw a permanent orienteering marking on the entry sign. He went back in to ask if there was a course and they gave us a couple maps! Sweet. Treated it rogaine style and hit all the points. We stuck to trails as it was pretty green. We were wondering if they hosted meets here, since the o-map was pretty detailed, and a short while later we saw a girl and her father emerge onto the trail carrying what looked like a map and compass. Turns out they were scouting for an event they are hosting later in November. What a coincidence! Excellent unplanned stop.



Pancake Rocks/Blowhole (no tracks): Neat rock formations, but the tide was out so no activity at the blow hole.

Punakaiki Caverns (no tracks): Just down the road there was a cavern you could just go in and explore. It wasn't that big, but there were a couple winding tunnels that went a ways back. Pretty cool that you can just wander around underground.



Cape Foulwind (no tracks): Hiked out to a point where you could see a seal colony on the rocks below. Really neat! It took us a few minutes to spot the seals, they blended in really well with the rocks, but once we knew what to look for they were all over the place. Seek and find photo below :)

Hiking 55:00 [2] 2.25 mi (24:27 / mi) +193m 19:18 / mi
shoes: Salomon Sense Mantra - Blue

Fox Glacier: Started the day with a hike up the Fox Glacier valley. The valley itself was really beautiful, with rocky mountains on either side. The glacier itself was underwhelming. The trail went to within 400 m of the terminal face, but from the angle we were at you couldn't get a feel for the size of the glacier. It just looked like a wall of ice/snow/rocks.

Hiking 1:51:50 [2] 4.58 mi (24:25 / mi) +265m 20:42 / mi
shoes: Salomon Sense Mantra - Blue

Franz Josef Glacier: Journeyed a short ways down the road to hike up the Franz Josef Glacier valley. While the valley itself was less picturesque, the glacier was awesome!! The trial went to within 800 m of the terminal face and the valley was angled so you could see the glacier extending up through the valley. It was massive. I really enjoyed this hike.

Hiking 1:07:05 [2] 3.02 mi (22:13 / mi) +231m 17:57 / mi
shoes: Salomon Sense Mantra - Blue

Tatere tunnels: A short hike up to a old tunnel. The shaft was originally dug to flow water from one river valley to the next to use in gold mining operations. Now it's just an empty tunnel that you can trek through! It was maybe 4 ft wide by 6 ft tall and went for at least a quarter mile. There was a lot of water on the floor. We took the tunnel all the way through the ridge to the other side and then back. Super cool!

Hiking 3:11:14 [2] 7.23 mi (26:27 / mi) +510m 21:42 / mi
shoes: Salomon Sense Mantra - Blue

Rob Roy Glacier: The rain from yesterday cleared and it was a beautiful day. Kevin found us a hike in Mt. Aspiring NP that led to a view of a glacier. Getting to the trailhead was an adventure in itself as we had to ford 8 or so streams in the car. When we arrived we saw another couple on mountain bikes decked out with climbing gear and with skiis on their packs! They told us they were planning to hike and then ski down Mt. Aspiring. Crazy. The hike started off through pastures (with cows) and then climbed up into the forest. After a while we emerged from the trees into a wide valley. There were snow capped mountains on both side with the glacier on one side. We weren't really sure where the glacier was specifically, but the views were great! And we were early enough that we had it to ourselves.





Blue Pools (no tracks): A touristy stop along the highway. Hiked down to a couple glacier fed pools that were crystal clear. It was pretty, but quite busy. We saw better pools on our morning hike.

Haast Pass (no tracks): Another short walk. We trekked up to a view point of Haast Pass. Not that exciting, but we were the only car in the parking lot, so at least we had it to ourselves!

Hiking 1:48:33 [2] 4.14 mi (26:13 / mi) +583m 18:15 / mi
shoes: Salomon Sense Mantra - Blue

Rocky Peak: A nice hike just outside Wanaka. Different terrain than what we had been hiking with forested areas and large rock outcroppings. At the top we had a great view of the lake and the surrounding mountains (although some were in the clouds).

Hiking 1:00:21 [2] 1.59 mi (37:57 / mi)
shoes: Salomon Sense Mantra - Blue

Hiking 2:39:51 [2] 6.89 mi (23:12 / mi) +193m 21:21 / mi
shoes: Salomon Sense Mantra - Blue

Hooker Valley: An out and back hike up a valley to a lake. The views were stunning, with snow capped mountains in every direction. The lake was glacier fed and bright turquoise. We could see the end of the glacier where it met the water, but the top just looked like a boulder field. Not what I was expecting a glacier to look like.



Tasman Lake (no tracks): Another out and back over to a larger lake. This was a less popular track, so we mostly had it to ourselves. Hiked up to the main viewpoint first and had more amazing views of the mountains. We then trekked over to the mouth of the river that was flowing out of the lake. I think it ranks as the most beautiful place I've ever been. We were surrounded by mountains on three sides with a massive river plain stretching out in the other direction. So awesome.

Hiking 53:00 [2] 1.83 mi (28:58 / mi) +111m 24:23 / mi
shoes: Salomon Sense Mantra - Blue

Orienteering race 2:21:50 [4] 8.25 mi (17:12 / mi) +359m 15:09 / mi
shoes: Salomon Speed Cross 4

New Zealand Orienteering Champs
Long, W21E (Red)

My focus for this race was on making good route choices, which included minimizing climb. I was the first W21E starter and hoped to not be the last finisher. I was successful...but got destroyed, wow those women are fast!

I started off nice and easy since I had made mistakes early on the last two days. No mistakes on controls 1 or 2! I was also worried that my legs would be very unhappy, but they actually didn't feel too bad. The course started out in a mix of fields and nice open woods. For the most part the woods were fantastic, but I did pass through a couple of reentrants that were full of very dense thorn bushes. It was very slow going, but at least it was only for short periods of time. Small mistake on 8. I cut down the cliff too early and briefly searched the wrong reentrant.

After 10 the rest of the course was primarily through open fields. With sheep and cows in them! Fences weren't mapped (not sure why), but they were numerous. I had to jump at least one fence per leg, on some of the longer legs it was 4 or 5. So...many...fences. I was pretty tired of hopping fences by the end. I also ripped a massive hole in my tights on one.

There were a few very long legs. 16-17 was by far the longest leg I've ever done. And there were essentially no trails. Finding a route was rather daunting, but I planned one that seemed to minimize climb and successfully executed my plan! On a whole I selected routes that minimized climb, which meant going around spurs on quite a few legs. With better fitness I think I could cut time by going over on some, but I was happy with my route selection and execution.

Really fun course, I loved the terrain and the route choice. And we have now orienteered in New Zealand :)

Orienteering race 1:05:42 [4] 3.59 mi (18:18 / mi) +198m 15:37 / mi
shoes: Salomon Speed Cross 4

New Zealand Orienteering Champs
Middle, W21E (Red)

Kevin started a while before I did, so I found a nice spot of grass to occupy near the spectator loop/finish. It was such a neat setup. I was on a grassy spur with the spectator chute off one edge (up a huge hill!) and the finish off the other side. There were lots of people watching and you could look out across the fields and see competitors as they ran across. I saw Nathan Fa'avae run through (!) and watched Kevin at the spectator control, but headed off to the start before he finished.

I've never seen a map with so much yellow! The course started off in grassy farmland with large, steep hills. I started off strong with an error on 1... I didn't take the time to match up features and just wandered a bit. Silly. The rest of the controls on this section went well. Such cool terrain. Picked a terrible route from 6-7 and did a lot of extra climbing. First time orienteering through a herd of cows! The second part of the course was in a wooded area. My legs were shot at this point, so I mostly just trudged along. The terrain was great though, nice woods and lots of parallel features. Navigation was pretty clean, I was just slow.

Overall, this terrain was awesome. I need to make better route choices that minimize climb. I also got a southern hemisphere compass for these races that does not have the ability to take a bearing (the housing doesn't rotate). I didn't realize how much I rely on bearings, might be something I work on for the future. At least my compass pointed north ;)

Hiking 1:33:26 [2] 3.53 mi (26:28 / mi) +361m 20:06 / mi
shoes: Salomon Sense Mantra - Blue

Te Mata Peak: Parked at the main car park and did the blue loop. Beautiful views of the surrounding farmland from the top! It was a bit hazy, but off in the distance you could see the ocean in one direction and mountains in the other.

Orienteering race 23:02 [5] 2.69 mi (8:34 / mi) +1m 8:33 / mi
shoes: Salomon Sense Mantra - Blue

New Zealand Orienteering Champs
Sprint, W21E (Red)

Flew in to Auckland in the morning and then drove down to Hastings. It was very strange driving on the left side of the road, but it was surprisingly easy to adjust. We arrived at the venue with time to spare (we thought). But when we picked up our packets, the start time on my bib was 13:47 and it was 13:20!! I had switched classes (from W21A to W21E) and hadn't looked at my new start time. So I dashed around getting ready and ran off to the start. It was 1.5 km away, felt like forever, and I arrived just in time to progress through the start procedure. BUT the volunteers were very confused because the first start wasn't until 14:00... After looking through the start list, it turned out that the time on my bib was misprinted and I didn't start until 15:47. Whew. What a way to start the event!

So I headed back to the check in area and was able to watch Kevin run. And then returned to the start with plenty of time to spare :) My mind was very foggy, so I didn't expect to do that well. I had a hard time focusing on the small details on the map. So right off the bat I made a mistake on 2. I went down the correct alley, but didn't realize the flag was under an overhang around the corner. Figured it out and punched with the girl who started 1 min behind me...not the best start. That was my only big mistake, but my route choices were poor through the whole race. I was often on the wrong side of fences. Really fun course. Lots of route choice with fences and narrow alleyways.

Run 39:00 [3] 4.0 mi (9:44 / mi) +29m 9:32 / mi
shoes: Salomon Sense Mantra - Blue

Orienteering race 11:55:28 [5] 32.54 mi (21:59 / mi) +1150m 19:49 / mi
shoes: Solomon Speedcross - Green

Strength 10:00 [3]

Run 38:10 [4] 4.36 mi (8:45 / mi) +37m 8:32 / mi
shoes: Salomon Sense Mantra - Blue

Climbing 45:00 [3]

Orienteering race 1:41:54 [5] 6.56 mi (15:32 / mi) +610m 12:03 / mi
shoes: Solomon Speedcross - Green

Hiking 2:24:14 [2] 5.8 mi (24:52 / mi) +514m 19:30 / mi

Bike - Mountain 1:21:06 [3] 19.59 mi (14.5 mph) +535m
shoes: Trek Superfly

Run 49:30 [3] 4.61 mi (10:44 / mi) +240m 9:15 / mi
shoes: Salomon Sense Mantra - Blue

Run 43:13 [4] 5.01 mi (8:38 / mi) +95m 8:09 / mi
shoes: Salomon Sense Mantra - Blue

Strength 45:00 [3]

Kayaking 1:30:00 [1] 3.0 mi (2.0 mph)

Run 1:08:20 [3] 7.29 mi (9:23 / mi) +15m 9:19 / mi
shoes: Salomon Sense Mantra - Blue