Training Log Archive: nmulder

Nice and overcast to start with. Me and Ryno took a bit more time on the maps to make certain we had the best route choice. The control spread was more technical than the foot rogaine, so required a lot more thought and decision taking on the higher number of potential route options. Given that there were more CPs up north, we decided to head there first, then tackle what we could of the south, turning for home when necessary.

Started off flying up the tar road and passing lots of teams who had been quicker off the mark. Settled down at the front of the field with Derek and Emily giving us a hard time.

Went #12, 21, 20, 40, 50, 51, 62, 63, 64. Then a long uphill climb where we tried to push to drop Derek, as they had the exact same # of points as us. It just worked, as we snuck into 34 before he came over the climb (never saw him and Emily again). Then #41, 22, 24 and 33.

As we only had less than 1.5 hours left at this stage, it was easy to leave out the bottom 5 CPs and focus on the central ridge, as we estimated it would take us 45 mins to get back to the finish from there. So we hit #44, 43, 33, 42 before racing back and collecting 32 and 13 along the way. Finished with a couple minutes spare and with 700 points (again).

Felt much better than yesterday, with nice enjoyable weather. Bit of a storm blew up just as we were finishing, so good timing. Got the win, with Alex and Nathan coming in second, just 40pts behind. They got very close by only focusing on the far north and far south 60-pointers, but needed to find 1 more CP.

Av 15.4, Mx 61.5

TE 2.9, Epoc 69, 2651 kcal.

From Orienteering Maps

Kaapschehoop Forest. 1:35'000 map with Ryno.

Was looking forward to this race, but I had a less than spectuacular day. Ryno was the champ in the team, carrying my backpack for some good stretches so that we could speed up. I was tired after only an hour. I think that 3 weeks after Spain, I still haven't recovered. No injuries on anything, just tiredness from just after the start. We were expecting to finish 2nd or 3rd, but somehow we still managed to pull a win ahead of Alex and Alan by 60 pts.

Ryno and I took 2 mins to pick out a route (not too many potential route options), starting off west and then hitting the south side of the map. We originally thought we'd be able to do everything, but we were way out in our estimate. In hindsight and with more time to reflect during the running of the race, we thought we'd made a mistake and should have done the north side first.

We started off with #8, 19, 20, 30, 21, 14, 16, 28, 29, 22, 17, 18, 15, 7, 6, 5, 2, 4, 11, 24, 27 as per the plan. We searched for #19 and #17 about 10 mins each, as they were a bit out. We should also probably have skipped #4 (not worth it?). We were behind schedule (4h30 at the village, so at least 45 mins behind plan A), and should probably have cut off 28, 29 and 22 and gone for more controls in the north. So at 27 we started heading back (with 1h20 on the clock before the final 8-hr cut-off). First #23 got ditched, then 10 and 9. So we ended up doing 13, 3 and 1. Unfortunately #1 was also elsewhere, so we also skipped it after searching for 5 mins, getting a total of 700 pts with about 4 mins left inside the cutoff.

A very tough day, with a lot of time spent running down forest roads. The heat was bad in the morning, so thankfully we were in the most forested section at first. Before afternoon though, storms clouds started coming in and brought a sprinkling of drizzle. I recovered a bit as a result, but was still flat on my back more than half an hour after finishing. One of the most tiring events I've ever done, including a whole lot of multi-day adventure races.

TE 5.0, 323 Epoc, 4996 kcal.

Almost 5000 kcal! That's almost approaching the levels of 24 hours of AR in a multi-day event.

From Orienteering Maps

Out to Midrand via Kyalami and back via Waterfall.

Av 20.0 Mx 47.1
TE 1.7, Epoc 17, 379 kcal.

Easy jog through Sunninghill. Trying to loosen up before the Rogaine this weekend.

TE 2.2, Epoc 36, 279 kcal.

Paddled TT with Brian. We had a great one - two paddling sessions per week is now paying off. Had to do all 10 laps on our own as there was a low turnout. Best time together by about 2 mins, now just 1m18s to go to the PB.

Still sore from Monday. At least today was more of a standard mix.

Paddling with Landie, with Mac in his K1. Can feel the improvement with every week.

TE 1.3, Epoc 9, 563 kcal.

C • 2pm 2

Jogging to and from Sunninghill TT.

TE 1.6, Epoc 16, 59 kcal.
TE 1.2, Epoc 5, 14 kcal.

Still very sore, but at least the warm-up helped a lot. Did some streching beforehand. Was expecting to run 19:00. It felt like it, but was suprised when I got to the 2km turn at 8:15. Felt good on the way back and only 5s slower than PB. Will beat it shortly.

TE 3.6, Epoc 129, 267 kcal.

C • Sunninghill TT 3

Very tough session. Had me doing squats and forward/backward lunge sets that destroyed me.

Was going to train this afternoon, but am way too sore and tired.

Quick warm-up before an early start. Went out back to the entrance gate and around some of the dirt tracks to the N of Necsa.

Early start as I had to get to a lunch-time party. Went well for the first few controls, feeling strong. Lots of technical riding and some good sections of bike portaging, as I seem to loose my d/h riding ability after just a short time of no-racing. Some good route choices had to be made, but it was a bit hard to read due to the 'foot-o' symbol clutter on the map. Also some tough uphills on loose gravel. Had a map swap after 10 controls (approx. 42 mins).

Had a big problem at #16. Took wrong route choice, staying on sandy path next to the Croc river instead of climbing onto the hills. Concentration had been poor on a few legs. A map error saw me cycling too far along this past a turn-off away from the river. I then also made the 'make the map fit' mistake and proceeded to bundu-bash up a gully from hell. GPS shows 17 minutes lost!

Floored the final section of the course, hoping to claim back some lost positions. Went much better again, but I was a bit depleted now. In the end, I suprisingly still managed a win (?), so everyone else also had a bad day or found the riding tough.

Rolling stats: Av 14.4 Mx 41.4 Tm 1:30:17 (so 12 mins of hike-a-bike and punching)
Total stats: Av 12.8

TE 4.1, 182 Epoc, 1213 kcal.

Part 1:

From Orienteering Maps

1-2 : good route choice. North route was the fastest.
2-3 : first technical single track. A few portages here already.
3-4: knarly. Confusing when I hit the dense track network. I didn't take the fastest route in as I was too confused.
4-5 : I think my route was the best.
7-8 : Don't quite know, but I suspect that going back to the main roads was fastest. However, #8 was placed too far SE, thus S route approach would have been faster.

Part 2:

From Orienteering Maps

10-11 : Pretty much equal route choices. Maybe N was better surfaced.
11-12 : Exiting on the smaller track was more technical, but required less map reading.
13-14 : Best downhill of the day. Yehaa.
14-15 : Tax collection. The portage from hell. Managed to jog most of it and lovely singletrack downhill to #15.
15-16 : Upper track over the hill by far better. Fewer map inaccuracies.
16-17 : S route the best.
17-18 : Another good route choice. I went S, and was faster for me, but depends on the riders technical riding skills.
18-19 : Path network not exactly accurate into 19 (overgrown). Also a new track out of 19.

Out to Joburg CC and back via Rivonia. At least I'm picking up the pace.

TE 2.7, 59 Epoc, 395 kcal.

Out to Waterfall for some dirt riding. Back via Barbecue Downs.

Av 20.5 Mx 52.6
TE 2.2, Epoc 36, 541 kcal.

Out to Woodmead, down to Mushroom Farm, then back along Rivonia.

Av 21.8 Mx 53.7

TE 2.1, Epoc 29, 539 kcal.

Out to Barbecue Downs and back. Found a route with approx. 4km of dirt on the side of the roads and on dirt roads.

TE 2.6, Epoc 54, 64 kcal.

C • Picking up the speed 2

Short run through Sunninghill, back down the K60. Will need to start pushing the pace later this week and picking up speed again.

TE 2.4, Epoc 45, 219 kcal.

Paddling with Landie on Emmies. 10 big laps.

TE 1.2, Epoc 7, 402 kcal.

Have finally added my training notes for AR World Champs in Spain as well as my GPS track.

Log Link

First run since AR World Champs in Spain. Only did about 4km. First half felt absolutely awful, but at least I warmed up and felt better towards the end. Had originally planned (and entered and paid) to go do Amatola 100 Trail Run this weekend. Didn't go in the end - phew.

TE 2.4, Epoc 46, 193 kcal.

C • Madness 2

Raced with Team Cyanosis in AR World Champs (Bimbache Extreme) in Spain.

Race went from Avila to Salamanca, in the provinces west of Madrid. It was split over about 22 sections and featured heavily in the MTB and mountain disciplines. Team members were Ryno Griesel, Clinton Mackintosh and Jen Segger.

We arrived in Avila in good time and settled down nicely in our hotel. No major problems, other than only getting 2 hours sleep before the race!

Day 1 - Started off with a 4km urban orienteering in Avila, where we did quite well and came in with the lead bunch. Marshal stuffed us around though and only checked out 5 mins behind them on a 75km bike leg. I suffered big time as my lack of cycling in the last few weeks showed through. Thankfully this would be the last time I would feel weak and I would go on to personally have once of my best races ever. The MTB legs were technical riding as well as very technical nav. Lots of narrow ox-wagon trails linking all the pasture lands and fields, often with stone walling on either side. Lots of technical downhills which the Team aced.

This led us onto a 12km (team of 4) and 6km (in two pairs) orienteering leg. It was proper orienteering (easily Brown course technicality) on a great map by Sivert Axelsson (name from the past! - big suprise). Lots of fun. We started about 1hr behind the leaders and stayed there. After that, we headed out into the dusk on another 75km bike leg, this time in miserable pouring rain.

Day 2 - Lots of technical nav and riding during the night. Got into a paddle / hike leg in the early hours where the team split and did the loop in different directions with different CPs. The 'easier' leg that Mac and Ryno did turned out to have a nasty hidden control where all teams suffered. This meant me and Jen got over 1hr shut-eye at the swap-over. Came back in from the hike with Don and Hanno from Team Merell. Then onto bikes again for next 75km bike leg. Diced Merell in a few places, but then came across an injured athlete (Nathan from Orion) where we stopped for 2hrs to help with rescue alert and medical care. Great response from the emergency services into a valley in the middle of nowhere. Lost a bit of focus as a result and rest of the bike leg was sluggish.

Following this we set off into the mountains on foot for the first time as soon as we finished a short 5km roller blading on a slight uphill. Did most of the hike in the dark. Easy enough given the major topography around us. Got into the ropes CP near midnight, but were then Time Neutralized due to a queue. This was fine for us, as it gave us a 'free' 1h15 sleep! In reality, we were unfairly lucky :-(

Day 3 - Got the ropes over with. Would have been spectacular in the daylight! Lots of towers and big traverses. Hiked out of there (found the right pass on the 2nd go) and then set out on the hiking trails along the mountains. Thankfully a big loop had been cut out as teams were running behind due to the earlier rain. Still tough though, but we pushed on. Team Buff floored this section (trail running obviously) and opened a 4hr lead on the other teams which they held till the end. We did okay, notching up the same time as the next-best teams, even in the dark. Found a hiking shelter in the mountains (a miracle!) where we slept for about an hour, but were still hiking when the morning dawned (at a nice mountain hut in the middle of nowhere, where they served us Koo Spaghetti for R100 a plate). Had a good time racing a Scandanavian team that morning over a few more passes and through hidden valleys (spectacular!!!) before descending back to transition.

Back onto the bike for a short 22km tar downhill ride to town and the central transition. 4 hour compulsory stop. Our food box had taken a beating and smelt extremely unpleasant.

Biking again, this time about 40km to another Dam. More paddling, a loop with 2 stops en route for an orienteering leg on each. Did it in opposite order from the other teams so that we couldn't assist them. Nailed the first one, but suffered on the second. Spent 10 min looking for 1 CP before finding it, but the next CP was a big problem. Spent 1h20 looking for it (description: 'Contour 970m') before giving up and receiving a 1hr time penalty (plus 30 min walk each way there and back). Turns out that we got extremely close (metres?) as it was hanging on a bush (in a field of bushes), but had fallen off the tree. None of the team ahead had thought to hang it back up.

Day 4 - Got back to transition, got ready for bike and immediately checked into the bathrooms of the nearby camp ground for 1h30 sleep on a cold, but nice floor. The rest of the 40km bike leg went much better as a result. Merell caught up to us at dawn (had slept in the bush). Mac had mechanicals on top of a hill (side-wall slice), but Merell broke a cable immediately thereafter as well.

Got into transition and headed out on a 6km hike, leading to a 10km uphill roller blade (we walked 8km!) and then the 2nd mountain trek (30kmish). We started in mid-afternoon, so pushed hard to make sure we got as much daylight as possible. We got over the range for 2 CPs and back across before last light. More importantly, we even hit the first marked forest track just in time. Then a few hours walk back down to transition, getting in at about 11pm. Merell missed using the daylight and suffered badly, only checking in 12 hours later.

Day 5 - 1h30 sleep in transition before heading out on bikes for a 60km section. We had decided that we needed to miss the next trek-ropes-skating loop as we were running out of time to make the final river paddle darkzone. This was an error on our part, as we hadn't realised that the dark zone was only for the 65km river section, and not the 20km dam section prior to that as well. Anyway, this section was spent racing Team Sweco for 12th place over more mountains. They pulled away in the end as the team went through a bad patch up a VERY long hill (12km of forest uphill). Got light just before transition.

Realised our time mistake in this transition, as lots of other teams were hanging around. With no ropes gear and hiking shoes, we couldn't change our minds, but instead had to push on and try recover as much time as possible. Team was very down and we had a terrible bike section to start with. We averaged nearly 5-6km/hr until we had a sit-down for 5 mins and a good pep talk. That and late breakfast some kms later did wonders. Lost 45 mins at a restaurant, but it was worth it in the long run. Got into transition at 3pm for the start of the final paddle to Salamanca. We floored it as we wanted to get as far down the river as possible before darkzone to minimize our time loss as a result of our error. Quick across the dam despite a horrendous side-wind and incredibly quick over the 1km portage (20 mins - fastest team?). Got 1h30 of paddling on the river before dark. Was nice and fun paddle, with lots of small rapids and some weirs, some of which were shootable. Got yelled at by Jen, saying I was reckless in shooting one, but was nothing as bad as the Klip. Got 9hrs of sleep due to the 11hr darkzone!

Day 6 - Only about 50 km of paddling left. Mac had forgot to pack enough food for dinner and breakfast, so we felt a bit grumpy. Then he started falling asleep as well (huh?). Went through a bad-patch mid-morning where the team speed was awful. Got out of it and floored the last section into town. From there, a final 5km urban orienteering leg around the historical sights before finishing at the Cathedral. Yehaa!

Final results put us in 13th place, so we didn't loose too many positons as a result of our error. It is more a case of 'what could have been'. Team Sweco went on to finish 11th, but less than 3hrs off 8th. We would easily have caught these teams on that missing loop, but could still have finished anywhere between 8th and 12th, depending on how we handled the remaining mtb (in dark) and paddle section (on the final day). Once again, it was a love/hate race. I wanted to quit AR as soon as we finished, but less than 1 day later (much quicker than normal), I couldn't wait for the next race.

Spectacular course. Really enjoyed it. However, lots of time penalties / bonuses made it impossible to keep an updated picture of the race for team and even more so for spectators. Most annoying.

BIke Stats: Dst 480km, rest unknown.

Watch Stats: Didn't race with HRM, but the watch went and lost battery power anyway. Annoying.

GPS: Worked superbly until midday of the last day (with 670km on the clock), so only about 3h45 of racing missing (20-25km?)!

Have arrived in Avila, the starting location for AR World Champs. Team Cyanosis (me, Mac, Ryno and Jen from Canada) went for a short run this morning to loosen up around the old city. Beautiful medieval fortress walls and old city. Was still dark till 8.30am despite it only getting dark at 8.30pm the previous evening.

C • Good luck! 4

Team ride around Avila and out on one of the quieter roads on the surrounding plain.