Training Log Archive: nmulder

Event: Gauteng Short Course Zoo Lake
 

Took a late start and went fairly well. Very few controls (only 12), so I wasn't looking forward to the long sprint legs. In the end, didn't notice the length at all, so well done on the planning. Had more than a few wobbles:

- wrong side of ruin into #1
- slightly off to right to #2
- tripped into #3 and had difficult reading map
- wrong side out of #4 around the dam
- wrong side of dam to #5, and didn't read description that said inside corner of fence.

Fairly happy as a result that I was only 45s behind Alex and in 4th place. They must just be slow ;-)

GPS measured 3.49km.

Map with GPS route:

From Orienteering Maps

MEN - Splits

Event: Super Long World Champs - Version 2
 

Ryno and I raced as Team Cyanosis at the Diamond Rush 50km AR.

Leg 1 - 1800m Trail Run
07:27 - We raced it like it was 1800m track. Got some comments from behind us about the pace. Back 1st.

Leg 2 - 18km MTB and Rappel
51:23 - Pushed hard the whole way to widen the gap. Had about a 1 min lead at the start. It was 3 min at the start of the 15m abseil and probably 4 min back in transition. Beautiful bushveld terrain, would make for an interesting O' event.

Leg 3 - 12 km Foot with Nav, Compass Bearing work and Caving (visited all optional points)
2:06:27 - Started off well. Hit the first few CPs spot on, then missed seeing the first optional one in a tree above us. Lost 2 min before we saw it when circling back. All good again until we hit the caving, where a short-course team jumped in just in front of us. Lost a few minutes again as they were very slow through the cave. Also a very tight squeeze, even for me. Then onto the OPs with the compas bearing / distance stuff. Got it wrong on #1, being about 200m to far too the left. Lost about 4 mins and were led in by Team Red Ants who caught us there. Became a joint team exercise from then on. I got us going in right direction to #2 and 3, but then #4 proved to be a bastard. Spent about 10 mins looking and re-starting from #3. Red Ants finally found it - I think I got within 15m of the plaque at one stage. Flat out sprint back to transition again where we opened about 90 secs.

Leg 4 - 18 km MTB Nav (all optional points incl.)
1:40:59 - Left transition at top speed and got the first CP. Then started going for 1st optional. Took a turn-off that turned out not to be on the map (farmer created this in the last week), Should have listened to instinct that said the turnoff was a bit early, and that the track terminated too soon. Instead dropped bikes and went for a quick seach for OP. Chicked out, returned to bikes (Red Ants just arrived at same time) then cycled higher up the road for another junction. Chicked out again (probably only 50m more would have put us on the right turnoff) and returned to Point A. Started search again. After much bundu-bashing and much bleading, were able to get to the OP the hard way. Returned to bikes and pointed Red Ants in the right direction (probably about a 10 min lead now). The whole disaster probably cost us 20-25 mins. After this, both Ryno and I were blown for a while. Paced ourselves through it a took a route choice that avoided a big hike-a-bike up a hill. This allowed us to pick up a few OPs out of the 'normal' order that the organiser intended. This meant however that we later took a route choice where I misread the edge of the map (red line) for a track (red line). Found a way through (some teams who did the bike-nav first had already bundu-bashed paths here), but it was slower. Also managed to stray off the edge of the map as a result, but worked things out quickly. Last section back to transition was much smoother.

Leg 5 - 'Boer Sport' and 80m Swim
05:07 - Dropped bikes. 'Boer Sport' wasn't Bokdrolspoei (for which I had volunteered Ryno), but rather turned out to be a 40m three-legged race. Swim was in a nice and cool, clean dam. Really enjoyable as the temps were by now well over 30'C. Finished about 5 mins ahead of Red Ants who once again must have caught time over the final route choice.

Won a nice voucher for a 8-person stay at the lodge that was the race venue. Now we've only got to somehow find a free weekend.

Bike stats:
Tm 1:58:09 Dst 36.20 Av 18.3 Mx 52.2

Flew back home. Too tired to go training, so will give it a rest until the 50km AR on Saturday.

Went cross-country skiing at Rothenthurm. First attempt ever, so decided to give the freestyle / skating version a try (hired equipment). Slow to start, but got the hang of it after a couple of kms. Towards the end was doing fair, but had a hell of a headwind on the return trip. Got really tired towards the end. Otherwise a beautiful area, on a great day. Good snow pack yet the temps were already above freezing point. Mx 22km/hr.

C • Cool 2

Got some skiing in today on a nearby, smaller ski resort (2 min drive). Mostly blue runs with a few red sections, but still quite enjoyable (great place for novices). Unfortunately also a public holiday today for some of the cantons, so quite a few queues for the lifts. Mx 55 km/hr.

Brilliant day for skiing. Warmer weather and bright sunshine, so very enjoyable. Finally took on the black routes. Should have done so days ago. Mx speed 62km/hr.