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.