Training Log Archive: fletch

Dunno if it made it to 5 minutes, but might have scraped in after running back to the car to get my drinks belt (Drink bottle fell out before I used any of it :( )

First try at a Boomer. Almost decided to skip the first control, but being allowed to skip 2 in a row made it better to skip right near the end, so dropped 16 and 17 on an 18 control course.
Was within 10m of tRicky for the majority of the course, seemingly leading for a few legs at a time, but he seemed to be running stronger than me as 30 minutes ticked by. Had slightly different routes to 12 and 13. 13 proved decisive as I got a little lead by staying low and running the paddock. Got through 14 and 15 cleanly and without seeing tRicky, although he could apparently see me, then back over the hill one last time and down to the last control, but I mis-identified a big clearing on the wy, got way off line, then finished it off by getting distracted by both the thundering footsteps of tRicky charging down the hill behind me and then a string course control. Stood around feeling stupid for a bit, then relocated with a look at where the finish was. Went hard to get to the last control first and thankfully it was a very downhill finish so I held on for the win.

Apart from the last control the nav was really good, but the visibility and runability were excellent, and the course was pretty straight forward. Probably a hard balance trying to give lots of options for skips and throwing in shorter technical legs? Dunno. Good fun anyway. Nice to get out for my first real orienteering since April.

C • Boomer 3

H2 - Splits

Did a proper warm-up. top of left hamstring a bit sore. Don't know why, maybe compensating a bit with a sore back during the week.

Picked a crap race to try doing a sprint in regular runners rather than the x-talons. Lots of grass, dirt and slippery bits of brick and concrete.

Worst mistake was a 15 second detour in and out of a dead end which took me to the wrong side of a wall. A couple of sub-optimal route choices in the middle parts and a few hesitations at different points, but better than last effort.

Enjoyed doing this at JTC, so had a repeat dose, giving tRicky a 30 second head start. Ran much faster in parts, but made a few errors, including one on a repeat leg from the long course :(

A good challenge, but I certainly can't navigate well at that pace at the moment and would have had to go slower if not for having seen half of the course and the terrain an hour or so earlier.

Ricky's now 4 from 4 against me over the last 2 sprint events. New favourite for first non-McNulty at the Sprint champs ;)

No cool down. Probably a mistake.

C • Official class 5

Long - Splits

Came back from holidays down south today and was dumb enough to have an iced coffee on the way home. That, combined with my extreme stiffness from the drive, left me wary of pushing hard on the proposed 5km time trial, so I opted out.
Standard WU and CD. I started running with Wil, ran with him till part way up the back hill, then jumped across to Andre and paced him. He put in a massive surge up the second half of Durston. Strange.

Felt OK, but managed a few spew burps even sitting at 4 min/km-ish pace and afterwards, one of my eyelids swelled up really badly. Dunno if it was an insect bite or the start of an allergic reaction. Pretty happy I decided to take it easy.

Easy week is looking a little easier than intended, but never mind. Awesomeness will get me through a 24hr race (where have I heard that before??)