Training Log Archive: fletch

A long day of very poor orienteering. Wish I could pinpoint why my head was so far out of the game today. On the plus side, I felt healthier than yesterday and probably stronger physically. Cool Down might have been good after all.

So - apparently it takes me only one run of intense concentration to relapse into bad habits. I was thrown early by misreading a gully branch and wondering why I was on a slope that went the wrong way, and never got a firm grip on where I actually was. Hit the fence that should have helped me work it out, but never stopped to work out where I was along it. Saw a gully down the hill that I thought looked about right, but I had no idea where I was, so I kept going, only to confirm that my suspicions had been right as I doubled back to the control. About 3 min down the tube on the first control :(

2-3-4 was OK, careful and slow. Was happy with my plan on 5, but then wasn't careful enough after I crossed the fence just short of the control, dropped when I needed to contour, counln't find anything to relocate off, so wandered around like a clueless idiot, getting distracted by others doing the same, before running to the creek line past the control and returning to get it. Another 4 min down and day effectively over. Clean through 6 and 7. Super happy with my plan and execution to 8, and won the split by 30 sec. Then ran a safe route to 9 only to miss a track junction, disappear into the wrong bit of mining detail and lose another 3 minutes. Followed that by missing the track I wanted on the way out and running a very wide, slow route to 10.

Had a little miss on 11, but recovered fairly quickly, OK through 12,13,14, but pretty dead by then. Changed my mind part way to 15, leading to a dud route, then left the track too early, misread some vegetation and added another big wobble before getting back to the control. Back together with Simon here after seeing him at 9, catching him at 11. Ran wide and safe to 16, then did a 180 out of the control, binning another 2-3 minutes. Obviously brain-fried by now.

Struggled up the hill to 17, following Cameron (caught 8 min on him) and Ivan (dropped 4 min to him). Had to stop coming out of 18 as both hamstrings were cramping, but Cameron stopped for a think on the downhill, so the 40 sec I took standing still didn't matter. Ivan helpfully stuffed up 19 and I got away from him there.

Clean but struggling through 19-21, then Craig and Ollie caught up on the downhill for the wide route to 22 and the inevitable was confirmed. Led the bunch through 22-23 and across to 24, determined not to just jog it in trailing a pack, but I didn't read the map properly on the way into 24, so looked in the wrong bit of green. Seems like the whole pack except Craig followed me in. Despite dropping a minute here, that leg saw me move from 6th to 4th, so I obviously wasn't the worst.

Long day out. 1:58, 25 min down on Craig. Pretty disappointed, as physically I was better than expected but mentally just never switched on.

Fun weekend though. Hopefully will be less than 2 years before I do it all again. Pretty sore and knackered after a 4:30 drive home in the arvo.

C1 - Splits

To start, a bit of standing around, and a token effort to get the legs moving.

First orienteering race in 2 years. Wow. Knew I was unfit, but orienteering is very different to road running, where I still feel vaguely competent.

Left the start triangle in the wrong direction, coz that's the way I saw all the other people that were still in sight when I arrived going. Quickly corrected, but had to stop half way to the control, realizing that I had absolutely no idea what I was meant to be looking for or what I was meant to see on the way. Once I had sorted out that minor detail, I skirted around the side of the detail a bit and found the control.

I was clean through the next few, but really struggled to get running at all with so much rock underfoot, and I did a very bad job of getting out of it when I had the opportunity, so despite being clean, I was slow. Crossing the paddock to 5 I had Wayne in my sights and picked him up over the next couple of legs.

The course criss-crossed some thick rubbish and I realised very quickly that I wasn't going to achieve anything trying to bash through it other than to tire myself out, so I picked some wide lines to try to avoid the worst of it and let myself get bounced around a bit in the search for animal tracks. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. I ended up going much wider than intended a couple of times, but was consistent in confirming my location when I popped out the other side, so despite adding some distance, I was running confidently the whole time.

I saw Craig on one of the cross-overs and a quick glance told me I was off the pace, but not by a huge margin.

Despite thinking I had been running really conservatively, I started to fatigue about half way around, and I took a dud route choice 11-12 where I think I managed to add distance and climb.

Held it together OK over the final third, despite feeling like I was just hanging on, rather than pushing, and didn't enjoy the slog up the last hill, but must not have been as slow as it felt, as I had the fastest split on the leg to the last control.

Finished 2 minutes down on Craig and hung around at the finish to see that it would be enough to hang on for second. Pretty stoked with that, but a bit apprehensive about trying to do it all again over a longer tougher course the next day.

A belated cool down trudge, hoping that the feeling of my calves seizing up would go away and that I might achieve something to make running tomorrow easier. In the end, I think I just felt more tired.

C1 - Splits

Weeks of fighting come to an end. Not ideal timing.