Training Log Archive: O-ing

Event: Sydney Sprint Series #1
 

Manly Dam. Lacklustre 15th of 64. Went in too early for #2 and lost a minute and a lot of motivation. Further mistakes at #6 (wrong rocks again), #7 (wrong side of track!) and #12 (where did the track go?) cost a further 2 minutes. Generally not running with any spark. But good to be able to do it at all - that makes 6 running days in a week and its a long time since I've done that.

Sprint - Splits

2011 REVIEW
So, a small increase in running (919km, up from 858km) and a big increase in cycling (2216km, up from 950km) over last year.
Increase partly due to a massive decrease in injuries and illness: only 3 colds and 2 injuries. The knees niggled throughout but generally much better than 2010 but ran at least once every week of 2011!

The highlights were M55 wins in the Australian Sprint, Day 1 of Easter, NSW Middle and Sprint, WA Long, NSW State League and the Shamrock O-Ringen, as well as Men C in the Xmas 5 days.

That was a pretty good return, but the Nationals carnival was disappointing. Mistakes cost me all 3 Oceania distances and even any podium places, but even worse I was totally uncompetitive in the Australian Long Distance - taking out mistakes would not have mattered.

Only 1 foray into M21 (apart from the local sprints) and that was the disastrous WA Middle where I ran off the map. Only dropped 6 places to 106th though in the Australian Rankings.

So 2012 I have to be cleaner technically and try and cut out the 4 and 5 minute mistakes.

Brush Creek, Glendale, Day 5. A typically poor last day effort. Really sluggish on the hills. Had an OK run until the end when the wheels fell off and I could not buy a direction. Went way off on the way to 14, went into the green at 15 and got stuck for 2 minutes and really struggled up to 16.
A technical win on Mens C (Hard 3), but Ted was the overall winner over the 5 Days by a small bunch of seconds after I went into today with a 5 minute lead.

Hard 3A Day 5 - Splits

Day 4, Mass Start. Shockingly bad technically but a really good mental and physical effort. Had figured out going in that I probably needed to finish ahead of Ted Van G today to win overall. Sprinted from the start and did the first km in 4:16. Unfortunately this was not on the best route, just the most obvious. As I was approaching the attack point on this long leg I looked up and saw Ted and the Norwegian lady (Lene) 200m ahead in the bush. Should have been watching my feet because the next moment I was in mud puddle up to my knees with my map, GPS and Compass under. Had to stop at the next puddle with water to wash my map. So 21st place to the first control was not a good start.
Started to reel the field in and by 3 I had slotted in behind the leader (Cath). At 4 the leader suddenly turned around and went back, 180 degrees in the wrong direction. This stunned me momentarily and I searched the map for an alternative while the followers streamed past me on the way to #5. The best I could do was a very loud "AHEM", but Cath didn't hear it. Sorry Cath.
The peloton was slowed by #6. I stopped when I had gone far enough and watched while searchers went straight on, left and right. The group on the right found it and we were off to #7.
#7 was horrible and I made a bad decision to split the difference and attempt a solo straight line as one group went left and another (led by Shingo) went right. Unfortunately the left group went out of sight and I drifted right. After a while I stopped in green undergrowth with no features or people visible for 100m or so all around. Decided to bail out left and eventually hit the watercourse. Coming back I saw Shingo running my direction with intent, so assumed he had it (he hadn't) and went back the way he came and found it. 5 minutes dropped.
Luckily Ted stuffed #8 and I caught a glimpse of him leaving it as I approached, after having swum across the creek. Hammered to #9 aiming off in the exit direction to #10 and saw Ted and the leaders coming out of it. Hammered to #10 and got back in the lead group.
Briefly in the lead going to #11, but held back looking at what Ted was doing. Ted was going off the left, while the rest of the lead group was on my right. I decided to keep Ted in sight. We got to the main road and Hugh Moore figured out where we were, but I decided to wait for Ted. Eventually Ted came back towards the control, but meanwhile my concentration lapsed and he ended up getting #11 without me seeing him punch. However, next thing I saw him running with intent in a direction that looked like it was headed for #12, so the chase was back on.
The gap was 23 seconds and I had 750m to reel him back in. It was very hard work but I got there with a big finish sprint. The splits are a little out because it has us punching #14 at the same overall time, which we didn't do - I think they had a couple of SI units there and they weren't synchronised.
So, could possibly have won it if I hadn't been watching Ted at #11 - that was a minute loss on the winner (Vilde) and I finished 19 seconds behind her at the end.

Hard 3 Day 4 - Splits

Day 3, Long. Tired for this one and a slow start. Only 9 controls, but some good long legs. Made a real hash of the first one, spent too long deciding and then chose the worst route. Also had no description holder and was holding the descriptions for the wrong course, so had a little bit of trouble figuring that out at #1.
No other real problems. Thought Shep was going a bit slow on the track to the second last so ran past him just to spice it up. Oxygen debt then took its toll on the finish split. Ted won with better routes and I reeled in Nick with that sprint to tie him for second.

Hard 3 Day3 - Splits

Day 2, Southams Road West near Kitchener. Felt a bit slow and Nick Dent was up 2 minutes by #6. First real mistake at #11 where I didn't aim off and turned the wrong way after running to a flag that wasn't mine. That put Nick 3:30 up but he gave away 1:30 at the next where I ran back through the start. A couple of fastest splits and I closed the gap to 1:25 by the end. Meanwhile, Ted Van G had a 4 minute lead at #11, but lost 6 minutes on the clearing at #17 and eventually finished 11th, 5 minutes down on Nick.

Hard 3 Day 2 - Splits

Event: Xmas 5 Days
 

Ourimbah, Day 1. Good run, got 2 route choices wrong and made 1 mistake, otherwise good.

Hard 3 Day 1 - Splits