Training Log Archive: Lizzie

Playing a full game of football was about the last thing I felt like. But survived. Probably cos we were camped in our own half for 2/3 of the game!

NSW Long champs.

Really happy with 95% of my run. Went to plan and felt strong, if very tired after the last week. The first 2/3 was classic spur-gully. Fast running, compass bearings, termite mounds. Then, after a brutal, (and needless?!) leg up and over a spur, we effectively had a middle distance course through the rock detail to finish. I consciously slowed down, as Yvette suggested after the middle last week. And nailed every control. But coming into the control before the spectator I could feel my body hitting the wall. By the spectator my legs were lead, my breathing was shallow and gone to shot, and my vision was blacking in. So I sat down, in full view of the spectators. And waited for it to pass enough to keep going.
Apologies to Jas, who was just behind me and was seriously worried when I slowed to a walk, then a stagger, then sat down! But thanks for making sure I was OK before you kept going! :)
Eventually I got up, punched and walked off. But my brain was gone, and I wandered off my bearing. Ended up in the wrong erosion gully. But (and add this to my rant from yesterday), the gully I was in was COMPLETELY (bar one dot) obliterated by the uncut circle of the last control. I went back to the cave, renavigated. Ended up at the same gully. Went to the last control. Renavigated, further up the hill this time. Found nothing. Was joined by Hanny, Anna and Claire B, all of us relocated to the original erosion gully... By this time I'd wandered around long enough that my breathing was fine again...
Far out.
Eventually Hanny and Anna got the control and guided me to it.

Lost 6mins on Jas from when I sat down. All with <400m of course to go.

Even more frustrating than yesterday... I can't do much about my body packing in on the day. My body does that when it's too stressed. PhD, orienteering, soccer and life has me run down to about rock bottom at the moment. I've had underlying sickness for 3 weeks now and my iron levels must be the lowest they've ever been. It's time to sort out my health before heading to Europe.

On a course note - I'd realised early on that lines and circles weren't cut. The circle at #6 covered 2 vital termite mounds. the line to #7 likewise. the number 12 obliterated rock detail that had me confused for a couple of seconds. and #24 just screwed us all over. Covering up a parallel feature to the control feature... Again, it was a protestable issue. It cost me 2nd place, even with my body fail.
Strangely though, a couple of circles were cut. Why them but nothing else??!!!

I feel like a right bitch complaining about all these things, but can't we get the basics right?!

Also. Thanks to everyone for their concern after the races. I promise to sort my shit out and get healthy! But apologies in advance for being shitty the rest of the year with my Phd...

C • get better! 3

NSW Long Champs Hard 2 - Splits

Event: NSW Sprint Championships / NOL Sprint Relay / NSW Long Championships
 

turned up to discover I was first leg, rather than last like I thought. So a bit of a less relaxed than normal warm up!

My first mixed sprint relay. Heading out on first leg for our rather stacked Cockies team of Me - Craney - Lachy - Jo.
A fun format and awesome to have a mixed gender competition (as to be honest, I don't often take huge notice on what happens in the men's field...terrible but true!)
I came in 1s ahead of Aislinn and 15 ahead of Rachel and handed over to Craney who smashed 2nd leg. As did Lachy and Jo to bring us in well ahead for the win.

WARNING: RANT AHEAD.

However, the race was rather ruined for me by #62 and #64 being accidentally put out in each other's places.
I'd already made mistakes in the first few controls (one driven by an unmapped uncrossable fence...), so was 15-20m behind Rachel and Aislinn, who both punched #5 and went off. I punched, got 5m away and then clicked that the control was #64, not #62 like it should be. Went back. Checked. checked my descriptions. Definitely wrong. Checked the map, could it be a split? No. definitely the right place. WTF?! Eventually kept going once Suzanne got there and agreed with me, but I'd lost 20-25s on the others, massive in a sprint race!
From there I lost motivation, as the 2nd loop was mainly straight running, and what point was there if it was to be invalidated?
But I gained time on Rachel and Aislinn on a route choice entering the final loop, and from there my competitive spirit took over. Skipped Rachel on a route choice, and edged past Aislinn, though she was right on my heels (especially as I was now turning on the controls...in a National level sprint race (or really any sprint race) it's really unforgivable to not turn on the controls pre race!!).


I'm not sure what the overall decision was on the wrong control, I think the results have stood as they were?

Left feeling highly frustrated and sick to death of this sort of thing. Most people didn't lose any time on the control as they weren't checking numbers. (a tricky thing in a sprint relay as they're only on the map. Side note - I have to come up with a way to deal with this at WOC)
But I'm a careful orienteer - I never cross gardens if I don't have time to check but think it may be olive green. I always follow a compulsary route. Even if it's poorly marked and I've missed the start of it/missed it completely. I will go back and rerun it so that I'm not DSQ'd (Sprint Canberra and last weekend). And I always check my numbers, especially in a sprint, especially in a relay, and Especially a Sprint Relay! But I keep being left feeling like I miss out for being careful and fair. People crossing olive green and not being dsq'd (not in this case, just a general comment). People not following compulsary routes. And this case, wrongly placed controls or wrong numbers that I pick up on but some others don't.
Like I said after the NOLs in Brisbane, we seem to have a nature here of not protesting as we don't want to upset people. I'm guilty of that. But even if no-one protests. If the organisers know that something is wrong, and the race wasn't fair because of it - surely they should have the guts to annul the race?! A wrong number, or a wrongly placed control, should be an automatic invalidation.

And yes. I know how much effort organiser's put in to putting on events. I have been planner for national level events. I am forever in debt and grateful for the huge volunteer effort and time put into our sport. And I appreciate how disappointing it is for all involved to have to annull a race. But sometimes it has to be done. And perhaps we need to. Because these mistakes keep happening. Perhaps if we have a big race that is invalidated, future planners and controllers will take note and make 100% sure that it doesn't happen at their event.
Please. I don't give a crap about radio controls, gps, butterflies, spectator controls etc etc. Just give me a decent course, with all of the basics right!

Rant over. Maybe. Sorry.

C • I feel your frustration 11

evening yog with Aislinn. Down to Govett's leap lookout, where the cloud had cleared just enough to see across the valley to the cliffs. Stunning views and worth the uphill slog home :)

finished off work in the lab and travelled back to aussie

O-gang run from the O'sullivans. Up through the girl-guide woods to the ridge, then along and down the electricity board road. where we turned off onto magnus and jamie's work-in-progress mtn bike track...

...which quickly turned from nice even track, to rough marked gap in bushes, to no gap but a few tapes, to pure bush bashing and no real idea where we were going! Jamie led a scramble through steep native bush, blackberry and ongaonga, whilst the rest of us had a good time joking around behind him. (thanks Jamie!). A number of times we could see light from houses about 50-100m away, but no chance of getting to them without full body ongaonga stings. Eventually though we crawled out of the bushes onto a random driveway. I reckon no-one had been in that bush for over 50 years?!

Did I mention I didn't have a headlamp? Just for extra adventure.

Cruisey jog with the Ramstein sisters up among the windmills above Palmy. Looked like the Wairarapa was in the middle of the apocalypse, whilst the West side of the island was in sunshine.

Nationals Relay for WOC team 2.

Jamie and George had great runs to set me out in 4th place. Not much hope of chasing down NW's team1, but confident i could catch Renee and Alice (apologies if it wasn't them, I'm writing this a week later...).
Wasn't too stoked to have Ed C-W on my tail though. He's fast.

Unfortunately for our hopes. The course was lightning fast, and definitely orange nav. Nick (PAPO) came blazing past me at #3 leaving a burnt trail in his wake. No hope of keeping up!
I had a clean run, bar a disappointing mis-bearing on 5 which will have cost me 30-45s.
Came in to find I was 6th, not 3rd as I kind of expected! Turned the junior men aren't just fast...they're ninjas too! Each of them took 4-5mins out of me on the 5km course. Did the best I could, but didn't have a chance really!

control collection

NZ champs long. Felt great, fast and strong. Nav going great until a slip on #14, and then...

http://obasen.orientering.se/winsplits/online/en/d...

#16. Enough said.
There's something wrong with my processes atm. Need a good sit down and analysis after this weekend, and a focused plan and trainings to rectify issues.

control collection. Didn't take a compass. Bonus fun!

http://obasen.orientering.se/winsplits/online/en/d...

Another miss at NZ middle champs. Got the wrong gully at #1 and lost a minute bashing through lupin to the control. Got the wrong spur at #2 losing another 30-40s. And that was enough for the race.
Rest was slow and scrappy.
Then, debacle on the last loop. I read the compulsary route from the spectator control on my descriptions and map. Punched, set off after all the footprints. Then realised they weren't on the compulsary route! So came back and followed the tapes.
COmpleted the loop. Punched the last control...followed the tapes towards the finish...and got yelled at that I had to follow the compulsary route!
Assuming they meant the one from the spectator, which I'd retracked to follow, but not from the very beginning of, I headed off in that direction in order to do the whole loop again.
But got screamed at again to follow the tapes!! So I said that was what I was off to do! And got shouted at to just punch the finish already. So I said I wouldn't do that if I was going to get dsqd...
eventually i just punched the finish. Turned out that I'd missed the finish chute which is what they were shouting at me for. I'd instead followed the OOB tape that was keeping spectators back. Badly marked from the last control, I wasn't the only one to do it.
And turns out more than half the field didn't follow the compulsary route from the spectator.
So my conscientious brain combined with oxygen debt to screw me over. Didn't cost me any places, but put me in a boo post-race. (doubly awkward when your parents are setter and controller...)

went to collect controls. But we were too slow, so just went for a jog around the mens first block of controls with Jamie and Penny.

Found the forest isn't at all as it is mapped at #1 which explains my 1min mistake...

Event: NZ Champs
 

morning jog at waitarere. Felt crap.

Sprint at Ohakea. Everything went well and to plan. Took the win by 30s or so. Got drug tested afterwards. So didn't get to catch up with anyone given I was in quarantine both before and after the race!
Was the very last person to leave the event :(

Travel back to NZ. Hoping like hell that my new inov8s arrive by tomorrow...otherwise I might have to do a Lachy and steal my mum's.

C • Oi! 2

woooo! made it through to easter uninjured at soccer!

Scored my first league goal in about 18months today. Free kick into the top left hand corner. Was very proud. Bit futile though, I won't mention the total score...

http://ogang.org/doma/show_map.php?user=lizziei&ma...
Om nom nom, lots of controls!

Glendale training run as 3 x mass starts with Lachy, Shep and Olle M. Jacqui was out there somewhere doing her own thing too :)
Struggled to keep with the boys today - partly a bit of a cold, partly they're just faster. Caught them in the butterfly ~#30 though as we all made different stupid mistakes!

Great training lately, will have to keep up the sessions with the boys as they make me push harder than I otherwise would.

Sprint intervals at ANU with Jacqui and Acejase. Very wet underfoot, but managed to stay on two feet the whole way, which was a win :)
Legs felt very heavy, so I must have put in a decent effort last night! First and probably last interval session in the lead up to Easter!
http://ogang.org/doma/show_map.php?user=lizziei&ma...

Wicked night training on N Ainslie, with a 5k long 1:15000 corridor exercise, with minimal features in the actual corridor...
Hit the first couple of termies fine (going slow), then lost it for a bit as all the boys caught me up. Shep and I agreed a splattering of rocks that we found were definitely the same as the two dots visible in the corridor...apparently not according to gps though!
Re-alligned myself off the track as I crossed it, and went much better from there, not being put off by the errant boys :)
'let' them get ahead (read as: I was slower than them) and did my own thing for the way back. Nailed it until the last little bit.

Slow hard work, but great fun!
http://ogang.org/doma/show_map.php?user=lizziei&ma...

Quick mass start butterfly course after. Stuck with Craney for the first loop, but then we had different interpretations of where the pivot was ;)
...and then I tried to do the second loop backwards. Corrected after a bit and went to the first control of the loop, to find all the boys still looking for it! Led them into it and around the rest of the loop. and got thanked by them all out sprinting me on the last control!

Bit peeved as I decided my legs were too tired/achey after the last few days, so opted out of lunchtime session as I had soccer training anyway.

But training was a bit half arse, and finished early after one of our players did her knee.

...turns out it gets dark a little earlier now.

Red 2 at Picaree Hill. Bit of a blast through the forest really. A lot of medium-long length legs, with track routes on half of them. Had a good little battle with Jo through the later legs of the course - only to find out she was on red 1 at the finish! Which explains why she kept popping up in front of me from odd directions!

Another good group O training. This one set by Parto at Kowen forest. Had a mass start longish course with Parto, Hanny, Barnett and Lukas, with 2 split courses. We were all really well matched! Had Andrew and Parto within sight for pretty much the whole course. Lukas as well until the far point, where I snuck in front. Hanny disappeared ahead early on, but caught a glimpse of her coming out of the tight short controls at the end as I entered them.

Love the fast forest, not hugely technical, but great hill and terrain training. And almost felt fit for the first time in a while!

I can feel my housemates' sickness encroaching... Hopefully I can sidestep the worst of it...

The hotly contested almost-annual staff vs students fixture.

Played centre forward which was novel. My main aim was to stay out of the main mayhem and thus avoid most chances of injury.

Had great fun and scored the decisive goal!

...until Simone went and scored 2 more to make it 3-0 at final whistle.

Out rode the rain. Even got the washing in. Winner.

...until they turned the lights off on us 20 mins early. Nice one SRA.

The dead bat, hanging between the wires in O'connor, is starting to smell...

Training out at Stromlo West with the boys. Ran 4 controls at a time, then regrouped. Good, tough, over-speed training, and happy with how close(ish) I (kind of) stuck with them.
Had the unpleasant experience of a flying ant (I think), kamikaze into my eye and stinging me under the eye lid. Fortunately it did this just as we encountered a guy out for his 'nature' walk just before the start. So atleast it saved me that view...