Training Log Archive: Lizzie

Inglewood summer ⚽️. Got frustrated as the guys we were playing against were pretty condescending tonight. Kept complimenting us on our passing game, then just would toe poke the ball down the pitch to their striker, who would out trick our defender and blast it at the goal full strength. Oh well.
Scored twice. Bit concerned that its getting more common?

Cruise around Hawera checkng out a couple of potential sprint maps. Think one is a go, the other won't work without permission from the highschool to open their massive gates/fences (and even then, probably not enough)

Holdsworth Jumbo race. About time for another crack at this one. As background - I grew up camping and hanging out here while my parents did the race. Mum's veterans record from 1999 still stands. I have 6 more years of training before I can try and claim that from her. I attempted back in 2013, and had a fantastic start to the race, before i started to feel dizzy and out of breathe, and generally just shit. The second half of the course was an absolute mission, in hindsight, I'm amazed I finished... So, time to try the race with a fully functioning heart, and knock one more pre-diagnosis demon off!

The start was pretty pacey this year, especially with everyone running the course clockwise (as a covid restriction). As a result I know I started harder than I should, despite holding back from the pace many were going! Soon realised that the weird gut I had at breakfast had not settled with food, and really started struggling with the climb. Immy came past after 3-4km, but there was no way I could go with her. That was the only time I saw her all race! I ground out the climb, but was 6 mins behind my previoius time at Powell hut. Refilled with water and continued onward and upward, was with a couple of other girls at this point, but just had nothing more to get ahead. Managed to choke down a muesli bar as I struggled on up, and finally got to the top of holdsworth in 96. I think I did 95 previously - and that was after a couple of sit-downs to push back dizziness! So definitely not my best climbing day.
From the top of Holdsworth though, it was game on! Finally some downhill to let me get into my stride, before some rugged undulating ridgeline across to Jumbo. Reached the top of Jumbo in 2.06, having gapped the girls and guys who I was with at the top of Holdsworth. From Jumbo it's a beautiful descent down to Jumbo hut, and then the precipitous rain-gauge track down to the river valley. I passed the 3rd and 4th women on the way down to the hut, and then completely smashed it down the rain-gauge with absolutely no regard for the health of my knees.
At Atiwhakitu hut at the bottom, I heard the marshal call through the 2nd place woman just in front of me, and caught a glimpse of her. I was really confused then, when I couldn't see her beyond the hut, no matter how long a straight stretch of track we got! Kind of assumed she'd stopped for water or something at the hut, but at this stage of the race there was little I could do but run to the extent my body allowed me to haha, so no big push from me! Got into a good rhythm, with a young bloke on my tail keeping me honest and not stopping on the stairs! When we got to the 1-person swing bridge I politely waited for him to cross behind me before continuing on...I was thus hugely disappointed when he blew up and disappeared from behind me a couple of minutes later! That wasn't part of the deal!
Managed to run strongly along the 7km flat back to the finish, where I found I was 3rd behind Immy and Hannah. Immy just smashed the race! While it seems Hannah put in a super boost on the flat at the end after hearing I was behind her haha.

3.13 overall, so still 3mins off mum's time (and 21 off dad's). Happy with the second half of the race, but disappointed in the climb. Much better than my last attempt though! I'll be back

work and travel

Went around Sunday's TOPEC course with Coady, giving tips on control placement and any possible last minute changes. I was navigating off the map on his phone, which was a bit weird. And made me very careful on the stream crossings! Probably should have worn long socks in hindsight, legs got pretty cut up by hidden brambles. We were out for 60mins, but think the strava moving time is pretty fair.

My friend has an overload of marrows at the moment, so went to take one off her hands. Enjoyed the looks I got running back home along the road with a marrow under my arm.

Eventually dragged myself out of the house (wfh now Omicron has broken the border). Just set off from home and found myself at Huatoki domain. Love the tracks here - but they require a few loops to make up a decent run.

Question for the readers: If a run has a loop at the end of it, does it still count as an out-and-back?

C • loop at the end of it 4

9pm futsal, just to get the blood pumping before bed. Fun match, even managed to curl a left footer into the top corner. Other side marked me a bit better after that.

Struggling to sleep with the heat this week. This combined with a long day sampling WQ at all the southern beaches, meant the evening was spent snoozing on the sofa.

Another work car shuffle. From home through to Pukekura park and Sarah's place to pick up a ute for fieldwork tomorrow.
Forgot to mention yesterday, there's a group of teenage pukekos at the park at the moment, they're hilarious, all legs with a bit of fluff at the top! Adorably silly.

Monday 5 aside ⚽️ Had a sub for the first time in a long time. And we were all there before kick off! Amazing!
Lost 3-1. We continue to play beautiful football, but always seem to lose to teams that have a couple of strong and fast blokes on their side. Oh well. Good fun.

Took some of the ⚽️ girls up onto the Pouakais for a mini-adventure. Headed out to the plane wreck (which mum and I didn't find in November). Successfully located this time around, followed by a swim at the waterfall, and a rock scramble down the stream. All the girls enjoyed themselves, and no twisted ankles, so I'll count that as a good day out!

Evening lap of Pukekura, making the most of the nice weather before a week of rain. Nothing remarkable to note, just the beauty of Pukekura

Afternoon run out at Pukeiti. There was a gorge and waterfall that required inspection. Couldn't get through the gorge completely without swimming, and had my phone and carkey with me - so that will require another trip. Climbed the waterfall and had an explore up there though. Beaut day for a run and dip, and just love the solitude so close to town!

Lunchtime run along the Patea. Out to the East loop today, which they've done up the track on. Soooo many ducks on the oxidation pond, the even out numbered the canadian geese.
Need to get out here more often, makes a huge difference to the work day

I don't really do new years resolutions, but if I did, (which I don't), one might be to get back in to keeping my Attackpoint up to date and (debatably) interesting.

C • Your loyal readership 5

Had to drop the work car off at Katie's, so picked up kit and shoes enroute, and then ran back to my own car which was parked at Sarah's (the joys of convoluted car-pooling and fieldwork car drop offs!). Ran faster than I thought, so got to futsal in plenty of time still.

Futsal. Boys better at subbing off today, but still hog most of the time. I need to be better at refusing to sub off once I get on I think... 3-3 in the end.

Inglewood 5 aside ⚽️. 2-2 draw, which considering we only had 4 players to start was a good effort. We continue to play beautiful football, but struggle to get the ball into the frustratingly small goal.

Postceania #2. Multiday distance on the map nationals was on a few years back. Lovely gully spur in native forest with pines in patches. Felt stronger than I deserved to after a week of racing, and really enjoyed this! Had the navigation on target, to the point that I was surprised when others came back and said they struggled with it. Guess it was just one of those days where everything fits and things just flow. In some cases, they flowed very slowly though, cos the hills were pretty big, and my legs were pretty tired.

70mins on course and 3mins warmup (must have been a short 1km to the start then!)

Postceania 1 on humpy bumpy. Had a different first 2 controls, but then the same course as the boys. Nailed those first two, and then got completly bamboozled in the head high thistles and overgrown reentrants around #3, so never saw Cam, who started the same time as me. Made a mess of #5 in the overgrown technical rocky bit too, by which time Felix caught me up. We played cat and mouse for the rest of the course, until he pulled away on the last few (big climb, tired legs).
Got back to the car to realise that I'd miss punched - my once in every 5 years or so mp! (touch wood). Turns out I flipped the map over one control early, at 17 rather than 18. I noticed something weird at the time, but unfortunately the controls and terrain were parallel enough that I managed to navigate 18-19 without realising that I was actually running 17-19. What a stitch up.

time and dist. includes warmup

C • Totally Stitched up :D Sorr... 2

2-person relay running with Immy. The other girls weren't so impressed that we teamed up, but to be honest I asked Immy without thinking about that! Was more thinking we could give some of the boys a run for their money. Not to be anyway, as I had somewhat of a shocker.
First half was in dead flat pine forest. I started a bit behind Jager and caught him on the way to #1, a clearing in otherwise clean white forest. We both absolutely shanked it though, losing 3.5mins. Direction and scale were off in my head, and I was looking for a grassy clearing, rather than just a slight gap in the canopy. Oh well.
Continued on from there, past a very confused looking Phoebe, who couldn't believe I was behind her at this point. Was running the same speed as Simon, but every fence we came to, he just hurdled, while I'd have to stop and squeeze through or climb over. And there were a lot of fences... He was long gone by the time I came to the spectator and into the technical dunes.
Was going OK through the dunes alone until I came to #17. Or rather, I didn't come to #17, as it wasn't there? I tried relocating but was sure I was in the right place. Eventually bailed out, and re-navigated in to the same spot from a different direction. Whereon i noticed a glimpse of orange under the needles on the ground...there was the control, knocked over and underneath two branches! Got pretty pissed off at the runners before me, as I'd lost 2.5mins by not seeing it. From there I kind of lost confidence each time I came to a control site and couldn't see the flag immediately. Picked things up toward the end, but then lost another minute when I couldn't find the penultimate control. Eventually Scott Smith came through and ran straight to it...on the wrong side of the knoll from where it should have been (and where I was). Pretty pissed off in the moment, but eeeeh, in the end it was just a fun social relay isnt it.

C • No 59? 2

Warm up. Python upload.

Noceania middle. Good times at flock hill. Not much warmup time thanks to the walk to the arena being a bit longer than anticipated, and me being first start in our car. All good though, that longer walk made the warmup i guess.
super short first control, then a long route choice through the detail and across the open slope toward the second set of rocks. Made a quick decision to climb early and go above the rock detail - it was too far to go down and diagonally back up the slope again, and too risky to try find a way through the big cliffs/rely on small gaps being climbable. Happy with that decision, but didn't execute as well as I could have - being a bit too circuitous through the initial bits of rock.
Ran strong through 2 and 3 and onward to 4. Got to the circle and could make everything match apart from the knoll the control was meant to be on? Got very confused, looked around a bit, retraced my steps back out to the edge of the detail. Confirmed I was in the right place, turned around...and there was the flag squeezed between a rock and a cliff! Definitely not on a knoll in the middle of the reentrant, as the map showed (even acknowledging that knolls are rocks in this environment).
Annoyed at the time loss, but was aware that being angry in this terrain would only lead to further mistakes. Took a cautious route around the detail to #5 and got my head back into things. From there the course flowed easily enough for a bit. Hesitated a bit on #11 - a downhill leg to one of many identical rocks, but got an angle such that i could identify the correct one eventually.
Came unstuck on 15-16, a short diagonal downhill into the rock labrynth. Think everyone bar Greg messed up this one on our course. Very confusing mapping, but should have taken a safe route either staying high outside the detail, or dropping low and attacking the control from below. Ended up being sucked in to another course's contro and having to relocate from within the rock detail. Lost 2-2.5mins. After that htough, was a nice downhill flow all the way to the finish :)

Warmdown.

Around the styx. Cruise around styx nature reserve in Christchurch, an odd place where it looks like they got halfway through building a predator-proof fence, then realised that actually ittook a lot of time and money, so just left it half done. Very weird.

NOceania Long. Wooohee, what a race. Such a ridiculously tough area - steep pine forest with plenty of bashing through tight knit trees to be done! Definite type II fun.
Didn't take long to realise the name of the game was finding the path of least resistance - whether that be topographic or vegetation related. Took 10 steps off the track going to #1 before I realised this, and back tracked to take the around route on the track! Saw Immy at #1 and was surprised when she didn't seem to tuck in behind. So was alone through most of the first loop until I met Amber and Kaia on the way to #10 (on the nice steep climb). Then glimpsed Immy as I was leaving this control, which gave me a boost, realising that aside from early mistakes she must be running the same speed as me. Was clean through to the spectator/pivot, but suspect my around route to #12 was slower than taking on the climb - it was definitely safer vegetation wise though.
12-13 was a horrific leg taking us all the way back up the climb again. Glad I had Brianna ahead of me on this one, as she didn't take any stops on the climb, so neither could I! We helped a lost kid 3/4 of the way up, but he reneged on his deal to tow us up the hill in payment of our help :( From 13 it was an "extra distance" loop back around the hill. Only trouble here was some more-than-mapped windfall, but managed to bash through on tired legs somehow.

Overall, navigationally fairly good, just an absolute gut buster! Don't get a 1.40hr long distance in NZ very often at all, so that was actually really good (for me, dunno if the majority would say that :/ ).

1.40 race time, 20min warmup.

NOceania sprint. 14min race time, rest WU/WD

Hot, tired and golden. Quick loop around Bannockburn seen as we were in cromwell for the night. Love this area, but damn it was hot today.

Brod bay return. Had the idea of heading up Luxmore to meet mum up there, but got to Brod bay and decided my legs had had enough climbing. So chilled there for a bit, then ran back to the control gates. Good decision I reckon.

Also got a haircut today, so am approx 2kg lighter and down to race weight.

Evening cruise out to shallowater, at the end of the Kepler trail. Chatted to some guys on the lake shore there, they were very envious that I was running back to town and off to the pub for dinner. Apparently a Venison burger sounded a bit better than their freeze dried risotto...

Gertrude Saddle. Python upload.

Routeburn west. Python upload.

3k time trial. Python upload.

Moraine Creek. Python upload.

A run with minimal contours. Python upload.

Not quite Sentinal Peak. Python upload.