Training Log Archive: Lizzie

grrr
http://www.routechoice.co.nz/gadget/cgi-bin/reitti...

eerily similar to last years middle: early mistakes, catchup through the middle stages then throw it all away on the 3rd to last control (but much more spectacularly this year)

rushed at the start as i thought the clock was call up time not race time. no excuse though.
- headed down wrong reentrant to #1. one of those times where i knew i was wrong as i was doing it but then convinced myself (little rock on right, large cliff left, distinctive tree behind) lost close to a minute. v. annoyed with myself as right from the start triangle i knew what i needed to do, but still got sucked in.
-#2 very hesitant. should have used the fences being on the map to realise it was right down the bottom. split is fast though.
- #3 another 30-40s gone. didnt read circle closely enough and searched around every single rock in the circle (and out) before glancing at map and realising my mistake.
- #4 atlast a clean control.
-#5 happy enough with my route choice, but staying high and going along the spur would have been faster. noone in W21E did it though!
- #6 lots of tracking helped
- #7 running with dennis de monchy then went other side of final spur from him, 50/50 though
- #8 good, #9 good, didnt get pulled down by the mens elites going to their diff control (1 of only 2 different in entire first 11 controls-pretty poor for nats if you ask me). almost put my foot down a marijuana plot. lucky it wasnt booby trapped!
-#10 contoured around and hit wrong cliffs. looking now its obvious i hadnt dropped enough. 15s gone
- #11 good, #12 fine but one hell of a hill to get up! overtook sarah here and caught yvette. #13 good too again, bitch of a climb into it! Looking at splits, by this point i'd made up for my earlier mistakes and was 8s behind Penny. Win there for the taking.
- ...but the wheels fell off. Up the hill out of 13, through the gate, past the rock. Then the plan was to continue up through the 2nd saddle and contour into the control. not the best route but would have done me fine. instead i got pulled through the lower saddle by some W16s (i think). down to the stream. figured what id done, headed up the spur. got caught in some god awful fight. got incredibly stuck. knew id blewn it at that point but pushed on up through the green. saw a smidgen of light, put my head down and went for it...finally burst out, only to find myself in farmland. WTF?!
immediate reasoning was i'd come out above no. 14. but then why was there another forest infront of me?! took me a moment to figure out just how far off i was, had no freaking clue how id got there! looked to my left and saw the finish in the distance. so so so tempting to just walk in and dnf! but instead completely demoralized i headed back into the bush, down and all the way up, walked into the control :( sad face doesnt quite express how pissed off and disappointed i was (am).
Still dont know quite how i ended up there. I know i got pulled down,and obvioiusly misinterpreted the streams. but what i remember doesnt fit with what's on the map. a couple of others have mentioned that area seemed bit dodge, but that doesnt excuse my mistake.
- #15 race gone, plodded along the tracking, ended up at the wrong cliff, dropped another 45s but didnt care by that point.
- #16 down, up. who cares.

So yeah, a fair few people were relieved to see that i can make that sort of mistake it seems! Worst mistake i've made since JWOC 08 middle final i think. seems to be a once every 2 years or so scale mistake. v.v.annoyed with myself. 4th nationals middle dist that i've screwed up, yet to place in W21E :)

Course 2 - Splits

http://www.routechoice.co.nz/gadget/cgi-bin/reitti...

knew my sprint form wasnt in bad nick going into this race so was looking forward to racing against the nz girls again.
- got thrown straight into the detail from the 1st control, luckily our 1st was pretty simple and gave a chance to read ahead a little bit. (unlike mum's 1st control which looked pretty insane!).
- #2 a lot of people lost a fair bit of time on, but i picked the right gap and although i stopped dead for a second to read the intricacies of the map, got it cleanly. extra confusing due to the description of paved area corner, rather than a building corner.
- 3 i'd already decided to head back out to the front of the school, didnt really see the other route to the back, prob cos it was more complicated. so good choice.
- 4 was my main time loss. just didnt read ahead enough and before i knew it i was off my route choice and double taked up the steps. then decided the control was half way up the hill (it isnt), so road was a bad choice (it wasnt). went across the carpark and down the hill, then had to go around an uncrossable wall. silly and unnecessary loss of time.
- was going to go through the courts to 6 but was blocked by a hockey goal so went around.
- 7 i should have cut through the white to the top more, too hesitant.
- 8 didnt read the description, so only found it was at the bottom of the wall when i got there, should have gone other way around the last building.
- happy with route to 9, stayed clear of detail and blasted round the road. again others lost a fair bit of time going through.
- cant even remember 10, just was there suddenly!
- lost time coming out of 11 in the maze of tracks. otherwise happy though amber took a chunk of time out of us going over the hill. so should have considered that route more.
- rest was pretty straight forward, though i heard the loudspeaker going through the spectator saying i was way infront==subconcious easing off in last loop. stink. wish they wouldnt say it when you can hear!
- lost time on 20 as i glanced at the map to see if the bank/cliff was passable or not and instead read the impassable fence next to it. so hesitated, stopped, ran along it a bit. decided id misread as everyone had gone over it, and then went. lost 5s there. dumb.

happy all up, nice to be back in it :)

Course 2 - Splits

run around palmy airport with brother. was at a decent clip as he has long legs and is getting pretty fit! stomach felt real gluggy thanks to iced mocha an hour prior to run. legs good though

3 days to go... getting pretty excited! :D

while watching morning tv, i'm embarrassed to admit...

up to the saddle

monas. felt good yeah. didnt quite make it back to start point, 28s off. but more up hill on way back

home time

Run with one of the french guys from work who's been saying for weeks that i should take him for a run. He started out way too fast for me, but being the stubborn pig i am i just stuck with it, and took him up the steepest, roughest track i could think of to slow him down! Seemed to work and we did 1 and a bit laps of circumsicion at a nice pace. beaut evening for it, was just awesome. Bit dark coming down though, but not quite dark enough for the full moon to light our way though!

whilst watching the last quarter of the pulse-tactix game on tv. who knows why they show it here, but the pulse managed to win. which has only happened 3 times this year i think, and possibly on 5 times in their history?!

over to st johns in deakon for 1st aid course

and home, thankfully before it got too dark and cold :)