Training Log Archive: roar

Learned quite a bit over the week. A really nice block of orienteering training. The relay was the best and the long was also good. Sprint was fine and everything else was a bit mixed. Concentration slipped a lot at some stage on each of the follow on events had at least one quite big mistake. I especially noticed myself making poor decisions and not executing the processes. I'd often take only quick glances at the map for example and not really read the information while thinking about how it felt like I was not in control but not actually doing anything about it.

Physically I was pretty ok, I was there or thereabouts in the long for the first half-ish and again ok in the later parts. Still a bit slower on the hills than the winners and a bit tired near the end. What really cost me in the long was a low concentration patch in the middle when I mistimed my gel and got tired, waiting when I should have just taken it. Alternatively being slightly fitter would help there! Matt ran away from me on the shorter gaffle in the relay and I never really felt like I might catch him but my time was pretty good I thought.

A few fixes for the nav:
1. More o-training (which is fine, haven't been doing much, focusing more on the physical side recently). Something I noticed in Uppsala was that as an adult haven't really done much specific skill work so will want to incorporate that.
2. Non-physical o-training - I've been coming up with a few ideas for compass practice and control flow and the like. Catching Features isn't worthless either.

Bit of an easier one after a week of racing. Stayed on roads in the Karori valley. Felt really good for some reason. Windy out but actually really warm.

Finished the race, downloaded and had to wait 5 mins for Jake & Stu. We all grabbed our bag and ran to the gondola which we got on pretty quickly. I got changed in the gondola but was still barefoot the bottom. Lashed the bags in the car and stuck some shoes on, driving pretty much straight away. 6.5 hours, some quick driver stops, sneaky Mt. Cook pics and a petrol stop later we dropped off the car in car rental. Got our bags checked in with about 30-40 minutes to spare, no stress! Legs a bit stiff from that though.
When on propellor planes in New Zealand domestic flights there is 0 security. I mean 0, one machine and one person looked at my boarding pass. There were no scanners or anything. It was great.

Queenstown Skyline (Yes, those are 5m contours)


Walked to the start with Stu & Jake. Tight for time afterwards so we wanted to start bang on 10am. Controls weren't out yet though so didn't start until 10:20 or so.
Start was pretty tough but put the head down and got it done. Bit of a weird route out of 3 but the view was properly spectacular. Saw Stu on the ridge ahead taking a little stop to look at it. Caught him going into 3. Climbing out of 4 was hella steep, pretty much up a cliff. Very cool ridge to 5 then.
Ran away from Stu on the downhill, some fastest splits to 6,7,8. 9 seemed a bit odd but got it ok.
Then I made a right mess of 10. Realised I was a bit on edge and tried to take a safe route around but was kinda stressed about feeling like I was stressed the whole time and went in waaay to early. Kind of panic ran around and didn't really know where I was until I saw 9 up the hill, from then I got it perfectly.
Some sweet high speed running to 11, then 12 wasn't there. Checked a few reasonable places thinking I'd move it but no sign. Then Stu came and we reckoned just leave it. (I was told I'd be reinstated but apparently wasn't, ah well)
Good phase then, kinda learned from 10 and took the right routes and using the features, slowing when I needed to and pushing when I could (wobble at 14 was due to a goat not being very happy with me). Caught Stu & Jake coming out of 23 and got a bit caught up with getting past and away from them, not focusing on the oing resulting in not landing on 24 and then a bad line to 25. 26 was a right suffer, then 27 really wasn't any easier. 28 was great though.

Fun last day. Added splits from my quickroute for comparison. Was moving pretty well really. Need to cut out mistakes 10 and 25.

MRL - Splits

MRL - Splits

Had lunch on the lake front throwing stones. Then into town and a lap of the disc golf before dinner. Nice day.

With Jake & Stu up to the start in Twelve Mile Delta. Mostly along tracks and then suddenly the last part was up a mad steep hill through dark green until we came out on some open rock with sweeeet views over the lake. Beautiful sunny morning for it.

Queenstown Twelve Mile


Pretty cool area actually. Had seen glimpses of the map beforehand, which looked hella green. It was but the course used the nicer bits. The first bit was quite cool on the hill tops, jumping from grey to grey and went well for me. I was just super focused on the map and the orienteering and enjoying it. Around 9 I started to get a bit confused by the map, struggling to read the paths. Was trying to work out how we would cross the river for 14 and got pulled by an elephant track to 12 on the way to 10. 13 was a bit odd, having to go past the end of the cliff & earthbank to find it and that distracted me further. Leaving 13 I went the right way accidentaly. I though the line between 9 ad 17 was a bridge and headed there but it was just a cable. Then I realised I could just cross the lighter blue part, fool.
Weird decisions started then, going around to 15 (?). Kind of recognised this and slowed for 16/17. The path here was super rocky so went up for 18. Everything seemed fine until I went into the forest and I just never understood the contours again. Thought I was going up the spur but really wasn't then was stuck in a load of ferns and gorse trying to get over to the open knolls I could see, losing about 3 minutes in there. Rough stuff.
Didn't let that go really and was a bit hung up on it, not concentrating for 21 going in too early and dropping another minute. Similar thing on 24, not looking at the path at all and another minute gone. Tried to go straight to 26 which should have worked but it was well hidden so I lost another minute (the green there was actually grand and looked like open)
Last bit was just running where I felt reasonably good.

What I was supposed to learn from the NZ champs middle was that one mistake doesn't mean the end of the day but apparently I didn't learn that and never reset after the faff at 18, letting the mistakes accumulate. On the positive side though the first part was really quite good and I'd quite like to see the splits for it.

Cool down with Jake looking at some of the places we made mistakes.

MRL - Splits

Warm up with Jake & Stu. Then got to the start and there was a 20 min wait to start. Signed up and warmed up for a further 20 minutes on what was actually quite a chilly day.

Naseby OY


Messed up 1 by a bit which was quite annoying as I was focusing on not messing it up and not actually doing anything about actually getting it right. Reset myself better than I did after the middle and did 2,3,4 well. 5 was weird. I followed the open then when I reached the end the control was behind me and I had to crawl over some branches so wasn't super efficient. Wasn't feeling super sprightly at this point but 6,7 were fine. 8 was actually a timed out leg and I caught Stu. Also a scale change on the map flip!
Picked left for 9 and felt a bit slow through the brashing but got it fine. Really tried to have good compass on 10 but just didn't and lost a good 40s not really understanding where I had gone wrong. End result of that was I hadn't planned ahead to 11 (what was I doing on the track to 9!!???) and went straight which was rough, combined with me not being very confident so I was kinda slow.
Tired up the hill to 12, good to 13. Slow through the brashings to 14 then as well and it kind of appeared a bit sooner than I expected. 15 was a bit odd. I was further left than I thought, then over corrected. The index contour was a bit steep 5m high hill flat above and below that I hadn't anticipated really and probably lost 20s. Got to the circle of 16 well and thought I had read everything perfectly but there was no control. I think it was one re-entrant to the right but not sure. 17 was easy then 18 was confusing and hard to read. Hesitated a bit just before it unsure of what was happening, could have had a much more efficient line really.
Took the timeout to 20 as an opportunity to reset a bit and get stuck into the final 3rd. Was pretty good for it really. Felt like I was agreeing with the map and my compass finding the things I expected. A bit loopy out of 23. Went the wrong side of the hill out of 25 making some extra curves and bad compass out of 27 though meant it wasn't perfect. Really fought with the compass on the way to 29, kept going further left even though it told me to go right. Wasn't the best.

What was the difference between the good and the bad? When things were going wrong I was rushing and feeling flustered. When they were going right I was reading ahead and having a good mental picture of what I was expecting, when it was slightly different I was relaxed enough to slow a little and make sense of it, compared to just haring on.

Men - Long Red - Splits

Hanging out in Naseby. Feeling fairly tired after the weekend really. Went to St. Bathans on a fantastically sunny day and then went curling in the evening. Something a bit different. Pretty tough, the sweeping is hard work.

NZ Champs Relay - Team 2nd
Conor, Lara & myself
Went out 1s in front of Matt Ogden. Together until 2. He had a short gaffel to 3 and I never saw him again. Solo the rest of the way though saw Nick Hann on other loops. Pushed hard and stayed in 2nd. Enjoyable.