Training Log: simmo

Around Shelley Bridge then on around the Swan. Met Andre at The Other Side, muttering something about acquiring a fixie.

Not quite long enough to get 200km on the bike and 10 hrs total for the week - will both go down now as I'm heading off to Bathurst then Melbourne for a few weeks.

Event: WA Long Distance Championships - Marginata
 

State Long Champs at Marginata, gps 5.09km. Well the 65's (one of them anyway - RC) won this, but the next one was 10 mins back, behind the first W55. Also I was racing the M65 winner for the last 6 controls (we were alternating fastest splits for 5 of them) so that could have helped him gain his 30sec margin over the top M70.

Fastest to 1 by a good margin, but then lost 2 mins at 2, going too high and getting stuck in unmapped green, then the best part of another minute - having seen the green higher up, I decided to contour around instead of straight over the hill, but then got caught again in green with low visibility West of no. 3. Gained a minute or more back on the contenders to 4, and had a good run to just before 5, but then lost at least 3 mins (it felt like it could have been longer) going past the control higher up, then going down too far and having to climb back up through green (this map needs a burn or a veg. re-map).

6 was a shortish leg that looked tricky and I was careful for the first half of the leg, but the second 150m was vague and I veered to the right a bit then hunted. Had I stopped and picked a feature at half-way then made a more careful approach, the control would have been visible. Lost 4 mins hunting around on the wrong vague spur.

Puffed up the steep hill to 7 on the ridge, where RC caught me, then it was on. I should have stayed ahead of him at 10, but went a little bit left, caught him again at 11, gained a vital 30secs at 12 when he looked on the wrong set of rocks, but promptly gave it back by not taking a good bearing to the last and running way wide downhill.

Surprised to be only 5 mins down when I'd lost over 10 mins on bad mistakes at 2, 3, 5 and 6. It seems that even though very unfit I still have some speed. Now to try and fix those careless navigation lapses that keep happening.

6 - Splits

Event: WA Middle Distance Championships - Jumbuck Hill
 

West Coast ride, very foggy at first, but cleared by Herdsman.

State Middle Champs at Jumbuck Hill, gps 3.48km. Stayed on the lower track after the start triangle, which would have been a good move but for the difficulty of crossing the fence - the start of the upper track was obscured by the start triangle, something which I reckon PP should get fixed. Still managed 3rd on the split to 1, less than a minute down. Lost a minute at 2 with a poor bearing, then was pretty even until 6. 7 was my undoing, just went slightly right along the contour into the dark green area, hadn't noticed that I should have been going slightly downhill. Hit some bare rock which I assumed was the one just before the control, but I was actually on something mapped as rocky ground 70m to the South. found a boulder (unmapped) and circled around finding more bare rock (which turned out to also be mapped as RG). With visibility in the area virtually zero, I eventually went on Eastwards to the track 100m beyond the control. Immediately identified a bend (there was a control on it) and tunred back once more into the green. Found more unmapped boulders and eventually a bare rock, which I correctly identified as the one above the control. Went the required distance NNE but still couldn't see a 2m boulder, so went on a bit more and finally found it - I reckon about 30m N of where it's mapped. 8 minutes (at least) lost.

Easily won the next 4 splits, then got lost in the finish chute for the first time in my life. Saw the tapes leading to the finish ahead of me, but it seemed to me that they appeared to be simply a warning not to go on to the bitumen road, so I turned back and followed GH down what appeared to be the track leading to the finish, but was actually an unmapped dead-end path into impassable green. One minute lost for a confusing finish - a few tapes along the track including up to the boundary tape would have been useful.

At least the 70s (without my help) thrashed the 65s, once again proving that we don't need 5 year age classes.

3 - Splits