Training Log Archive: BB

Day 3 of QB3 was a middle distance race in the great terrain that we were on yesterday. Went into the race knowing I had a 10 minute lead on 3rd place in cumulative time in my class so aimed not to make any big boo boos. Course advertised length was 3.4 kms with 20 controls. Area was on the other side of the assembly area to where we had been yesterday. It was a bit thicker which made the navigation harder than yesterday, albeit the leg lengths were much shorter.

Took a conservative route to control 1 to get into the map and course which paid off as I nailed it. As indeed I did for all the controls on the course - that is nailed them! Leg 6 to 7 was very tricky and a lot of people lost time there - I stuck to a bearing and read enough detail to know where I was all the time - slow but steady. Caught one of the gun M16 runners here who had started 2 minutes ahead of me. Mind you that was the last I saw of him when he charged off. End result was second place - down 1 minute on the winner. The splits should be revealing as third place today made a 5 minute error on 6 to 7 - so I clearly was not going too fast on some of the other legs given I beat him by 1 minute overall today. Just looked at splits and saw I did fastest on two legs and had the lead on the winner with 5 controls to go but dropped 30 seconds on two legs to the winner - one was a hill climb and the other I hesitated a bit to get the right spur.

Surprise result was Nick Dent who lost 5 minutes on a leg that was 100 metres - he still won the QB3 M60 A class in cumulative time by 1 minute 26 seconds from me in second place but the lead he had after the first 2 days shrunk considerably - this is one aspect of orienteer that helps to keep up motivation - the unpredictability of how the good runners can sometimes perform. Another aspect that keep you going is running in fantastic areas like we had this weekend.

Day 3 Hard 3A - Splits

Day 2 of the QB3 event on Malang map - an area used during the 2007 JWOC when they were held in the land of Oz. great area with great weather. Course advertised as 5.2 km but garmin recorded above distance as leg 4 to 5 involved a long wide route choice. Lost at least 1 minute on first control. Took me a while to read the map as the contour and rock detail was finer than usual. As a result I punch just after Nick Dent and then had a tow for a few controls. Next miss was thevcomplicate leg 6 to 7 where I did not have a good enough plan and found hard to relocate on the side of a hill with a lot of cliffs and rock. Estimate dropped 4 minutes. Good thing I sensed I had gone the right distance but was too high. As a result I did not waste energy running around before I saw another competitor heading for the control. Rest of the course ok and mostly fast with nice runnable parts between the rock outcrops. Finished second in my class but down 7 minutes on Nick. Better navigation would have closed the gap by quite a bit.

C • gps loaded 2

Hard 5 Day 2 - Splits

Day 1 of the QB3 weekend events near Dubbo - out west in NSW. Brummagen Creek was the new map - a nice small water flats area about 25 kms out of town. Finished I think 5th in my class and in the upper half of the field. Lots of small erosion gullies made it tricky. Dropped 30 seconds on control 13 and a few seconds on a couple of others due to veering off the line as not watching compass. Main challenge for all was removing the sticky seeds from o pants. Managed to avoid the tiger pear with real sharp prickles which was located in hard to see places on the ground in some parts. Felt like a good run. Fresh after last weekend. Will put up the garmin trace including heart rate when back home.

Hard 3 Day 1 - Splits

Some new moves at this session including "dolphin". Must be nearly thru the animal kingdom names soon.

Rode all the LBG basins as per usual. Used heart rate monitor and set the watch to see what was happening to the heart rate as I rode. As a result, it did not seem to record the track ?? so no map. Looking at the results suggest most of the time I was in zone 2 and/or zone 3. Zone 2 is referred to as "Basic cardiovascular training, good recovery pace" it also says that "conversation is possible" which is what occurs on the ride, apart from when we hit some sharp climbs. Zone 3 is referred to as "Improved aerobic capacity, optimal cardiovascular training" and "Moderate pace, more difficult to hold conversation". Looks like to get to zone 4 more often "Improved anaerobic capacity and threshold, improved speed" and " Fast pace and a bit uncomfortable, breathing forceful" I need to be unfriendly and not talk!!

Cool conditions today but at least there was very little wind.

Needed the session to help with stretching after the weekend. Also felt stronger in some of the exercises so perhaps there is a cross over between longer running and yoga.