Training Log Archive: Bertbennett

had a dream that Thierry and I had a conversation about the merits of Silva vs Moscow compasses as well as the merits of having to use 1:15000 for long events. I think we were in agreement on most topics..

2nd park-O for me and last one before the final. Got the win by a tiny margin from Macey. Just didn't feel 100% in the calves today which made it tough to push up hills of which there were a few. Nav felt alright apart from checking the wrong tree for a control. Looking forward to the big final. Who will take home the big prize??

Course Long - Splits

Ugh. Tried Sugarloaf because I wanted something a bit different to the usual spur gully. Just fallen trees everywhere making it almost impossible to run for about 70% of the time. Very unpleasant. Turned around half way through my course because basically any worthwhile control location was in a pretty thick area and I was not enjoying it at all. New shoes were good though.

Also didn't go to 8 or 9, because that area of the map was almost unreachable.

Sunday run at Glenrock with Macey, Angus and Nicola. Feeling a few niggles in the lower legs, which is probably a sign of the beginning of a little over training (not exactly unexpected and not really such a bad thing if managed).

Distance and time was probably a little less than ideal for a long run for me at the moment and definitely felt very fresh at the end but it has been a pretty big week and it might not be a terrible thing. Day off tomorrow!

Run with Macey and Angus out at Astley's Tower. Main error on the way to 12 when I made a really bad exit direction and then made the silly mistake of following Macey up the wrong track (he was tricking me silly bugger) which was a pretty sub-optimal route choice. Feeling pretty confident otherwise with the compass at the moment which really helps.

Made a few silly routes through the first few controls because I was running with Macey and I didn't want to just take the same line as him. In retrospect I should have just taken the same line because he was pretty spot on and I was taking the most retarded line to just be a bit original... Control 13 we would have got if there was a flag just got confused by how big the gullies are there as they look pretty insignificant on the map.

Inov8 Bare Grips. Haven't run in them in ages, almost instantly remembered why I retired these shoes. They're 0mm heal-toe drop and it's bloody hard work on the lower calves and feet. Need to work up to these.






Ran on 1:7500 to get used to the scale that SL1 is going to be on.

Part 2 of training today. Macey and Angus went off to the pub leaving me to struggle alone :(

So the take-away from this is (other than the hesitations at 7 and 15 (which I think I can probably 90% discount due to not having flags and just making sure I was in the right spot) is to make sure to check the feature or side of creek that the control is on before planning the route. On the way to #4 I had to loop around the end of the creek to get to that spot which is an aspect which I think could be improved by checking more carefully where it's going to be. Stopped a couple times to get spiders webs off and because I stabbed myself in the eye with a stick... bloody annoying.

Very happy with my Compass on the way to control 5, 9, 13 and 14 today:)

Was nice to have Macey and Angus out there today. Really helped with the moral. Looked at the flyer for QB3 this year. Middle looks VERY exciting!

Time is a guess here as my watch lost satellites due to the overcast weather I'm thinking and I didn't bother to restart it. Probably could have skipped this but oh well. Felt a little like junk miles.

Well that was a bloody effort to keep at or below 4min/km tonight. Definitely feeling the effects of the last 2 days which have been fairly intense if not long days. Did 5km of this run on the newie park run course which seems to oddly sap me of energy even though it's a completely flat course.

Some guy I passed towards the end of my run enthusiastically commended me on my "great pace mate!" which was nice.

Going to take fruitloops pretty easy tomorrow, then some orienteering Saturday and long run Sunday.