Training Log Archive: Bertbennett

Putting out controls with Macey. Surprisingly tiring just being on your feet for so long and carrying stuff. Got everything bar the green/blue controls out.

Left calf and hammy feeling a little bit iffy I think owing to wednesday's KOM effort. I think I didn't warm up enough. Rookie error!

Planned on a longer run today but immediately knew something was up when I left the apartment and I felt kinda tired running at 5min/km. Legs didn't really have anything beyond that to give. I'm not sure if I've just put in too much high intensity stuff lately and my body needs a break or if I'm just getting sick. I think I'll just have a few light days with either nothing or low intensity. This fits nicely with my plan on spending a few hours on saturday putting controls, streamers and water out.

C • Dude look at your log, you'... 4

Finally finished setting my local event courses. Then I had a look on the newcastle orienteering website to check that all the details put up on the website were correct. Then I see that the super long course (10ish km) that I mentioned in passing in an email is in black and white right there on the website. I'd completely forgotten about it, so back to OCAD to try and set a course that goes for 10km on what is a pretty small map without placing any extra controls. Fair to say the course is at best confusing, with a lot of butterfly loops and a lot of overlapping lines.

Will be interesting to see if I have any takers for the superlong course. Might be great preparation for Belanglo for people running course 1 and 2 (all 5 of them?)

Local running organisation put up a week long strava challenge on a hill segment in Glenrock. The prize for the top male and female times is some amount of skins gear. The segment started with a fast downhill, then through a treacherous creek crossing with really dodgy rocks that I took gingerly then up up up to scenic drive. Did a warmup then a test run to make sure I had the right bit of trail. I was aiming for 1:52 set just this morning by one of the run lab guys (I think). Test run 2:10, not bad, but harder than I expected. Gave it a few minutes to cool off a bit and then hit it hard. Came up with a 1:47 on strava and the new KOM. Now the nervous wait to see if my time will endure. Had planned a longer run for after this ridiculous dash for cash, but the legs were having none of it. I'll probably get out for a lil stroll later on.

No 2nd run today. Feel a fever coming on. Laura had one the last few days so it figures that I would get it.

3 people entered for SL12 Course 1. Where's all the elites in NSW?

C • Hiding 10

Flyers tuesday lunchtime intervals at national park. 12 * 400m. Started out a bit conservative because I probably went a bit hard last week. Intervals were around 73-72 seconds for the first 8 then 70-65 for the last 4 where I took my shoes off. The grass surface is great for intervals. A bit slower than a tartan track but definitely nowhere near as impactful on the body.

I did a more extensive warm-up this week because I think I started a bit cold last week, and also added the few KMs after like I did last week. After these speed sessions I can hardly break 6min/km it's the weirdest feeling.

17 people entered into the M21E Category for the Australian Relay Championships. So It's safe to say the Stingers will be aiming for a top 5 spot.

Realised last night I can't make SL 11 at Boxvale Tramway because I promised my girlfriend I'd go to a charity ball that she's organising. :( Real life getting in the way of orienteering is the worst.

C • Top 5? 4

Recovery run to help the muscles to not feel too stiff for the coming week. Speed session tomorrow, which is always a scary prospect. But probably number 1 on my list of things I need to work on.

Talking with Andrew about how shit tracks are and how cool navigating is n shit

Ah shit. I was so keen for a real bush state league after the two sprints yesterday. So I was maybe a bit over-excited for this race at the start which led to issues. The main issue of the day was that in my excitement to get out into the bush and get some good terrain running time going, I ignored the fact that on almost every single leg today, the track option was by far the fastest. Andrew Barnett and I both made the same mistake of not really adjusting route choice to the terrain. The map is so riddled with straight and fast tracks that there's almost no legs that don't have a great track option that destroys the bush option on time.

When comparing splits with Andrew today we highlighted the couple of legs where he took a wide track option and even when I perfectly executed my bush route it was about 30% slower. Sigh. Can't wait for Belanglo weekend. There's tracks on Miner's Despair but they're not very useful if the course is set well!

SchoolsChamps & SL10 Hard 1 - Splits