Training Log Archive: inuksuk

mostly warm down -- walked to start. I've been doing some serious contemplation of Jim Cotter's theories on warm ups...

Flock Hill. I ran well today but I just wasn't clicking with the map so my orienteering suffered some serious flaws. I suffered from innumerable "wrong side of the right feature" "can see the feature but can't figure out how to get around the *&^%(&*^ cliffs to get to it" and "running to the wrong feature inside the circle"

I've come to the conclusion that you "learn" Flock Hill, both in how to deal with the terrain and you subconsciously learn the usable features. Lots of people referred to attack points they'd used before. Of course, having said that, I used a knoll as an attack point that I'd seen with lara a few weeks ago. It was perfect: right on the edge of the circle amongst the rocks. I spiked it and took a rough bearing. Missed. Went back and tried again taking care to look more closely at my bearing.... same. Third time? finally. So maybe my theory is flawed.

I hit 21 of them more-or-less cleanly, and botched about 6 (and totally blew one of them) not very good, but still was great training and awesome fun. The finish was through the "battle scene" of Narnia. Quite funny.

Flock Hill. I got to some bouldering with La, while Aaron and Sara practiced jumaring.
We found lots of really elegant problems (and not-so-elegant fist jamming overhangs!) just within half a dozen rocks. The possiblities there are mindblowing -- I felt surprisingly good for how long its been since I've been on rock.

Ran up Andrews stream to Hallelujah flats (Aurthur's Pass). Great day for it: cool and crisp, and the rain thankfully kept to the coast. The bush was eeriely quiet today. It didn't feel like 2.5 hours.

We put in four or five surges in the last k. It felt really good to open up after a couple hours of grinding ups and downs.

5k tempo with La in Oamaru
10:05 for first 2.5k (with Lara)
9:16 for second 2.5k (gradually upping the pace)

Logan Park and Signal Hill with Lara

Heavy rains continued through the night, flooding roads throughout much of the South Island (leaving Lara stranded in Dunedin -- nice!) Its very exciting to see the Leith purging itself and topping the banks. We ran up along the tracks through the botanic gardens and up through parts of logan park and signal hill. Came back through the student ghettos for a bit of culture.

Legs felt good today. I can't wait for the weekend -- Flock Hill in the rain....

Ross creek with Lara. There was so much rain today. I haven't seen this much rain in a long time. All the streams were high. I bet the eels are loving it. The rain has dropped most of the leaves on the tracks in the bush -- very nice. I was freezing by the time we got back to university. Winter is coming......

Trotters gorge with Lara. It was so nice to be back there. We needed headlamps for the return back down the gorge -- good practice for TWALK, I guess. Hmmm....I can already feel the pain.

Cameron river, Canterbury with Lara, Jamie and Penny. Today we headed back out -- gale force NW winds about the tops so we didn't go along the ridge as planned. In fact, just getting down the valley was difficult at times due to the strong wind. Still, really nice to be out in it -- awesome lenticular clouds today.

Cameron river, Canterbury with Lara, Jamie and Penny. We followed the river through tussock and matagouri to the moraines at cameron hut. I was really glad to get into this area for the first time -- fantastic country. It sort of helped me mentally connect the upper Rangitata with the Rakia/Mathias. I was really impressed with the expansiveness of this region. And Arrowsmith looked awesome!! It was interesting to note that that hut book was full of failed attempts and sparse of successful missions up Arrowsmith -- I'm curious whether that is actual or a reflection of modesty. I'm guessing from experience that it is more the latter, but it does make you wonder. Though its not graded as very difficult, the route looks variable (steep snow, questionable ice, manky rock, serrac and crevass fields -- subject to extreme changes over the course of the year) .... I guess I can't wait to get up there and have a look -- especially the East Cameron Glacier -- Coulior Peak looks like fun (gnarly) too.

Fantastic wind overnight!!

To town hall wall

town hall wall

town hall to unipol

from unipol through Logan Park and botanic gardens

Lunchtime run through Ross Creek. I took it easy today -- rt achilles still quite tight. Stretching will hopefully help.

Absolutely perfect day -- cool and dry and sunny. very nice.

Complusory (compulsive) stop at the bakery on the way back through town -- disaster.

Run around the headlands in Oamaru with Lara and Penny. Legs felt a bit tight and feet were a bit sore to start, but everything was ticking over fine after a few minutes.

Really nice light over the ocean today -- crazy blues and pinks....very nice. We paused to watch the yellow-eyed and little blue penguins at bushy beach. They were putting on a wee show on the beach and in the scrub along the headland.

Harling: steep farmland, thickets, park. It was a great start -- hysterical really. I was positioned right behind the lead pack of Chris, Aaron, Rob J etc. Heavy going though on a hilly farmland course. Chris was putting a hurting on all of us -- I was suspicious some of his route choices were to weed out the boys. One in particular wasn't an ideal route (ie typical Chris redline) from 4 to 5. Michael and Ross and Karl made up 15s or so dropping below 2 fences and a green thicket and taking the road. I made the mistake to leaving the pack and changing routes mid-stream. Had to race to catch pack again, just before a mad dash back up the hill. Never regained a firm grasp of the head pack -- loosing touch en route to 11 through the brushy gorse. A pause at 15 to check map made me miss my chance to catch Aaron who'd fallen off Chris and co. He [Aaron] made 25s on me in the last three.

Rabbit Island: This is a really fun area -- open pine plantation over sand dune terrain. The contours are intricate and accurate -- though often difficult to determine direction of slope (a few strategically placed tags might havce helped me along the way). very very fast running.

I lost time on 1, 5, and 13. Bad bearings in all three cases...
For no. 13 I wasn't reading the contours properly so micro-correction became near impossible -- three attacks from the same trail end. I must have lost c.2m30s there. Annoying as I circled it twice --all within 20-30m of it

No.1 is still a bit of a mystery to me -- I had a bomber attack point, at which I changed direction, with a new heading and totally missed it. I eventually saw it to my right at c.50m and couldn't believe it was mine. Looking around without another option I went to it. No clue on that. Lost c.50s.

No.5, I navigated in using the contours -- i mistook an oblong depression without a tag in it for a knoll of the same shape -- I made the map fit, and blundered right for a minute before recognising my mistake and corrected. Lost c.45s there.

Canaan Downs: Great area! I loved it -- intricate beech forest, limestone type topography (lots of tomos, negative topography), crazy rocks, detailed farmland... and such a beautiful day; perfect for a run!!

Had great run for about 80% of the legs -- mucked up 2, 3, and 4; completely blew 13 -- a 100m leg that took over 7 minutes, and 17. Shocking. I never really got a grasp of the scale of the negative features which slowed me down from 11-13....

No. 2: I passed the depression, and stopped in the next one -- spent what seemed like ages trying to match everything up before deciding I was too high -- 45+s wasted here.

No. 3: I went over "clean" saddle to avoid the rocks and went into the wrong re-entrant. I paused at the saddle before realising I was looking into the wrong one, and went around to the right -- lost maybe 30s.

No. 4: This one is a bit of a mystery -- I was really low on this one (found some nice unmarked features here). Finally decided it must be higher and found the right cliff/tomos. A very odd part of the map.

No. 13: No excuse here. I saw a massive (15m+) depression between the two controls and figured I must have overshot. The depression was on the map, alright, but just didn't seem to emphasize the magnitude of this bloody hole, plus the half dozen other unmarked 2.5m rocky pits in the area ... I finally relocated off the edge of the forest: the first time incorrectly, coming back to the same giant hole. On the second time to the edge, I relocated off the open hillside and swung straight into the control. An aboslute nightmare of a leg. arrghh.

After that I got a rhythm -- I caught Neil again at 14 (He passed me while I faffed around 13) -- and stayed just ahead of him until 17, where he passed me again going into it.

No. 17: We missed to the left, hitting clusters of unmarked boulders -- I think I might have let him pull me off to the left a bit, but the map was a bit dodgey there anyway, so I might have blown it anyway. There were heaps of unmarked boulders. From the map, I saw it as a straightforward charge: straight through white woods, hit the only real big boulder in the area. But I was mistaken. Lots of boulders, lots of tomos and limited visibility. Lost 30-50s there, though not really sure.

Fast finish

Saw giant powelliphanta snail on the long leg between 4 and 5 -- made redlining up the steep slope all worthwhile...

Harwoods Hole -- impressive cave (178m abseil to the bottom) just off map. Very cool.

Crap race -- mucked up no. 1, lost 50s there. Race ok after, until bad tangle with barbed wire -- lost the plot and over-ran control, losing another 60+s. Lots of blood.

Still, had fun.

Bizarre area, really.

Commute: Ocean Grove -- University

Chilly and damp this morning. Light southerly. Low clouds on the mountains looks forboding.

Through botanic gardens and neighbouring bush. Foliage is going off: liriodendron, acer, tilia, fraxinus, populus -- a sensory overload.

overcast - light drizzle, but warm. From the top of the hill I could see the showers coming up the coast.

Made sure to stop by the aviary to say hello to the Kaka and Kea.

Commute: University -- Ocean Grove

Hmm. pissing rain ouside. This should be fun.

To Logan Park from University -- around both lower and upper fields, and around a few of the tracks in the bush.

The bush is dry considering all the rain.

Right archilles is quite tight -- I noticed it first on the scree in Arthur's Pass this past weekend. It does warm up after ten minutes or so; will have to keep an eye on it.

2xc.800m surges on cemetary loop, Logan Park
2xc.600m surges playing field loop, top of Logan Park

mostly fine today -- a few showers hit during workout.

Flock Hill (Narnia) with Lara.

Designed course in the two technical areas -- ran the first half normally and the second half as a relocation exercise. Worked out really well.

We both had trouble on one -- I ended up climbing up one of the bigger boulder/crags to get my bearing. Contour features are often more distinctive than trying to interpret the patterns of rock. I found it was important to simplify and when available, focus on the biggest rock features. Excellent map. I will be excited to see if I can keep pace with Chris on this one...

Sunny and warm throughout with westerly wind. Snow showers hitting Craigeburn Range to 1000m across the valley...peregrines overhead -- a stunning view.

Disappointed about not seeing any centaurs, satyrs or talking lions...... even more disappointed at the size of the road made by the movie makers. It is big enough for logging trucks and completely mars the hillslope. Exactly how big were their cameras?

Aurthur's Pass with Lara (and Viv) -- up Bridal Veil , along Bealy river, through loose avalanche debris to mouth of the canyon and back down; then up track to the pass.

Massive low off west coast -- nor'west turn westerly gales about the tops, showers, heavy at times, periods of sleet and hail, snow down to 1100m, rivers were swollen and mostly uncrossable. Crap day really, but we had a blast -- absolutely sopping wet.

Had trouble keeping pace with Lara on the rocks!!

Logan Park from University

Track -- 3x400:62-64s, 400m rest

Commute: Ocean Grove -- University
Harbour dead calm -- can't believe it

Commute: Ocean Grove -- University
Went slightly longer route through cemetary and golf course.
Wind wasn't a problem either way. What a treat!

Ross Creek lunchtime run with Brian and Jim. Kept a nice clip going through most of it.

I had trouble wth 2, 10 and especially 14. Map needs work: features on the ground are poorly represented on the map, and sometimes just incorrect. 3+ metre "crossable cliffs" and two metre deep "dry ditches", not to mention looping and mysteriously ending contours.

I ran less than 2m from no.14, but was looking on the wrong side of the ravine.... my fault not the map's. I'm finding I am frequently going to the wrong feature in the circle -- I need to be more aware of what I'm looking for.

I also felt tired on the hills.

I botched three controls on the north side of the road -- though I think everyone had trouble. Very tricky map reading at pace. Frequently spent most the "error time" inside the circle.

Missed 15 as well, though Chris and Michael collected it, and decided it was in fact on the wrong feature -- easy to do in that mess... its a wonder we all found it.

Overall the courses were great -- good route choice and fair placement.

Awesome day -- perfect Central skies. The rowan has gone red, poplars a brilliant yellow and larches a yellowy green. It could be September in New Hampshire.

Picked up controls with Lara.