Training Log Archive: blairtrewinIn the 30 days ending Jun 30, 2006:
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Friday Jun 30, 2006 #
Run race ((orienteering)) 49:27 [4] *** 6.3 km (7:51 / km) +230m 6:38 / km
spiked:16/22c
Another so-so effort, although a better placing than yesterday. Again had trouble with small mistakes in the circle in the green, although the map was very difficult to interpret, with a lot of erosion gullies that looked like contours, and the print quality was poor (hopefully WMOC will be a lot better).
Thursday Jun 29, 2006 #
Run race ((orienteering)) 53:18 [4] *** 7.2 km (7:24 / km) +20m 7:18 / km
spiked:20/26c
First day of the Vienna Prologue, in the Prater park. I was expecting this to be a park race, maybe with a bit of forest, and was therefore very surprised by the terrain - mostly pretty thick (but with a lot of tracks, all very muddy). Dead flat except for old bomb craters and some dry old watercourses. Not a brilliant run, finding it hard to pinpoint the controls in the flatter areas, especially where visibility was poor, and drifted too much on compass too. Still taking a long time to warm up.
Wednesday Jun 28, 2006 #
Run 1:00:00 [3] 13.0 km (4:37 / km)
A morning jaunt through the Munich suburbs. Not a brilliant run but started to stride out better in last 10 minutes.
Monday Jun 26, 2006 #
Run 54:00 [3] 10.0 km (5:24 / km) +270m 4:45 / km
A pleasant recovery run around the rough tracks of Oslo, a bit stiff early after the weekend's racing but flowing nciely by the end.
Sunday Jun 25, 2006 #
Run race ((orienteering)) 58:11 [4] *** 9.0 km (6:28 / km) +245m 5:41 / km
spiked:18/20c
A much better run today in the relay, attacking controls with much more confidence - and running strongly too. Spoilt a bit by one two-minute mistake on a depression in the green in mid-course, which dropped me from one pack to being mroe on my own. Still a ncie run though and good to get more experience of a significant Scandinavian relay.
Saturday Jun 24, 2006 #
Run race ((orienteering)) 57:25 [4] *** 7.0 km (8:12 / km) +220m 7:05 / km
spiked:19/24c
It was harder today and my run was pretty disappointing. Took a horrible route choice to 2, getting caught in a deep marsh and then some highly unpleasant felled area, and never really got into the race. Definitely a big step up in the level of competition. I didn't expect to beat many today, but was hoping for a better run to get a decent number of world ranking points - didn't happen.
Friday Jun 23, 2006 #
Run race ((orienteering)) 41:36 [4] *** 6.4 km (6:30 / km) +100m 6:02 / km
spiked:16/19c
First day of Norwegian O-Festival, in very un-Norwegian terrain - a flat military area near Gardermoen airport, with zillions of tracks, the odd sandpit and clearing, and thick forest with vague knolls, depressions and pits in it. Reminded me a bit of the areas around Aldershot in southern England.
First bit of excitement was before the start, as we arrived to be greeted by a squadron of riot police. Before you start getting any ideas about how Norwegian orienteers behave if they've had a bad run, it turned out that the military camp where the event centre was also houses a group of asylum-seekers who the government is trying to deport back to Afghanistan (obviously they've been getting ideas from us). Naturally the asylum-seekers weren't too happy about this and decided that a good way to draw media attention to themselves was to blockade the road to the event. I couldn't imagine an orienteering event being used for a political protest in Australia! Anyway, that had all been sorted out by the time we got there and the police were just finishing clearing up.
Once it came to the actual run, there were a couple of small mistakes early before I started to realise just how easy this area was, and that the optimal strategy was to stay on tracks for as long as you could. I think I probably ran 75% of my course on tracks and it should have been 85%. Tomorrow is the important one for me (world ranking event) - today I was running 21A while the elites were off doing a sprint race, and while I was running reasonably hard I was also being a bit experimental with my route choices. Surely it will be harder tomorrow? I was 3rd when I left but expect I'll drop a few places.
6.5 minutes per km is definitely a PB for Norway.
First bit of excitement was before the start, as we arrived to be greeted by a squadron of riot police. Before you start getting any ideas about how Norwegian orienteers behave if they've had a bad run, it turned out that the military camp where the event centre was also houses a group of asylum-seekers who the government is trying to deport back to Afghanistan (obviously they've been getting ideas from us). Naturally the asylum-seekers weren't too happy about this and decided that a good way to draw media attention to themselves was to blockade the road to the event. I couldn't imagine an orienteering event being used for a political protest in Australia! Anyway, that had all been sorted out by the time we got there and the police were just finishing clearing up.
Once it came to the actual run, there were a couple of small mistakes early before I started to realise just how easy this area was, and that the optimal strategy was to stay on tracks for as long as you could. I think I probably ran 75% of my course on tracks and it should have been 85%. Tomorrow is the important one for me (world ranking event) - today I was running 21A while the elites were off doing a sprint race, and while I was running reasonably hard I was also being a bit experimental with my route choices. Surely it will be harder tomorrow? I was 3rd when I left but expect I'll drop a few places.
6.5 minutes per km is definitely a PB for Norway.
Thursday Jun 22, 2006 #
Run ((technical)) 1:03:00 [3] **** 8.0 km (7:53 / km) +340m 6:30 / km
spiked:16/18c
Running on a course near Cassie and Jim's place. Navigation pretty good on the whole, but lacked any sort of terrain running confidence, particularly in the moss-covered areas. It must take a while to get the feel of what you can and can't safely put your feet on here, and I certainly haven't done it yet.
Wednesday Jun 21, 2006 #
Run 1:45:00 [3] * 21.0 km (5:00 / km) +580m 4:24 / km
A track run, but not as we know it - mostly smallish tracks through the forest outside my sister's place in the Oslo suburbs, complete with endless four-contour climbs, bog-jumping and rock-hopping. Quite a draining run at times, particularly in the middle, and a bit longer than planned because I became slightly geographically embarrassed towards the end (that will teach me not to take a compass out on a map where the tracks aren't 100% reliable). A solid day's work.
Monday Jun 19, 2006 #
Run 42:00 [3] 9.0 km (4:40 / km)
A pretty casual effort around the waterfront in Helsinki. Sore early (both Achilles and inside right knee) but warmed up pretty well.
Sunday Jun 18, 2006 #
Run race ((orienteering)) 1:17:50 [4] **** 9.4 km (8:17 / km) +400m 6:50 / km
spiked:18/24c
Leg 6 at Jukola (to find out why I was doing leg 6 and not 7 as advertised, have a look at the CSU thread). Never really felt totally in control but didn't miss anything big, all 15-30 seconders - biggest time loss was in extricating myself from a waist-deep marsh. Slow at the start but increasingly strong towards the end. Didn't really have the sense of making up places, but I suspect that's because I'm a worse runner and better navigator than most of those around me, so the ones I was passing were wandering around out of sight. Surprisingly never in a pack of any kind, although it was hard to tell who was on my leg and who was on 4, 5 or 7 (the leg 7 people were easy to pick as they zoomed away into the distance, but 4s and 5s were harder to tell apart).
C • toph 3
Saturday Jun 17, 2006 #
Event: Jukola
Run ((technical)) 31:00 [3] **** 3.5 km (8:51 / km) +160m 7:13 / km
spiked:5/8c
Short hit-out on the Jukola model map. Lacked concentration and missed too much, although again relocation functioning reasonably well.
Friday Jun 16, 2006 #
Run ((technical)) 1:09:00 [3] **** 8.5 km (8:07 / km) +370m 6:40 / km
spiked:14/17c
A longer session today on one of the Jukola training maps. Flowing a lot better, although finding the climbs on soft ground draining - 14k on Sunday will be a severe test physically. One significant miss in the vaguer country, but still got out of it with only 90 secs loss when on previous trips it might have been 5 or 10 minutes, so making progress (slowly).
Thursday Jun 15, 2006 #
Event: Forssa Games
Run ((technical)) 35:00 [3] **** 4.0 km (8:45 / km) +160m 7:17 / km
spiked:5/6c
First run in Finnish terrain. Not easy to get into a running rhythm, especially in the rocky areas underfoot - Australia has them too but there the holes between the rocks aren´t covered with moss! One small mistake but otherwise navigating OK, compared to how I sometimes do here.
Run race ((orienteering)) 31:57 [4] **** 3.8 km (8:24 / km) +170m 6:52 / km
spiked:11/14c
A decent first race in Finland, although still finding it hard to get any sort of physical fluency. About halfway down the field in the B race. Errors all small but annoying.
Monday Jun 12, 2006 #
Event: Victorian Winter Classic
Run race ((orienteering)) 1:35:00 [4] **** 10.7 km (8:53 / km) +670m 6:46 / km
spiked:17/21c
Not the greatest of starts through some very tough physical country - the SE corner of Barambogie, which is even tougher than it was at the 2003 Aus Champs - lots of fallen timber over the top of the rock from a storm in 2004. Took a few poor routes although I'm not sure that there was any such thing as a good route on some of the early legs. Bruce caught me 3 mins at 7, and we then ran together to 13. 14 was a long leg across a slope without many defining features. I decided crossing the slope was too risky and dropped down to run along its base - the price was 8 contours climb at the end, but I hit the control well and saw Bruce circling below. He ended up losing 5 minutes there - brought back memories of the 2003 Aus Champs (although that time it was Reuben Smith who I was trying to get away from). Tried to attack as best I could from that point, although at the end of a long race I didn't have a lot left, and started cramping on the last climb, always a sign of a hard day's work. Still not flowing as well as I'd like, but fighting a duel like that and winning it is terrific preparation for the last leg at Jukola (where I'll probably be scrapping for 247th place or thereabouts).
Note
I leave tomorrow for Europe, initially for Finland. Updates will probably be fairly sporadic for the next few weeks.
Sunday Jun 11, 2006 #
Run race ((orienteering)) 1:11:00 [4] *** 10.7 km (6:38 / km) +545m 5:17 / km
spiked:17/18c
A solid run, felt a bit weak at the start but started to get into it well later on, and quite strong on the big climbs later on. Missed 1 a little (although not as badly as Bruce and Liggo, who both found a wrong control - Bruce realised, Liggo didn't). Reasonable area although rather overmapped, and our course was better than the shorter ones. Second week in a row I've inherited a win through a mispunch by someone else.
Saturday Jun 10, 2006 #
Run 1:01:00 [3] 13.0 km (4:42 / km)
Started slowly but gradually built into it, starting to handle the hills better by the time they started to come in significant numbers, coming back through Eaglemont.
Thursday Jun 8, 2006 #
Run 1:40:00 [3] 21.0 km (4:46 / km)
Promising start but faded away later. A bit of a novelty to see Melbourne cars with ice on them (didn't see anyone making a hash of clearing it, though).
Wednesday Jun 7, 2006 #
Run ((fartlek)) 38:00 [4] 9.0 km (4:13 / km)
Gradually easing back into the faster stuff. Pretty slow (9.33 fastest loop) but better than nothing. Started in the dark to get back by 7.30 in case the builder due at 8 arrived early. He made it at 9.20...
Run 42:00 [3] 9.0 km (4:40 / km)
A reasonable lunchtime run with not too many traffic interruptions, although still a bit weak on the Anderson Street hill.
Tuesday Jun 6, 2006 #
Run 59:00 [3] 13.0 km (4:32 / km)
Starting to pick up, flowing quite nicely for a lot of it, although still a bit weak on the hills (not that there were too many of them today).
Monday Jun 5, 2006 #
Run 47:00 [2] 9.0 km (5:13 / km)
A casually slow run even by Monday night standards, although we got a fair workout beforehand moving all my furniture upstairs or into the garage (my floor is being redone on Wednesday so naturally I hosted the Monday night run with a view to getting some assistance). Took the group around the Warringal Cemetery in tribute to the man from the Gold Coast who's been ringing me at work a couple of times a day insistent that the world is going to end tomorrow (6/6/6) and that the Bureau of Meteorology has a responsibility to warn people about it. The run itself - nothing special, still affected by cold, although at least my ears finally popped 24 hours after failing to do so on the descending flight last night (one of the hazards of travelling with a cold).
Sunday Jun 4, 2006 #
Run race ((orienteering)) 1:10:19 [4] *** 9.9 km (7:06 / km) +510m 5:39 / km
spiked:13/15c
WA Autumn Classic, Day 2, Evedon Ridge. A definite improvement on yesterday, both physically and technically, and even felt good at times on some of the flatter legs, but the larger hills were a reminder that I'm still some way from being 100%. Inherited an undeserved victory because Craig missed a control (he would have been around 65 otherwise).
Saturday Jun 3, 2006 #
Run race ((orienteering)) 43:38 [4] *** 6.1 km (7:09 / km) +350m 5:34 / km
spiked:11/13c
Day 1, WA Autumn Classic, Evedon Ridge. The cold that's been threatening for the last fortnight has finally descended in earnest, and this wasn't a good area to be trying to run when not 100% fit - very weak on the (many) hills. Also didn't find it easy to concentrate on the map, although after a 45-seconder at 1 I didn't actually lose any significant time. Expected to be more than 3 minutes behind Craig with this run.
Thursday Jun 1, 2006 #
Run 2:09:00 [3] 28.0 km (4:36 / km)
A good opportunity to see lots of bits of Perth that I wouldn't have seen otherwise, including the dunes out at Bold Park and some seriously expensive waterfront real estate around Dalkeith (suburbs with lots of expensive real estate are often quite nice to run through). Reasonably hilly at times including a nice climb back through Kings Park at the end. Grinding a bit through the last 10km but a reasonable run on the whole.