Training Log Archive: TheInvisibleLog

Spinal care 'run'.

6.2 straight line course measurement.
6.82 could have been improved to 6.74. ie less than 100 metres of error.
Another wonderful day at a Bendigo event. Blue skies, still air, fast open terrain on Lyell Forest. Decided I had to learn to run faster after the lesson of the Aus Champs. Took most of the race beyond my normal race pace, thus proving I have been running conservatively. On this terrain i can get away with the speed. Not so sure how I will go in something more complex.
Felt a little euphoric after the run. Two races in a row with little or no error. Joy at the speed. Reversion to wonderful gentle winter weather.

C • 6.82 4

Muse about Bendigo gully spur terrain.
We picked up a Canadian JWOC team member and took him out to the event. He had read a thread on Attack point where Bendigo was discussed as a contender as the best city in Australia for orienteering. So he made his way down here by train, and then asked for a lift on Attackpoint. The web is useful! Turns out he had never run in spur gully terrain. Sounds strange to us who run on it every day. I think we in Bendigo may underestimate the quality of our lower relief spur gully. Unlike the spur gully turned on by other states for national events, ours has a high gully to contour ratio. This means the experience has more navigation work per grunt. Perhaps we should think about this terrain as suitable for national events.

C • spur / gully 1

Picking up controls for Ian Johnson after the event. One day we won't need to do this on this terrain. Everyone will have an orienteering GPS. The course setter will program a course and everyone will upload it to your GPS as waypoints. You will run to the control, and when you pass through the control location, the orienteering GPS will beep. It won't let you do them out of order.. You won't see a flag from a distance. The GPS will have an option to show you how to navigate back to the finish, but if this is activated, you are disqualified. Otherwise, the screen will rpovide no navigational help in competition mode. You will have to navigate to the spot. IN spur gully the course setter might define a tolerance of 10 metres as being acceptable navigation. No controls to pick up afterwards... or to set out beforehand! No one will be able to stay out after course closure. The course setter will set a closure time in his course definition, and after this time the GPS will go into return to start mode, and you will be unable to continue the course and record control visits. No lost beginners to search for.

I think this will massively reduce the work for local events in spur gully. Not sure it will work in granite where navigation tolerance is currently finer than available cheap GPS accuracy. But high end GPSs with real time correction already give sub metre accuracy! But these are still unreliable under forest cover.

C • accuracy 2

Bugger the running. Time to train the ear and fingers. Fiddle practice. The break from fiddle over the Oz carnival has seen a deterioration in my intonation on the e string. Intonation on the G,D and A strings were surprisingly little damaged by the break.

Dodder track extended. Apt name really. Muscles and joints feeling very creaky and sore.

Racecourse circuit. Sprint and jump to get over the flowing water.
Running more for spinal management than training effect. My back reacts to long haul driving, such as Dubbo to Bendigo in one shift.
I'd whinge about the cold like everyone else, except i was running at lunchtime and not slipping on ice like Jools at 6.00 am this morning. Most unusual conditions for Bendigo. I was out at a speaking engagement at Kyneton last night and came out of the RSL hall at 10.00 pm to be greeted by falling snow.