Training Log Archive: TheInvisibleLog

A really good course that made an area of pine forest feel much better than I suspect it really is. The navigation turned out to be harder than yesterday. This was due to a combination of limited visibility and some two smallish areas of good sluicing terrain that were very well utilised by the course setter. None of the errors were major, losing me probably 2 minutes in total. I can't blame them for sixth place. No, thats just reality. All those faster people that stayed away on Saturday turned up today. Add to that the problems with my achilles that slowed the training, and I have to accept this as the best i could hope for. If I stick with this sport I think I am condemned to competent mediocrity.
More seriously, I am wondering about the messages on the heart rate monitor. On both days I had incidents while climbing hills. I was sitting on my supposed maximum heart rate, somewhere around 175, when the monitor recorded a sudden jump to 220. This is no machine abberation as I knew all about it while it was happening. Heart beat seemed to be going irregular, I was shorter of breath than I had been a few seconds before and couldn't do anything but slow down. The heart rate then dropped back to normal max rate almost instantaneously.
Ohh the errors... can be detected on RouteGadget. Some comments.
5- ran harder when Roch caught me, and we both overran the control in the erosion. 15 seconds
8- I took the wrong shallow gully after coming out of some confusing green in the erosion. 10 seconds
11- relaxed in what was simple spur gully terrain and missed the gully. 30seconds
14- Totally misread up and down in fine detail of the erosion. I think the mapping is ambiguous. What looked like a spur to me was actually a small erosoin gully. I don't know how you would make it unambiguous. Its a ripper of a mapping conumdrum. Lost 20 seconds. No complaints though as I deserved to lose time because I was loose coming into the control. Tighter and I wouldn't have had problems anyway.
17- Ran high and almost passed this control. was harder to see than the map suggested, as the contour interval was too large to indicate an obvious break of slope. Lost 5 seconds. My fault because I distracted myself telling Geoff Hudson to get the HR up.
Route Choices:
3-4 I still think low and right was the best choice for me.
9-10 The long leg in common with other courses. Went too far left to the main ridge track. I suspect I lost a minute here.
11-12. I think I made the right choice here. I had at most three contours climb by going right on the track, then dropping down the gully. The green was quite passable.

Event: Victorian Championships
 

A mediocre running performance but only one navigational error, rewarded with second place. I'd like to thank all the faster orienteers of my age group who didn't enter this event. Were they doing me a favour, or saving themselves for the Long Championship on Sunday?
Navigation was reasonably easy for a Middle event, but the hills were tough. In some ways reminiscent of a short long event.....

C • look out for a fat guy at Christmas (not Santa) 2

Rode to work again. I'm finding it hard to get my heart rate up to an average anywhere near running. Seems like my legs can't push long enough to get the heart pumping.

CANTARA
Finally uploaded my GPS track to RouteGadget.
http://www.bendigo-orienteers.com.au/gadget/cgi-bi...
I tried to register it as accurately as possible. Its pretty close, with the exception of control 2 where my memory wasn't recalled until after the task was completed. Its interestesting to pick the spots where the vegetation pushed me off the line, and where green masquerading as white forced me to back track. The debacle to control 1 was one of these situations. When I emerged, i took a while to work out what was going on. After control 5 I was in control, excpet for some loss of direction in a couple of rough bearing legs.

I want to go back. Next event is rumoured to be the Queens Birthday weekend. I'm organising a Middle Distance event on Mount Korong that weekend, so I will miss out. Mount Korong is an acceptable subsitute. It will have to be.

C • Novi Svet 9

Took the scenic route. Only three more kilometres than the most direct, but probably 50% was on single track. Inspiring enough to get me thinking about an urban orienteering map of northern Bendigo.
Back to running tomorrow.
One of my impressions of the SA Sprint Champs and OY at Cantara was how few people were there. It was pretty much like a Bendigo local event. The entries for this weekend in Victoria are better, but many age classes are less than competitive. I am lucky enough as an M50 to have a seriously Australian quality field lining up to beat me. There is every likeihood I will place worse than my 6th at the Oz Long in Qld. If I had run up in any of the younger age groups to M35 I would be running in a field of between 2 and 5. Its not a good sign for the sport.
Maybe I will run up next year. Then I might have a longer course than Jools. She is running W35 and taking longer courses than I on both days.

This was hard work indeed. Only yesterday I was worried about frostbite of the fingers while riding to work. Today I'm thinking that its getting too hot to run at lunchtime. Am I living in a desert climate now?

Guerilla riding on 'Ride to Work Day'. No signup, no breakfasts, just zip in quietly before the crowds.

And rode home.
Then got in the car and drove back the same direction to buy food from the supermarket....

Couldn't resist running any longer. I was feeling like a blob after one day of slackness. Probably a good sign. But it will be hard to comply with physios orders of 3 runs a week. I will be forced to ride to work tomorrow. Now, for the record, this is not a 'Ride to Work Day' effort. I will be travelling my own route, and thereby missing all the breakfasts and other nonsense.

Am I doing the grumpy old man bit OK?