Training Log Archive: Akira

Xmas 5 Days - Day 2 - Canyonleigh
A new map for me to the Amazonian forests of the southern highlands. Day 2 was supposed to be the long course for the Xmas 5 days orienteering carnival with a line distance of 6.5 km and 7 controls. The terrain on this map was superb with nice runnable forest filled with huge Amazonian animals; kangaroos and emus which were towering above me! Things started off okay to control 1 except for being over 100 meters away from the correct saddle/re-entrant. From 1 to 2 I descended down the ridge and traversed the open terrain to end up overshooting the short neck of clearing and control 2 and having to return. Controls 2 to 3 was a disaster. Trying to travel a more or less straight line between controls got confused in the terrain close to control 5. I had to back track and use the clearing and road to get to control 3. A loss of at least 10 minutes. Ouch! From control 3 the legs were shorter and off track navigation simpler, so controls 4, 5, 6 and 7 were found without much difficulty. Minus the two large errors it was a descent though not super speedy run through some really beautiful terrain!

Day 2 Hard 2 - Splits

Xmas 5 Days - Day 1 - Chevalier College
Opening day for the Xmas 5 days orienteering carnival. It was one year since I last ran a sprint event at the Xmas 5 days in Newcastle. I played the race conservatively, carefully following the map to stay oriented and checking each control number. Whilst this slowed me down, numerous orienteers mis-punched and had no result. I had two errors, one at control 6 where I went to the visible but wrong control on the corner of the fence line and control 11 which I over ran and had to backtrack. Additional losses were made when I failed to realise the stairs to get to the lower level between controls 11 and 12 and between controls 19 and 20. After the even I re-ran some of the legs using the stairs and it saved considerable time. I am hoping to get more confident with the sprint maps and not have to check each control number and also to be quicker to keep momentum at the map change (flip) which created further loses. Overall a fun and fast course!

Day 1 Hard 2 - Splits

Bennelong Northside Xmas Party *Fun* Orienteering Course
A run held from the xmas party at Manly Dam into the surrounding bushland opposite the picnic area. Some people walked the course due to the heat. I managed to finish in second place behind Clyde McGee. The only notable losses made were at control 7 on the rock slabs but otherwise had a nice clean run.

Run to Oatley Park in southern Sydney.