Training Log Archive: PeterM

Morning shake with Matt for company. Nice stuff.

WU in model map. Misty.

Run to start

JWOC Long - 17th=
+7.29 to the winner

A tough day out on a surprisingly grotty area. A pleasing result, but slightly tantalising in several ways.
Was looking forward to this race and I had a decent level of confidence that if I kept the navigational time losses small then I could achieve a really good result. I was slightly spooked by the mist at the start, but not as distracted by the two start officials just having a good ol natter at -1. Pulled a full ballotelli arms wide on them and that sorted them out.
First three were fine, nothing spectacular, but it was to #4 where I lost my biggest chunk of time. Came out the green section too low, but corrected okay. Then I just wasn’t careful enough coming down the slope and ended up on the wrong rocky spur. Realised quickly but still tough to stomach going back round so early on in the race.
Was caught by my Polish 2min man after a tiny miss on 5 and then led us through the next few before he snuck ahead to the control before the long leg. I had spotted a left route which avoided some climb in relation to the others and after much hesitation decided to go for it. Executed well, took the 2nd fastest split on the leg and put 30secs into Poland.
Unfortunately though I lost that lead when getting stuck to #13 and #14 in some seriously disgusting green. The long leg straight after the map flip was so inevitable and I had a decent pause to get it right. Time was lost through my exit back through the grot and I had to really shift to catch back up to Poland on the paths, before splitting again and then ultimately helping him into the control.
Small misses at #16 and #17 were not ideal but we were still moving well and then absolutely spiked #18 across the slope, taking a 3rd fastest split there. I had retaken the lead and had it through the arena down to #22, with Stanislaw hot on my heels. Tragically, I lost around 45-50secs at #23 when I must have ran right past it and carried on up to another ruin. Felt like an eternity but soon realised and corrected. All the same, not good. Back on his tail up to the arena and actually somehow ended up with a fastest split to the run in - long live the rage split.
With that run I was very very pleased with my final position, but also slightly frustrated as my miss at the end had cost me around 5 places. Crazy how tight things were around me and I guess it goes to show that there’s no room for error when you’re racing against these boys.
A top 15 would’ve been lovely and a top 10 would’ve been awesome, but top 20 is still tasty and I was heartened to see that my routechoice selection was solid and fitness held up extremely well on a physical course. It’s great to be mixing it in the top 10-20 spots and gives me great encouragement for the future. Ideally I would add something very profound at this point, but thanks to the chuckle brothers Ollie and flurry I’m currently running on 3 hours sleep so I can arrive to Porto airport a cool 9 hours before my flight leaves. I curse thee.
And yes, one place worse than nobs. That hurts lol.

C • Unlucky 5

WD

Morning shake - chilly again but top notch views made up for it.

WU - feeling okay, but to expected on such a short hilly loop in quarantine.

JWOC Relay
1st Leg - Back 1st!!
Team 10th nation

Wow wow! Where to start with this one?
I was delighted to be reunited with Matt and Flurry for another crack at the relay - all three of us had solid runs yesterday and knew that we could push for a diploma, or even a medal, with solid runs. The prospect of another first leg was also very exciting, but also a bit nerve-wracking as I wanted to give the guys a good shot for the rest of the race.
Experienced some rather strange happenings on the start line when many people were convinced I was standing in the wrong place when I just patently wasn't. Anyway, once the grumpy SUI/SWE maths geniuses had been moved back it was game on. Survived the mass start alright despite the far back position and happily dodged Sam's attempts to bulldoze anyone in a 5m radius of him.
Instantly opted for the path for #1 and held my nerve well to #2 before slotting into the pack on the way to the common #3 and #4. Adrenaline was through the roof on the way to #5 when the dogs from inside the factory were going mental behind the fence and then ISR led our group down a 2m vertical crag. Even my effort-addled brain accepted that it probably was a pretty stupid idea but no-one died so nae danger.
#6 was an absolutely horrible control along the slippy, rocky, grotty slope and even though my low route was perhaps a tad slow, I was just pleased to emerge unscathed. A veritable cacophony of international swearing going on at this point.
Apart from a small wobble to #7 when I mixed a building with a rock slab (the new path or crag??) I made it to #8 firmly in the mix/ The ninth turned out to be the decisive moment of the leg and I was dragged into the rocks by the group. Made a conscious effort to correct and found my reentrant with ISR, but still felt like we were going a long way to get there - held the nerve though and got it.
After this, things were thinning out and I wasn't sure if we were the lead or a chasing pack. I gained time to #12 and was behind FIN 2 going into spec. Got the expected feedback at this point that we were the lead and just internally resolved to keep the head on the last loop.
The control out of spec was a filthy bash through the green but I spotted yesterday's #13 would make an excellent attackpoint so found it quite easily. Hit the front to #16 but then complacently just ran down the reentrant to #17 without actually reading the veg. Hit the flat and instantly realised and corrected, but not before SUI, ISR, CZE, GER, SWE and FIN had overtaken. Shucks.
Luckily I had a shorter gaffle for the next two controls and got them no problem. Tried to smash through some green on the way to the second last but insta-bailed before finding a much nicer route up the rocks, overtaking CZE who was coming from left field.
At this point I decided that I would in fact very much like to win the leg and just munched through the green to pop out for the last few hundred. Left it all out there to hand over to Matt in 1st place with a 6 second lead. YES
The instant release of emotion was immense, as some of you may have seen from the livestream! I was just so gassed to take the win and produce a solid run in amongst a stacked field. It wasn't perfect but I recovered from mistakes and held the nerve till the very end, which is the main thing. It felt like a massive deal (to me at least) and I was just delighted to have held my side of the bargain. Hands down, this moment was the highlight of my orienteering career so far. The other lads were all hyped as well and the feeling was the best. Although, I did get screamed at by about 6 helpers for trying to give Pete a hug across the quarantine fence. But fear not, we had an unsanctioned hug later.
Obivously, the rest of the race did not go how we would have liked it to, and of course that is disappointing. But as we learnt yesterday, the standard here is extremely high and if you're not right on the needle, it's not gonna cut it when mixing with the best teams.
It was an absolute pleasure to race with Matt and Flurry - I'm sure we will back in the future and we can take confidence in both our performances and our potential. Bring it on!

C • W 2

C • Nae bad 2

WD with Ewan and a fleeting appearance from the Finns.

Brisk shake - very chilly out.

WU - did some controls on the model map and slightly rolled my right ankle which was annoying. Feeling mildly guff but no bother - to be expected.

JWOC Middle
26th +2.55 behind the winner.

Hard to come up with a comprehensive view of this race but I’ll give it a shot. Ultimately, I had a solid run and was a bit disappointed with the result.
Set out strongly and was sufficiently cautious into the first control. Had a small miss to #4 when I didn’t have a strong enough line into the control. Stopped, turned and saw it. Dodged a bullet but ultimately had the safety net of the open rock there.
Flowed well through the next section of the course and on a cursory glance at the splits this seems to have been my strongest section of the race. Was being very purposeful with what I was doing in terms of compass and sighting and this definitely paid off. Apart from a bit of a wet route to #7 and a tiny miss on #9, all good.
Had some good screen time on the livestream at the TV control where the commentators based my current form entirely off Grace’s performances in recent years, which I suppose can’t be a bad thing surely.
Saw that the last section was properly tricky and made sure to keep the heid and not lose focus. Spiked the first two and then suffered my only significant time loss to #14. Just didn’t see that there was a sneakier way through the reentrant (which I have renamed the reentrant from hell) just to the north and decided to accept the punishment of the ‘mid-green’. The veg, although not spikey, can be fairly described as apocalyptically bad and I was haemorrhaging time just hacking through it. Frustrating stuff, considering I knew exactly where I was and could see where I was going. Obviously, you could argue to the cows come home about what is mid or dark green, but that did not feel like a mid-green to me. At least it generated some serious learning.
Still, fought hard and got out the other end, but not without losing around 1min or so on what I should have done.
Finished decently and the initial reaction was most certainly one of being pleased with that run. I had held off schaerer quite comfortably and had made only one tiny navigational error. So then I was a bit disappointed to see that I had come in 22nd (ending up in 26th). If you’d told me that run would have led to a top 15 then I would have been absolutely delighted, but the standard of competition at this JWOC is extremely high and the times were so close. 1min would have bumped me into 13th and even 15 seconds would have pushed me up 5 places. The margins are just so tight and it was a tough reminder of how clinical you have to be to achieve a star result, or even just a really good one, internationally in the middle race.
But on the other hand, there are a lot of positives to be taken. I was being disciplined with the navigation and was consciously taking the right decisions and actions at the right time, which is what we have been training for and talking about a lot over the past few days. Physically I felt fine but not incredible - sometimes struggled to get moving but still kept reminding myself to push.
Overall, I can’t not be pleased with this in the main. The team is in a good position and we are all improving how to nav on this terrain. Onwards!

WD with Ryan

Around the long model area. Huge amount of stuff going on for a 1:15 map but was ultimately okay. Some excellent Scottish weather.

Middle model - nice area and navving well - focussed on putting together everything and even fitted in some speedier stuff with flurry.

Easy jog with flurry

WU

Some long style Sequeiros training with the lads. Had fun doing the long leg with mr grierson and then thoroughly doing a nice wee mass start speedier effort for the last bit. Jim did some seriously sneaky tekkers to pull ahead and was chasing him for the rest of the way - nav was solid though.

WD

WU

Solo middle style job at sr dos caminhos. Made a bit of a pig’s ear of this back in July so was nice to come back, albeit with a different course, and do a much better job. Focussed on the techniques and held it together nicely - happy days.

WU with Sam

Middle at termas park. A new course and new area - crazy!
Great to be back in the forest after a long time out. Was pleased to see that the stuff I’ve been doing in Georgia has been useful as I felt not as rusty as I should’ve.
Overall, navigating well - a few dodgy routes and small misses but to be expected really. A pretty tricky course on a green and rocky area, good way to get back into the swing of things.

WD - bumped into Akseli

To start

Long style at Moreira. Forest was overall pretty rough which made things kinda tricky so I suppose that’s a good thing. One actual mistake when I didn’t concentrate but apart from that it was decent. Map could do with an update.

Back to start

A little break in a very very long day of travel to portugal. Just mooched round some laps of a sports complex in Coimbra aka the jewel in Portugal’s crown.
Felt pretty whack and very spaced out but to be expected after a 4am start, 8 hours on planes and a 4 hour time difference. Really glad I went though. Just stuck in the tunes and ticked it off - good to get the legs moving.

C • good luck 2