Training Log Archive: Craney

Put the final flags out, then ran round all the controls waking them up - fortunate thing about a convoluted middle race is that none of the controls are that far away, so it didn't take very long. The race itself went as well as I could've hoped really - people seemed to enjoy it and the winning times were about right. It was a fun area to plan decent challenging courses on with so many great features and varied vegetation. It's hard to plan anything between hard (off paths) and easy (on paths) on this map, so it would've been quite a challenge for the less experienced orienteers. Still, everyone got back in one piece. The window of useability was pretty small - it would've been hard to plan much longer than the Course 1 (4.7km) without going into some proper foul bits of bush. Hopefully the section of map I used will remain 'nice' for future events here...

C • loved it 5

Picking up some flags.

Event: 2016 ACT Autumn Classics Sprint & Middle Champs
 

Fun course around CIT, with quite a bit in the bush. Had heard about #1 being a teaser before I started, but still managed to bin 20secs on it. Vegetation had grown, but distance, direction and the power pole behind should've been enough. Put it behind me and managed to string together a good race from then on. Lost another ~15secs on #12 by not being confident with direction again in the bush. Marty and I were 8secs ahead of the whole field on #20 - presumably no-one else crashed through the hedge? Pretty sure it's not the outlawed black/green so I'll count that as a mistake by everyone else.

C • hedge 5

Went down to Honeysuckle to camp for the evening. Plan was for some peaceful R&R and a bit of running before the race tomorrow - but the place was packed with campers. Poured with rain when I got there though so, rather than put the tent up in the rain, went and put some controls out. Got really lost though, so it took a bit longer than planned. Came back to the tent and everyone was packing up and going home even though the rain had stopped. Winner! Sat around for a bit, then decided to do Course 1 in the dark with my headtorch...

Man that was hard. Obviously helped knowing the course, but being unable to see rocks unless you were right next to them was challenging. Also couldn't really avoid all the thick bushes. Got round to #9 ok and really enjoying it, then somehow drifted on #10 passing through areas of large rocks without seeing them and hitting Honeysuckle Creek at the bottom of the map. No idea where I was so wandered around for a long while. After finally finding it I'd lost all confidence and the same thing happened again on #13. Packed it in then, short-cutting to #16. Good fun though!

Course 1 SPRINT - Splits

Lunch run up Red Hill for a change.

HFW with Tomas.

Fun 1:2000 sprint around a couple of schools in Quangers. Took a bit getting into it on the first one, then came pretty unstuck at #4 - 50% my error going right where there was no way through (although I thought the building grey and canopy grey were very similar) and 50% getting thrown by the new building work. After that pretty good though and really enjoyed the twisty turny intensity.

Red Hill loop at lunchtime.

6x2.5mins at Jerrabomberra Grasslands - pushed pretty hard, nearly vommed at the end.

5mins before and after, plus 1min recoveries.