Training Log Archive: Craney

At Ratall Creek. Mispuched (w18). The record books won't look favourably on this outing. But for me I felt like it was still progress having not been able to run properly (let alone do any proper orienteering) since NZ and with only 3 weeks til I go to WOC.

Mass-start with a reasonably elite field - together with David (Swede), Tomas, Marty, Grant and Robw through the first three. Felt fresh and comfortable, but zigzagging a bit through fairly vague bush and with distracting rivals off to either side. Then we split in half for a couple of loops for the next 8km or so. Long leg to 5 I came unstuck a bit but rescued by the sounds of Grant shouting that we'd just made an EPIC MISTAKE!!! Turns out we were in the wrong spot, but only just, and we lost about 45secs max. Meanwhile he shot off somewhere else never to be seen again.

Had a reasonable section from then and dropped all of the others except for Marty. Pleased with how I was feeling and the nav got better. Dropped ~1min on #12 and #13. Marty was hanging back a bit though, so a lot of the time it felt like I was on my own. Couple of wobbles on #15 and #16 (~1min) let him get ahead - fair play, he certainly was keeping tabs on things. Back through the pivot and to the assembly - maybe I took my eye off the ball a bit here? Vague leg to a termie on a vague spur which I saw from a long distance away. Didn't check codes and in the end it turns out there were two controls about ~100m apart both on termies on the same vague spur. Ooops. Mispuch.

So went through the start ~10km in with Marty just ahead and, it turns out, Tomas ~1.5mins ahead (not surprising given some of our earlier wobbles). Marty and I proper nailed the last loop and got back past Tomas as he went AWOL on #21. As we ran to the penultimate I was assessing my options for ways to beat the Olympic marathon runner just behind me. I decided that the options most likely to result in me winning involved either stopping dead or deliberately getting lost, which I decided I wasn't brave/cocky enough to do. So we just kept going and he duly out-spurted me. In hindsight that was the right choice since we both mp-ed anyway!

Aanyway, positive to get moving in terrain again. And felt like I gained more confidence in the nav as the race went on.

C • marty 2

6x5mins on a loop from home including Farrer, Wanniassa trig, and the spine MTB track through Isaacs. First couple up-ish, third the entire ascent of Wanniassa, fourth and fifth flat-ish, sixth downhill. Good to get the legs moving for once.

Other bits of aforementioned run.

Arvo run up Arawang from home. Nice and sunny (but cold). Felt a bit stiff to start with but got going ok after a while.

6x3mins on Davo. Not feeling at all fast but kept pushing ok. Some decent climb.

HFW - seemed to be feeling a little bit better than I expected, but still only ran steadily. Some fat bastard cyclist made me jump by dinging me as he passed - completely unnecessary as I was on the side of a wide cyclepath with no other 'traffic' about. I was so close to some comedy gold retaliation a few minutes later when we hit a hill and I started to gain on him - so I proper sprinted with the intention of returning the favour with a verbal 'DING!', but unfortunately the hill topped out just before I got the chance.

C • Hehe you paint a picture.... 1

In Brisbane with work but fortunately had quite a gap between meetings ending and my flight home, so took the chance to do a run. Also fortunately in Brisbane this means (a) making use of the excellent Cycle2City locker and shower facilities right in the CBD (b) Wendy emailing me a recent sprint course in the nearby Roma Street Gardens and (c) downloading an app that beeped when I correctly found the controls and, in theory, uploaded my result. Great fun! Well it turned out my phone went wrong so I never got the result, but it was a good run nonetheless. Only downside was I felt quite feverish and weak again, so I didn't really run properly or for as long as I had intended. Pork pie and branston pickle afterwards did perk me up somewhat.

Sunny but brrr cold. WFH today so took the chance to run on Isaacs and Farrer which were lovely as always. Took it steadily but it was more of the same: legs fine, head sleepy.

C • Cold? 2