Training Log Archive: Craney

5th place, slightly mixed emotions about this - good for the majority and a super fun course through some really cool massive rocks and very runnable terrain, but also frustrated to blow a chance of a medal late on and annoyed to be still feeling a bit head coldy and weak for a lot of it. First few were quite fast shortish legs and I started well, even hitting the lead briefly at #3 and #4. Brodie tried to cheekily point me in the wrong direction to #5 as he crossed over me, which was quite funny. Long leg to #8 was dead running for most of it, but then a tricky diagonal descent into the control - nailed it, which was nice and suddenly was with Marty (3min in front) and Will (6min in front) - a bit surprising. #9 was a decisive leg across the slope - I thought up or down both looked a bit extreme so went for contouring (Tomas went down and it turned out to be substantially better - over 1min quicker than me). Problem was with the head-to-head racing I forgot to navigate properly - so after a few minutes began a game of who can relocate fastest. I took a punt on a patch of light green and was the winner - got a 2min gap on the others. This was nice for me at the time, but in hindsight it did mean that Doyley (3min behind) and Simon (6min behind) managed to get the benefit of running with Will and Marty rather than me. Still, enjoyed being back on my own and had a good section through some fun rocks to #16 (2nd place here, 1:20 down after an hour of racing - although 3rd to 5th only just behind). Straight contouring to #17 was rougher than expected, so lost some time there (~50secs?). Confused, like most people, by the split rock entrance on #18, but it was pretty cool too. Anyway, climbed up the hill ok feeling pretty good about this run technically with only a few controls to go. Still in 3rd at #19. #20 was a tricky one on the slope, and I thought I knew what I was doing as I dropped... but no control despite everything fitting for the whole leg. That meant relocating was quite hard. Turns out I'd slipped slightly and was navigating by the wrong set of very similar cliffs just 100m to the north. A 3min mistake was frustrating enough, but it also meant that the Gardner train (including Doyley) all caught me. Demoralised, the big climb to #21 was hard to not throw toys out the pram. But I knew I had to keep them in sight to avoid losing more time (and also to make sure Marty didn't get back 3mins on me!). So I finished ok at the back of that group. Ended up 5th, 5:48mins back on Simon who won, and 2:45mins behind Tomas in 3rd - really happy for him pulling it out of the bag. Shame not to be quite firing with the cold still lingering but it probably just made it a bit more uncomfortable rather than slowing me down all that much.

C • Excuse me 4

Came 4th, which was better than expected. Decent run on a fun course, with a great mixture of buildings, out onto rocky hillside then back into buildings. I got off to a bad start, struggling to work out where I was for most of the first leg and getting stuck in a dead end losing ~15secs. Then did ok for the rest of the buildings - although very apparent I still wasn't feeling great, but because it was twisty turny I don't think it cost me too much. Went straight over the hill on the long leg, which I think was risky but had the potential to be fast if the control was nailed - I dithered a bit into the circle losing ~10secs. Winged it a bit on the other leg across the hillside to #14 and lost another ~15secs by climbing to a control that wasn't mine. Finished off alright back in the buildings. Surprised to be as close as I was to the W (30secs) - others had a few problems out there today.

Very achy after not running for a week, being a bit fevery and the drive, so knew I needed to do a decent length warm-up. Good to get sweating and feel the lurgy draining away.

Still quite head coldy, but needed to get out to try to blow out a few cobwebs. Just a local loop with a few 'surges' around the Mawson ovals.

C • Race weight 2

More of the same.

Tapering into the weekend plus a bit of a sore throat developing.