Training Log Archive: Anvil

Suck it, monkeys.

C • not jealous at all :P 2

OOCup, Day 5.
Best day of the karst races, but still nothing special. Lost 90 off the bat on the first short leg, too fast, no contact. Pretty good through the middle part of the race, 6-7 was the longest section of sustained running of the entire week and was finally feeling strong in the terrain - running through rock fields and still able to read the map. Unfortunately fell into old habits at 16 and 17, not checking compass enough and going off in wrong directions - wasted about 10 minutes total on those 2 legs.
Placed 41st/61 (and about 15 mps and DNFs), best placing of the karst races.

44th/51 overall (and a whopping 24 mp or DNF over the 5 days). Bit disapppointed, have felt like I've been steadily improving through Norway and France so being a muppet for 3/5/5 days is tough to swallow.
Really though, this terrain probably takes more than 4 days to master and good compass technique is vital - running out of a featureless bowl in the right direction is impossible to do without the compass and it's probably one of my weakest skills.
Anyway, really looking forward to Swiss O Week, hoping for some good physical races. Running 21L instead of E, glad I made that choice now - competition should still be good, I'll hopefully just be a little further up the results board!

OOCup Day 4
Farkin' shit. May have to hand in my compass and dibber after this.
Spike 1 through 5 and running well, there's less crap on the ground than the other days and you can read the map whilst running. Then do a 90 out of 5 and a 180 out of 6. Not huge errors, a minute or 2 each.
Then half way to 9 and I plan on running down a gully between 2 tracks, when in actual fact I'm meant to be going up a spur. I run down a long depression instead and get turned around a bit, hit the track I was meant to, but then bolt off the wrong way down it. About 500m later I decide somethings wrong, whip out the compass, it spins round like a top and settles the exact opposite way I'm holding the map. I have no idea where I am, haven't been that lost in a very long time. Head back along the track, it connected on to another that runs between 2 massive holes and I relocate and trudge on.
Then the course goes into the worst, crappiest, rockiest shite of the week so far. I swear, if I wan't to scrabble through slippery rocks, I would have stayed home and gone for runs on the back of Mt Wellington. Seriously contemplating a DNF, but decide I want a complete result, so trudge on. Finally get through and from 16 to the finish is in the nicer stuff like the start of the course. Do the 5 contour extra over route to 19 just cause I don't feel like I've done anything. Nice downhill through pineforest to the last control.
Threw my first post race tanty. It felt good.

OOCup Day 3.
The easy, respite day. Easy spur gully with a smattering of rock. Very similar to Canberra, but about 10% of the trees and nothing underfoot but a nice soft layer of leaves, very steep in places. Sooo nice to run on and run quickly after the last 2 days.
Fairly straightforward, just get the direction right out of the control, make a handrail out of a contour, avoid running along steep slopes and get as quickly as possible to the circle.
A few minor mistakes, 30 secs each at 16 and 18 slightly overshooting - more through denial of the climb I had to do in the circle and maybe a minute at 19 not climbing enough contours coming round a very steep hillside and ending up too far down on the otherside. Wasn't a bad route just got confused momentarily. Possibly could have run a bit harder, still felt quite fresh in the finish.
Not bad, about 9 mins down on the leaders.
Back to the tough stuff tomorrow...

C • Day 3 2

OOCup, Day 2.
Stuck to tracks as much as possible, the map was covered in green (slow) and rocky ground (slower). But was totally stuffed after about 2/3rd of the way through. Not sure why, the courses are short, but maybe the constant up and down coupled with the heat is making it hard - I never felt so crap and slow in France or Norway.
No huge time losses, but heaps of little ones. Notably (all 1 minute-ish), 3 going well offline, on the way to 10 going up the wrong track and turning back, not going into forest early enough at 13, distracted by another control and lost contact at 22. 2x2 minutes having brain collapse to 26 - firstly getting confused on a track network, then the old inverting the contours trick nearer to the control. Capped it off with a bit of a lay route to the final control and having to run through the spectators.
Not sure how far behind the leader I was, I only got back just in time to catch the bus back.... and grab a quick Pivo for the journey.

Not sure I'm convinced with this terrain. While it is an incredible mental challenge, it's mostly too rough to run more than 50m without being forced to walk. I think having the M21E winners hovering around 10 min/km says it all. While it's nice for the novelty, it's not somewhere I'd want to run all the time.

C • Day 2 Map 1

Event: OO.cup/09
 

OOCup, Day 1.
This has got to be the hardest terrain I've ever run in.
Was continually misreading the shape of the land, it doesn't help that depressions can be anywhere; mainly on the bottoms, but also on the side of the hill and occasionally on top.
Check out that km rate, todays race was a few islands of competence amongst a sea of mediocrity.

Missed the start flag, but luckily realised and changed direction. Clean for the next two, then had a six minute blow out on 4. Was going the right way, didn't see my attackpoint, panicked and then ran around in circles until relocating off a track. Good again for a few more, then crossed a track on the way to 8 without realising and then got it confused with another. 5 minutes later I'm punching the control. Ok through some butterflies, but then totally lose it on 15, which we'd already been to - drifted offline then expected in to be on the northside of a long hilltop, but it was actually a long depression. In and out a few times till I work it out. 7 minutes there.
OK for the rest, but I'd gone out too hard and was exhausted - walking all the hills.
GPS gives 7.2km total. Was 18th/20 when I left which surprised me cause I thought I'd be last! Big spread of times so places are available to catch up.
The most difficult thing is maintaining good flow, I think that is the key. Go slowly, avoid excessive climb (lots of short, sharp batches of 3-4 contours to cross if you're not careful), avoid green (super twiggy pine trees that induce crawling) and use tracks as much as possible (way faster than forest and don't seem to undulate much)
Easy.

C • Course and aneurysm inducing terrain 5

Just a very short leg loosener in the forest next to the accommodation at Logatec. Did run further and longer than this, but I stopped the clock when I was battling through some blackberries as I crossed the rail line and forgot to restart it....
Kept on losing the track and doing a bit of terraining, but all good fun - lots of big holes in the ground as usual. Terrain is faster than it looks though, could be dangerous. Looking forward to these races, should be bloody hard - maps look like the Eastern tip of Pittwater, but inverted and white with rocks.