Training Log Archive: Fly'n

AR Spin on Wind Trainer

Push Ups and Core - Home

Week 4, Column 3, Day 1 (again)
21 (did 25 as got carried away) - 25 - 21 - 21 - Max(32)/41

Wellington Champs Long

Map with Route

Now know why I lost so much time on number 2, because the map and control placement were wrong

Bryns lack of enthusiasm wore off on me by the time I started, and took so long to get into moving and the map, couldn't make head nor tail of the first control but just played along the line of bumps until it appeared, 2nd control I thought I was on a good compass but when I started looking around for visible features aka the hill the control should be on (Teros full speed no mistakes approach) all I could see was flatness, and I didn't know what I had done, there was a slight rise to my left so went to that to try and work out where I was (turns out it was the lump with the control on it but never saw it) had no idea so went back to the track, then along to the horse shoe shaped formline to re-locate then in again and sort of fell over it not really expecting to see it (never saw the 2nd hill under the number either on the map or the ground, and think the whole area is fucked) 3 I hit the edge of the thinned crap so went around it as much as I could before heading straight in, got lucky with a line to the control but on the next leg the clearing was much bigger and carried on further south, so I was west of the control looking at the flag but couldn't get to it because of the thinnings, ended up doing a massive back track to find some way through. 5 was piss easy and 6 again just tried to avoid the thinnings. 7 and 8 alright but still felt really slow and struggling to get into it physically and was looking behind me for Mike, went up the inside of the forest for 9 before heading across the open, I could see Mike around the lumps where the control should be as soon as I got in the open, and was thinking that I was expecting him to come up behind me not be that far in front of me already (turn out he missed 6 completely) I ended up getting 9 before him and there were a few others looking for the tight little bastard as well. The start of 10 was another bingo path finding through thinnings, me and Mike went in at the same spot, I zig and zagged left and popped out 100m further ahead on the track (Karl went through directly north of 9 and said it was clean as and was way quicker) I then took a great stack right before the open landing heavy on my ribs, spent a few seconds laying on the ground in pain while Mike asked if I was ok and ran past. Was a little bit behind Mike going through 10 and 11 and going across the open to 12 a massive stag came charging out of the opposite forest with Sarah Grey behind it, was a nice beast (the stag). Lost sight of Mike right before 12 but then he charged into it right in front of me, behind him on 13 and he was pulling away on 14, pulling away right past it, so I punch it and took off, got 15 good, but lost it on 16, went too straight not left enough and was in open/low vis green no mans land before finding it at the same time as Mike, then he was in front bashing through shit for the next leg and I thought we had been going left, so once we got into the low vis I saw the paddock in front and thought it was the one north of the control and looped back a bit (and must have confused Mike as he followed) I then stopped and thought I should probably check my compass and realised the edge was going the wrong way, got back online and struggled into the control. I thought Mike would run away on the next leg but was going the same speed and then I took the lead going around the thinnings and into 18, feeling alright, but then Mike must have had enough and it felt like he really put the hammer down along the track to the drinks and was starting to leave me for dead, I stopped for a drink and leppin and Mike was gone, then he came charging towards me as I was punching 19, so I put the hammer down through 20 and 21 and out to 22, by the time I got the end of the paddock before 23 I couldn't see Mike behind me. Struggled though the thinnings into 23 but managed to get it ok, then on 24 it was more a case of going where you could not where you wanted, thought I knew where I was, but got right next to the hill and couldn't get through the small re-entrant right before it and started doubting where I was due to the pushy nature of the thinnings, so bailed to the edge and back into it, since I had lost time on that and I (thought) had blown Mike away (turns out he slowed down after he realised he had missed 6) I lost any push for final few flat nothings legs. Didn't matter was way off the pace, and rightly so with some major time loses and lack of aggression at the start and finish (plus the bingo bullshit nature of running through fresh thinned areas)

Another side note, the printing of the colours were shithouse, this is one thing that NZ oing really needs to sort out, far too many crap printing (and cartography) jobs stuffing up good maps

Event: Wellington Orienteering Championships
 

Wellington Champs Sprint

Map with Route

Control in wrong place for 1 and map was fucked there and around 2 (mapper being fucken lazy with their contours) from then it looked like a giant street race with a couple of controls in crap dunes, and lost all motivation to push, especially considering the afternoon race. 8 was fucked, big pole directly behind the feature that the control was on was not only hidden under the number but also way closer than mapped, plus description was spring, and there was a stream running out of the control, but no stream on the map, short legs through the dunes were a joke, saw the flag even before you had time to look at your map. Stopped at 12 to check fence to 13 as again number covering the most important feature, and wasn't going to attempt to cross the stream with these shoes (to slippery) on the way to 14 thought I was running to the finish, then realised there were more controls on my descriptions, so had a couple of nicer controls in the motor camp, but twice had hedges in front of me I couldn't see on the map (minimum line thickness?) Then pretty simple to finish (could see 19 from 18) I also think that the 4 different finish boxes were out of sinc something that should really be checked when using that many

Also everyone knew the first control and area around it was fucked, yet no one protested, or even after their own daughter came back saying it was wrong the controller didn't invalidate the course. This is bullshit, and I think the stigma around someone protesting being the worse thing that that person could even think of doing, has got to change and that if we dont point out what is a mistake (in an official way) so people can learn from it (and also publish it through some sort of controllers forum) then we end up with crap events after crap events

Wellington Champs Middle

Map with Route

Bullshit box-thorn crap and flooded lake with no warning.

Contrary to what some others think, I think this was bingo bullshit, the box-thorn was not mapped 'well' especially in an area that cattle use there are always going to holes that get made and are not on the map and also areas that are not as passable as mapped, plenty of evidence of this, me on way to 4 got lucky with a hole, Tane on way to 8 went straight through middle of a line of box-thorn to name a couple, plus the mapping was different around 10 and 11 than the rest of the map, no box-thorn mapped at all just green stripe. On the flooded lake - from the program "Due to the wet winter several “seasonal marshes” are in fact standing water" nothing about the lake is now twice the size and incredible slow (no marsh around the south western edge of the lake on the map), and considering NZ has a tendency to have as many starters notes as possible this was not mentioned there either, and it was at least a minute slower. More on the mapping, what the fuck is the point of mapping something at 5m contours and then sticking in a formline between everyone of them, was so hard to read with broken brown lines inside green stripe (then the contour colour and I think thickness changes in the forest as well) and fences, for fuck sake its not a safety issue, we dont need them and they make a joke out of some legs (well the setting does that but fences dont help). It is good to see that people are finally starting to cut circles, but I cant work out why some are cut where they are and not where they should be and still not cutting of lines.

Now the course:
1 seemed weird, struggled to get to it and never felt right (apparently you could see it from the start area but only the last starter noticed that)
2 was alright, 3 I was getting sucked right but realised soon enough to jump ridge lines, for half of 4 I wasn't paying attention and got lucky spotting a hole in the box-thorn when I should have had to go around, then coming into the control it was weird again, was looking for the 5m round hill behind the control but it was dead flat and just sort of fell into the control, still trying to get my head around 4 and never really looked at 5, didn't pick up on the race (farm type) or the line of green and had to make a detour trying to find a way through, 6 easy, 7 I was worried about there not being a gap but found it on the second attempt, 8 actually looked ahead so went around the box-thorn, 9 would have been too easy on a white course. 10 thought it would be sweet running around the right of the lake, no the whole paddock was a lake and lost heaps of time wading through it, and had to go further out as there were cattle going mental on the forest edge (given the organisers experiences with cattle the first thing I thought they would do is make sure the farmer has the cattle miles away from the event), 11 and 12 alright, swung wide to avoid 'swamp' on 13 then could see Bryn going back and forwards and all over the show on the side of the hill, and I could not convince myself that the massive hill was what the map was trying to tell me. Had Bryn up my ass to 14 and into the forest, couldn't tell which controls were in which order or tell what was going on into 15, just about everyone has said it was weird and both me and Bryn stopped right next to it before seeing it on the other side of a fallen tree. 16 was just hard getting into the control through the shit then 17 Bryn seemed to go way right and I went straighter and got majorly stuck in box-thorn loosing heaps of time and Bryn, 18 was another fight through fallen trees, then tried putting the hammer down as Bryn was way in front, couldn't see 19 hidden in the lupin, the rest were straight forward

Run with Bryn from his place

Easy Ride Out. Riverhead.

Ride Round Loop with Claire. Riverhead.
Slow

Push Ups with COre In Between. Home.
Week 4, Column 3, Day 2 (again)
25 - 29 - 25 - 25 - Max(36)/37

Foot was really sore today, (and yesterday but never felt it running) finally got a good slither of glass out this evening, after some surgery from Claire

Run. Albany.
Warm Up

Short Ints. Albany.
5 x Al Landels slight downhill 30s ints then 5 x short sprints on 30 sec starts

Cool Down back to Car. Albany.