Training Log Archive: Keith

Ocenia Long - Ngatawhai - Wairapa

A bit of an epic. Was quite looking forward to this. A bit rough on the first 2, and number 3 wasn't quite right. Then exit/entry to 8 was poor, so quite unsetlled. On #9 I decided to go out to the right. This turned out to be a very poor route choice. There was a block marked as white that was full of green shite, they'd obviously never been in there. So wastred a lot of time, then had to bail out and go up the hill anyway. Then descended down through the bit of white that ended up in a wall of fight, and bashed down to track. Tryed to get it off the veg boundary, but there was more going on here then mapped (though the formline below does show more what it looked like, but i never noticed that at the time). Bascially there were 2 scandis bashing around like maniacis in the shite, and i waited until one of them found it, and then punched the control. Overall a fairly unfair control.

Then on the way to 11, I tryed to cross a fence with a lean on it. Nearly feel off the thing, which was on a bridge over a stream. dropped the map on the manky stream pool, had to fish it out with a stick. The only thing that would've been more comical would've been me falling back into it too. Ah well at least i didn't run into a road cone.

After this my mood picked up, and did some good legs, though started to suffer physically with the heat/ distance and climb. Some nice legs, though the gully was fairly wild. Really suffering on the way to #24, but glad to have finished. I think my longest orienteer ever.
Even Gueorgiou would be strulling to do that in 95.

There was some talk about that it would've been cool to have this as a world cup race. I think some kiwis would've done well. But the map and controlling would've needed some work.
It was fairly obvious that the mapping was not done by Bryan, and was quite poor in places.
I guess the IOF controller had bitten off more than she could chew this week. Probably the first lesson for her.

Epic.

Long Champs - 1 - Splits

Bronze for Lizzie in the sprint. Awesome work.

Ocenia Sprint Race - Welly College and Government House.

Watched the world cup, after a good pragmatic decision to not quaratine everyone - cheers peoples!
Great to see Lizzie take a medal. A fantastic personal performance and an inspiring one for the home crowd. I hope NZOF captalise on it.

Had quite a good warmup on the way to the start. Then was straight into it, one of the most challening sprints I've run. Up there with JK Belfast & Bristol Uni. Think the run yesterday definitly helped. Went left on 1, and up the bank on #2 and then left on #3. Was wearing road shoes which was a bad move, and whilst not debilating would've cost me ~ 20s, and altered some route choices because of it. Descent to #3 was vertical. Went right to #4. Through these early ones you just had to mkae a rapid assessment and stick with it.

Went right to 7, but made two small errors getting through the building, and died a bit up the hill (30 s). Government house looked like a sweet place for a party. Nice pad. Did a maverick right path route to #10, which i think from the splits paid off as the best option. Ran slightly high on #11 - 5. Should've avoided stairs on way to #13. Then back left to #14. Mucked up #15 a bit with bad route, and then went under the stairs.

Overall pretty pleased with race. These kind of technical sprints suit me. If I had a bit of speed would've been even better.
Slightly dissapointing that NZ got the winning times so wrong, but overall another very postive world cup race.

Winner M Kyburz 17.52

WUD

Sprint Champs - C1 - Splits

World cup qualify at Parliament.
Great atmosphere during the worldcup qualifier. Good too see lots of the girls quailfy. The mens was tight. Intially thought Rhys/Tane would go through, but then the times got a bit quicker.... Dissapointing to see Chris/Tane/Rhys miss out but consolation was that two swedes got knocked out too.
Fantastic arena.

Intresting watching the start at how much more comfortable the men were technically coming out of the start compared to the ladies. The majority of girls coming out were very shaky and failed to cleanly go through the start triangle and pick the right gap to go down. This included the top end ie Tove Anderson. The guys seemed all under control, even the lower ranked atheletes. Would make an intresting (and potentially controversial) study.

I went for a run round the mens course afterwards. Nice work in the planning. Going down steps (3-4) was very slow, and something i hadn't previously considered in route choice. Thought 10 was tricky. Not sure what time I did, ran solidly but not hard.

Manga Pirau Waikawa Beach

First world cup race in NZ since 1994. Very sucessful with lots of people out watching. Inspiring stuff. Some good NZ placings. Felt like a WC race, with medal ceremony etc. IOF should be commended for putting the World back in World Cup.

Our race started through the open dunes, i pushed a bit more than recent days. Did a conservative route choice on 5, which whilst it worked, involved 2 dune crossings and a patch of mostly untracked green, so lost a bit of time. Was a bit frustrating as the direct route apperntly you could see the man-made object, so they lucked-in. Most kiwi's know that that kind of beach leg is extremly risky. Then suffering up through the dunes. When I got to 12 my SI card wouldn't register (hence the mp in some results), I did get reinstated later. Seems random that it didn't work for my card, but Carsten and everyone else behind me had no problems....

Identified 13 as being hard, and went right, thinking i would see the bend and the hill. There was just small (too small to be mapped) sand dunes everywhere, and my plan quickly came unstuck. Then i went to some high ground and try to relocate, which was fairly unsucessful. Before eventually deciding I was too far south and heading north. Lost about 4 mins, and race gone.
It was frustrating, and in retrospect I should've gone straight into it, over the index hill or in from the flat on the left. In relocation, I probably should've done something more radical like out to the east to the flat area. I'm also useless at relocation, partly causeIi don't do it that often :-). In summary my sand dune orienteering is just to poor to do this kind of control clean - and it always has been.
Then followed Carsten down beach to 14, which he promptly stuffed up and so did I (2 mins).

Enjoyable race - Ed Nicholas had a blinder, maybe he should emigrate.

Middle Champs C 1 - Splits

Ocenia day 2, Osgiliath, Waitarere north.

Nice pine forest to start, then a loop out to coast, through low vis, and into the open sand dunes. Started alright, then identified 6 as being difficult and fluffued it up anyway, should've gone more left. Was struggling with running, through soft decomposing surface, and tuned ouit on the way to 9. Ended up hitting track to east and relocating.... but got that wrong, so a bit of a muck up. Found the low vis stuff sutiablly tricky and difficult to run through. Though only 22 seemed real tough. Went out to the road from 26 to 27, which was conservative, but worked.

WUD

Event 2 C 1 - Splits

Event: 2013 Oceania Carnival & WC Races
 

Ocenia day 1, Fusilier - Santoft, Manawatu sand dunes

Things a bit tight at the start, but made it in the end. Beuatiful runnable forested sandunes.
Generally cruised, don't have much speed at the moment. Couple of medium mistakes, mainly in the green strip which was a bit lower vis. Particuarly number 5 and 7. A joy to be orienteering in nice terrain in warm temperatures.

Good to see all the orienteers out in NZ. Wherever I go Orienteering in the world I always see the same people. You just can't get away from Ed Nicholas and the swiss guy with the dirty black mo and flag.

WUD

Event 1 C 1 - Splits