Training Log Archive: Brooner

Event: Metro League #5 - "The Final" - Lansdowne
 

Lake Macquarie Rogaine with Mounty.

Had a pretty good plan for the route and intended clearance which was reasonably straightforward to decide on. It was looking to be on the short side, and we had a couple of options early on depending on the terrain (or rather how thick and nasty the veg was) with plenty of choice for dropping stuff at the end if short on time, but as it was we easily cleared the lot (or did we?).

Mounty realised he'd left his compass in the car when the start hooter went, so went back to get it, and we rushed a bit on our first control #41 and had our first fail with unmapped tracks crossing a couple of tracks which fitted what was on the map but one wasn't, so we ended up off and having to bushbash through crap to the first control ending up there pretty late compared to everyone else. Right, reset, don't trust tracks, keep it simple. Then we set off to #60 instead of #100 as was on the plan (and marked on Mounty's map) - I think we both had our maps folded so completely missed this leg and merrily went on our way.

As it's Lake Mac there was horrible thick and steep stuff, but we were finding some good lines at times and making good progress. As it's Lake Mac there were a few wobbles due to the map, with unmarked/overmarked tracks or creek oddities early on but got to grips with it. A few poor directional things climbing too high or off on bearings but nothing major. Good decisions on route kept the off-track stuff to a minimum, though still got caught up in slow creek vs slow bush decisions too often - think even the slow creek was typically faster.

Was getting stupidly hot in the middle of the day and we were both out of water, so rerouted to the T&D slightly early with creek splashes keeping us going until there. Was pretty straightforward from there back with lots of track time - made it to the moved control #40 in the last of the light and looped around the final controls to finish well over an hour early, thinking we'd cleared the course. Only to then download and discover we'd missed 100. Probably a 20-30 minute out and back from the Finish in the dark if we'd realised. Doh Doh Doh.

Finished 2nd, unsurprisingly 100 points down, with Ronnie & Dave clearing in 11:40 hours.

Map here & Strava/Photos here.

15.25pp/km

Event: Sydney Summer Series #2 Harold Park
 

23.21pp/km

13.56pp/km

Glebe Flag Chasing, complete with controls visible from my kitchen. Didn't think it was clearable on first look, so when I saw the early results had to re-plan and it took me a long time to figure out a near optimal route - main issue was avoiding too many big road crossings and climbs (though could have changed one or two things).

As it was, it was easily clearable and much faster than expected, despite a few mess-ups around circles (unsure on one of the moved controls, hunting a little for others).

Really smashed afterwards, and stomach totally flipped out after dinner.

13.5pp/km

15.15pp/km