Training Log Archive: kido

Started an easy spin on Zwift on the new Volcano loop, 22 minutes in my tyre just went "whoooshhh" and deflated quickly.

It was already nearly 8pm on a Saturday by this point so I couldnt be assed fixing it. Back still very sore.

Tried a series of yoga poses / stretches in an attempt to loosen my back. Limited success.

Should have probably at least done something to loosen up today, but honestly I barely even woke up with enough time to go to work (we got into Sheffield at midnight), and after work didn't feel particularly motivated.

No session today, but almost feel like posting that Kyhil and I walked 18 extremely hilly km around Sintra, sightseeing. There was an amazing ruined castle from the 12th century and a crazy colourful palace from the 1800s - we didn't have heaps of time before our flight but we got through most of the sights and even had another Pasteis de Nata (Portuguese Custard Tart) each to top off our Portuguese experience.

Warm up before POM Day 3. Same assembly as yesterday.

POM Day 4. My watch went flat so the distance and HR are a bit of a guess.

Feeling super smashed today and really unenthused to be honest. Very sore hip flexors and my right hammy and back were super tight.

Chasing start - as usually happens with Aussies for some reason, Ness and I ended up only 28 seconds apart in time after the first 3 races, so I definitely had a good carrot at the start of the race. I could see her from the start and caught her up at around #2, so we had a good long leg together to #3. Not sure on the point of this leg - it wasn't really enough to split up close starters because there was very little route choice.

Had a wobble on #6, lost about 30 seconds as it was further over to the right than I expected. Took a route choice to #7 which was a bit too far to the left at the beginning of the leg and then didn't cut the corner enough onto the the track near the end of the leg. Had another wobble on #8 when I struggled to read the clear gully which was my attack point.

Caught up with an OK Linne girl between #5 and #6 and though I was running faster than her, I was a bit of a mess again so she kept catching me at controls. I got away from her at #9 but then went down the wrong gully at #12, lost about 1 min and she caught me again. We had the opposite butterfly from #13 so I didn't see her again.

Made another really daft error on #14. Wasn't using my compass and drifted off the spur to the left. Took a while to relocate and then did a complete circle back to the control. Lost 1-2 min.

Overall - I was tired. I wasn't really running hard enough, and I was making tired / lazy mistakes. It wasn't a really bad run all in all, but I was well off the pace, especially considering it was my kind of map - lots of open running and not super difficult nav.

Ended up 10th for POM, which is OK but a lot of people didn't run all of the days.

Didn't warm down...too smashed and it was raining.

Warm up before POM Day 3, WRE middle. Today's arena out in the bush south of Portalegre.

POM Day 3, WRE Middle.

This did NOT go well. Completely axed #1 - I mis-read the leg entirely and thought the cliff was on the side of a gully when it was actually near the top of a flat spur. Once I worked that out I had no back up plan, I found Michele (she started 4 minutes before me) and we spent the next 4 minutes finding every control in the area.

#2 was fine but then stuffed #3 - thought I went up the marshy bit to the right but ended up in some rock detail futher to the north-east. On #9 I missed the control and had to climb back up to it, then was caught by one of the girls starting behind me. On the way to #10 I let her pull me over to the left and kicked myself when I saw #11 and had to correct.

The other controls were OK but I was a bit of a mess, kept trying to get away from Michele but I was so messy she kept catching up again. Couldn't get back into the mindset from yesterday.

Today's forest was a sparse cork forest, but the rock detail had a lot more crappy green surrounding it which was slow going.

Warm down after the race.

Warm up before POM Day 2. Same assembly as yesterday.

POM Day 2, a long race. Pretty good run. Lost 1.5 min on #1 but then didn't really make any more errors. #1 I think I did the classic headless run out from the start and then ran down the completely wrong gully. Realised almost straight away. Felt like I was doing a good job of running hard when I could and slowing down in the trickier bits when I needed to.

I did have a few silly micro-route choices, notably on #3 where I scrambled through some green below the rocks at the end of the leg, #4 where I decided to go all the way around to the back of the control for some reason, and #11 where I went up quite possibly the steepest and rockiest part of the slope to the south instead of the nice gradual climb to the north.

The water / gel situation was not ideal, the only drink opportunities were on the way to #3 (way too early) and on the way to #12 (a bit late for me, probably OK if you're fast).

Felt like the route to #10 could have been pretty unfair if you weren't able to find the insane tunnel through the green quickly. I was lucky because I was lead to it by a Portuguese M50.

Very open terrain again, the map was 1:15000 so most controls were on the edges of the detail and didn't require heaps of fine navigation.

Warm down after the long. Feeling pretty smashed. Pretty warm today too.