Training Log Archive: AlistairR

Flying home tonight, Kajaani --> Helsinki (4 hours) --> Singapore (4 hours) --> Sydney (1 hour) --> Christchurch. Going to be a pretty long trip, especially as I really can't sleep on planes.

Knee: not sore to walk but sore if I touch it, not getting worse so should just be a bruise and go down in a few days.

Cold: still got a bit of a sore throat and blocked nose but it hasn't really affected my running so I should be all good.

Last of the KOW races on the relay terrain before the watching the relay. Went off at the start and spent about a minute trying to find the start triangle is it was right next so some out of bounds pink lines and hard to see. Really good entry to 1 but got distracted at the last minute by another control and ended up loosing almost a minute near the circle. 2 was ok but hesitated, nailed 3, got four alright but route was questionable. Missed 6 as I didn't reajust my bearing when I left the forest and hit a wrong control. stupid mistake at 7 when I ran straight past it, nailed 8, 9 10. Tried to boost 11 but the tracking led me to high and found alot of controls that weren't mine.

Brain was definitely to tired to focus on more orienteering today, alot of stupid mistakes and not much mapreading, considering that I still managed to spike a good few of the controls in a terrain I've never really run in before so happy enough. Also kept tripping over stuff on the course, think the body is to broken to hold me up anymore, knee is quite unstable as well.

Cross country skiing with Tim, Nick and Shamus at the indoor ski tunnel. Did a couple of laps up and down the 1.250k tunnel with a bit double backing etc, the tunnel even has several hills on it. Never done cross country before but didn't find it to difficult, Shamus struggled quite a bit, me and Tim were getting as good as Nick at the skating by the end though. Pretty fun, would definitely do it instead of running in the winter if I lived over here. Wasn't to bad on the knee but still feeling sick.

Second KOW race, this time on the middle/relay terrain. Much more technical with quite a bit rock/contour detail on the slopes. Started 2 minutes in front of Nick and 1 in front of Matt. Was a bit hesitant into one but pretty good to two where both Matt and Nick caught up. I was pretty good through the techncal loops just making sure I kept map contact, lost a bit on seven when I got the wrong exit direction. Got away from Matt at 9 and picked up the pace through 10, 11, 12 feeling really good. Realised the last to legs were really long and that I wasn't close to finishing. Got a bit lazy on the first one and ended up a bit high without realising then spent a good 5min in the green before I managed to relocate. Making that mistkae was a bit of a downbuzz on what would have been a decent run, still really enjoyed the terrain so different to anything I've run on before. Managed to hit my same knee on another rock as well which wasn't ideal as my body is very broken anyway (although did feel pretty good physically today).

First of the Kainuii O-week races on the long distance terrain. Really fast and open for most of it with some weird vegetation changes that were both mapped as white. Started pretty average, bearing off for number one then made a parrallel error on three and took the wrong route/hesitated a lot on the way to 4. Had a good patch after that but then missed a control in the green and lost a few minute looking for it. After that I sort of realised how fast you could go in the terrain and really picked up the pace for the last 4 or so controls, probably the best I've felt in Europe so far as I nailed them all at pretty much full speed. Wasn't enough to make it a good result, finished quite a way down the field as I'd lost quite a bit of time near the start, enjoyed the terrain alot though.

Knee and cold ok while running but bad warming up and afterwards.

Woke up with pretty sore throat and a bit of a cold, a few others have got it as well. No spectator races today but will hopefully be all good to race tomorrow. Just walked down to the WOC event center to use the internet etc. Nick and Laura went to a relay training map and Shamus stayed in bed all day.

Watched Sprint final/opening ceremony last night, pretty awesome arena with thousands of people and live TV/GPS for the entire thing.

Slept from 10pm until 11am so missed the sprint qual which was a bit dissapointing. Ran out to the qual arena with Nick and Shamus, Ran back to the event center to pick up our EMIT cards, ran back to the sprint qual and ran the race, walked home again. Knee sore the whole time but not to bad considering this was the first time running on it without being drugged up.

Pretty cool event center with all the orienteering shops etc, me and Nick are definitely coming back to check what size we are in every type of orienteering shoe/gear possible so we can buy them online.

Public Sprint race on the Qual courses, Me, Nick and Shamus all ran Mens A (the same as Tim). Was my first time using EMIT and also first time running a sprint with no set start times but just go whenever you want and join the other couple of thousand people running around it. Was pretty fun but I was disapointed with the course/map, really easy and simple, only route choice was made by the fences the organisers put up and marked as impassable (easily jumpable). Think I was just over a minute off the qualifing time or around that anyway.

Event: Kainuu Orienteering Week (WOC spectator race)
 

Slept for less than an hour last night so was pretty smashed the whole day, drove to prague in the morning and then flew to Helsinki and then on to Kajanii. Staying with Anna, John, Laura, Nick and Shamus for the week while we do the WOC spectator races and watch the actual WOC races.

JWOC relay, first leg for the second NZ team (Me, Thomas, Ryan). Started right at the back (our team was number 54). Used my size advantage to get up to the top ten by the start triangle and then just ran a bearing straight to the first control. Was pretty chaotic at the first few, people everywhere, just picked my routes and then ran with the people on that route making sure my direction was right. Small misses on a few but realised there were mainly scandi's and Czech around me so turns out I was up in 5th place at one point (control 5 or 6). was still doing well until the exit from 10 where I got my exit wrong and was suddenly by myself, took me a while to work out where I was and ended up loosing a couple of minutes. Found it hard to push the pace after that as there weren't many people around me. Got real tired after spectator but Navigated pretty well and stayed in contact with a group that either kept stuffing up or had different splits, came in with the group in 38th I think. Not to bad a run, would have been good if I haden't stuffed 11 and still had people with me, turns out I beat Tim back as he really stuffed up. Ryan Mispunched so not official anyway.

Small warm up area...