Training Log Archive: jennycas

Another 7am departure and 5pm return today; we got there @9 but I wasn't running until after midday. Really wanted to make the most of this being the last year that 2nd-chance qualifiers will be available at WMOC, but struggled to read the map at all and made some fairly daft route choices, having no real understanding of which way was up and which way down, so went unnecessarily over some ridges and around some basins; don't like 2.5m contours and was annoyed afterwards to see that the A3 map which the men received for their longer courses was printed with much finer contours than the A4 I had, meaning that it was possible for them to actually read what was between the contours, which I had no chance of doing.

Lost time on 1, (good track route to 2 though), circumnavigated the deep basin unnecessarily to 4 when I should have taken the tracks, too far left on 5 and then on 6 completely failed to see the road/track option to the left, got confused by crossing unmapped very faint rides and somehow started navigating to 7, corrected this but then still managed to actually go to 7 before 6 because I didn't climb high enough before dropping - lost at least 5 min on that leg and another 2-3 throughout the course; also exited 8 badly. A bit annoyed to be 13th, but it was probably deserved, and at least being 11th overall after 2 days of qualifying means I don't have to wear an additional yellow number.

I'm happier with the way I was running physically today compared to yesterday but I don't think that 1 min start intervals are a good idea; I'm perfectly certain that a number of people got tows on one or other of the days...

C • 2nd chance qualifiers 5

Long - Qualification 2 - Women 40 Heat 1 - Splits

Still not feeling great today, and struggled to get into the map a bit, misreading up & down contours in the pines so the Swedish woman had already caught me 1 min by the first control, then I didn't think I could run hard on the track so took the cross-country route across the rough 'open' - slow, but not terrible, but I stuffed up the end of this leg because a sand blow is really not a good attack point. Was passed by Jo going into 2 but she was out of sight fairly quickly; another couple of women caught me also, who were running faster than me but not necessarily navigating cleanly and so I saw them a couple more times. Took the cross-country route again on the next longer leg (hoping I'll be up to hard track running by Sat though) and this would have been ok except that I was too far right at the end and lost a minute or two. The rest of the course was ok although I had to walk up hills. Also, there was more pampas grass on the ground than on the map but I don't mind that sort of low visibility too much.

Ended up 11th, but aiming for 9th tomorrow - could easily have been 5 min faster on a good day.

We had heard about Auckland traffic, so left at 7am and allowed 2 hours to get there, and needed all but 5 min of it - and then there was still the 2km walk to the assembly area. The plan was to leave the event early enough to be home before traffic time but since the drug-testers became John's new best friend and we had to wait around a couple of hours for the consequences, we ended up getting home @5:30pm...

Long - Qualification 1 - Women 40 Heat 1 - Splits

This cold seems to have hit me with full force and although I didn't feel too bad wandering around looking at the gannet colony at Muriwai Beach, I really struggled with even a jog when at the model event. I headed over to the coastal strip because I wanted to see what it was like, and promptly got confused about which sand-blow I had just climbed - feeling very vague today. The view out west over the Tasman Sea with the waves rolling in across a very flat beach was lovely, but I couldn't seem to see a way down off the dunes because from above, the pine cover looked to be absolutely impenetrable. It's actually quite clear underfoot in many places, but I still found this section fairly intimidating.

Yesterday afternoon Bruce (as part of his bronze medal-winning preparations) wanted to check out the area for the sprint final at Auckland University, so John & I went too, and spent an hour or so walking around the campus even though all the while a little voice in my head was saying "any attempt to survey or train in the terrain is forbidden". The thing is, it wasn't; in fact it was allowed (without a map in hand, of course) until 6am today! And I know that I do well when I can visualise what an area will look like on the ground as soon as I see it on the map...was still scratching itchy midge bites - there's even one on my ear - on the way to the start (we even got a tiny warmup map, and special yellow chest numbers for the top 10 finalists in each class) but forgot all about the itch as soon as I started lining up on the pedestrian overpass which was very neatly used for the 6-minute start process.

First few controls were in the park - I swear there must have been one on nearly every significant tree - and then we crossed into the uni campus, did a loop around it, crossed under the main road through the underpass (some people had trouble realising where the official underpass ended and the under-canopy between buildings began, but it made sense to me and so I won that split, although I had a bit of trouble reading my way to the next - spectator - control) and then a short loop through buildings near the finish. I took a wide route along the road on the longer leg here which I think was good but then didn't quite have the best exit from the next 2 controls. Ran hard up the finish but fumbled the punch on both the last control and the finish unit which I like to think accounts for the 2 seconds which 4th place beat me by. Did think I was going to be 6th, but one of the Finns mispunched and so I was 5th, which I had hoped for. More surprisingly though, I was only a minute behind Jo Allison, who's one of Australia's TWELVE gold medallists today!

C • Woo Hoo 4

Sprint Final - Women 40 Final A - Splits

Epsom Campus, University of Auckland. Actually a really tricky course which made good use of a small area. 'Longer' courses including W40 had a map flip, which meant that in the start box I was able to plan my route to the second-last control, and subsequently had the 3rd-fastest split for that! Also, when I looked at the longer leg 2-3, straightaway I saw the western route, which while it was perhaps a bit longer, had only one set of stairs, so I took that, and somehow won that split. We had a similar leg in the opposite direction later on (15-16) and I pretty much just put my map away and ran 80% of it on memory, winning that split too. What I did not do well was to miss a crucial gap between buildings immediately after 11, whereupon I found myself somehow navigating to 13 without yet having been to 12, and when I did realise this I was so confused that in trying to correct my error I actually ran straight past 12 without realising it, then had to double back, so that was about 100 sec wasted :(

Just had to think of it as an extra control and not let it affect my race. In fact, I still qualified - in 7th although it would otherwise have been 3rd - and was pretty happy given the early awakening to take Geoff to the airport at 6am and the discovery at that time of a couple dozen midge or sandfly bites all over my torso, which I have no idea how or when I acquired.

Sprint Qualification - Women 40 Heat 1 - Splits

Event: World Masters Orienteering Championships 2017
 

We ended up last night at the same guesthouse in Mt Maunganui as 2 weeks ago and obtained pizza from the Pizza Library again (although I accidentally ordered from the wrong shop and the boys had to go across town to collect it). Still not feeling great this morning but thought a run might help, so ran towards The Mount intending to do the base track around it but that's still closed, and neither Blair nor I felt like going up all the steps to the top so we just headed back to the hostel. I made sure to run hard while on the beach, but was stuffed at the end of it. Last glimpse of the Bay of Plenty for this trip was at Waihi Beach and then we drove through Karangahake Gorge stopping to explore the Windows Walkway along an old goldmining tramway with scenic views to the river below.

My accommodation for WMOC week is in a motel at Botany (SE suburbs of Auckland) with Bruce & JohnN and while it's not exotic, it's ok except for the WiFi connectivity which requires sitting in the corridor outside our unit...

C • WiFi 2

Redwoods run with a difference, also with Zara & Blair. Beautifully soft underfoot in the lovely tree-ferny enchanted forest, which my legs appreciated. We passed a group of Japanese tourists who clapped & cheered! Have been feeling a bit headachy and sore-throaty the last couple of days which I'd put down to general mustiness in the house where we're staying and stiff neck from strange beds, but I might actually be getting slightly sick. Feeling a little queasy on the mountain roads too (maybe from lack of salt?) so after we'd been to see Lake Tarawera - hard to believe that the whole thing erupted disastrously in 1886 - I opted out of doing the luge from top of the Skyline gondola with G & J & B and just had fun watching everyone else. Views were good from up there though, and we also went for a nice short walk to the waterfalls below the outflow of Lake Rotorua and were lucky enough to see some kayakers shoot over.

C • Tarewera 1