Training Log Archive: immy

Warm up through Churchill Park.

10 x 30:30s in Tahuna torea and the track to Pt England. Felt good but should have maybe pushed harder...

Ran back home up Taniwha, down Roberta, and up Riddell. This next block of training I have is kind of low-key... it will be strange not having those super challenging runs! But it's time for a physical and mental break I think :)

Doing laps around the event centre in the rain.

Relay at Maraetotara - I was in a team with Toby and Kieran Woods. A pretty good team I think! We were 6th overall. Toby finished quite near the top, although Karl was a couple of minutes ahead of everyone. Kieran finished about 7th - he did well, but couldn't really compete with the speed of Angela and Tim Robertson! My run was good overall, it felt so good to be running fast after crawling up hills the past 2 days. I did lose my concentration and make quite a bad mistake by running straight to 19 and missing 18... that cost me probably 2 minutes :( at least I realised and corrected it though. Other than that, it was a good run. Felt really good sprinting into the finish! I'm just sorry I couldn't catch up a few more places... but there would have been no way of beating Carsten anyway!!!

Long distance at Waipoapoa. I don't know why, but I had a very negative mindset today... :( I just felt from the beginning that everyone would be faster than me, and there was no point in trying. And then I saw some of the controls on that 1:15,000 map and they were just circles around a sea of little black dots... you couldn't even read the contours underneath! Yes control 4, I am talking about you. So I kind of gave up :( Which is really stupid! Because there is no excuse for not trying to do your best.

Anyway, so the first few controls were ok I guess... number 4 and 5 I made mistakes on though, they were some of the ones in the rock detail. What I should have done instead of despairing was just stopped for a bit to figure out the map as best I could, and then made a decent attempt to hit the control accurately. But instead I just sort of checked out a whole bunch of different rocks in approximately the right area :S 6 and 7 were ok, though I slowed down heaps for number 7. Controls 8 and 9 I was very hesitant navigating to... this is when I started doing that thing where I doubt the control will be where I think it is, and keep stopping and checking the map even though all the features around me are matching up.

Then number 10 I made a bad mistake on :( very bad. Lost probably 4 minutes. I stayed to the right of the stream following some earthbanks, and I thought they were all matching up nicely, but then when I crossed the stream to get to the control, nothing seemed to fit. After some time I realised I was too low, though this took a while because I struggled to read the rocks... was looking for a patch of trees but didn't see them for ages either!

The controls after that were all much the same I guess... just felt like I was slow and was also doubting myself all the time. Chose a bad route to number 21, too much down and up! Was not sensible.

Anyway, when I saw how everyone else did I was a bit surprised, because I wasn't as slow as I thought. Without the stupidity at number 10 and making more of an effort to read the detail I would have done ok. So in conclusion, I need to learn how to snap out of a negative mindset! And I need more practise with 1:15,000 maps!!!

Jog with Amber and Lizzie comparing splits. A bit embarrassing... but actually could have been much worse!

Course 2 - Splits

Middle distance at Firestation. The course started off with a few controls very close together, it was intense. I was hesitant on the first few, but then it was ok. Couldn't think of a very good route to 5, so went up and down a bit more than I should have, but at least I had some nice clearings for my attackpoint :) I was quite hesitant again to controls 6 and 7 because there was a lot of stuff on the ground, which always seems to affect my sense of direction... I am quite slow at going through all the fallen trees too :( I hesitated a bit more on the way to 10 especially, and 12. But didn't actually make any mistakes there. Then after 13 Piret caught up to me, so I was running behind her for the last few. I was a bit surprised she didn't catch up earlier!

So overall it was a pretty good run, only quite hesitant at times... and it was also so very steep! I would have liked to be stronger on the hills.

Warm down by myself for a bit then with Piret :)

Course 2 - Splits

Event: NZ Orienteering Champs 2011
 

Sprint at Woodford/Iona. I had a really scrappy start to the course! First of all I was kind of confused by the buildings and paths to the first control, everything came up so quickly. Then I messed up the second by going down the wrong alleyway... though it was very hard to tell which one the control was actually in from looking at the map. I really had to look closely. But anyway, after than things went a bit better. I was with Amber and Piret for some of the controls. I lost quite a bit of time hesitating around the few controls near the spectator... I guess I just wasn't thinking quickly enough and the controls came up so fast! Then at the end I was so tired... so probably slowed down quite a lot.

But it was such a cool map and a very fun sprint :)

Course 2 - Splits

Last run before nationals - I went out to West Tamaki, along it, then back down Roberta and Riddell Rd. It was a nice run though my legs felt a little heavy. Good fun :)