Training Log Archive: MVB

Doing 500m climb with multiple controls in my neck feels more like a gym work out than orienteering though.

Event: MOCPA 2018
 

KMT Trail 34k

Varosh - Treskavec (8.5k, 700 D+): Start was together with the 16k, so around 350 people starting together was a bit of a mess. First 3.5k is rather flat so I settled into a comfortable 4.50 pace, many people ahead of me but I was not really panicking. Heartrate already at 160-170, probably because of the heat. Temperature in the valley was forecasted around 29 degrees, but because there was not a single cloud and no shade on the whole trail it felt more like 35. Afterwards organisation stated that in some places it reached up to 40! degrees. Already many guys were ahead of me but I kept my hr stable and drinking on time. First uphill was a single track and the fast starters already started to fall back a bit. I saw a gap opening up in front of the pack so I speeded up a bit so I could settle into my own pace. The next 4k to the top is hell, with the steepest km having 190m D+. Kept my hr stable and started catching up many people here. Still many in front but I figured I should not rush and turned out I was 4th at the top from 34k anyway.

Treskavec - Dabnica (4.5k, 550 D+): I still had some liquids in my flasks and the next station was pretty close so I decided not to stop and eat from my own bars. This got me automatically together with the 3rd guy. This section is short, but very technical. After about 10-15', we heard (and saw) a guy screaming in front of us. Twisted his ankle badly. The guy with me, was the brother of the guy in front of us. We both stopped for a minute, but he was going to stay with his brother and both said to me to continue. Got me automatically in 2nd spot, although there were 4 guys right at my back. Good I taped my ankles. I know this downhill fairly good so no problems there. Took my time at the next station to fill up and cool down a bit. Still no people in sight when I left.

Dabnica - Ezero (6.7k, 160D+,140D-): Next part in the valley was supposed to be easy but got me quite some troubles. I lost sight of the marks, or they were taken away and suddenly the road stopped and no marks nearby. I knew the general direction so I decided not to go back but to do a little bit of orienteering. Unfortunately I ended in some tough fields and had to run around quite some bushes. When I got back on the road, I came together with the 4 guys from before. Only 2-3' lost probably, but quite some energy. After this, around 16th k I got my first breakdown. It was the hottest part of the race and I was clearly suffering from this. Decided to give up a bit of my drinking water to cool me down and got through this bad moment quite ok. Arrived at the station in 6th, about 3' down on 2nd.

Ezero - Edinak (4.8k , 570D+): Next part to the peak was brutal, the climb slowly gets steeper and steeper the whole time. I couldn't seem to get closer and as much as I was suffering, I just couldn't get my hr above 160 anymore. This was going to be a long part without station though and I was the one carrying the most water so wasn't too worried about it. The steeper the climb got, the better I started feeling and the worse the others felt. Their group completely fell apart and I managed to catch 2 of the 4 guys before the top, for one of them it was completely game over. In 4th on the top, but no supply here. There was one big problem, I was the one suffering hardest from the heat and my 1l supply of liquids was already gone at the top.

Edinak - Dabnica (4,5k, 590D-): Another extremely technical downhill was waiting for us, I don't know it very well but still felt in control. I was getting closer to 3rd spot but then something hit me. I got cramps, stretching around a bit and continued. Still in 4th spot, soon after this I got dizzy and had to sit down a bit. I've never felt this in a race before. I was shaking and panicking a bit. Wanted to sit down but when I attempted to I got cramps in all kinds of places. Only option was to keep going, but running wasn't. So was walking around a bit, got past by one guy but didn't bother anymore. Only goal now was to get to the station and I'd see from there. Got to some shade and waited there for 2', ate a bar and a gel although I didn't have any water with it. Mentally this was shit, because I was completely dehydrated and the only thing I could see was a hot desert with far down in the distance the tent of the station. Managed to get there but it was mostly walking.

Dabnica - Varosh (5k, 250D+,310D-): I got to the station, tried to sit down but got cramps again, luckily they had some gel to stop the contractions. 2nd attempt to sit down worked and volunteers where kind enough to hand me over all I needed so I didn't have to make any effort. Drunk 1,5l of water, 2 cups of coke with some salt, banana, some biscuits, some dried fruit and who knows what else. Filled up both of my 500ml flasks, saw the next guy arriving so talked myself into standing up and get going again. Next up was quite a steep uphill so I took it pretty easy, luckily I could see far behind to check whether someone was coming or not. After this the last 3k is slowly downhill and quite an ok track so I managed to get some sort of pace again, while checking back once in a while. No one appeared so was happy I didn't have to push anymore.

Brutal first experience with a longer trail run, will probably never stop worrying about what could have been if the temperatures were normal. I was drinking enormous amounts and was eating as much as my stomach could handle but I guess it was still not enough. For some reason my stomach seems to be able to handle real food better than any sort of gel I ever tried which is a bit annoying. 5th out of 118 starters, of which 10 gave up and 19 did not arrive within the time limit. Another 25 people who entered and paid but decided not to start.

Easy, 2k in the middle 4'20-30"

Easy on the way up with Jovan

Fast down but without taking any risks on steep/technical sections, last 1k easy again.

Easy with Jovan, not feeling up for more and don't want to risk anything with Saturday's longest race I will have ever attended so far..

Varosh - Treskavec - Dabnica - Varosh, test run for KMT.
Downhill from Treskavec to Dabnica is extremely technical + have to keep your eyes open constantly to check where the route is going. Think we went on and off many times but hard to know obviously if there is no real track. Downhill turned out to be a slower pace than the uphill.

Easy to and from the park (2x 2k), good speed on the laps there with one hard effort (3'09")

Rev1, deel1

Windy, speed varying from 20 to 35 km/h.

Travelling sleeping training, finally brought my headlamp from Belgium so looking forward to running in the dark again. HR seems normal this time.

1st leg: 5th +6'04"

Most ridiculous miss of the year goes to me, losing 3'15" halfway control 6. After this tons of smaller mistakes because I was nervous from this first miss and then again lost almost 2' to 18, although there I really didn't get the map and many people lost time as well.

Because every team messed up we were still in a winning position when Yannick started on the 3rd leg but he screwed up even more + got DSQ. Less disappointed about him ruining the result than I was about my own race though. Didn't deserve the win anyway with this kind of level.

Map Part 1

Map Part 2

To the soft track and back with some accelerations.
Got a new watch and it said 125 avg hr which is a bit weird imo, seems very low, will see when I do some intervals next week.

Drieboomkensberg, again the beginning felt more like a recovery run and I was well over halfway until I managed to run under 5'00/km comfortably.

Calves probably worse than yesterday. They opened a new park at the end of my parents' street with a 'Finse Piste', so went to check it out. New means extremely soft and tough to run on. Should have done this 10 years earlier though! Went a bit better near the end.

Pretty smashed but had to go out, planned to cycle but no time for it.

Belgian Champs Long: 3rd +4'43"

Felt more like an Ultralong Distance champs but I had great fun out there all the way. Organisation, map, course was all great and glad I came over. Still don't feel like I got the right orienteering flow and again quite some silly mistakes but it doesn't matter that much. I came for gold and Evert was just too strong, everything after that is not important. Congrats to him.

MIstakes:
1) 50" , stayed on the asphalt for way too long to analyse leg to 4, beginner miss.
2) 40" , couldn't see the green and ran past the control almost in the valley
4) 30", small compass error and had to run in the green for much longer
21) 1', didn't understand the green/hashed area before the control and got distracted by people searching something in the next valley, I was completely on the right way though so if I had trusted my compass, I would have spiked it.
22) 20", bit upset about the silly mistake to 21 and almost ran myself into green mess, then decided to go around.
25) 1', RC was good but took a path too early and realised pretty late.

So still most of it is about orienteering routine and lack of confidence. However there is improvement compared to last week.

10 Months ago I was still in severe pain due to a problem no one could locate. Many months of intensive rehab later, I am already extremely excited to be able to finish a 20k long distance orienteering event without major problems. I could not have imagined this at the end of last year. Few more races to come but already eager to run a bit less and to work hard again on my strength so I can get in many more miles in 2019.

Travelling to Charleroi with quite some delay, then sleeping over close to the Belgian champs so I didn't have to get up early.

Bad feeling but pretty usual the day before an important race.