Training Log Archive: briangardner

Event: Gauteng Cross Country 11 - Doornkloof
 

Run was longer than expected... Very little climb, but some well placed controls made things interesting! Also, to keep things even more entertaining, all the paths and tracks had been removed from the Brown map. Nice one! :-) Had a good start, and was running and nav'ing well until #8. Lack of map detail in the area threw me off and did a loop around to relocate to 8. Got it 2nd time. Hit 12 spot on - it was a very well placed control! Stuffed around and visited the next-door ruin before finding 13. Flag at 15 had been eaten by cows, and was torn up, lying about 10m away. Emit and stake was on the ground. Lucky to find it! Compass came into good use from 16-19, some tricky controls and so many rock clusters all over the place. Went too far north to 25, lost a minute at least. Stupid mistake. Last few were fine.

Felt the nav was good today, but the legs started to die a bit after the hour mark. I could certainly feel yesterday's effort on the mountain bike! Only a few runners on brown course, seems like Blue was more popular! Brad pulled out at #7 on the brown to save his legs for next weekend (good move!), so not much other competition on the brown. Took the win with Eugene in 2nd. Should have run closer to 1:10 on this flat course. Lots of thorn bushes out there!! Spent the afternoon digging thorns out of my quads...

Really looking forward to SA Champs now!

C • Avoid the thorns 2

Course 1 - Splits

What a day! Didn't quite go as planned... Got seeded in B batch which I was happy with. Started 10 minutes behind the A batch pros and serious racing snakes. My only goal was to beat last years time of 3:26, even though some sections of the route had changed. Had a great start, and got into a group of 3 leading B batch. Started catching A batch at about 10k. Was feeling good and holding my B batch position and passing A batch riders. About 35k in on a technical downhill I somehow hit a rock and completely bent my front wheel almost in half... and I didn't even fall! Eish! The hazards of riding light weight racing rims in the rocky Magaliesburg... So I knew there was a waterpoint about 3ks on, so I pushed my bike on the back wheel down the mountain, getting passed by so many people. Got to the waterpoint and was going to wait for a lift. Within 5 minutes, Stu Rawlinson came up the trail from the opposite direction with his mate that had just had a massive crash and needed the medics. Stu decided to stay with his mate, and he very kindly lent me his front wheel. Sorted! I was back up and going! Nicky had just passed me at the waterpoint, so I rode about 1k with her before putting the hammer down and playing catch-up for the next hour and a half. Legs and body felt really good today, and I was able to keep the pace up all the way to the finish. Pitty about the wheel, but sh!t happens! GPS analysis shows I lost about 38-39 minutes, so I could have perhaps been faster than last years 3:26. Course had a few changes from last year, so its hard to say. Pushed hard to try get under 4hrs, but that didn't happen! Good day out.

Official result: 90th place out of almost 700 starters. If not for the broken wheel, would have cracked the top 20, maybe even top 15... Next time!

Ride from home to van Gaalen for the race. With a few extra warm-up loops.

Evening run in The Coves. Good stretch afterwards.

Short evening ride with Gratia. Damsig loop, along the bottom of the mountain and back via the railway. Nice warm summer evening!