Training Log Archive: Jay-T

To summarise; one great result, two decent performances, three poor performances, four enjoyable areas and five more chapters in the ever frustrating but addictive sport of Orienteering. Maps etc. can be found via the link below / on the associated Facebook page:

http://www.croatiaopen.net/2014/

Croatia Open Day 5 Petehovac
Same area as yesterday but a kind of long-middle distance today.
Last chance to try to reach the heights of my Day 1 performance.
Extra tape for my shoe sole and triple checking my start time meant that I did not repeat the disasters from yesterday.
Took a high line to #1 which probably suited me and was certainly a safer route even if it costs a few seconds. Cautious to #2 to avoid overshooting down the hill, then spiked #3. Stopped short of #4 as the first rocky ridge that I crossed appeared more substantial in reality than on the map, but worked it out fairly quickly [30]
#6 Safe route to the west, again costing a few seconds but better then a few minutes... Caught a couple of guys here - not sure that they were on the same course, but they had at least a couple of legs the same which helped me run a little quicker to stay ahead.
Vegetation around #7 slightly threw me, but picked the flag out. Good to #8. Intended to go straight to #9 but drifted off line when circumnavigating a sink hole and came out on the path... Fortunately this was a viable route so not too much lost [20]
#11 Climbed unnecessarily to start with then hesitant when attacking from the big crag as the contours didn't quite seem to fit but not a disaster [20]
Gave a pretty blatant hint as to the position of #11 to the lost-looking Hungarian from Day 1 here (ultimately caught me 2min).
#12 Could have been difficult but hung quite high.
#13 Saw Jarno! Briefly.
#14 Bit lucky.
#15 Hungarian now right on my tail, but held him off until the climb out of #17. Just behind for the last few before managing to overhaul him on the line.

11 of 30, Winner 38:22

Walked around the Day 3 area in the afternoon as the other three had headed to Slovenia. Rougher than I remembered when I was competing. Massive thunderstorm broke and I got absolutely drenched.

Croatia Open Day 4 Petehovac
Short-Long Distance on a contrasting area - fairly rough and vague with patches of open and denser trees.
First mini-disaster was discovering that my left shoe sole was coming apart beforehand - once again; nice work VJ... Taped it up but this meant that I was somewhat cautious, especially once the tape gave up.
Second mini-disaster was almost missing my start time - I was at the pre-start with plenty of time but just had the wrong time (+2mins) in my head for some reason. Straight through the boxes with about 10s to spare was not the best preparation.
#1 should have been a warning as I struggled to follow the vegetation changes which were the main feature to use in the first section of the map, stopping to look too early [30]
#2 was a bit of a beast of a leg - and was effectively make or break for the course. It broke me as I lost confidence in my position after seeing Beasant (thinking I was too low; it transpired that he was too high...) Relocation was difficult and I eventually had to go right to the top of the hill to do so... [7mins]
Hard to find any focus / motivation after that, but briefly soldiered on and spotted Barber (caught me 6mins) ahead to #4. However, I went high to avoid the rough open and overshot [120] - I did not see him again.
Sad to say that I lost motivation at that point and cannot really remember much of the rest of the course off hand - it was mostly short legs that would have suited me had I not blown it on #2. Jogged / walked most of the rest annoyed at my lack of discipline.

22 of 27, Winner 60:48

Zeleni Vir (waterfall), Vrazji prolaz (canyon) and Muzeva hizica (cave).
The canyon was probably the best, although involved negotiating some rather structurally suspect walkways...

Croatia Open Day 3 Delnice
Fairly epic long distance in a karst area with the arena overlooking the town. Hot.
Steady start; wobbled on the first 3 controls but no disasters.
First longer leg to #6 I took a straight route and was very hesitant but just needed more conviction [60]
Route choice to #7 dubious but in a respectable 13th position here.
#8 Stupidly turned off the track at a random point thinking I'd work it out and save time by cutting the corner. I did work it out, eventually, after doing a little tour to the NE, and certainly did not save any time [180]
Jarno Parkkinen (day / overall winner) came past on the way to #10, but only after I had led him into #9. You're welcome Jarno.
Around some Scottish guy for the next few (M20 course must have been similar?) who seemed to keep picking better lines.
#14 Another long leg, another poor route involving more rough terrain than necessary and then switched off in the circle [150]
#16 Extra distance on my route didn't save as much climb as I had hoped and meant that the approach to the control was slow [100]
#18 Spotted Llewellyn catching me (12min) at the previous control and blundered around with no plan [150] as he passed by.
#19 In a bit of a low, just wandering around aimlessly until Fabien Pasquasy (21min) appeared to lead me in [180]
#20 Bit of a tow from Fabien to start the leg, but then as he got away I came across Llewellyn in the middle of nowhere; bit of a surprise and slightly offputting, but got to the flag without too much trouble [60] unlike Andy who had lost at least another 5mins / 10 positions there.
Led Andy on the short leg to #21, rather puzzled as to why he wasn't accelerating away, then took different lines to #22 and he punched just before me.
Fabien appeared on our tail here, evidently having missed #22 and we were all together at #23 with Andy leading.
Long leg to #24 - straight the only sensible option, but Fabien veered right when we hit the big track. Took the lead from Andy on the straight route, before he dived left (to get a drink I learnt afterwards) and I was on my own once more.
Bumbled through #25 thinking that the others were ahead, then took a poor eastern route to #26, before spotting the Llewellyn-Pasquasy train off to my left; jumped on the back once more.
Still navigating as I punched #27 ahead and despite falling behind to #28 found a better line up the hill to the last control to finish 15s or so ahead in real time (albeit many minutes down in race time!)

Once again it was the longer legs that (at least initially) proved to be my downfall. Good job that I got some impetus by re-catching Andy otherwise I would probably still be blundering around aimlessly.

21 of 25 (+5 softies), Winner 92:19

Found the lake that eluded us yesterday. Unfortunately so did a lot of noisy Welsh people.

Rest day - hike from Crni Lug up Veliki Risnjak (1528m).
Great day and good views once we (eventually) emerged above the tree line. Good pace!

Looked for a lake to swim in. Found another reservoir.

Visited Krk - loads of tourists in spite of the rain.

Croatia Open Day 2 Omisalj
Wet conditions made it somewhat treacherous underfoot. Plan was steady and no errors - the area was pretty straightforward technically.
Probably concentrating too much on not falling over as I managed to chose the wrong (albeit typically marginal) route several times including the long leg to #12 where an encounter with some 'rough open' left me somewhat worse for wear [75]
Not a highlight for me!

30 of 34, Winner 14:49

Event: Croatia Open
 

Visited Lokvarka karst cave - pretty impressive and better value for money than the massive tourist one in Slovenia.
Later found a reservoir than sat in the car whilst it rained before the event - that wasn't meant to happen!

Croatia Open Day 1 Sunger
Great start to the week with a tricky middle distance. Navigated well for the first couple, then spotted Llewellyn (2min man) heading back towards #3 as I left. Led through to halfway to #6 before he took over, but got back ahead as he overshot in the circle slightly.
Hit #7 pretty well to create a gap of ~30s to Llewellyn (and 4min Hungarian who had appeared from somewhere), but I then missed #8 on the slope [40] and they both punched before me.
Path climb to #9 saw me struggling to match the pace of the others and I dropped off the back of the mini train as they now had pulled out ~30s.
Potential to make up a bit of ground to #10, but visited the rock feature further up the slope initially [20] and they were out of sight when I punched.
However, executed the leg to #11 ok and as they both messed it up slightly they were back in sight; I picked up the pace (downhill!) to #12 and was back in the mix.
To be honest from there to the finish it was pretty much a case of hanging on, which I just about managed; also pipped Barber (6min) to the line right at the death.

6 of 30 Winner 30:46

'Warm Down' with Sludo and ba-ba... bit too quick and hilly for me, so I cut it short.

Arrived in Croatia. Blast of heat upon stepping out of the aeroplane was unpleasant, but not really representative of the weather to come (although we didn't know that then...)

'Easy' (for the other three) run from the accommodation in Croatia.
Small amount of inadvertent transgression into the Day 3 area...