Training Log Archive: blairtrewinIn the 1 days ending Jul 30, 2015:
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Thursday Jul 30, 2015 #
12 PM
Run race ((orienteering)) 1:10:47 [4] *** 7.4 km (9:34 / km) +320m 7:52 / km
spiked:19/19c
Went into today knowing that as long as I didn't blow up or make a significant mistake, I was almost certainly going to qualify, and hence had a race strategy centred on minimising the risk of either blowing up or making a significant mistake. I was a little apprehensive about the former - I've had a lingering cold through the week which doesn't seem to have had any appreciable impact on my running (except perhaps on the last day of O-ringen), but was at the coughing-up-stuff stage today so didn't quite know what to expect. (I must have sounded awful to anyone around me on the first leg, but was fine after that).
Whilst relevant caveats are the conservative pace and some conservative route choices (I'd almost certainly have gone straighter on 3 and 5 in a final), I think this is just about the cleanest race I've ever run in Sweden - nothing bigger than going around the wrong side of a rock a couple of times and one brief hesitation on the way in. Particularly pleased with the potentially perilous later part of the course - in particular, 16 and 17, both small features in green, screamed out "here be dragons!", but care was taken and dragons were avoided.
It did seem a course with less potential for disaster than yesterday, and this was reflected in the smaller number of blowouts; I was a little surprised to be as far back as 23rd (same as yesterday) with a better run than yesterday. Had about 10 minutes in hand over the cut line, but actually slipped back one place so I'll have an early start on Saturday. Others had other start time priorities - Tuomas Tala (2nd yesterday) started 2 minutes behind me and I suggested to him before the start that I'd see him early on, but he said he needed to start no later than 11.40 (equivalent to 12th place) on Saturday to make his flight. He was around me at times in mid-course but clearly decided that he needed to go slower than that because he dropped another 9 minutes over the last few controls, including a 3.30 finish chute. (His mission was duly accomplished - he was 18th).
I'm not going to get out of this week without some jury work. One of the W65 heats got incorrect printed descriptions (this sounds like the same problem as 2009 - can someone who remembers the details confirm or otherwise?) which were picked up by some of the earlier starters. The organisers have voided the course (thus qualifying on one day only) but someone has protested against that decision. We'll be meeting in the morning.
Whilst relevant caveats are the conservative pace and some conservative route choices (I'd almost certainly have gone straighter on 3 and 5 in a final), I think this is just about the cleanest race I've ever run in Sweden - nothing bigger than going around the wrong side of a rock a couple of times and one brief hesitation on the way in. Particularly pleased with the potentially perilous later part of the course - in particular, 16 and 17, both small features in green, screamed out "here be dragons!", but care was taken and dragons were avoided.
It did seem a course with less potential for disaster than yesterday, and this was reflected in the smaller number of blowouts; I was a little surprised to be as far back as 23rd (same as yesterday) with a better run than yesterday. Had about 10 minutes in hand over the cut line, but actually slipped back one place so I'll have an early start on Saturday. Others had other start time priorities - Tuomas Tala (2nd yesterday) started 2 minutes behind me and I suggested to him before the start that I'd see him early on, but he said he needed to start no later than 11.40 (equivalent to 12th place) on Saturday to make his flight. He was around me at times in mid-course but clearly decided that he needed to go slower than that because he dropped another 9 minutes over the last few controls, including a 3.30 finish chute. (His mission was duly accomplished - he was 18th).
I'm not going to get out of this week without some jury work. One of the W65 heats got incorrect printed descriptions (this sounds like the same problem as 2009 - can someone who remembers the details confirm or otherwise?) which were picked up by some of the earlier starters. The organisers have voided the course (thus qualifying on one day only) but someone has protested against that decision. We'll be meeting in the morning.