Training Log Archive: NSW Stinger

Event: 27th World Orienteering Championsship
 

It was a long run down from the warm up and -12mjn pre start to the -3min start. You could hear the commentary getting louder so I prepared myself for a spectator friendly start. Finally we made it to the start and there was a short run to the start triangle where Hubmann, who started with me went straight ahead. It took a lot mental energy to ignore him and turn hard left run up the track and found the first control on a small side path. I heard my name called plenty of times so I expected there must be spectators throughout the course.
The 2nd leg had a bit of route choice and headed left rather than climbing I've over the hill. I stayed on the path too long and lost a bit of time by going back around the right of the building. I saw Hubmann again but was punching different controls so I again refocussed on my own course. The next 3 were fairly easy and I was starting to settle in. On the longer leg to 6 I started to relax a little and took a few deep breaths. 6-11 were short and complex thru some old buildings which involved a few legs thru open doorways which were tricky.
Despite it being an obvious feature of the old map, I failed to plan my excite thru the impassable fence but recovered before loosing much time. I felt tired running up the hill into the forest and was passed by Russian Tsvetkov. I left the track heading to 12 and just misjudged the distance- an obvious mistake of limited training at this scale. I watched the Russian punch a control but I tried to run past it and had a big stop before checking the control and finding it was mine.
13 was a short downhill leg and I saw the Russian leaving the control but I was too messy for the nest few that involved dangerous labyrinths of small trails. On retrospect I think I missed an easy alternative to 15 on the road to the left.
16 to 22 were quite straight forward and I just lacked the required running speed. I was relieved to get the last control and make it to the finish.

warm up, jog to start and cool down

morning run with Kathryn from the new apartment down through the harbour, station and back again. The legs felt much better, probably benefiting from an easy day out of the forest yesterday.
Another cracker day in Trondheim.

Afternoon Sprint training session at Rotvoll, just east of Trondheim. This was the Czech team sprint trial, and I did the first 15controls. There were some nice short legs in small patches of forest and some long legs with a bit of route choice. I missed the first a bit, but after that I was pretty happy
A bit of news is that I'm now running the sprint race. Since there was a spare starting spot I'm using the Sprint Qualification as a warm up for the Long Distance Qual. The map will have quite a lot of bush so it will actually suit me more than a straight park or town sprint. I'm really looking forward to it!

WOC Model Event on Ovre Jervan
We didn't do much today other than wait around for the model maps to be released. It was a cracker afternoon for a run and a swim in the nearby lake.
I drew a course with 9 controls which concentrated on some downhill legs into green veg. I found some of the vegetation tough today and the legs were a bit tired so I'd better start to freshen up and stay out of the forest a bit.

morning session on 1:10000 map doing 5km course with 14 controls. The terrain was a bit tougher than yesterday, more uneven and wetter. I was feeling pretty flat so ran around with Kathryn doing an exercise. Pretty buggered by the end and will skip an afternoon session.
Very nice day in Trondheim, but it looks to get worse from now on in.

We headed out to the Wing clubhouse at Tommerholt Dammen for a BBQ with the NZ and US teams this evening. Its a great location and there was plenty of meat on the barbie and discussion of orienteering around the pacific rim.

The training started from the same carpark as Sunday's session on Solemsasen, and the course went both sides of the main road. I did a short warm up, then most of the set course, skipping 9-11, when it took a bit longer than expected. I found all the controls ok, but seemed to lack a bit of the flow in the forest of yesterday. But this is probably mostly due to quite a different area. I need to improve the speed at which I select route choices on the longer legs. Nice day in Trondheim.

C • Good Luck! 8

6km course on 1:10000 on a map pretty close to the Middle and Long qualification area. I hit #1 ok but a bit hesitant. #2 was really bad as I was trying to adjust to the different map scale but was pulling up short instead. Climbed up the escarpment too early and took a while to work out where I was. From there on I settled in pretty well and was ran with purpose and didn't miss too much. Also the most comfortable I've felt in the terrain since arriving so that was good for confidence. Felt good at the finish, but tired in the evening.

WOC Long Distance Training 2- Nordmarka
Awesome training session on a really nice plateau with a course. I modified the course and started at the finish, which meant a very tough 3 controls running up the hill to a pivot control. The terrain here was mostly open marshes, which were wetter than Salomsasen but still pretty good going. I picked up the pace as the course went on, but made a few small missed on the final loop. From here I added in 3 more long legs that went out into a much tougher section of the map. The final leg was like a Swiss mountain side and I learned my lesson about staying out of the step stuff. Really enjoyed this course.