Training Log Archive: Blainey

So much fun!! I think his is my favourite race of the season, a sprint but it all looks the same - if you stop thinking about the map you are done!
Race 1 - headed off before the 'fast guys' and tried to get as far as I could into the course before they caught me. I got to the 9th control before they started to overtake me. At 10 I lost track of the route and headed back to 9 instead of 11, it wasn't until I was there and checked the control number that I realized! The rest went pretty good, but really had to slow down and focus on the map!

Race 2 - I wasn't planning on going out again but could not resist so headed out with Kris and Diane. We took it easy and talked the whole way through so everyone knew where they were and was part of the decision making as we chose our route through the maze. Only one problem was heading to 14 on the butterfly's wing, ended up at the end of the body. Fun to do at night, could only see right in front of you so hard to look down the paths to see if they headed in the right direction or not. So much FUN!

Went out on the contours only map with Kris and Sylvie, was more of a teaching jog but gave my compass away so has to really focus on the features and contours as we took turns relocating,

Nav training at ARK with the older groups - asked Patrick for more challenging map and got it! Very impressed with hour 1 blue and hour 2 yellow, they were very focused all the way through the exercise! Love to hear that one of the groups did not want to move onto next station, Nav was their favourite! Great group of kids moving forward! Leg still feeling ok, looking forward to going for a 'real" run this weekend to see how it feels after that.

Back at it again, was a good chunk of time behind the leaders which I expected and hoped to complete the long.... That would make me happy! Got the first control no problem and made a clean route choice to number two. Once I got where I thought it was I could not find it, instead of losing my cool I was able to fingered out that I was on a very similar feature nearby and was able to relocate (yes!). I tried to stick to the trails as much as I could to pick up some speed as well as taking lots of short bearings on the longer legs so that I did not get way off track. Made a mistake on 7, somehow got flipped around on the trails. 9 was a really long leg that went better than I expected, ended up on the wrong side of a swampy area and realized it as soon as I was there. Ended up going past 12 and eventually came back to it and the a clean finish! Another fun and challenging course. I didn't gain any time on the leaders but maintained my solid third place. ;) Gained a lot of confidence and hopefully can pick up speed next time in similar terrain.