Orienteering race 38:31 [5] *** 4.95 km (7:47 / km) +131m 6:52 / km
16c shoes: Inov-8 X-Talon 230
Oceania Middle.
Slow start, not convinced that the feature #1 was on was fair as a control site/should've even been on the map because my backpack was bigger than it and the marking on the map for the feature probably takes up ~10m of space, but either way should've gone straight out to the track from the start, lost about 40s on this leg, some from the start but most from hunting in the green for the rusty drum. A bit slow through the forest in the first part to #3, and possibly taking the higher route was going to be slower anyway but wanted to be safe. Slow again going up to #4, very much looking forward to being able to push hard physically (soon hopefully). Second guessing, not looking up enough and not reading detail well made for too low/far into #5, losing about a minute and this is where Zoe caught me up the 2. Same as #4, #7 and #8 were fine, just slow. Line to #10 could've been a bit smoother when I should've stayed up high. Lost over 1min on #12, should've just gone straight down though at this point was still possibly considering going right, and then went waay too far left when I was almost high enough, just wanted to stop climbing was part of the problem I think. Then just a slow slog to finish from #13 onwards, around 45s lost over those last 4 legs.
A lot of time lost today due to not being able to run fast enough, especially on the hills. Legs were quite okay but struggled to get enough oxygen in to power up the legs. Not too worried though, when I can run intervals again this will fix itself.
Happy with how I was navigating for the most part, especially after how little orienteering I've been able to do recently. Mental side was okay, struggled to find the 'fight' whilst orienteering at the moment, though I know that will come back when the physical strength comes back. Things to take away, but first priority has to be recovering and being able to run pain-free again.