Training Log Archive: nmulder

Event: 10th World Rogaining Championships 2012 Czech Republic
 

Event: 10th World Rogaining Championships
 

We were given the maps about 2.5 hours beforehand and sat there for about 10 minutes with absolutely no clue as to how to tackle this. There were very few obvious routes around the map, so good planning by the organisers.

Eventually we settled on a route that took us west first into a canyon region (get the climbing over with early), then swung south and anti-clockwise around the map, taking in a central area as a loop from the south-west. Decided to finish coming in from the north or north-west, depending on how much time was left. Our estimate was therefore that we could cover about 140-150km safely, missing out about 10+ controls. If we did less than 130km, we'd be stuck on the NE side of the map with few shortcuts home. There'd be quite a lot of track running as expected, but maybe not as much as at Czech Champs.

At 12 noon, started out heading to #80, the closest control, and also a major pointer. Thus 90% of the field came with us. Were sitting in 20th or so, but surged just before the feature to punch 3rd. No time loss, unlike many people behind who had to queue for 10 mins +. The pulled calf muscle was stiff and awkward, but behaving itself.

We were on our own already on the way to our 2nd, and it soon appeared that we were the only fast team tackling the canyon early. We ran well and had good speed over the first few hours. We had our first problem at #95 when looking for the ditch. Got pulled by other teams into the marsh and just missed it, doubling back later, but loosing about 10 mins.

All went smoothly then until we started doing the internal loop. We didn't always follow the best route, sometimes straying off the tracks too early when we should have been running harder by following them (e.g. to #72). There were also a few places where we were running with a few other teams who were going a bit faster then us... a bit disconcerting, but we kept pacing ourselves.

It got dark just after #96, when Ryno also had his first stomach upset. Had to stop twice for about 10 mins each for this during the course of the night. Luckily, it didn't hang around much after midnight, but it broke our rhythm for a while.

Rest of the evening went okay, but maybe we didn't push as hard as we should have. We hit the majority of the controls spot on and only a fraction slow into some of them. We were very slow from #90 to #49, choosing the track instead of the tiger-line. This probably cost us about 15 mins+. Calf muscle pain started to fade quite nicely at this stage.

Stopped to fill up with water after #54 on a small stream just some time late at night, only the 3rd time we'd stopped in the race and the last main stop as well.

We had a bad section on the nav in the late hours, finding the wrong ride into #60, then taking a less than perfect route to #99. At #99 we joined a group search for an elusive control. On the approach to the control it was obvious that there'd be problems, as teams were leaving in distinct clusters. We searched for about 10 mins before finding it (maybe 1 more ditch than shown on the map?), which then drew the whole heard around us in.

At #70 (another funny control), we picked up an additional team member (4-legged kind) off two Aussie girls. Heavens knows where the dog had originally started following teams from.

We almost fluffed #52 on the way in, and then struggled on the way out as well. Pre-daybreak definitely wasn't being kind to me. It got light going into #98, but we still made another mistake approaching #86 when we found an extra ride. From thereon no more mistakes, but also less nav and more running on roads. This German side of the map was definitely not as well mapped, so it was a good thing we'd left it to last and in the daylight.

We were still on our Plan A route at #88 when we cut off for home. We picked up #91 and found some time for #38 at the last moment. The shortcut worked perfectly and got us home with a few minutes to spare, thanks mainly to spot-on mileage prediction.

We were still managing to jog towards then end. Feet weren't as sore as in Czech Champs, which helped.

Punched the finish and then started waiting around to find out the results. We were confident of a Top 10, but didn't know if we'd made Top 5. Eventually found out our points were good enough for 5th, so we were very happy with our performance. 1st and 2nd place were well ahead of us, covering at least another 15km, whilst 3rd through to 8th was all very tight.

So overall a decent run for us. My sore calf didn't hamper me too much apart from a bit of a lack of speed early on. The terrain was never going to suite us too well, too much track running and not enough complex navigation. However, looking at the split times, it's obvious that we did well to get 5th. There were many teams faster than us on most legs, maybe 10-12 of them, and only through consistency did we move up the rankings, having hovered outside the Top 10 in accumulated points until at least 8 hours into the race. Racing the Czech Champs 2 months ago definitely did help with being well prepared and understanding terrain and expected speeds.

It was a good experience and once again I learnt a bit more. Most important lesson for this terrain was matching your route with the distance you'd run in 24-hours. If you underestimate and find yourselves too far away from the finish, you ended up running lots of distance towards the end with few points, dropping your points / km average. Better planning of distance prediction and a route that collected points all the way into the finish (your Plan A) would allow for a higher points / km average. We were successful with this to a degree, but it's probably the most important point in the success of the Estonian winning team - they seem to have gauged their Plan A route perfectly.

Results

Next year is Russia. We'll be there for that. However, I'm already looking more forward to South Dakota in 2014... :-)

From Orienteering Maps

GPS track is attached, however, the data logger only worked for a few hours before the battery died... time to replace it.

C • Well done! 2

C • Good job! 2

Took a complete rest day before WRC tomorrow.

Went around all the controls on the Model map for the World Rogaine Champs with Ryno. With my calf niggle, we ended up walking large parts of the course so that I didn't stress it any further. It's recovering, will maybe get it back to 90% before the WRC.

Interesting area. Forest is whiter than our previous Rogaine here a few months ago. More undulating instead of the Koppie landscape as well. Map isn't as good as I expect the WRC map to be. Only 1 problem control, #43, where we came in too low. Otherwise some map omissions approaching #93 that made things interesting.

From Orienteering Maps

Drove to Carlsbad. Nice dorp.

Flew into Switzerland. Will drive from here up to the Czech Republic for World Rogaine Champs on Friday / Saturday.

Ran the trails around Schut with Ryno from the stream-side carpark. Nice run, apart from when I felt a good muscle twinge about 1/2 way in my R calf. Some damage, so not nice. Hopefully it recovers fully by World Rogaine's later this week.

Fountains and Groenkloof, with a map exchange after the first 13 controls in Fountains.

Nice planning, enjoyed this course. Didn't have good flow early on, with one dead end route choice (3-4) and a few overshoots / map reading stops, but settled down in Groenkloof. Managed a nice average speed in the end.

Av 19.4, Mx 41.8

From Orienteering Maps

From Orienteering Maps

4 hours of mapping. Finished!

C • Hooray 2

9 hours of mapping.

Mapper's hint for SA Champs: Wear full leg covering. NB NB NB

And bring some DDT to spray on your legs for the ticks.

C • Kneecover 1

10 hours of mapping

C • walking 2

9 hours of mapping.

5.5 hours of mapping.

Mountain Marathon O' Champs at Pelindaba West.

Very tired from yesterday still, struggled up the hills and ended up walking on too many occasions. Started 5 mins behind Brad, but caught him at #11 and dropped him at #15. Lost speed on the second half, particularly in the denser vegetation. Last section of the course was physically tough and very slow. Luckily lots of water points out there.

Narrowly beat Cobus for the win, curtousy of a 3 min mistake on his behalf at the 3rd last. Eugene +2 mins as well.

From Orienteering Maps

Ryno and I raced the Crazy Store Magalies trail race. Sell out crowd of about 150 competitors for the longest event, the '35 to 38km' distance.

Got bussed out to a remote start. Everyone started off pretty fast, with lots of good trail racers present. First 8km or so was a constant climb up the Magaliesberg, following the switchbacks of the Boer War 'Hospitaal Pad'. Beautiful uphill, as the gradient was just runnable. Course was also well maintained and marked.

On top we had about 10km following the ridgeline. It was a good roller coaster with plenty of ups and downs. Beautiful single track along the entire way as well that I don't think too many people know about. Finally dropped off the ridge for an extremely fast technical descent. I had pushed it nicely until this point, but I let go here. :-) Put in a good gap of a couple of minutes on my group on the way down to the Greek Church.

My GPS logger died just after here :-( (time to get a new one?). We were turned back up the hill for a nasty loop up and down a gorge. Trail was a bit difficult to find on the way down, with it sometimes following the gorge bottom. I blew shortly hereafter. Had drank and eaten well, so it was just too much pace early on. Finally got back to the Greek Church and the it was about 10kms of tortuous downhill to the Magalies River and back along the riverside trails to the finish at Van Gaalens Cheese Farm. Lost 4 places on the way down and even ended up walking some of the flat sections. Lost about 12 mins on this last section.

Results show I was 23rd postion. Winner went well under sub-3 hour. Very impressive.

The Official Race route:


Pic of the Day:

Got rained out the whole day in the Magoebeskloof, thick mist as well. Spent the day scouting for the final week of mapping and finalising areas. Drove back home, with the rain stopping just 15km away when I crested the mountains. Bright sunshine all the way home...

8 hours of mapping

6.5 hours of mapping

6 hours of mapping

5 hours of mapping

Final run at Kaapsehoop. Short run out to the Pear Orchard, then along the ridge and back past the Blue Swallow area.

Long run with Ryno and Dreyer following the main Kaapsehoop hiking trail. Out along the escarpment and past Florence Hill, then round to Barrett's Coaches. From there further along the route, taking the Jack's Corner shortcut for the first time. Looped back onto the return route back to Kaapsehoop. Last section from Jack's was very hot and open.

Early morning start with Ryno. Inteneded to run for about 2-3 hours, but knew that finding a good contour route below the escarpment was going to be tough. Got it totally wrong in the end and ended up doing many more hours than planned.

Start on the hiking trail along the escarpment, then the old jeep track down to Barberton off the escarpment. Got to the lower slopes in about 1h30, then started searching for contour paths. Lots of up and down as a result. After about 3 hours gave up and went downslope to find the next track across. Ended up doing an extra 10km+. Finally got to the Kaapsehoop - Nelspruit road, where we got the girls to come fetch... :-)

Ryno still ran back up the tar road to town anyway.

Start of the Kaapschehoop training weekend. Final prep for the World Rogaine Champs.

Followed Ryno out on a short run, down the Battery Creek trail to just short of Barretts Coaches, then up to the escarpment and back on the hiking trail to Kaapschehoop. Added a final loop in by going to the lookout tower above town and then back past the Kaapschehoop hiking hut.

GPS track started about 3.5km late.

CapeStorm MTB Rogaine
Racing with Ryno, 4 hour time limit.

Morning started bad with one of my spokes breaking about 30 mins before the start when I was just testing my bike. It broke at the nipple, which meant is started loosing air and I needed to put in a tube.

Spent about 3 mins doing a route plan, which more or less ended up being what we had expected. Went out behind Alex / Jane and Brian / Neal. Caught A & J by #1, but the they got the better of us on a route choice to #2. A' lost the plot on route choice to #3.... From thereon we went around the next loop in a different direction. Were going very well until Ryno had a tyre blowout, too big a hole to patch, so we needed to tube it. Lost 13 mins and lost focus and motivation afterwards.

Soon after I missed seeing a 40-pointer on the map and we missed it. :-(
Started feeling pretty poor as well in the last 2 hours, with the last hour exceptionally bad. With 1 hour to go we went out to the NE side of the map for a few more points. Got then and bumped into B&N, whom we thought were on the same points value as us (they'd skipped a small loop!). Went for one final 20-pointer with time running out. Got it easily but only got home on the 3rd minute of over-time, so 15 points deduction.

Turned out that that was quite important, as A&J ended up on equal points as us, but 20-odd seconds slower. That also means we each had the same # of points and same # of penalties... close. They did a slightly different route though over the last hour.

So a very narrow win...

Bike Stats:
Tm 3:38:16
Dst 52.42
Av 14.4
Mx 47.8

GPS track cut out early.

From Orienteering Maps

2012 CapeStorm Rogaine at Mokubulaan, Lydenburg

Ryno and I teamed up again for a short 6-hour rogaine. Got the maps and spent about 4 mins planning a route before heading off. Cobus & Dreyer and Neal and Brian headed off to the nearest 20-pointer on top of a hill, but we went for a close 10-pointer first. It became obvious pretty quickly that most of the top teams were doing the same general loop in collecting controls. Ran into the two teams at various stages, but it looked all pretty even in the first few hours.

Made a big mistake near #71, when I ran 300m past the control due to not understanding the map correction on the map. Had to run back and let the leading ladies catch us again (took us a lot of effort to pass then in the first place). Otherwise, no other big mistakes, just a few seconds loss in some places within the control circles.

Had to descend the cliffs into the Doornhoek valley at one stage. Luckily we found a very big game trail down the slope. After that I started suffering. Even in late winter it was pretty hot.

In the end missed 4 controls, a big 60, a 20 and two 10s near the finish. Caught Cobus / Dreyer just before the finish, but they'd also skipped another 60 pointer in a saddle. Otherwise it looked like near identical route choices.

Came in with about 4 mins to spare, so good timing. Got the win with Cobus / Dreyer 2nd and Brian / Neal 3rd. Only thing left to do is now find the floating trophies.... Jeremy, Nathan?

GPS track cut out at about 80% distance.

From Orienteering Maps

C • Doornhoek valley 2

Quick ride to test if the bike and legs still work before this weekends foot and mountain bike rogaines.

Av 20.1 Mx 43.1

9 hours of mapping

9 hours of mapping