Training Log Archive: nmulder

Kaapsehoop Rockery
1:5'000 5m contours

First time I've raced on the Rockery. Really fun, very technical under races conditions and my technique wasn't good enough in a few places.

Decent start, although I almost overran #1 before getting into the scale. Good through to 4 and towards 5, but I didn't see the control in the undergrowth. Lost 30s+ before I saw it, despite 2 other runners punching in the meantime.

Started hauling in Garry going towards 6, and finally got him at 12. Then I fluffed the bearing to 13 and lost 30s coming back from being too far south. Still with Garry as we approached 14, but I lost my head and didn't have a good AP going into the control. Spent the next 60s+ zig zagging through the rocks hoping to get lucky. I was too far SE to start with.

Leaving 14, I rushed it again, trying to get out before Garry saw me. Did a 60' error and ended up going NE instead of NW. Luckily I relocated quickly as I approached and was able to adjust my route to use the path that gave me a good AP into 15 (only 45s lost). Ran straight into it from the path, but in hindsight it was probably in the wrong place. Tim was the only runner to get nailed by this. I was still offish going to 16 (15s), but then I settled down again. I felt way too slow going to 17 and 18 across the open areas.

I'd a good run downhill from 19 through to 23. Going to 24 I got distracted by overstudying 25-27 and I lost position on the map. Relocated quickly, but still 15s or so lost. I took a poor route to 25 (20s) and then screwed up 26 (1 min). Ended up going through every re-entrant in the area trying to ID the correct one. The didn't run straight enough to 27 and ended up banana'ering around the back (another 45s). Not the best direction to 28 as well.

So overall about 5.5mins of time lost, which is pretty shocking given I drew the map. My technical skills were definitely too rusty and I was more concerned about safe/unsafe routes rather than doing the basics on these routes. With Tim dsq'ed, finished 1st, with Eugene about 15 mins behind.

Would love to run here more often.

Brown - Splits

Put out and collected controls for day 1 of the Kaapsehoop O-ringen up at Nooitgedacht west map. Lots of buffalo in the area.

Bit of a fail trying to run the Wanderers 8k TT. Missed a loop somewhere at the end.

C • The lollipop 4

Av 15.0
Mx 54.6

Followed by 2 x uphills

Brauhaus Mountain Challenge

From northern foot of Breedts Nek, up the pass and westwards along the Magaliesberg ridge, descending at Olifantsnek Dam wall, then around the dam to finish at Brauhaus. Advertised as a 45km, but only 35km, more or less the distance I predicted. Mostly a self-nav route with 3 x CPs and a bit of taping towards the end.

Ran most of the way with Alex. Felt good going up the pass (1km for my calf injury to warm up). We got to the top (CP1) in about 11/12 position. First section was a lot easier than I expected, definitely less rocky than parts of the mountain further to the east. Most of Team Where the Hell is North was out there as well and running strong. CP2 popped up a lot earlier than we expected (definitely not shown as per the map).

We slowly moved up positions to 8/9 before we suddenly closed on a group of 2+1 through a better contouring route choice as we left the main ridge and approached the Olifantsnek Amphitheatre rim. Alex surged here to get ahead of them. I wasn't feeling so strong then, but as we started along the amphitheatre edge I felt better and started going faster. Caught the 2, then Alex and the +1 as we started descending down towards the dam.

The section past the amphitheatre and the descent were nice and technical. Very little marking around here, so the descent was a bit of guess work but Alex and I got down without any problems. After going through the gorge and water point, we had a short climb over the next hill before we started following the dam edge, the final 5km to the finish. I'd burnt out at this stage and Alex easily pulled away. The +1 also came past me after a couple of kms. Finished off in 7th position.

Overall I'm very happy with my run. Didn't expect to be doing so well on the mountain part of the course. I died towards the end, but that wasn't surprising after the surge I gave just before Olifantsnek Dam. A nice race to which I'd be happy to go back.

Fourways Gardens loop.

Easy jog on the TT route. Calf injury still there, but fading after 1km of warmup.

Club training at Big Red Barn

3 exercises
1 - Control picking
2 - Inverted window exercise (I don't think it worked well)
3 - Normal

Pushed it a bit. Calf is a bit tender (feels like an old injury now) but didn't make it any worse.

Loops of the estate and Witkoppen park. Calf still stiff.

Loops around the estate testing out the calf. Not good.

Right calf tender from Thursday's TT. Not good. Eased off after 2km but was tight again after the run. Probable strain in upper soleus.