Training Log Archive: Bruce

Event: SILVA National Orienteering League
 

National Orienteering League Race 1
Sprint Distance, Wynne Vale, SA

I was well rested up, and feeling good in the warm up.
The race went to plan. Solid but a little conservative up the big climbs, and finished off strongly in the school, with no navigational errors - just a couple of small hesitations.
5th place (out of about 50 runners), and about 30 seconds behind Grant in 3rd place. First Victorian.

National Orienteering League - Race 2
Middle Distance Chasing Start - Para Wirra

Two races in a day was always going to be a tough ask given my limited preparation, and that is exactly how it turned out.
The chasing start was fun, but my good result in the morning did me no favours, and I was soon caught from behind by a bunch. I did a lot of chasing, but I had nothing left after the morning, and couldn't run up the numerous hills.
Finished midfield. A bit disappointing, but not unexpected.

Flying to Adelaide in the afternoon with my whole family. That is enough exercise for today.

Easy run around the tan.
Generally ok, but a little bit of a stitch on my right side in the second half. It settled down on the warm down.

Park/Street orienteering at Yarra Bend - my debut for season 2008/09 (in the second last week).
My objective was to get through a solid run without breaking down. I thought I would start out at Blair's pace and see what happened.
It seemed to be a pretty good field with Blair, Adam, Bryan Ackerly and Tony Bird all winners from street races this season. Adam took off in another direction, but the other big guns went my way across Kane's footbridge at Studley Park. Dion set a challenging course, with many possible alternatives available.
Bryan and Tony took the lead, but after a couple of navigation wobbles, they soon found themselves behind me. They seemed to be hesitant to run through the forest, and took much longer routes around tracks.
They put in a big effort to catch me up, but then lost all of that and more on control 3. This one is misplaced every year, and this year was no exception. Someone should really fix up the map in that area. Experience told me where else it could be, and I recovered much better than the other 2. I had a 150m lead, and took a much better route than everybody else across the far side of Merri Creek. At one stage I got back together with Bryan, but I had 2 still to leave out, and he had to get them all.
In the end I got back to win easily by about 3 minutes to Adam. Tony, Bryan and Blair were another 3 or 4 minutes behind Adam.
Comparing route choices, mine was around 700-800m shorter than everybody else. Local knowledge helped, but it shouldn't have made that much difference.

I got through the run well, and have pulled up ok. This gives me some great confidence for the weekend after last week's setback.

C • Good work 2

I made sure that I did a good warm down to help me recover properly.

Olympic Park - about 9 laps plus the run there and back.
I watched the Midday Milers 200m challenge. Something that I stayed well away from given my recent hamstring injuries.

MFR run from the Dalheim residence with Matthew, Rory, Jasmine, Hanny, James, Amy and Susannah.
Route included Fairfield Boathouse, Chandler Hwy, Alphington Parklands, Darebin Parklands and Parkside oval.
Amy is looking for an orienteering coach, so I tried to set her up with level 1 coaching trainee Matthew.

Feeling much better on Sunday, after ceasing up with groin and lower back stiffness for much of Friday and Saturday.
All settled down now, and feeling ready to go after plenty of ice and rest.

Took the boys down to Avalon for the Airshow. A bit windy and a bit of rain, but still worthwhile. Amazing aerial displays, and the kids really enjoyed it, especially Rocket Man and the Fighter Jets. Torren already wants to go again when he is in Grade 1.

Short ride. A few minutes in it looked like the weather was clearing, so I decided on spending the day with the kids at the Airshow instead of training.