Training Log Archive: cricketk

Right knee very, very grumpy today.* Needs moar stretching.

*Obviously not as grumpy as tRicky's right knee.

Intended a very cruisy knee-protecting ride from Mum's place to figure out how to get on the Graham Farmer Freeway bike path with minimal time on the road, followed by finding a nice spot in a park to finish Rowl's book.

Chugged very happily backwards and forwards along the river and stopped in the little park just past Ascot on the south side of the river for a drink, a snack and the last 150 pages of the book.

Came back into a nice SW breeze - for some reason it doesn't bother me anywhere near as much on the hybrid as it does on the road bike.

Managed to not run over any of the obliviously happy couples or small children wandering all over the path.

Did the H4, as I had already well and truly decided that I wasn't going to compete in my official class and I was having a really enjoyable morning. If I had another shocker, I didn't want to be out there for 2 or more hours.

Instead of having a shocker, I had a fab run. The two little bobbles I had were caused by misreading my control descriptions and heading for that feature on the ground, instead of simply aiming for the thing at the middle of the circle and just trusting that I was right. Knew where I was at all times and where I was going and executed most things pretty cleanly.

Caught Helen P heading into control 2 and stayed in front of her until I stopped for a drink at 5. I didn't see her again after that, but I think she was behind me. I started trying to run Jim down instead. Unsurprisingly he got away from me on the long leg to 8. I contoured around the final spur in the hope of catching him at 8, while he took the more scenic open ground, but he's much stronger uphill than I am and more confident about where he was on the map and I lost him.

Misread the control description for 10 and went to the boulder cluster above the watercourse, but figured it out on a second reading. Went too low between 10 and 11 and missed out on the open ground I was aiming for. I could see it about 30m above me, but knew there wasn't much point in going up to it, because I wouldn't be able to jog anyway. Checked the HR to be sure and it was sitting just under 180, so I didn't feel too guilty about staying low, even though the ground was a bit rough.

It felt like a long, long climb from 10 all the way to the finish.

Once again forgot to turn the GPS on until I was punching control 3. Actual time was about 54 minutes - which I think may be my first time under an hour on an H course.

C • Obviously 5

Event: Umuna Autumn Classic
 

Lots of newbies today, not too much hard stuff.

Pretty much all muscles in hips and legs are tight, tight, tight! Must get back into the habit of doing the physio exercises.

Disastrous day.

Overshot 1 from above, popped down the hillside and was completely surpised by what the rock looked like. Finally figured myself out and led Andrew to it. Moved along to 2 and once again led Andrew to it. Clean through the long leg to 3, but wobbled around near the circle. Clean to 4. Got distracted at this point by Juffy and Boltboi flying through the control and followed them up a hill I should not have gone up. Realised after I'd gotten up to a knoll. Wandered around for a bit and then figured out that I hadn't seen the granite surface I was expecting. Got back down to 5 and then back up to 6, then spent about half an hour wandering around looking for 7. Knew I was on the right spur generally, but just couldn't figure out where exactly on the spur I actually was. Wandered around for ages and eventually decided to go to the top of the spur and work my way down. Closer to the top than I was expecting the locations of the rocks all of a sudden started making sense and I went straight to my control.

Trotted along behind Deb D to 8, but lost her by the time I got to 9. Felt wobbly and out of sorts the whole way - like my sense of direction had entirely disappeared. Couldn't trust myself at all.

Saw Michelle M out near control 10, having an even worse day than me. Enjoyed getting close to 11 and having a profusion of controls appear - went straight to mine and for the first time in the day felt like I had some right to be out on the course.

Wobbled at the end and ended up standing in the wrong spot on my waterourse, looking across a track to the string course and after a moment's muttering about how perhaps I would probably muck up the string course as well, went back down the watercourse and located my rock. Went to the finish and kind of stood by the cake stall trying to find the finish banner for a few moments until some kind soul pointed it out to me.

Absolutely goes to show that orienteering is a mental sport. A terrible week and worrying about a conversation yet to be had seriously interferes with map reading.

Hard 3 - Splits

Heritage trail loop for a looksee. Significantly faster than last time. Juffy used to do the loop in about 2 hours 20 or so - I'm really happy to be this close to his old times - I imagine he'd be significantly faster now.

Time includes roughly 11 minutes of staying still and eating bits of muesli bar at three different points (roughtly 40 minutes apart). I managed to eat a whole one throughout the course of the ride and drink enough water so that I've arrived home feeling pretty functional.

Knees niggled to begin with and at the end and need a good stretch.

Bike seat height issues and bolt issues are now sorted.

Took the dog for a walk - much faster than she would have preferred.

C • Wow! 3