SPRING!

Summer in Hawkes Bay :)

Spring is definitely here, with Summer soon on its way! Two weeks ago I competed in the Auckland Orienteering Championships. I ran elite women as the grades were rather small, and it was more of a challenge to do W21E. I treated this weekend as a sort of training/fun event. I previously had a whole week of complete rest and a week of taking it easy with training, so I was not expecting to have an awesome weekend of racing, just to have some fun :)

As said in the last post, the sprint was quite fast and long, but still pretty fun. The Long was ridiculously stupid on my behalf ;) It was a pretty fun/challenging map and course, but I guess my brain was definitely not there today...made a massive mistake at #1 and was contemplating just finishing the race after that, but decided that I should keep going for the training...but then #2 was terrible again...I didn't really make a mistake, but I just could not get down the right cliff to get to the control!! Then, I was so tempted just to come back, but again I decided to keep going :P The rest of the course had a few little errors, but nothing major, just slow I guess as I had been out there for a while...Overall, a terrible, terrible race from me, but it was still fun to do :)

The terrain at the end of the Long Distance

That night was the Rugby World Cup Final in Auckland with NZ vs. France, and of course we were all going to be down town when NZ history was made ;) We had a few drinks, and got into our All Blacks spirit! We watched the game down on Queen Street where there was a rather large screen set up in the middle of the road. Was so epic! There were so many people! It was pretty much a sea of black! The game was so close, but we won 7-8 :D yayyy!! Was such a cool experience to be in the City when we won... everyone was so excited and just went so crazy!!

In the City on such an awesome night!

Rassmus and I with the Cup in the summer, before NZ won

Anyway, the next morning was the Middle distance. I was feeling rather tired from such a long race yesterday and the celebration last night. The race went ok...I only made a few little mistakes usually around the control circle, but nothing too major...The most of the time i lost was on the long running legs and the extremely long grass legs which were so tiring to run through...was rather slow by the end, but I thoroughly enjoyed the course and the diversity of terrains on the map :) Angela was first, 3min ahead of me, and Johanna 2nd , 1min ahead of me. Here are the splits. As you can see, I loved the beginning, but as it went out into the open, I was a tad slower :P

Middle Distance, Auckland Champs

During the past two weeks, I have been trying to do a bit of study as my exams start next Thursday. Both of my exams are so late, so it is quite hard to study so far out for it. I have managed to do a bit more training in the last week as I am keen to get back into it again. Well, I want to do a bit more longer slow runs to get my endurance going again. 

I recently found out about this awesome inspirational Spanish athlete, Kilian Jornet. He is a long-distance runner/'skyrunner'...he is amazing! You should read about him on his site: http://www.kilianjornet.cat/en/index.html or even look at his videos on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/SalomonTrailRunning ...He is just so determined and very motivated to train and compete. He just loves being outside on the mountains every day...I wish I could be training on all that too :)

Overall, it has been a cruisey past few weeks. Have exams next week, then I drive down home on the 16th for summer and pretty much start work at the Cafe immediately. I am really looking forward to summer as I will be able to save up a bit of money, catch up with friends, Sprint the Bay, do some awesome training, and of course, Rassmus comes for one month!! It is not long, but it is sooo much better than nothing at all :) I can't wait!! 

Sprint the Bay 2012 Preview

Vi ses för nu...

Oceania's

It has been nearly 2 weeks now since I have been back in New Zealand since running at the Oceania Orienteering Championships in Australia.
Overall, it was a rather disappointing week :(
I managed to get rather sick after the first day of competition. It was an extremely cold and wet day, and even after I had tried to warm down and get changed into completely dry warm clothes, I just could not get warm :S

The race was not that great. I managed to have a few mistakes in the beginning of the course, then a massive one at number 9 where I just did not see it for so long (can see on the GPS here). After that I had lost a lot of motivating and had a few mistakes here and there...
So, not off to a very good start...

The middle distance was so much fun! So much contour detail as it was set in an old gold mining area. I felt very blocked up and had a sore throat, so I just tried to make sure I could navigate well...this plan did not work as well...turns out I should have even slowed down a lot more! I was just running too fast for my navigation and then was getting really tired and making more mistakes...overall not a great race, mistakes everywhere!eek...

During the week we did a bit of travelling and ran the public race for the Schools champs, and the Australian Relay champs...was still sick during the week, so was a mission to run, so mistakes everywhere again...but we ended up winning the Relay in W21E with Tessa Ramsden and Jean Cory-Wright which was pretty fun :P
We ended up in Cooma, NSW for the last few races. Friday was the Oceania Sprint (forest sprint) which was ok...just a small mistake, but hard to run once again...Saturday the Long..was a good start, although stuffed up 6 and totally ballsed it up in the end...felt rather lethargic and really light headed...think this is a combo of trying to push and being still stick :/ later that night I just felt so bad, sore kidneys and felt rather nauseous...so was unsure if I would run the relay the next day.
I decided to run the relay, although I still wasn't feeling that better :S I managed to do ok, not many mistakes, I just found it so hard to run ...

Was a really fun week, but probably not the best week of orienteering for me :( Just wish I felt good as the terrain was so cool and I really enjoyed running in OZ after 3 whole years! Oh well...these things happen...just have to push on and think about the good parts of the week and apply them later on :)

The last 2 weeks I have had sooo much uni work! Had a presentation on my Research paper and the whole report due a few days ago..I had an entire resting week from Monday to Sunday straight after OZ, which was so good to do...especially with all the uni work...
In the last week I have been for 2 jogs and 2 orienteering trainings out at Woodhill with some of the Auckland O'ers and Johanna Lönnkvist who is here from Sweden for 3 months :)

Just ran the Auckland Champs Sprint which was fun...although rather fast for my liking! :P I managed to make a 15sec mistake at #15 as I went a weird way around the building, but other than that it was good...guess a bit slow on the pace...but it was just so long and fast for a sprint race! Didn't know when it was going to end! Long tomorrow and Rugby World Cup Final!! GO ALL BLACKS! and then the Middle on Monday... Keep ya posted how the rest of the long weekend goes :D

The Updater

So this post has definitely been a long time coming!! I have been rather busy with getting back into the swing of things and I guess a little lazy with keeping up with the blog site.
I arrived back into the country on the 3rd of August...it was not the easiest day, but I knew that after my time in Europe I would have to come back to NZ and back to reality...sigh...
So I guess this post will be about my time in Europe and settling in back home in Auckland again.

NZ JWOC team 2011

JWOC
Such an awesome week! I felt prepared and ready to race the best races of my life! :)
I will briefly explain each race and how it all went..

Opening Ceremony

Sprint- had a long morning of waiting as the first starts were in the afternoon. I was in the last starting block so I had to wait even longer than the  rest of the team, so the nerves were definitely building up! I just tried to relax and drink a lot of Raisey's Hydration formula so I felt fit and ready to race in the arvo.
My warm up was pretty good and I felt fresh and ready to race! At the start, I was trying to concentrate and throw away most of the nerves so I could have a really clean start.
Once I heard that last beep for the start, I was away! Start of the Junior World Orienteering Championships 2011 :)
I had such an awesome start for the first 3 controls...I even looked at the splits after the race and I was in the lead alongside Swedish Orienteer Tove Alexandersson. Then... :( I really stuffed up number 4! It was probably the most easiest control on the course. I guess because it was so easy, I decided to read the next leg to 5 so I had a really quick exit out of the control. So when I totally spike #4, I checked #5 description on the control descriptions!! ARGHH!! F#@$! That is the most stupid orienteering mistake ever, and I did it! And it happened at JWOC too! :(
After I realised what was going on, I soon corrected myself and went back to the original #4, then boom! fastest split to #5 by about 5sec! (must have been so angry at myself :P)
The rest of the course was really good apart from #17 which I went such a silly way to it, and I guess I just knew I had lost so much time, and was pretty damn angry...
Overall, probably my most disappointing JWOC performance and I was terribly de-motivated from the entire week, but...I chose to have a cry about it for a while and get it out of my system and just move on. And that's exactly what happened. Even though it was such a terrible race for me, I was able to take out a few good things out from it. I had 3 fastest splits over the entire race, which I have never done before, and to have 3 in one race, especially the sprint is super motivating :) I also compared my time if I took of my big mistake in the start and my extra oopsie at the end, and I would have placed 4th! So that is pretty cool to see how well I can go, but I guess I just need the practice of racing in big events for this to actually happen. I believe a lot more experience will be the key to get me up there with the top girls.
The highlight of the day for me was definitely seeing Angela get on that podium! 6th!! First time NZ has been on the podium in such a long time! Was so awesome to see and and even brought another tear to my eye, this time a happy one :) We were so proud of her!

Comparing Long distance route choices with GB Julia Blomquist and SWE Johanna Olsson

Long- After putting aside yesterdays race, I managed to have a pretty reasonable sleep and focus for the days race. It was pretty awesome to have Rassmus put positive thoughts in my head and boost my confidence for the rest of the week after yesterdays race. So glad that he was there :)
Once again, I was in the later starting block which meant we were starting around 1-2pm. A really annoying thing about JWOC 2011 is that we all had to be in a quarantined building from the first start of every race apart from the relay...that meant that some of us were in there for about 4 hours before we even got on the bus to go to the start to then wait for another hour or so before we actually started.
I got off to a safe and rather slow start to make sure I adjusted to the course well. The first long leg was pretty good and managed to take a really good route. I made a mistake on my second loop at one control by about 2min...without that silly one, I could have been top 20 overall!
Towards the end of the butterfly loops, I became so tired, and just felt like there was no energy left! I kept pushing through the rest of the course, but was walking in some places where I really shouldn't have been :/
Overall I finished up 35th, which is actually my 2nd best JWOC placing ever, but not my best long distance result (finished 22nd in 2009). I wasn't very happy with how I felt over the race, but I guess the result was better than expected.

Long Finish

Long Distance

Middle Qualification and Final- Before the middle qual I was actually quite nervous as I had made 3 A-finals before, so the pressure was on to make it in for my last JWOC.
Lost nearly 2min at the first control as I drifted onto the wrong hill system, so then the stress started to set in. Without freaking out too much, I managed to focus really hard for the rest of the course and didn't really make many mistakes.
The waiting part was definitely the hardest! I knew that I had had a safe and qualifying race minus the mistake, so that mistake really did determine whether I got into the A-final or not. I was also in the first starting block, so I had to wait around until the end to figure out whether I made it or not...and I did :D yay! In 16th place...pheww...
In the final, I got off to a good start, but just before the spectator control, there was a route that was marked out, but hard to see on the map, so I ran to the gate that was marked as open, but as I went there, an official yelled and said I couldn't come through here, so it confused me completely! I took a while to figure out what I was doing and how to get to the spectator, and once I did, I had lost about 50 or more seconds just stuffing around because of that stupid unfair gate. Later in the race, Angela was DSQ as she ran through it, and there was no one stopping her, which totally sucked and was completely unfair.
Anyway, after the spectator, the last loop was crazy messy for me and just kept doing some stupid errors here and there. One of my route choices went straight through a field of stinging nettle as I didn't quite find the track in the middle, so that was rather painful afterwards. In the end I really wasn't too happy with the overall race. Ended up 49th, which is my best Middle result, but not the end result I was aiming for.

Middle Final

Relay- The last day was here! I pretty much had about 3 hours sleep last night, and the same with Jaime as our legs were on fire the whole night from the stinging nettle from the middle final. It was so frustrating! Lying there all night knowing that you have to sleep but you just can't!
Despite the lack of sleep, I guess I felt ok and it was finally a sunny clear day :)
I was running first leg, Jaime 2nd and Angela 3rd. This was definitely a strong team, and we had the potential to get on that podium, so we were definitely pumped! :D
Standing on that starting line with 45 other first leg runners was definitely scary! The nerves were so high! I remember feeling like I was about to fall over and cry I was so freaked out! But it kind of felt good :P
As soon as we took off, I had this massive rush of energy and took the lead towards #1. The first control was around 1.5km away, so it was quite a long run with all the first leg runners. There was a split to #2, then it went straight back to the spectator area before heading out on the last detailed loop. Heading to the spectator area, I was with the first group and felt really awesome and still felt like I could keep up with the first pack for the rest of the race. Just after the control after the spectator control, we had a long leg, and I  stopped a bit too early along with some of the other first leg runners. We were stressing a bit and a lot of the other runners were catching us back up. After a lot of mucking around, I realised what I had done and I boosted around the rest of the course! Apart from one mistake, the rest of the course was really good. Jaime and Angela both managed to have a decent run, but both made a few errors losing a little bit of time just like me. Although we were not totally satisfied with our races, we actually had the best result ever from a NZ women's team which was pretty cool :) We ended up 9th being not too far from 6th, so the podium was definitely in sight for us, but it was a shame that those small errors added up...

Relay Start

Relay Finish

Overall, my final JWOC was ok, but I guess with my good preparation I had expected a bit better of myself. I guess if I look on the positive side I had 3 fastest splits in the sprint, my 2nd best JWOC placing ever, my best middle final result and we had the best NZ relay team result ever. So it was actually a pretty good end to my Junior years.

The team before the Banquet

After JWOC the whole team split up and some went to Croatia, and some to Finland for some extra competitions. I met up with Rassmus and his 2 brothers as we caught the 19hr ferry ride from Poland to Sweden. After we arrived in Nynäshamn, Rassmus's parents came to meet us and big up Jonathan and Oscar. Rassmus and I repacked our stuff as we were waiting for the evening ferry to Gotland, the small Island off the East coast of Sweden. We were not taking a car for the whole week we were there, so we had to carry everything on and off the ferry which was quite a mission. When we arrived to Gotland, we stayed with Rassmus's friend for the first night. The next day, we picked up our bikes (well actually a bike as we had a tandem bike which I did not know about) and started our journey about 25km across the Island to where the 3 day competition arena was. Once we got there it was raining and all we wanted to was quickly put up the tent and have our dinner.
The 3 day competition was pretty fun as I have never run on terrain like that ever before. It was tricky as there were hardly any features at all on the map, so the compass was one of the most important things to concentrate when orienteering in this terrain. It was really fun, but I did get progressively worse each day :P Guess you need a bit of practice in this terrain before you can really get the hang of it.
After our time on Gotland, we travelled to Rassmus's parents house where we stayed with his family for the week before O-Ringen. It was such a nice week as we could relax a little and I got to spend time with such an awesome family :)
Unfortunately Rassmus was sick for the whole week, so we couldn't train as much as we wanted to and I just had to go exploring on my training runs.
O-Ringen was such a fun week, but extremely difficult for me as always :P I managed to have a pretty good run on the first day, although made quite a big mistake towards the end and lost about 6min or so. The rest of the week was very up and down, and especially on the 3rd day it was very very down!
I managed to start in the chasing start which was cool, and ended up passing about 12 or so girls to get 39th overall. My Orienteering wasn't that good over the week, but I guess it was pretty fun :)
After O-ringen, Rassmus and I stayed at his flat in Uppsala for 2 nights before I flew home. It was a nice 2 days, but as usual, it went way too quickly! It was definitely the saddest moment standing at that airport not knowing when we would see each other again, but we knew that we can do it, even if it is one of the hardest things we have ever done.

Rassmus and I in Gdansk

Playing Kub, a famous Swedish game with some friends on Gotland

Smultron, Swedish wild strawberries :)

hehe our tandem bike :P

Rassmus took me on a picnic to "re-celebrate" my birthday as he wasn't there for mine earlier in the year :) so sweet!

Oringen 3rd stage

Now back in Auckland, I have been catching up on all the Uni I have missed and had a bit of a resting period, taking it a bit easy with the training for a while.
Last week I went on a field trip to Ohiwa where I had to gather some data for my 3rd year research paper.
This weekend I coached a lot of Auckland Orienteers out at Woodhill which was pretty fun and always rewarding.

When I was overseas my back injury came back and was really quite painful. Since I have been back, I have still had problems with it, some days worse than others. I am now seeing a Chiropractor every 3rd day or so. I had some X-rays last week and they showed that my pelvis is rotated, and there is also some bending in my back because of this which caused a disc to be a little squashed, causing the lower back pains. The focus is to loosen up all my muscles in my back and my psoas muscles and my piriformis muscles as they are all effecting the rotation of my pelvis. The manipulation by the Chiropractor is quite harsh on the injured areas, but I am hoping it is helping. I also see the acupuncturist after the chiropractor to help with the loosening up of the muscles in my back.

In less than 2 weeks, I am off to Australia to compete in the Oceania Orienteering Championships, so I have to knuckle down and get on top of my uni work whilst squeezing in some quality training at the same time.
Link for Oceania...watch the video! Its going to be awesome!! :)

I know this is pretty much a novel, but I guess it was in need of an update :) You can also read more (or google translate it) on Rassmus's Blog too.

See ya!

Poland so far...

So it has been a while since I have written on my blog, but i have a little bit of time right now to fill you in on whats been going on.
So last week I had exams on Tuesday and Wednesday then flew out just before 10pm on Wednesday night...so yeah, a very busy week with hardly any sleep and not the greatest training, but I guess I managed.
After a 13 and a 1/2 hour flight, 6 hour stop over, 10 and a 1/2 hour flight, 2 hour stop over and a 90min flight, we arrived in Gdansk! I think all up I got about 2 hours of sleep/dozing? I really am not good at sleeping on flights :/ But I have managed to get in some really early nights :)
The first few days I managed to take it a bit easy with training, as I was definitely feeling the jet-lag quite a bit...although I am feeling a bit better every day which is good :)
We have been on some awesome terrain (hopefully i can put up a few pictures and descriptions of the maps in a few days:), and I have really got the handle on a few things pretty well :)
It is extremely fast running in places and also very dense and green in places too, so you have to know what pace to speed up and slow down to very carefully.
The weather was pretty rotten the first few days we were here, but now it has fined up a lot and we have had almost 30degree temperatures :)
Everything is extremely cheap here which is so awesome for most of us poor students :P And as we discovered, it is not alright to drink the tap water from the bathrooms...eek...so good thing big 6L bottles of water are very cheap :)
Anyway, I will leave you with a picturs and hopefully I can write on here before JWOC to let you know how it is all going :)

Running through the Polish terrain :)

Queens Birthday Weekend Summary

Well...what a week it has been!!
A 5km PB, last week of uni lectures, last assignments and tests and probably some of my best racing in the elite women grade ever!

Last week was very hectic. I was studying for a 35% test on Wednesday, so was up late studying almost every night over the weekend, Monday and Tuesday. The last O'Hagens Pub 5km series was held on Tuesday night, so most of us Auckland O'ers decided to head on down and compete in it for the last time before some of us head over for JWOC. It was a really nice evening, a little on the cold side, but we still decided that we could race in singlets :P I was unsure how this would go as I have had hardly any sleep the past few days/weeks. I managed to get off to a really good start and keep a good speed. It started to rain about 7min into the race which was really annoying as it made the ground so slippery! At the turn around I managed to be at 8.50min which is really good for me, although I was a bit scared I would not be able to hold the pace that much longer. I managed to keep pushing, but not as hard as the first half. My time was 18.35 which was a PB by 7 seconds for me. I was so happy with this result, especially with the lack of good preparation! Poland is looking more and more hopeful every day :)

After the test and last few lectures of the semester, I guess I was able to relax just a little bit before the gigantic weekend of races!! In this time, the JWOCers from Auckland Uni managed to set up a meeting with the Uni in regards to any sponsorship. After hearing what we had to say and how much we have to pay for the trip ourselves, they generously gave us $1000 each in order to help us with our endeavours! We are so extremely helpful as this will definitely help us with our trip!

Queens Birthday Weekend...
This weekend consisted of 5 races; 3 multi-day long distances and 2 events put on by some of the AUckland JWOCers, a sprint and a superseries relay.
I was running up in Elite womens this weekend as I decided to have some competition practice before JWOC, especially since the Aussies were over for the Pinestars/Bushrangers test match. I was also selected for the NZ Pinestars too, so that was another reason for running up a grade :P

DAY 1:
The first race of the day was at Telephone Track. We had an 8km course with 150m climb. As I warmed up, I just said to myself to take it careful as this map is tricky and requires a lot of work with your compass. When I started, I realised that to number 1 I was not quite following exactly where I was, so I told myself to slow down just a little bit as I believe I was running a bit too fast. This helped a lot as I was checking on winsplits later that I was getting the fastest times on the first 5 controls. Number 6 was pretty terrible as I must have lost concentration with my compass direction and started doubting myself so much. I soon realised after 1.30min what I was doing, and corrected myself and went to the control. At number 7 I managed to catch Anna Sheldon and Angela Simpson. We were running together for a bit on the legs 8 to 9, then soon after it was just Angela and I battling it out to each control. I managed to keep my concentration pretty well after catching Angela and managed to run with her as well. She took a different route choice to number 19, and I think she may have stuffed it up a little. I was by myself on the last loop, but managed to miss 1min on #20, 2min on #22 and a further 30sec on # 23...so a very poor ending. Even though there were a few mistakes on this course, I still managed to keep them quite small. I felt pretty strong when I was running today and was very happy with my win in the elite grade! What made it even more satisfying was that I won by 7min! Very happy :)

Day 1: Morning course

In the afternoon we had the sprint for the JWOC fundraising events. I think I was running a bit too fast as I kept making too many mistakes. Was a really fun course though :) I tried to get a picture of this map, but the quality is not so good..

Angela and I after the first race

DAY 2:
Today we had a longer course of 8.8km and a bit more climb, so I was expecting quite a tough run. I was not very happy with my run today as I just never really had a good flow. My direction out of most of the controls was seriously shocking. The first 2 controls were steady and good for me, and even running to #3 I was running really fast, although I read the map pretty wrong when I got closer to 3 and managed to stuff it up quite a bit by about 3min or so. After 3, I didn't make too many mistakes, just little ones here and there. I was extremely tired towards the end and was actually walking up some of the hills. I think the felled tree areas were really draining as I was so tired of picking my legs up high for a lot of the race. Was a fun race, very excited to run a long distance with quite a few long legs in it :)

Day 2: Morning course

In the afternoon, we had the 2 person superseries relay. Ross and I were in a team together. I managed to boost it up the really steep hill to the triangle, and even to the first control. Number 4 is where I really lost it for myself, I stuffed the first pivot by a lot and many people passed me :/ not so good...after this I managed to orienteer and run really fast to catch up a bit, but probably not enough. I was hesitating at so many controls as I kept checking Ross's control descriptions as his map was on the back...grr..I don't even know why I kept doing it! eek. Anyway, Ross went out in about 5th behind Tom and 3 Aussies. He absolutely smashed it! I think he mentioned he did under 5min per km for that tricky area! Pretty crazy! We ended up winning the superseries relay which was cool :)

Superseries Relay

DAY 3:
Last day of racing today. Felt pretty average when I woke up in the morning, but knew that every one else would be feeling the same way :P
Managed to get off to a good start again today. Didn't make any mistakes really until number 9. I totally misjudged my compass direction which then lead me into the wrong tricky contour detail area. After I realised, I managed to get myself back to number 9. Am so angry as I lost at least 3min here, and at number 8 I was winning by 2min! The rest of the course was good, no really big mistakes, so was pretty happy besides that one bad control. I won 9 splits, which was the most in our grade, so I am pretty stoked.

Day 3

Overall a really good weekend for me, especially running up in Elites :) Enjoyed myself thoroughly, and am now having withdrawals from orienteering! I want to do some more!

Running on Volcanoes

Have had a pretty good weekend, not too hard :)

Took Fridays training as an easy day as I needed that bit of recovery for my body. Saturday was the usual drills and circuit training in the morning, then in the afternoon, Duncan and I went for a bit of a cruise around the streets and Mt Eden.
On Friday night, Rassmus and I planned my training for the next few weeks leading up to JWOC. It looks really well structured as I think that is what I need. Since I have no classes after next week, I am able to do some easy 45min runs in the morning as well as my training in the afternoons. My intervals will be a bit shorter and hopefully a bit quicker, ie. I usually do 6x1km reps, now I will do about 4, but at a slightly higher or same intensity.
Have tried to study a bit this weekend as I have a test next week, although managed to do a 90min run today with Duncan.
We took it easy as we both want to do respectable times in the 5km race on Tuesday night. As we were about to head out the door, I realised it was such a nice Autumn day! I suggested that we take a camera so we can capture the sites of where we run most days. So here are a few photos and a video of our run today. Sometimes better than words! ;)

Sorry about the wind noises and the crazy sunlight :)

After our long run, I sculled back some Raisey's, and did a bit of stretching as my calves were a tad tight today. Overall a nice easy weekend :)
Very much looking forward to next weekend. 3 long distances, a sprint and a 2 person elite relay all in 3 days!! Very excited!! :D

Oh and I am going to leave you with this awesome as Nike add! I am not sponsored by them, but I think it is pretty wicked! :)

Training + Study

So I have decided that both of these 2 activities do not mix so well. Over the past week I have had some really good training sessions and also had a butt load of uni work to complete...

Saturday started with the usual training session of 8am drills, strides and the 'killer circuit' with Mike. Felt pretty tired from a busy week, but was such a sunny morning that it almost made me feel really good :)
The drills and running techniques are very important to me at the moment. As I am improving with my running speed, I want to ensure that I am training my muscles to run in the most efficient way. Although my running style is not the greatest, I believe that it is slowly improving with the help of these drills! After the technique training, we apply all of what we have practiced into strides. It is really hard to concentrate on everything we have to think about, but once you start running it feels pretty awesome!
The 'killer circuit' training is next. Duncan and I went together again this week. We had 2 minutes at each station...altogether it is a 40min workout. We found all of the cardio workouts were really tiring today, but was a good contrast with all the weights and core exercises. Later in the afternoon I had to pick up Amber from the Airport as she is back home (Hawkes Bay) for good now! :) We went for a nice cruisey hour run up Mt Eden and around the Domain a few times...was good to run with her again.

About 20min into the 90min rogaine

Sunday was the final of the NWOC Rogaine series. It was all the way out at Slater Road which is quite a steep map, so I knew it would be good training for Poland :) Results are shown here. I won the Open Women's grade and won the whole series overall and claimed the $100 prize! My route is shown on route gadget here. It was a tough rogaine as I had no idea what order to get the controls in...I think if my route was a bit better, I could have come very close to getting them all! Thoroughly enjoyed this series as it gave me the chance to get a decent run in each Sunday it was on whilst making me read my map at the same time too! Next Orienteering event is at Queens Birthday Weekend in 2 weeks! I am competing for the New Zealand Pinestars as we have a test match against the Australian elites.

Tired at the end of the Rogaine

Winners of the day

Sunday night consisted of staying up till 2am trying to finish an Environmental Science Project report. I was so tired I just had to get some sleep even though I hadn't finished.. I got up at 7am to finish it off to hand it in at Uni at about midday. I was extremely tired and was contemplating not even training as I didn't think it would be very beneficial at all, but I decided I will just try to do Hill Tempo. I managed to feel pretty good on the warm up, so wasn't too worried. I felt so strong on the tempo! It was kind of weird and crazy?!? So I just pushed! Towards the end I was really feeling quite tired, but it was good. I managed to do a PB on this hill loop! I did 26min, a whole 1min faster than I have ever done it before.

Hill Tempo on Mt Eden, I do 3 laps.

Tuesday was still an interval day in my mind, so I decided to get Jaime and Anna to join me for 6x1km around the road in the domain. I was really feeling the effects from no sleep! My first interval was 3.34min which is good for me, although towards the end some were getting up to 3.50min :S ...I wasn't so happy about this, but I knew why I just couldn't push. Jaime stopped at 4 because her back was a bit sore, then joined in on the last one. Anna did all 6 with me. Was a good session especially because we actually did the whole 1km as I was borrowing Duncan's Garmin watch, although I just wish I felt a bit better.
Cruisey day Wednesday and had Physio too.
Thursday was time for some more intervals!! My legs have been feeling rather sore and tired from all this speed recently, so I just tried to see how it will be. We did 10x400m. They were good, although my shins were getting really tight about half way through...managed to do them all, although I will definitely take it easy on Friday for sure!!
I have finally finished all of my assignments and Labs now! weaaayyy!! But I do have a test next week and 3 exams after that :S but that is all!
This weekend is a study weekend with some easyish trainings as I am planning on doing a 5km time trial on Tuesday evening. My goal is to go under 18.30min, but we shall see...have to get a lot more sleep if I want to achieve this goal! Will keep everyone updated!
I have been looking at the results from the World Schools Orienteering Championships in Italy as my Dad is over there coaching the NGHS and NBHS team. They have been doing awesome! Very proud of our NZers :)
Rassmus is currently on a training camp with the National Swedish team in France, and it looks amazing! The photos and maps look so awesome! I wish I could be training there right now...

Lovely Polish terrain!

I was looking over all the maps, results and photos from the Baltic Cup which was held in Poland over the weekend. It looks pretty fun and really fast! No room for mistakes as it will cost you a lot of unwanted time! The Swedish team were selected over these races, and it looks like a very strong team! Can't wait to race against them and kick some arse! ;) hehe


P.S. 26 days till I fly out!!! :D