So, after about eight years out of the orienteering game, I stepped back into the ring. I've kept my membership live in the hope that one day I would be lured back. That luration - not a word - was today as the orienteering quite literally came to town - or more accurately, my neck of the woods, Flaxley woods. It would have been rude not to...
So, I set off and it wasn't long before I had completely lost my way. I was flapping around like a headless chicken by checkpoint 2. Yes, the second checkpoint of fifteen! - I thought, this is going bloody well, as I threshed around in the bracken... I probably spent the best part of 15-minutes not finding the control. Mind you, I wasn't the only one. It was like a police search over a crime scene - but with less organisation and no actual crime - other than impersonating an orienteer. Thankfully, from there I got going and actually navigated pretty accurately for the rest of the course. If I'm honest I've never been any bloody good at it, but it is fun - in a sadistic, evil sort of way.
It was a bit of a surprise to see I was actually 8th of 34 finishers/41 starters! I'll take that. Till the next time...
Training has been the usual mix of treadmill sessions, zone 2 and some Zwifting. The highlight was a new PB on the virtual Col des Aravis climb on Zwift and a solid tempo nee threshold run yesterday, almost culminating in a PB on the A4136 climb segment - and I wasn't even going for it. Honest. I was on tempo/threshold run and didn't see any chance of bettering my recent best time. I didn't want the mental disappointment of trying and failing, so I just took it steady - but still with some effort. It did not feel quick. It was with some sadness, as I analysed the Strava data, as you do, to see I missed my PB (set in 2015) by just 2 seconds. On the plus side, I know I'm going to smash it sometime soon.....
