Training is going well

Slowly I am starting to sharpen my training so that I am ready for WOC. The change has been toward more interval sessions of slightly shorter distances. Within the next few weeks this will probably turn toward 400s and 200s.

On Saturday I participated in perhaps my last cross country race before I leave for France. It was held in an area that has been used for a short course event last year (sprint final as far as I remember). I was an interesting course and most of it could be seen from the start. I attained a PB for a 4km course with a time of 13:30. Still not ridiculously fast in terms of some of the other runners, but I am steadily improving.

On Sunday it was time for another of the colour coded events (this one held at Stirrup Glen). I decided not to push too hard and focus on other aspects of my orienteering. Many of the maps are outdated and so vegetation is in no way accurate by any means. It's this switch between navigating in the forest and navigating in the bush that tends to trip me up. Many obvious features in the forest cannot be used in the bush and the runnability in the forest is far better, making some features more noticeable (at least in my opinion). The week before WOC will be invaluable to try and work out which routes are best and work on my technical skill for the middle. However, my focus will be the sprint and therefore the middle will be merely an introduction into the world championship arena and exposure to highly competitive racing.