While I usually spread training load more evenly at a weekly level to build a gradual progression I do occasionally have intense period of overload. Escaping from Auckland to somewhere with more relevant training opportunities can be a huge benefit to my training if I capitalise on this by treating the week away as an overload week and buffering this with easier than usual weeks. I chose Castle Hill and Christchurch as my training destination to get in some orienteering on less familiar terrain with plenty of hills.
I had 9 days in total, during which I knocked out 22 and a half hours of running. This included 3 races and plenty more at higher intensities bringing the total training load to 2600 points in my load calculations. If we equate this to a 7-day figure it would give a solid 2030 points, compared to my previous week of 960 points, which was part of my normal progression. So during this period I was knocking off training at just over twice the rate of the previous week. Joining me on this training smack down were fellow Auckland training buddies Cam Tier, Imogene Scott and Kurtis Shuker.
I started off with the Hogs Back Ultralong orienteering race, which was great preparation for the long distance at WOC in 2 months. The terrain was tough and slow going compared to what I am used to in Auckland and the length of the race (two and a half hours for me) was a good test to see how I far I had come since the start of this training block 8 weeks earlier. My navigation was pretty rough though, and I consistently over simplified the map. It wasn’t until later in the course that I started spiking controls. I held on to a 3 minute lead over Chris Forne, with Cam in 3rd.
The next day we hit a local race for some more steep hills and beech forest. I had a much better run this day, I was focused and aggressive, although a bit tired from the previous day. I only made one small mistake, losing 30 seconds, and came out with another win, 2 minutes ahead of Chris and Nick Hann. To add more volume to the day, and while we had access to the map, I knocked off another hour of orienteering and felt pretty content to get back inside for some solid recovery.
After back to back races we had the next morning off, but hit up Castle Hill for an extraordinary night session. Weaving through these ginormous boulders and cliffs was a magical experience, although I made many mistakes in certain parts of the course. I was pretty stumped on these occasions and still don’t have a good explanation as to how these mistakes unfolded in the complex area. The second half of the course was good though, and I made short work of this less maze-like navigation.
The next morning, we lined up our long run of the week: a big mission from Lagoon Saddle to Castle Hill. The start featured a 500 metre climb from the car park through a mix of beech, pines, and open tussock to crest Lagoon saddle. The trail then speeds on down the long Harper Valley through the most beautiful beech forest I have ever seen, eventually joining onto the river amongst rugged cliffs and clear streams. We left the river after 16 km on the trail and went straight up, sky high, onto the Craigieburn Range. 1100 metres gained in not much over 2 km of horizontal travel.
We planned to summit Mount Cheeseman, but the weather started to get nasty, and we could barely stand in some places because of the wind funnelling up and over the exposed ridgelines. A bitterly cold shower came through behind us and we popped over the main ridgeline at 1900 metres and descended towards safety. I continued through to Castle Hill Village, racking up 37 km with 2000 metres of elevation gain. This was a solid session and I actually felt good all the way to the end of this 5-hour mission. One of the challenges of this kind of session though, is that it’s tough to finish the day with carbohydrate stores topped up ready for the next day, as you burn through most of your carbohydrate stores over the long session and your opportunities to eat the usual quantity of food are reduced.
My energy levels would be tested the next day with 2 high intensity sessions. I felt good for morning’s sprint orienteering training on the Castle Hill Village map. This was a session of 2 halves, with some very tricky navigation in dense beech forest off the start, turning into a full speed semi-urban effort for the last half. A few new tracks and new buildings added something extra to the course and forced me to get multiple points of reference to overcome these inaccuracies on the map.
I finished the day with a highly anticipated session, the river to ridgeline tempo; the river being the stream by Texas Flat and Hogs Back and the ridgeline being that of the Craigieburn Range directly above the Mount Cheeseman Skifield. The route is up the skifield access road, past the forest lodge, through the beech forest, above the tree line, up up up, past the snowline lodge, up up up and finally popping over the ridgeline to reveal the stunning evening sun over mountain peaks as far as the eye could see. 8.5 km with 1000 m ascent. Timing from the river, I hit the snowline lodge at 38 minutes and the ridgeline at 52:37. Challengers welcome. This was one hell of a grind and I could feel my energy waning as I called on my reserves to pull myself up the final pinch in the loose gravel. After soaking in the last rays on the ridgeline I descended into its shadow and cruised back to the car. My carbohydrate stores were obviously near empty on the way up because I hit the wall on the way down, despite cruising. Beast session, would do again.
Why not start the next day with O-intervals? I was pretty pooped for this, yet another high intensity session, and I got my butt handed to me on a plate with Cam taking out 3 of the 4 head to head efforts. This was another session which drew on emotional strength as much as physical strength, and the dense areas of wild beech forest tripped, scratched and poked me to breaking point. I was feeling very fragile toward the end but relished the opportunity to push my boundaries.
I rounded off the day with a cruise on the roads of Christchurch. I actually felt fine at this easy intensity, but knew that my legs would not share my optimism if I were to push the pace. These sessions provide valuable aerobic stimulus without fatiguing the legs much and if I wasn’t so intent on making the most of the orienteering in the past days, the high intensity sessions would have been more spread out over the week. We also did another short cruise the next morning, another 30 minutes of lightly stressing the aerobic energy system.
Friday night was less of a walk in the park though. We strapped on our headlights and hit up a very tricky night session at Woodend Beach. I had some reservations about the map, especially as you move south (I was warned), but I was up for the challenge of staying focused on fine navigation for as long as my brain could think and my legs could hold me upright. This lasted most of 2 hours, 80 controls. At this point the map was really hard to interpret and Cam and I were both fading rapidly. The endless onslaught of contours and low branches pushing us off the straight line eventually won out. It’s hard to know how to perform better at such detailed night orienteering. I was focused, but just couldn’t get the contours to match with such limited visibility, even at a low speed.
Saturday morning was the low point of the week for me. I had been below par ever since the river to ridgeline, and 2 hours of hilly trails had me gritting my teeth. My effort was high and my power was low. My low heart rate showed just how little energy my body was producing as Cam dragged me around the Port Hills. 22 km with 900m accent, another very worthy session.
I wasn’t very optimistic about Sunday’s race, a local rogaine back in Auckland. I started pretty relaxed because I expect to feel just about as slow as the previous day. Once I got warm though, I felt good and my navigation was near perfect, delivering me a convincing win. I was feeling highly energised after this, feeling that my body would absorb the training stress of the past week well. We topped off the overload period with another 45 minutes in terrain, taking me to 22.5 hours with no shortage of high intensity.
I followed this up by trimming 25% off what my week would have otherwise been to reduce the chance of injuries. I also had a pre-booked massage with Sports Lab to catch any niggles before they could cause damage. I was cranking by the next weekend and felt recovered, but the big gains didn’t set in until a couple of weekends later at Jafa Queens Birthday.