Training Log Archive: BrandNewMe

Long model, then a bit of middle model. Long was hillier than the middle and covered in knee high gorse / busy stuff. Slightly impedes the running, but not too scratchy. It does obscure the shape of the contours. The final will be flatter than this. Direction is crucial. Distinctive trees are not distinctive. Paths are hard to spot. Straight is fairly great. The middle model was flatter, and lightning fast. Grass with widely spaced trees.

Getting myself together again after a day spent lazing around yesterday. Back to being an athlete.

The middle qualifier voided. As an athlete, this is crap. Final start list is by world ranking. My world ranking is dire.

http://www.scottish-orienteering.org/doma/show_map...

Insomnia last night.

Eoc long qualification

15th. Winner did 54.

The plan was probably a bit too vauge. Have a plan, treat the dark green as impenetrable (for the early starters like me it truly was), and be careful with the direqction.

To one I went around the paths, though they were sandy, and the last path was v hard to spot. Got it safely though. To two I was on a bearing. Not a very good one. I realised where I was when I could see the track coming down the other side of the vally, so went left. Was relying on seeing the water but couldn't due to the grot. I over shot it, then had to come back. I should have used the orange/ yellow open area on the spur near the control as that was obvious. 2:30 dropped here.

Three ok. Four was always going to be tough as an early starter. Nothing had been tracked so far, so I had to assume the brambly green was going to be impassible. Picked my way to the oob, then all the way round on a track. Nearly ran off the map near a field and had to back track. 44 secs lost here. Then tried to follow the small paths to the controls. They didn't really exist. I did a heck of a lot of thrashing around in brambles. I could see the white trees that the control was in but couldn't get there. Oh dear. Made it eventually but dropped about 3 mins here.

5 fine. Achilles starting to hurt here, and the sandy paths are starting to give me blisters. 6 tried to follow the little paths from about half way. Couldn't pick them up and there was no way through so I had to back track. Fine after that but lost more than a minute on the back track probably. 7 I was a bit flippant as I had run past the drinks point already. The bearing in from the drinks point was not good enough and I was a bit right. 30secs. 8-11 were easy. I was a bit left to 11. The underfoot conditions were tough though, as there was a layer of waxy plants underfoot.

To 12 I was thinking of going straight ish down through the impenetrable and up the yellow. I had a look and it was impossible, so I took plan b and rejoined the road. Slightly off line at the control. This whole area was buried in brambles. Lost 20secs having a look, and a bit more in the circle. 13 was ok. The boys had my number 12 I think, so there was a slight track through the impenetrable. It was still really rough, but do-able with scratched. Went flying into a gorse bush here. Nice! The rest was all pretty straightforward. Offline to 19 was flippancy. I thought I knew the area after yesterday. I was wrong. 30 secs.

So at the finish I was pretty certain I would not qualify. My aim coming in to EOC had been just to qualify for both. One of the other aims had been to work on handling disappointing outcomes in a positive way. It's all to easy to beat myself up over the woulda shoulda coulda of orienteering, but I am trying to move away from that, in order to start enjoying the sport again and get my mojo back. So I was pleased not to be that upset by missing qualification. Also that was a really shitty forest, and if that's what orienteering here is like, I'll gladly skip the final and concentrate on middle and relay. The final forests are all meant to be really nice however.

There were no results around, so I was shocked when one of the Canadians was one of the last finishers in the course, and she was 15th when she finished with about 10mins longer than me. That's what happens in women's qualification races though. I'm through to the final. Time to think about plans for that us maybe Sunday. Models tomorrow, Sunday off. This afternoon siesta.

http://www.scottish-orienteering.org/doma/show_map...

Eoc middle qualifier.

Pretty nervous but the plan was to plan, and check and plan and check and plan and check. It felt good having a plan, something to focus on. Made me think about orienteering.

To 1 I was with Liis and Helena J, and we all had the same one which was odd. Number two compass. Fine. Number three, distinct veg and right of hill. 4 could nearly see if from four. 5 bearing, reading the shape of the land. Left of tree and no control. I was confident I wasn't too far left, so I turned right and got it. 6 straight. The terrain was v visible. 7, bearing, not great. Relocated fine off the cairn and in. 8 blundered down and relocated. Straight. The veg after the track was obvious so ok. 10 was getting distracted now. Thought I was going for a pit on the edge of a large depression. Veg everywhere. Thought I was on the side of a depression but was on a slope. Hit the small path, thinking I was on the big path. Really confused, but decided to go east to get some visibility to relocate, and realised what I had done. Pleased I stayed calm and made some good decisions. 11 the paths were indistinct in the mid section, and veg was everywhere so a lot of checking. Last bit was easy. 12 was easy, and the last bit was all v easy. The last loop was a big felled area, as was most if the open areas from start to 7. Not a fantastic area.

So, lots of protests are in for the wrong controls. This is ridiculous. An iof controller in theory should have checked all control sites. What went wrong? Very disappointing. We finish the race without the certainty we deserve. Poor.

Now putting this behind me and starting to look at tomorrow. What will happen will happen.

Warm up

Post epic drive jog around the glories of the London borough of sutton's streets. Felt in bad form. Doesn't mean to say I am in bad form though, and if I get the nav right qualification should not be a problem, in theory...

Run from James's in mytholmroyd. It was dark, so just around the streets. Up the crag vale road until it got steep, then 5 x 2min on 30secs off on the flat. Good. Achilles niggling on the drive down, but fine tonight, merely a slightly tight calf.

11 hour day at work. Was going to turn up to mpc for the first time ever but to late. Think a rest day might be best as I have loads to do.