Training Log Archive: Mark3

A few km shorter than expected since I lost track of some minor path (aka the pennine way) just before kinder low and kept contouring. Obviously decided subconsciously I hadn't had enough of running through heather.

Lovely day to be out. Had fancied a race but the closest I could find was 90 mins away and this was on my doorstep :)

C • good up there. 1

A more encouraging end to the week. Started well; a few wobbles on 2 investigating some other controls, but they were very close to mine, and a ditch looks quite like a re-entrant! Didn't have enough of a plan to 3 and was saved by Joe Taunton catching the 2mins on me and then finding 7 which gave us a good AP. I was pretty much where I thought, though.

Then 4 I ignored Joe and Ed N and followed a stream (which was miles away from the stream near the control, not sure what I was doing) and they got away. But I did 5-6-7 pretty well... and then 8 - a bee* was buzzing around my head, as they do... but then it strung me and then it flew inside my top and couldn't get out! So after running around in circles trying to get away from it while it was stinging me, and failing to get rid of it by flapping the bottom around, I then had to actually remove my top and shake it to get the damn thing out. Anyway after that experience I was totally disorientated and not in the right frame of mind to find the control and was looking about 2 re-entrants too early. Stupid bee. Unfortunately this lost me the chance of running with Joe again and never saw him again.

Lucky on 9; used the woods above it to the S but that wasn't my initial plan (didn't really have an initial plan; should've used the three massive boulders below). My contouring route to 10 was ok but too nervous, should have trusted I didn't need to know exactly where it was because it would be obvious when I came out into the open. Bit lower down the slope than I thought. Caught by RP and two other guys here. Took a different line to them to 12; RP disappeared the distance but got there the same time as the others. Pretty much together for 13 and 14, then I got away down the hill a bit on 15 and led them into that; surprised to catch RP again here.

Unfortunately this was a bad thing as I then tried to stay ahead and went too fast and made a mess of 16, found 20 but didn't realise it was 20 unfortunately until the second time I visited it. Bracken pretty poorly mapped (but shouldn't have been using it, USE THE CONTOURS.

RP and I did 17 to the end pretty well, he was always ahead but I was taking different routes a lot of the time. I could keep up in easy terrain but couldn't handle his pace through the heathery stuff.

Shame about the bee, that wasn't really my fault, but should really have learnt both the going-too-fast and the use-the-contours lessons by now!

*probably a bee, anyway. We had been warned over the commentary that there were new hives in the area and there would be more bees than usual.

Another bad day. By far the easiest technically and much easier than yesterday physically too.

Stated ok, tentative but accurate, up to 9. 10 looked like it was on the edge of clitter but the actual description was 'hill', unfortunately I didn't read that and was going solely off the rocks and bracken, neither of which were distinct.as noted before, should've used contours here rather than other features.or at least as well! Then messed up 11 which was straightforward but think I was annoyed after 10, looking at the GPS I seem to have drifted off my bearing for no real reason and then had to relocate.

Next few controls I was being especially careful so were ok. But just time for one final mistake on 17 where I navigated to pretty much exactly the correct place but didn't see the white splodge of trees on the map near the control and so thought I was in the wrong place, went 90s in another direction, then stopped and thought about more and noticed the splodge and had to come 90s back again;sigh.

Probably 7mins of mistakes; pretty poor on this area. Hopefully a good day final day tomorrow, but quite glad the next three weeks will be a bit of a break from o tbh.

It had all been going pretty well but today was disappointing.

The walk up to the start through thick heather was tough and foretold of things to come. So navigation to the first two controls was perfect but it was a walk the whole way. On 3 I ventured slightly off the edge of the map but managed to relocate (a skill in itself) and didn't lose too much time. Overshot 4 a bit and walked to 5 before the terrain got slightly more runnable and increased the pace contouring to 6, still pretty slow and careful. 7 was a vertical decent which I took gingerly.so slow so far but going ok.

Then things started to go wrong.didn't take enough time on route choice to 8.retrospectively I think this is because I'm used to being able to make complex choices while running, but the terrain today was such that that's very hard.I need to STOP and think about the hard choices even for 10s rather than trying to make one on the move.anyway I took a choice which was both further, over rougher terrain, with a worse AP.this not only took a long time but also destroyed me physiologically and I started to feel really really tired.

Couple of mins lost on 9 despite walking and just mentally not together at all, took ages to relocate.then another couple on 12 which was one of the easiest controls as most of the leg was on a downhill path, but I wasnt concentrating and had no idea how far along I'd gone.then probably 3 mins on 14 just not being careful and mistaking one hide for another despite a plethora of information which should've told me otherwise.

Last few controls ok. But the mental tiredness really got to me today; not something I often suffer from.early night I think.

Couple of subopotimal route choices; 11-12 and 12-13. 11-12 pretty marginal; 12-13 definite mistake. Saw both routes for both, just chose wrongly.
Fell over a bit 8-9 which cost 10s as well.Bit of a hesitation 15-16 going back to check I'd got the right 15, another 10s maybe. otherwise good.

Stuck to my intended tactics in the forest (ie most of it) staying on the paths all the time; happy with this decision.not as urban as I had hoped for, but still good fun.

20th/51
https://www.scottish6days.com/documents/2017/RD17_...

Did the trail-o, which took about 90mins. I think I got 12/20 which is pretty poor. I am not going to be the next Tom Dobra. I had been really looking forward to it, and it was fun at the start, but it got dull pretty fast. I think I would prefer Temp-o to this (which was Pre-o, with one timed control). Turns out the difference between a timed control in Pre-o and Temp-o is that the latter can have Zs. Who knew.

Another pretty good run for me, and 10min ks with 26 controls and not a single path is not to be sniffed at imo.

#1 a hard control because it was very hard to identify the wide rides on the ground despite then looking very obvious on the map.had no idea where I'd crossed the wall, but saw a control on a boulder and relocated from that ok. Small miss on 2 and was caught by my 2min man (seeding was done on world ranking;I was surrounded by people better than me) and I just about kept up with him to 3 and 4.

5-7 on my own were straightforward; 8 should've been too but I had the classic now-I've-hit-the-line-feature-do-i-turn-left-or-right moment and picked the wrong one.

Next few ok, but 12 was a big miss, I was in the right reentrant to start with but much too high, then was confused by the bracken which I thought was the mapped bracken (it wasn't) and had to relocate on the wall - lost 2mins here.

Happy with all three controls in the technical section which I did slowly and accurately; small miss on 22 but saved by a foreigner telling his clubmate where it was, but then 23 was another moment like at 8 and I picked the wrong way again - and again there was easily enough information to make the right choice; just trying to go too fast. Last few easy.

Could have been a few mins faster but basically just outclassed at this level. Good fun though to compare with the top guys, and definitely feel I'm improving.

There is a big hill overlooking Ballater where we're staying; the OS map had a path up so thought I'd have a go. There's a chance the sprint uses a bit of it tomorrow, but it's not embargoed until tomorrow, so thought I'd check it out.
Very scenic and good view from the top, but it's not an area where I'd want to leave the path in a sprint! It would be extremely slow.

RG: http://www.scottish6days.routegadget.co.uk/rg2/#41...

(also RG done for Day1)

Better run than yesterday I think; no massive mistakes. But it was easier. Small miss on #3; should have aimed off. Then pretty dodgy navigation to #6 expecting to come out on one ride but actually drawn down the slope and came out on a parallel one miles away; luckily overall route was still not too bad. Lost at least 60s on #7 thinking I was standing on the spur and being right but a bit too low down. Standing next to the wrong boulder. With hindsight, this should have been obvious.

Mistook E hill for W hill on long leg to #10 but luckily there was an obvious relocation feature. Someone with a Lagganlia 2011 (?) top was in the process of catching me here (ie, followed me all the way) which put a bit of pressure on, although I think I'd have still made the same mistake.

#11-12 missed the obvious ride and went cross country, thought I'd come out on the wall much further NW than I had, but relocated on the strip of open really near to the control...basically lucky here.

Not impressed with the map near #15 as it was in a massive hole (where I was expecting a hill, so that was all me) but it was in some dense trees which I think are mapped as a veg boundary but it just looks like rocks it's so curved... I think this should just have been mapped with a shade of green. ISOM2017 should sort this out!

Rest ok. Worse position than yday but closer to the winner - everyone will have found today easier.

Tbh 2 days in Scotland without anything really major happening is something of an achievement in itself!