Training Log Archive: O-ing

Let the crazy games begin! about to analyse splits on splitsbrowser ....

O France, Day 4, M60, 30th. So basically I got too confident. Leading overall after 3 days, and leading Day 4 after 3 controls I didn't take enough care with no. 5 on Day 4 - the control that cost me the overall win (lost ~26 minutes here, and lost overall by 24:26). A small wobble on no. 4 (ran within 5m of it on the first attempt, wrong side of a bush, +2 mins) meant I rushed a bit. I decided to head to the right and pick up a track. I crossed over a wall/track collecting feature without seeing it and never got right enough to pick up the track I was aiming for. So I initiated my back up plan which was to run past the area and pick up the various paths, walls and a building situated 100m past the control area. I didn't see any of these in the terrain, despite the google photo showing I actually ran where the track was marked for a good bit (I wonder if the track was actually mapped from an old air photo? - it wasn't visible on the ground). I couldn't identify any of the walls (found one running in an unmapped direction). Then there was the "building". That looks like a mistranslation of the symbol from the old 1:5000 map: it has come in as an impassible (ISSOM) wall which looks like an ISOM building. The 1:5000 map from 10 years ago shows it as a wall (and the old map is far better visually and printwise). I did see the big barn 200m east, but couldn't use it to back bear with any confidence. So I decided to head back in and try and find the low hill the control feature was on the side of. This is the most troubling aspect of the whole issue - the hill was supposedly 1 contour + 2 form lines high, but I never actually identified it properly in the terrain. I got on the hill to the NW and stumbled across no. 6.
This should have been enough: I got on the compass and all I had to do was get to the top of this "hill". My direction wasn't great and I missed by 15m; still not seeing the "hill" to my left. So after that it was another 12 minutes lost trying to locate two massive rock pillars and control no. 70 (40m east of mine). At one stage there were four of us stood at 70, all looking for 69 and unable to say where 70 was.
I only eventually found it by yet another attempt to get to the highest point possible and seeing four people exiting a bush.

It was kind of interesting to note that both the winner on the day (Dayon with Smith, Robinson, Fath, Batista and Mazard) and the overall winner (Juan with Vincent and Guyon) were in packs that found no. 5 together.

After no. 5 my confidence was shot and I butchered 6 (+1.5 mins), 9 (ran within 5m of it on the first attempt, wrong side of a bush, +4:30) and 10 (again got within 10m of it first up, wrong side of a bush, +3mins).

Wrenched the left knee on the way out of 7, which didn't help - it was sore till the finish.

The craziness is shown by the fact that the Day 4 winner had day placings of 20, 18, 27, 1 and 33 (10th overall) compared to my 1, 2, 1, 30, 1.

Routegadget: http://www.matrace.fr/gadget/cgi/reitti.cgi?act=ma...

C • Splits 4

O-France, Day 3, M60 at Puech Roucous,1st. Flirted with disaster today with two big errors. However I'm running a lot faster with the knee behaving itself so managed to scrape the win; I now have 4 minutes on 2nd place overall, with 20 minutes to 3rd place.
First significant mistake of the week was at no. 7 - went in without an attackpoint and missed it too low. Eventually realised I was past it and relocated off the top of the hill (-3 minutes!).
Then at no.9 compassed straight at it, so didn't know which way to turn. Searched a few unmapped clearings to the north before I decided to take the plunge into the thick bush, and there the clearing was (- 1 minute).
Nearly carked it on the long run in.

O-France,Day 2 at Le Rageal, M60, 2nd. Anti-inflamms working and ran well. Had been fore-warned about the 4 controls in the difficult area, so coped well with that, although missed a good route choice for no. 6 (out to the field). Ran quicker than yesterday and L knee was fine, just a bit sore after.

O-France, Day 1, M60, first. Puech Roucous,near Cornus. Wobbly start as I followed the wrong fence for a bit (80m) from the start triangle. Corrected, then went the long way around using a small path for both 1 and 2. Heading to 3 got stuck in green, and made very little progress for awhile (1 minute) as I was ensnared in briars. Played safe for 4 - Richard had now been faster on all 4 so far and was 2:30 up. My "safe" strategy started to pay off with long way around routes to 5, 6 and 7 - basically spiking each one but slow in the circle. 8 and 9 were dubious bushes in fairly flat terrain and could have been very nasty, but got them both. 10 was a gully hidden under a bush, but got that as well and 11 and 12 were simple.
Amazingly the safe and slow strategy was enough to win the day (in M60, M65 were faster). The expected winning time was possible at a stretch but not by me - no way could I have gone 11 minutes quicker. I now have a 3 minute lead but I think This is going to be the high water mark for my week.

Event: O-France 2016 edition
 

O France Prologue Sprint at Nant. Slow and sluggish and missed the best routes at 1, 9 and 11. Easy orienteering, just wasn't switched on. L Knee OK.