Training Log Archive: LOST_Richard

Day 4 O'France

Complete fail, only manged the first 4 controls and had absolutly no idea how to find #5

Was in a group of other lost Orienteers at #1 and took best part of 20 minutes to find it, despite being only a few meters from a fence. The rock, contour and clearing details just did make any sense today. Took a long route around 2 and found it Ok but 3 was another mystery the description said cave but when I found it it was a low rock archway, GPS shows I was close but none of the features worked for me.

After not finding #5 decided to head for the track / fence but took for ever fighting through the rock and green and twisting and turning to get to the track.

Right leg groin muscle very sore and hard to lift my leg,

Will see what the last Day brings, back on today's map and a bit longer course with les controls.

C • Cave 3

Day 3 O'France

A better day than Day 2 but a few errors in the circle, hard to read rock / veg with some very low features used and still expecting a boulder or cliff to be visible.

C • Bousser 2

Day 2 of O'France Carnival

Had a very poor run with #5 control taking 32 minutes and 6, 7 & 8 all in the same small section of the map. #5 was between two large cliffs in heavily overgrown with small oak trees and box bush, and the veg was such that you could not see the rock. With some very heavy rain thunderstorms overnight, which fortunately held off while I was on the course, my glasses were completely fogged up and I had trouble reading the fine detail. Lots of people milling around in the tricky section, calling numbers in French and other languages, occasional English voices. After I had found #5 I had lots more trouble finding #7 which I had bumbled into at least twice while looking for #5

Oh well, there are three more days to try to make back a bit of time.

C • plus de chance demain 2

Day 1 of the French 5 Days.

Tricky limestone area, lots of rock mapped but very hard to see with the vegetation cover. Plenty of fences which were life saver a few times. Old broken down walls were harder to use as they were only 30 or 40 cm high but could be used in some spots. The contours were subtle but accurate.

Had trouble at #5 and #6. #5 got a broken wall attackpoint but did not go low enough into the thickets to find a clearing lost about 2 or 3 minutes. At #6 I identified a large circular cliff but did not find the control on a small knoll 50m away so went off to look elsewhere as I presumed it was a different circular cliff. Came back a few minutes later and saw the same cliff and the same knoll and went a little further and found the flag! Around 6 minutes lost. A few other scratchy controls and getting pretty tired towards the end and felt like I was moving very slowly.

Quite surprised to find I was 10th, after they fixed an SI problem where the last control was not recording. Eoin Rothery won the M60 on the same course in 51minutes something and I was 2mins 40 sec up on Eoin at control #4. The M65 winner was 46 minutes!!

Event: O-France 2016 edition
 

Prologue Sprint Race at O'France in a small French village Nant

Not overly complex but still a good fun course in and out of the village and alley ways. No significant errors but a couple of hesitations and spun around a couple of times when there was a 180 degree turn and I was getting ahead of myself and took a few steps the wrong way before correcting. Maybe a total or 10 - 20 sec error.

Was 9th on the board when we left should should hold a top 15 spot

Onto the complex karst country tomorrow.

With a week of O coming up and the cycle touring done for the minute thought I should go for a run to see what the legs thought of the idea.

We were camping by a nice lake in the Midi-Pyrenees and it was a nice spot to run on a VTT (MTB)

Legs were Ok but slow.