Training Log Archive: Swampfox

Ardrishaig. I put this in only because I love the word "Ardrishhaig". I defy anyone to say it fast 14572 times in a row without pausing for air. And if that doesn't get you out of breath, then you could always try running uphill from the village into the forest and network of logging roads above, like I did.

C • I defy anyone to say it fas... 2

Day 6. Even though we ran immediately west of where we ran yesterday, with some overlap, the area had a different feel to it, possibly because much of it was on a differently facing slope, we never got above the trees (we had a section of high open moor yesterday), and it was in a more uniformly planted forest area.

Navigated mostly well, with 1/2 minute or so detoured into a control near the control I was aiming for, and perhaps a few places of hesitation where it might not have been needed (can be hard to properly evaluate the process/outcome effects when you take an extra look at the map vs. not taking the little bit of extra time). Otherwise, the biggest problem was again with my legs; on a big downhill descent diagonally down a sleep slope to #3, my legs began tingling and started clamping down and only by slowing way down and taking it gingerly was I able to keep them from clamping down entirely. After that, they worked well enough other than being sore.

A fun day, and a nice note to end things on. If I do this again, then next time (and any future time) I will plan to take the extra week of vacation *before* racing, and not after--and then my legs should be good to go.

Day 5. A better day today--navigation went well, and while my legs were sore from yesterday, they held up well enough. The closest they came to going over was some warning tinglings on the steep descent out of the moorland on the way to #7. In a couple of places I had to stop right in the vicinity of controls to figure out where the feature was in the bracken. And the only nervous moment was on #9, where I ended the leg a little high above the I was looking for; I saw the reentrant, but what I saw was a little bit bigger than I expected and not quite where I expected it to be relative to drainage I had just crossed, but after a good look at the map and a quick glance all around, I decided (correctly) the reentrant below me was the only game in town.

I was still losing time on the downhills because of leg soreness, etc., but otherwise it felt like I was at least moving decently. The map was good everywhere I saw, and it was a neat landscape to be in.

My favorite leg may have been #1--a very short leg out of the start to a low, form line knoll which was hard to make out through the bracken towering over it. In my mind a classic Scottish control and, at the very least, nothing like anything we have back home around Laramie!

Day 4. Finally, a day where it felt like I had some clue about how to orienteer again. Essentially I ran a clean race, apart from one piece in the middle of a longish leg where I missed seeing part of a route where contouring around a steep slope (the map was very busy in this section) and so ended climbing up an extra 5-6 lines on the beeline and later descending down those same extra lines on the far side.

Unfortunately, even after the rest day and 3 previous days of running, my legs had problems again. We had to angle down a steep, large slope out of controls 2, 3 and 4; on the way down to #3, my legs started tingling and were on the verge of cramping/clamping down, on the way to #4 I was losing speed and people were moving by me at a brisk pace, and by the time I was on my way out of #5 my legs were in full uncooperative mode and the people who had passed me earlier were flying down the slope in front of me and disappearing into a far forest edge. For the rest of that leg I was fighting my legs, and going down any kind of slope thereafter was painful and slow. On the other hand, going up any hill was comparatively easy, and it shows in the splits, where I was doing relatively better on the climbs.

Hard to say for sure why today was so different than the other days. However, one thing is my sense is the map was better and much more to my liking than the maps for the three previous days. All the maps have been done by the same firm, but whether or not they were done by the same person(s) and standard I don't know. It may have helped that today's map was from a lidar base rather than based off of an earlier map with different base material.

Even after all these years of orienteering, it seems maps either "click" for me or they don't, and when a map doesn't, then I tend to not cope well and the whole thing becomes a struggle in a way that is tough to explain.

And then the overall runnability was vastly better. There were areas of deep heather and blueberries which were rougher and slower, but I can manage that well enough. Otherwise the forest was far less stony and with much less brashings, logs, etc. on the ground.

All that said, it's still quite odd to compare today's race with the three previous, where it was really hit or miss as to whether or not I was going to execute any given leg successfully, and/or locate the control immediately at the terminus of any given leg, and today, where everything I wanted to do, I just did, more or less automatically. It would have been fun to have been able to run full out over the course and see how that would have stood up.

C • Clicking (or not) 3

Third go at a decent day of racing gave a very similar result to the first two tries--not good, in other words. On the bright side, at least I have been quite consistent so far! But maybe consistently poor is not the right sort of thing one should be aiming for; what was I thinking!?!

I started off a little ragged but managed the first 4 controls okayish, and the terrain shifted to something I could manage better. #6 and #7 were dead easy, except I managed to miss them both. In one case, the terrain in the circle didn't match at all what I was expecting from the map, and in the other case I glanced too quickly at the control circle and stopped one feature short of the actual control feature. Frustrating, but I was still game at that point and ran on.

#9 was a small boulder on a blank slope, and I decided to follow a ride up a large hill and attack from above, using a distinct spur. The route along the ride was longer than a direct route, but the prospect of contouring along a blank, steep slope for a long distance had no appeal and offered little prospect of success at the far end, either.

I made it to the distinct spur, examined the reentrant beside it, and it didn't look quite right, and the next spur over didn't look exactly as I expected, either. But I was satisfied I was where I intended to be, and crossed the reentrant, and descended to the edge of the control ring and stopped and looked down the hill for the boulder. The forest was wide open with great visibility, and I couldn't see anything of any help. If I was in the wrong place, then not seeing the boulder would of course be no surprise. But if I was in the wrong place, then I had no idea where I might be, and so nothing really mattered anyway. On the other hand, if I was in the right place and couldn't see the boulder or anything else, then what should my next logical course of action be? I decided to go down a little lower and cross my fingers--not exactly a plan you could endorse for anyone else.

I went down lower and saw nothing. I looked around. I looked behind me. Aha! There was the flag, just a little behind me. As I was leaving, I took another look at the rock, and estimated the uphill side was at least a generous 0.1m high. No sure how the good orienteers are able to discern mossy, 0.1m from everything else, but that is part of what separates them from the ordinary.

That took the steam out of my racing efforts, but I soldiered on for a few more controls and got them okay. Then came #13, a short leg descending a slope which got progressively steeper, with the control in a small reentrant. It looked like it could be easy to miss and a miss would be costly, so I proceeded with excruciating care. I passed a feature I could identify about 70 m out from the control and practically glued myself to my compass, and went down, looking every which way....and didn't see anything. I stopped when I had the feeling I had gone far enough, if not already too far, and when I stopped I had no idea whatsoever where I was in relation to the control, even though I was absolutely sure of where I had been just 70 m back. That kind of situation does not conjure up a fun feeling. I guessed at which way to turn, and found the control almost at once, but it was sheer luck. Basically, at that point, it felt like another really crummy day of racing, and I jogged through the rest of the course.

It's hard to believe how different this has felt from two years ago in Scotland, but it does. Presumably it's just me. Maybe in part it's because my eyes aren't quite as good, maybe my attitude has changed enough and I'm not as interested/willing to try to run where the footing has been pretty tough, maybe it's a variety of things. But it sure hasn't been as fun for me.

To be clear, that's entirely my fault though, and not the fault of anyone else.

C • standards 7

C • Traveling 5

Day 1 of Scotland started off well: felt good warming up and got off to a decent start--not great, not bad, but decent--and felt strong on a steepish climbing leg to #5. The way out of the control was straight back downhill, and it took only a few steps for my weird, occasional upper leg "travel cramps" to seize up my legs. It's quite clear from the splits where things literally went downhill for me--ha! It was pretty painful for any downhill sections after that, and even where it wasn't downhill, I was reduced to a slow jog everywhere else. Too bad, I wasn't expecting it, but it wasn't a total surprise, either.

Today, Day 2, my legs were a bit sore from all that yesterday, but they otherwise weren't bad at all, and so hopefully I'm already past the cramping problem for this particular trip. However, it wasn't any better of a race for me. The forest was quite wide open nearly everywhere, with mostly very good visibility, however the runnability was quite difficult--or at least I found it so. The forest floor was mostly stones overgrown in moss, very uneven and lumpy, with forest workings (branches, tree trunks) in generous amounts on top of the stones. It was quite slow going for someone unused to those conditions, and once again it was more jogging than running for me--albeit for very different reasons.

A couple of controls had a "bag in the woods" aspect to them, and a couple of places I had disagreements with what the map was saying with respect to vegetation and what I was seeing. That aside, however, I would have to say I orienteered poorly--2 misses from carelessness, probably not adjusting well to the presence of so many runners in the forest, hesitations, etc, etc. Even if I subtracted all lost time and had ran perfectly, I would have been far behind the leaders. A little disappointing, but so it goes; it's still been fun to be back in this lush, green land filled with friendly people!