Training Log Archive: kissy

Day 6 2017 Scottish 6-Days. Glen Feardar West. W55S

This was it, the last day. I told myself to stay calm and not freak out. I was pretty certain that I could stay in the top 10 overall, which would be far and away much more than I had ever expected.

And...I orienteered well. Finally. I did #1 and #2 well. I was particularly proud of #2 because plenty of folks were wandering around too low; they needed to go up those last few contours. I didn't allow myself to get sucked in, and just went right to it. Then, I messed up #3 just a bit. Too far to the right and spent about 10 seconds starting to wonder. Turned and saw it. Found all the rest dead on, but going through the heather from 7 - 9 was NOT fun. I was getting exhausted and fell a few times. It is quite difficult to get back up after falling face first downhill in thigh-high heather!

The last bit of the course was purely for runners, so didn't do so well there. I came in 10th again for the day, but dropped to 8th overall for the week. I am so happy with that result considering when I signed up for the Scottish 6-Days last winter, I wasn't sure that I would even be able to walk the course after my knee operation. It was a great week, and I've already made inquiries into a place to stay for 2019.

C • 2019 1

C • heather 1

I had been disappointed to find out that Balmoral Castle closed to the public at the end of July because the Queen is in residence now for her vacation. Boo! But we went anyway just to see what we could see from the road. And this was it.



And the River Dee.

Day 5 2017 Scottish 6-Days. Glen Feardar East. W55S

I guess it says something when Garmin assigned this event to Hiking vs Orienteering. :-)

Today went better than yesterday, but only just. I started out badly again. Dropped down to the creek on the way to #1, only to have to climb up again when I realized it was the northern boulder (which was indicated on the control description). Then, I somehow completely missed the stream junction, or even that first stream, on my way to #2 and ended up in the western stream. I realized what I had done when I saw the fence crossing the stream. Had to climb up and over, and through some bracken, to get to the cliff. Ugh!

#3 was fine, but I got too low to #4. I was lower in the reentrant and hesitated a second before starting to climb. It was a very shallow reentrant. I thought that was my worst mistake of the day, but I had the 9th fastest split. I guess it was vague enough for everyone. After #4, I did fine but not particularly speedy. The river area on the way to #6 was particularly wet and spongey.

Ended up 10th for the day, which surprised me. Maintained my 6th overall position, but there are several women nipping at my heels.

C • Garmin 1

Day 4 2017 Scottish 6 Days. Creag Choinnich. W55S

This day did not go so well. It was primarily because I didn't follow what had worked for me the past three days: look at my compass and map obsessively. I took it a little more cockily today, and I paid the price.

It started right off the bat. I headed out of the start triangle, knew the direction to go, but stayed a little too far right. I climbed up, saw a hilltop to my right with people at it, and ran to that. No control. I finally looked at the map and saw that I was too far right, turned and saw my control. Ugh. Told myself not to do that again, so I did it again at #2. Followed on the map, stayed on the high ground, everything was good, saw the hill...no control. Looked at my map and saw I had stopped one hill short. Double ugh! The next two controls went fine. On #5, I just pictured the site a little wrong...thought it was going to be on the other side of the hill instead of to the side of it. Didn't even notice on the map it was going to be in a low spot between two hills. Control 6 was fine. And then came the bad one.

I left 6, recognized that I was going to cross over the high ground I ran on to #2, but I stayed too far right, trying to avoid as much of the marsh as possible. I must have come out of the marsh just to the left of where the path crosses the stone wall, but didn't see that. Just saw stone wall then path...cool. But nothing else matched up. There was a control on a boulder up the hill, but couldn't match it to anything. (When I got home, I saw there was a boulder on a contour line, which was the one.) So I climbed up the hill, not knowing where I was, hit the big trail, and at least realized I had to run down it. Got to the path junction, finally matched it to my map, looked up, and there was the control.

All of that was just so stupid. There were a gajillion features right there to tell me where I was, but I ignored all of them. My last goof was running the trail from 7 to 8. Really??

Oh, well. Tomorrow will be a better day. I'm going back to what was working before, and I vow to focus and pay attention.

Today was the rest day, so Mikell and I decided to head for the coast. We first made our way to Stonehaven, a picturesque little town just south of Aberdeen. We walked down to the beach and touched the North Sea. It was not so warm. Then we headed a little south to Dunnottar Castle, our first castle of the trip. We opted not to pay to go inside because...ruined, but we circled it the best we could from the outside, and it was spectacular.







Then we headed to Aberdeen to take a look. We started out at the harbor to look at the big ships and some odd looking supply ships for the oil platforms in the North Sea. We walked around the city a bit after that, but it was not super exciting. Then we made our way home, but not in the most direct route.

C • I looked at the photos of D... 7

Day 3 2017 Scottish 6-Days. Birsemore Hill. W55S

Another good day. I came in 5th again and remain at 6th overall. The final calculations are made on your top 4 days, so there's still hope to move up. We now move away from the Aboyne area, and on to maps around Braemer. The terrain seems like it will be different; hopefully I can keep up my good finishes.

I thought today's course setting was the weakest of the 3 days, so far. The navigation was very straightforward and pretty easy. The next to last control was ridiculous. You ran on a trail, popped into some bracken to find the control and then out the same way, back to the trail. The last bit was a .5 km run-in to the top of the finish chute and then in to the finish. Not very imaginative. The only hesitation I had was taking the trail down to #6. I wanted to make sure I didn't lose contact on the trail. Other than that, I hit all of the controls dead on.

After the event, we went to the local fish-n-chips shop for lunch. It was amazingly good. Then we went to see the Tomnaverie Recumbent Stone Circle, something we pass each way as we go to the events. It was kind of cool, but a little eerie. The best part was the raspberry plants on the path leading to the circle.







Then we stopped at the Queen's View which offers a view of many iconic Scottish features: beautiful green pasturelands, the Cairngorm Mountains, cows, and clouds.

C • Not cows. 1

Day 2 2017 Scottish 6-Days. Balfour Forest.

Today went much better. I came in 5th in my category! And I'm 6th overall for the two days.

My luggage arrived yesterday afternoon, so I had my contacts in today. What a difference it makes to be able to see! The orienteering was, once again, pretty easy, but the footing was not so nice. It seemed like we were either running through "open" fields covered in rocks, downed trees, and knee-high heather; or in the woods that looked beautiful, but once you were in them, you found out that it was just moss-covered rocks and knee-high blueberry. I fell a lot today! But my navigation was fine, with just one small problem at #7. I thought I had contoured on the same contour line (as needed), but I must have dropped down a couple of lines. The other problem was that there are several old logging "rides" in the woods, not all of them mapped. So while I thought I was at the one that was mapped right before my control, I must have been at an unmapped one. I knew I hadn't gone far enough, so I kept going, hesitating a bit. Once I got in the right area, enough things matched up that I knew to climb the hill, and then I found it.

And now we're home again at the farm, waiting for some swampfox pizza to be made.

C • Knee 5

2017 Scottish 6-Days. Day 1 - Glen Tanar

This day could have gone quite badly, but it did not. I was a little hampered by the fact that my luggage did not make it to Scotland with me. I had smartly packed an O-kit in my carryon, but I neglected to pack contact lenses. So, the question was should I run with or without my glasses, which are for long distance. I can't read at all with them, so there would have been a lot of flipping them up. Without the glasses, I can't see very well -- enough to not run into trees but not enough to pick up terrain subtleties. I chose to run without, and I think it did hurt me in a few areas. I ended up in 11th place, out of 43, but I'm running the W55 short course, so maybe the competition is not so fierce.

Other than the vision issue, I did fine. I found all of the controls, but maybe with a bit too much hesitation on the way to a few of them, and a few bearings that went too far from the straight-line. The woods were pretty open; we haven't gotten to the bracken yet.

It was nice to see some Americans here - Rick and Eileen Breseman, Charlie Bleau, Ron Birks, Rob Wilkerson, and Jim Eagleton. And it's so nice to be back to my third Scottish 6-Days. I am wildly in love with Scotland, so it felt good to be back. Mikell and I are staying in a loft apartment on Wark Farm. We are surrounded by banded cows, Hebridean sheep, and geese. It's lovely.