Training Log Archive: Jay-T

Tennis again. Bit cold but otherwise playing conditions fine i.e. not slippery. 3 then later 5. Started well with backhand but started slicing it too much when into the game situation.

Event: DVO Matlock Moor EM League
 

DVO Matlock Moor Brown

Pretty good run; very muddy!
My start line coaching tip was 'traffic lights', which seemed to assist in spiking some of the trickier sites. Not enough 'green' towards the end, however, as I tired!

Safe route to #1 and generally good for the first 10 controls, giving up less than 30 seconds to the ideal time. Small miss at #4 to the west (10s).
#11 Ended up heading into the thicket to the west briefly before correcting (15s).
#12 Long leg; lost a little I would venture through selecting a route which incorporated what was surely the boggiest path of all (30s).
#13 Miss to the west (again!) (20s).
#14 Unprepared for map 'switch'; half heartedly tried to maintain height once my brain had caught up but this was a waste as I ended up dropping all the way anyway and having to climb back up into the control (30s).
#15 Tough initial climb; felt awful, but good route into flag and split was ok.

Finished 2nd, only 14s off (an under the weather) RR and over 9mins up on JD in 3rd. That was a nice surprise!

http://www.derwentvalleyorienteers.org.uk/results/...

C • A Mighty Performance 2

Event: YHOA Night League
 

EBOR Night Bishop Wood North

Another win, by 4mins tonight, but this was not a good performance.
The area was fairly trivial, even at night, and there weren't many controls or legs above Orange standard.

The start appeared to be beyond where it was shown on the map, so hesitant going back on myself to pick out the path to #1 (10s).
#3 Cutting through the green might have saved some time?
#11 Sticking to the ride adjacent to the stream would undoubtedly have been quicker (10s).
#12 Followed the indistinct path which was fairly rough and hard to follow. Around quicker?
#13 Chickened out of going straight, but also overlooked a ride that was near to the line. As a result went on quite a big detour round paths to the south. Compounded the error by turning onto the other end of said ride (as it was basically a path) and running to the bend, in effect doing three sides of a rectangle... We've been here before - such a feature should be OPEN land. Possibly 1m 30s lost.
#15 Small path continued beyond where indicated but spotted the flag without much trouble.
#20 One of the few technical legs of the night. And I completely ballsed it up. Thought 'it's just right of north', then ran off and started debating the merits, techniques and general facets of different bearing types. Ran to the right of some darker trees and commented in my internal monologue that it would be 'funny ' if it was the other side, unseen by me. After hitting the wrong ditches to the NE, then the path / ditch junction to the NW I made my way to the control to find that the situation was indeed very 'funny'... (1m 40s).
#23 Hard to judge distance here but found it fairly quickly.

On finishing I didn't feel that I'd done enough; have to wait for splits for the full story.

Edit: pretty much covered everything above. Loss at #13 appears to be less significant than thought (perhaps 50s?) 10s or so loss at #12, #15 and #23. Moving faster than everyone; fastest first 10 splits!

http://www.ebor.routegadget.co.uk/cgi-bin/reitti.c...

Finally got a game! Had to trek back from Glasgow via the office to ditch the Disco (I'll miss those heated seats) but that wasn't going to stop me.
Doubles, then singles vs Luke 4-6, 5-5. Backhand was surprisingly good, some belters and more consistency than usual.

More trudging in the morning. Frosty start but turned into a nice day.

Hit Loch Vaa for ROMP part 2 on my way back south to Glasgow.
Dodgy to #1 and #2 (I'd like to blame it on new unmapped clearings / extraction activity, but not trusting / managing to follow my bearing on these longer vague legs was probably the main cause).
Very good thereafter other than #10 (48) where I was hesitant as it was very vague. #13 (53) was on the wrong hill. Was disappointed briefly as I thought my bearing was 45 degrees out!

What a great area, loved it.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/430948037

Looking for mammals. Used my GPS until it died; probably did over 10km of plodding about. Wasn't really inspired to do anything else in the evening.

Travelling up to Inverness. Stopped off at Uath Lochans to sample the ROMP controls. No snow but it was very icy on the paths - the boardwalk was treacherous.
Made a nice little course with a butterfly loop in the best bit; hit most of the controls pretty well. Couldn't find one flag (119), however, and it was challenging towards the end as it rapidly became dark in the dense low visibility stuff. Ran straight into a wire fence at a fair tilt going downhill - ouch. Nice terrain.

Joined BASOC for their night-O training at Tomvaich Wood, just outside Grantown.
Made a complete mess of #1 (inverted a re-entrant so was looking for a ridge - no wonder it didn't make any sense).
Poor discipline with a long bearing to #4 but recovered eventually.
Looking on wrong hill for #6 (for rather longer than I should have spent...)
Not too bad for the remainder.
All rather slow as it was fairly tough going with bilberries or heather or something - it was dark!
Great fun again.