Training Log Archive: AliC

Before the ample breakfast cooked by our hosts, we went for a quick jog around town. Tired legs!

Hill walking with Tom up Cairn Dearg Mor (714) and then Garl-charn Mor (824) from Aviemore. We popped into an outdoors store, bought the OS map and headed off on a walk recommended by a book the host of our guest house lent us.

First bit was a trail through a pine forest with some blueberries along a stream, then out onto the moorland without a real trail, navigating! Fought through the heather and peat hags to make it to the first hill top, which had nice views of the surrounding hills and Aviemore.

Then down along a fence until a saddle from whence we decided to directly head towards the path we could see in the distance op Garl-charn Mor. (Somewhere along the way we decided Scottish seems like Klingon... ) Water just oozing out of the hillside in places meant for wet feet. I was glad to also have my gaiters on through the heather. Made it out to the road through the saddle and then the trail. Just very windy from there on up, arriving about the same time as a group of 4 who'd been ahead.

Hunkered down amongst some stones and ate pork pies before descending to the east to cut the corner to the road. One last adventure going under the A9 alongside a stream, but much trodden by sheep, if not other people.

Very nice to get a real walk in and to show Tom what it's like! (Happy he got trail shoes at the 6 days.)

Relay - Darnaway West

Not great, not terrible. Totally lost it to 7 when I though a slightly wet depression counted as a marsh and threw me off. [Must have been running on edge of oxygen deprivation, not a mistake I think I’d make with full brainpower.] Relocated on the depression to the NW of the control, and could also use the road.

Also mistakes to 10 and 15 - too low to 10 and distracted by one Emily Kemp on a different forking to 15. Annoyed with not being confident with myself for the latter - I totally was on a great course to head to my control, but then looked right, saw hers, couldn’t verify that it wasn’t on my feature, so went up to check it out. Bah!

Play-by-play:
1) Long physical run-out from the handover from Alison. Into the woods with depression on my left, then aimed for saddle between hills and the dot knoll was obvious.
2) Compass bearing to start. Cross road, check big hill is to right, then onto ridge-y hill, looking left to see the arc-shaped depression and then a hill and the next little depression with control.
3) Wee! Loved this one - just head W, then you get funneled between two big depressions on a saddle, straight up to the hill that the reentrant is on the back side of.
4) Short leg, bearing and then used the boulder to place myself well on the slope up from the big depression on the way.
5) First encounters with some green on this leg. Bearing to get out to road, ended up a little right of line, into light green and yellow on edge of depression. Kept bending too far N, ended in the depression N of control by a little bit before bending N to it. First control not 100% happy with.
6) Caught in green a bit getting out to the trail, which was slower, then trail run until the yellow slash and up on to the hills.
7) Argh! Not sure why I didn’t go in the right direction to start now. I headed N, went into a depression in the yellow slash and decided it was the marsh further along the route and that I should look for my control on some green to my right. But there was no green to by right. Continued on, aha, *this* is the real marsh, but now I didn’t know where along it I was. So just kept going, figuring I was clueless enough I should bounce off the road. Relocated first on the depression and then went SE to the control.
8) Speedily ran along then through the marsh. Had just sighted Ireland leaving the area around 7 so motivated to catch her!
9) Just behind Ireland on the orienteer-made path (still not great) through the yellow slash. Missed the trail in the first instance, but then used it and detoured around the green hill and in. Map flip!

Should finish writing up....

Jog in stadium while spectating the middle. On and off really nice weather. Will totally take it for Scotland!

Training day - Strathfarrar

After sorting out an entry to W20S, got to my start far to early, but got to chat with Mary Nixon for a bit to pass the time. Lots of juniors heading out on their courses too. I was doing the course just for a chance to switch it up to thinking in a woods-orienteering manner. Both just what you’re using on the map and the scale is so different from sprinting. But I think if a bit of the sprint mindset may be kept about fiestiness and making sure, easy executable descisions it would be good...


Anyways, here’s thoughts on the course:
1 - A bit confused by the overprinted red fence, which was told to be imaginary in the meet notes. Because there was also a black fence underneath and it was there in reality. Ran low and then up the streamy reentrant to the control. Was lower than I thought I would have been.
2 - First through the mandatory crossing (many were crossing where the fence was low earlier on, tsk tsk), then out into the openess of heathery marshy stuff. Stayed high for a bit, ran the right direction, picked out the hill with actual green marked on it. Wasn’t 100% with my compass, but then picked out the distinct boulder in a saddle and made myself run on the proper bearing and then everything made sense.
3 - Compass to go right direction, yep, there’s a saddle between two hills, pass between them and control was easily visible.
4 - Compass to go right direction, right of first hill, then onto the bigger hill, through little reentrant, between form line hills and dropped into the reentrant.
5 - Went pretty straight, but a bit too far left at the end, should have just climbed that last hill along with the first two. One of the mashes on the way there was pretty tough to get through with the bog heather. Now I notice that it actually has solid marsh lines instead of broken ones.
6 - Used the stream, but maybe should have just gone along it for the first bit and then headed up that reentrant.
7 - A choice of how to go to get to the mandatory crossing. I went through the woods, avoiding climb (rest day!) and starting to check out how the woods were mapped. First dark green was downed trees and would have been very slow to get through. Medium green had a path through it and wasn’t so bad at all. Yellow bits were grassy and distinct. After crossing, went down stream to 7.
8 - Out to trail on diagnol, then off it to pass between the two hills to the N and then compass and pace counting to the cliff. Stopped just short before seeing it. Using edge of the medium green probably possible for this one.
9 - Dense green lines were downed trees here. Could get through, but slowish. Saw the cliff in the middle of them (with a control on it). My control on the top of a hill was very visible.
10 - Hmph, lots of green woods on the way, I didn’t feel like fighting uphill through it, so I took the trail to a white ride, then contoured through medium green (not too bad), until another white ride, which I followed down pretty much to the control. Slight issue of being at the top of the cliff when the control was at the bottom.
11 - On bearing, went straight through the dark green - just dense pines, not impossible to go through. Faster than downed tree dark green. Came out in yellow, followed that, then on a N bearing. Hesitated at some earlier cliff-like things.
12 - Hadn’t read ahead what to do next, but then saw the white ride and opted for that. Was quite easy to follow once you knew it was there and were looking for it, but not so much otherwise. Slight hesitation since control was to side of spur and not right on it, like I’m more used to.
13 - Through the mandatory crossing, and then probably should have just followed the tracks immediately into the bracken, but I stayed on the path for a slightly longer but braken-less route.
14 - Easy last control at end of the tape in the field.

S6D - Day 2 Strathfarrar - C22 - Splits