Discussion: Piecing it together

You are a much better orienteer now, and part of the problem is that you know it too. This makes you relax on easier controls and other areas.

Work on keeping a steady focus, I'm quite confident that while you focus on map reading and navigation your mistakes are quite minimal. Take no controls for granite, every easy portion of the terrain means that you can nail an attack point or next route choice better, use time to get ahead, not fall behind

You are a lot better!!!

Compare the parts you did well with the ones you had some problems and see if you can figure out what you did different. My guess is concentration. You may want to step back and do more one leg at the the time approach. I.e see each leg as a race and then 'start over'.

Thanks, the one thing I can think of is my orienteering is too immediate (using the features right next to me), where I should pay more attention to big details around the leg and say behind the control.

I find that the best way to navigate is to see something in front of you then find it on the map (or be looking for it already), then read what is next on the map. And depending on how confident you are of the features that you see, you let your legs run. This way you let your navigation dictate your speed, and not your running. As soon as I stop doing this I quickly lose contact especially if there is nothing obvious and/or my direction is a bit off.

Optimally you want to be 2-3 steps ahead like:
I see this hill in front of me, then im going to see the re-entrant slightly to the left, then I'll be just right of the green bush.

If you are constantly anticipating the features and know exactly where you are its harder to make a mistake. And even if you lose contact and see something unexpected then you still should remember your last two steps and be able to deduct where you are from it.