Discussion: I sure hope you print this ...

I sure hope you print this post out and put it someplace where you will read it every time you go orienteering.

Yeah, there's a lesson in there somewhere. We'll see if it takes!

I wasn't moving fast... and I ended up being remarkably accurate

I wonder if this is it?

Eric's problem isn't running fast enough, it's knowing where he is and orienteering efficiently, but he has a hard time admitting this because he really loves to run fast.

If he ever realizes how quickly you can get around an O' course if you navigate accurately and totally forget about the running, he'll get a lot better.

But it's so fun to run fast!

So then I guess it's your choice. Do you want to have good speed, or do want to have a good final time? I find having a good final time is a whole lot of fun.

Geez, tough crowd. I can only hope it's tough love.

Seriously, I'm not quite as naive as I appear. I'm well aware of the fact that being more accurate would be a good thing. The problem is that to be that accurate, I need to slow down to around 8-9:00/K (in open woods, adjusted for climb). That just doesn't cut it on Blue. I know how to be accurate; what I need to learn is how to be accurate at 7:00/K. I don't intentionally outrun my nav, I just occasionally slip over the line.

My point is that I'm not running faster to try to cover for bad nav. I'm trying to nav well at higher speeds. The goal is to improve nav, not speed. I may well be going about it all wrong, but I am working on the right problem.

But is success in O more complex than just slowing down? I'm up at 4am this morning, nervous about the coming bloodbath on Wall St today. Warren Buffet once summarized the secret of his investing success:

Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.

And I'm fighting my natural tendency to be fearful...after ignoring the warning signs and being greedy for too long. Could the same thing be true of a successful O run? Do we become greedy and fearful during a run at exactly the wrong times? Do we ignore the warnings when it is time to slow down because of our greed for a win?

And then when the control fails to appear, do we allow fear to wash over us, interfering with rational thinking?

But is success in O more complex than just slowing down?

Yes! And that will make an excellent blog topic.

And, as one who doesn't plan on liquidating any investments for another 20 years or so, I'm not too upset that prices are down. Time to go bargain unting!

What I'm getting at is not specifically the slowing down, but where your focus is. The more mental attention you are paying to your running, the less you are paying to your navigating, even if you are great at multi-tasking.

Obviously the navigating is harder if you are going faster, because you have a little less time to process information. But that is less of a problem.

If you want to keep pushing the fast running, I'd suggest you learn to do it without thinking about it. Seriously. And that would leave your mind free for the navigating.