Training Log Archive: TomN

Drumm loop.

Tomorrow: Road trip! Maine!

Forest Glen-Ga. Ave. route. On the run, I thought about running vs. orienteering. One big difference, for me, is the effect of concentration on performance. It's diametrically opposite in the two sports. I've been a runner for a long time, and I've always considered it an advantage to be able to tune out my immediate surroundings and get into some kind of state of reduced consciousness. It works in training (I never use an iPod, for example; I prefer to let my mind drift). It works in racing, too. In a 10K, I can never remember what happened in miles 3-5. Before a race, I look forward to "getting in the groove" during that time, which means, I think, losing consciousness while keeping up the pace.

Of course, this strategy doesn't work at all in orienteering. As soon as my mind drifts, that's game over as far as navigation is concerned.

I was thinking about this in connection with the training exercise of running on roads with a map. I've tried this exercise, and hated it. I'd do anything to look away from that demon map, and just run. There's a connection here: I don't like to run with an iPod, either. They both make me think. So I'll propose a hypothesis: good navigators prefer a stimulus when they run, and pure runners prefer oblivion.

Greenbelt Park perimeter trail.

GSFC perimeter road, the long way around the parking lots.

Sligo loop.