Training Log Archive: IanW

Black course at Epping SW. Planner did a good job with the area, but the map is very inconsistent - especially the vegetation - detail/shade of green often wrong in the north, and over-generalised in the south so making through/round route choice a bit of a lottery.

Physically not so great, got tired on the running legs towards the end of the course and hadn't even been running for an hour. Increasingly frustrated with the map and not concentrating on the navigation late on meant a mispunch at #26 - saw a control on a knoll in the right block but hadn't gone far enough - mine was on the same feature about 50m further on. Couldn't work out what I'd done until Ant showed me where it was on the all controls map. Otherwise was a bit off in direction many times and didn't cope well with the lots of detail but no big features area in the north.

Probably had a bit too much of a moan about the map to Mike at the end, not much he could really do about it though. The north end could be top-notch for a middle race if it were sorted out...

GPS distance - 13.3km

Edit: better map of complicated bit here:

http://www.chig.routegadget.co.uk/kartat/27.jpg

which tallies much better with what I saw.

C • Oooh 1

Cycle to Wendover

"No tracks" course on Wendover. Tricky in places where there were few distinct features to use for navigation. Map felt a bit skewed by the reservoir so hit control going W across there more by luck than judgement.

GPS distance - 3.1km

Control collecting

Cycle home. Mainly downhill so moving faster and with less effort.

A short cycle to/from Amersham - this sort of thing used to be par for the course while in Oxford, but seemed a bit more effort today. Makes you realise that just doing a little bit every day makes quite a difference...

C • Yes ... there is a solution... 1

Nice sunny afternoon, though a bit chilly into the wind. Took it steady again and generally felt comfortable, though the couple of hills were pretty slow. Along to Amersham on the ridge, across and along the valley to Chenies then back up the other side to home.