Training Log Archive: Sue C

More positives than negatives out of this one. Without the 2 mistakes, would have been a respectable run. Until I hit the deep heather, I had been covering the ground ok.

Went too low to #9. Was following an elephant track. I kept thinking it's too low as I went along it and then when my pace count was up, there was a control, but the wrong one. And then I started flapping and trying to fit the terrain. I should have just looked up, because that's what what I did when I spotted my control.

Went round the hill to #12 to avoid the worst of the heather, but then it was hard to find the control in a mess of veg boundaries, boulder fields and crags without a clear attack point.

http://www.scottish6days.routegadget.co.uk/rg2/#47...

Back to more careless mistakes than I'm happy with. And I really struggled with some of the terrain today. Thick heather with tricksy little rocks hidden beneath. Some of the good people just seem to bounce over this stuff. How they do it without breaking ankles, I don't know. I had a few stumbles, but because I was going so slow, nothing too bad.

Got my bearing from the start wrong, so a mess of #1.

I seemed to make a mess of the bearing out of #6, but looking at the gps trace, something weird seems to have happened. I remember that I came across #6 much sooner than I expected.

Not great bearings from #9 to #11, but I was struggling to stay upright.

Was slow going dropping below the crag to #18, but I did that because it was slow in the rough open as well. Not sure what was best.

http://www.scottish6days.routegadget.co.uk/rg2/#45...

After the disaster on day 3, I decided to run this focusing on making my navigation as accurate as I could. So, although the result looks very ordinary, I was much happier with how in control of where I was. Speed over the ground was tricky anyway with the uneven ground in the first half.

Hesitant start to #1, getting my head round the scale and mapping.
Got a bit lost on which crag was which as I traversed up the slope to #5 and overshot a bit.


http://www.scottish6days.routegadget.co.uk/rg2/#44...

Right back in my comfort zone today.
Simple navigation, only a few contours and running as hard as I can. Legs weren't super-fast, but I don't suppose anyone's were after a hard few days.
No mistakes and happy enough with the route choices. And good enough to bump my ranking up a bit.

Lots of learning opportunities today.
I missed the bus I wanted to catch, just saw it pull away as I got there. I was the only person on the bus I did get. Even though I had a late start, not a good sign. I ran from the bus drop off to the start and made it with 40s spare, sweat dripping from my nose and heartrate at 160.

It was tough terrain today and some legs I did ok on, but made lots of mistakes as well.
My route choice to #2 was crazy. The green was only passable if you were no more than 30cm tall and when I got to the stream, the sides were so steep, I had to follow it upstream for a bit anyway. I was in map contact the whole way, but it would have been much better to go back up to the path.

To #4, after my troubles with the green earlier, I was trying to go round the bottom of the green. Didn't pace count and went too far.

Not sure why I took the wrong bearing out of #6. I think just a lack of focus. Was hard to make the map fit then and relocating took time.

To #8, wasn't sure where I'd crossed the wall, stopped early, tried to make complex and vague terrain fit until I stumbled across the marsh. Should have just used the wall bend as an attack point.

Stopped to help someone half way to #11, when I knew where I was. Within about 30m, I'd lost map contact! Went down the wrong reentrant, came back up the hill and then stumbled across the right one.

The map was very busy between #11 and #12 and I was just wandering round in the circle. Got lucky when someone else found it, it would have taken me a while before I'd have got to it. Zooming in on routegadget, it can see what I should have done, but I'd never have seen that route while out there.

http://www.scottish6days.routegadget.co.uk/rg2/#42...

While I was out there, I felt this was going ok. I was concentrating on the navigation. Didn't make any big mistakes, but the ground was quite uneven and so was moving slowly. Looking at the results, it was much too slowly.

Missed #3 a little too far south.
Hit the wall too far north than I'd planned to #12.
Over the wall after #12, got caught up in a load of fallen trees, which are on the map, but was trying to avoild head-high bracken and ended up in the middle of the fallen trees. Would have been better to stay lower.
Distracted by another control close to #13.

http://www.scottish6days.routegadget.co.uk/rg2/#41...

Event: 2017 Scottish 6 Days, Royal Deeside
 

Overcounted my steps to #1 so stopped too early. Also struggled to map the boulders on the ground to the boulder fields on the map. There seemed to be boulders everwhere! Lost over 5mins.
Went through the wrong gap in the fence to #6. Ran on a bearing and pace counted, but the map wasn't fitting. When I realised what I'd done, I recovered ok, but still lost about 3 mins.
Went through the wrong gap in the fence to #10 as well! There was a control on the bearing and distance I should have been on, but obviously the wrong control. Reloacted back to the gap and realised what I'd done. Lost about 2:30 mins.

Result wasn't too bad over all, considering I binned about 10 mins. Just need to focus a bit more when I think I'm somewhere, but things aren't quite right. As someone very wise, said to me before the start. "The map is always right". If it's not fitting, I've done something wrong.

http://www.scottish6days.routegadget.co.uk/rg2/#40...