Training Log Archive: Psuba

Hopefully this run was getting rid of the cold finally. Nevertheless still weak - felt week at the start, probably late start did not help (difficult with nourishment etc), def felt low blood sugar before starting. Too bad, with the long distance to start I was hoping to have finally had a decent warm-up and strong start! Lots of mistakes though, some iffy map/controls but can't blame it all on the map, losing a lot due to my own orienteering too. I hate this type of terrain though - very tough under foot and heavy going, the lowlight was towards the end when a young junior and an older gent overtook me as we were both running in the tough heather. Or, I should be training more in these conditions... Completely different style of orienteering needed for this than last weeks Karst terrain - techniques used there were useless here both in the tricky detailed areas and in the open - none of which were present last week (or indeed in the city races...). The Wim Galoppen was on a similar terrain but I struggled on that one too. At least I managed the blister this time well so whilst that ruined my run there, it did not bother me now. Very surprising to have been placed 5th / 12 in M40, thought it was a bigger disaster. Still contemplating whether to run tomorrow but I'll likely give it a pass and run something else. Comments on legs: 1 - a mistake straight out of the box - overran the narrow passage through the green first, certainly wasn't very clear, but could have looked at earlier starters to avoid that. Only a few seconds but then straight into a complex area that I have not yet made sense of from the map before, so took some time to slow down and the correct direction. About 1m lost but could have been way worse...? 2 - spot on navigation/direction wise but was quite hesitant. Probably a feature later on too, this is something I should be cutting out. 4 - Map very arguable. First narrow stream was a wide one, but more importantly vegetation on the N bank not quite accurate, ended up over the N side of the middle green, then location of the ditches/valleys arguable especially relative to the veg boundary. Found the control OK but was first convinced it should have been in the deeper ditch next to it... To be fair in hindsight the map wasn't as bad as I first thought but I certainly did not get the mapping style. 6 - another one, however this time I definitely don't agree with mapping what should have been middle green as "rough open with scattered trees". I did not go in there as a green was mapped next to it so was convinced for 2m I was in the right place. 8 - No issues but I am thinking generally if this should have been mapped as white area. Mapping standards state white/green is about runnability: the rough soft ground and undergrowth was def a factor in this area. However, would a green hash been justified? Not quite sure, genuinely. 9 - The control was voided and rightly so - map is quite bad here, similarly semi-open wasn't right but even its boundary wasn't right. 10 - decided to run around on the road after all the rough ground. No issue, although lost a bit of time relative to running straight, probably worth it though for energy saving. 13 - When you are standing 5m from the control and can't see it from the undergrowth... priceless. But costing about 30s 14 - Yes, then allow myself to be pulled off to the right. Why? unexplicable. Believe the compass next time. 16 - run the elephant track and allow to be overtaken instead of pushing. Again - why? Probably demotivated from the earlier parts of the course. 17 - At least I had the mental strength to slowly drag myself back on course after initially being pulled by competitors on the other courses running further right. Still, 20s 18 - Got near the control but didn't see if and so faffed about for about 2m nearby. Didn't quite understand the map around here, all the features were there just not in good relation to each other. 25 - directional mistake, then the overprint of 25 seems to have printed over a feature that had a control on it. As I did not see it out on the course I though it was a more western feature so again lost time before I corrected myself. 1m but this time I can partially blame the course printing... 27 - pulled to the wrong control again by following others, at least I half expected to be in the wrong place so didn't faff about correcting. Slow trodding through the heather though.