Training Log Archive: Psuba

Chiltern Challenge, Black.

http://www.tvoc.org.uk/application/documents/event...

Used this as a training session as Jason insisted. Turned out to be a much better area for Orienteering than I thought it would based on the old map. Saw a fox and two deer (two separate occasions), one of them clearly wanted to cross the path I was running on, but was too afraid so kept on running parallel for a while before getting away.

A bit too much undergrowth as they had to rearrange the date from spring, so the reality was greener than the map, my thighs are still tingling from the nettles...

Unfortunately too many mistakes - really, I mean really was poor with compass bearing and some stupid mistakes, especially when I took my eye off the compass and tried to use some of the less distinct features. And by the end when the hilly bit was, my legs were shot (from accumulating yesterday and today) so could not really push on the hills. Didn't help that I probably didn't lace up the Integrators well for the hills and my toes were all squashed and hurting!

All that said surprisingly ended up 5th, I can only imagine the horror the other guys must have had!

Analysis:

3 - ran on a compass bearing OK until about 100m from the control site where I switch to rounding a green patch - which ended up being the wrong one, then didn't look at my compass for a while so I made a 90deg error on the earth wall. 2:30 mistake
6 - was on the line for about 3/4rd of the leg then veered right, have no idea why. Luckily was very clear on where I got to so lost only about 15s
8 - a moment of stupidity, as well as not looking at the compass. Probably should have just ran around on the bridleway mostly, instead ran on bearing as that worked for a few legs before - but the undergrowth was different in this patch, pushed me right and I ended up crossing the bridleway, dismissing the fence (why???) and ran off the map. Luckily didn't get totally lost as after about 2min it became obvious and I came to my senses. Still not good to lose about 2:30 on the leg
9 - bad route choice, ran straight when going around would have been faster, probably 30s
13 - a simple leg but managed to mess up with the brashings. Knew what I was doing just tried to go around it the wrong way so had to back out. Map wasn't very clear. 1m
15 - compass bearing all the way, fairly OK except when closing I lost the control on my right, turned left as a guess and had to bounce back from the track/depression. 1m
18 - long leg, ran mostly across which was a bad choice, lost probably 1:30-3m just on this decision. Then in the circle I used the wrong depression as the attack point and took another 1:30 to figure out what was wrong and get to the right place. So estimating about 3:00 minimum here.
20 - after lots of legs choosing wrongly to NOT run around, this time my mistake was to choose to run around. Then missed the control as the attack point was vague, lost about 1m
23 - oxygen debt - saw the control, then for some reason thought I was at 25 but wanting 24 first, then realised it's 23 I need, so that all lost me about 30sec going up and down needlessly.
26 - bad route choice going across and trying to contour, in the end dropping down and climbing up a reentrant, instead of running up a little and going around. Lost about 1:30
27 - just hesitant/dead legs, 30s
29 - missed the control by a few meters and did a big circle, lost about 5m on this one. I would question the map a little here though. Mapped as if it was already on the down slope but the control was on top of the hillside, so I was contouring a little bit too low relative to the control.


So about 20m worth of mistakes :(
Legs totally shot in the end so was very slow on both descent and ascent.