Training Log Archive: Golfer

Finally an area that was close to being fast run! Today's courses were set on a big hillside with spectacular views over the Loch and river. We had plenty of time to enjoy the views as we had a 2km walk to the start, the last 1 km of which we climbed almost 200m: 1 in 5!!

Once on the course, I took it very safe on the short leg to 1 and got it successfully at the first attempt! Long legs to 2 and 3 followed but I missed 3 to the left. I was looking for a mapped flat spur out from the ridge as an attack point below the control but could not find it on the ground! Relocated off a cliff face but lost at least 2 minutes. Good flow through the next few where I was running with a fellow M50, swapping the lead a number of times. A slight error by me on 9 had him back in front but I quickly caught him again and got ahead out of 13.

Going to 14 I looked at the description but couldn't work out what I was looking for and this disrupted my concentration. It was a diamond shaped symbol and the flag was on the east side. Apparently this is “edge of forest”. The circle was on the boundary of white and yellow and I would have expected a clearing symbol. Lost about 2 minutes here which was very annoying.

Despite these couple of errors, this was easily my best run of the event and something to take some positives out of. 39th place today and 68th overall out of 128 in my class. I had hoped for top 3rd but too many mistakes! Garmin distance 8.5km.

Deb had a disappointing run to end the week, placing 44th and dropping down from the teens into the low 20's overall, which is still an great result.

Overall, a well organised event with good facilities at the assembly areas, including excellent gear shops and good food. Courses were generally OK but tended to have a sameness about them and most days had lots of controls, too many in some cases. For example I had 23 on day 3 for 6.6km. The biggest disappointment was that the areas for each of the 6 days were all almost identical (with the exception of day 6) and there was therefore little variety in the terrain or the orienteering challenge. Also, there was no water provided on the courses at all or at the Finish, which all the Aussies found somewhat astonishing and is a blatant deviation from IOF rules! Fortunately, the weather conditions were favourable and none of the Aussies was really affected.

Again had problems at the start of the course, despite being ultra cautious. The 1st control was on a small rock face hidden in bracken and I missed it to the left at first attempt, finding another flag in a small gully which I mistook for a larger gully to the left so compounded the error. Finally relocated but took 11+ minutes on what should have been a 3 minute leg! At 4, I misread the fine contour detail and was looking on the wrong side of the knoll but probably only lost 1-2 minutes. Only other errors were on 8 where I was too far right and ran into an uncrossable deer fence and had to side track to find the mandatory crossing point, and then overran 14.

The biggest issue today for me (and most of the Aussies) were the seemingly endless marshes! Most legs, even those on the hillsides, seemed to cross deep and muddy swamps and I found it very hard work to gather any forward momentum, even when using the elephant tracks. A few legs did a have some nice technical controls in the coastal dunes but even these were boggy. Last day tomorrow....

Garmin distance 8.8km.

Mistakes early on the course again today, missing 1 and 2 by a minute or so and then a bigger error on 4. This was a short but very steep uphill leg with the control in a (very) shallow gully hidden behind thick bracken. I was looking for a small cliff above the gully but couldn't see it because of the bracken and missed the control to the left. Went back down to 3 and used very tight compass to try again, this time successfully but probably lost about 7-8 minutes.

After 4, the terrain was more open, although very steep (up and down) and I basically had a clean run with only 5-10 second errors on a couple of other controls. Still looking for that clean run, hopefully tomorrow!

Garmin distance 9km.

Although the time doesn't suggest it, this was easily my best run so far. I still managed a big error at 2, loosing probably 10 minutes but after that I settled into the terrain and my compass work and map reading were generally good. A couple of small errors at 3, 4 and 13 but total of only 5 minutes.

The terrain today, whilst still quite marshy in places, had many areas where running was almost normal, especially in the old oak forests. Also less bracken and gorse making seeing the land shape more straightforward. Still lots of room for improvement!

Garmin distance 8.9km.

Clearly didn't learn anything from yesterday as I had probably my worst run and certainly my longest in time since I spent about 150 minutes in M35 on Cantara Dunes at the Oz Champs in 1996(?)

After a really good start, spiking the first 5, I lost map contact on 6 spending as much time on it as I did on the previous 5. 7 was good and then came unstuck again on 8 after being very confident until about 50 metres of the control. Similar situation on 10 but loss at least 20 minutes here! Almost gave it away but found 11 so went back to 10 easily! More problems on 12 then good through to 15 (including stopping to help a young girl, although I am not sure I was the best person to help her!) then lost a staggering 15 minutes on a 125 metre leg to 16. I went back to 15 three times before I finally found it! Luckily only the best 4 of 6 count here so this one will be dropped!

Garmin distance 9.9km!!

Event: Scottish 6 Days Oban 2011
 

Reasonably happy with the run but made a number of errors mainly through lack of concentration and not reading the map. 7 and 8 both cost me about 4 minutes and couldn't blame the bracken as they were both I the open parts of the map. Probably about the same time loss at 11 where I didn't read the contour detail. Need to concentrate on compass and map details.

Running in the marshy terrain is very difficult as it is hard to get any momentum and it is also more difficult to know how far you have actually traveled.

Garmin distance 7.9km.