Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

On a somewhat later timetable this morning - still readjusting to eastern states time - and learned in the process that crossing roads in the inner north is more awkward on a late Saturday morning than it is at 7-something on a weekday morning (there aren't as many cars but they're usually moving faster and with fewer gaps). This made for a somewhat interrupted run, but otherwise not too bad, with the body functioning more or less as it was supposed to.

Orienteering-related science news - a series of studies have looked at navigational capacities across large populations (using a computer game designed for the purpose). Navigational ability tended to be correlated with country income (which surprises me a little bit, given the skills that I would have thought would develop in the rabbit-warren slums of many developing-world cities), and gender differences (or lack thereof) in navigation skills tended to mirror gender differences in society as a whole. Also interesting is that those who grew up in rural areas tended to have better navigational skills and that this gap was greatest in countries (like the US) where urban street patterns tend to be simple grids, and somewhat to my surprise, that skills peak in one's early 20s and decline progressively thereafter, although I do wonder whether the use of a computer game as the platform might have something to do with that.