Training Log Archive: O Joy

The last day of the Scottish 6 Days at Coulmany was breezy and again away from the coast with open forest, marshes and hills (1:10,000, 5 m map). I didn't have a good day having problems with multiple controls starting with the first one. Ended up 41/53.

Aidan finished 11/54 with a 31:12 run (3.4 km) on Day 6. Overall, Aidan was 14th out of 65 orienteers and met the standard for a gold badge. He said his stretch goal for the week was to be in the top 1/3 so he well exceeded his goal and, most importantly, had a great time.

Day 5 of the S6Ds was at Roseisle which was right next to a former Royal Air Force (now Engineers) base back on the coast. The sand dunes were different here without as many little knolls/hills but were large and complex. The area near the start had lines of low earth walls that seemed like it may have been part of the base earlier in its history. Control 5 was hard with a really complex dune system right above the coast. Finished 47/61.

Aidan's run time was 35:32 on 3.9 km for a 15 th place finish out of 59.

Loch of Boath with a 1:10,000, 5m contour map which took some adjustment since days 1-3 were 1:7,500 and 2.5 m contours. No dunes today and bigger hills with reentrants that looked more like home and marshes. Controls 7 and 8 were especially difficult for me. Some rain and cooler but my new visor worked really well. Finished 49/60.

Aidan finished in 34:32 on 2.9 km course (23/57). He had a problem with an elephant track and lost about 5 min.

Scottish Six Day rest day. We toured the Benromach distillery at 10:00 am - tasting scotch before noon doesn't seem right. Watched the Euromeeting sprint at Lossiemouth. Aidan enjoyed watching some of the top orienteers that he followed online during WOC. We also stopped at the Pictish fort at Bughead and have decided that the "Large Orange Hedge" probably has Pictish ancestry.

Another day near the coast at Culbin - this map had many, many scattered knolls and small hills but it was hard to distinguish between them. The first three controls were in a fairly complex area but I took it slow and tried to carefully read the terrain and felt good about them and the entire course. Lost time on controls 7 and 8 in more complex dunes. Finished 44/60.

Aidan really seemed to get a hang of orienteering in Scotland today finishing 8th out of 61 with a time of 33:11 on 3.6 km. He was happy with his finish and had fun.

Went to a nice get together of orienteers from the US at the Lennon/Langton house. It was great to finally meet some of the people we've been following at meets and on Attackpoint.

Day 2 of the Scottish 6 Days was sunny and much more comfortable than Day 1. Carse of Ardersier had more forested sand dunes and was a lot of fun. I had a late start so all of the elephant tracks had begun to look like real trails and were often confusing. The climb seemed like it was much more than advertised. Finished 54/62; W45S.

Aidan says he made a few small mistakes and finished 17/59 on M12A; 3.83 km.

Event: Scottish 6 Days
 

Day 1 at the Scottish Six Days in Lossie Forest. The whole run was wet with a hard down pour about 2/3 of the way through. First time running on sand dunes. Finished 45/61.

Aidan ran M12A and finished 29/54; time of 39:16 on 3.6 km but made a 7 min mistake.

Follow me training run at Little Mill with Aidan and Rob.