Training Log Archive: Oxoman

Oxoman is still alive but with a huge backlog of unentered activities.

Scottish 6-Days Day 6 ? Lochievar
1h33m45s 8.44km 331m climb. Shoes VJ Falcon (studs).
After Tuesday's experience slipping around the moors I decided to try metal studs in the rcky terrain. This wasn't a good choice as the studs kept catching in he heather.

Scottish 6-Days Day 5 ? Barry Buddon
1h33m45s 8.44km 331m climb. Shoes Inov-8 Terroc 330.
True sand dune terrain. Was expecting this to be my worst day but it turned out my best even though I failed to notice the map was 2.5m contours and not 5m.
Only made the one grievous error when I passed by my control circle having failed to find the attackpoint which was a depression filled with vegetation. The venue was the Barry Buddon military range. There had been some pretty serious explosives used to knock hole in the various target, including the burned out troop carrier (one of our control sites).

Scottish 6-Days Day 4 ? Tentsmuir
1h49m33s 9.88km 204m climb. Shoes Inov-8 Terroc 330.
Forested sand dunes. I don't usually handle sand dune terran very well but this was fairly friendly stuff. If you ensured you found your attackpoint it wasn't too difficult. Several small areas of detaileddune terrain scattered across the map. The course setter ran us from one area to the next. We had one leg of over 2km which was basically route choice of tracks vs cutting cross-country through bracken. There was one area of cleared pind forest which caused people some grief but I'd worked out that the way to approach this was to navigate using the two highest knolls and ignore the minor detail.

Scottish 6-Days Rest Day ? Sprint ? Scone Palace
21m57s 3.04km 36m climb. Shoes Inov-8 Terroc 330.

Scottish 6-Days Day 3 ? Tullochroist
1h45m00s 7.2km 360m climb. Shoes Inov-8 Terroc 330.
My first experience of the Highland moors. Ran the first 6 controls in he forest well, completely in control although I took a couple of heavy falls. Garmin cut out in the forest and didn't record until out on the moors so distances and climb are an underestimate.
Found the fst control on the moors fairly easily, giving me false confidence. This was shattered on the next control which II passed high and overshot badly. Was finding the heather hard work and was slipping around on the rocks and in the bogs. Had trouble with distance estimation on the moors. Everything was much further than I estimated. I should have been able to correct from the contours but was underestimating acrossthe slopes which really didn't have much defining contour information.

Scottish 6-Days Day 2 ? Kinnoull Hill
1h33m45s 8.44km 331m climb. Shoes Inov-8 Terroc 330.
Finished at 80% of the field.
Made 3 bad errors. Started out having difficulty relating map to terrain. Took 3 controls before I was confident with the contour features.
Had trouble distinguishing the multitude of marked tracks and orienteer elephant tracks en route to control 7.
Control 9 was behind a thicket which I had trouble finding. GPS trace indicates it may have been on a small thicket some 30m north-west. Control 10 was easy to find but I had great difficulty with the track systems and ended up navigating by contour features rather than being able to run quickly down tracks. Control 13 was a major error in that I ran a track parallel to the watercourse containing the control site but turned off the track too late and overshot by some 150m.
Control 14 I made an excellent route choice but turned off too early into the ferns running up a spur looking for the control site which was on a small rise.

Control 16 I ran below and GPS trace also indicates this may have been on a different knoll some 100m north.

Event: Scottish Six Days Tay 2009
 

Scottish 6-Days Day 1 ? Dalruzion
1h40m47s 6.22km 210m climb. Shoes Inov-8 Terroc 330.
Finished at 90% of the field.
Made one serious error when lost concentration and departed control 4 in wrong direction and subsequently lost contact with the map when couldn't find control in clearing which I thought was in the correct spot. Relocated from fence line to the north-west but was a 20 min leg which should have been about 6 mins.

Rest day, if you call driving from Ayr to Perth a rest day. Visited Ayr beach front before leaving. It is actually a half decent beach, not at all like what we are lead to believe about Pommy beaches, Stopped at Bannockburn (site of Robert The Bruce's victory over the brutal and accursed English) for a lunch time cup of tea. Arrived at Perth and registered at the Race Course for the orienteering. Bought a souvenir Tay 2009 polo shirt which should get me a job at Bunnings.