Orienteering Training Log
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Orienteering Training Log |
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Following on the recommendations of the Harlequins' Club coach, Andy Hemsted, I have decided to start a training log. Depending on how much energy I devote to this, I will be including a commentary on each event, leg by leg, where I lost time and why. Hopefully this store of knowledge will help me to improve. After all, you can only improve by learning from your mistakes! | |
| Date
Event Control |
Commentary |
| 26.03.2000
Brown Clee |
I was reasonably happy with my performance on my first National and Badge event, but need to remember to pace more systematically! |
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| 09.04.2000
Baggeridge |
First run in this HOC area and all went well except for control 9 which lost me about 7 minutes. |
| 9. | Between control 8 and
9 I became slightly confused by the number of ponds and paths (seven ponds
in a line). I thought I was looking for a small re-entrant, and so I was,
but what I got to was a steep, large re-entrant. I was in fact stood at
control number 10, but foolishly didn't check the control number to see
if I had it on my control descriptions.
LESSON: If misplaced and you arrive at the wrong control, check the number to see if it's one of yours. Use the compass more consistently. Stay in touch with the map and read your contours more carefully! |
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| 06.05.2000
Purples Hill |
First time I have run in the Forest of Dean. This terrain was a new experience for me and was quite challenging |
| 4. | Half way between 3 and 4 there was
a 90° turn to avoid a steep bank. The route continued on a large path
which turned off a road, up a hill. I crossed a fence using a stile and
continued for the appropriate distance to my attack point and then spent
10 minutes searching for the control, a pit just beyond a vegetation boundary.
The alarm bells should have started flashing when I crossed a stile not
marked on the map, and I compounded this by asking myself, when I thought
I was where the control should be, why the fence marked on the map wasn't
there, but a stream was! Eventually the realisation dawned on me that I
had turned onto the wrong track. I then found the pit using a sharp bend
in the fence, while other people where sweeping around from no particular
attack point.
LESSON: keep in touch with the map and check where you are in relation to man made features. |
| 9. | Control 9 was a small depression,
3 metres from a crag foot, about 1/4 the way down a 60m drop. I attacked
from the nearby vegetation boundary above, but ploughed on way beyond where
the control was, eventually arriving at control 10, some 200m further on
straight down the slope. This is the kind of mistake I made at Brown Clee,
crashing on downhill without keeping a careful count of distance travelled.
Again it meant some unnecessary and exhausting uphill retracing.
LESSON: Don't go crashing downhill without keeping a close account of distance travelled! |
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| 21.05.2000
Borough Hill |
A former Iron Age hill fort and former site of a BBC radio transmitter station, which has left a multitude of flat concrete structures. |
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| 02.07.2000
Malvern Hills |
Runnable, deciduous woodland with
open spaces in the southern Malvern Hills and Eastnor Park.
The area was unfortunately very overrun by up to 2m high bracken, which made the steep contours even more uncomfortable. It was hot and I would have benefited from taking water with me as I was below par after control 10. |
| Map
2:45 |
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| 1. | Straightforward route on tracks to an easy control. |
| 2.
17:14 |
If only the same could be said ... the hide was at the top of a very shallow spur, 75m west of a very prominent re-entrant. But no .. I had to choose to attack uphill from a less than distinct veg boundary. Penalty: I overshot to the fence, relocated on a gate and paced back to find the control. Estimated time lost at 10:00. Use the contours more efficiently when making route decisions! |
| 3. | Straightforward control by bearing and pacing. |
| 4. | Marked on the map with the colour of a settlement, this tiny patch of low-level thicket with some rough open around it was very easy to locate and run to, simply contouring around the side of Monument Hill, then following the edge of the bracken. |
| 5.
38:10 |
I did not like this control at all. A crag foot in steep, runnable forest, with a small knoll in front of it. I came down and past it, surrounded by high bracken, and had to attack from three directions before locating the OBVIOUS control which was completely free of bracken. Lesson - need to slow down and check vegetation changes, even if indistinct. Time lost - 10:00. |
| 6. | Straightforward route choice along paths and a fence. |
| 7. | My route choice dictated that I would arrive at the small section of wall from above: The number of catching features made this straightforward. |
| 8. | I was able to use vegetation boundaries and the steep contour to take me directly to the crag foot. |
| 9. | A long, uphill fight through bracken taller than me! But found the re-entrant with no difficulty. |
| 10. | Control was visible and located on an earth wall, probably some Iron Age fortification, and its location allowed simple aiming off. |
| 11. | I followed the earth bank to a clear turn, on top of a spur, and followed the elephant tracks directly down the spur to the double vegetation boundary with no problems. |
| 12. | Oh yea! The leg from hell. 1.5 km rapidly down, then more gently back up, along paths, with a nasty steep climb through bracken to the top. The crenelated re-entrant was easy to find, ever when tired. |
| 13. | The distinct vegetation boundary between forest and rough open was probably easy to see in spring, but by July there was virtually zero visibility at the boundary and the control was tucked cleverly into the bend. But there wasn't more than 30 seconds lost. |
| 14. | Almost the home run .. top end of linear march in forest run. After one hesitation at a path junction this was a straightforward control. And now, the home run. Downhill along clear paths for 450 metres and then water! |
| Shard End | Summer Evening Event (Informal) |
| 8. | I slowed too soon, as I was looking for a clump of trees on the path. If I had paid attention to the control description I would have seen that it was a source, and that there was a water source giving a perfect line of attack. |
| 11. | Control was a pit in long rough nestling in a fence dog-leg. I over-ran 150 metres because I wasn't pacing. Otherwise I found the control straight away. |
| 19. | Control description was on top of earth bank bend. I, like others, neglected this one important word "top" and spent a minute looking along the base before retracing and trying the top. |
| 20. | This was a corker. At number 19 I decided it was time to sprint for the finish. After 50 metres I realised I still had to visit number 20. The perfect catch feature was a thicket 50m off, but I completely ignored this on the map, overshot, found number 14 and attacked from there. Bingo, straight to the control. |
| Lessons: READ control descriptions and remember them. Use catch and attack features which present themselves after brief map study. | |
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| 03.12.2000
Burbage & Hathersage Moors |
Typical Dark Peak country on the edge of the Peak District National Park, typical gritstone edge country with exposed open moorland giving onto a steep-sided valley with pre-Roman fortification on one hilltop. No brambles! |
| 1. | A short leg to scan the map and get used to running over heather and peat terrain with its uneven nature and many hidden surprises. |
| 2. | I drifted .. an 800m leg, I followed the tracks others had made, but didn't check the map and ended up 200m down the re-entrant network I was aiming for, rather than being at the top. I took five minutes to convince myself I had not missed the control and then saw exactly where I should have been.. lost 5 minutes. |
| 3. | Straightforward leg on a bearing aiming for a kink in a ditch immediately behind a some rocks. |
| 4. | 100m drop over 650m. There were a couple of choices as to how to get down into the valley and into the control in the forest. I went straight over the edge and aimed for the kink in the plantation, from where it was easy to pick up the ditch / fence junction and follow the ditch to the control. |
| 5. | To 5. was a long leg, ca. 1.5 km. Across two large, shallow re-entrants this was quite straightforward. |
| 6. | Following the contour bend downhill along the line of rocks and boulders to a single boulder control. |
| 7. | Short run through open forest straight onto the control in a small re-entrant. |
| 8. | Back onto the moor by direct line to a boulder control just by a small rocky ridge - hidden from the approaching side by being below the ridge and tucked neatly into the boulder. |
| 9. | The leg from 8. to 9. was the longest on the course, some 2 km by direct line. This direct line crossed 46 contours; I wasn't in the mood for that! I took the long way round the head of the valley, cutting down to 14 contours, adding about 600m. I believe this was the better choice for me at the time. It also had a much better view over the valley! |
| 10. | Straightforward control on a bearing from a fence corner, to a bend in the second ditch. |
| 11. | Oh the joys of sand-dune like detail! The approach on this leg was straightforward across marsh. Once in the contour detail (probably mining spoil and pits) I thought I was bang on the control, as there was an obvious linear depression from my attack direction. But I had misread which side of the depression the re-entrant was on and lost 4 minutes retracing my steps from the initial attack. |
| 12. | A second post-mining re-entrant which was much more direct. |
| 13. | To almost hit a second control in a row across this contour detail after 150m made me very happy. |
| 14. | Wet pit - I must admit to following the crowd to this one as I fell over in an unseen wet hole on the way and was concentrating more on my ankle than the pit which was more of a moor pond and would have taken me a while to locate. |
| 15. | ... a bit like this control. Out of the marsh, into the forest. Somehow my concept of pacing and bearing did not meet reality on this exercise, looking for a small clearing in relatively runnable forest. I probably lost about 8 minutes here, until I went back almost to the crossing point only 150m away. Doh! |
| 16-18. | A straightforward jog in from this point, rather than a sprint as I was knackered. A quick control in the forest ad then along tracks to the finish. And die. First M21L (officially) completed successfully. But and obvious need for some more stamina. |
| and? | still at risk of switching off from the map, rather than a constant check and confirm on the hoof. Improved pacing, though. |
[ Results ]
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(c) 2000 |