Saturday, January 21, 2012

Well I Cacked That Up

What a disaster. I missed not one but two controls out in today's orienteering - and I honestly didn't realise I'd done it! That said, had I realised I possibly wouldn't have gone back as I was too shagged. Never mind. What I did do was good fun and I'm not going to lose any sleep. It was always on the cards I would f*(% up royally in the old orienteering game at some point. It was only a matter of time.

One thing I don't think helped was using the control list from the side of the map. I was forever flipping the map from side to side to read the control descriptions and then losing my place on the map when I flipped back. I definitely need one of them arm band control description holder whatsits so I can keep the map the right way up while being able to eyeball the control descriptions at all times. It's the little things - sssh, no, matron.

Away from that disaster it was a good day's training. I parked up at Speculation as planned and ran the 4.5km over to Five Arces for the Parkrun. I timed it about right, arriving with about ten minutes to spare. I then raced, what turned out to be, somewhat more slowly than I had hoped to but I didn't spare any horses over the twisty 5km course so I can't complain - I must be getting to old for this game*. I came 9th overall and 4th in the old fart category.

Then after a short respite I headed back to the car to dump a bit of kit I knew I would need - I always seem to carry too much extra kit these days. I took a different route back - well, it's nice to mix things up a little. Another 4.5km clocked. From there I headed over to 'The Pludds' for the orienteering, cue another 3.5km. Then, of course, the disaster was another 6km before a final 3.5km back to the car once again and the drive home.

In all I clocked 27km and 2,500 feet of ascent. Surprisingly for such a short distance my legs have stiffened up - stop it. Good training all the same. It definitely feels like I put in the effort. Just going to finish off with an hour on the bike to see if I can breath some life into my tired legs...

* PS, I'm not getting too old for this game, I'm only just getting started.

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