..at yesterdays Bixslade orienteering. I got off to an absolute pants start. My brain couldn't make sense of the thick wood section not being as expected and I drifted too far east. That got me into a section of nonsensical paths - at least they were nonsensical to me as to where I thought I was but actually wasn't - are you with me? Well can you explain it to me then!
Anyway, having thrown away two minutes before having really got started, I then kicked into gear. Using a combination of compass and feature nav, I picked up two, three and four fairly precisely before a little hiccup on five. I took my brain offline while running on the uphill path to five and ran all the way to junction before looking at the map and realising I should have headed off the path at the bend - doh. Lesson learnt, don't switch off, not even for a second. It didn't cost me too too much.
Six was my nemesis though. My gps shows I was close on first approach but in reality I was using too much guess work. I simply headed off the main path at a junction with a small track and ran on a bearing off that. I didn't do enough to ensure that the track and where I located that track on the map were one and same. I just didn't get myself to a confident point of attack and subsequently lost a good four or five minutes. After that the rest were pretty straight forward and I didn't make any mistakes.
I'm okay with my time of just inside 65 but in reality it should have been under the hour - but then we all say that don't we? I'm making progress though, making more accurate navigation, using a wider range of navigational tools. I feel I'm going to threaten the hour barrier more often in 2015. Just need to make sure I keep practicing. It's a bit like fitness, if you don't orienteer for a few weeks you really do lose that sharpness.
Anyway, having thrown away two minutes before having really got started, I then kicked into gear. Using a combination of compass and feature nav, I picked up two, three and four fairly precisely before a little hiccup on five. I took my brain offline while running on the uphill path to five and ran all the way to junction before looking at the map and realising I should have headed off the path at the bend - doh. Lesson learnt, don't switch off, not even for a second. It didn't cost me too too much.
Six was my nemesis though. My gps shows I was close on first approach but in reality I was using too much guess work. I simply headed off the main path at a junction with a small track and ran on a bearing off that. I didn't do enough to ensure that the track and where I located that track on the map were one and same. I just didn't get myself to a confident point of attack and subsequently lost a good four or five minutes. After that the rest were pretty straight forward and I didn't make any mistakes.
I'm okay with my time of just inside 65 but in reality it should have been under the hour - but then we all say that don't we? I'm making progress though, making more accurate navigation, using a wider range of navigational tools. I feel I'm going to threaten the hour barrier more often in 2015. Just need to make sure I keep practicing. It's a bit like fitness, if you don't orienteer for a few weeks you really do lose that sharpness.
No comments:
Post a Comment