Occassional thoughts about orienteering
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| okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering |
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Friday, March 15, 2002 Getting old and orienteeringI spent some time today thinking about getting old and orienteering. The topic came up when I read the March 12 entry at mapsurfer.com.After some thought, I suspect the biggest physical constraint for an orienteer is eyesight. As you get older you slow down. I'm 38 and much slower and weaker than I was ten years ago. Some of that is from getting old. Most of it is from training less, working full time and eating too much. No question, most of us are going to slow down as we get older. As I've gotten older, I've begun to have a bit of difficulty seeing fine detail on the map. I noticed it a few years ago when I did a training course at Harriman. I was approaching a control and couldn't distinguish between rocks, rocky ground, boulder groups and small cliffs. When I stopped, I noticed that if I held the map at just the right distance from my eyes, it came into focus. These days, I've been running with a magnifier. It helps. It is much easier to read detail with the magnifier. I don't (yet) need bifocals. But, I suspect the time is coming. Having your eyes get weak is a much more difficult physical problem than just getting slower. As you get slower (older, out of shape or overwieght) you still orienteer the same. You just move slower. But when you can't read details that you used to be able to read, you've got to change the way you orienteer. Adapting your techniques for weaker eyesight is an interesting challenge. Maybe some of my readers who have gone through it will have some tipes? If so, leave them in the comments. I'm interested to hear about peoples' experiences and suggestions posted by Michael | 1:36 PM 
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