okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Exposed
There's nothing like night O' for exposing sloppy orienteering.
Tonight I ran a short night O' course for the first time this season. Some weaknesses were exposed:
1. On the way to the second control I stumbled and fell. Weakness exposed = not running smoothly through the terrain. Solution = train in the forest.
2. On the way to the third control I drifted left. Weakness exposed = inability to hold a straight line. Solution = technique training, focused on holding a straight line (especially at night where there aren't as many clues to keep you on line).
3. On the way to the fifth control I needed to drop down three contour lines to a trail, but after I'd dropped down just one line I came to a trail (unmapped) and ran on it, thinking I'd already dropped far enough. Weakness exposed = inability to accurately judge climb/fall. Solution = more technique work.
I only ran 30 minutes of night O', but it exposed three big weaknesses. Night O' is like that. In the day you can get away with sloppiness that night punishes.