Orienteering race (NOY 3) 59:08 [5] **** 8.74 km (6:46 / km) +406m 5:29 / km
ahr:175 max:189 shoes: Saucony Wave Blue
Not too bad of a run, considering the lack of sleep the night before and the heat. Attackpoint split analysis doesn't have me losing any time which I'm pretty sure is a first for me (and has been a goal of mine).
If you visit a control early and then return directly to it, does that count as spiking the control? I.e. Start-->2-->1-->2 Can I claim to have spiked 2?
I managed to find myself directly between control 1 and 2 and as 2 was the only one I saw, ran to it. I also visited several other controls early, but the other ones were not far out of my way. On some of the long legs I consistently drifted uphill. For two legs I even found a track that I wasn't intending on hitting.
Also, does anyone have a suggestion on how I can improve running swiftly through the bush, taking a compass bearing, and keeping good map to ground contact all at the same time? I can almost always do one of the three. A lot of the time I can do 2 of them well, but never all three.
I feel as though running on a bearing is what I do most poorly and I'm trying to improve that. In the past on sunny days, I've taken a bearing and noticed the approximate angle of the shadows vs the direction of travel. Then I would just run using this remembered approximate angle. This works pretty well when you have a decent catching/funneling feature as you can focus on running efficiently and quickly through the bush. Obviously this has the drawback of being prone to error (and useless on cloudy/rainy days). I've also used the trick of picking the furthest distinctive tree or rock on the bearing I need to travel, running to it, then taking another compass bearing. I've also tried running along with a near constant bearing, but I always feel this is the least effective. Does anyone have any suggestions? What is considered the best method--what do most elites do? Any suggestions would be appreciated!