Chris Curtis Web Site

I have been thinking about my orienteering performance – getting quite depressed in some ways. I plotted out this graph (click on it to get the full-size version) to try to shed some light on how I am doing. This is more complex than I thought.

It seemed sensible to use the “minutes per km” measure to compare performance in events, but this can be misleading. For example, the early events on the graph were “Park-O” last summer. Even I can run very much faster across mown lawns than in forest, and the navigation is much simpler, so I was not doing as well then as the relatively fast pace suggests. Some of the variation in pace reflects things like the physicality of the terrain or even variations in the complexity of the navigation.

What does the graph say? It suggests that I am gradually becoming more consistent. I am less likely to have a complete, unmitigated disaster now than I was six months ago. Sadly, it also suggests that I am slowing down, rather than speeding up. I seemed to do very well for a while (December to about February) but although I have had a few events even faster since then, most events have been slower and the graph seems to be heading upwards rather than down I suspect that I am actually covering the ground faster than I used to (certainly I can run further and faster in training than I have ever done before) but my navigation has gone to pot. I am shorter of oxygen and often feel very hot while out orienteering – literally the opposite of having a “cool head”. This means that I am often making mistakes when navigating and I am not yet fit enough to be able to run like mad to make up for them.

The challenge for the next few months is to reverse this trend. I will try to be more conscious of navigation – precise and secure rather than running in hope. The second is to work even harder on fitness – try to feel that I am running without driving all the sense out of my head even when I am going reasonably fast. I have just gone in at week three of the “couch to 5k” running programme with the help of a great podcast so my iPod tells me when to start and stop each interval rather than having to try to remember timings (especially when I can’t see a watch very well without my glasses!) The programme is supposed to get me to the point where I can run 5km comfortably several times a week. If I can reach that point, I can focus effort on navigation and try to get it all to come together.

There are only a couple of “trad” events left before we move into the summer series of sprint and park orienteering, so this is a good time to commit to a serious training programme so that I am “fit as a fiddle” by October when the club’s “Gallopen” (league) events re-start.

It was quite exciting to be going to an event – it has been a few weeks and I missed it. Blackland Farm is a girl guide camp site and adventure centre with inter-mixed woodland and open fields, some complex(and occasionally steep) stream valleys and an unusual variety of things on the map – from “small cliff” to “camp fire circle” via abseiling towers and lots of buildings in unusual places.  At the start we were warned to avoid live archery areas and the zip-wire! The variety meant that we could have 19 controls in 3.7km – almost a sprint event.

Not too bad a run for me, though I seem to be into a very bad habit of completely blowing two or three controls per event. Today it was 4 – I dutifully (and sensibly) went round the back of the archers then convinced myself I had gone straight so was completely confused for a few minutes until I realised the control was on the stream so headed downhill, found the stream and went along it – five minutes lost. The second disaster was control 11 which was a knoll in a marsh. I came along a path and took the first small path off to the left, then turned right onto another small path as was clear on the map. Actually, I had not seen the first small path and was on the second shown on the map – the path I turned right onto was not mapped. I found myself next to a large field – but there were two fields next to each other, so it took time to work out where I was – finding the control was easy then, but another five minutes lost.

Today’s course was pretty fast with lots of easy paths and long runs across camp site fields, so ten minutes lost put me 27th instead of in the mid-teens and let most of “the usual suspects” beat me. Oh well. Fitness was not too bad, though it was surprisingly hot, with none of the forecast showers and I was dehydrated by the end. I caught my first (mild) sunburn of the year too.