Tracking my wanderlust need to get out of town once a month

Track my O progress here

Today there was a Possum Trot meet at Blue and Grey. It was a 3 hour score O. My goal was to try to stay out for 3 hours, and get half as many points as Michael. It turned out to be a very rainy day. All the trails were now running streams; the fields were mush; the streams were raging torrents. So, I knew it was going to be a long, tiring day for me. I decided to take it very easy, both physically and in route choice. I would treat it as a long exercise session, and try to really concentrate for the whole time I was out on the course. In the end, I managed to find enough controls (380 points) to win the women's division. I was out for 2:38 and covered about 7.5K. I could have stayed out a few more minutes and picked up some low point value controls near the finish, but I was just exhausted.

Mike found all 710 points in 1:55. I did 21 min/K, while Mike was ~8. A long way from twice Mike's time!! To be fair, I wasn't pushing very hard, because I knew I would out for a long time. I also took very safe and long route choices. Still!

I was thinking about my navigation style when I get tired. I noticed that I started to look at only some detail on the map. I convinced myself that I was "simplifying" the map. But actually, I was brain dead and could only concentrate on certain things. For instance, I would say "take this trail till it turns left." Meanwhile, I didn't notice any contour or vegetation detail around the trail. At one point today I was on a parallel trail, and it took me a minute to re-locate. By the end of the course, I was so tired that I had trouble punching my control card. (See Mike's blog for more details.)

I did a good job of concentrating today. I tend to verbalize my navigation in my head (ie, I'll say to myself: down the trail, across the reentrant to the edge of the field). When I get really tired, I talk out loud! So if you pass me on a course, and I'm talking to myself, you'll know I'm tired!!!
posted by Mary 7:43 PM [edit]