One advantage of it having taken quite so long to get out to Norway is that we don’t have to experience the bleak mid-winter. The shortest day is around Christmas at just under six hours but, even though we’re only at the end of February, daylight hours in Oslo are now only half an hour shorter than those in London. In another three weeks we’ll have more daylight here. Come mid-summer there’s nearly 19 hours of daylight in the capital. Christine’s thinking of running the Midnight Sun Marathon in which case we’ll get to see the full 24 hours in Tromsø.
Archive for the ‘Sport’ Category
Look on the bright side of life
Friday, February 29th, 2008Contour confusion
Monday, February 25th, 2008Shockingly I found myself orienteering again on Sunday. That’s twice in one week. What’s the world coming to?! We were visiting Christine’s parents in Monmouth, partly to say goodbye before departing these shores and partly so Christine could attend at least part of her sister-in-law to-be’s hen weekend. Christine’s parents then graciously offered to look after Emma whilst we nipped off up the road to the NGOC event at Knockalls Enclosure.
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Orienteering at Ocknell
Thursday, February 21st, 2008Yesterday I sneaked out for a couple of hours in the afternoon to go to the Army orienteering at Ocknell. I didn’t really have my head in gear at the start. Having had to go back to the car to pick up my compass I then failed to use it on the way to the first control and paid the price. I wasted four minutes circling around the depression where the control lay. This delay meant that I then had Mark Saunders on my shoulder, pushing me on until, at number 12, I went too far right. He spotted this but overcompensated. Unfortunately he corrected more quickly. I wasted another two minutes and only caught glimpses of Mark in the distance in the last part of the course. My legs were starting to tire at this point from the strength sapping mud. Without those mistakes it would have been a great result, with them, mediocre. If, by any chance, I learn to navigate whilst in Norway then I might just be dangerous! The worst part? Making up the time by working in the evening!
Forerunner 3
Friday, February 15th, 2008I eventually did decide to return my Garmin (again) due to the lack of sound. Three days after I dropped it off at their office in Totton (I’m not sure what the security guard thought of me as I was wearing running kit at the time!) a package arrived back. Sadly this time it just contained a watch, not a whole replacement box. The wrapper stated “Newly Overhauled” but the watch has a new serial number so I’m not sure what to make out of that. I can, however, do intervals once again without having to look at my watch the whole time!
SportTracks and Garmin
Monday, February 4th, 2008Version 2.0 of the SportTracks GPS exercise logbook now looks ready for prime time. Having used it for a few days now I have yet to discover any killer new features but neither have I spotted anything that is missing which, at one point, seemed to be likely to be the case. I’m also contemplating returning my Forerunner 305 to Garmin again as the sound has gone which was the first thing to stop working last time. Whilst looking around the Garmin site I spotted the Forerunner 405 which was announced at CES and is due to ship in March. Shockingly it a) looks like a watch and b) can be used to tell the time when not in GPS mode! With such a small screen it is perhaps not surprising that you lose the ability to view routes and the current track but still very tempting all the same.
Street-O Preview
Sunday, January 20th, 2008Sadly I’m not going to be around for the next SOC street event to be held in Valley Park this coming Thursday evening (see the SOC website for full details – anyone is welcome!) but this did mean I could help Christine with the planning. The area is fairly constrained due to the large blocks of woodland dividing up the housing so it was largely a case of shuffling around the controls from last year a bit. I think we’ve introduced a few new decision points and I’m still not clear in my own mind what constitutes the best route to collect all the controls. It took me nearly two hours to get round two-thirds of the controls but then I was walking with Emma in the pushchair and we did have to stop at the swings! I’ve measured just one possible route choice on the map (not necessarily the best) and at around eight miles I believe it should be possible to get them all. There’s a challenge for the keen reader if ever there was one!
CompassSport Cup at Yately Heath
Sunday, January 13th, 2008The first round of the CompassSport Cup was scheduled early this year. The event for our area was at Yateley Heath and Minley Woods. For a change I was off before Christine which meant I was probably a little more focussed when I reached the start. Matthias Mahr was starting a minute before me which I hoped would lead to a good race.
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Running with a buggy
Sunday, January 6th, 2008One of the many kind donations we received when Emma was born was a second-hand running buggy – the sort with three massive bicycle-style wheels. Christine has been out with it a couple of times but today was my first run. Despite its size the buggy is very light and manoeuvrable and on a smooth tarmac surface has surprisingly little rolling resistance. I believe the recommended technique is to give the buggy a push and then run after it. Unfortunately I need to try and work out why ours veers to the left slightly. As a consequence I had to run with one hand on the buggy most of the time which doesn’t do your running style much good! My running speed was down a little but the additional effort certainly kept my heart rate up. On even the slightest incline you find yourself up on your toes pushing so you get a good workout.
Emma slept for 55 minutes of the hour we were out!
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