I’d love to share all of the training I’ve done in Latvia so far, buuuuut, I’ve spent most of my time here in bed. I had a cold leaving New Zealand which got quite bad after 2 nights of minimal sleep on planes. I took to the forest on Tuesday, and although I was getting good value from the session, my concerningly high heart rate and the overwhelming feeling of fatigue throughout the hour in the forest painted a clear picture of my health. With only a light jog on Wednesday, I was motivated to join Matt Ogden for another crack at the Latvian terrain on Thursday, but this was not to be. I came down with a gastro bug or food poisoning on Wednesday night and spent the night purging my body from every direction. I spent almost all of the following day asleep and started to take down food towards the evening. This combination left me pretty destroyed and I’m recovering slowly, but I did get out into the forest for a second orienteering session on Friday.
This first training was more of a middle distance style and was a good reintroduction to the Baltic terrain. I was feeling pretty confident in my navigation, but was also surprised to see myself pushed around to a large degree by the variable vegetation despite my determination to push straight. I always felt to be following the best micro-route choices in the moment, improvising on animal tracks or avoiding fallen trees if I could see them from a distance, but after viewing my GPS I wonder whether these perceived advantages were worthwhile or whether I am pulling too wide from the straight line.
My second orienteering training was a little better in all regards. My heart rate was a little lower and I felt stronger on my feet. I also had more mental space to navigate which felt great. I found the course generally easy, at my slow pace at least, and managed to hold good lines through the terrain throughout the course. This map felt a little older and there seemed to be a few things missing starting with the boulder at control 1. The map was also a little strange coming into 5 so I’m not too phased about the mistake there. I quite enjoyed legs like 11, 12 and 13 where the forest was a little more runnable and I could flow though the terrain in a way the map suggested I should. Low branches and fallen trees broke this flow in other areas.
We also put together a short video from Matt’s perspective in the forest, check it out!