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Speyside Training Day
The club recently held a training day on Speyside, ahead of the SOL at Anagach ...
With a SOL at Anagach (Grantown on Spey) on Sunday 25th September, it was an ideal opportunity for a club training day on Speyside on the Saturday. Head coach Lorna Eades organised it all, with accommodation at Lagganlia, near Feshiebridge for Friday and Saturday night.
Saturday dawned dry and bright and we met up at Inshriach, near Feshiebridge. Those staying at Lagganlia warmed up by running from the centre to the training; for the rest it was a short jog from the car park. We were joined eventually by a group from EUOC who were also up for the weekend and were sharing our training.
Plenty of maps ...
Discussing the best route.
EUOC make an appearance
Plane spotting at one control
Inshriach offers plenty of contours, with ground cover a mix of heather and blaeberry bushes. Lorna had planned a range of exercises, with short and medium loops to practice compass bearings, then some courses that made maximum use of the famous 'chequerboard' (test plantation squares at different densities - run, walk and fight in orienteering-speak!). You could either try your luck running 'into the grid', or 'crossing the grid', hoping to make it out roughly where you expected.
After a break for lunch (soup and bread back at Lagganlia), we relocated to lovely Loch Vaa. Given the Middle Distance race coming up on the NW part of the area, our training was in the rather more open SW part. Here the order of the day was more compass practice, but over open heathery moorland interspersed with small areas of woodland. Very easy to go astray if you weren't concentrating.
Afterwards tea and cake was on offer at the Ivories in Boat of Garten to round off an excellent day's training. It certainly ticked all the right boxes, though the ticks left their mark. Many thanks to Lorna for organising, to Colin and others for putting out all the controls, EUOC for collecting, and to BASOC for allowing us to borrow their areas.
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