31 Day Challenge - Complete!

I started 2010 with an ambitious goal: to do some kind of orienteering training every single day in January. It wasn't my idea, I blatantly stole it from others who had attempted to do it in the past. And I stole the name, too - the 31 Day Challenge. Before I get into the details of the Challenge I feel that, as Team Inov-8 USA's only orienteer, t I owe a bit of an explanation of orienteering!

Most of you have probably heard of orienteering, and many of you have probably actually gone out and done it. But to many people the term conjures up an image of taking compass bearings and pace counting in Boy Scouts or in the military. I can assure you that I have no interest in such activities, and that competitive orienteering is the adrenaline junkie's answer to 'just running'. Orienteering is essentially a maprunning race. We use a detailed topographic map made specifically for the sport and run through the forest (or desert or swamps), through streams, up hills, across steep slopes... you get the idea. The map has a series of 'controls' (checkpoints) that you must visit in order - but it's up to you to get there as fast as possible, navigating cleanly on your own. It's true cross country running, except you have to find your own way! You can see more examples of maps in my map archive.

Now, back to that 31 Day Challenge...

The idea was to get out on a map - any map, not necessarily an orienteering map - every day. It didn't have to be long, but I had to navigate every single day. That can be pretty tough in Tucson, where I usually only orienteer on the weekends, so it took a little bit of creativity. But I also got in a lot of training that I wouldn't have done otherwise. It was such an awesome month!

According to my records, I ran (or skied) 37 distinct orienteering sessions for a total of over 27 hours of orienteering. I found approximately 365 controls, either real or map only, and used 21 different maps.

Five of the sessions were in Massachusetts and involved snow, and two of those involved skiing. Two maps were actually aerials from Google Maps and one was a street map with a line drawn on it. One was a ski trails map and one was the map of my front yard in Sudbury. The rest were real O maps, 10 in Tucson, 3 in MA, 2 in California, and 1 in Phoenix. I wore a headlamp for two sessions. I was attacked by a dog once.

I learned a few things. For one, getting on a map every day was easier than I thought it would be. Not easy, but I didn't have to go crazy. Of course, it helped tremendously that for two weeks I had orienteering guests in my house and I took leave from work... But the rest of the time I was generally able to get in some productive sessions around town despite work. I also feel that getting in map time each day gave me better "map feel". I believe that a little bit of O frequently is better than a lot every once in a while.

I won't be orienteering every day in February, but I do anticipate that I will get out for more technique and terrain running sessions that I have done in the past. I'll be updating the blog with race results once the season heats up!