Hi everyone, hope you've all had a good long weekend
We were away in the New Forest over the weekend, so I worked out a nice run in the woods using OSM on gmaps. Follow the dotted green bits, take the second left, first right, etc. Seemed really easy, but once I was out doing it, there were extra turns, others missing, loads of junctions, etc. It was a maze and I got proper old school lost
So my question is this... how do you work out your runs in unknown areas? Is it asking too much to want to go trail running without getting hopelessly lost? Surely it would kill the training effect if I had to stop and get a map out every 5 minutes?
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either just look for well defined trails in the area such as big national walks which a re well signposted.........or just enjoy the freedom of map.......it depends on what you are training for.......i love just following maps and getting lost.......stiles and such slow you down anyway........but on off road races you might have to navigate and climb stiles
If I'm somewhere I don't know I tend to try and pick routes that are navigationally simple - disused railway lines, coast, canal or river paths, that kind of thing. Easy to follow, then just do an out&back run.
Cycle paths are often easier to follow and better signposted than footpaths, although the long distance footpaths are usually clearly identified.
Otherwise, I make sure I've got a map with me. Usually I print the section of the OS map I want onto A4, rather than take the entire map with me. Folds up and goes in my pocket/bumbag. It's easy enough to look at while bimbling along at an easy pace, just to check the next landmark or turn.
Adds to the sense of adventure.
Bikehike as an OS mapping section so you can map along trails. Do it early in the morning though as the licence seems to be limited and often in the evenings the maps aren't there...
I very good at getting lost, taking the wrong turning, making an easy 14 miler into a long 20 miler. Happens all the time. I'm all for going somewhere new, making it up as you go along.
I don't believe there is such a thing as being lost, I always know where I am, it's just how to get to where I want to be that's confusing.
I've used maps and still gone wrong, got the scaling totally wrong in my head. Doesn't really bother me too much. Quite often I'll see a path and follow it to see where it goes, just for fun.
The other thing you could do is take a compass with you, or if you are really worried a Garmin, then you can head back to where you started however you want.
It's all the fun of the fair and you'll never find new rotes if you don't explore.
Sometimes I print out a map, mark up the route I want to follow and stuff it in my bumbag so I can check it during the run. I don't think there is any lost training effect, and I enjoy the mental challenge of working out where I am.
I have tried to use technology to help me, and have occasionally mapped out a route on mapmyrun, and sent it to my iPhone so I can take that with me, and I've toyed with buying a proper Garmin navigational thing (I already have a 310xt but have never tried to use this to tell me where to go)
At the end of the day, I think sometimes you have to get lost to really discover an area properly, and not being sure of where you are half way through a run adds to the excitement Good luck, Ringwood Forest is a lovely area to run around.....
I ran along Daggons Road, just west of Alderholt and saw about a dozen marked footpaths before my first 'official' lane that was shown on OSM. Is this area as complex as it looks? I ran half a mile down one dead end, another mile through a boggy dissused stretch and squelched my way to the familiarity of good old tarmac. None of which I could see on the map.
Faithsdaddy, I don't know Alderholt at all, so I'm afraid I can't advise on the complexity of your run. I don't run on any marked footpaths, but do stick to established trails.
I've only really got seriously lost once and that was on the south downs many years ago. When I started the run the weather was fine and I was just wearing vest and shorts. I knew the hills well but was suddenly enveloped in dense fog. I lost all sense of direction, and had no idea where I was. I kept running and running, hoping to see a landmark I recognised. In the meantime I was getting colder and colder and starting to get really worried that I would get hypothermia. I eventually saw a radar mast so knew where I was. The only problem was, I had another 6 miles to run, luckily on roads, to get back home. I made it somehow, absolutely exhausted. I have no idea how far I had run, as I didn't have a Garmin in those days. I knew it was 6 miles each way by road to the Downs, as I had measured it by car, to the car park there.
I take a map with me (printing out a portion, or even photocopying the part of it I want , and sticking it in a polypocket sealed with sellotape). It folds up dead small then. The key thing is to keep track of where you are and what is coming up next, by glancing at it freqently as you go along, possibly following where you are with your thumb.
In somewhere like the New Forest the consequences of going wrong are not too disastrous, so I didn't bother to take a compass then, but if really heading out into the wilds I do take a compass and a proper map tucked away in a bumbag or hydration pack just in case things did go wrong.
Ahh... I get lost even when I know the route! The best thing for me is to plan the route beforehand and either print it out or look at markers (street names/big monuments) to direct me. It works 95% of the time. For forests - I normally try and run through to recognisable points (e.g. church in the distance).
I do figure of 8 type runs, so a double loop with say 6 miles for each one.
If the first one goes a lot longer I've got plenty of reserve then, doesn't help as much for loop 2 of course but if there are lots of dodgy turns I'd normally head back and do part of the first loop again perhaps.
Normally stick with out and back though, staying on the main route each time to avoid having to try and remember too many turns.
I flick between the OS maps, the standard aerial photo layers and the "Bird's eye" angle photo layer, and that way I have a rough mental picture of how my planned path fits in with landmarks (pylons, buildings, field boundaries, rivers, lakes etc), rather than the green dots on the OS map alone.
Where trails meet road I check out Google streetview if available, to see what the path entrance/exit looks like.
And as others have said, you could print out a copy of just that part of the map and fold it up and stick it in your pocket/waistbag.
Generally, what you do is use the map tool at www.sustrans.org.uk for a very clear view of where all the footpaths, bridleways, etc are and then use the mapping tool at www.gpsies.com/createTrack.do to create a Garmin.crs file which you then download onto your Garmin 305. Then you just follow the line. When I first moved to Winchester I did a lot of night running in the local countryside and used this a lot and its foolproof. Now I know most of the many routes so I use it less, but whenever I go away somewhere I always do a route or two in advance so I can get offroad and know how to get back to where I started.
New forest is slightly easier because you don't generally have to worry about sticking to public rights of way like you do when you're running over private land. So you can make it up with a bit more freedom using the gpsies site. Even then if you plan a rough loop it doesn't matter ifyou vary it a bit - as long as you have it stored in 305 you can always find your way back to your planned trajectory eventually.
Good pick by the way - I grew up in the New Forest and it's a runner's paradise.
Ps: just read your post again Faithsdaddy and not surprised you got lost - the New Forest, as you will know now, is chocka with all manner of paths, tracks, trails and the like. A few of these are official footpaths and will be marked accordingly on the OS maps, but most aren't. It can get confusing.