NAV4 Adventure Open Day and One Day Course

Just been clearing up and sorting away from our Open Day and 'Navigation for Runners' training day on Saturday.  The day was based from The Moot Hall, in Keswick, which was a new venue for us but proved to be very successful with many people dropping in to say 'hello' and glean a few tips on all things Off-Road running. 

Two tutored groups also headed out for the day under the tuition of Stu and Marcus our lead tutors.  After a brew and initial indoor session, one group headed North onto Latrigg while the other headed South to the delights of Walla Crag and the Bleaberry Fell area.  

NAV4's tuition is always delivered in small groups with a maximum client / tutor ratio of 4:1.   A huge amount of learning was done by all; looking at route choice, relocation, compass bearings and pace judgement.  It was a dry but cold day, with wet and cold feet being suffered by one or two people.   Off-road running is all about navigating effectively and keeping moving but inevitably some head stratching and standing about was involved.    Where as wellies may have been a sensible choice in some places, 'shoe choice' was a re-occuring topic during the Open Day with quite a few people discussing the pros and cons of differnt shoes: from road to studs with much confusion around trail and minimal running shoes.
   

Needlesports kindly lent use some nice shiny OMM gear but the shoes in the photo are all my own, and in various states of wear.  As the Lakeland fells are currently so wet, Inov-8 330 Mudclaw (far right) fell studs have been my number one choice, with the blue Inov-8 315 Roclites my longer distance choice.  Over the past few years La Sportiva Raptor (black and yellow) have been my choice for ultra distance events such as the Lakeland 100, four days out of five on The Dragon's Back and Terrex Sting races, etc.

NAV4 Adventure delivers impartial advice on all brands and we only use and recommend stuff we truly believe in.   During the Open Day I had a bit of spare time to examine the OMM Ultra 15 sac, which is a nice small volume sac with traditional bottle pockets on each side, although the relatively short back length compared to my Inov-8 20 and 25 sac is noticeable.... (and I am 6'1" with a long back!)

Despite it being a nice day the sun was streaming through the second floor windows, so I'm sorry there aren't many more great pictures of the indoors displays.  However, many people commented upon how they really enjoyed seeing our 'real' running and mountain marathon gear, and our selection of original race maps.

NAV4 Adventure have further training coures in February and March; have a look at our website for details of these, especially our 'Navigation for Runners' course on Sat 30th March.  This course will be based at Askham, near Pooley Bridge and there are currently some early bird discounts available, using the code 'NAV420F' via the sportident booking page.

Our next weekend course is at Plas-y-Brenin on 12-14th April. 'Mountain Running Essentials' is our flagship course with a huge amount of info, learning and fun to be had.  There is a mock practise event on the Sunday where you can put into practise your newly tuned skills...

And Finally, Big thanks to OMM, www.needlesports.com  Inov-8 and Montane, Stu, Marcus and all who came along and drank tea and ate flapjack!