Running (off-road) warm up/down 4:51 0.65 km (7:29 / km) +13m6:48 / km ahr:134 max:149 shoes: Inov8 Oroc 2016
Warm up to the start, some banter with Kev about catching him, back to assembly and back to the start. Feeling solid if not fresh.
Orienteering race 1:31:59**** 13.66 km (6:44 / km) +617m5:30 / km ahr:171 max:180 spiked:24/31c shoes: Inov8 Oroc 2016
IOC Long - Mahon Falls - 5th
The results are consistently slower than what everyone has recorded on their watches. I wonder what that's about. CNOC DOMA is having issues and so is the routegadget so map will come eventually.
I was confident enough today and the plan was to get around clean. Started easy as it was to be a long day and I knew the tough climbing was going to be at the end. I was clean through the first bit, even though the map was almost impossible to read with all of the black rock features. Thus I crossed the river right in the same time as top few. I bled a little time on the uphills to 8 and 9 but I wasn't too worried about it as I was trying to conserve energy a bit. On the way to #12 I saw a flash of an Irish top. Reckoned it was Kev. I started to open up the speed on this leg and gained on him, taking the right route and punched it just in front of Kev. I was with him for the loop on the other side of the hill. Pretty solid oing but could feel my legs on the hills. Kev was moving well which was surprising given how much I'd caught him and we were keeping a good check on each other's o. On the climb to 18 I started to feel the burn. Kev told me he was wrecked and it was up to me. He was still ahead of me to 18 but dropped height on the way to 19. I stayed high and never saw him again. I was good on the leg and then down the the river.
Took a gel at the water, probably should have taken two but I had not prepared myself. I was getting tired but still in 2nd place.
The loop on the other side of the road went terribly. Suffered big time on the climb to 23 but got the control ok. Then small misses on 24 and 25 and 2nd through 5th were within 15s of each other. Climbing to 26 was the end of me. I was giving it all I had and I saw Marcus going to 29. He started 12 mins ahead of me so I knew it was going to be pretty close. I worked too hard though and had to stop to read my map when I got to the right height. Around to 27 ( over seemed like too much climb for my poor legs) I was still trying to run hard and didn't pay enough attention to the map (again) and missed the control. Found a sheep pen but it was hidden under the circle so relocation took much longer than it should have. Tried hard for the end but didn't get anywhere and slowly dropped to 5th on the run-in.
Frustratingly close to the podium. The climbing legs and the last bit of long distance training haven't been enough clearly and I suffered both running and orienteering on the last loop. That mistake on 27 is killing me. I didn't react well to seeing Marcus. I tried to run faster when I should have trusted myself and kept doing what had been working. Still, misses on 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 tells something.
Running (off-road) warm up/down 14:29 1.75 km (8:18 / km) +18m7:54 / km ahr:121 max:143 shoes: Inov8 Oroc 2016
Cool down with Marcus and Colm to look at the falls. Very tired legs on any kind of incline. It was interesting to discuss the exact lines that we took in the terrain. Met Ciara too and she came with for a bit. Colm's achilles was at him so we walked a decent bit of the way back.