Training Log Archive: roar

Warm up, mostly with Laurence, scoping out the final descent.

IMRA Ballybraid

Tried to pace myself up the long fire road climb to Mullacor. Was with Mike Jordan and Becky Quin and some others at the start but did drop off a bit and was behind someone. Took a different route and cut up through the forest to the higher road and gained a few seconds to come out basically with them again. Alan Ayling was about too. Mostly power walked into the mist on the open mountain and was feeling pretty tired but was still moving ok and in a decent place. The top of Mullacor was totally shrouded in fog where there was a Gina telling me not to go into the mud pit. The descent was a bit vague at the top with the fog but I ran it confidently. Passed Becky pretty quickly off Mullacor and it cleared up to let me see a few people in front. Some walker guy seemed pretty angry and shouted at me "Tell your mates to watch where they're running". There were a lot of walkers. Worked on the reeling in the people in front but it was quite spread out and had only gained two places by Shay Elliot, including an injured Laurence. I was right behind Mike, Alan Ayling and someone else here. Alan Ayling went left and Mike tied his shoe. Tough battle up Kirikee and I was losing them a little but kept working hard. The sun came out and it was a fantastic day but I had worn my black slightly heavier top so I warmed up a lot. Gained back a bit before the ascent of Carriglineen but it wasn't very technical so not much. There were some horses then on the ridge standing with the sun behind them and the wind making them look pretty epic while I had a tough time getting up the hill. Played mental games to keep myself running and got up but did lose a bit of time on Mike and the other guy. Alan Ayling had totally disappeared and I learned later he took a terrible route choice. The last descent was a thing of beauty, tough though. Very steep but I got good lines and passed other guy and was right up to Mike by the gate. Had to work very very hard to catch him and pass him on the last bit of road.

Happy enough with the time. Seem to be climbing a bit better but still work to do on the later climbs. I think I was about 10th. - actually 8th.

Event: NI Sprint / Middle Distance Championships
 

I messed up my timing and got too involved with my Irish ranking system. Ended up leaving an hour later than planned so was going to be pretty rushed with this session, having to go to a BBQ for the afternoon. Quick warm up to the park entrance below the kyber. Even stayed on the road so it would be faster.

4x 530m hills recovery jog back down

A short session due to time constraints but I guess that'll make me fresher for the hill run tomorrow. First one I was a bit unsure how long it was going to be so I didn't kill it. Picked up the pace thereafter and felt really good. Actually felt like I was running well up the hill. Good sesh, but probably 6 of these were warranted.

2:28, 2:22. 2:18, 2:16

Cool down home. Not so quick as the warm up. Feeling good though. Happy I got the session in and the weather was improving for the BBQ.

Whoah did I crash last night. Drank loads of water and ate a ton of Brazil nuts and then pounded a bottle of chocolate milk. Stomach couldn't handle it and I felt terrible. Wasn't able to eat any dinner and it was pretty late so went to bed. Not the best. Feeling much better today though. Legs aren't even tired really, though I did miss the morning run.

Went to bed pretty late after getting home late from the hill run. Wouldn't mind a bit more sleep.

Original plan was to start at the Featherbeds but we remember Glendoo is "embargoed" and there was a guy there who had just had his car window smashed in so we changed the plan. Went to the car park above Lough Bray. A fantastic evening, not a breath of wind and the sun out I went up Kippure up the super steep climb and through some terrain. Views were unreal.
Descended the hill run route, although only after I went off the top the wrong way and got some bonus terrain running and went to the track on the featherbeds.

There I pulled out an old course that I had done at some point and recovered from my fantastically organised map collection. Ran around that though my orienteering was pretty bad. Not 100% focused and you really need that in the Featherbeds with no controls out. Very enjoyable though and a great sunset just as I finished.

The cool thing about the Featherbeds is that you can exactly see all of the map features on google maps.

After putting on my headtorch I went back up the hill run route to the summit of Kippure. This was a tough climb after a good amount of running, but that was the main objective of this session really, to go uphill after 80 minutes. I was pretty happy with how I did actually seemed to be feeling pretty strong and was able to power up the last bit well. Cut the top corner on the road and then went down the road where a bee flew into my face before cuttting to the path above the cliffs above Lough Bray. Shone my torch at the car a few times so Gina would know I was on the way back and then down the path. Feeling tired on this last bit but a very enjoyable run.

Felt like this was useful. Strength is not up to scratch.

Squats x 20
Star squats x2 stars each leg
Form lunges x 10 each leg
Sit ups x 20
Push ups x 10
Calf Raises x 30 each leg
Bridges x 10 raises each leg plus 30 seconds hold
Leg raises 30 each leg

Warm up to the start and then up to look at the start of the super steep hill that is Carrick.

IMRA Carrick

Kept it steady along the road as the climb is horrific. Hit the climb and people were slipping about all over the place so gained a few places early on. Tried to settle into a good pace and it worked well for a while. The lactic accumulated though and after the second fire road I started to slow. I kept running though as that was the plan. Recovered quite quickly but in the forest bit I was stuck behind people and it was hard to overtake. Did manage a few spots. Another climb then and I held my place, which was hard work and then gained a few over the top through the rough descent and the forest. There was a long flatish single track then and I felt a bit weird here. Kinda dizzyish or something. I was a bit stuck behind people and not feeling strong enough to pass them in the terrain so I let myself recover a bit. On the last hill I tried to hold my position as much as I could. It mostly worked though some people came past me when the track opened out. The descent was great then. Nice and steep and fairly technical. Passed out a good chunk of people.

Fun, legs probably feeling the effects of the weekend a bit. Faster than 2014, when it was my best result of the summer league, even though I got a bit stuck in places but it was probably good for my pacing.

Got a CR on Strava for the descent. Boo ya.

Cool down jog with Paul Mahon. Went back up the road, watched some people descending and had some chats.

Cool down back to the car with Roisin and Aoife.

Some things learned from IOC and somethings already known. 3 main points:
1. Speed is ok, probably as good as it has ever been
2. I can orienteer well - but only for about 70 minutes
3. I can't go uphill for the life of me

3 weeks to EOC and 6 to next selection races so still some time to work on points 2.5 and 3. 3 is probably more important

Plan (and I should stick to it this time):
Run up 12 flights of stairs (2x6) every weekday
Monday - IOC relay (done)
Tuesday - easy run
Wednesday - IMRA Carrick
Thursday - Long run 2 hours - I'd be tempted by the hills
Friday - am easy have a CNOC committee meeting which will use up all of my evening
Saturday - hill intervals
Sunday - IMRA Ballybraid

Easy run along the North Quays from Killician's. Went to the toll bridge and then back as far as the troll bridge. Ran up some stairs at the end. Nice to get out.

Warm up before the relay. A bit interrupted with demos and taping and getting maps and there was some missed at the end where I did some strides before the start.

IOC Relay 2016 - First Leg 5.2 km

Mixed the team order a bit because we thought the area would be quite simple and Conor would be solid at catching on the last leg. This put me on first and Kev middle. Kept relaxed on the start line with some banter. Went out map reading and picked up on the hill so kept near the front. Let people past as I read to the control. Darren broke left into the forest, Cillin & Shea kept on up the hill and I was the first of the people with my gaffel to 1.
Compass to 2 keeping it calm still, small bit high on the earthbank and Darren was running down it, but easy on a single tree.
Hit the road to 3, Darren was ~100m ahead and I held the distance to him as I planned ahead. Someone was behind me but not sure who. Came past the bit of forest I thought 3 would be in but there was no sign of a control, Darren was jumping into the forest a little later and I was super worried that I was messing it up already. Kept on the road and went up late, there was a control. Checked the code and it was surprisingly right.
Had no idea where 4 was actually going to be, as it was just on nothing on the map and the description said west side of building. Darren was at the bottom of the bridge and Cillin and Shea were on the road ahead of me. Stayed high and it was right.
Darren climbed out of 5 to the road and then dropped again. I stayed high as I had the pit. Didn't really see the open forest but saw a control in a pit so dropped into it. Ahead of Darren now.
Bit more planning ahead on the road to 6, looked to see if I could cut the green but no dice. Up the ride I ran the speed I could and Darren flew past. Tried to hang on but the legs were very heavy. Control was easy.
Got into the open early for 7 and gained back a little on Darren but he was too fast for me up the hill. Saw him leaving the control but I was in a bad way.
Suffered on up to 8, more climb and Darren was moving out of sight. control was easy, just follow paths.
Compass wasn't perfect for 9 and was slightly high but gained time on Darren as he missed it higher. He was back in sight but not caught.
Could see far ahead in the open forest to 10 and no sign of anyone in front but didn't know if there were people behind or where they were. The green on the left wasn't really there but I was ok on the compass so hit the first knoll where my control was perfectly.
More climb to 11 (how are we still climbing!!!) and the control was super weird, being mapped as the far side of the earthbank in the field when it was in the forest on the near side of the field.
Tried to stay high for 12, got pushed down a little and forced myself back up. Nearly overshot it a bit but turned and punched the boulder. Darren had disappeared.
Ran hard down to 13, following the clearing on my left. Crossed the road and to my relief there was a confused looking Darren beside a knoll. I thought it would be the knoll I was looking for but it really wasn't. Took a few seconds. Darren ran around I looked at my map and we headed to the right to where the control actually was.
Up to the road for 14, I cut down 2-3 rides early as Darren was flying up the road. Worked out pretty well
Running up to 15 I was not going quickly. Darren and Josh came running down the road so I had a little lead. I pushed hard to try and keep ahead. Nice piece of tape to lead me in the path for 15 and the control was fine.
I left 15 to the right though and that wasn't a thing. Had to backtrack up, dropping probably 15s which put me back in sight of Darren. I then was dumb to 16 and was way to left forgetting which side of the green I had been on. Punched with Darren.
Stayed low for 17 leading it out. Could hear crashing behind me which got a bit louder at some point and I went under the green for 17.
Horrific climb up to 18 then and I was suddenly alone. Eventually hit the path but I was going absolutely nowhere. Legs were giving nothing. I had no idea where Darren had gone.
19 was thankfully downhill so I tried to open up some speed. There wasn't much. Pretty fun jumping straight through the rhodedendrons but I wasn't snappy down the hill.
20 was easy enough.
For 21 I though about taking the main road and probably should have but I went left and had to drop into it.
22 was the biggest sufferfest of my life. I gave everything to get up that hill. Nearly forgot to punch it but became aware at the lest second.
Very long run in (Gina was 4 seconds faster) and the extra loop was killer. There was a lot of shouting and it was great to have the support.

I finished about 2 mins down on Darren in the end (no results up yet so I'm not sure).
Kev had a real solid run to gain back about 30s on Marcus putting Conor out 1:30 behind Shane.
There was proper tension in the arena as it seemed like the race was on. Unfortunately Conor dropped some time and CorkO (congrats) took back the title. The left us with 2nd place. I think our leg order tactics were still the right call though and I'd back Conor on the last leg again. 2nd is a solid improvement from 4th last year too :)

Storming run from CNOC 2 team to be 3rd to cross the line, except for a mispunch from Conall on last leg that would have been the talking point of the results.

Great to be in another really competitive IOC relay, though there were a few technical things that could have improved it. It's really great to have to work so hard for the result!

Cool down with Shea and then Darren joined. Very very tired legs and not moving too fast.