Training Log Archive: roar

Warm up to the start. Long one today. Brought a change of shoes because a dob in my nviis is kind of coming up through the base which makes running on the road not so fun.

WOC Middle Selection II - Livelox

3rd Irish. Almost definitely enough for a WOC middle and relay spot. Much more runnable forest today in some ways but also steep. Had two kind of silly mistakes losing 2:30 which I didn't need when suffering on the hills as well.

First section as far as 4 I was happy with. Little hesitation on 1 but not much. Hadn't really got a plan for 5 but contouring seemed best and there was a proper elephant track the whole way so was tipping along. But then I crossed the big valley and somehow thought I was too low, which was wild, when I saw a green splodge, and then Reto Egger went up too confirming for me, but this was wrong and dropped a minute. Reset the head and 6 looked easy but possible to make a mistake. I never saw the ditch and was lower than I thought and didn't spend enough time checking where I was at the road so just kept going, binning another 1:30. Not great. 7 definitely easy and have me a chance to get back in the game. Suboptimal route to 8 taking extra climb and started to feel like I was low on power here and on 9. 10 was lovely though, and perfect orienteering from me. Daniel Hubmann train came past on the way to 13, which was chaos of pieces falling off the back. I didn't stay on very long but long enough in the dregs to get influenced on 14 and take the road with the steep climb which was not optimal for me and dropped a minute to Colm and Paul on the straight line. Was good on the 15->19 section really. Bit of a weird time on 15 when I found a two sided crag where there was a one sided crag on the map so was not confident going down into it. Was running well on the side slope actually which is nice and had an Israeli following me here too. The finish was too much though and the climb to 20 was hell, along with the steepest run-in you can imagine.

Need to order new shoes as the side slope running seems to have put them over the edge with the sole threatening to separate.

Back to the apartment with Laurence. Actually moving ok after a drink of water and a good sit.

Long old drag up to the start. Hot and was sweaty at the top. Was with Reto Egger for a bit but had to come up with an excuse to slow down because it would have added up. Beautiful river waterfall that we went past and was nice and cooling too. Had time for a very small amount of drills and three strides before start.

WOC middle selection 1 - Flims

2nd Irish, 2 mins down on Paul. Kaspar Fosser did 35(!!) So +40%.

Physically this was a real struggle, not sure why (maybe heat? Altitude? (between 1130m/1330m) , both?) The rest of the Irish seemed to have the same thing. Orienteering was mostly pretty decent though in what was a proper hard area. Lost 1 min running up a hill and 1 min with some silly navigation. Bit slow near the end in particular, and had a few hesitations and inefficiencies from being tired. Good fun though.

Cool down with splits. Tops off, pretty warm out

Easy run on paths on one of the training maps (Bot Tschavir) and a bit of checking out the views too. Nice psychologically when everyone else said the orienteering was super hard but I had a great time reading features as I ran past them on the path! Felt smooth running and did 5 strides at the end. Feeling ready for some racing tomorrow.

Training on Ils Aults.

O-intervals course but I was just taking it easy today and did some modified version of one of what we're quite long intervals really. Better oing than yesterday even if I felt a bit more sluggish. Forest still quite scrappy and key takeaways were planning ahead and finding clean lines.

Warm up along a lovely bark track and then also drills and strides. Legs a bit asleep at the start after not a great night's sleep and a bit of a drive but they woke up well really.

Laax Larishcs

Did it like intervals, 3x5mins to start and then 2x3 with a few more controls cool down. Felt pretty strong running but oienteering needed some work tbh, was quite scrappy trying to go at high speed. The forest was pretty rough though with plenty of green. Also tricky small details. I did sort it out by the end figuring out that the hills are quite distinct and getting lines that avoid the green really helps but will be glad if a little more tomorrow.

Left Trevignin at 9, drove to Lyon, train to Lyon centre, TGV to Mulhouse, train to Zurich, train to Shea's apartment. Mostly low stress except the train was late arriving in Mulhouse and I would have missed the connection except the connection was also late.

Easy on arrival in Zurich from Shea's with Shea & Cillin. Trains where you don't get up super early much less stress than early planes, and body was feeling good. Mostly flat but with a small bit of a hill. Threw in 4 strides near the end and was moving very nicely. Good chats and lovely weather always make it mor enjoyable.