Training Log Archive: roar

Felt fairly ill this evening. Couldn't even eat all of my dinner and went to bed at 9 since I was freezing cold and shivering.

Back in Ireland.
Getting home was a bit tense.
Flight from Turkey was delayed, but since we had a huge tailwind we landed in Frankfurt basically on time. Passport control was then oddly at the bottom of the steps getting off the back of the plane, while we had sat near the front to get connections. It was eerily foggy in Frankfurt. Left Marcus to go his way and I went to my gate. There was only the people for our flight around so it was eerily empty. Then a series of announcements occurred:
"Due to bad weather in Frankfurt this flight will be delayed for 20 minutes until 10pm"...
"Due to continuing bad weather and since we have missed our slot this flight will be delayed until 11pm, please note that the last flight that can take off from Frankfurt is 11pm"...
At 21:30
"Boarding will go ahead as normal and start now but the flight is still delayed until 11pm"
So we got on the plane and sat there for an hour. We were the last place to take off from Frankfurt at 10:58. Close one.
Upon arriving in Dublin Conor called me as I walked through baggage collection and I just went straight through. Then had to spend a further 30 minutes farting around trying to get back in to collect my bag, which I did manage but I wasn't home until 1am.

Time and distance estimate until I download GPS.

Outer lap of the old city in Istanbul with Marcus pre-breakfast.
I was grand for the first while but the hill along the side of the old wall really took it out of me. Recovered again then until the flat bit along the coast into a headwind where I was pretty tired. A few cats about as per usual. An enjoyable run.

but I suffered big time afterwards. Really struggled through breakfast and then got super cold and had to go back to bed with all my clothes on under the blankets. I recovered before packing to leave.

Spent the morning walking around Istanbul again and visited some mosques. Very impressive. The Grand Bazaar was closed so we couldn't explore the inner small streets, so we looked around the outer ones. A lot of places were closed with the election. Then had a local pizza thingy before heading to the airport.

Warm up down the road the bus came in on. Legs feeling fairly tired.
Garmin is back to life!!?

Istanbul 5 day, stage 5, 6.0km 265m - Map

Ended up 6th on the day, 9 mins behind the Finnish guy (Juha something) and 5 on Marcus, so he won 3-2. Better than the first day orienteering wise but still a lot to work on. The real problem was the lack of leg strength on the hills and bad focus near the end. Positively though, mostly better judgement of slope height (use features!) and focus.

3rd overall and got on the podium with the two Marcus' (Pinker having won the overall on countback). Got a glass medal thingy which is ornamentally nice, but the sprint winners got a compass which would have been much nicer! We were later recognised in a restaurant by some passing orienteers I have never seen before.

Race:
90 degress bend out of the start lane to number 1 and I found it hard to get the right line. Did ok but hesitated a small bit into the control. Then missed no. 2 in the usual way, had little clue of my height on the slope and reached the re-entrant and went down.
Tidyied up then and was clean but had very little oomph in my legs on the flats, but especially on the hills. Went straight for 6 since around was too far but had to walk the big climb. My 3 minute man, the Finnish guy went past me here, but I had a better line than him to the control. Was pretty much with him until 7 but the single contour climb out of 7 killed me off. Good then as far as 11. Keeping my attention on the map and looking up well to see the features. Straight again to 12 but I needed to be more aggressive on the climb (surprise surprise). Control was easy.
For 14 I had no idea what the contours were doing and took an around route choice. Mistook the north line for a stream and created a fictional valley in my mind that I had to go around. It made the control easy though.
Clearly I was struggling to keep my concentration as 15 was more sillyness where I decided to go around when straight had maybe 2 contours more climb and then I was timid in what I did. For 16 I managed to drag myself up the hill but lost too much height on the way down and had to relocate. 17-finish was a matter of suffering around. My brain was frazzled and my legs shot.

A small cool down back past the finish.

Still no Garmin data >:|
This time I can see it on my watch though so I might be able to get it when I get home I hope. Jog up the steep hill to the start and a few bits of pottering and striding once up there. Feeling okay.

Istanbul 5 days, stage 3 - Map Map

Much better, in terms of result and big mistakes anyway! The legs were not in the best shape and all of the hills killed me. Already on the way to number 1 I was feeling it. Had quite a few misses early on, 2, 4, 5, 6, 10 & 11 but they were mostly small. 5 was the worst where I just didn't use my attackpoint and wandered around the forest looking for it, the others were small though. Afterwards I got my act together and was clean through the rough green/hashings part and avoided any time loss where others had quite a bit. Happy with this part.
Some big hills at the end were destroying my legs but I managed to hang on. with some pace. Not to first position though :( Was winning from 13 to 22 (of 23) with loads of fastest splits in the tricky slow orienteering part but lost 28 seconds on the last long flat running leg through the town and came 2nd by 3s. Would have been nice to have a 100% win rate orienteering in Asia!

Up to 3rd overall now, with the 2 Marcuses about 200 points ahead and 4th 200 points behind with tomorrow being the last day.

Went for a loosener since there is another race this evening!

Warm up from the hotel to the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul with Marcus. Did some random laps of tourist attractions then. Very warm evening out.

Istanbul 5 days, stage 3 Supersprint Grand Bazaar 2.58km - Map

This was really fun. The scale was 1:1500 so everything was came really quick. It was mostly indoors on super slippery marble floors.

At the start I put my headtorch at the low setting since the lights were on inside and started slowly to try and read the map. I had heard rumours of multilevel orienteering and green controls so wanted to check that out. Suddenly I was in a dark alley with pillars everywhere. 2 was the first upstairs control and the circle was green. Went up some steps where everyone else was going and found it. Couldn't for the life of me work out where the steps were on the map and was thinking I was just going to have to randomise. More cool controls followed. 3 was in an alley essentially the rooves. Miss on 4 and 5 was fine. For the longer legs like 6 I thought I could either plan ahead or just floor it. I mostly went for floor it as most legs were less then 200m.

The labyrinth from 7-12 was pretty easy I though, probably one of the easier parts of the course in some ways! I had some confusion around 15 with what was on the top and bottom floors and lost a few seconds. Hand't planned 17 and foolishly though I could go straight. Flew down a corridor leaping the litter at the intersections and suddenly realised I couldn't go straight, and I didn't know where I was. I went for heading east until I found a long street and that worked.

Got confused leaving 17, the brain was in oxygen debt by now, and was in the courtyard looking at some steps that I ultimately wanted to go up but convincing myself they weren't on the map. I got some good flow up near the end and was running hard on the last few long legs. 24 was hidden in a crevice and I hesitated just before it but got it ok then. Big sprint for the finish.

I really enjoyed this. Was 2nd 1:08 down when I finished. Probably lost that with hesitations though if you had run here before you could be much quicker.

Jog back to the hotel with Marcus.

Istanbul 5 days day 2 - Map

My Garmin is having a hissy fit and deleted my track from today :(
Much better race from me anyway. Had two big mistakes on 4 & 7, which came to about 4 minutes in total but from the on I was clean. At the time I was happy with my long leg routechoices (and boy were they long) but looking at some others after they could have been better. I was pretty strong on the hills for me and near the finish which was nice and managed 4th on the day and move into 4th overall. Still more work to do to improve.

Warm up along a nice pipeline path that was lovely and flat. Body temperature picked up nicely and I was feeling good before the start.

Cool down lap, via the results and the warm up path.

Warm up with Marcus, who was starting 3 minutes behind me. Was cold before I started but warmed up nicely fairly quickly.

Istanbul 5 days, day 1 - Middle in Kurtkemeri Forestanbul - Map

Not totally happy with today. The forest was nice, apart from a few brambly sections but it was mostly quite runnable. My orienteering was either really good or terrible, with more terrible. For tomorrow I just have to keep my focus and pay attention leaving controls and it should be much better. 8th today +6:59 on Marcus, who is first.

Started badly and it only got worse. Misread what was going on at the start kite and tried to take the left fork but ended up going don the hill instead of up. Started to contour around but I still had to climb anyway. Went via the black thing and lost 30s to Marcus.
2 was ok, took it pretty straight and it was good but I was a bit further right than I thought and came in on a slightly funny line.
As a result I left in totally the wrong direction for 3 and lost another 30s fixing it.
4 was better again and I got the fastest split. Just paid attention to what I was doing and moved well.
5 was terrible again though and dropped another 30s. Hit the path and thought I was at the junction (somehow) so went into the forest waaay too early and got stuck in the barbed wire plants.
6 I left the right way and got it perfectly. 2nd on the split
7 I thought about going right but reckoned you got stuck in the fence doing that so went left and did not execute it correctly. Got confused by some tracks and missed my junction so then ended up cutting straight through green not knowing where I was. Just ran on the compass as it looked like it should work out. It did but it was slower and I got the control ok. 1:30 dropped.
I left 7 the wrong way and got stuck in more thorny things and was too left. Corrected then.
So Marcus had basically caught me now. Went straight for 9 and he stayed lower. I looked down the hill as I ran through brambles to see him flying along an unmarked track. Control was grand then as I saw it from the opposite side of the valley.
The climb to 10 I found tough and Marcus passed me. I tried to hang on but couldn't. Navigated and got the control fine.
I left 10 the right way and used my compass. Fastest split to 11 and passed Marcus.
Again though, 180 degrees the wrong way out of 11. Fixed it quickly enough and got back on line for a nice spike. A surprising split win.
I felt the climb to 13 and Marcus dropped me. I made it worse by farting around going the wrong way. Went too far right. Got pulled by everything and found a control in a re-entrant that was not mine. Worked it out and over to the right one. 1:30 dropped.
14 I ran hard out of 13 along the track and across the road. I was concentrating on trying to run and didn't bother to look out for the track/re-entrant. Overran it and ended up seeing 15 before 14. Another 1:30 dropped.
15 was fine, I had seen it already.
Slow to 16, getting through the barbed wire brambles. Got stuck a few times and had to spin out. Saw a pack of wild dogs but they seemed friendly.
I was not paying full attention by this stage and missed 17 to the right. I was clearly to that side but it seemed to take me an age to correct.
Follow the gully to 18
Thinking about fastest split downhill to 19. Missed by 1s
Run in

Cool down jog with Marcus. Just went up the road a bit and back.

Event: Istanbul 5 days
 

Long day walking around Istanbul with Marcus. Hit up the far away sights including a tower, the square where the riots happened tomorrow, Asia (crossing on a boat, with a cheap sandwich), a maiden's tower, a car ferry and many mosques. Then hit up the Yeretan Sulemain? (Sunken palace) before dinner. Saw a total of 101 feral cats, and 4 domestic ones. Nice day out.

Up at 03:30, to airport.
All day travelling to Istanbul where I arrived at 17:40!
Small bit of walking around the old city with Marcus after dinner and then bed.