Training Log Archive: roar

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.

Event: Irish Orienteering Championships, Mahon Falls / Towers
 

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.

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.

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.

Long Course1 - Splits

Warm up to the start. Missed a bit of the start of the hill. Wasn't feeling the freshest, possibly left a bit too much behind on the sprint. Did a stride or two up by the start and was quickly breathing heavily.

IOC Middle - Coumshingaun -5th

Had seen Josh staying low to 1 but I read the map and climbed straight away. Had a double take on the scale before realising I could see the feature for 1 straight away.
Climbed a little out of 1 and hit the two big boulders with John Shiels on them. This made the control was easy as the feature was big from up there. This was the start of my time in the lead on the course.
Kept moving decently through 3-4-5 as I saw they were downhill and I wanted to make the most of my strengths while I could.
Turned up to 6 and the suffer started. Tried to plug away but had dropped into 2nd by the time I reached it.
The plan was to hold on as much as I could for the climb and try and claw it back later. Could see Josh ahead for 7-8, somehow had the fastest split to 9?? Finally caught Josh at 10 but was in a world of hurt to 11 and lost time to him. Took 3 seconds or som to recover and then pushed for 12. Fastest on 13 but there was atiny incline and I had a slight hesitation on 14. 15 was a fairly easy control but my line through the rocks wasn't great and I got pushed further right.
16 was my only mistake, coming slightly too low into the control and dropping ~10s to go back up to it. I didn't really know what was happening for 17 and I Was just trying to run hard but it was easy enough, then went straight through the gorse for 18.
19 was the end though. I had been working hard and then the slight bit of uphill had me going backwards. I had been ahead of Eoin at 18 but had so little to give I dropped off the pace. Wasn't particularly confident in my orienteering either and was a bit hesitant for 21.

Overall ... well I don't know. I guess I'm happy that I'm there or thereabouts but pretty annoyed to be so close and yet so far again. Some day I'll at least get a podium. Still some work to do.

Cool down with Eoin. Went up past the finished and met UCDO and then saw Conor and Shea flying down the hill. The rest of the jog was spent lamenting our luck to be in 4th and 5th place. Legs feeling heavier.

Course 1 - Splits

Event: Irish Orienteering Championships
 

Warm up before the sprint. Did a little bit of a jog with Colm and then some strides. Feeling pretty good before the start and ready to try a little to open out the legs.

IOC Sprint - WIT Campus - DSQ

At the start I was in two minds about taking it chilled or pushing hard. After about 4 controls I was feeling good and it was going well so I kept pushing on. Saw 8 was a 'which side' control and used the Yannick descriptions techinquie to check it out. Was unsure whether I could run down the earthbank to 10 but check it out on the way to 9. Saw a gap in the green hedge on my map and thought yes I can! (you couldn't, it was olive). Then Colm M came up it which verified it for me. Was very confused by how to actually get into 9 then. Was solid then for the next bit. Saw Darren who had started 2 mins after me when I was going to 17 and I reckoned I wasn't too far behind. Kept pushing as I thought a decent time might be on the cards. Few funny stairs controls nearly caught me out, then I crossed the olive twice more... Nearly went to 22 instead of 26 but caught it at the last second. Legs were tying up quite a bit for the last bit then.

Speed was actually ok ish and I was 13th before being being disqualified (after I told Andrew and there was a protest).

Cool down with a big group. Everyone was finished so back around the area. Had a little look at the controversial areas. Nice to have some chats and good post race banter.

Sprint Course 1 - Splits

Body was still wrecked so I took it easy again yesterday. Drank lots of water, ate lots of food (including some tasty ice cream) and played some games. Feeling a good bit better today and was actually able to spin the legs reasonably while cycling into work.

woo racing weight.

Phd interview thing today. Only a small thing I think.

Was very tired yesterday and decided to take the day off. So much for my streak of running every day, but I reckoned it wasn't necessary. Feeling better today, though I'd love more sleep still and I'll do an easy jog.

Still properly tired so went for a reeeally easy run. Just to move the legs. Lovely evening out and I was happy once I got started.