Training Log Archive: roar

Watched the mass start and saw Shea royally screwing up the first control. Immediately knew I had to get out of there to not get the big nerves so started my warm up a bit early but got it out of my head. Limbered up nicely and wasn't feeling too tired from the long. Towards the end then I stayed near the spectator and watched the teams come through silently praying everyone else had made a mistake somewhere to let Shea back but no luck. Then into the pen.

IOC relay

Shea came back just behind Josh. Colm H had come back a small bit ahead so I had a few targets. Started fairly hard wanting to catch Zac. We had the same gaffle to 1 but I got it slightly nicer and got ahead already. Could see Hugh ahead then heading to 2 and focused on hunting him down. He hesitated before the control and I saw Regina leaving the re-entrant I knew it would be in. Punched and continued hard down the path. Zac had a different gaffle and got lead astray by Hugh so was gone but I didn't look back.
Passed Gina and used the depression lines to try to reduce climb. Heavy enough climb up to 3 and I knew I was going to be paying on that last loop. Was very slightly high but no problem. Still slow up to 4 but got it well.
At the high point, surveyed what I could see in front of me. No one behind, Elsa from the mixed Swedish team just in front and in the distance a possible CorkO top? Took a slightly left route for 5 and the tree on the hill made it easy.
Was suffering with the lactic here and had a tough time running away from Elsa but opened the gap slowly. 6 was grand, use the big depression and then over to 7. Got a little distracted by Gina who was in the middle of a mistake and climbed a but more than necessary out of 6 but that meant I saw Bill E coming out of 7 on his route choice, though I was still a good bit behind. Little unsure of my lne but ran it confidently and I was fine.
Took the same route as Bill but was struggling now. Caught and passed Victoria S who was also on an open premier team and spike on 8.
Spectator control was high up and I could see Bill as I was running towards it. Body was in a bad place though and I struggled to get much out of it. Last loop was a real suffer fest and I lost a few seconds on 13 going around the back as my brain just wasn't up for reading the map.
Tried to get some leg turnover down the hill and the run-in but not much forthcoming. Up from to 7th to 3rd but still quite a gap to 1 & 2.

Kev had a stormer of a run to close the gap to CorkO and UCD but he had too much to do so we finished 3rd. Great to be in a solid competitive relay with <2 mins from 1st to 3rd. Would be nice to be at the other end of the podium though!

Kind of cooling down but mostly spectating and chatting.

Relay Open Premier-AEG - Splits

IOC Long - M21E - Routegadget



Long day at the office. Started well, tried to pace it but somehow had a top class split up to 4. Couldn't quite hold it for the whole race and Marcus only got ahead of me in results terms on 17. Miss for me on 22 didn't help. Bit reminiscent of my 4th in 2015 really.

Long Course 1 - Splits

Event: Irish Orienteering Championships
 

Got off the organised bus 10 mins before my start. Straight to the tent dumped my kit and headed to the start where I managed to convince the organisers, Josh & Colm H to all start 10 mins late. Cillin and Marcus had been on the same bus and were also fine with it. That meant I had enough time to warm up so did that. Felt good, but took a little time to reset the brain properly. Got to the right place though after a bit though.

IOC middle - 8th Irish (incl 20s) - Routegadget



Started well, ground was soft do knew immediately or would be a grind. 1 was easy, climbed ok to 2 though came slightly above it, maybe 10s. Then the course was easy for a while.
Tried to dig deep down the hill and was working hard, though didn't feel like I was moving all that much. Knew that everyone would be in the same boat so it was ok.
7 was the next thinking I really had to do, but I saw the pass with the crags and then or was easy. Still fighting for 8 & 9 then.
Saw Colm & Josh ahead of me too 10. Tried my damnedest but was still reduced to a walk.
11 I had to read the map, seemed lower than I anticipated and I came around it a little.
More suffer climb in bog to 12 and I was Fighting pretty hard mentally. Reached the limit on 13 and just ran past it, looking for a hill that didn't exist because of the new map symbol no one told us about. Dropped 47s according to splits browser but it was less than that really.
Then back to trivial orienteering. See 14 once up the hill out of 13. 15 was climb to the very top. Follow the power lines to 16 (though it was confusing as hell with the turf cutting symbol). 17 was seen from the road and then last control. No speed on the legs to finish.

Disappointed with the result but I really tried hard and left what I could put there, so also satisfied I did my best. Kinda weird mix... Course was way too easy and some of the blame for that probably lies with me being technical standards director but not sure what I could have done about it. The M10 course was waaaaaaay too hard do some work to do somewhere. Anyway, reset the system and recover food the long now.

Cool down. A bit with Colm M but mostly headed up the road with Marcus. Not much power left in the legs, they'll need some rest before tomorrow.

Middle 1 - Splits

Warm up, easing out the legs after driving to Sligo. Few drills and strides and felt ready for a nice little cruise.

IOC sprint - 13th - map

Cruised around as per the plan. Not the most interesting course but really nice to get a little hit out. As per usual HR didn't pair just for the race. Few oddities, notably #3 which was on one side of the uncrossable fence but was actually "in" the fence with no clarity from the descriptions. Drew with Marcus so obviously perfect pacing.

Cool down with Marcus and Paul. Jogged up the road and found a speed sensor. Paul hit 32kph on the downhill.

Sprint Course 1 - Splits

Easy over to Stabby. For like the 4th time I've decided to go to Stabby a train came and the level crossing closed. Today I wanted to go enough that I did an extra loop and got there just as it opened. Sun shining and did a lap of the elljusspår. Very nice and legs feeling good as I woke up. Finished with 4 strides and I'm pretty ready for a few races this weekend. Looking forward to it.

Recovering from an all nighter takes longer than it used to when I was young.

Easy one out to Gränby. Nice enough evening and included 8x 1min pick ups with 1 mins rest, mostly concentrating on form and feeling like I had a nice flow running. Still feel a little low on sleep but the legs were great. Saw a hare.

Tired today