Training Log Archive: niamh

Travelling home from WOC.

Curragh.

Strathspey Railway with Conor.

Failed attempt to get to Aviemore; Shea's car broke down. Darren extended his high performance duties to saving myself and Conor from the side of the A9 :-)

WOC relay, Darnaway. 21st/30 (Toni, me, Ciara - great teammates!)
Toni ran a great first leg to come back in 18th, just behind Ukraine, Austria and NZL and ahead of a large group of good runners. I hadn't been in the forest since training camp a few weeks ago, due to the niggly Achilles, which was horribly tight and sore warming up but was forgotten in the heat of battle. Hence my plan was to take it steady, get into the map and not worry about the other teams (lucky - since CatT flew by at #1!). This plan worked well for the first section, controls 1 to 6 (I love this type of terrain!). Then I caught NZL and became very, very hesitant. I was definitely distracted. I've thought about this a lot and I've put it down to lack of practice running with others. Banana to #7 and lost about 15sec to #8 as a result.

That pales in comparison to my next mistake though :-(. I saw the gunk between 8 and 9 and decided to go around. And if going around, why not go right around? Easy route, chance to re-focus after being distracted, easy entry to control. Also a chance to run very fast. I still think in retrospect that this was a good route choice, but my execution was horrendous. Didn't check direction when I hit the (wrong) track and suddenly, bang, minus 2:20.

I ran really well from here to the end and didn't lose any time. Ciara did a great job on last leg to bring the team home in 21st. This is surely one of the best Irish women's results ever... fantastic, but we know now that we are capable of more. Top 20 is definitely possible, but maybe top 16 in 2016 would be good target for the Irish women's team? It's definitely motivated me to put in a good winter of training and get back orienteering in the forest.

Results: http://www.woc2015.org/documents/Relay_results.htm...
GPS: http://www.tulospalvelu.fi/gps/2015wocRelayW2/

Tight L Achilles :-(. No running.

S6D, field, 7 hours, grrr!

Easy warm-up, part 1

WOC sprint relay, Nairn. 24th/31 team (me, Darren, Eoin, Roisin).
First leg. Learnt a valuable lesson running first leg in Italy last year - went out too hard and didn't read the map carefully enough to no.1. Took it much more conservatively this year at the start, which was definitely a better tactic, though ideally I'd do something in between and be mid-pack coming to #1.

It was a fun course to run and the extra fences made it more interesting. Lost silly 12 sec to 8 even though I'd seen the fence; just didn't count the roads properly. Ran the last section well and made my own route choices to hand over to Darren in front of a small group (much better than last year!). The rest of the team did really well and we finished 24th. A top 20 placing is realistic over the next few years if everyone improves by a minute :-)

GPS: http://www.tulospalvelu.fi/gps/2015wocSRelay1/
Results: http://www.woc2015.org/documents/Sprint_Relay_resu...
Achilles was really tight before and after so care needed between now and forest relay.

Event: WOC 2015 & Scottish 6 days
 

Warm-up, part 1

Warm-up, part 2

WOC sprint qualification, Forres West. 23rd/33. +31 sec to 15th; +42 sec to 11th.
Results: http://obasen.orientering.se/winsplits/online/en/d...
GPS: http://www.tulospalvelu.fi/gps/2015wocSprintQW1/
Gave it my best shot, and disappointed to fall short.
Post-race geeking shows that I was already ~30 sec down at no.5 on those who qualified in 13-15th. Too cautious at the start? Lost 10 sec at 2 without any mistake, so clearly not running fast enough.
The positive part is that I picked it up and did well from 6 to the finish, with a small hesitation at 11.
For comparison, % behind R.Holmes this year:
JK 113%; WOC selection Bannockburn 109%; GB test race (wasn't running hard) 114%; WOC qualification 104%. Good trend!

Nairn. WOC model. Out to dunes. Ouch, Achilles.

WOC model, dunes part. Checking out vegetation and contours.

WOC model. Town part.