Training Log Archive: O-ing

Day 3, chasing start, M55. Okm. Won overall (but 13th on the day), in yet another Day 3 fadeout. This time the problem wasn't physical, but technical/mental. With a 22 minute lead on 2nd place I was conscious of just doing enough and that probably led to two major errors, which were quite distinct. #3 was a 7 minute error, or 40th place on the course for that leg. I just got into the wrong area and was unable to relocate - I was using the wrong lake in the distance. After that got over cautious, and dropped another 6 minutes on #8, mostly just standing still trying to fit the map - I was where I thought I was, but just couldn't make the map fit. Actually managed to increase my overall lead to 26 minutes as Andrew Cox had a shocker but just managed to hold on to 2nd, by 5 seconds from Anders Eriksson, with class winner on the day John McCullough just falling short of snatching a podium place. Great course to finish with topsy turvy results as most people were error prone today.

C • #3 2

Day 2, M55, 1st. Distance Okm. Good consistent run on another spectacular day on open mountain. Map was good and had no real problems, spotting many of the control features from a good distance away. Wasn't the fastest starting, W40 Cristina Smedberg and M55 Senan O'Boyle were ahead of me at 2: I was being careful along that slope. However they both imploded early - Cristina lost 6 minutes at #4 and Senan 25 minutes at 5 looking for his compass! Kept consistent, and had my first fastest split at #12. That was obviously a difficult control and actually my biggest mistake of the day, as I climbed 4 contours too many, and stood still for quite a bit before plucking up the courage to descend. Seeing Bubo go for it helped. A really nice downhill blast to #14, the last control was my second fastest split for the day for a 6 minute lead over the field on the day, or 7:20 on the next M55.

C • #12 1

Event: Shamrock O-Ringen 2011
 

Actual distance about 6km, 4 to the start, but walked most of it.

Sheeps Head. M55 Day 1. Good run, spotted nearly every feature I needed straight away. Won by a big margin.
Added Route Gadget. Was slow to #1, mostly by choosing to run in the marsh near the start. Keeping high (like Senan on Route Gadget) was much quicker - a minute at least. Went past it a bit, but had my eye on the control feature as I went past it, just wanted to check a bit further uphill first. Had the fastest splits on 3,5,7,9 and 10, so running well, and consistent on the others. No split lower than 5th - that was a minute lost on #9, which looks like a danger control - heaps of people lost time. It doesn't look difficult on the map - in the terrain you just had toi convince yourself to keep on going down that ridge.

C • Great race 5

Cobdubh with Cath, Colm. Heavy going.