Training Log Archive: Dooby

Scottish 6 Day, Day 6, Loch Ordie. The area was open mountain with a significant covering of heather, not my favourite. The start was over 100m above the finish which helped. Start intervals were 3 minutes and it was reverse order so slowest started first. I was happy with todays run, probably my cleanest of the week. I didn't find the orienteering that challenging, easier navigation than West Cork terrain. I did make a couple of small errors in the circle but not bothered by them. Was surprised with my time, happily surprised. I did pass a number of lads who started earlier than me and the lad who started 3 mins after me caught up with me at the last control but didn't pass me out. Overall I was happy with how the week went, areas were nice, and no injuries!

Scottish 6 Day, Day 5, Barry Buddon. This was a mainly open area, sand dunes with flat areas in between, grass covering, but some trees in places. I made a silly mistake at the 1st control, slightly wrong direction from my attack point but soon realised what was wrong, tricky start though. Next few controls went well and speed was good. Longish leg from 7-8, hit the ridge of dunes that the control should have been on but took me a while to figure out I was too far left. Did lose some time towards the end as a man running in front of me tried to take his own head off with a low branch, he was alright so kept going. Overall I was happy with my run, especially the time behind the winner in a fast area, and that it was my 5th run in 6 days.

Scottish 6 Day, Day 4, Tentsmuir. Flat forest with good path network with low forested sand dunes. Chasing start today but I didn't make that! 2 minute start interval for me. Legs felt very tired on the long 3.7km walk to the start so was concerned with how the race would go. Once I started the race I felt tired but ran a steady pace. Slightly off for the 1st control but building meant easy relocation, very little time lost. Next few controls were all short in a technical area. 7-8 was the very long leg, bringing us from the start to the part of the forest that other competitors from the other starts used. I was happy with the route I chose but not the execution. Got more and more tired as the leg went on, running on forest roads, came to a junction and turned into the forest, but not the right junction, a junction too early, figured it out quickly that i'd gone wrong, and went to the junction I wanted to turn at, headed towards a big hill where I thought the control was, no control, had gone too far. That was a silly mistake but I put it down to tiredness and a lack of concentration. The green areas with controls in them had low visibility so I was careful for those, slowed down. Happy enough with the run overall despite the mistake.

Scottish 6 Day, 5-a-side. We turned up for this evenings game not really sure what was happening. The fixture list said we were to play a semi-final against the german team. I had a couple of shots in the game but the german keeper was very good and his teammates could play, unlike my team! Game was scoreless though until the last kick of the game until Ivan managed to score an og!!!! Don't know how he did it but we lost. It was a good laugh to play anyway and I didn't injure myself.

Scottish 6 Day, Day 3, Tullochrisk. Forest at the start followed by an open area, then some forest at the end, also ferns today. Bit of a disaster getting to the event, traffic was bad. Changed in the car while stuck in traffic jam getting to parking. When car stopped I jumped and started my run of 2.5km to the start. Weather was poor too, wet and windy. Got to the pre-start during my minute, so was very close to being late. Started and was heading to my 1st control when I realised that I wasn't running that hard. Didn't bother me too much as today was the long day and my goal was to survive. I knew at that moment that I wouldn't be able to convince my body to push hard. I did enjoy the course though. The course didn't really have any very long legs. 15-16 was physically tough but no route choice, just had to get up the hill with the control on the other side. Did make some small mistakes but nothing of the scale of Days 1 or 2. Was happy running 10min k's.

Scottish 6 Day 5-a-side competition. Kieran had organised a team to enter this competition with the view to winning it! We had no idea what the format for the competition was but we played 2 matches this evening. The first match was easy, we won and I scored 4. The opposition was poor. Our next opponents spent the lead up drinking so that gave us confidence. Match wasn't so easy as we were losing 2-0 well into the second half. Ruairi scored a goal to make it 2-1 and then with the last kick of the game I managed to score an equalizer, was happy with that.

Scottish 6 Day, Day 2, Kinnoull Hill. Middle distance today which I was looking forward to. Started the race and chose my route to the 1st control. I was a bit hessitant at the start of the leg but then I realised I was where I wanted to be. It all went pear shaped at my attack point. That was a hill where I turned to head down to find the control. I didn't find the control. Visibility was low and I couldn't see the contours. Found myself at a road and relocated easily enough and went in to get the control but again no sign of it. Back out again and used the same fenced area to relocate. This time I veered into the forest that looked very green and suddenly the contours I was looking for appeared and so did the control. Probably lost at least 5 minutes, not good. Didn't really let it bother me too much for the rest of the race. I did make small mistakes at 12 and 14 but nothing where I lost too much time. Was happy with my legs but not with the mistakes I made.

Event: Scottish Six Days Tay 2009
 

Scottish 6 Day, Day 1, Dalrulzion, WRE. Not happy with this race. Area was a physical forest, lots of contours, few paths, with a small section of open area which wasn't that interesting. 1st orienteering event in a long time but I started with the amibition of scoring some WRE points. Started out ok, got into the map on the way to the 1st control, but did make a small mistake at the 2nd, not much time lost. Long leg from 15-16 after the open, I chose to follow the edge of the forest, easier orienteering. Next 2 controls went fine until 18-19. I reckon I lost close to 10 minutes on this leg!!! It really upset me and did throw me for the rest of the course as it took the wind out of my sails, ran out of steam due to fitness at the end and mistake didn't help with motivation. I had a plan for the leg, contour until the flat area with the drain. Started with the contouring and then came to a hill with a control on it, thought I knew where I was, but I wasn't making much sense of the veg changes. Headed off in the direction of the control up a hill which was white. No control so went back down the hill. Didn't really know where I was but there was a drain in the green looking area at the bottom of the hill, in fact I found a drain junction. Looking at the map I couldn't see any drain junctions in the general area that I knew I was in. I really didn't know what I was doing, and was not happy with myself for getting myself into this situation. Then another elite passed so I started following him and he went back up the hill where I was but slightly more to the right and there was the control. I was very close to the control but didn't really know it was there. I had done what I had planned but didn't realise it. Next few controls went fine but lost motivation at the end, with a very slow run in. If I hadn't lost that time at 19 I would have been very happy with the run. But after the race I didn't dwell on it too much, decided to focus on the rest of the week.