Training Log Archive: ColmM

Casual jog with the french oral notes.. got me' french mock oral tomorrow, exciting stuff!

Nice longish warm-up jog with Clodagh!

Borderline intensity 4 or 5 in the Phoenix.
Ran pretty hard though. Lost about a minute or so in total, maybe a little more, just stupid things. No.2 I turned in a little early and hit a small unmarked gully.. No.4 I missed the uncrossable fence and had to readjust. A couple of very dodgy control sites too, notably no.4, which didn't have a boulder and was too far along. Also no.8, which was just way further down, but neither were the kind of things which affected anything that much.

Routes

C • badly placed controls 2

East-Leinsters X-Country
Ran a good race. Ran just behind Ian from the club for a lot. He's a good runner, didn't expect to stay that close to him he's done around 9.45ish for 3k, and about 17.00ish for 5.. Anyway, started grand, nothing special, behind the banana suit man! and the lads in the luminous orange balaclavas! .. But quickly made a mends of that! Ran quite quick through the shorter lap without much climb. Probably in the mid 20's by the end of this. Tried to keep a solid pace and push a bit more at the start of the 1 long ones, and did so quite well, gained a little ground on the steep descent. But it was the ascent that proved vital! It's steep and tough (for X-Country).. and I shouldn't have been making it look easy, but in comparison to my surrounding racers I was galloping up, taking spots by the 2's and 3's. Started the last in probably about 18th-ish, 15 to qualify. It's a long lap and I didn't know my placing, but figured it wasn't enough. Quickly caught one dieing soldier, but the next few were tougher. I got to the descent and caught another struggler. But the guy in front had passed both of these too. I pushed hard along the flat and was on his shoulder by the start of the climb, and we had another just in front of us too. He looked for nice ground, I straightened and went. He pushed too, but when i did the 2nd time, he knew he didn't have it. I suddenly found myself on the other competitior's shoulder too nearing the top. I knew mentally I'd break him, if I ran away from him as we got up. So.. I did. Pushed and had about 5m as the ground levelled up. So I just pushed on, was never going to catch another.. but just ensured I didn't lose one either.
Finished 14th, happy out. Felt stronger than usual, and a decent pace with hills too. 15 qualified so I make the race in D.C.U. The 5th year in my school got 3rd :L.. I didn't expect to qualify at the start line or before I ran, so was very happy. I actually enjoyed more than I usually do enjoy X-Country.

C • location 2

Was goona go little longer, but thought better of it.

8x300m, with 60secs rest.
Relatively quick, nothing special, a certain dubiousness about the distance.
By myself cos' I can't make tomorrows one and shorter distances to stretch em' out a bit before the East Leinster's on Thursday. Have high hopes! :) Have to go for individual qualification cos' we won't have a solid team out.
Times: 49, 47, 47, 46, 46, 45, 46, 45.

C • XC Thursday 3

C • 2:30 Pace 4

Donadea. Decent run. I wasn't pushing too hard, but at the same time was running reasonably quickly. Happy, was navigating well and avoided many mistakes, not that it's the most technical area either. Had kind of planned on going straighter rather than around for most controls, both for a slightly tougher navigational challenge, and because I reckon you should have a general plan like this depending on the area for routechoices before a race, obviously not to the extent that they make you go the wrong way.
Little mistake on 5, a lot more undergrowth than mapped, looking rather like a veg. change too, but nothing huge. Not too much else, at least not that I can think of.
Now I've thought about it again.. a poor routechoice to the last, very poor. And a dodgy one to 21 too. As well as a bit of time lost on the dodgy path at 10 I think it was.
Splitsbrowser here.

Bit o' cycling, not much, body struggling to hack the general sesh today.

Another easy run out. Jogged to Jack's again, went up and back home a longer way so I could keep my run slightly longer without having to make him do too much. Good pace up, and quite quick back, dropped considerably while with Jack but, that's grand.

Over and back, only I was offered a lift on the way home from Jack who was driving back, after doing a jog, he came 18th at the all-irelands at the weekend! Sheeeut.. I thought I was catching up with him..

6x1km, 100secs rest.
Slightly better, but legs still aren't used to the picked up speed, and calfs go really tight running fast on paths.
Times: 338, 38, 40, 40, 38, 46
Very dissapointed with last one, yeah ran by myself but still.. should've kept it up.

Jogged up to Jack in my year's gaf. He wants to gain a bit o' fitness, cos' he's shit, and I wanted someone to run with. So grand, very slow, but acceptable. Except, it meant I was home at like 23.30.. :L

Nice course. Long. Just ran about, got tired towards the end, but still won our race across to 32! ;) Naw, have a lost a lot of general fitness and form in the legs.. hope it don't take too long to get back.

Would have done quickroute, but there was a problem and the running line at it's smallest, was huge!

Have been real tired lately.. and was again today, so took a rest. Unfortunately, as i can never get in a run on a friday.. it'll be 2 in a row.

Legs were wrecked, and calfs were annoyed with all this road stuff..
So less than planned and slower than usual but thats okay

6x1km, 2min rest.
The rest was longer than usual, distance and reps the same. Technically an easier session than usual. Physically - Death.
Haven't been in ages, and haven't been running on much roads at all recently. The hard ground annihilated me.Physically, very tough going. So, shockingly slow times and not all that consistent, but nothing wrong with that. Real good session. Just getting back really. Schools X-Country at the end of January are a bit of a goal.
Times: 344, 336, 339, 341, 341, 345

Interesting route choicing yesterday. If you look below you'll see my routes. Laurence's route to 8 was much better, yet a less noticeable route, although i had anticipated this. My route to 9 was just behind Jonathan's and ahead of Laurence's. To 12, Laurence and I were pretty much equal. To 14 though, both Laurence and Jonathan were miles ahead of me, the semi-open proving to be the difference. To 16, I was ahead of both comfortably, although both Jonathan and Laurence had mistakes, so I probably would have been similar to Laurence. After skipping 20 & 21, Laurence's route was expectedly far better to 22!

Easy Run. Was at Hamlet in UCD so struggled to get a whole pile done. Wanted the run, wanted the Maths more. Combined them for a nice run doing Integration and Complex Numbers equations mentally from a revision sheet. Fun stuff! Also found a nice 6.5km loop which has plenty of potential to be extended.

Good long-esque O' Course, bout 9.3km with the Quinns.. I like to think relatively good, but one never really judge there own course fairly. Lots of stops, analysing routes and the likes, but decent enough pace, good going, these are good for the general fitness and strength. Hopefully get a few of 'em in.
Will put up my opposing routes with my new scanner! :)

Dist: 8.22km
slowish cycle as i forgot my helmet and some of the roads down are still a tad icy. But got to chase the Quinns' car down, at a very slow pace that is.

Good to get a bit of this going again.

Whatever lies I've published here about starting back training after a rest and shit are coming to an end. It starts now*.









*now- tomorrow.

Running up an Alp! Didn't quite make it the whole way.. about 20mins of it, and then a jog down as it is bloody icy on those slopes.