Training Log Archive: ColmM

is anyone able to make winsplits? I really want to see the last week in winsplits- especially cos the splitsbrowser is messed up

oh found something along those lines- http://live.woc2010.com/woct/online/day4/htmlfiler...

Happy to have finished 1st of the Irish, could've been a good bit better but i had some good runs. 23rd overall is a solid enough result.. and probably ensured myself a JHI selection so..

easy jog with Roar to the start.. legs feeling good but pace very easy so..

Started with a french lad 9secs behind me, ignored him and ran on. We both spiked no.1 and 2 at a slow pace on the climb.. To 3, i cut my hand and stupidly let him get away, was annoyed at myself and only walked the climb to 3. For 4, i decided my legs were going to struggle today and just avoided the hill by hitting the path and marsh. On the long leg to 5, i was once again slow but happy with route-choice and good spike. To 6 okay, 7 very bad line out, concentrating on 2 other guys stupidly but also messed up the control very badly in the circle losing approx. 3 or 4mins. Once again annoyed, i didnt read map and lost about 3mins on the short no.8.

At 8, i saw the most epic orienteering ever! About 30 M14's were tanking it *THIS IS NOT AN EXAGGERATION* every single one of them spiked the control and they were punching at ultra-speed with only one punch at the control before legging it the same way as me down to the marsh. But while i was slow with my hand and being cautious of it they were jumping of 2m crags and doing army rolls out of it before getting up to tank it again! They were reading the map while in mid air and some were doing 360's and stuff.. I honestly wanted to just quit my course and join them.. it looked like more fun then i could ever possibly imagine. <- This is why i Orienteer! :D

Anyways, back to no. 9 :P.. i ran across the marsh, a train of about 4 m18's had caught me, and we struggled acroos the only tough marsh i saw this week. I actually sank down to my hips at one point and was stuck for about 20secs as others ran by. Contoured around hill and spike. To 10, through houses and to the control which a lot of people seemed to converge on. Down to 11, grand. I took the lower route-choice to 12, I was happy with the route but was slow and took a lot of drinks.. Marcus seemed to prefer the higher route- it is a toughie though and i am unsure.. I knew i had to run hard to 13 to gain places as it was the last control that you could really catch much on, so i pushed and navigated well in with an uber-spike at the end.. passing 2 other 18's.. i kept this and navigated well to the last few before passing another pair on the way to the last and on the run-in. I was happy with this as it meant on the last day i only dropped 2 places, which could've been a lot worse.
I lost approx. 6 or 7mins out there and wasn't happy plus i felt very sluggish.. and just watched some 18's go past me. I think if this race had come a day or 2 earlier I might have been able to do sub-60 pretty comfortably.. This would have been very good as the winner did 54 but i think he must have had mistakes as he did 55 for 800m longer the 1st day in more physical terrain with more .. Still it will do
Also finished 2secs behind Conor and 1min behind Cillin.. but this didn't bother me..

Middle Distance
Started well again, down to path in off river and spike. Happy with route to 2 going around hill to small path and running fast up to marsh, climbed up seemed to hit a small stream and saw one just to right of control so turned in to the left. Hit path- maybe stream was to small to be mapped? anyway calmly changed direction and spiked the knoll- 40secs lost. Down to marsh to 3, had planned to climb up re-entrant on small track and into control but was pulled over by the appealing open and spiked so still good. Out to track to 4, only real option, ran okay but was cautious so as not to miss turn off and then slow enough on the short climb but spiked. A couple of short and speedy controls in a row now from 5 to 8.. missed 5 (bad direction) maybe 30secs, hit 6 well, using small hill to check direction. Aimed off to left to ensure i spiked 7 and aimed off slightly by going over the small hill to do the same for 8. For 9 i chose the path around as my route for our longest leg- to be honest it was the main route to be chosen. I made sure to push hard as I knew it was an easy control and the good guys would run very fast here, but I was suffering. I slowed a bit on the final ascent to the control but hit it well. I was 6.15 for this leg and winner was 5.07, I think that is respectable enough but sums up what work must be done. I ran slightly over 1.5km for this leg so... happy with pace.
On to 10, i hit marsh and path turned at building all quite easy but took wrong exit from building like most of the irish, crossed marsh before re-locating and hitting well. For 11, changed plan to contour around rather than climb up and over, I think this was better option. Straight down for 13 slowed up by a few slower girls hogging the single tracks :P.. but an easy last few..

Happy with race again, not particularly technical, but a lot of the irish made bigger mistakes so happy to have only lost between 90secs-2mins. Running well too, lost to Cillin by about 5secs which is annoying but he had a cleaner race than me and deserved to be ahead.

Sprint-O
Started well, kept concentration and planned a little ahead at the start. Spiking my first 5 controls and keeping a close eye to the small details. 6 was a long leg and i think i took the better route, climbing early and taking the lower forest paths into the control. Lost maybe 15secs here by climbing through a bit of the forest early when the path actually linked to my road later on. 7 & 8 were short and snappy, keep it steady and make sure not to make a mistake on the longish no.9, kept it good and spiked all these.. 10 & 11 went back to the fairly easy urban areas, okay through here. 12 had our toughest climb back into the park, a relatively easy control though but i still nearly missed the turn off costing me maybe 5secs, Out again and nearly missed my hill again on 13 costing me 5secs or so.. I slowed slightly here to ensure I didn't do this again and got 14 okay before the two shortish 15 & 16 ones. They went well, and upon looking at route-choices to 17, i immediately chose to go around (unlike the rest of the irish), saving climb and knowing I could run fast on the easy-navigational path. I stupidly didn't plan ahead though and was a little unsure leaving the spectator at 18. I took the wrong route and was a little slow deciding, probably lost 20secs here, but executed the route quite well. It was obvious to me that i was tiring and i slowed a lot for the last few before a solid run-in.
Very happy with run, ran hard for most of the course and lost realistically about 30secs but i son't mind these losses so much. I was just under 3mins behind the leader which is a lot but he won by 45secs so I will take it. If i had run like this at eyoc things would have been much better

An interesting start order with Me, then Cillin 1min behind, Conor 2min behind him and Laurence 3min behind him!
Anyways, concentrating on spiking no.1, i did so.. quite well but Cillin having focussed on catching me could see me for most of the leg and caught me on a mistake to 2. I was unsure of my position but had Cillin come in and hit it cleanly. On leaving 3, he lead i watched to see what he did, and he navigated well as i closed the gap. But to 4, we ran a similar direction and upon hitting the marsh I turned left beside the lake towards the direction of the control while Cillin turned right in the other direction! His 180 cost him dearly.. I continued to run my leg, i was poor in the lead up to the control and lost 2/3mins having got to the area quite well. Conor caught up (I was convinced Cillin had left us not knowing about his 180). We navigated with slightly different routes for a few controls (Conors tending to keep him ahead). We were then caught by a Norwegian who ran well and we were both a little behind him with me slightly ahead of Conor and the Norwegian doing the majority of the navigation. I lost concentration for 11, Conor spiked it and the Norwegian messed up too, but they both left me here. I messed up 12 and 13 even worse before finishing well enough.
Lost about 8/9mins today. Not a good run at all but my running speed was okay and therefore the time could have been a lot worse.. Still not happy

Event: WOC Tour 2010
 

Very dissapointing start to the week.. I never really got into the map and orienteered badly all day. Losing contact with the map on the way to 3 in a reasonably vague area cost me at least 5mins. I never really got any proper good orienteering after this.. I was happy with some very good spikes. Most notably no.7 which in yet another featureless area I was happy to pick off a very small re-entrant and then knoll to turn just left into the control. Some good signs, but after some more bad controls i lost heart and that was that.