Training Log Archive: ColmM

No better way to recover from a long distance I guess..
Shortish orienteering on Brockagh with Conor and Johan and then we decided to run up Tonlagee... oh my legs. Look around you. Death. Death everywhere.

Jog over to the start, chatting with James.

Euromeeting Long - 17.2km
A Scottish 17km it should be noted. Not some sort of Swedish 17km.
I started alright, got 1 well, 2 was a little sketchy but okay, 3 was fine just figuring out which hill it was on. And suddenly Roar pops in to punch just after me, having started 2mins ahead of me. Cool.
4 was going fine, planning ahead, nearly miss the junction a few times. But towards the end, while I knew exactly where I was, I found the hsape of the marsh in front of it a bit funny and thought I could have overshot. Turned back but hit the forest, realised and turned to see Roar going in to get it, damn.
Evidently a bad route to 5, staying left in the open, avoiding the marsh, meant Roar left me, even though I thought I saw him on the road behind me... and Hugh (+2mins) and Phillip Schiel (-1min) catch me. The next loop is fine, Hugh and I split from the Austrian crossing the marsh to 8, and I start to feel strong enough. Roar has left 8 as we go into it, so I pick it up a small bit ti catch him at 9. Take some water with me, and sit in behind the others to 10 as I look ahead a little. Out of 10 I decide to pick it up for the Long leg. It may be 17km, but we can't chill too much. We hit the open though and I realise how pointless this was, these marshes are about getting through, not picking up the pace...
Hit 11 fine with Hugh and Phillip, we've dropped Roar now. 12 goes nicely. I go over a little open to 13 but need to open up a little to make sure the others don't lose me on the path and we join up at the other side of the lake. I stick to the forested hill entering the control though and get slightly better runnability, so I'm alone for a moment. Hit the marsh to 14 and feeling quite strong again. This is a nice feeling. Why doesn't this happen more often?
There's Mikka Suoimenen (-3min) ahead of me. Dude, I just caught a Finnish guy. Waddafak. Nice one. Pick it up a little across the marsh to make sure I actually do catch him. And Hugh and Phillip come with. I pick some water up at 14 and carry it with me again. Sit in behind Mikka and some random dude as I try to fix my water-bottle, but I relocate near the control and see them making a small slip, but they correct, me too. He seriously picks it up on these short legs (I'm starting to think he doesn't like me), and I'm like wooot. But I keep on going and he drifts away. We finish the short ones and he's gone. I decide to go around to 19. But I'm disorientated and hit the wrong track. Puzzled, I'm thankful I've Hugh just behind me as he wigs what's happened. Up and over the hill, 1min lost. Re-join Phillip having dropped him after 14. Dang. But who cares, my legs are still having fun.
Up the top again and around the tracks to 20, chill the timed-out crossing point as I swap my descriptions around. Into the forest towards the spectator, navigating fine, and here comes the train. Me and Hugh, are passed by Yngve Skogsted and soon a stampede comes chasing him, about 40secs down. Swiss dude, Cristophe Prunshce (German), Jamie Stevenson (GBR), and OBT (France). Damn they look good, but no point trying to hang on. I accidentally navigate to 33 instead of 24, but I see 24 so it's all good. The train are drinking but they've left before I arrive. I grab water. It's just me and Hugh in behind again. Isia Basset joins us on the women's loop (same few controls). Now realise my legs are starting to chill as Isia does most of the work and I'm happy to navigate behind her. We split on the way to 27 as the men have a long loop. Slightly dreading this, I know it could kill me.
Here we go. Down the hill, and I still feel alright, we get to the forest and I'm doing alright still, oh no, what's happened Hugh, I've just dropped him. Crazy. Must keep powering on if I'm gonna take those 2mins back though. Shit, I'm tired actually now. Keep going. New Finnish guy passes me. Dayum he's moving well. Into 27, cool. up to 28, down to 29, miss here, that hill is weird brah. But 30 is where it hits. I feel the pain as I try to hang on to another Austrian and Finnish, let them go. Don't read map, just keep height, run, and read map when the hill bends. It'll work Colm. Run, walk, run, walk. Legs dying. No, so close. The hill bends. Hey, that's Jamie Stevenson again. "233?" "Yeah, somewhere here" "I've been looking for ages" "I think we're close but I'm too tired to read the map. Oh, there it is below us". Cooooll.
New train goes through. Damn that's Conor, and that's Kev. Well they've beaten me. I follow track to 31, and go around to the re-entrant to get to 32, totally runnable hill, but I walk anyway out of death. Make it through.
Get to the run-in. Just make it look like you're striding in Colm. You're not tired, I swear. Really you're not.
Oh thank god it's over.

Surprised I lasted that long, actually quite happy with my long distance fitness. It isn't there, but at least I lasted. Training time dudes. Seriously, I could do this shit maybe.

C • Isia ;) 3

Scottish 6 Day - Day 5 - M21E
Well, I started out intent on running the whole course but I didn't mind too much because of tomorrow's long distance, I was happy to chill, but at least the terrain was nice. Very nice actually.
I started pretty well on the first 3, small miss on 3, maybe 20secs. Halfway to 4 I spotted Cillín walking back so I went over to him and chatted for a bit, originally checking he was alright. Then Jonny ran by and I decided to shadow him wearing the gopro. Good fun for me, apparently not for him, but he was running alright, and generally hitting the controls well. I was following my map and after a while I decided I wanted to orienteer myself so I picked up the pace a small bit and did my own course. Then I waited a short bit for kev to come through and shadowed him over the last section.
Was a good fun day anyway.

Euromeeting Middle
Today I was in bad shape. Middle has always been my weakest discipline, and the step up to M21, and my fitness being poor right now made this a major buzzkill. I was just so weak over the later section, even early on I felt alright but I was slower. I do think the early start factor played a part in making tracks and allowing easier running, but it was overly significant. I was just unfit.
Lost time on 2, taking the low option but not knowing when to cut up. Lost some time on 3 on my route, choosing to avoid the undergrowth which actually ha d a beaten track through it. Some more time loss on the way to 11 was mostly it. I made a stupid mistake not reading my map in the rough semi-open. And spent ages correcting as I was beginning to tire. Probably lost about 2:30 - 3:00mins overall, but I was just not up for it physically really.
Winners did 30, and Conor was 38.

Woke up with the legs really stiff and tight so I got a morning jog in before the race later, and my legs felt a lot better. I could tell they needed it, and paid off a lot.

Sprint time

Euromeeting Sprint
Well, I've actually done more sprints this year than any other year, and more sprint training too I'm sure, but still I had my worst sprint race in a while now.
Running well, navigating well through all the houses, few small routechoice errors. I felt good though, and the pace was decent.
Coming out of the housing though I took the wrong routechoice (probably wouldn't be a huge loss), but from this side the paths were much clear and I wasn't taking enough time to be sure of where I was. So, the first control in the quarry I made a mess of. About 40secs of confusion. Then on the way back to 17 I took the route around the lake, and coming down to it I wasn't concentrating enough again and got sucked into an early control and took a further 15secs relocating, so I lost about a minute overall off what I should have been doing. 16:10. Which I would have been happy with. 2:10 down on Martin Hubmann, but I wasn't so. Was 5 seconds or so down on conor entering the quarry, but I was faster on the last few, so 16:10 is probably quite accurate.
My speed seems still to be alright given the major lack of work I've done on it. I'm happy enough with where my sprint shape was.

Ran around a bit of the M21E course for today, keeping it easy for the euromeeting sprint tomorrow. Messed around with the headcam, skipped some controls and felt grand.

Scottish 6-Days - Day 2 - M21E
Middle!
A nice trickyish looking area, and actually a well planned course on an area that could have been a lot worse. I ran quite well, small miss on 1, and 2. And then silly mistakes on 11 and 12 losing a bit over 2mins overall in mistakes.
I also started early which had it's disadvantages today as tracks develloped and the speed increased as the day went on. Kev did 36 which should be doable but I would have found tough today. Middle is my worst and needs work, as does my speed.
Winner just under 30.

string course cool down