Training Log Archive: ColmM

Event: Dublin By Night, Djouce Woods
 

Shakeout.
Weight is a little cheating today as I didn’t get to weigh myself till after shakeout, still positive.

Rushing in the wrong direction to find the start

Howth Winter IMRA - 2nd

Weird one cos we started at almost the top. Quick little loop to hit the mast, had fallen back to 7th-8th, but went fairly hard on the early short descent, and gained back a good bit, then put a little sprint past some guys on a slight uphill starting the loops, as I didn’t want to be behind starting a tight descent.

Made my way back to near the front, and when we hit the summit above the golf course I was not far back on 3rd, granted the leaders had done a little messing on the route.
Sat in behind early on the descent, but was being frustrated by the single track forest so when the chance came I went by hard. Opened up a decent gap, but definitely cooked myself a bit cos I was struggling on the flat, and had been caught up just as we started climbing again. Dropped and dropped, but still hit the top 5th, so not the worst.
Onto the loops, up the steep bit, will have lost a little, but still going aight, then as I turned back to loop again, I saw Ruairi and Luke coming back against me. “Oops, we gone wrong I thought”, turned around and let them catch me. Was working it out, and 3rd seemed to have gone walkabouts and now has no idea where 4th was either, so us 3 were the front. Nice.

Came down the descent about to start the last big lap, and Ruairi turns to me “you have another lap colm”, and the two of them start sprinting towards the finish. This confused the hell outta me. Turns out they did a mini lap extra thinking it was the final one. How silly.
So we all departed on the last lap together with them probably a little demotivated. Stayed in front till the climb, and then Ruairi went by, somehow stayed got back in front of Luke again on the sharpest Bit of climb, but passed by Conroy.

Out to the final stretch of single track, but trapped in crowds, not ideal.
Escaped it on some trail, and got ahead of Conroy, got confused again not sure whether to just head straight to the finish or hit the mast once more.
Stopped for a moment, but suddenly Brian flannelly, and Luke, and Conroy all right behind me. Went into full sprint to the mast to stay ahead at the final single track descent and just managed. Making for an easyish last 200 sprint finish to claim 2nd.

Probably shoulda been 4th-5th, big madness ensued and at least I studied the route a bit. Helped a lot.

Nice little navigation test. Took it easy enough, but wanted to be clean, and kept moving. Not much flow, and a bit hesitant so work to be done.
Also missed the open path on 11 which cost me a minute. Other than that, no major time losses.
Thoroughly enjoyed it. Love a good night-o in nice forest.
Good running from the other 2 to be ahead, and with more mistakes than I made, so clearly running a good bit quicker.

Rusty, but this will do good.

long - Splits

Got a half day for some worked up time so wanted to make the most of it.
Got out to the hills nicely, some snow-topped djouce. But I left my old CR, or Mark’s current one, it can rest a while longer.

Nice one round Enda’s with Jack McL again, another good catchup remembering the many random mutual friends.

Pleasant run out the coast with Corbett, was entirely misled though when told the run would be visiting Bull island, sadly not.
Hips a little stiff on the way back, and foot feeling a little sore with all the road, not big issues, just meant I was dragging the legs a little.
Also lots of chafing going on which was by far the most unpleasant.
Still, the route & run were very pleasant.

6 x 1k at rathfarnham
Quiet out, not too many down, ran with one fella for the first few, but had to solo the last couple.
Overall it was a little windier, a bit lonelier, a bit more work, and a bit slower times. I've never been one to worry too much about my times or paces in training, so don't see much point in starting now.
3'23 - 3'34.
Happy to get the efforts in.

was up early for a release, so figured may as well make the most of it.

Glad I got this morning done, because I expected to have all evening, but ended up rushing to try and squeeze this between activities.
More grass in Bushy.

IMRA Hellfire - 8th
Took her steady up first climb, people were going by which was worrying, but they started to slow and we had a few walking all of a sudden, so I figured I’d made the right call.
Opened up on the faster section to take a few places, but got a little stuck when we turned left onto the slightly technical stuff.
Anyway, made time on most around me on the 2nd climb which was pleasant, worked into it, and then back to the fast stuff, got around a few and gained a good few.
Started the final climb in a group of 3 and they both went early and tried to run it hard. After a while they settled back a little and I came back to summit just in front.
Short technical bit then all fire-road, and was always fairly comfy along this though the lads were close.

Overall fairly happy, feels like better climbing than in the past, but hard to guage, and race really didn’t seem to take a lot out of me, so getting back nicely it seems as recovery is quick.