Training Log Archive: ColmM

Lakeland Warrior Classic - Results

Not the finest start, I had seen Will head down the hill out of the triangle and as I struggled to get the map open I headed off this direction. I quickly realised this was a bad route, but I had forced myself into more climb on a steeper section. When I got up the plateau I over compensated heading too far right, and ended up coming down the wall and along the ride into the control. Not the end of the world, but probably 45sec lost. Steadied the ship and got 2 fine, contoured in, and was a tad low crossing the wall but all g. Stuck to the paths to 3, came in a little too far right but I saw the marsh, but only 15sec. Didn't climb as high as I'd planned on 4 getting a scrappy-ish line over the hill before the control but hit it nicely.

Hit the path to 5, didn't really make a clear enough plan and just headed down into the light green. Didn't hit the right clearing, and then guessed wrong trying to fix it, 90sec-2min lost and Paul unknowingly passed me. I didn't nail the line to 6 dropping a little and climbing back on the path near the control, slow entering but I nailed the control. I saw past Rhys coming in as I left so knew he'd probably caught 4mins. I was fine towards 7 and stayed ahead, found it easily enough. 8 was straightforward enough, though some minor doubts in the circle. I stayed a bit right through the semi-open to 9 which was unnecessary and Rhys passed me. I made an effort to get back on on 10 and he nailed it. Similarly to 11, I made sure to hang on and mostly just ticked off the big features and looked ahead a little. He nailed it so it was a decent split.

I had looked ahead a bit, so I cut straight down to the track to 12, went on toward the bend and straight lined it. I heard Rhys was just behind me as I came into it, having taken a straighter line out of 11. 13 was a scramble, but hit it fine. I contoured a bit on 14 which was a little rogue, I think straighter for the open would have been quicker. Paul ended up behind us as well here, I navigated fine but got a little stuck in some green and Rhys came through me at the end of the climb. 15 was alright, I was happy to stay a little lower than the other 2, but we converged entering the control and all had to climb in. To 16, I was behind Rhys and couldn't make sense of the path until he said we were on the lower one which cleared things up - never saw the high one though. I went a bit straighter than the others from near 9 and ended up ahead, actually didn't feel like the worst route in the end but maybe some time lost on the path issue. Rhys took over again heading to 17, all seemed to be going well, but I thought we were a field further than we were and ended up cutting left too early to try and hit the path route. Got stuck in some woeful dark green and knew the others were gone then. Still, I probably only lost 90sec or so in the green and hit the control nicely along my route in the end, so made sure to keep focus. Got a glimpse of Paul heading up toward 18 so kept myself spurred on. I saw him again on his way to 19 as I came into 18, which was probably unhelpful as I went for the same route (right, up to the higher ride), which I think was slower by a bit, but I at least nailed the control. Went left on the track route to 20 which was nice, came in and got it well and saw Rhys heading to 21, and Paul looking very low out of 20 as well, so I knew I'd gained back some time. A bit hesitant myself into 21 but got it fine, turns out I'd passed Paul again. Mostly seemed fine on 22 but I went right by it as it was quite tricky to spot in some green and when I turned around Paul and a junior had hit it. Oh well. And run-in.

Pretty scrappy race for the most part, especially early on. Quite a few mistakes. However, definitely some positives to take out of it, so overall I'm probably happier than not given how long it has been since I've orienteered. Physical shape seems pretty good in the terrain, and nice to know keeping up with Rhys and Paul was not a problem.
Wore the x-talons today due to blisters on my heel from the Orocs, grip wasn't as good, but not bad enough to be a real issue.

This was longer than expected, but I'll probably appreciate the details when I review the technical performance a bit more.

Shakeout from Áine’s

UK elite league middle - Results

I started at the same time as Paul which was exciting. My expectations were relatively low for my orienteering, but I still intended on going pretty hard and trying to keep the navigation in check / test myself.
So, pretty much ignored Paul successfully (we were going completely opposite directions), and hit number 1 reasonably well, with only some minor hesitation. Tried to keep the pace going to #2, ended up a bit banana-ing to the right, but not too bad. Took the ride along to 3, and mostly navigating reasonably well the next section and moving alright.
Had a small mistake on the short leg before the downhill, and then made a mistake on the downhill leg across the walls, just was a little left and had to go back up to the control. Mostly alright through the next loop but just some minor scrappy bits. A bit uncertain coming back to 11 before the 2nd loop and wound up a bit right but again saved it mostly. Think I saw Paul around here and reckoned I was ahead but mostly ignored it and focused on trying to be clean.
Start of loop 2 was fairly straightforward, I got a bit uncertain on 13 though, didn't really think I'd gone through the marsh but figured I must be low enough, I was just a bit right and had to come across. Fairly clean through the next section as well, picking features reasonably well. Happy enough coming up into the tricky light green section at the top, some hesitation on the way into 19, but got it well enough. Clean and confident on 20. Under-read the map a bit as I hadn't committed to straight vs. around for 20, in the end I went straight but didn't nail the exit out of 19 for it, ran alright through the forest on a bearing and didn't take too much in. Slowly picked up more features after crossing the track and figured myself out, was a bit left, but alright. Hard to decide if that was time lost or not as if it was, some of it was probably gained back in running quickly down through the forest.
Anyway, got the last 2 cleanly into the finish.

Mixed race. Think I was pretty happy in the finish, but in hindsight it looks like it adds up to quite a lot of 5-10sec issues. Probably about what should be expected off no orienteering, but confidence in the circle and a bit more detailed accuracy could definitely be worth a lot.
Overall I would say a fairly solid return to map-reading. Work needs to be done, but lots of time. Feeling relatively strong out there as well. Roughly 4'30 back on the front pack, and with a strong field that seems solid enough given I think there's plenty of room for more.
Lovely map and thoroughly enjoyed being out there racing.

UK elite league nighto - Results

Didn't have the ideal setup before this, had borrowed head-torches from Ali Masson (muchos gracias), brought 2 to the start as I couldn't get either to fit my head perfectly. They then told me a spare one was required, so I was glad I'd brought a 2nd, but they were both a bit big and neither fit in my pocket (annoyingly I had a more appropriate spare in the car).

Anyway, got going with one shoved halfway down my tights and on we went. Scrappy #1 as I came quite wide but not too bad. Clean through the next section and really nailing some controls which had me feeling confident. Came through a few torches and thought I had close sight of Will (2mins), but a mistake into 7 opened the gap up again. Got the next few alright and set off on a fairly straight line to 10, following the path as much as possible early on. I lost contact between the indistinct path and the main track somewhere, but figured out roughly where I was at the track and climbed up into 10 alright which saved what could have been a poor time loss (also think I passed Will here). I wasn't flying through the forest but I was moving alright and feeling very confident with the map so loving it out there, and was pretty solid for the next section (though looks like I lost time on the ride routechoice to 13). Trying to run in strongly I missed 14 by a small bit and ended up losing a minute or so which was m worst mistake. But got the last 2 alright.

Pretty happy with that really. Return to orienteering, and night orienteering. The winning times from GG and AT were impressive, they must be moving so fluidly through the forest. Especially AT has surely been robbed of some real opportunities by covid & the IOF with no final JWOC. Oh well.
A little further down the results than I might have hoped but it sounded like quite a few people got pretty decent pulls so here we are. Decent technical performance with work to do, always the main things.

Easy farm loop with the housemates. Lovely as always, appreciated the single, nice to go at lunch. Legs feeling pretty good.

Easy morning loop with Lucy, and James for part. Lucy and I got viciously attacked by a dog because my bright orange top gave off muleta vibes.

Port meadow loop. Has the potential to be nice but I tripped on a root and went deep into some mud which wasn't the most pleasant. Also on the return part of the loop the trail fizzled into the ever-growing lake and I ran through some marshiness. Deserves re-exploring o nail down the right trail but I will probably save it till day.

Morning loop a little later after a late enough night. Feeling pretty good.

5 x cyclist dismount hill reps.
Another nice evening for a solid session. Feeling pretty good. Started a little easier than intended and built into it. Feared I may have started to overcook it after the 3rd, but came good and was still able to improve them. Close to the sub-3 in the end.
Times: 3'27, 3'16, 3'11, 3'09, 3'01.

Easy farm loop to wake up the legs. Not the nicest morning but alright. The exit out of the last field has been closed over with barbed wire, not the trickiest hop, but if it stays like that I may have to move the loop back to the road section there which would be a bit of a shame.
3-day midterm now.

An extended morning loop in the afternoon.

Morning loop with James and Lucy. Really nice morning making an argument for GMT over BST but I'm still very far from convinced.
Still, good chat, enjoyed it a lot, and the legs feeling good. Some motivational nonsense getting chatted, good fun.

Squeezed in some time with Tim before lectures, restarting at day 1. Been too long, and felt good.

Golf loop solo with 6 hill sprints near the end. Didn't bring a torch and it was fine, but not ideal. Missing BST already.

ankle exercises, wobble board, calf raises.