Training Log: roar

Bit of a running tester. Taking it v easy and going for a local jog. Lovely day and nice to get out. Felt alright, hopefully won't linger too long this cold.

Yup, a cold. Seems mostly to be just a runny nose, but feeling a bit run-down in general. Went to the office in the morning to get my new phone which was a bit of a trek. Did skip the hiking with Alpacas due to the cold too.

Throat definitely sore, not so fun. Back to Dublin which was a slight challenge without a phone but made it work. Gina somehow hero worked out which bus I'd be on and met me off it. The Wifi not working on the Aircoach was a right pain in that regard. Had a solid nap and afternoon in bed once home.

Some running up and down before the start. Trying not to be intimidated by the horrendous start chute.

Woke up with a sore throat this morning. Possibly related to having the window wide open all night right beside me as there were 4 of us in a hot room, though it sounds like I had a better time than the people far away from the window.

WOC Long test - Men 1 - 3rd Irish

This started hella steep for the first 4 controls and I was not there for it. Walking before the start kite... Definitely questioned my desire to do WOC Long at some times in that section. Everyone was in the same boat though and eventually I got to the long leg for 5. I hadn't read ahead at all and stopped near the control before talking the highish route. I wasn't moving quick on this path though at all, felt closer to Sunday long run pace and didn't have much oomph in the legs. It kind of slowly came back though, and by the big slog up to 5 I had a gel and had some legs when I got to the open. Saw Colm at this point who looked like he was flying in the downhill open, but the gap felt pretty close actually. Also saw Cillin heading the opposite direction with a similar gap. Had a little slip on 6, 30s but was good through this quite weird loop before another climb to 10. I didn't do anything wrong here, but slowest split on the course for this leg :(

Went for the steep downhill on 12, which probably wasn't the best. Felt like I noticed the shoes a bit on this leg with the agressive descent and the path may have been better. I found 13 a right struggle then through the very rocky bits but came alive after that. Joey Hadorn came passed then too and I got a little pull from that, but mostly just clean solo nav though in great flow the butterfly and I was enjoying myself greatly. Did hesistate another 30s perhaps on one return to the centre though. Again hadn't looked at 24 at all, but it seemed a high route was decent. In retrospect down might have been better. I then didn't execute it ideally, spending more time on the steep slope which was slower than dropping straight to the path. In a weird turn of events I was as fast as Colm up the track, but lost 20s in this last section since I wasn't sure where I was. 25->27 then was all good and I felt like we were there, but then came 28. It wasn't even that uphill but I wasn't going anywhere fast. I then missed the path option to 29 as a result. Though Martin Hubmann came past and it didn't feel like he was moving super quick and that I could maybe just about hang on which gave me some motivation, but the reality was he just wasn't going that fast. I then lost a minute to Paul up the hill to 30, his route on the track is better, but still that's just running speed.

Happy with the nav, although it was weird how little I felt like I read the map. I was essentially not planning ahead at all for the long legs even though there was loads of time running on tracks, but every time I was on a track, I was focused on trying to run up it. Some small stuff probably could find 4 minutes if I tried to beat Colm but the reality is that I'm just not at the fitness level for this kind of course.

Extremely token down the hill to the car.

Straight back to Zurich after the race to leave the car back. Took the car train which was novel! It was a glorious evening so headed to the river with Cillin, Paul & Shea for a float down it and a kebab which was perfect.

Nice casual morning checking out from Rocksresort and then driving over to Scuol. Took the scenic route over the pass and stopped for photos and lunch.

From Lavin for the Long Model. Had a nice team jog up to the start. I headed off first and waited at number 1 to take some pictures of people for the IOA as requested and then put my phone in my waist belt. Was tricky to get back into the 1:15,000 habit but had the magnifier and was loving it, taking it handy. Wore the Roclite's as the NViis are dead it seems. Then I had a slip going down a crag, and landed straight on my phone. Cracked the screen something fierce and it's dead which was a bit of a let down.

Warm up to the start. Long one today. Brought a change of shoes because a dob in my nviis is kind of coming up through the base which makes running on the road not so fun.

WOC Middle Selection II - Livelox

3rd Irish. Almost definitely enough for a WOC middle and relay spot. Much more runnable forest today in some ways but also steep. Had two kind of silly mistakes losing 2:30 which I didn't need when suffering on the hills as well.

First section as far as 4 I was happy with. Little hesitation on 1 but not much. Hadn't really got a plan for 5 but contouring seemed best and there was a proper elephant track the whole way so was tipping along. But then I crossed the big valley and somehow thought I was too low, which was wild, when I saw a green splodge, and then Reto Egger went up too confirming for me, but this was wrong and dropped a minute. Reset the head and 6 looked easy but possible to make a mistake. I never saw the ditch and was lower than I thought and didn't spend enough time checking where I was at the road so just kept going, binning another 1:30. Not great. 7 definitely easy and have me a chance to get back in the game. Suboptimal route to 8 taking extra climb and started to feel like I was low on power here and on 9. 10 was lovely though, and perfect orienteering from me. Daniel Hubmann train came past on the way to 13, which was chaos of pieces falling off the back. I didn't stay on very long but long enough in the dregs to get influenced on 14 and take the road with the steep climb which was not optimal for me and dropped a minute to Colm and Paul on the straight line. Was good on the 15->19 section really. Bit of a weird time on 15 when I found a two sided crag where there was a one sided crag on the map so was not confident going down into it. Was running well on the side slope actually which is nice and had an Israeli following me here too. The finish was too much though and the climb to 20 was hell, along with the steepest run-in you can imagine.

Need to order new shoes as the side slope running seems to have put them over the edge with the sole threatening to separate.

Back to the apartment with Laurence. Actually moving ok after a drink of water and a good sit.