Training Log Archive: Magic

Legs tired but not shattered, did a nice run through the Featherbeds to warm them up a bit.

IOC Relays; Glendoo Ridge – West. Great area for the event (much of the course visible from assembly), a run through near the end and good planning, though unfortunately (yet again) there were three separate courses rather than proper gaffeling (and for the fourth (?) year in a row the two front running teams ran the same combination throughout).

Ran third leg with Dooby and Bill. Dooby had a little disaster at start (lots of controls, people and deep heather) but worked well from then on to being us back four minutes down on Cork O 2 and CNOC. Bill made more inroads halving the deficit to two minutes, but my tired legs wouldn’t let me do more than half it again, but it was a big ask to catch ColmH and Boyzone who were battling out front anyways. The latter holding on for a surprise victory for our ‘second’ team.

Dropped 40 seconds on a short leg (big depression mapped as a small one) and lost 20 more on the following down hill leg, which meant I had no chance of catching the leaders, but overall I was happy to be able to run as fast as everyone else. Excellent weekend.

Nice warm down with Boyzone discussing the outcome of the race and the expected protests over eligibility. It turns out that the IOA rules state that you have to be living in Ireland in order to be eligible for the IOC relays, being a national doesn’t count! Thankfully the committee decided to use common sense and rather than disqualifying half the teams then ‘ignored’ the rule!

Relay 2 - Splits

The usual, but not too much of it due to the length of the run ahead.

IOC Classic; Mall Hill and Brockagh. I know I mapped this area but I’ve never run on it and haven’t even been on the area for 10 years. Much faster than I was expecting, super dry conditions helping, which was a bonus as the course was over 15km. Great to have a proper length classic for the first time in many years at the IOC though.

Due to a mix up at the start they set me off a minute late so I started out hard not wanting Colm H to catch me early in the course as he was now only starting 4 minutes after me (took the opportunity to check out #13 on the way to #3). Usual problem of grainy waterproof paper and printing at 1:15k lead to a lot of the erosion gullies and rocky areas (black) being near impossible to read, and lost time in several of these areas. Ended up running on my own the whole way, only seeing JonX also wandering around at #14 with me!

Lost far too much time throughout the course (5 minutes in total), so very annoyed with myself for that but very happy with the way I was running (and I’ll take the result). Not back to where I was yet but the signs are getting better, particularly over the last third of the course where it got steeper.

Results and Routegadget