Training Log Archive: Dooby

Dinner was good last night.

Stroll around Fota today before back to IOC preparations tomorrow.

Good night out in Limerick last night for Brian's 30th, he was surprised.

Now off to Ardmore for a Michelin star dinner.

Body is tired, not feeling it properly, but I know it is. Also need to catch up on some sleep. Didn't get as much sleep as I could have during the training days in Scotland, cards each night (Squad Game), won Tuesday night comfortably, and was so so close to winning Wednesday night too but Magic beat me on the last hand, why did I have to get dealt that 4 of hearts???

C • it's easy to win 1

Faskally

Put out 3 tags, not that easy due to windblown trees in the area which obscured the contour detail, hills/knolls I was trying to hang tape on.

Faskally
JEC Relay Course

Started after the mass start, didn't feel like racing, head not wanting it and especially not against a few Juniors who'd be out for my blood!

Generally took it handy and took safeish route choices when the opportunity arose, particularly around the hills. Marked 13 wrong on my map, so lost time as a result.

Garmin distance was 5.68 which reflects the longer route choices, but climb was 151m so saved myself 100m my running flatter for longer.

Collected 3 tags.

1 more session this afternoon and then I head home. So tired it's not even funny. Still plan on resting for the weekend. Legs feel very empty.

Kings Seat

Short course. I started after the juniors and collected the control tags. Had to wait at 3 for a couple of the Millar lads to find it, they'd made a bit of a mistake. So took a short break as I gave them a head start again. 5 was a bit rough, probably some extra green around there. Heard some crashing in the trees around 6 so investigated, was Magic and Senan, stopped for a bit before continuing on my way. 8 was steep, tricky descent on a steep bank, then back up again. 9 was a bit hard to find, some wind blow distracted me. Then the last 3 controls were in a beautiful piece of forest, a pleasure to run through.

Last session in Scotland over, a tough 3 days of training, mainly due to body been tired after the weekend.

Drummond Hill

Long walk up the hill to the start.

Training was supposed to be o intervals, but I just ran it as a course so i'm counting the starts on the map as controls apart from the one I didn't go to and the actual start, body still tired. Blood sugars low before I started but felt ok at the beginning of the course. The forest was really nice for the first part. Around the 6th control my body felt really bad, could barely move, not sure what was going on with it. Made it to 7 and since there were a few orienteers there I upped it a small bit, and once after 7 I felt better so continued running. The forest around 13-17 was pretty windblown so that made life difficult. Missed 13 anyways, so had to relocate off the wall, was too high for it.

Garmin distance = 7.07km, includes jog back from finish to start which was around 1.5km.

Drummond Hill

Shadowed a few juniors this afternoon as didn't want to run on my own, tired.

So we did 3 controls at a time, and I tried to shadow a different junior for each set. Forest had been thinned around 4-5 and it looked very open, with some veg changes now gone!

Had my phone with me and Ruth said she might text if she needed anything. I was shadowing James Millar downhill from 9-10 and my phone beeped in my pocket. Decided that now wasn't the time to stop so continued on to 10. Checked my phone and Ruth wanted 9 and 12 collected. Had to run back up the hill while I sent the Juniors on to 12.

The Hermitage

Put out 4 controls, 17-20. Turns out I put 19 in the wrong re-entrant. Funny thing is that this was the control that I was happy putting out, the rest of them I messed around checking.

The hill up from the car-park was a struggle, legs didn't want to move. Then when I hit the path above 20 it was like a bomb had struck the place, trees everywhere, windblown. So hoped the rest of the area was better, it was.

Once i'd the 4 out I jogged up to 8, where I met Hugh who was putting out this loop. He'd been out a while so decided I'd just tag along with him, and double check his controls as he put them out, make life easier. Forest was a bit rough due to brashings and some extraction. Massive boulder near 16 not mapped!

Then we came back the track with the plan of not getting the other 7 controls due to the amount of time on the watch, but to run on the track over to the Hermitage and see what that was like. But our plans were thwarted by lads felling trees. They even blocked our back-up plan. So ended up coming back the track about 20, the one we were trying to avoid.

Due to the felling/windblown area being the location for the afternoon session we had to go to a different area.

Dunalastair

Crew were running the first 8 controls from the M21E WRE. Both senior squad members along with junior squad stayed on for the training. So I went off first and put out 6, 7 and 8. Spent a bit of time at 6 when I got there checking the site. Did get to the site more comfortably than Saturday, knew where I was.

Jog back from the start to the car.

JK 2012 - Relays
Newtyle Hill

CorkO team with Niamh Corbett running 2nd and Danny O'Hare 3rd, so I did the 1st leg.

1st control was painful, just uphill, hurt a lot but good way to get the heart pumping. Thought the 2 loops from the common control at the crossing were straight forward enough. Then the long leg to 11. There were a few runners around at this stage, in front and behind me. Then downhill to 12 I got it ok. Conor and Anton were in a group here. I was the only one who had the lower gaffle at 13, which I missed. Misread the forest boundary so went too low. Then it was uphill to 14. On my own at this stage. The last few controls were grand, was joined by a lad from Nottingham. Did better than him between 19 and the last control so got to the change over before him.

Ultimately I lost around 1.30 at 13 and finished around 3 mins slower than Conor which I blame on running solo. Again not happy due to 1 small error costing me so much time. Was going to be in trouble with my gaffle at 14 too to the group but at least if I was there then i'd have had something to chase.

Garmin Distance = 6.16km, 287m climb