Training Log Archive: Dooby

Not going to be a typical week but that's due to work & training camp.

Monday - Orieteering (Maynooth, thanks Lorrieq)
Tuesday - Rest
Wednesday - Turbo Trainer
Thursday - Rest (travelling to Bergen)
Friday - Orienteering
Saturday - Orienteering
Sunday - Orienteering

Definitely will need the day off running on Wednesday, give the legs a break before they hit the streets of Bergen.

Get to go training in the daylight on a weekday, that's a luxury I haven't had in a while.

Short jog to the start of training.

Bit of pain in right foot. Both from the sore spot on top caused by the shoe and also generally in the big toe area. Felt fine walking around in shoes earlier.

Maynooth - North Campus

Training course courtesy of lorrieq, thank you.

Not bothering with HR data, it's wrong.

Will do a QR if I get a chance.

Short leg to 1 which was good as didn't allow time to plan a long leg to 2. Went a direct enough route.

Got a bit distracted running towards 5 and ended up adding a few extra metres that I shouldn't have.

6 was an interesting control due to its placement. Went left of the OOB. Other option to the right was probably not much better, hard to know. Right to 7.

9-10 was the next leg to get me thinking of the route. Went left. Difficult again to know which was the shorter option. After 11 there were a few short legs which were easy enough.

I did lost time at 16 though. Not necessarily my fault though. Control was in the corner of an open area between 2 buildings but that open area no longer exists. The building has been extended to fill the gap. Did turn the corner expecting to find the gap but kept running when I didn't see it, so came back after turning around at the path beyond. Lorrieq did warn me that it wasn't the final version of the map that he did the course for me on.

Then just run to the finish without having a collision with a bike.

Easy jog across the road to the South Campus to the start of 2nd course.

Maynooth - South Campus

This area I was looking forward to. And it didn't dissapoint, certainly has potential for a good race I feel.

Decided not to run all the way into 2 as I didn't want to interrupt the woman inside the library building who was working/studying there.

Left was the only option to 3. Then 4 didn't go so well. Decided to go right but that was the wrong option due to extra distance to get around the fence and then the gap to the north of 6 in the wall was closed. So bad decision here. Also don't know if I found the feature for 4, struggled to relate the map to the ground. Think I got it though but definitely lost time.

5 and 6 were grand and then back around to 7. Went left to 8 but there was a right option. Again difficult to know the better route, better flow leaving for 9 coming from my direction.

2 options to 11, I went right. This proved to be the better option on the day but might not have been the shortest route. Reason it was better was that the left option was blocked off. Some work going on. As a result had to turn right and go around the building leaving 11 for 12. Otherwise there was a few options to 13, blockage left 1.

Again another option to go to 14. Decided on the left one. Was cutting across the grass (yellow). And a man who looked to be some sort of staff member signalled me, he told me not to run on the grass. So went to 14 and then ran by 15 since i'd have had to run on the grass for that control too. Also 16 was blocked off for work too, some sort of memorial.

Good planning of both courses. Nice to get some spring training in ahead of Bergen.

Ran back across to the North Campus and went around the eastern road running on the grass. Then did a couple of laps of the pitches where the finish was for IOC Sprint. I noticed that the GAA pitch has definitely got priority, nice fence keeping the plebes out, yet the rugby and soccer pitch where I was running is open to everyone!

1 dinner at 6 + 1 dinner at 745 = good evening (no dessert though)

Event: Kingdom League, Blue Pool - Muckross
 

Jogged down the hill to Bluepool from the house, nice and handy, plus a tiny bit of extra running before starting. Carried rucksack with change of shoes.

Bluepool
Kingdom League Event

Ran ok, got a bit lucky but you need that here. Some similar controls to the recent relay and MOC before that!

To 3 I stayed on the small path then crossed the road, bit hesitant trying to find the path along by the pool.

Was much happier getting to 6 and out of Bluepool than getting in during MOC race. Kept left and then attacked the x from the field corner. Runnability wasn't too bad along the fence.

7 I lost time, my own fault. Had originally planned to cut in at the wall but decided to cut early. Got stuck in windblow. My own fault. Then it was a nice uphill to the control.

8 just ran along hoping to hit the control. 9 I got grand, worked out ok. Was a small bit uncertain where I was crossing the stream but was on target.

Stayed in the forest to 10, might have been quicker to go out to the road and cut back in. Got lucky at the control, forest got a bit thick with reduced visibility, cut right and it was there, could easily have ran on.

Next few controls were easy. Then out to the open for 1 control. Ran around the hill and hit the control fine. Out of the open then but the runnability wasn't as good as getting to 14. Knew where the reentrant was but got a bit caught with some fallen trees and ended up slightly right.

To 16 I decided to leave the forest and use the road for a small bit. Reentered at the parking area and then had to go around some fallen trees.

17 was back in the open. Ran towards the biggest boulder I could see, no control. Then saw that the control had a reentrant behind it so the boulder was slightly further.

18 was a bit messy to get to but hit it ok. Then downhill. Long road run downhill to 20. Into the forest then to get the last 3 controls.

Only real time loss was on 7.

Splits say I was slower than Pat Cleary on the run-in. I can't understand why KerryO use 2 finish boxes, it's not like there are lots to finish. Wouldn't have this sort of issue with 1 box.

HR strap behaved a bit better but still not right. Think i'll have to invest.

Results
Splitsbrowser

Run back up the hill after the orienteering in Bluepool. Bit on the tired side but not feeling too bad.

Carried bag back up the hill again. Half way up I realised I could've left it in my dad's car! No matter, wasn't heavy.

Wondering how pat cleary beat me by 11 seconds on the run in this morning!!! Must be slowing down.

Crohane

HR giving really dodgy readings so it's got 1 more chance or else I order a new one, don't believe its the battery as I only recently changed it.

Classed this as orienteering as 50% of it was. Rest was terrain running. Did take a split but couldn't be bothered splitting it.

Went for 1 final look for 223. No sign. So it was LineO training for that element of the run as I was following my QR line from when I put out the controls. Nice morning on the mountain, didn't feel too cold even though it was around 4-5 degrees. So great conditions to experience Crohane.

The top of Crohane is seriously calling to me at this stage, so will have to pay it a visit some time soon.

So once i'd the line completed, including checking down the streams I crossed a small bit in case I dropped it in the river, no sign, i headed in a northwesterly direction uphill. Felt a bit better moving now, a bit lethargic earlier on but took a gel at the 2nd stream crossing.

Just after I put the map in my pocked I came across a row of posts. Looks like it could be the line of a new spur of the new fence. Posts weren't fence posts but possibly to mark the line of a fence. Bad news.

Passed the northeast corner of the forest and kept climbing. No map so was just running. Ended up high above the lake so took a break to take a few photos. Could see snow on top of Mangerton to the west. Decided it was time to drop and came upon the 2nd lake, forgot that was here.

Descended between the lakes, came along to the top of Crohane lake and followed its western shore. Hit the trees on the steep slope up from the lake. Quite bouldery in there. Eventually climbed out and then descended again to follow the stream back towards the car.

Theres a short new fence on the Crohane Lake map around the field area, not an issue though. Followed the track as far as the old farmhouse then went along the fence to see if the new track being built up from where I parked comes out on the mountain. It doesn't, it seems to be heading towards the back of the farmhouse but it's not complete yet.

Got back to the car and jogged up to get the car key from under a rock. Kept on going then to get the time over 90. Went into the forest for a bit and came back along the stream, nice forest but stoney.

Getting some longer runs in ahead of the Long WRE in Portugal.

Half time in the basketball so did some stretching (not counted in time), foam rolling (also not counted), and core.

Might do more later. No harm in it.

Avg Cadence = 90rpm

Again HR went funny after 25 minutes with data coming back to what it should be reading at 35.

Watched 2 episodes of My Name is Earl, only 1 to go maybe, or 2, and that's the end of Series 1. Skipped an episode this evening though as file wasn't working.

Legs feeling grand on the bike. Happy with how they are feeling at the moment. Will see how they come through the weekend.

Will leave off HR as data isn't right, some seriously low readings going uphill, not Superman.

Nice evening. Some frost out there.

Decided on running shoes as opposed to my original plan of Inov8s. Correct decision as underfoot conditions weren't too bad. Only issue was the right foot where the skin rubbed off on Tuesday. Did put some tape on it before running but that was a bit red when it came off, also didn't stay on properly.

Legs feeling a small bit tired but overall pleased with them with regards to lack of soreness/pain.

Think I saw a couple of bats on the road up to Mangerton.

Avg Cadence = 90rpm

More Ripper St. Baddie in tonight's episode also in GOT so that was interesting to see him and the Sargeant together in a different show with no swords.

Interesting spike in the HR at around 8 minutes in, went up to 208. But not sure how much i'd trust that. Didn't feel like a 208, not that i'd know what that feels like.

C • HR spike 4

Miserable evening and conditions probably at their worst for this warm-up. Legs feeling ok.

Muckross
Hill Intervals

Decided against track so went for a character building solo hill interval session instead. Not a nice evening for it.

Back the scene of the crime from my last hill interval session at the beginning of October 2013, I like to be consistent with the frequency of my hill intervals, with years rather than days/weeks in between.

10 was the number in my head but settled with 8 in the end. Recovery in the (brackets).

72 (1.52)
71 (1.53)
72 (1.58)
70 (2.09)
75 (1.54)
75 (1.56)
77 (2.06)
74 (1.57)

Looking at the 2013 times these were at worst 10 seconds slower, but I ran 10m further this evening! Hill according to Garmin is still 8/9m. Surface might have improved since then too with some new tarmac.

Hung a reflective armband at the top of the hill to end my warm-up. This proved a nice marker to aim for. Think if I do this session again in the dark that i'll mark the start too to have a target to aim for during the recovery.

First 3 went nicely but number 4 really hurt the lungs, ran out of gas near the end. That kinda put me off a small bit, particularly for the recovery and for the next one. The second half of the session wasn't as good. Suppose hard to judge how the session would go as not having done one for 15 months.

Weather didn't help either. Had some spectators too, few deer in the forest watching me at the top of the hill, didn't give me much support though.

Damp warm-down back to the car. Not too nice and was glad to be finishing up. Feeling tired too getting close to the car.

Think I might have spotted a pine marten/stoat type animal in the trees on the way back. Hard to say for definite, it was dark.

Bit of pain on top of my right toes, shoes were rubbing my foot, small bit of damage done so will cover the area for next run.

Right knee a small bit sore from running earlier. Will do some foam rolling next.