Training Log Archive: roar

Long Selection Race - Näsinge 15.2km 500m?

Livelox
Winsplits

I'll keep this one short.
Forgot my energy gels in the accom. Bad idea. Conor & Colm kindly lent me their extras.
Started well, clean. Heard Darren at 2. Pacing myself well. Nick caught me at 4 when I missed it slightly. Ran with him for 5 and some of 6 but realised it was much too fast. Let him go and died for a bit. 0 net gain. Grand for the next bit, bit dodgy route to 10. Fun to 11. Took the around for 13 as legs were suffering. Would have loved a gel at 14 but saved it 20. Had a near death experience going to 16, falling and almost impaling myself on a branch. Tore my trousers and bashed my shin in the process and felt sorry for myself. Slower on this loop then.
HR monitor induced some pain going to 20 so slid it down. Conor & Darren appeared going to 21. Tried to hang on but was in a bad way. The last bit was terrible and I was essentially walking. Then missed 27 by almost a minute by trying to move faster.
Pretty terrible performance, reminiscent of the last long in Sweden. Not enough terrain long runs I think. Orienteering was overall ok but it's easy when you are going slow.

Traditional post long distance selection race squad football. Lots of tired bodies but good fun.

Training in XXX
Wanted a bit of 1:15000 practice before the long. Did some control pick that was found on the internet. Started ok but for a while I got totally confused and lost in this one area. Spent ages trying to figure it out. Was not agreeing with the map at all. After this bit I got good again. Down the hill was fun and a bit of green practice before the finish. Spent longer out than I wanted to though and was a bit tired after. Lots of flies by the car.

Middle Selection Race - Tjärndalen Strömstad 5.6km 250m
Livelox
Winsplits

Started up the road and made sure of good map reading to 1. Kept it safe and solid going via the boulder. DIdn't kill it up the hill either to keep some legs for later.
Felt like I was getting into the map already by 2, just kept left of the cairn.
Down the re-entrant, got stuck in a fallen tree a bit, then along the top of the hill. Could see the open hill on the right so slid off the hill and nicely onto the control.
Plan was to go left to 4, to avoid all the craggy bits. Didn't go left enough and landed on the middle craggy hill. Not too major to go around it though. Saw the big crag on the right and nicely into the control then.
5 was not perfect. Was starting to feel a bit weird. Kind of lower neck was sore from breathing. Went north from the control and teleported on the map to the re entrant to the west. Result was I crossed the green far to early and ended up too far down the hill. Reaslised quickly and climbed it to get better running Took my emergency gel. Saw Zac looking around the knoll as I was coming in to punch it.
Planned 6 on the go which wasn't great. Got a bit stuck on the first craggy green hill. Wanted to get to the big open hill and run on that. so Tried to keep moving south then turned when I got there. Into the marsh, which was heavy and then on the line. A small bit slow on the approach as I found it tough to read some of the tiny form lines.
7 was easy, compasss down the re-entrant.
Decided on right to 8 for a safer control entry and to avoid the green. Started to get moving better again but came a bit further right than was totally necessary. Took the control cleanly and saw Josh leaving it in the wrong direction.
For 9 I got to the open hill and then down.
I could feel my body was ready for a mistake on 10 so made sure of it. Up to the big crag then stay low to see the knolls on the right.
For 11 I used the terrain I was already familiar with from 6 as part of my route. Pushed hard to get to the big crag on the last hill, then compass, keeping an eye on the contours. Though I had a bit more down to go when I saw two Irish tops in the forest. Saw the pit and punched it before working out they were Colm and Kev. Thought I had caught them both, but Colm was on his way to 16.
Started after Kev to 12 but changed my mind to go straight. I was feeling confident now but made sure of the control and got it in front of Kev.
Pretty direct to 13, hitting the cairn. Dropped Kev quickly. Open boulder, green marsh, up to the hill then panic. Sensibled up very quickly, knew I was right from my line so used the contours to lead me in.
Compass to 14. Easy.
Tried to stay high but not high enough. Ended up climbing the crags a bit before dropping down the hill past the women's control.
Uphill, I was suffering big time here. Went around everything to the left when straight was probably the better option. Made the control easy by hitting the cairn, right of the green and dropped into it in front of a French girl.
Stayed high for 17. Working hard. Punched it ran away, no flashes. "AAAAAA". Went back to punch it again. Very very close.
The downhill to 18 was great.

A top class race, very clean and agressive in the circles for the most part. Got a bit more hesitant nearer the end, but not in a bad way. This is the result of training in Spain in February and going to Sweden in April.
Physically, I felt not great but kept positive and worked as hard as I could. Terrain strength needs some work, and as ever hills. Climbing over the winter was useful once or twice and I was quite strong at going up crags. I could do some regaining some confidence on the downs though.
Overall, super stoked to be 2nd of the Irish and hopefully that puts me well in the mix for a WOC spot.

Event: Leinster 3-Day, Scarr
 

Helping out at L3D in Scarr today. Mostly doing SI. Did a small walk to turn on some controls near the assembly. Had two very near disasters:
1. When we arrived the multi-day event had disappeared and none of the other 2 days were appearing in the list. Restarting the computer fixed it though.
2. Niall McCarthy finished and the finish box didn't work. He was DNFing so it was ok for now. I took a new SI card, cleared it and the finish worked. Niall's still didn't work. Thought about it for a minute before running to the last control (I couldn't find any spares) to punch it and try the finish again. Finish didn't work. What boxes only punch when the SI card is cleared? Check or start. Grabbed the clock and a pen + paper while Hugh turned on the backup laptop. While I reprogrammed the boxes to be finished he waited to take down any finishers times. After I reprogrammed the first box I went to put it out and had to race the next finisher. Just made it and no one had to have manually recorded times. Phew!