Training Log Archive: ColmM

Travel day

very short shakeout.

WOC Long
Long. Pretty clean, but legs just not feeling great from early, and needless to say that didn't improve. Bit disappointed with the physical performance, but here we are. Will come back stronger :)
Biggest mistake will have been the routechoice to #15 which was worth a few minutes.

The focus was always to try and make sure it was a clean race, and then to start quick-steady and hopefully feel strong enough to pick it up in the second half.
#1 looked alright, so I made my plan and then started focusing on #2. I was struggling to decide between wide left and wide right on #2. After analysing previous races round this area, it looked to me like very wide routes were worth it, and I figured these should suit me better too, not being the strongest climber. So, my plan was to go around if I wasn't certain, but to be open to the straight route. Even if an around route was slower, it would probably conserve a little more energy in the long run.

After taking some time at #1 to make my decision I committed to right. I missed the trail going up to the ridge which might have been a nice runnable climb, but no big deal. Ran a long way around and tried to use as much of it as possible to plan ahead. Spent a long time contemplating routes to #5, probably too long. I tripped at one point and heard "You okay?" behind me, to see Maté had caught 3mins on me which seemed damn earlier than I'd have hoped.
I tucked in behind as we were clearly on the same route, and got through it all fine and into the control cleanly. I had already planned to contour, use the track and then climb into #3, and using the track helped pull me back to Maté as he'd descended down some gully, he was a bit high and I came in and punched it ahead. We split routes on #4, I used the track, I had a small miss coming in, but he was still there when I hit it.

I'd opted for straight across the first valley on #5, and then all the way around to the North. I'd considered South, but wasn't sold on the extra climb for what also seemed quite far. I'd also considered back out of the control the same way I'd come to go along the route I eventually took, which was more popular and might have suited me a bit better, but I wasn't certain it would actually save any climb.
Anyway, another long way around, again I planned ahead a lot, but could also see it was looking like a lot more track routes for me. I tried to keep the pace pretty solid, but the legs were already finding it tough work, and mentally I was too - all the track running was a bit gruelling and getting out of the forest and then trying to push was a bit tough.

I went around for a good few of the next few, and was mostly clean (maybe 20sec on hesitancies on #7). Also took my first gel going into #6. Going into #8, I had just been passed by the German who was going damn quick and on the way to #9 I couldn't quite stay close enough to be led in, and also misread the contours a bit and almost climbed a spur too farm but realised as I started and turned back - that was probably my worst navigation issue (~45sec?). Back around for some more, but got them all fairly okay.

I'd decided to contour round to #14 and come from below, which I regretted when I got there because it was damn high. I started to feel the climb around now, and this climb and the one out of #14 were both tough. Unfortunately I'd also gotten the route wrong to #15 so not only was the route longer, but it was also more climb, and I probably lost about 3mins on this, and as I said, I was starting to feel it, so took my 2nd gel at #16.

Matija Razum (6mins) caught me here, which I hadn't really expected. I hung in behind for the next couple but could tell I was tiring, and the pace while not that hot was still feeling tough and I was slowly going out the back. Matija messed up #19 though and I left him there to get it and got through the next couple alright, and had him catch me again going into #21. We took different routes to #22 and mine looked worse, but I was possibly just getting dropped (Elena Roos also came by me here and proceeded to drop me).

I was tired, but I was still hitting controls cleanly and just tried to make sure I kept pushing myself. I got through #23 and #24 fairly fine and then had the arena passage after, where I got a 3rd gel off the guys to try and keep the head working. Got through the last loop all good, making sure I kept running, and was clean, but just slowing a bit. I obviously dropped Elena making a mistake at some point because she caught me again hitting #28, and we had lots of cameras on us. I took a different route to her on #29 but it seemed to pay off because I finished ahead - if only we were running the same race.

Ultimately the race was pretty clean. I haven't analysed all the routes yet, but I don't immediately feel like I got them really wrong (outside of #15). Even if a few wide ones were a tad slower, I think it would be worth the energy later.
I can't really pinpoint why it didn't happen today physically. Like yesterday, I did put up with stomach cramp type things for a lot of the race which certainly won't have helped. I wore the singlet today, but with the warmth and me pouring water over myself, it was soaked and really stuck to me, and the gps vest was possibly quite tight (although felt fine walking around / trying it on) - I had a Medium and they only did XS / S / M. I'm much more confident that it wouldn't have been food-related today anyway, because I was very conscious throughout the day the day of hitting my normal eating pre-long distance.
But separate from that my legs also just felt a bit heavy and my body started getting tired out there earlier than it should I think. Maybe I haven't done enough long races, but while I was tired at the end of the Northern Champs long, I was still able to kick on at 90mins and keep working hard until the 2hr mark.

I'm not exactly sure. I'm very confident I'm in the best shape of my life - and I just feel that result doesn't reflect that. I've considered that maybe the result looks worse than it is, and that probably is partly true because there were less weak teams at WOC this year. The reality is my result probably compares similarly to that of other Irish results of the last 4 years, somewhere in the middle, not the best, not the worst.
But I don't know, I just had hoped to perform better essentially.

Unrelatedly, I didn't really love the course. The big long legs were really cool, and the terrain made some really interesting routechoice legs. But equally I felt like I spent the whole course running on tracks and just dipping in and out of sandstone and never really being challenged technically. Sure - some of that is down to routechoice, but I just felt like it would have been nice to really get more sandstone navigation in and ask more technical questions of the athletes.
I guess this isn't entirely unrelated actually, because I don't think the hills + tracks + lack of really technical stuff played to my advantages anyway.

Anyway, I am keen for more. It probably still needs better dissecting, but I want to get stronger and come back and better this, that's for sure, and I'm confident I can.

mini shakeout

WOC Relay - 25th

This was a weird one. The race started at 18:25, and given the weather of the day (wet and cloudy), it was a particularly dull day. This seemed to be fine early one, but as it went on it became evident 3rd leg would probably need a headtorch.
We were sharing a tent in quarantine with the Estonians and when I asked them - Lauri Sild kindly obliged with a spare headtorch, along with offers of food and a whistle if I needed them.

Conor was probably a bit further back than we'd have hoped on first leg, but we were still in touching distance of lots of teams, and Paul did a great job on 2nd to get in front of a good few, and get me close to a few, so I set off in an alright spot. Although it was actually right before the mini-mass-start (and any team in the mini-mass-start will automatically be behind any team that is in front of the mass-start in results), which also presented a weird situation, because I knew most of the teams just behind me probably technically couldn't beat me regardless of whether they passed me.

It had all been a little rushed with the headtorch, and when I got going I realised I wanted it to point down toward the map a little better, so on the run-out I pushed it down a little, and sure enough the torch snapped off the strap and was bobbling around my face. Knew I would have to fix this, so just committed to fixing it, stopped on the run-out, took it all off and carefully put it together and back on (~30sec). It wouldn't quite point at my map, but I also didn't quite need it, so I ploughed on. It was dark enough in the forest that it wasn't really easy to see anything, but you didn't quite need a torch - however it was useful for reading the map. When required I would just stop and raise my map a bit higher toward the torch to read it.

Finally I was off, settled in and took the path route to #1 which all went fine really. Clean through #2 & #3, struggling a little to get much rhythm but getting controls cleanly and that was the main thing. Went around high on #4, and saw the Israeli and the Slovenian coming against me to #5 - somehow I wasn't quite aware that the Slovenian had only started about 15sec before me. I got #4 and I went fairly direct on #5 and got both pretty cleanly. I debated on #6 but in the end went high which I think was pretty good. I was a bit hesitant and even stopped on the track to decide if I should cut straight for the last bit but in the end went all the way around (gps is a bit dodgy here). Came into it cleanly, but it was too slippery to stop at the control so had to descend past it and come back up for the next one.
Got #7 and #8 fine as well, I was clean so all was well, but still just struggling to get much flow or anything better through the terrain. Got #9 alright too, though not sure it was the best route. Climbed fine up out of it, and then went to the track to come in to #10. I was planning ahead on the track and got a bit distracted, and ended up leaving the track a tad too early and going down a parallel spur on what really should have been an easy enough control entrance. The crags didn't quite make sense and I knew it didn't add up but still took a little while to convince myself it definitely wasn't my spur - I saw tape below me for the out-of-bounds which I initially assumed meant I was too far but that didn't quite add up. Eventually I figured out I must be a spur early and as I got round there, it started to look a bit better. I came into it alright and saw Tomas Lima going in as well (portugal), damn. Looks like it was about 2mins lost from gps tracking, but it felt like a chunk more certainly at the time.

I hopped in behind Tomas and started to see the immediate benefit of others because it was just so easy to catch up with him taking nicer lines in this stuff. He headed high into #11, and I decided I'd contour more around myself and came into the control really nicely to end up getting away again.
I stayed high on #12 which worked out well because it was very high and wound up punching it with the Slovenian to my pleasant surprise. We took different lines to #13 but came into it together.
I hadn't decided on #14, I wanted to hit the fields, but I wasn't sure the best way to get there. The Slovenian went up which I reckoned looked a bit awkward, so I ended up going down solo. I got confused once down there and ended up climbing up a re-entrant earlier than intended - this wasn't such a bad thing, I'd lost probably 20sec to the Slovenian on route (not ideal, but not awful), but it confused the hell out of me, and after running through some flat, I started to go down what I thought must be my re-entrant to #14. Needless to say, it wasn't at all, and I could see quite quickly the shape was all wrong. Confused I climbed back up, but I'd wasted another minute or so with the faffing. Suddenly Tomas Lima was back with me, and we ran into #14 together. Through the spectator was fine, but climbing out of it keeping up with Tomas was beginning to feel like hard work. I took a different line climbing up to #16 and hit it cleanly, no sign of Tomas, so I guessed but wasn't certain that I was ahead. Contoured round to #17 making sure I was clean. On first glance down and around looked quicker to me for #18, but I like the high options, so I stayed high and dropped into it nicely - it actually might have been quicker anyway cos I suspect descending out of #17 may have been tricky.
Ran it home and could tell pretty quickly that I had stayed ahead of Tomas, which was good to do just in case - but in reality didn't matter because Portugal were 12mins behind us.

Hard to assess exactly what to make of my run. I had ~4mins of stupid errors I would like to get rid of, which actually would be enough to climb probably 2 places, 1 for sure though. Definitely the Slovenians should have been beatable.
But aside from that I just struggled a bit with flow and rhythm, certainly part of which will have been the darkness. I also had annoying stomach issues out there which is very unusual for me. It was incredibly wet out there so my top was completely saturated, and it felt like something was digging in through my ribs, like there was pressure in on the stomach for some reason.
I wasn't sure, and am still not sure what this was - could have been the GPS vest being too tight and causing issues a bit lower, it could have been the top a little, it could have been food, I possibly ate a little much, but I think I got it alright mostly. Honestly, I'm just not sure.

Ultimately we were really hoping for a top 20 which I think should have been doable but we didn't have the best day out. I think higher than that again will be doable too - we're capable of getting to the top 15 it would just take a very good day right now. But that's what I'd like to aim for.

Easy jog around the relay and long model, did the first few at 1:15, and then did the more detailed ones at 1:10,000 to get used to the magnifier at that scale again before the relay. Did a few at mini efforts, but mostly just relaxing and enjoying the map - it was gorgeous.

1:15000 training on Seksla Rokle - planning on getting just a little bit more into the terrain but not doing too much. Started off nice, but ended up on a hillside with a heap of nettles, and spent about 10mins fighting through it. Didn't want to get too badly stung before the races so was pretty darn cautious, and once I got through I just headed back to the car. Not too much gain but a little bit more time on 1:15000 and looked at all the routes etc.

Event: World Orienteering Championships 2021
 

Umrlčí rokle control pick on a contours and crags only map.

Heaps of controls, lots of detailed sandstone, just divine oirenteering. Had considered doing more, but left it halfway round to keep a bit rested.
Flow was alright, picked it up a small bit for one or two sections to try and get into it.

O-intervals on Seskla Rokle

First two were solo. Really good flow in the first and pushing the pace well. Stopped a re-entrant too early on #6 but realised after about 20sec what the issue was. Taking around routes, a little cautious on entry, but generally getting more aggressive in the terrain. Interval ended at #7.

Second loop solo but no kev behind and had half twisted my ankle so I relaxed a small bit. Still, navigating well, and caught Conor (who was jogging) out there which spurred me on to keep the pace honest. Solid work in the middle section after the track-crossing.

Third and fourth loop were intervals with Conor on gaffled but similar courses, which was good. Conor got a wee gap on the route to #1, I got back on to #2, we split on gaffles to #3 which I didn't execute perfectly, and had a slightly longer gaffle. Got the rest fine, but Conor was already climbing the last hill when I got to the bottom (ended at #5). Good training.

Last one, Conor ran away on the track, but I wanted to plan ahead a little, so planned up to #8, caught glimpses of him in the forest towards #6, but the gap was a little too big to be much use, and I didn't know if we had the same gaffle. Came in and nailed it pretty well. Went straight to #7 which was a little risky, but worked out well. Clean through this and #8 and wound up ahead. Some around the top routes on the next few, and mostly pretty clean, but small entry and exit issues on #9 meant it wasn't perfect. Still, clean on the last two which was enough to stay ahead.

Great to be navigating with an intensity in the terrain, really good training. Feeling much more confident in the terrain and looking forward to racing!

Did half go over my ankle a couple of times though so need to be very on that and get some final strengthening done before race day.