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Swallowed up in the mist

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  • Registered Users Posts: 830 ✭✭✭ocnoc


    Wee bit of an O Sesh on the Featherbeds.
    Wasn't really feeling it. Was too cold and never really warmed up. Was a bit rough underfoot in places and the contour features were very faint in places - never really got going. Disappointed with the sesh.

    Bad miss on 7. Ran over the "track" but didn't think it was the track.... turns out it actually was!

    Aaah. Pretty annoyed. I dislike when technical sessions dont go they way I want them as it effect confidence too much. Nav at speed is sprinting on a knife edge. You need every confidence boost possible. I gain confidence from my training but I haven't dropped out of a nav session since Oringen in Sweden.

    Live and learn

    Map


  • Registered Users Posts: 830 ✭✭✭ocnoc


    College Champs on Glendasan.
    Map says it all really. 2mins on 3, control 6&7 were void due to wrong placement, then a haymaker of a mistake at 11... 4 god dam minutes. In four minutes, I could sit down, make myself a coffee, drink said coffee and have another one. To be fair, I was watching McCloy and having a laugh at this point. Should really have switched on. Bad drills.

    Map


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,498 ✭✭✭Mothman


    ocnoc wrote: »
    College Champs on Glendasan.
    Map says it all really. 2mins on 3, control 6&7 were void due to wrong placement, then a haymaker of a mistake at 11... 4 god dam minutes. In four minutes, I could sit down, make myself a coffee, drink said coffee and have another one. To be fair, I was watching McCloy and having a laugh at this point. Should really have switched on. Bad drills.

    Map
    I found them all :eek:
    That makes me either really clever or I was so bad I happened to be in the wrong place at the right time :)
    In fact PH waved me over when he found 6


  • Registered Users Posts: 830 ✭✭✭ocnoc


    PH = Legend

    worryingly

    PH = Mapper :P


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,498 ✭✭✭Mothman


    ocnoc wrote: »
    PH = Legend

    worryingly

    PH = Mapper :P
    I was nearly having choice words at the time :D but thought better of it


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  • Registered Users Posts: 830 ✭✭✭ocnoc


    May be of interest to some.
    Contour across (red route), or drop down (blue route) to better running to be able to attack the control following the line of crags.

    In the end, the lower route choice was safer and quicker, but if the contouring route choice was taken and executed well, it is potentially 1:25mins quicker.

    Map quality is better in the link in the previous post.

    Route%25205.jpg


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,498 ✭✭✭Mothman


    ocnoc wrote: »
    May be of interest to some.
    Contour across (red route), or drop down (blue route) to better running to be able to attack the control following the line of crags.

    In the end, the lower route choice was safer and quicker, but if the contouring route choice was taken and executed well, it is potentially 1:25mins quicker.
    But if RS couldn't execute it well, then what chance have the rest of us?
    I took lower route as well, and was quite slow on the decent. (relative to rest which was nearly all slow!)
    Technically I wouldn't have managed any other approach to no.5. I struggled with no.2. These days it often takes me an age to get into a map. The close up eye sight I think is contributing to this.

    Bless you, you are so young :pac:

    BTW, why is RS down for blue route, wasn't that your route?

    or is it my sight again.....


  • Registered Users Posts: 830 ✭✭✭ocnoc


    The colour of the tabs is the colour of the dots when in play mode.
    In AutOanalysis, the "Blue" line is the quickest route, and then the second line is red or green with a +XXmins or -XXmins depending on if the runner was faster or slower across that section.

    Autoanalysis has adds +/- sections everytime lines cross. In this route choice, we don't cross at all, but on routes where there is a lot of crossing, it helps to aid micro route choice.... which will hopefully gain you seconds in future.

    A good example is here.
    David A was the quickest on the leg (7:02) with Jonas (7:15).
    Jonas loses 1 second, then they have the same time until the road. At the road, Jonas goes out to the road and loses 9seconds, before having a better entry to the control to take back 3 seconds, but he loses the leg by running extra out to the road.

    The software is in the Alpha phase so it dropped a few seconds here and there, but overall, its bloody awesome software!

    Hope thats of interest/use :D
    I love analysis -
    Also - corrected splits table and graph for Sunday.
    The splits have being edited to remove all time between control 5 and 8. So when you punch 5, you leave control 8... as leg 6 and 7 were wrong, so runners mucked up 8 as they were starting from the wrong location.
    Spent a few hours editing the file :P
    Win


  • Registered Users Posts: 830 ✭✭✭ocnoc


    Glendasan... Just taking the p!ss on a cold wintery morning.
    Fantastic stuff


  • Registered Users Posts: 830 ✭✭✭ocnoc


    The Dragons Back Race.

    Its an ultra race. But not any old straight forward trail ultra race. Its an Open Mountain Stage race. Epic is too small a word.

    Martain Stone won the first (and only) race down the spin of Wales.
    Dragons Back: Analysing the entries for 2012 you can split the competitors into two distinct categories: 1) runners with a traditional mountain running background (fell races, mountain marathons and the three big rounds) but with less ultra distance experience and 2) Ultra runners with experience of multi-day racing (but often on trails) who have less of a ‘mountain’ background. How do you think the two types of runners will compare this time and what kind of preparation would you recommend for competitors?

    Martin: There is no doubt in my mind that the top performers in 2012 will, like ourselves 20 years earlier, come from a mountain background and excel at mountain marathons and long journeys in the mountains. Those with only trail running experience will struggle to keep up as they pick their way across rough mountain terrain and try to navigate across misty, featureless moorland.

    Now... if only I had the mountain endurance to run 5 x Elite Cat Mourne Mountain Marathons back to back. That race is some serious sh!t !
    Can't wait to watch it play out.

    Such questions that one must answer include:
    Are you able to navigate in mountainous terrain in darkness and poor weather using a map and compass? Yes/No

    The next question is
    Would you anticpate also using a GPS to help your navigation? Yes/No

    For some reason, if you answer no to the second question - I reckon you ain't racing this baby! 200miles and 15,000m of vertical stuff.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 930 ✭✭✭jeffontour


    ocnoc wrote: »
    The Dragons Back Race.

    Awesome isn't it!
    ocnoc wrote: »
    Would you anticpate also using a GPS to help your navigation? Yes/No

    Nah, sure I've been up there once before and I remember you just stay left after checkpoint 35.


  • Registered Users Posts: 830 ✭✭✭ocnoc


    I always keep a highly detailed log of my trainings and training intensities. How I felt, how I felt while training and most importantly, how I was racing.

    Before races, I look back over my log to gain confidence and get a mental boost before we go to abuse the body. Even if I am not consciously thinking about all the work I have put in, re reading it reminds my subconsciously that we know how to hurt and how we enjoy feeling the hurt and putting the hurt on those around me.

    If I was to put a time period on when I was racing at my highest level, it would have to be Norway 2010. Looking back on the figures, I can put absolutes onto my training - at my peak, right before the World Championships I had a CTL of 106. This is the highest I have ever recorded. I was at my fitness peak.

    This weekend is the Colleges XC race. I'm not going to win it, hell, I won't even make the top 10 with the cream of the crop of college distance running - but a top 20 is in my head if I run a smart, solid race.

    This weekend I got into the race with a pathetic CTL of 80. It shows the difference between orienteering and mountain training and park training.
    Luckly for me, figures are just figures and numbers can be manipulated to suit the user. If I remove my week of sickness. My CTL is 103.

    I'm in **** hot shape, confidence is high and I can already taste the blood in the back of my throat. I have being frothing at the mouth over the course map. WIT have planned a course to slow down the DCU freight train...
    This weekend, its gona be my kinda burn up.

    Bring on the hurt.

    Map


  • Registered Users Posts: 830 ✭✭✭ocnoc


    Goals are always an important part of training and racing.
    Even if you don't openly admit it and are just racing for "fun", there is always an objective. Be it to finish, to not walk or to win at all costs regardless of the toll on your body or to excute a perfect technical race.

    When you come up with a goal, you have to weight up what is needed to achieve the goal and justify if the goal is worth the sacrifice that has to go in to achieving the goal.

    Are you willing to do what is needed to achieve that goal? If your not willing to do what is needed, then the payback of the goal to you is not good enough and it is possible that the goal does not interest you - it is most likely the goal of someone else. A goal should be a burning desire, something that you are willing to sacrifice for (it doesn't always have to be sport related).

    Is it worth getting up at 06:00 every morning to do a session before work. Is the shifting of your body clock to something against what your training partners are doing in the hope to get the edge when it counts. Can you justify going to bed earlier, passing on the 5th or 10th mug of coffee? There are countless small changes we could make to get that extra 0.5% - but is the pay back worth it?

    I wrapped up my XC season with one of my best results of the year. The course was pretty monsterous, the hills broke me slowly and I suffered out the remaining laps. Was it the absolute best result I could have a achieved? Probably not - I wasn't patient enough. Lesson learned.

    I spent the next too days sitting around. Not training, not caring about racing. It was a time to reflect on what has gone and what still needs to be done. This morning, I was annoyed at myself for not training. I was being lazy and making excuses.
    This evening, I read a training log - a talented GB runner got a stress fracture. Rushed getting back into full training.

    Maybe I am learning to be calm and to trust the fitness.

    Time to start looking at the next box to tick

    WOC draws closer

    Control_Flag_Icon_Orienteering.png

    XC -> British Champs -> JK -> Irish Champs -> Track -> WOC Sprint


  • Registered Users Posts: 830 ✭✭✭ocnoc


    Got a good kick up the arse about being a complete wimp and about making ****ty excuses. It worked.

    Lap of Howth. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/157997693
    Gotta make the effort to get the vertical stuff into trainings.
    No frills attached tonight.
    Legs felt unresponsive. As if my fast twitch muscles that allow my legs to react quickly to small unseen changes in terrain were completely destroyed last night.


  • Registered Users Posts: 830 ✭✭✭ocnoc


    Quality run in the mountains today. Everything about it was fantastic. From the snow on the far peaks, to the ground conditions, to the bright sun and the cool breeze whipping across Scarr Summit.

    Route non existent due to control checking for up coming Shamrock AR - which is going to be awesome!

    http://shamrockar.org/


  • Registered Users Posts: 830 ✭✭✭ocnoc


    I sometimes wonder why I can't get that extra 1% for the big races.
    Today was a prime example of why I don't.
    Discipline is slowly slip slip sliding away.

    The motivation levels difference between mid autumn and mid spring are polar opposites.

    10 weeks till its all over.
    I should challenge myself to run 10 weeks of 70mile weeks and see where it gets me. It would probably have me more awake, more active and more structured.

    ie it ain't a half bad idea.


  • Registered Users Posts: 830 ✭✭✭ocnoc


    British Elite Orienteering Champs.

    Sprint Quali's... I missed the A final by a mere 15seconds. Only the top 6 from each head qualified, so it was tight at the top! I had two bad route choices and a bad fall. I have the leg speed there to qualify - just mucked up the technical aspect.

    Map http://www.cnocmaps.totalh.com/show_map.php?user=c.hill&map=230

    Sprint Final. I qualified for the B Final. Had a very poor technical first half to the race. I had a stormer of a second half. From control 12 to the last control, I dropped 10seconds from superman. Finished 4th. Not happy with being so sloppy at the start

    Map http://www.cnocmaps.totalh.com/show_map.php?user=c.hill&map=231


    Sunday brought the Elite Middle Distance. It was an awesome course across open moor land. Very little contour detail and varied from extremely fast and extremely slow. Tiny mistakes were punished. I had an acceptable run. Finishing 117% of the winners time. Finished 27th.

    Some excellent orienteering, yet also, some bad mistakes and some bad lines with my compass.
    1 (missed control, 5sec), 4 (bad direction, 45sec), 8 (bad direction, 15sec), 12 (not confident to attack the control, 10sec), 13 (rough terrain, pussied out, 45sec), 18 (missed control, 25sec), 20 (biggest mistake... miss read map, saw control, thought it wasn't mine- Panicked, 1:10mins).
    3:35mins quicker would have placed me 11th.
    Something to work on.

    Map http://www.cnocmaps.totalh.com/show_map.php?user=c.hill&map=229


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,498 ✭✭✭Mothman


    Do you have a relative lack of experience with sprint events compared to most of your competitors?
    With the upcoming JK, I reckon I have speed for top 5, but I've no experience of sprint events and its likely I'll be technically sloppy which would cost be many places.

    I've been going through routegadget and trying to visualise a run. No where near the same as doing one! :)


  • Registered Users Posts: 830 ✭✭✭ocnoc


    Best bet is to hit UCD/TCD and go practise.
    Its easier at a computer - sprint is all about quick decision making under pressure. Measuring up route choices, for shortness, but also for lack of turns - when you turn, you slow down!

    For instance, in the Sprint Quali, I took the lower route to 14, it was slightly longer, +7sec (+15%). Doing a split comparrasion, I reckon it cost me 4-5seconds. Or for control 7, I hesitated on a different route choice which had me at +9sec (+33%). (Full splits compassion is attached.)

    Even the fact that I am talking about seconds lost is sickening. Like, thats how tight it is. Its freegin awesome! It was such a packed field!

    Its those tiny hesitations and slightly wrong route choices that cost time and places.
    Do you have a relative lack of experience with sprint events compared to most of your competitors?

    I would think its more in ireland that we lack intense competition. I can drop 5mins, and still come away with a win. I don't have to be clinical. I don't have to account for every second.
    The only sprints I do in Ireland are ones that we organise ourselves. That has 2-4 of us and its not a race. If I want to run race more sprints, I have to travel for it. Which is kinda sad I think, as sprints are awesome fun.
    We have so many brilliant areas that have not being mapped (Galway city centre for instance). The other problem is that people wouldn't travel. Very few will travel half the country for a 12-15min race.


  • Registered Users Posts: 830 ✭✭✭ocnoc


    Wednesday evening fun...

    Map


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,498 ✭✭✭Mothman


    ocnoc wrote: »
    Wednesday evening fun...

    Map
    That does look fun!

    Was it the full colour map?
    and its 1:5000 is it not?

    On Sunday I struggled with some longer legs crossing the lines of dunes such as no 3 & 30 on your course.


  • Registered Users Posts: 830 ✭✭✭ocnoc


    Full colour, but had the scale 1:7,500.
    So - it was a b!tch to read at any sort of speed


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,498 ✭✭✭Mothman


    My close up eyesight is rapidly deteriorating.
    It happens at my age :) and the 1:5000 is hard enough for me to see.

    I'm now using one of these, but it often doesn't cover a full leg, but it is easing my reading troubles a lot.
    All ahead of you and need not concern you now you young lad ;)


  • Registered Users Posts: 830 ✭✭✭ocnoc


    Second pre JK session on the Bull.
    Kept it controlled. An acceptable session.
    I had planned a corridorO on the north end but the form lines and 2.5m contours meant I couldn't see sh!t in the terrain and it didn't go to plan so I bailed. No point losing confidence in the nav as selection races no. 2 draw closer.
    Overall, happy with the session.
    ]Map: http://www.cnocmaps.totalh.com/show_map.php?user=c.hill&map=240

    or http://www.cnocmaps.totalh.com/index.php?user=c.hill

    or go via the awesome CNOC Website.. www.cnoc.ie :)

    (my map was a contour only - much more fun!)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,498 ✭✭✭Mothman


    Link didn't work for me...


  • Registered Users Posts: 830 ✭✭✭ocnoc




  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,498 ✭✭✭Mothman


    I'll come back to it later.
    From my end can access cnoc.ie but not cnocmaps......


  • Registered Users Posts: 830 ✭✭✭ocnoc


    Don't remember the last time I was as messy for an O race.
    10mins handed away. Ain't good enough. I tried to get switched on more and attack the course, but my direction and such was just poor.
    Disappointed I couldn't get my act together on a bog standard Irish forest after a pretty good British Champs.

    Maybe I'm better suited to open mountain warefare.
    Map

    Fair duce to GB - he was hammering! Maybe proving a point that last weekend was just a blip.

    I could make excuses about my run and bang on about a hard training week - but we all know excuses mean jack sh1t and the only thing that matters is the result on the score board.

    I'm glad the JK is close so I can redeem myself.
    It doesn't matter if you win or lose, until you lose.


  • Registered Users Posts: 830 ✭✭✭ocnoc


    How to book your seat to WOC.

    1. Bury yourself in the mountains.
    2. Swallow your pride and train on a track.
    3. Spend hundred of hours working on your mental game.
    4. Take sh!t and abuse from your team mates for not doing the right thing.
    5. Hand said team mates their ass on a sliver plate.

    JK Sprint went like a charm. It was a controlled hammerfest. I had two bad routes (5 and 7) and a few not so clinical micro route choices here and there. I had one slightly serious problem in that I miss read a lot of crossable walls as uncrossable. This was due to a printing error. At #15 I was caught by Junior World Medalist Kris Jones and the hammerfest increased its pace.
    Finished up 13th at the Jan Kjellström is a dam solid result. Reckon I dropped about 55-60sec if I was to have a perfect race. Scott Frasier is a beast. Coombsy scalp is mine. The gap is closing slowly.

    Blank map. Map with route.
    Your going to have to excuse the green of my route and the green on the map. I was just hammering to dam hard for the GPS to show red.


    I wait patently for the one they call Nick to come into my web.
    The selection races are coming. The clock is ticking down.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,498 ✭✭✭Mothman


    I had same leg 4 to 5 and lost time on it. I exited the courtyard fine but headed direct as originally thought there was gap just beyond 5. Was passing playgound when I realised and went back to road.

    Whats your opinion on the route of heading back towards 3 and then north through gap to road? From there, simply a long straight run to 5.

    I lost too much time, mainly to lack of experience. Poor start, great middle section and then the change of terrain of parkland on south side of river caught a lot of people out including myself.

    And the fact that I had equal quickest time of all classes on the run in proves I didn't hammer it enough before hand.

    Anyway, this is about you, congrats on achieving your objective in the sprints.


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