Swallowed up in the mist

ocnoc

My name is Ocnoc.

I am an orienteer. I am a mountain runner. Sometimes, I'm even a dirty track fairy.
My favorite weather conditions include, mist, rain, low cloud, high winds and cold. I dislike sun and heat, but I'll race in it if thats what race day throws up.

My favorite routes are one's where you question your own sanity. Steep, rocky, muddy, technical, something dangerous where I might really hurt myself if I fall. I look for climbs and drops that scare me. Because we learn from fear. Bashing out sub 3min/k on a technical descent after your system has been rocked by adrenalin is the ultimate fear/death/amazing buzz mix. I race for it. I live for it.

I train to race. So I'm not bashing out serious miles. I'm not doing crazy sessions. Just keep'in her country. The only day for going over the edge is race day.
I like to race hard. I find sitting in and waiting to attack is generally a good tactic, but it takes me a lot of mental strength to do it. I am slowly learning to race my way and not play into the strengths of my rivals.

I learn from every race. If I didn't learn something, something didn't go right.
I gained my mental toughness from judo. Being thrown to the ground and having to get back up again and again and again. I learned to never give up from orienteering, lose by 3 seconds again and again and again and you learn to fight for everything you have. I learned how to suffer by running myself into the ground. Running myself into injury.

I have a really bad habbit of getting really really excited before a race. As in so excited I can't sleep. This probably isn't helped by my love of a good cup mug(s) of coffee. This log won't record any training but will probably reference a lot of sessions done prior to races. More a log of pre race thoughts.

I'll see you at the sharp end.

O'Cnoic

Most All of it is strictly tongue in cheek. If anyone is silly enough to take offence to anything, don't read down. I am blunt with my views.

ocnoc

Tonelagee and the Lake.
Its gona be class.

I got the Luas home Friday and I was physically shaking. I was so worked up. I had left college early and had paced my kitchen all afternoon. Chatted on skype and had a small dinner. The count down is always a b*tch. I knew I had to calm down.
So on the Luas, after shaking for a few mins, I decided I would race and I instantly calmed down. Pre race mind frame set in. I did a mental kick list check. Ready to lock and load.

Today was an easy run and its now just stay calm until race start.
Sleep calls.
Its gona be great.

ocnoc

Its nearing midnight and I'm still online on skype. Always a good sign.
I have also aquired a lift to the race. Generally comes in handy
F yeah. Time to rock

ocnoc

Tonelagee and the Lake.
I only had two cups of coffee this morning.
I was nervous, so an extra few would have made me go crazy(er)!

Race report from today.
http://colmocnoic.blogspot.com/2011/04/master-and-student.html

Right now, the legs feel good. Really happy with my climb time. I was a tad bit concerned last Sunday.
Count down to World Champs Selection Races. Yeah ha!

PositiveNegativ

Nice report. We really were nattering like an old pair on that first climb. Next time a bit more energy might need to go into the racing.

ocnoc

I want to set up an impossible race. I want a time machine to collect the best IMRA runners from the past few years when they are all at their peak.
Wicklow Gap to Sally Gap. Winner takes all. No mandatory kit.

John Lenihan, John Brookes, Robin Bryson, Aonghus O'Cleirigh, Wally Young, Pat Healy, Pat Farrelly, Paul Nolan, Barry Minnock, Brian Furey, Peter O'Farrel, Gerry Brady, Eoin Keith, Colm Rothery, Peter Kernan, Brain McMahon, then throw the race open to anyone who thinks they can keep up.

Low mist. Ground soft, but not sloppy.

I think it would be awesome. The best hill runners, no excuses, only a couple of mountains of sheer pain and suffering. It'd would rock. I relish the though of starting in such a line up. It would be Epic

ocnoc

JK is closing in. High risk orienteering. If I think about it, I tend to get very excited. But at the same time I don't care about the result anymore. I have reached a happy equilibrium. If I get a top 10, it'll be awesome. If I finish outside the top 30, no worries. Its a high risk game that forces one to be mentally strong. In a way, if I don't make selections, it will work out better.

There are a few mountain races I would get more satisfaction beasting myself with in millimeters of my life in than running around a small medieval French village in 30* heat.

It has been the motivating force behind a hard winters training, mixing it up in the mountains and the flatter, muddier XC races. I know I am in good shape.
Perhaps I have being bullsh*tting to myself all winter doing mountain specific work outs instead of o specific sessions. My brain knows which it prefers.

Perhaps its not international O I'm interested in. Mind drifts to championship mountain racing any every opportunity.

Time to chill out and have some fun. JK will provide some top quality racing non the less.

Bring on the O

ocnoc

JK over. Races didn't go to plan. Too many small mistakes. Probably not headed to france... o well... To SCOTLAND

IOC count down.

Just intensity 5 resting between now and then. Because the man said

Slogger Jogger

So no Irish Champs race this weekend then?

ocnoc

IOC 2011, Brockagh.
T minus 3:25hrs

Time to have some muddy fun in the mountains.

ocnoc

I was orienteering really well. Then I thought "Cully, you've finally nailed it, your on route to your first IOC title..."

Then, I dropped time, lots and lots of time. On the next 4 controls, I dropped 9mins. The head dropped and I effectively dropped out. Running around the rest of the course, just to finish.

Gutted. But the race has been slotted and saved. The race is over and can not be changed. Lessons learned. The latest mistake is always the harshest.

The CNOC army keeps marching on. There are many more battles on the horizon.
Keeping an eye on the bigger picture is always important.

Slogger Jogger

No mist but you'd have loved Mweelrea.

ocnoc

Irish Orienteering Relay Championships were held yesterday.
I am happy with my run. Dropped less than 60sec over the 6km course.

Kept a cool head under pressure. Direction, attackpoint, control, repeat.

ocnoc

I've just been described as a "sadistic bitter Irish caffeine-addicted mountain runaholic".

I took it as a complement. However, I have been informed it was meant as an insult after a massive rant about a recent championship race.

Ya win some, ya lose some.

I have looked at the beastings value for races over the bank holiday weekend and I have concluded that I shall not be racin Carrauntoohil this year. The Shamrock Oringen in West Cork is more appealing.

(then again I could change my mind in an instance...as usual)
Lovely part of the world to chill out once these dam exams are over....

30 days till freedom.

ocnoc

Curragh-Naas declared Irish Relay Champs 2011.
We were second team on the day, but CorkO's team was n/c.

We'll take the title, but personally, I am bitter about losing on the day. The win was there for the taking.



Raw Aggression anyone?

Bring on the Wicklow Way Relay :mad::mad:
I have a bit of anger to unleash.

ocnoc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkWJDos13vw

PositiveNegativ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLfxhemw0U0

ocnoc

Right. I'm in the middle of my exams. Hating my life. Hadn't run in a week.

So I got pissed and went off for a run.

Everytime I looked down I was under 3:30m/k. It was so so messed up.
Such a runners high. Debating Sunday... Will I, Won't I.

Gawh. Choices choice choices.

ocnoc

I have a lift.
Decision made!

PositiveNegativ

ocnoc wrote: »

Debating Sunday... Will I, Won't I.

Gawh. Choices choice choices.

You'll have more runners to play with if you show up on Saturday.

donothoponpop

PositiveNegativ wrote: »

You'll have more runners to play with if you show up on Saturday.

I like the way you imply there will still be some runners left out there by Sunday...

ocnoc

ocnoc wrote: »

Arts Lough 25:00
Clohernagh 18:00
Lug 14:00
Camenabologue 25:00
Conavalla 19:00
Lugduff 21:00
Mullacor 15:00
Finish 12:00
Total 149:00

Mountain V Hill

Its show time :cool:

Slogger Jogger

Are you taking the short cut through the trees at the end again this year

ocnoc

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

Are you taking the short cut through the trees at the end again this year

I have a mini chain saw packed :cool:

ocnoc

Once again, its after 2300.
Alison is not online to bash my ideas and tactics off. She's out training.

Pasta, mince and salsa sauce is the food of choice. Washed down with a bottle of Nuun. Will probably send down a few weetabix and a hot chocolate as chasers.

Weather today has been on/off. Unsure of what tomorrow might hold. Hopefully mist.

I am strong enough to take the record. I made 2 foolish mistakes last year, however, last year I got a tow off of Niall and Peter.
Race tactic has not yet be decided on. Unsure if I want to try set a record or just win.

Its funny how insecure I am about my own ability. I keep thinking I will get destroyed if X or Y show up.

Then I remember what happens once the mist rolls in, and we're racing in my play ground. No one got within an arse roar of my time in Stone Cross to Lug which is basically mostly the same route but in reverse.

Sub 150 is doable. The more I think about it, the more I believe it is possible.
In fact, I think 130 is doable, but not this year. Not strong enough yet.

Time to lie in bed, cause lets be honest, I ain't sleepin

ocnoc

Happy but disappointed.
I wanted 2:30. The goal has now been revised. I now want 2:25. Its doable.

Arts Lough 25:00 - 24:56
Clohernagh 18:00 - 18:21
Lug 14:00 - 15:50
Camenabologue 25:00 - 24:57
Conavalla 19:00 - 18:16
Lugduff 21:00 - 23:53
Mullacor 15:00 - 15:05
Finish 12:00 - 15:10
Total 149:00 - 156:31

From the splits I wanted to hit and the splits I hit, I see four fails.
1) Clohernagh. I drifted viciously. Gave myself an extra 150m, was nervous is well. Cost me about 1min.
2) Lug. There was one hell of a wind into my face. Was never going to happen.
3) Lugduff. I couldn't find the dam track. I was jumping far too many peat hags.
4) Finish. Not so much a mistake, just me been ****ed, legs not working, brain been forced to focus on the way down. Can't afford to lose it all now.

I'm happy I achieved full gas and ran that time in the conditions. Then again, I kinda had to after PN said I couldn't

Overall, a fun day's running in the mountains.
I am now tender.

Worst part of the day was leaving Glenmalure Lodge and throwing up the delicious ham and cheese toasty!!

ocnoc

21:30
Training. Bike, 20mins.

Objective: Find a Chargotown Pizza.
Objective not achieved. Selected a Goodfella's Ultimate Take Away instead.

A single can of Millar was also purchased.

I. AM. A. COMPLETE. REBEL.

:P

ocnoc

Race Report

ocnoc

2010 V 2011
2010 is the lighter route. 2011 the darker one.

ocnoc

I approve of the revised rankings.
Bo yeah! :cool:

http://www.imra.ie/runners/

Slogger Jogger

Cool. Wonder does age come into it? Can't figure how I'd be ahead of Zoran when the 3 races I've run he's been way ahead of me. Doesn't compute.

ocnoc

Your best 8 races over the previous 2 years. More points go to longer, more climb and rough terrain.

Avonbeg x 2, Dublin Mountain Plod, Powerscourt Ridge, Wicklow Way Trail... All nice points scorers as they are long.

As far as I remember, you were slagging me that I might have the speed, but you have the endurance. The points favour having lots of endurance over mountains over speed on a short trail race, so you have an advantage.

As long as your top 8 races are better than his, that'll put you ahead.

(by the way, you ran a serious amount (27) of IMRA races last year)

(edit: Thomas Galvin knocked out 39 races... eek)

ocnoc

Didn't go for a run last night. I rested.

This morning, I came across this.


It made my day.

Krusty_Clown

ocnoc wrote: »

It made my day.

Brilliant!

ocnoc

Thinking of mountains all day.
Stick to the teeth of the flat promenade out to Bull Island. I need something steep and gammy, preferably something that will make me scared.

Pulled my last years IMRA number out of the side pocket of my bag when looking for a pen. Made me smile.

Exams, please f*** off so I can go back to my mountains

ocnoc

I was looking at my calender for the summer and the key word is CLASH.

All the hill races I want to do clash with important orienteering events.

The Euro Trial and Mullaghcleevaun clash with Jukola (CNOC 1)

Snowdon clashes with the CISM World Military Games in Brazil with also clashes with Nav Challenge 1.

Following this, Nav Challenge 2 clashes with the Scottish 6 Day (which will be awesome), which clashes with Galtymore, which clashes with the World Orienteering Championships training in France.

The World Orienteering Championships themselves clashes with The World Trial (IMRA) and the 3rd Nav Challenge.

And finally, the biggest clash. The World Orienteering Championships end the day of Stone Cross to Lug Relay.


At this moment in time, my priorities are
1. Jukola
2. CISM
3. Get Selected for WOC Sprint (although, this is out of my hands)


I may be forced to go further afield for my dirty fix

ocnoc

Since the IOC relays (22 days), I have run 7 times.
This was a rest period. I can now start to rebuild and work on some of my weaknesses.

Today was a session in the park. I did the session on the twisty trails at avg 3:20min/k pace. Keeping her country. 2mins on, 1min off, 1min on, 30sec off, 30sec on, 30sec off; repeat.
In the middle of winter when I was getting in a lot of pain, I was bashing out 6 of these at a minimum. Today I only did 3 to ease myself back into it.

The legs felt ok. Not amazingly sharp, but not too bad considering the lay off. The lungs still have a bit of capacity, so I haven't lost much there either.

The next two weeks will be a build phase to ease body back into abuse mode.
Then we'll be in a hold world of hurt.

Bring it

ocnoc

Legs know we had a little bit of a session last night.

ocnoc

Cruised out to Bull Island, wee loop and home again. In the distance all the peaks stood out against the cloud cover.

On route home, all I could think above was descending Carrauntoohil. I was remembering lines in the terrain and where I could have been more aggressive. Also debated what risks I would take if I was in a pack coming off the last descent. I can see my route already :cool:

Even I think some of my lines are taking the piss on the risky side of the line.

ocnoc

I know I posted this on the IMRA thread already, but i just think its so cool. God knows how long/how much it took to make.

Sky running seems really cool. Granted, a lot of it is on trails, but it is at least vaguely technical.
I think if I wanted to excel at technical international races, I'd want to be living in the alps to train at altitude the whole time....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4p9WpMMtkY

Hold on, that sounds like I was making excuses.
To the Reeks or Connemara or The Mournes!! :cool:

Excuses are for second place

ocnoc

Bailed from college at 1900...

Went out Bull Island and did a 15min tempo into the wind.... sweeeeet.

This training **** is addictive!

donothoponpop

ocnoc wrote: »

Bailed from college at 1900...

Went out Bull Island and did a 15min tempo into the wind.... sweeeeet.

This training **** is addictive!

Running into the wind is where it's at today, kudos. Whats the elevation like at this Bull island?;)

donothoponpop

^ I'm regretting posting that already!

ocnoc

donothoponpop wrote: »

Whats the elevation like at this Bull island?

I duno man... It got fairly intense at one stage. I had to power over this bump in the grass. It was crazy. Almost kacked my pants coming down the far side of the bump. Scary scary stuff. I just about held it together though.
I reckon I climbed a good 2,500mm

It'll stand to me, it has to

donothoponpop

Seriously though, running into the wind is awesome training. Ditto running on the sand. My quickest I was as a kid 100 years ago, I spent three weeks of the summer just training barefoot on a beach in Kerry. When I took that training to a race in Belfield, it made such a difference, couldn't keep the speed down.

ocnoc

Yes and no.
Its good to have variety in your training.
Yes running on sand/into the wind is good resistance training and will make you stronger, but this must also be knitted with faster sessions so your legs get used to turning over faster. You have to build muscle memory. Once the legs remember how to turn over fast, its easier to keep near max speed up on a descent.

Someone once said to me, train on what you intend to race on.
I could train in sanddunes all my life and get strong but when it comes to running on a mountain, wouldn't have the climbing endurance from just running in the long grass and soft sand?

During the Winter, maybe 30% of my sessions will be done on sand as the IOC are on Inch next year. Build muscle memory.

All my early season results this year were because of running on the hills at least once every week regardless throughout the winter. Last winter, I didn't do that and it showed in my under performance in all the climbing on the races.

Ditto for Stone Cross to Lug. I had spent 2 months training in terrain in Sweden/Norway. I was as strong as an ox, although my top end speed suffered slightly I would imagine.

Train smart on what you intend to race on and reap the rewards of consistent top class performances

ocnoc

Today, was epic.
24.8km with 1,210m climb.

Lash on heading past Taylors
Caught Keith Daly heading up Fairy Castle
Running at horizontal to the ground towards Tibradden
Close call with splitting my self on the drop to Cruagh Wood
Climb to Cruagh Mountain was class
Climb to Glendoo Mountain was gammy (yet fun)
Over to Cloghnagun I was lost in mountain running pure bliss
Onwards to Prince Williams Seat was sloppy
Down the WW to river was horrible. I hate fire road. At this point, I got tired. No food or water.... woops

Decided to man the F up and do a straight lined to Taylors rock through the terrain to prepare mentally for a gammy climb when tired. Happy with how I handled it.

Descending Two Rock, stubbed my toe, shock down my arm, vision blurry. Decided to call it a day. 2hrs27mins. Walked the downhill 5km to the bus.

Awesome. So totally fcuked!!

In future, for runs +2hrs, bring food + water + map.
Was glad I had my over trousers and spare thermal.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/88371065

ocnoc

I have found a partner for the Rogaine... Hill V Hill... Its gona be great

ocnoc

Reading one of the British teams training logs.
He was complaining that today was his 3rd run this week that he had to train by himself.

Centralised training centers must be awesome. Having all the facilities on your doorstep. Must make life very easy.

My training partner pulled out of todays session, approx 30mins before I was due to leave. Then I thought about it, why bother dragging people out when they are not willing to take personal responsibility for there own training?

Why should it be up to someone else to drag them out to do a session, or a long run in less that perfect weather? Why waste time and effort in trying to get someone else fit when that time can be better spent either training yourself or recovering both mentally and physically.

Its a question that has been nagging me all winter. After 2 weeks, I stopped nagging people to go training and just said I am leaving at this time, and left it at that. Sometimes they showed up, sometimes they didn't.

However, they did show up every time without fail in one place - at the bottom of the results list.

ocnoc

I have been watching a lot of Killians Quest on the Spanish Mountain runner.
All very motivating.

I decided myself to go back to what I built all my running strength on.
Bun Hill.

Its a small hill that used to be an ex firing range for the British Army on the Curragh. The climb is only 25m over 110m but it is a brutal climb if take in correctly. Its a series of steps. The first step is about 1m, then it ramps up to the first steep earth bank, then you have a "break" of 20m, before it kicks up sharply again, then it levels out before a final 1m step in the ground, you turn around, drop off to the ramp to the side and go again.

This was the only training I did for a few years. Bike out and rep till we drop. Racing up and down it. It built leg strength and increased V02max. An awesome session.

I hadn't been to Bun Hill in a long time and was unsure what my body could handle so I decided on a 20min session.
Rep as much as possible in 20mins. The plan wasn't to flog myself, but to use the session as a gauge to see where I stood.

Running out I was nervous, returning to the stomping ground where a hell of a lot of pain was inflicted, I wasn't sure what to expect.
Took the first one easy, then got into the flow. 20mins later, I had managed to complete 14 reps. I toyed around with the idea of going for 20 reps but I decided against it, thats for another day.

All in all a good session. One that gives me confidence about my climbing strength and overall shape as Jukola slowly but surely approaches.

15k, 415m climb

ocnoc

I edited my HR ranges today.
Instead of working off of 85%, 60% etc of Max heart rate, I am now taking the Heart rates directly from my Vo2 max readings.
For instance, 60% of my max heart rate 132, however, my heart rate at 60% of my Vo2max is 147.

We'll see what happens. I know how my body operates and what the right intensity feels like, its just for my own number crunching pleasure.