Leinster Seniors XC

Well with the weather dry and clear I lined up in the Leinster Senior XC Champs down in the country lands of Kilmacow. It was a good course with a nice hill in it and a good crowd to watch the races. The 6 laps (or the 6 hill climbs) really took there toll as the race went on.

The tactic, going against everything John said was to go with the leaders and see what happened... So i hung on in there and suffered through the 10km to finish in 11th position, could have been a possible 9th but i ran out of course to give chase. All in all 33mins for a 10km XC course was very pleasing. Someone took a video of it is well!

The week that followed was one of project work and easy running. As well as a meeting with Paul Mahon. Adventure racing legend. The up coming summer should be fun.

Friday night saw a night MTB session in the Wicklow mountains which had so beautiful views. 40k of sweeping trails and hard pack snow is hard to beat.

Sunday dawned and so did the All Ireland Intermediate XC champs in Lough Key Forest Park in Roscommon.

In a nut shell, i went off to hard, the course was marked out incorrectly, we went the wrong way, we were 2.5km short. It was a fine mess up by the AAI.

Run was a disaster and my attitude during the race was a disgrace.

39th from 115. If i was 20sec faster i would have been top 20...

Winner was 24:13 while i crossed the line in a pathetic 26:57; Fail.

The only positive note was that was lap times were pretty tight -

3:42, 3:58, 4:06, 4:06, 4:06, 3:53, petty there were slow :P

Longer Days

As the spring approaches, there is more light in the morning and evenings which should mean more training time but instead i am beginning to get lazy and stay in my warm bed.

Laziness is probably due to the mentally taxing projects for college and the new modules the 2nd semester brings. In college terms, there are still no sign of results so the wait continues.

For racing, i have been approached by the Irish AR Legend that is Paul Mahon! He needs a land navigator for the up coming season. After some serious taught on the races and distances as well as training commitments involved and the effects I belled him back and count down is on to the Achill Mountain Marathon - the weekend after the Irish Champs!

Racing this summer will be all about recovery. Keeping my body ticking over till the next race.

The prelim calender looks like this (note its highly likely to change!)

13 Mar IV's XC, Cork IT

20 Mar IV's HR Glendalough

26-28 Mar Spring Cup (WRE) Denmark

2-5 Apr JK (WRE) England

23-25 Apr IOC NI

1-2 May Achill MM Mayo

23-27 June Le Raid North France

26-27 June Irish Rogaine Wicklow

17-24 July WUOC Sweden

31-2 Aug Beast of Ballyhoura Munster

13-16 Aug NAM Kerry

18-19 Sept Mourne MM Down

I'd also like to attempt the Wicklow Round and a go at the Wicklow Way.... As well as Euro Trails for Hill Running and possibly World Champs

For training, the club transfer has gone through and i am now a member of Donore Harriers AC. Needless to say, the DIT crowd gave me a right slagging with them all been members of Clonliff and what not.

Training with Donore is going well and i feel myself getting stronger and faster. The first test is tomorrow at 14:30 with the Leinster Senior XC down in Kilkenny... Should be epic!

Back to projects.... again