Scottish Lessons

You can train away all winter, knock out a few XC's, maybe go crazy and run a few hill races but at the end of the day - your on an island. We have some amazing terrain to train on but how often do we use it? We don't have an amazing depth of athletics that will push you to your limits through out the winter. You can fall back into a safe scene of security that you can take on the world, just because you win a couple of Leinster leagues by 5mins with loads of mistakes....

That's where Scotland comes in. Every year, during Spring, there is the first international of the year. The Irish team headed to Portugal in February while I sat at a desk knocking out project results and CAD drawings.

I needed a race before the JK to test myself. This obviously came down to a choice of two races, the Spring Cup in Denmark or the FVO Spring Weekend in Scotland. After weighting up the options Scotland came up on top, mainly because it was closer and cheaper. Less hassle.

Team CNOC consisted of Niamh O'Boyle, Hugh Cashel and myself. We also picked up an LVO'er on route in exchange for a sweet dinner and a bed.

Dragging myself out of bed at 0530, i knew it had to be worth it. Anytime your up before 6am, its going to be an epic day! Headed off to Larne and the count down began to the Middle race.

I went out at a pace I felt comfortable at and kept it handy. Making sure of the nav. Control after control. I was caught by Coombs and ran with him for a few controls before he injected some pace and left me. Really happy, technically with my race. One down.

Day two saw the clocks go back, and I lost an hours sleep. Never fun!

On arriving in the Trossachs it looked tough - steep with plenty of undergrowth.

Out of the traps and just wanted to focus on keeping it clean. I caught Kyle after a while and was running with him for a bit. I took a bad route choice going to 16 where I dropped a couple of contours and then climbed them again and accidently dropped Kyle who had followed me down the hill. Keeping it clean until control 19 where I had a 4min woopsy by not having an attackpoint. Suffered around the rest of the course to finish in 31st.

Returned home with a few lessons learned and a good WRE under my belt. Confidence is high for next weekend!!

Battlefield Glendalough

Accelerating around a bend, I can feel the gap closing. A flash of a blue singlet in my right eye. My left foot doesn't make traction with the gravel track. I feel my foot give way. In a split second, I'm in a heap on the ground. I see the gap get bigger as I jump to my feet. Blood runs down my shin as I give chase.....

Up early. Stuffing porridge and coffee into me. I knew it was going to be a long painful day. Bailed into the car with Paul and Eoin and Team DIT were off to Glendo for the Intercolleges Mountain Running Championships!

Pulling into Glendo I looked around to see who was about, Gerard Butler (extremely fast orienteer), Diarmaid Collins (its tit for tat on every race between us), Eoin Pearse (ex World Trophy Team), Stephan Cleary (defending champ), a selection of military.... I knew it would be one hell of a battle. I knew that Gerard is an amazing descender is well so I'd have to watch him closely. Eoin Brady of UCD was floating around as well.... This was a top class field of college runners. The most notable runners missing were the boys from Queens Uni Belfast. They were they guys who wanted a proper course, yet never showed up!

Warming up I visualised the course. I felt that sicking feeling in my stomach as I strided out, getting the legs ready for the abuse that I was about to inflict on them. My race tactic was simply, stay in touch on the way up and apply the No Fear method of descending - fast leg turn over, accelerate with every stride. Never give an inch.

On the start line, Gerry explains the best method to survive the course... It went over my head. I was focused on what I had to do.

Bang - game on!

Eoin P goes off hard. Sprinting up the first climb. Ger, Diarmuid, Eoin Brady and myself go with him. We cut the gap and hang on. By the mini descent we've dropped Eoin Brady. Eoin P still leads the charge. We appear to be clear and it's only 600m in.

As we hit the main climb, I see Eoin drop the pace a fraction. He still holds a 10m lead. Ger, Diarmuid and myself bunch up and begin to climb hard. The pace is still fairly rapid as we climb up through the S bends. Going up the last I get spat out the back as Ger makes a break to catch Eoin and Diarmuid goes with him. I officially got dropped. Wasn't too worried. As long as I could keep the gap small I'd take em on the descent. We snaked up the grassy climb.

The boys showed no sign of letting up. I'm digging into my reserves. Doubt starts to creep into the back of my mind. I get a flash back to a training run in early September on 3rock where Ger smokes the climb up Tibraden. I blot the taught from my mind and think about the XC last weekend. Ger went out to hard and I pulled him in. With this boost of confidence I stuck to the task in hand, keeping the legs turning over. One foot in front of the other. I pass Gerry Brady and he says relax, they'll come back to you.

I suppress the taught of making life easier for myself, the urge to walk is growing. Looking ahead I lie to my legs and say once we reach the flat we can walk. On hitting the flat section I look up, Ger has taken the lead. Eoin is hanging on and Diarmuid is still running strong. Flat section over and we enter the rough stuff. I know Eoin is struggling in his poor choice of footwear. Head down, just trying to put one foot in front of the other. Telling my body to just keep moving.

The walk up this last section seemed so much easier the previous Wednesday. Now it seemed twice as steep. Up the bare rock. I could smell the summit. My legs were pumping acid. Every fiber of my body was disagreeing with this madness I was under taking. As I reached the final push, Ger jumps down. He's running scared. We scream abuse/encouragement at each other. I now know I'm there. I get to the top and Diarmuid runs gingerly down the slope. He's mine I think as I get sight of the cairn. Eoin goes by me as I put the head down and skip across the bog and rocks to touch the cairn. (29:04 to cover the 4.4km with 535m of vertical hell) As I turn I see Eoin dis appear off the small summit. As I give chase Kyle (summit marshal) screams at me to take him.

The start of the descent is a matter of pushing it as much as possible. It doesn't matter what your legs are saying, just focus on where you'll put your feet in 4 steps time. When your descending on the limit there's no space in your brain for the "what if" taught or fear of any description. It requires 100% focus.

Due to focusing on the descent so much, what happened at the top is hazy. I remember taking large strides off the summit and a large distance of height drop before I meet a climbing runner. I remember Niamh screaming at me to get the finger out, and I'm pretty sure I yelled encouragement to her and something along the lines of her running one hell of a race.

Coming towards the rock face, I decided that I'd go down the grassy bank to the right. I believe this was my one mistake on the descent. I couldn't see what I was running to and I hesitated for a micro second to check the ground below me. According to Conway after the race, he saw me appear and leap for a piece of boggy ground. The mud exploded everywhere and I screamed encouragement at him before accelerating again. At this point I remember Ruairi battling it out with Paul Heavy, in his first ever mountain race. He was having a blinder!

After this section I was on Eoin's shoulder. I was just turning the legs over as fast as they would go. Eoin wasn't going as fast as I was so he got dropped after a small distance.

I hit the flat section and I had a target on Diarmuid. He was mine. He beat me in the XC the previous week so there was no way he was getting down to the base first. He passed Gerry, I passed a few seconds after. The track flicked left.... Diarmuid went straight. I wanted to beat him to the line, I wasn't going to let him get lost. I screamed at him to get back on trail. He commented afterwards that he knew something was wrong when he ended up in the middle of gorse. I accelerate and by the time he veers back onto the trail we're running neck and neck. We are flying down the mountain. I can see Ger further down the slope. I fully believe I can catch him. In my mind he's dead on his feet. He's merely surviving.

Diarmuid and I hit the trail. In the Mudclaws I have extreme confidence going into the bends. As Diarmuid slows down to corner I accelerate in and out. I'm playing with death as I hit the corners one after another. On one I hit it too hard and go wide. He makes a move on the inside but I shut the gap and regain control of the pace. On the next corner I hit it faster, taking a tight inside line. Diarmuid takes a wide angle and trys to get past me. I see a glimpse of a blue singlet as he guns the pace. I panic and upped my speed as quick as I could. My left foot doesn't make traction with the gravel track. I feel my foot give way. In a split second, I'm in a heap on the ground. I see the gap get bigger. I bounce to my feet. I can feel the sweat mix with my cut knee. Blood runs down my shin as I give chase. It doesn't matter. The gap has grown. I curse myself for calling him back on track. I should have buried him there and then. I try to catch him.

The final small rise is where I have to make my move. We both hit it and my body is in agony. The lactic flushes through my legs. I feel as if a bear has jumped on my back. I chase and chase and chase. I can see Ger finish just ahead through the trees. I can feel the gap getting smaller between Diarmiud and myself. My legs refuse to move faster. Diarmuid crosses the line at which point my legs say fuck this and give up - I coast across the line, finishing third for the second year running.

As the seconds tick away, Eoin crosses the line. He curses me and hill running saying never again (he'll be back next year). The runners trickle in. 8th man home, Mark Conway - DIT take the team prize. Less than two mins later, Paul Heavy finished - he had taken Roar on the descent!! Apparently Paul taught that the finish was just after the final climb. He went from about a kilometre out!

Hats off to Gerard Butler. He ran an amazing race. He climbed like a monster and did enough on the descent to win it. Womens winner was Naimh O'Boyle. She climbed flat out so she wouldn't have to descend hard. Both worthy champions. Interesting that the 6 medal winners were all orienteers.

End Note:

The ascent times ended up on the website:

Gerard was the fastest up in climb in 27:28, Collins 28:12, Eoin 28:29 and I got up in 29:04.

On the descent however I was fastest down the mountain in 14:26, Collins was 15:11 (I reckon his time was increased by racing me) with Gerard and Eoin both coming down in 15:21. Only 10 people went sub 18mins for the descent.

Double Weekender

For the second weekend in a row I was double racing.

Beginning to become a bad habbit.

The first race was down in Cork IT. The All Ireland Intervarsity Cross Country. When I hear someone say XC the first taught is muck, closely followed by wind, rain, cold and other forms of hardship. On arrival in Cork IT, I was greeted with the flattest, driest piece of crap I have ever seen. The course was flatter and more compact that the Newbridge AC track.

I got chatting to Downsy and he said to go out easy then start to hunt. So thats what I did. When the race took off the lads were flying! For the first two laps I had my elbows flying everywhere! I was running very aggressively. I settled into a good pace and began to knock out the laps, passing a few runners here and there. On the side line I had Niamh, Roz and John shouting abuse - Niamh, been the smallest was by far the loudest. If I was to quote her I'd have to make this blog as mature content.

I battled hard and gave chase to fellow orienteer Gerard Butler. The long haired Tallagh IT student was flying. But I had him in my sights and slowly began to pull him in.

When I passed him he hung on to me but he had gone off too hard. I began to up the pace as the laps got counted down. One lap to go and Niamh is screaming dog abuse at me. I was pretty flat out over the last km (becoming a common occurrence) and crossed the line in 44th out of 126 finishers.

Team DIT finished 4th, behind DCU, UU and Waterford IT - all of which have elite athletics scholarship programmes. A solid result with smiles all round!

Saturday night we flew home along the M7, I got dumped off in "da bridge" and got a nights kip. Up at 7 feeling a bit groggy I downed coffee and porridge and waited for the call that would signal the lift leaving for the Northern Counties. Off to Caranawaddy for round 2 of the Leinster Spring Cup.

On arriving at the base of the mountain I realised that my only kit with me was the kit i used at the IV the previous day. A slightly dam, fresh smelling singlet and a pair of shorts, by no means perfect orienteering attire but it would have to do. The mountain was kind. It was relatively dry with short heather or grass allowing fast running and fast navgation. The first control was a steep one. Straight up - needless to say I walked it, unlike Ger who monstered it up the 175m of climb in 9:42. (and this is after the XC the previous morning, he was still the first starter!)

I upped the anti after I got up the mountain and was running strongly but making mistakes because I was enjoying the running so much. I dropped 2mins on 4, 5, 9 and 16 because it was just so much fun. I was definately worth the travel.

In the end I lost to Dav H by 50sec. He monstered it with an avg HR of 180! I avg'd 180 in the hill race so fair duce to him for keeping it up!

A fun weekend... can't wait for another double again. Camaderry (hill race) and Trooperstown O'ing)!

Double Win

Biked out to Bull Island.
Conversation ensued with Guss.
Me: What time will win it?
Guss: Aah about 60, probably sub 60. But sure you'll decide yourself
Me: Sub 55 possible?
Guss: 57 is doable.
Me: Grand job. Chat to you later.

26 minutes 20 seconds later I float through the spectator control. Happily orienteering away, really enjoying been back on a map....

The first half of the course I set off at a comfortable pace and was orienteering along nicely. I had a wee slip on number 2 and got very nervous, not been sure where I was on the map, I recovered and got under way again. Splashed through the marsh going to 6 and hit the wrong side of the hill. Recovered going to 7 but slipped up number 8 is well. After that I was clean through to the spectator control.

On the flip side of the map I picked up the pace slightly catching Don, Greg and Declan. Declan hung on and we tipped along at a good pace. By 23 I had a big gap on Declan as he was nervous about 22 and stopped to double checked the control code.
Clean and fast I missed 26, over shooting and letting Declan back into the game. He led 27 but I fought back to take 28. It was game on. We were looking at each other as we headed for the last, unluckly we both missed it. Declan veired left but I saw the control, i took off and got to the last before him. It was good to be put under pressure at the end of a race.

0:57:56

Looks like Guss was right :) 5min clear of field

Back to the Hills

Finally, since last November I returned to the mountains to get a proper test to see how my winters training had paid off. The annual Maulin Winter League hill race kicked off this morning.

As usual my race prep involved getting up as late as possible, down coffee and bailing into a car.

Arriving in Crone carpark, I began to get excited. Bumped into the usual friendly faces and got people pointed out to me who will probably be up in the running. While getting changed I heard Gerry telling guys to watch out for me. This put a smile on my face. Fear is a great thing.

Warming up the first hill I didn't feel too hot. So i found a flat section and slowly increased the pace before some down hill sprints to get the legs ticking over for what would be a fast start.

Finally got onto the start line and a guy by the name of Ian was there, according to Gerry, ex world champs team. I'd watch him but I reckoned I could take him. He didn't look like he paid Maulin the respect it deserved. The route was called out and someone shouted go; we were away. Brian Furey took us off hard up the climb. I decided I didn't want someone pacing me so I took control and went to the front but dropped the pace to something I could hold. Luckily the gamble paid off and they sat in behind me. Across the flat bit I stole a quick look back and we already had a gap. It felt good to feel the burn again.

Up the second section I let Ian take the lead. Sitting in behind him I let him go. Running hard up the road I sat close to some randomer and tailed him. I then caught a glimps of a blue top and I began to question who it was. At first I assumed it was Brian, but he didn't have the blue top on him. I took a small glance over my shoulder and my heart plummeted. Peter "the beast" O'Farrell had appeared out of nowhere. He completely demolished me on the same course last year. I decided to slot the negative taught and just get on with the job at hand.

I went to one side of the track to get away from the other runner who was picking up the pace. I caught peters eye and I moved back to where I was. Running along the track we hit the grassy bank. The red guy got dropped, Ian got a gap and Brian passed me out. After suffering up the climb - painfully slowing to a walk and saving my energy, allowing Peter and Brian to get a gap on me. Once i hit the track at the top I opened the pace and caught back up with Brian. I was suffering but I knew that all the pain ended at the summit. After that it was just a matter of holding it together and decending hard. All i had to do was make it to the summit. I suffered up the last bit trying to stay in contact with Brian.

Summitting the top I saw Brian take a bad spill and dust himself off but he lost his flow. What really interested me was the race that developed in front of my eyes further down the mountain. Peter had caught and passed Ian! Ian had had a big lead at the top but it had been swollowed up in the space of 200m! Seeing this I put the foot down and caught and passed Ian. By the end of the MTB switch backs I had my eyes on Peter, Ian was out of the picture as far as I was concerned. At the base of the Maulin Ride I caught Peter. I sat in behind him and let him set the pace. He still managed to get a gap at the top, my main concern been the 2km fire road at the end. I allowed myself to recover on the climb. I no longer cared what happened behind me. This was now between Peter and myself.

Taking the decent at my ultimate limit I closed the gap again. When we hit the road he had 10m. The gap seemed to be stuck at 10m no matter how hard I tried. A voice in my head finally goes, "sure second place isn't a half bad result. After all, this is Peter who has beaten you". When that taught was processed I completely flipped out. All that mattered was closing that gap cm by cm. There was no way in hell he was going to get across that line first. I had somehow managed to pull the competitiveness out of me; kicking and screaming!

I accelerated and was on his shoulder. I surged again and got in front but as I did, the pace slowed dramatically. He kindly pointed it out that the pace dropped and that Brian was slashing the gap on us, he also may have suggested that I was dead on my feet but this could also have been me messing with my own head.... Needless to say I upped the anty and slowly began to pull away from Peter, millimetre by millimetre. I needed to know how far I had left, so when I saw the T junction I threw down what I had left going sub 2:45min/k around the final bends.

Turning the last 180* turn I glanced back and realised that I had a tiny gap. I accelerated to the line, I gave it everything. I just managed to sneak the win. I rocked across the line and ended up in the carpark, on my hands and knees completely spewing up my guts :P

Quality effort. Really happy with the win :D