IMRA season 2012

ThisRegard

GoHardOrGoHome wrote: »

I had a pair of these:

They'll come in handy if you ever do get lost and injured up in the hills, all you'll have to do is lie back and stick your legs in the air and we'll have the lads in the International Space Station spot you.

Patrick_K

Which model are they GoHard?
I was admiring them on the first climb :-)

I was wearing a pair of Crossmax and was all over the place on the descents, esp the first shallow one, that was lethal!
Thing I'll need to upgrade if I'm to do more like this.

Great race, thanks everyone for organising.
PK

GoHardOrGoHome wrote: »

I always felt fantastic passing the fit guy who passed me on all the climbs. I had a pair of these:



and they have great grip. Passed him on the grassy descent on the left of the wall and that fantastic zig zag downhill towards the end (2nd last descent). I did offer to recommend some trail shoes but he didn't respond. Hope he didn't think I was being an ass.

I felt very sure footed descending in these. Just didn't have any energy on the flats and the climbs.

T runner

Long winded Annagh hill report HERE

metamagical

T runner wrote: »

Long winded Annagh hill report HERE

Fantastic report T - reading it felt like reliving it. Having read Kiwirunner's report and seen that he also turned wrong where me and Alan did, I'm a little less embarassed for having taken the wrong direction, but no less convinced that you'd still have come in where you did. Lessons for next time: scout the route before the race and never let T runner open a gap during it - every time we fell a little behind, you pushed on even harder. Great running.

Slogger Jogger

Talking to Alan, he did scout the route before, but in the heat of battle its easy to keep the head down. The fog didn't help either no doubt. A pity Annagh is in retirement for a while. It has had 2 memorable races. Thanks to dp for bringing it to the masses.

nerraw1111

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

Talking to Alan, he did scout the route before, but in the heat of battle its easy to keep the head down. The fog didn't help either no doubt. A pity Annagh is in retirement for a while. It has had 2 memorable races. Thanks to dp for bringing it to the masses.

That's a pity. Great route. I hope D'pop is scouting a suitable replacement

There was a bloke wearing a go pro during the race. Would love to see that footage. Any sign of it?

metamagical

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

A pity Annagh is in retirement for a while. It has had 2 memorable races. Thanks to dp for bringing it to the masses.

Big thanks to DP - wrong turns aside, I really enjoyed the whole thing. Most fun I've had covered in mud for a long while

donothoponpop

metamagical wrote: »

Fantastic report T - reading it felt like reliving it. Having read Kiwirunner's report and seen that he also turned wrong where me and Alan did, I'm a little less embarassed for having taken the wrong direction, but no less convinced that you'd still have come in where you did. Lessons for next time: scout the route before the race and never let T runner open a gap during it - every time we fell a little behind, you pushed on even harder. Great running.

Perhaps last year the route would have been marked more in this area- IMRA marking guidelines have changed, no longer are junctions closed with tape, instead the idea is to keep going straight unless directed otherwise. It's a bit harsher, but makes marking easier, and (ironically) alleviates mistakes when the tape breaks in the wind and suggests an erroneous turn. Unfortunate that yourself and Alan went amiss, but everyone has a wayward story in IMRA, its a right of passage. Certainly you've nothing to be embarrassed about though!

(PS love the username- fan of Douglas Hofstader?)

metamagical

donothoponpop wrote: »

Everyone has a wayward story in IMRA, its a right of passage.

(PS love the username- fan of Douglas Hofstader?)

Yep, part of the attraction of it is that you need the brain working as well as the legs. However, that's easier said than done when the latter parts are monopolising the blood and oxygen.

Hofstader was indeed an interest back in my school and college days. Who else but the IMRA crew would get the reference!

iamjenko

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

Talking to Alan, he did scout the route before, but in the heat of battle its easy to keep the head down. The fog didn't help either no doubt. A pity Annagh is in retirement for a while. It has had 2 memorable races. Thanks to dp for bringing it to the masses.

Thats a shame, why so?

Slogger Jogger

iamjenko wrote: »

Thats a shame, why so?

Its like everything. A race requires someone to step up and organise it. dp has done a fab job for the last 2 years. Time for someone else to do it. Also, no harm to move events around as too many races can have a negative impact on a route. I'd be up for RDing a race in the general vicinity next year but I'd probably opt for one on my own doorstep or something untried in recent years to mix things up a bit.

iamjenko

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

Its like everything. A race requires someone to step up and organise it. dp has done a fab job for the last 2 years. Time for someone else to do it. Also, no harm to move events around as too many races can have a negative impact on a route. I'd be up for RDing a race in the general vicinity next year but I'd probably opt for one on my own doorstep or something untried in recent years to mix things up a bit.

Ah, i see! You're right DP did a great job with it and fair play to him! It will always be a race close to my heart anyway, it was my second race with IMRA last year and the one that really had me hook line and sinker for the mountain running!!

GoHardOrGoHome

Patrick_K wrote: »

Which model are they GoHard?
I was admiring them on the first climb :-)

I was wearing a pair of Crossmax and was all over the place on the descents, esp the first shallow one, that was lethal!
Thing I'll need to upgrade if I'm to do more like this.

Great race, thanks everyone for organising.
PK

Good man! Great performance from you. Good to see the Le Cheile vests out in force.

Those are the Salomon Speed Cross 3s. I had two pairs of the Speed Cross 2s - the only problem is that the heel was a bit high. They've been lowered in the latest edition (apparently the heel to toe drop has been reduced by 50%) so they're more stable when running downhill. The higher the heel the more unstable you are. They're super comfy when you're doing a race that has some road sections (e.g. Gaelforce) where a pair of hard-as-nails Inov8 X-Talons would be pretty grim.

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/salomon-speedcross-3-shoes/

Pretty sure they're cheaper in Great Outdoors. Bring your IMRA card for a 10% discount.

GoHardOrGoHome

nerraw1111 wrote: »

Great day's racing. Such a fantastic course. Bus worked out great, it even had a toilet to make the post pints journey home comfortable.

Had a great race myself. Very tactical, never got a moment's break. Constantly chasing or being chased. Those pools were freezing cold. Made up huge time on the descent, feels like your dropping like a stone from the clouds. Loved it as conditions were perfect.

Despite all the hard racing, still ended up sprinting for the line but couldn't get past him. Those pints of Guinness were beautiful.

Well done to all who organised

Well done on your top ten finish today. Took it all in your stride! Seriously strong running. I was over four minutes behind you and you were only 1.5 minutes behind Enduro. Great performance. I feel sheepish now for entertaining the thought (privately) that I might have been able to beat you seeing as my mileage is approximately double yours this year but your speed training over the winter is paying dividends.

I'll be back Warren... just you wait!

Peterx

GoHardOrGoHome wrote: »

Good man! Great performance from you. Good to see the Le Cheile vests out in force.

Those are the Salomon Speed Cross 3s. I had two pairs of the Speed Cross 2s - the only problem is that the heel was a bit high. They've been lowered in the latest edition (apparently the heel to toe drop has been reduced by 50%) so they're more stable when running downhill. The higher the heel the more unstable you are. They're super comfy when you're doing a race that has some road sections (e.g. Gaelforce) where a pair of hard-as-nails Inov8 X-Talons would be pretty grim.

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/salomon-speedcross-3-shoes/

Pretty sure they're cheaper in Great Outdoors. Bring your IMRA card for a 10% discount.

Great to hear the heel is lower on the new speedcross. A word of caution on the speedcross is that the rubber is very soft and wears down very quickly. X-Talons have a similarly soft rubber.
This same softness does ensures very good grippiness though.

Harder rubbered shoes include the Inov8 roclites, Columbia Ravenous and I think some of the puma/adidas trail shoes?

GoHardOrGoHome

Peterx wrote: »

Great to hear the heel is lower on the new speedcross. A word of caution on the speedcross is that the rubber is very soft and wears down very quickly. X-Talons have a similarly soft rubber.
This same softness does ensures very good grippiness though.

Harder rubbered shoes include the Inov8 roclites, Columbia Ravenous and I think some of the puma/adidas trail shoes?

Yes, forgot to mention that. Very soft rubber. I did my warm up (short as it was) in normal runners before switching to the Speedcross for the race to preserve them. Also the chevron grips are deeper and more substantial than the Speedcross 2s. The Speedcross 2s could have grips sheared off them especially on the very edge of the sole. There are also (very) small rubber studs on some of the chevrons. A really good improvement.

There's a Spikecross version which has metal studs for running on ice. Orienteers might be interested in them.

ocnoc

Peterx wrote: »

X-Talons have a similarly soft rubber.
This same softness does ensures very good grippiness though.

I got 800-1100 km out of my X Talons - however beautiful mossy springy Scandinavian forest is less harsh on the rubber than rough wicklow gravel trail

Mothman

Missed the race today...I was most of the way there when I realised I had left my shoes at home

Consoled myself with doing a hill session at home.
Climb 540m

Slogger Jogger

Good win from Alan Kelly today. Leaves the 2nd spot in the Winter League up for grabs in the Maulin race in 2 weeks time. Seems to be lots of people wandering around Trooperstown hill this morning. Issues with marking or the paying attention to same.

Slogger Jogger

This was just posted in the 2011 thread. Should be here...

Robroy says..
Hi Guys - I am organising a Mountain Running and Endurance Workshop to be held on the 7th - 8th April (Easter Weekend) with the launch of the Elite Performance Sport Science Centre in Westport. The workshop will include sport psychology, athletes preparation for competition, how to improve running and endurance, training, injury prevention, treatment and recovery, with an Easter Egg run on the Reek on the sunday. For more information contact myself (Robert Malseed) or the Connacht Mountain and hill running on facebook. I am looking to get hold an IMRA banner and hopefully get as many people interested in mountain running and joining the association here in Connacht. Cheers and have a great year ahead. I am looking forward to getting back into it after I recover from the tonsillectomy. I have been struggling with various health problems which has affected my running for the last 4 years associated with inflamed/enlarged tonsils. So good times are yet to come.

T runner

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

This was just posted in the 2011 thread. Should be here...

Robroy says..
Hi Guys - I am organising a Mountain Running and Endurance Workshop to be held on the 7th - 8th April (Easter Weekend) with the launch of the Elite Performance Sport Science Centre in Westport. The workshop will include sport psychology, athletes preparation for competition, how to improve running and endurance, training, injury prevention, treatment and recovery, with an Easter Egg run on the Reek on the sunday. For more information contact myself (Robert Malseed) or the Connacht Mountain and hill running on facebook. I am looking to get hold an IMRA banner and hopefully get as many people interested in mountain running and joining the association here in Connacht. Cheers and have a great year ahead. I am looking forward to getting back into it after I recover from the tonsillectomy. I have been struggling with various
health problems which has affected my running for the last 4 years associated with inflamed/enlarged tonsils. So good times are yet to come.

Something that may need To be brought up here. I saw the above and Roberts posts on the Facebook page. As creator of it, I have clarified to him what can and can't be put on that page. An advertising for a private commercial enterprise cannot be put there, nor can sponsorship be canvassed etc. A non-profit making training workshop of course can. The idea is to promote mountain running. I am allowing the page to be used for him to promote his workshop on the understanding that there wil be no profit made. I did succinctly ask for clarification on these matters directly by PM but unfortunately did not get the answers to the questions I asked for. So it's very much benefit of doubt, as far as I'm concerned. These comments are solely in my capacity as creator of that page.

ocnoc

Just curious, what makes him qualified to run a Mountain Running Workshop?

nerraw1111

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

Seems to be lots of people wandering around Trooperstown hill this morning. Issues with marking or the paying attention to same.

That was my fault. I missed a turn a hundred metres or so from the summit and about four other lads followed me down the wrong side of the mountain. I don't think it was down to the marking, I was just absolutely shattered and not paying attention.

Still have no idea how I missed the turn, I posted the garmin route in my log so you can see where I went wrong.

Stunning day for the race though.

Peterx

ocnoc wrote: »

Just curious, what makes him qualified to run a Mountain Running Workshop?

I think it's more interesting that he is trying to promote hillrunning at an athletic level, fair play to him. Hopefully it will complenent Turlough's grassroots approach.

Western Hillrunning might just be more than one weekend a year outta the back of an IMRA Dubliner's car in 2012 and beyond!

Commercialisation and IMRA have been easy and uneasy bedfellows for years now anyway.

T runner

Peterx wrote: »

I think it's more interesting that he is trying to promote hillrunning at an athletic level, fair play to him. Hopefully it will complenent Turlough's grassroots approach.

Western Hillrunning might just be more than one weekend a year outta the back of an IMRA Dubliner's car in 2012 and beyond!

Commercialisation and IMRA have been easy and uneasy bedfellows for years now anyway.

Thats one for IMRA to worry about or not though. commercialism and our grassroots page are not going to be bedfellows at all. I am speaking only about what is and isn't allowed on the Facebook group page that I created. People are free to make money any way they choose. They won't be using the list of Facebook users on that group to do so. I agree, fair play to Robert for organising a workshop. If he will profit financially from this venture then he will be advertising a different webpage as his information point though. Benefit of doubt for now, until this is clarified one way or the other.

ocnoc

Peterx wrote: »

I think it's more interesting that he is trying to promote hillrunning at an athletic level, fair play to him. Hopefully it will complenent Turlough's grassroots approach.

Western Hillrunning might just be more than one weekend a year outta the back of an IMRA Dubliner's car in 2012 and beyond!

Commercialisation and IMRA have been easy and uneasy bedfellows for years now anyway.

Promoting Hill running can only be a good thing. But more what I meant was that, say you would be suitable qualified to do a workshop on multisport mountain races or PosNeg on the technical art of descending at speed. Or even T runner on marathon training for mountain racing.

They guy only has 5 IMRA races (under the new website) - I am just curious on what experience he brings to the table

T runner

ocnoc wrote: »

Promoting Hill running can only be a good thing. But more what I meant was that, say you would be suitable qualified to do a workshop on multisport mountain races or PosNeg on the technical art of descending at speed. Or even T runner on marathon training for mountain racing.

They guy only has 5 IMRA races (under the new website) - I am just curious on what experience he brings to the table

I think he's been out on the Mayo mountains every weekend for a number of years and is an excellent climber and seems to be a very keen student of athletics, in fact he seems to be a very bright, decent and and thoughtful fellow. Im pretty sure he has coaching qualifications. There are no AAI mountain running qualifications, you ahve to go to British or European athletic organisations for those. I wouldn't have any doubt as to the quality of any workshop he did. (race pace descending might be the weak point as for anyone who ahsnt raced many up and downs).


"Or even T runner on marathon training for mountain racing."

Its a fair point...and i hope the side tracking mountain racing hasnt jeopardised a decent marathon.

Peterx

ocnoc wrote: »

Promoting Hill running can only be a good thing. But more what I meant was that, say you would be suitable qualified to do a workshop on multisport mountain races or PosNeg on the technical art of descending at speed. Or even T runner on marathon training for mountain racing.

They guy only has 5 IMRA races (under the new website) - I am just curious on what experience he brings to the table

It's all in how how you look at these things isn't it?

In his 5 races he has managed to learn to convert his roadspeed into decent climbing ability.
He won Mweelrea against the last two Irish Champions, a race which includes a trackless and therefore de facto technical descent, another surprising ability for a road runner on 5 races.
It was the second race in two days and he showed good recovery and stamina.
He came 5th in a european trial race, one place off the team.
Climbing, descending, recovery, stamina are all useful attributes in a hillrunner and maybe he can workshop those just fine.

If I was a road runner looking for a new challenge I might get more out a workshop run by a roadrunner who has shown success on the hills than I would from a multisport runner?

And he is occasionally on this forum so maybe PM him and ask him his quals.

Peterx

The runners results page not showing percentages is a joke.
The base/race points are essentially meaningless, I wanna know how the runner stacked up against the winner, not the middle third.

donothoponpop

Free advertising, spamming, linking your commerce to the IMRA name: bad.
Anyone training road runners that mountain running is dangerous and requires skills and wits: good.