(Not) Running On Thin Ice

Well, there go the Christmas plans, along with the feeling in my hands, after scraping a half-inch thick layer of ice from the driveway :(

Today was my last chance to get out for a run over Christmas. It just didn't happen with the ice, getting out of the estate would possibly have been the end of me, or, at the very least, a bone or two. For reference, the reflection and glare in the pic is just from the ice; no lens glare came into that one, it was taken as seen.

Also, because I couldn't get out yesterday with the same ice, I missed the Aldi bargains on merino base layers, meaning I'll have to fork out more monies for them at some point. Damn weather.

I also learned today that the UCC student gym was ruined in the floods, which pushes the city running plans back a while. I'll eventually run out of excuses I'm sure...

No Training :(

You know about my good intentions for running at home? You know how I got some Winter gear lately? Yeah... I didn't quite get enough...

So yes, I need to HTFU, but I really don't want to damage my knees, and I really don't want cold shock again. I'll start after Christmas...

Mental Training

I've discovered how useful a tool mental training can be over the past while. Since the rifles have been handed back, and, in at least one case, redistributed, this is the only way I can get anything done. I mean, I don't want to get rusty before Germany, like.

I haven't yet set aside any specific times or plans for it, but that's owing a lot to the whole moving thing. However, at various points during the day it just strikes me that I'm not balanced correctly, that my leg muscles are tensing to keep me upright. This can happen anywhere: standing around the house; at a bus stop; and so on. I have even started to notice it while walking. Changing my centre of gravity to be over between my feet relaxes my back totally, something I wasn't even aware of tensing before.

The relaxing is a very simple thing too; I close my eyes and feel whether I'm pulling myself in one direction or another. In most cases I'm falling forwards, and in almost all these cases it's because my head isn't sitting upright; it's tilted forwards, or slumped down. Simply righting my head makes a lot of difference. This all starts to feed into my mental training again. Some balance work, which is then followed by shifting into a standing position, followed by relaxation.

The second part of this is the shot routine. I have usually done this on a bus or train. Closing my eyes while I sit there I try to imagine myself in the situation, mostly in UCDRC as it's where I do most competitions. I run through the entire shot routine from charging to checking the shot, paying particular attention to the final sight picture and shot release and making sure I'm relaxed all over. The next step is to do this standing up and see how it goes.

I'll move on a little more with doing this for prone and kneeling as well. I mean, I have to keep myself in shape. Speaking of which, I've brought my running kit all the way from Dublin to Cork and now to Roscommon, so I've never had a better incentive to do some than now. I've also got some new kit coming in the post this week, which will leave me with no excuse, funny looks be damned :D

Moving

Who the hell needs cycling or running to keep fit? I've just discovered my new sport and calling in life; extreme moving.

Extreme moving involves taking the life and possessions of two grown people and packing it all into as many lift-able bags, boxes, and whatever else will pass for a container, as possible. Believe me, it is a sight to behold.

See, we made the mistake of thinking that we were there to stay. Which meant that we moved everything that was of any importance or use into our little flat in Dublin. It was lovely: cosy and secure; contained all of what we needed for comfort. However, this became problematic. You never really realise how much stuff you have until it comes time to pack it all up and move to the other end of the country.

I mean, it's not like we had all that much around the place; some clothes, a pile of books (hey, who doesn't!!), little bits and pieces, bags. Lots of bags actually, they are so nice and useful :D. However, it all adds up at the end of the day. I should have taken a pic of the whole thing, before and after, but I was in no form for it at the time. I'll see what I can do once it arrives in Cork.

So, after the stress of the packing thing came the extreme part of extreme packing; carrying it down the stairs and out the door to a waiting van. This was one of the toughest moves I've done, it took ages and involved more speedy stair climbs than I've done in my life to date, some of them with things that weighed in at a good proportion of what I do...

But it's now all done. All gone. Life moved. I have my kit bag and peli cases left in DURC, I'll grab them at a later date; the bag when I'm going to Germany, the peli when I need it. Oh, and in case I dropped in the Germany thing too subtly, you guessed it, I have to do it all over again then :( This time it'll be a different kind of moving, much more...selective. One bag. Including shooting jacket and other kit. That will be fun though :D

EDIT------------

A pic of most of our stuff...

Who Needs the Alps?

My first proper time spent in UCC was over the past two days. It's a lovely college and the writing course that I was at proved to be excellent: well taught; interesting content; and demonstrating the use of use : and ;.

What I had noticed before was the amount of hills around the city. However, walking around these isn't so bad, you only really notice them on a bike. And boy are they noticeable. Cycling along, nice and easy (well, giving it loads to prove to the drivers beside you that cycling is clearly a superior form of transportation), then bam, you're at the bottom of a cliff.

Now I know that I'm not the best cyclist, indeed, far from it. I also know that I'm not the best hill climber for my performance bracket. However, the severity of the climbs inside the city (!!) are something else. I wasn't used to that kind of thing at all in Dublin.

However, it does lend itself to some interesting speculation on training. Getting myself on a nice fixie, such as the Felt Dispatch which I have my eye on, would really push me to build a lot of fitness in this area.

This will of course not be happening until I get back from Germany. Word on the street is that I'll be leaving before two weeks in January are up, and gone for a good eight or nine months. That said, some alpine training, in an area like Schloss Ringberg below, wouldn't go amiss :D

Unfortunately, I'll probably be taking the Christmas and a lot of time in January off due to either having my bike in Cork, or, much more drastically, having given my rifles back to the club :( One of the really annoying things about this is that there are InterShoot qualifications going on as well. Based on how things were going up until last week I may actually have had some sort of a chance to at least get within spitting distance of the 573 required, which would be the main thing.

So, the plan has not been forgotten, merely delayed. Keep reading for more concrete plans, though I wouldn't expect them to materialise for some time yet. I'll keep having a look around for some decent training plans online and see what I can find. I'll share too, don't worry!

Bad Times

Well, the past while has been somewhat of a disaster. Between the hastle of trying to find a place to live in Cork and failing, going to Cork periodically, moving stuff from Dublin and a host of other things, including not having enough half decent gear to cycle in, I've done exactly nothing since cleaning my rifles last week.

I can feel all my hard work slipping away, hard work which I know isn't going to be easy to build back up again after Christmas. I'm thinking that going to Germany is going to be filled with plenty of running and cycling, if for no other reason than I've done so little here over the last while.

I'm tempted to brave the looks I'll get from my parents and bring the bike home over Christmas for some flatish spins in Roscommon, just to ease me back into it again. Since my leggings and UnderArmour top aren't going to be used for shooting for a while I may as well give them some use... I shall has to see about that. Either way, I'm not sure what I'll do with the bike when I'm in Germany, and I don't want to lose it after all this time either.

So, I'l try to get some training in, if only basic stuff. But don't judge me if I don't. It is Christmas, after all. Or at least it is according to the shops...

Rifle Cleaning, And Kit Return

Finally, the time has come to relinquish my use of DURC's rifles and kit. I spent around two hours today going through my kit bag, peli case and rifles to return all various bits and pieces to both myself and the club, which turned out to be no mean feat!

End result; the club now has an extra pair of pants and boots for use, as well as two extra rifles. It killed me to stick a Contact II onto M though, I really don't like those buttplates :D I spent the rest of the time running some oil through M and one, ONLY one, round of blue pasting 1. While I would of course love to have cleaned it more thoroughly, I just don't have the time.

The only regret I have is not having the time to shoot the rifles back in again. I had been meaning to clean 1 for a while to see if it brought the groups back in, but how and ever. That'll be the job of some lucky new DURC shooter. Well wear to them :)

Rathdrum Turkey Shoot, 6-12-2009

No, not shooting at turkeys, shooting for them! The turkey shoot is traditionally the last match of the calendar year and usually a bit of fun.

The scoring is based on the Macrae handicap system, which benefits those who shoot above their average, and drops points for shooting below it, thus making it in a competition where you really are shooting against yourself :)

Having sorted out one or two little things, notably weight distribution on my lower body and especially the left elbow position, just to the left of the pistol grip, I was looking good for the match. The sighters and first string were good, but then it started to get a little fuzzy with my right shoulder tensing and throwing shots left. I was having a lot of problems getting my right elbow consistent, which wasn't helping, and tensing in the cold. Things I need to work on obviously, but at least I know now. A 386 overall wasn't too bad, and the best raw score of the day.

Afterwards RRPC usually have a benchrest pistol match, but since we were the only ones there we decided to take part in that as well :D For my first time shooting .22 pistol the groups were really good, I just couldn't figure out how to sight the damn thing so they were all over the place. Seemed a bit of shame to launch Centre-X down a pistol, but what the hell :D

For the prizes I walked away with a turkey and a bottle of red wine, which isn't so bad at all! A glass or two with the RRPC lads afterwards made it a very sociable day all round :)

The day reminded me a lot of how shooting is there to be enjoyed, like all sport. Taking it with me to different levels and different places won't diminish that. People move on, but the memories remain, as do the bonds, the friendships and the rivalries.

This weekend capped off a four year career in DURC, which has had it's ups and downs, good times and bad. I've learned a lot, taught some, I hope, and will be continuing on with target shooting. So watch out, I'm on the other side now ;)

Squad Training, UCD, 5-12-2009

For the first of it's kind in some time, this ended up going incredibly well. The attendance was a bit poor, but that could have as much to do with the RO dinner being on the night before as anything else :P

The day was split into two parts, lectures in the morning and practical in the afternoon. It was coordinated by Ray Kane, of the Defense Forces Shooting Team, who is currently probably the best male air rifle shooter in the country, and focussed a lot on balance and relaxation. These are two things that I have been working on quite a bit lately, so it tied in well, and gave a bit more structure to the whole thing than I would have been able to on my own.

One of the most interesting things on the subject of balance was canting the head. This has always been a subject of much debate with myself, as I prefer a bit of a cant on my head and less on the rifle. Due to having a long neck and high cheekbones (exquisite, I know...) I have trouble getting down to the sights without tilting my head and being told, and shown, that this is OK, in moderation at least, was nice.

What I have found out in my own experimentation was that the major problem with canting the head is the manner in which it is done by many people. The instinct is just to shove the head forward and to the side in one movement, which pushes the rifle away and so changes the zero point and balance, resulting in an 8. My preference at the moment is to tilt the rifle and head together and then carefully drop the head forward. I find it gives a very relaxed head position, which doesn't strain my neck and is very stable.

So, for the results; not amazing, due to a lightened trigger (it got messed up during the week somehow and I've been trying to fix it since) so I kept snapping off 6s and 7s. Once it was fixed, towards the end, I stepped away and reset my zero twice, took one shot of each zero. 10.7 and 10.2. That's about all I need to know :)

Soup, Steak and Chocolate

Nom, nom, nom.

Tonight is DURC's annual RO dinner, with my plans being firmly on the above, plus some wine, possibly some beer etc. afterwards. It's going to be good. You know how I know? Because it always is. 'Cos it was good when I was at the same place for dinner two weeks ago :)

It's going to be a long weekend though, not-national-squad-but-kinda-is-training tomorrow at some unspecified time, possibly for a large amount of the day, followed by the Turkey shoot on Sunday in RRPC. Mmmmm, turkey.

Nom, nom, nom.