Recent matches :)

It's been quite some time since I've been in any sort of competitive situation. Around nine months, in fact, going back to the Rathdrum Turkey shoot of last year...

Last weekend I was back in Ireland on holidays and, as The Lady would have it, there were two matches on; a 3x20 on the Saturday and a PR60 on Sunday. I decided to do both, along with Aisling and Dave from DURC and the DFST.

Since I hadn't really shot in some time, I was looking forward to getting a few rounds off in practice in the DURC range sometime during the previous week. Unfortunately, due to trinitytv interviews and a shortage of ammo, that didn't end up happening so I went into the matches with about 10 mins of a set up in each position. Some small changes were made during prep and the matches themselves, but nothing major.

Saturday's match started well with the DURC squad arriving at the time the match was due to take place. Fortunately, this works out for us since we were 75% of the detail that day :D I was most wary of the prone match, as this has always been my best discipline and I wasn't sure how I would perform having not shot in three months, and not shot with a decent set up in three times that! It ended up going rather wellish in the end; I didn't embarrass myself and nor did I set any range records. I finished two points down on the leader in that section.

The standing didn't go well at all. I couldn't settle, didn't like the balance of the rifle and was just generally unstable and useless. So nothing much has changed in 9 months then! Much attention will have to be paid to this position in my (eventual) future training.

Kneeling ended up being alright. I had serious vision problems with the target blurring, seeing things swim about and not having the best hold. It closely resembled my air rifle sight picture, so I was pretty comfortable in that regard. Wound up with a 90 and a 93, which also resembles my air rifle scores :D Provisionally, I'm top of the kneeling match, but there are two more people to shooting this weekend, so that will almost certainly change.

I think I ended up on 520 something or other, which isn't great, but not the worst for something that I've never really focussed on in the past. I was second on the day, but that'll probably drop to 4th when the final results are posted.

The prone on Sunday was a slightly different matter. Because it's a full 60 shot match with no enforced breaks, it works to one's advantage to have a nice comfortable position and stay on the ground for the full thing. I did not have a nice comfortable position, so I was up every 20 shots or so :D It started off better than I did on the previous day, but kinda waned a bit after that. I mostly put it down to not having enough rounds down the barrel in the past year to last the time. What is somewhat odd is that the final score equaled my Rathdrum pb! I don't know if that says more about how I trained last year, or about how I haven't lost anything in the 9 months I've not shot...

One new thing I did try was using a yellow filter in my rearsight. I've had the iris for a few years now and never really played with it that much. I figured I had nothing to lose this weekend with it, so I went for it. The result was that my eyes didn't tire so much throughout the match. I suspect that Saturday's shooting might have been better for it. A nice lesson to learn :)

The end result after a poor final on my part was a 3rd place overall, staying (somehow) the same as going in. Aisling, in typical DURC form, won the final with a 102.5, jumping two places in the process. We have a very long and proud history of winning finals and jumping places in DURC. It's probably from the hazing training :D

So that's it. No pics; cameras seem to have died out at matches, and my one is currently awaiting surgery to make the lens move again. If not, it'll be replaced pretty sharpish. Bis spaeter!

Checking in

Things have been going quite well over the past few weeks :) Yes, I have stopped my cycling to and from the city, but that has opened up much more of an opportunity to actually do some more structured stuff, such as my weekly TT attempts, which are currently going quite well. I'm possibly holding back a bit too much on these, but I'll leave it for another while to start pushing harder earlier.

One huge knock on effect that I've noticed since my commute is that I'm much more able to recover form a given level of exertion, both when I've finished, and also during a session. This is most noticeable in running. Formerly, I struggled through 7 km and was quite out of breath after it, no matter how slowly I tried to take it. Now, however, I can actually slow down a little bit and my heart rate will correspondingly slow, which I find a fantastic aid to my efforts :D

As such, I'm much more motivated to get out and do some running at the moment. I've been going at least twice a week, which is good going for me, and I've even had to invest in a second pair of shorts! I also completed my longest run yet at the weekend; a paltry 11.5 km, but that's well over the 8.5 that it previously was, set the week before... I reckon at this stage that I would be able for my half marathon goal (to finish, at least) by the end of September, and I might actually have a good time in one, were I to actually run one, by the end of October. Which fits in nicely with The Plan.

I feel like I've cheated on this, however. I mean, I didn't run for months this year, and now I'm actually able to run distances, albeit quite slowly. I'm running 10 km at a lower pace than a lot of people run marathons, which is somewhat disheartening. However, this is where that training thing comes in, so hopefully that'll pick up again.

I mentioned last time (I think) that I've found a new rifle club that looks excellent. If I didn't, well, I have now! I went out to them last night, as it was meant to be their first night back after the Summer break, but they appeared to be still closed :( So, either the calendar was wrong, or they left early and went to the pub. Based on my previous experiences of rifle clubs, either are totally possible. So, back out when I'm back from Ireland and we'll get cracking. Too late for Cardiff, unfortunately, but there's always the British Nationals next Spring, as well as some longer term goals for smallbore.

Also, as you may have guessed from above/heard I'm back around Ireland next week, so if I haven't already been talking to you about it, pint at the weekend? It is a competition weekend with a 3x20 and a prone match, but what the hell :P Later!