Training Log Archive: BorisGrIn the 28 days ending Feb 28, 2006:
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Tuesday Feb 28, 2006 #
Orienteering 1:11:25 [3] *** 8.1 km (8:49 / km) +270m 7:33 / km
18c
Another beautiful day in the mountains, after a 90-minute drive. Great terrain - part relatively flat with short, steep, round, rocky hills and fast woods, part ridge and valley with massive canyons and deep gullies. Started running with Neil, feeling tired from the week's activities, but had some trouble concentrating, and we made a couple of stupid 4-minute mistakes on back-to-back controls. I decided to go off on my own and see if I can get my concentration back, and it worked well, as I ran clean and hard the rest of the way, quite pleased with myself.
Orienteering 1:24:36 [3] *** 8.0 km (10:35 / km) +350m 8:41 / km
16c
After a drive involving several U-turns and several moments when it seemed we would never find the map, we finally got to Sierra del Oro, twenty minutes behind one of our cars, twenty minutes ahead of the next one, and an hour or so ahead of the girls' car! But it was worth it!!! The terrain was incredible, with lots of route choice legs and huge mazes of canyons and steep reentrants and beautiful hillsides. Very tough, physical terrain - "a manly course", as Tomas put it. We did part (about two-thirds) of last year's Costa Calida classic course, including an awesome 2.8km leg with myriad route choices. I was pretty pleased to be just a minute slower than Micke on that leg. After the long leg, Neil and I ran together, both pretty tired, but navigating well and pushing each other. It was lots of fun and excellent training, by the end of which I was totally exhausted. A fantastic final full day of camp!!!!
Monday Feb 27, 2006 #
Orienteering 1:20:00 [3] *** 8.5 km (9:25 / km) +300m 8:00 / km
18c
Long dstance route choice exercise with Neil. In the beginning, we kept picking different route choices and waiting for each other at controls, but after a while, ended up just running together. Nice terrain, ridge-and-valley, but not too steep, with fast woods but rock underfoot. Beautiful views in all directions from ridgetops on a gorgeous day!!
Hanging out with no shirts on and sunbathing afterwards - in February!!!!
Hanging out with no shirts on and sunbathing afterwards - in February!!!!
Running 35:30 [2] 4.44 mi (8:00 / mi)
Warming up for the two afternoon sprints and running back from Guardamar with Joffe.
Orienteering race 11:35 [5] *** 2.24 km (5:10 / km) +30m 4:51 / km
14c
First of two sprints we ran in the afternoon. This one, billed as the "qualifier" for the latter final, was on sand dune terrain, on the La Marina map. apparently famous amongst the locals for being a popular gay cruising spot - reminding me of Forest Park...
Anyway, this qualifier was used to determine the start times for the final, and everyone was broken up into heats, with each heat mass started on the same course, Sprint Series Finals-style. The first person back from each heat got the latest start time for the second sprint. My heat consisted of Lina A, Erik M, Joffe, and me. Joffe was the only one who could outrun me, so I decided to stay with him from the start and wait for him to make a mistake. He made a couple, but was fast enough to overtake me again each time, until the third-to-last control (#12). This was a very short leg, and I saw that Joffe was about to run past it, so I sped up, spiked it and headed towards 13. Turning around, I saw Joffe racing after me, gaining quickly. I decided that he was probably not reading the map at this point, and so I veered away from the straight-line route to 13, letting him run by me. As he went by, I swung in towards the control, hit it and sprinted hard to the last control, spiking it and jogging to the finish. Looks like the trip to Pawtuckaway for the Sprint Finals last September taught me something and prepared me well for this type of race! :)
Mats, Tomas, and Micke won the other three heats.
Anyway, this qualifier was used to determine the start times for the final, and everyone was broken up into heats, with each heat mass started on the same course, Sprint Series Finals-style. The first person back from each heat got the latest start time for the second sprint. My heat consisted of Lina A, Erik M, Joffe, and me. Joffe was the only one who could outrun me, so I decided to stay with him from the start and wait for him to make a mistake. He made a couple, but was fast enough to overtake me again each time, until the third-to-last control (#12). This was a very short leg, and I saw that Joffe was about to run past it, so I sped up, spiked it and headed towards 13. Turning around, I saw Joffe racing after me, gaining quickly. I decided that he was probably not reading the map at this point, and so I veered away from the straight-line route to 13, letting him run by me. As he went by, I swung in towards the control, hit it and sprinted hard to the last control, spiking it and jogging to the finish. Looks like the trip to Pawtuckaway for the Sprint Finals last September taught me something and prepared me well for this type of race! :)
Mats, Tomas, and Micke won the other three heats.
Orienteering race 11:01 [5] * 2.2 km (5:00 / km) +45m 4:33 / km
14c
The sprint "final", about a half hour after the qualifier. This one started with two controls in the woods, and the rest in the town and the town park - much more street-O than anything else. I started late, after Mats and before Tomas, with 45-second intervals. Bobbled the first and second controls very slightly, took a somewhat stupid route choice to 3 that probably cost me about 15 seconds, but was clean and running well after that. Coming out of 9, I saw Tomas leaving 8, and so sped up, running hard up the hill to make sure he didn't see me. It paid off, as I beat him by 4 seconds and Kalle by 3, ending up with the 4th best time - 40 seconds behind Mats. Again, lots of fun!!!
Sunday Feb 26, 2006 #
Running 10:00 [2] 1.18 mi (8:28 / mi)
Warm-up for day 2 of Costa Calida.
Orienteering race 39:49 [4] *** 4.3 km (9:16 / km) +235m 7:16 / km
14c
Costa Calida Day 2 - middle distance chase start. I woke up in the morning with the knee still stiff and swollen, but much less than the day before. Put off the decision to race until the last moment and decided to go for it, as adding a DNS to three DNF's in the last month would not do much for my self-confidence. In other words, I kneeded this one.
I started a minute after Rob and a minute before Ulrik and set as a goal for myself to not give Ulrik any chances to catch me. The terrain offered some more of the same tough, rocky hillsides as the day before and, with cold rain coming down, this was not the easiest of races. My knee felt significantly better on trails and running flat or uphill, to the point where I half-walked most of the downhills. I had a very good start to my race, orienteering cleanly and smoothly, but still ended up making a 40-second mistake on 7, losing a minute or so on route choice to 10, and another minute walking downhill to 13. Still, I was very pleased with my race - the time is far from spectacular, but I felt good orienteering and was much happier than I would have been sitting at the finish all day and not racing. Ulrik beat me by 16 seconds, but didn't catch me, and Neil was about 2:30 back. Mats and Lina ended up 2nd in the elite classes, so, to Mats' great (maybe not too great...) annoyance, we had to stay for the award ceremony and miss the first period of the Olympic hockey finals. Watching the 2nd and 3rd periods with a whole bunch of Swedes was a lot of fun, though if the final had been Sweden-Russia, i think my cheering would have been louder than the noise all eight or so of them produced cheering for Sweden...
(Sweden scores, the crowd says "Great." Finland scores, the crowd shakes its collective head.)
:)
I started a minute after Rob and a minute before Ulrik and set as a goal for myself to not give Ulrik any chances to catch me. The terrain offered some more of the same tough, rocky hillsides as the day before and, with cold rain coming down, this was not the easiest of races. My knee felt significantly better on trails and running flat or uphill, to the point where I half-walked most of the downhills. I had a very good start to my race, orienteering cleanly and smoothly, but still ended up making a 40-second mistake on 7, losing a minute or so on route choice to 10, and another minute walking downhill to 13. Still, I was very pleased with my race - the time is far from spectacular, but I felt good orienteering and was much happier than I would have been sitting at the finish all day and not racing. Ulrik beat me by 16 seconds, but didn't catch me, and Neil was about 2:30 back. Mats and Lina ended up 2nd in the elite classes, so, to Mats' great (maybe not too great...) annoyance, we had to stay for the award ceremony and miss the first period of the Olympic hockey finals. Watching the 2nd and 3rd periods with a whole bunch of Swedes was a lot of fun, though if the final had been Sweden-Russia, i think my cheering would have been louder than the noise all eight or so of them produced cheering for Sweden...
(Sweden scores, the crowd says "Great." Finland scores, the crowd shakes its collective head.)
:)
Orienteering 34:45 [3] *** 4.6 km (7:33 / km) +80m 6:57 / km
14c
After the hockey game and the short Swedish vctory celebration, I dragged Neil out to go run the JWOC middle distance final course from 2002 on Guardamar Sur. More great sand dune terrain, even more runnable and fun the Guardamar Norte. Some of the best orienteering i've done all week - felt good and smooth, and the soft ground didn't hurt my knee very much. We weren't running at race pace, but were mostly orienteering smoothly, keeping good map contact on the run and having lots of fun.
Running 1:00:00 [2] 6.67 mi (9:00 / mi)
Getting to and from the Guardamar Sur map. I thought that getting there was an adventure, as we had to cross a canal by climbing up a highway overpass and then make our way through the town's dirty industrial part and busy center to find the map, but it was the way back that was the most memorable. We tried to run along the beach to get back, but hit a marina, with no way to get across the water. Afer more wandering and some fence-jumping, we eventually found ourselves less than 100 meters from our campsite, separated from it by two canals. After seriously considering swimming and (not as seriously) building a raft out of wooden crates, we cursed and ended up running all the way around, up the highway on-ramp, across the bridge, and down on the other side, adding an extra 4km or so to the run...
C • Ahh! 4
Saturday Feb 25, 2006 #
Event: XVII Trophy Costa Cálida
Orienteering race 55:53 [3] *** 5.0 km (11:11 / km)
9c
Costa Calida 2006 - day 1, WRE.
Started reasonably well, clean on the first three controls, though legs a bit tired. Then made a mistake on 4: couldn't make sense of the map in the control circle and had to relocate twice, coming back to the same spot each time! Ran with Ulf on 5, made another mistake on 6, then on the way to 7 took a nasty fall, smashing both knees hard on the rocks. Sat by the side of a road for a while, decided it was just a bad bruise, then got up and tried jogging/walking. Limped to 7,8,9, then came in to the finish, on the way to which I ran into Jan Troeng, also limping in after hurting a toe - a more serious injury than mine, as he'll be unable to run for a month or so. In all, 4 Linne runners DNF'd, and Ulrik, as well as Rob, mispunched - not the best day for Uppsala orienteering. On the bright side, Mats and Lina had the 2nd best times in H21E and D21E, respectively!
The knee was very stiff and swollen the rest of the day, but a bunch of ibuprofen, a compression bandage, and some jacuzzi treatment in the afternoon helped loosen it up a bit. At the meet site, I limped over to the medical staff and asked if they had ice (which i would have thought to be the most obvious thing to pack for an o-meet if you were the medical staff!). The ambulance worker shrugged his shoulders and said that the guy selling Coca-Cola might have some ice...
Started reasonably well, clean on the first three controls, though legs a bit tired. Then made a mistake on 4: couldn't make sense of the map in the control circle and had to relocate twice, coming back to the same spot each time! Ran with Ulf on 5, made another mistake on 6, then on the way to 7 took a nasty fall, smashing both knees hard on the rocks. Sat by the side of a road for a while, decided it was just a bad bruise, then got up and tried jogging/walking. Limped to 7,8,9, then came in to the finish, on the way to which I ran into Jan Troeng, also limping in after hurting a toe - a more serious injury than mine, as he'll be unable to run for a month or so. In all, 4 Linne runners DNF'd, and Ulrik, as well as Rob, mispunched - not the best day for Uppsala orienteering. On the bright side, Mats and Lina had the 2nd best times in H21E and D21E, respectively!
The knee was very stiff and swollen the rest of the day, but a bunch of ibuprofen, a compression bandage, and some jacuzzi treatment in the afternoon helped loosen it up a bit. At the meet site, I limped over to the medical staff and asked if they had ice (which i would have thought to be the most obvious thing to pack for an o-meet if you were the medical staff!). The ambulance worker shrugged his shoulders and said that the guy selling Coca-Cola might have some ice...
Friday Feb 24, 2006 #
Orienteering 55:45 [3] *** 5.3 km (10:31 / km) +255m 8:29 / km
19c
Morning training at Fuente el Alamo - old middle distance course from a previous Costa Calida meet. Lots of open terrain with big cliffs and tons of small route choice decisions that reminded me a bit of what San Diego must have been like - hard to find the right passages between cliffs and easy to end up standing right above the control, with no obvious way to get down to it. Fun!!
Orienteering 50:00 [2] *** 3.3 km (15:09 / km)
12c
Afternoon training. With the Costa Calida meet the day after, we took this training very easy. I ran with Neil, and we jogged around a few short loops, talking about route choices and taking different approaches to controls. Not the most interesting terrain, with vegetation being the most challenging thing to read on the map.
Thursday Feb 23, 2006 #
Orienteering 1:41:41 [3] *** 9.0 km (11:18 / km) +400m 9:15 / km
19c
Morning training on a map high in the mountains called Penarubia. Much colder up here than down on the beach in Alicante, and it even snowed on me at one point on the course. Started with a stupid mistake in the vegetation on 2 (not much training reading vegetation in Sweden!), but things went better after that. Couldn't find a small path on 15, wasted some time and got cold. Cut the course short after 19. Tough terrain - lots of rock underfoot and a lot of steep climbs.
Running 9:23 [2] 1.0 km (9:23 / km)
Jogging to the start with Neil.
Running 12:00 [2] 1.5 mi (8:00 / mi)
Running around before the start of the afternoon race.
Orienteering race 20:49 [5] *** 3.7 km (5:38 / km) +65m 5:10 / km
9c
A little race put on by Per Stenner on the sand dune map next to our camping (Guardamar Sur). It was meant as a Night-O, but a day version of the same course was also offered, and I took advantage of that, given that I do more than enough night-O in the Swedish woods. The course was fast, but you had to concentrate the entire time. I made a 1 minute mistake on the first control, but learned my lesson and was clean and fast the rest of the way, quite pleased with my time. The best time during the day was 19:52, while Mats had the best result at night at 20:20. It was fun to have a time close to his, even if the terrain was much easier during the day than at night!
Wednesday Feb 22, 2006 #
Orienteering 37:21 [3] *** 6.0 km (6:14 / km) +80m 5:50 / km
23c
OK Linne Spain Training Camp, Day 1.
After getting up early in the morning and leaving cold and snowy Uppsala, there was nothing better than ending up in sunny, warm Spain in the afternoon and going for a run on beautiful, fast sand dune terrain just three minutes away from our accommodations. Very runnable sandy woods with lots of contour detail made for fun, fast orienteering.
After getting up early in the morning and leaving cold and snowy Uppsala, there was nothing better than ending up in sunny, warm Spain in the afternoon and going for a run on beautiful, fast sand dune terrain just three minutes away from our accommodations. Very runnable sandy woods with lots of contour detail made for fun, fast orienteering.
Orienteering 29:41 [2] 3.71 km (8:00 / km)
Running to and from the Guardamar Norte map and running around on the map some more with Neil (ndobbs) after the course. While running the course, I got to stop and show a couple of Swedes where we were on the map - a rare moment for me! :)
Monday Feb 20, 2006 #
Running 37:57 [2] 4.6 mi (8:15 / mi)
shoes: 2006 VJ Falcons
To/from KG, to the start.
Orienteering 1:01:28 [2] 4.6 km (13:22 / km)
shoes: 2006 VJ Falcons
Since a lot of us are missing Bjorn's wednesday night-O, we got a chance to pre-run it tonight. Only Kalle and i decided to do it, and i had no desire to do is a race, but rather as easy-pace night technique training. So that's just what i did, going very slowly and carefully, trying to make as much sense of the map as i could. Still made mistakes, of course, but it was nice to not feel rushed during night-O. I should force myself to do this more often. It's not easy mentally to make yourself go out into the dark, cold, snowy woods alone, but it's definitely the best way to improve night-O skills - better than racing it. This was also fun - a nice and peaceful feeling, running along at my own pace. Just me, the woods, the snow, and the moose hiding in the shadows.
Day off tomorrow.
Day off tomorrow.
Sunday Feb 19, 2006 #
Orienteering 1:43:45 [2] 11.0 km (9:26 / km)
shoes: 2006 VJ Falcons
A long run on the Ekdalen map, 20km or so SW of Uppsala, after watching the men's ski relay from Turin. Felt pretty tired right from the start, and the foot of snow in the woods didn't help. Ended up cutting the run a bit short, with Bjorn and Henrik Gohl. The terrain was nice and technical, similar to Lunsen in places, and i had trouble with some of the smaller, more intricate features, which were buried in the snow.
I think i'll take monday and tuesday easy in order to be fresh when we get to Spain.
I think i'll take monday and tuesday easy in order to be fresh when we get to Spain.
Saturday Feb 18, 2006 #
Running 2:04:46 [3] 24.2 km (5:09 / km)
shoes: Nike Pegasus '05
To KG, to the start of the backbana, and then the backbana with Henrik Lofas, Lars, Bjorn, Joffe, Allison, and a couple of other girls. Ran the first half very easy, then a bit harder on the second half with Bjorn and Joffe (65:45 the whole way - 13.2km with a bunch of hills). Legs didn't feel very fresh, but not too bad. Henrik Lofas ran with a radio and listened to the Olympic women's ski relay and gave us updates along the way.
Friday Feb 17, 2006 #
Running 1:28:20 [2] 11.04 mi (8:00 / mi)
shoes: Nike Pegasus '05
So this was going to be a 45 minute run, but the prospect of coming back to an empty fridge, lots of homework, and a TV full of disgusting curling kept me out a bit longer. I ended up doing a partial tour of Uppsala, mostly running on roads, trails, and through fields, with snow cover varying from 1 to perhaps 15 cm. From home, i ran along Ekebydalen, across to Flogsta, to Berthaga, then down a bike path/trail in a field to Hallby, Husbyborg, and then around Libroback, then east along the highway and north on the trails towards Gamla Uppsala, inspired by Ulrik's idea of a full-moon run to the burial mounds. Then, a loop around the mounds, honoring the long-dead pre-Viking kings, and back through the middle of the city, first on Svartbacksgatan, and then on Luthagsesplanaden. It was only -3C out, but the wind was strong and cold, especially out in the fields, where i spent quite a bit of time.
And now, back to curling...
And now, back to curling...
Thursday Feb 16, 2006 #
Running 41:36 [2] 4.89 mi (8:30 / mi)
shoes: Nike Pegasus '05
To Hagadalsskolan, warm-up, jogging between intervals, back home.
Running 5:00 [1]
shoes: Nike Pegasus '05
Secret Russian Running Drills
Running 30:00 [5] 5.29 mi (5:40 / mi)
shoes: Nike Pegasus '05
There is no better workout for the day after an awful race than intervals! I felt strong and angry, and ran well, feeling good through the whol workout. We ran 9min-6min-3-3-2-2-1-1-1-.5-.5-.5-.5, with 2 min rest after the 9 and the 6, 1 min after the 3's and the 2's, and 30 seconds between each of the short ones. Mostly ran with Kalle, Bjorn, Lars, and a couple of other guys. Lots of fun!
T.rex training 45:00 [2]
Standard Linne circuit training after intervals. Also kicked around a small soccer ball with the boys afterwards, while discussing the optimal training schedule for the next few days that would allow us to watch as much Olympic skiing as possible.
Note
Haha, OK Linne's Sunday morning training just got cancelled because of the Men's XC Skiing Olympic relay!!!
Wednesday Feb 15, 2006 #
Running 10:00 [3]
So I spent a bunch of time this morning with my friend Axel fixing my bike. I got on it to go to the clubhouse and went about two minutes before the chain fell off for the hundredth time. Stupid bikes!!!!!!
Anyway, i locked the bike and ran to the big road where the buses go, to give myself a chance to get to the clubhouse in time. I see a bus about to leave the bus stop, and jump right in front of it, hoping the driver will take pity on me and stop, instead of running me over. No. He sees me, swings the bus way around me, going into opposing traffic for a second, and keeps going. Bastard. So i ran. Of course, i got to the clubhouse with like ten minutes to spare, but it's still better to be on time.
Anyway, i locked the bike and ran to the big road where the buses go, to give myself a chance to get to the clubhouse in time. I see a bus about to leave the bus stop, and jump right in front of it, hoping the driver will take pity on me and stop, instead of running me over. No. He sees me, swings the bus way around me, going into opposing traffic for a second, and keeps going. Bastard. So i ran. Of course, i got to the clubhouse with like ten minutes to spare, but it's still better to be on time.
Orienteering 1:16:24 [3] 7.0 km (10:55 / km)
shoes: 2006 VJ Falcons
After the bike breaking down, the evening could only get better, right? Wrong. This was another one of those mass-start, forked night cup races, this one in Knivsta. I really wanted to have a good race, and didn't train this morning hoping to feel fresh for this evening. Before the start, Rob reminded me that in these races it's really important to navigate to your first control yourself and not get sucked into the wrong pack. So i did just that, reading the map and running hard, feeling good. Spiked #1 with Micke and Ulf, right in the lead pack. Then came #2... let's just say my split for 2 was 14:57, while the best split was, I think, 3:42. After missing it initially, I ended up with Rob and Joffe, and the three of us ran around like maniacs, trying to relocate in a pretty bland area with a bunch of rocks on a gentle hillside. I eventually found myself on a field about 350m from the control and went back to attack. Back in the control circle, i was surprised to find Rob, who was doing the same thing. Despite two attempts to attack the flag from an obvious clearing edge less than 100 meters away, we kept failing, and i finally stumbled into the flag when desperation was setting in. At this point, the pack is long gone, and the race is over. Rob and I had the next couple of controls in common and ran together, messing up in the circle again. Then we had forked legs and split up, and I continued sloppy orienteering, my head clearly not in the race. It's funny - in daytime races, I would never dream of DNFing unless I was really hurting or in some other emergency. At night, though, it somehow feels different. After getting back on track and running a few decent legs, I found myself looking for a boulder in the middle of thick green. I tried to follow footprints in the snow for a while, but decided that my night is over when I suddenly realized that the footprints I was following were actually hoof-prints, left by some confused moose. I hit a couple more controls and trudged back to the finish, not surprised to see that Rob and Joffe did the same thing. It's just so demoralizing to lose the pack in one of these night races!!
This trend of crappy races is beginning to worry me, as I am feeling pretty discouraged and pissed off at myself, but at the same time excited about running in Spain in daylight next week!
I'll finish off this rambling post by pointing out Rob's newly created Attackpoint log: http://www.attackpoint.org/weeklyactivity.jsp/user...
Everyone should read it for a different perspective on orienteering life in Uppsala, as well as to check out the training of a top-class orienteer.
This trend of crappy races is beginning to worry me, as I am feeling pretty discouraged and pissed off at myself, but at the same time excited about running in Spain in daylight next week!
I'll finish off this rambling post by pointing out Rob's newly created Attackpoint log: http://www.attackpoint.org/weeklyactivity.jsp/user...
Everyone should read it for a different perspective on orienteering life in Uppsala, as well as to check out the training of a top-class orienteer.
Tuesday Feb 14, 2006 #
Orienteering 2:14:17 [2] 19.0 km (7:04 / km)
shoes: 2005 Falcons
Tuesday night run with the club, Course X. Felt pretty good today most of the way and managed to avoid any spectacular falls for the first time in a while. I did have one of those moments when you step onto a "frozen" stream, hear the ice begin to crack, move your foot off the ice, turn to the guy behind you to warn him, only to see him crashing through, knee-deep. The swamp gods are fair, though, as it was less than ten minutes before retribution came and I crashed through the ice the person in front of me safely ran across.
The last part of this course was on trails/roads, and Rob took the lead, mercifully setting a reasonable pace and not the gallop Mats or Ulrik tend to bust out with on the roads. All in all, a nice workout.
By the way, anyone out there going to Spring Cup?
The last part of this course was on trails/roads, and Rob took the lead, mercifully setting a reasonable pace and not the gallop Mats or Ulrik tend to bust out with on the roads. All in all, a nice workout.
By the way, anyone out there going to Spring Cup?
C • Ice. 3
Monday Feb 13, 2006 #
Note
Back in Uppsala now, very tired from the trip: to make the 6am Ryanair flight out of London-Luton, had to leave Oxford at 1am. Didn't sleep all night, got home at 1pm or so.
Should i take the day completely off or is there some benefit from going for an easy run?
Should i take the day completely off or is there some benefit from going for an easy run?
Sunday Feb 12, 2006 #
Orienteering 2:10:00 [2] 10.83 km (12:00 / km)
shoes: 2006 VJ Falcons
OUOC training day at Black Down. The day's first challenge was actually getting to the park, and this task nearly got the best of us, as it felt like we circled the park several times before finding the right entrance. I kept expecting to see signs like "Welcome to Wales" along the road. :)
The training itself, set up by Ian (distracted on AP), was great. The terrain was a mix of steep hillsides with some ditches, gullies, and charcoal platforms and a flat plateau on top, which featured tons of pits and dubiously mapped small depressions. The visibility was very good, but the runnability tough, due to the muddy slopes and the clear-cut areas on top of the hill.
The first exercises we did was a contouring exercise, but i must confess that i cheated a couple of times, occasionally using handrails or some other features to navigate, as I did not trust the contours on the map after seeing a tiny little squiggle of a reentrant on the map appear as a bottomless chasm (ok, nearly...) in front of me.
But anyway, this was cool because it was very different from the orienteering i am getting used to in Uppsala, so it was fun to use more compass, contours, and occasional handrails to navigate.
Next up was a getting-lost exercise, where we split up into groups, and in each groups people took turns getting everyone else lost. The idea was to take away people's maps, run them somewhere within about 250m of the contol and let them relocate and find the flag. Fun exercise, but it was hard to make it too tricky due to the abundance of trails.
Finally, we did a normal course, which was planned as change-of-pace training: series of short, ultra-technical legs followed by longer, simpler ones. Great course, nice terrain, excellent training! I definitely enjoyed this the most, gradually picking up the pace as the course went on.
There were many other random bits of running and orienteering involved, too, so I was pretty tired and very hungry by the end of the day.
Thanks to the awesome Oxford club for letting me tag along and especially to Ian for organizing training day!!
The training itself, set up by Ian (distracted on AP), was great. The terrain was a mix of steep hillsides with some ditches, gullies, and charcoal platforms and a flat plateau on top, which featured tons of pits and dubiously mapped small depressions. The visibility was very good, but the runnability tough, due to the muddy slopes and the clear-cut areas on top of the hill.
The first exercises we did was a contouring exercise, but i must confess that i cheated a couple of times, occasionally using handrails or some other features to navigate, as I did not trust the contours on the map after seeing a tiny little squiggle of a reentrant on the map appear as a bottomless chasm (ok, nearly...) in front of me.
But anyway, this was cool because it was very different from the orienteering i am getting used to in Uppsala, so it was fun to use more compass, contours, and occasional handrails to navigate.
Next up was a getting-lost exercise, where we split up into groups, and in each groups people took turns getting everyone else lost. The idea was to take away people's maps, run them somewhere within about 250m of the contol and let them relocate and find the flag. Fun exercise, but it was hard to make it too tricky due to the abundance of trails.
Finally, we did a normal course, which was planned as change-of-pace training: series of short, ultra-technical legs followed by longer, simpler ones. Great course, nice terrain, excellent training! I definitely enjoyed this the most, gradually picking up the pace as the course went on.
There were many other random bits of running and orienteering involved, too, so I was pretty tired and very hungry by the end of the day.
Thanks to the awesome Oxford club for letting me tag along and especially to Ian for organizing training day!!
Saturday Feb 11, 2006 #
Orienteering 1:01:00 [2] 6.0 km (10:10 / km)
shoes: Nike Pegasus '05
Running with Kat at Shotover Park near Oxford. We had two maps with different courses on them, so first one of us led the way around a course with the other following along on their map, and then vice versa. Quite fun, even though it was muddy, hilly, and thorny. Lots of fun running with Kat and seeing her orienteer - lots of improvement since she got to England!!!
Running 6:00 [1]
A few strides on a grassy field on top of a hill with a nice view at Shotover.
Friday Feb 10, 2006 #
Running 31:23 [2] 3.59 mi (8:44 / mi)
shoes: Nike Pegasus '05
Jogging with Kat to University Parks in Oxford, jogging around, jogging home.
Orienteering 4:56 [5] 1.35 km (3:39 / km)
shoes: Nike Pegasus '05
Running a permanent O-course at University Parks.
Very fast - great sprint training! Nice to run with no snow...
Very fast - great sprint training! Nice to run with no snow...
Orienteering 6:35 [5] 1.69 km (3:54 / km)
shoes: Nike Pegasus '05
Second course.
Orienteering 9:15 [5] 2.08 km (4:27 / km)
shoes: Nike Pegasus '05
Third course.
Wednesday Feb 8, 2006 #
Skiing 1:32:00 [2]
A nice morning ski. Lina picked me up in the club car, we drove to Knivsta, skied 20km classic and came back, all before noon. An excellent start to the day except for the fact that the tip of one of my poles broke off on the ice. Grrrr, gotta buy a new one now.
Orienteering 45:00 [2]
It seems that i have alternating good and bad night-O experiences. This one was a bad one. Did not have a good plan to the first control and, sure enough, missed it. Then made a 180-degree error relocating and ended up on a trail several hundred meters away. Attacked again and missed again: just one of those nights. At this point I pretty much gave up on the race and just vowed to myself that i would not leave the woods without finding that damn first control. I managed to relocate again after a long struggle, found the first one, then had no problems with two and three and jogged back to the finish, cold and unhappy with myself. As i was wandering around lost, I was thinking about Spike's comments that one should focus on the positives after a race and learn from those, rather than mistakes. It was really hard to find anything positive about tonight's "race" (i mean, it's hard to describe "falling into a swamp only up to my knees" as a positive), but one thing i did notice is that even though i still make major night-O mistakes (and plenty of them!), i no longer panic when i am unsure where i am as i did in the beginning. That gives me a bit of confidence that this is going in the right direction, even if that's hard to believe on nights like tonight. The course with Mats' forking and his routes is at http://www.matstroeng.nu/files/temp/fiby_060208.jp... by the way.
Took the bus home (since the bike is out of order and out of favor at the moment) and realized that i had no money in my wallet except for 500-kronor bills when i got on. I said this to the driver, and he reacted by stopping the bus, opening the door and telling me to get out (they don't accept large bills). Asshole. All of a sudden, as everyone else sat and watched, some random guy on the bus (a recent Iranian immigrant, he told me later) came up to me and handed the driver the bus fare on my behalf. There are some nice people left in this world!!! I thanked the guy and sat down and then realized i had an emergency 50 in my ski pants and happily handed it to the guy. So this ended well....
To England tomorrow!!!!!
Took the bus home (since the bike is out of order and out of favor at the moment) and realized that i had no money in my wallet except for 500-kronor bills when i got on. I said this to the driver, and he reacted by stopping the bus, opening the door and telling me to get out (they don't accept large bills). Asshole. All of a sudden, as everyone else sat and watched, some random guy on the bus (a recent Iranian immigrant, he told me later) came up to me and handed the driver the bus fare on my behalf. There are some nice people left in this world!!! I thanked the guy and sat down and then realized i had an emergency 50 in my ski pants and happily handed it to the guy. So this ended well....
To England tomorrow!!!!!
Tuesday Feb 7, 2006 #
Biking 20:00 [2]
To school, from school to KG.
Note that the part of the bike trip from KG home is missing. This is due to the fact that my chain fell off after five minutes of biking - again!!! I think i am cursed with bikes and truly believe that they are evil.
After i had been sitting by the side of the road trying to put the chain back on (it was solidly stuck) for about twenty minutes, a puppy came by and attempted to pee on me. I nearly killed the thing. To make things a bit better, though, the owner came by shortly, called off the puppy and tried helping me (to no avail.) While we were struggling with the bike chain, the adorable puppy climbed onto my knee and sat there quietly. Very cute.
Note that the part of the bike trip from KG home is missing. This is due to the fact that my chain fell off after five minutes of biking - again!!! I think i am cursed with bikes and truly believe that they are evil.
After i had been sitting by the side of the road trying to put the chain back on (it was solidly stuck) for about twenty minutes, a puppy came by and attempted to pee on me. I nearly killed the thing. To make things a bit better, though, the owner came by shortly, called off the puppy and tried helping me (to no avail.) While we were struggling with the bike chain, the adorable puppy climbed onto my knee and sat there quietly. Very cute.
Orienteering 1:46:47 [2] 17.0 km (6:17 / km)
shoes: 2006 VJ Falcons
Tuesday night training with the club on Nasten. Nice evening, not too cold. Everything felt fine, except the bottom of my right foot was hurting a lot, especially on snowy trails with uneven footing - it's been hurting ever since my threshold run on Saturday, which i ran in O-shoes on snow-covered pavement. Probably a bad idea. So, when the whole pack of fast people hit the trails on the last 5-6km of tonight's course and sped up like maniacs, i fell back not wanting (and not really able to) to push the pace. But it was actually quite fun and relaxing to run by myself the rest of the way, especially since the orienteering was pretty easy from that point. Very tired at the end, though.
Oh yeah, since everyone seems to be talking about weight (see PG's log), i decided to weigh myself at the clubhouse after the workout - 75.0kg (166lbs), which is quite different from the 81.5kg (180lbs) that i weighed in Japan.
And, the bastu/sauna after the run was grrrrrreat....
Oh yeah, since everyone seems to be talking about weight (see PG's log), i decided to weigh myself at the clubhouse after the workout - 75.0kg (166lbs), which is quite different from the 81.5kg (180lbs) that i weighed in Japan.
And, the bastu/sauna after the run was grrrrrreat....
Monday Feb 6, 2006 #
Running 1:11:56 [2] 8.3 mi (8:40 / mi)
shoes: Montrail Trail Shoes
Extremely unmotivated to train today. Body feels sore and beat-up from the weekend, and the swirling winds and horizontal snow outside were not very motivational. Finally dragged myself out in the afternoon with the Nasten map and did a loop starting in Stadsskogen, then past Blodan to the Norby farm and onto Nasten, then south on one of the small trails to the meadow, then west on the continuation of that trail, and back towards Kung Bjorn's hill on the ski trail. Nice loop, but the wind was brutal out in the fields - not too much fun. Left calf feeling very tight - can use a good sauna...
T.rex training 30:00 [1]
Flexibility exercises after the run. No screaming during the hamstring stretch this time, but it still hurt like hell.
Sunday Feb 5, 2006 #
Biking 20:00 [2]
To/from KG. Biking when it's -15C outside is one of the most miserable activities I can imagine. Brrrrrr.
Orienteering 2:19:08 [2] *** 17.0 km (8:11 / km)
23c shoes: 2006 VJ Falcons
A great day for a long map run! Quite cold at first, but warmed up after a while and felt good the rest of the way, though a bit hungry towards the end. Only about a dozen people showed up for this nice, hard run in the snow at Vedyxa. Towards the end, ran a bit with a guy named Gustaf, who asked me if I knew Mike Waddington. Small world. Ran a few controls by myself, as I cut off a couple of km from the biggest possible course and had so much fun orienteering by myself in the daylight! It's been a while! In the end, ran by some confused-looking cows, who probably couldn't figure out why the grass was all white and melted in their mouths.
Anyway, a really fun run!
Anyway, a really fun run!
Note
A long leg (as well as a few others) from today's run is posted here. As we often do on long legs, we split up to try out a bunch of different route choices. One choice was 2:30 faster than the next fastest. Which was it? (The leg is going from South to North.) Sorry for the crappy picture quality... Gotta get a scanner...
Biking 15:00 [2]
To/from Catedralsskolan for innebandy.
Innebandy 30:00 [4]
Innebandy!
For those who don't know (myself including until i got to Sweden), innebandy is indoor floor hockey, and is very popular here, especially during the winter. I have wanted to try it ever since I got to Sweden, and finally got the chance tonight. It's a fun game, very fast-paced, played 4 on 4. You have to be running up and down the court pretty much the whole time, so it's a great workout - i was out of breath almost immediately. The sport is also non-contact, which has its good and bad sides: on one hand, being physically big is less of an advantage than in, say, hockey or basketball, and there is less of a risk of being knocked over. On the other hand, it's really nice to push and shove once in a while, and it was hard to restrain myself. Not surprisingly, i was pretty bad at innebandy, but really enjoyed it and hope to get to play some more this winter.
For those who don't know (myself including until i got to Sweden), innebandy is indoor floor hockey, and is very popular here, especially during the winter. I have wanted to try it ever since I got to Sweden, and finally got the chance tonight. It's a fun game, very fast-paced, played 4 on 4. You have to be running up and down the court pretty much the whole time, so it's a great workout - i was out of breath almost immediately. The sport is also non-contact, which has its good and bad sides: on one hand, being physically big is less of an advantage than in, say, hockey or basketball, and there is less of a risk of being knocked over. On the other hand, it's really nice to push and shove once in a while, and it was hard to restrain myself. Not surprisingly, i was pretty bad at innebandy, but really enjoyed it and hope to get to play some more this winter.
Note
Ok, I think i've been reading Spike's blog a bit too much recently (I hadn't been a regular reader until this month and so have been going through the archives to catch up and discovering lots of cool things to think about and tons of maps to look at.)
After looking at many maps and route choices on his site, one question that popped up in my mind (and i'm sorry if it's already been beaten to death - perhaps even in Spike's blog...) is this: do top men in orienteering tend to take different route choices on the same types of legs than top women? In particular, looking at some top runners' route choices at WOC in Japan led me to think that the top women tended to go further out of the way to avoid climb and/or get to trails. This observation may be just a coincidence, of course, but i wonder if anyone else has thought about this and looked at more maps and route choices with some conclusions...
After looking at many maps and route choices on his site, one question that popped up in my mind (and i'm sorry if it's already been beaten to death - perhaps even in Spike's blog...) is this: do top men in orienteering tend to take different route choices on the same types of legs than top women? In particular, looking at some top runners' route choices at WOC in Japan led me to think that the top women tended to go further out of the way to avoid climb and/or get to trails. This observation may be just a coincidence, of course, but i wonder if anyone else has thought about this and looked at more maps and route choices with some conclusions...
Saturday Feb 4, 2006 #
Running 32:55 [2] 4.11 mi (8:01 / mi)
shoes: 2005 Falcons
To KG, then warm-up with Jan and Rob
Running 30:00 [4] 5.0 mi (6:00 / mi)
shoes: 2005 Falcons
Threshold with Jan and Rob (or rather, behind Jan and Rob). 2x15 min. Felt hard, running into the wind most of the way. The roads were slippery, and I am glad I wore O-shoes, but now i have my first blister in a long time: on top of the big toe. Grrr. Legs felt good, but i decided that 2 reps was enough. The guys did 3, i jogged home. Good, tough workout.
Running 20:23 [2] 2.4 mi (8:30 / mi)
shoes: 2005 Falcons
Jogging home via Pollacksbacken
Friday Feb 3, 2006 #
Biking 20:00 [2]
To school/from the city in the snow. It's winter again!
Note
Planned day off - no need to rush into training 12 hours a week right after being sick.
Thursday Feb 2, 2006 #
Biking 20:00 [2]
To/from school
Running 36:40 [2] 4.07 mi (9:01 / mi)
shoes: Nike Pegasus '05
Jogging to Hagadalsskolan, warm-up, jogging between intervals, cool-down, jogging home.
Running 5:00 [1]
Secret Russian Running Drills
Running 18:00 [5] 3.38 mi (5:20 / mi)
shoes: Nike Pegasus '05
Intervals. Since I felt pretty good yesterday and my appetite was back today, i decided to do intervals, but just run a shortened version of the workout. We did 3-minutes intervals, with 1 minute rest. I did 6 instead of the usual 8 or 10, running with the others recovering from injury or sickness, like Micke or Tomas, as well as Albin, who is insanely fast and strong for his age! This kid will be something special in a few years...
The intervals felt hard, but good. Hopefully this week-end i'll be back to full-strength training, but will take tomorrow either completely off or just very easy.
The intervals felt hard, but good. Hopefully this week-end i'll be back to full-strength training, but will take tomorrow either completely off or just very easy.
T.rex training 40:00 [2]
The full strength circuit after intervals. Lots of fun, lots of sweat.
Wednesday Feb 1, 2006 #
Biking 30:00 [2]
To school, to KG, then home.
Running 10:00 [2] 1.11 mi (9:01 / mi)
shoes: 2006 VJ Falcons
Warm-up
Orienteering 44:03 [4] *** 5.2 km (8:28 / km)
9c shoes: 2006 VJ Falcons
Wedneday night-O, short course. Recovering from sickness gave me a great excuse to not do the long course, which was 11.5km and took Jan Troeng 90 minutes or so, meaning i'd still be out there. As a result of this, there was a pretty strong field running the short course, as a couple of elites recovering from injury ran it as well. I was totally confused right off the bat, as the start triangle was misplaced on the map. Apparently, there was an announcement about this, but i missed it. After wandering around for a while, i finally figured out what was happening (by latching on to someone who knew what they were doing for a control) and then took off. My legs felt great, probably because this was the first time running on solid forest floor after a couple of months of snow (i'm sure the snow will be back, though) and i was orienteering better and better as the race went on. After my early troubles, i had a couple of 30-second bobble, but had a good race otherwise and ran away from a nice pack on the two long legs before the last control. Ended up fourth on the course, 4:43 behind Tomas Stenstrom's winning time.