Training Log Archive: BorisGr

Nice long run with Marie and Anna at West Rock. Saw lots of deer and some cats. I felt good, without the aches and pains I had felt the last couple of days. I think I'll chalk those up to returning to running after a training break.

Nice easy run with Marie at Maltby Lakes in the rain.

East Rock! I did the perimeter loop at East Rock on a nice sunny morning. The absolute highlight was on the way back, when I saw something dog-sized sitting in a puddle in the middle of College Woods park. As I got closer, I realized it was a beautiful large red-tailed hawk just standing there looking at me. I stopped and admired him for a while, letting him admire me as well. I guess after a few seconds he'd seen enough and flew away. Really gorgeous bird, such a thrill to see him up close.

Warmup jog with Kat

A slightly modified version of Linné's rockgympa in our living room. It was good fun, and just as hard as in Uppsala! I managed to remember most of the exercises, and am ready to present it for the rest of the New Haven contingent.

Back to civilization, back to training. Went for an easy run with Kat's brother Aleksey from their house in Washington Heights down along the Hudson and back. Beautiful morning, really great to be out. Running felt easy. The GPS track for this run looks really weird. I did not actually take a swim in the Hudson at 60 mph.

Not much training, but here is a bit of what I've been up to in Belize with Kat's family this afternoon:
https://picasaweb.google.com/115600040618748380315...

C • Cool photos 7

I am going to channel PG today and write about things entirely irrelevant for orienteering, but possibly interesting or entertaining anyway.

So, A Tale of Two Nations, by Boris.

In New York. My goals today were to submit applications for a Russian tourist visa and a Swedish residence permit at the nations' respective General Consulates.

Act I: Russia
Opening hours are from 9:30, I show up at 9. There is a line outside, I am about the fifth person applying for a visa. Doors open at 9:45, and an extremely large man with a shaved head, an exaggeratedly unpleasant face, and a pinstriped suit examines us, one by one. The guy in front of me, whom I'd been chatting in line with, is not even allowed to enter. I fare better, and take my place in the waiting room inside. The office is cramped. There are no separate booths, so you can hear everyone's conversations with their respective visa officials. It sounds a bit like a bazaar, with shouting interspersed with begging and the occasional crying. Three people are ahead of me. First one is denied a visa because the Consulate lost his papers. Next one comes up, talks to an official for a while. He then raises his voice, as does the official, who is unhappy about the customer's tone of voice. The formerly mentioned large gentleman in a suit enters and asks the customer to come with him. Customer refuses, and is then taken by the collar of his coat and escorted manually off the premises. His possessions follow, propelled somewhat more rapidly. The last person in front of me actually manages to submit an application.

Now it's my turn. I sit directly in front of the visa window, and see the employee inside. She looks at me, then looks back down to her nails, which she is intently filing. After about fifteen minutes of filing, she announces "next!", and I approach. I submit my documents, and am told, with a big smile, that my application cannot be accepted. My US passport is irrelevant, as the Russian Federation cherishes me and claims me as one of its own. "Because you are a Russian citizen, you have to travel with a Russian passport", she says. "Ok, how do I get a Russian passport?" "First, give us $65 to check if you are eligible for a passport. Then, if you are, you can apply. That takes three months and costs $180." "Ok, what if I just want to renounce my Russian citizenship, can I just sign something?" "Sure." "Ok, I would like to renounce my Russian citizenship." "Very well, please show me your Russian passport." ...

Act II: Sweden, about half an hour later

I arrive about twenty minutes before closing time. We are on the 21st floor of a skyscraper, and there is not a soul waiting inside. The office is clean and spacious, and a lovely Swedish woman asks with a smile how she can help me. I give her my documents and, five minutes later, have a receipt for having submitted my application, and an assurance that they will try to process it by the time I need to go back to Sweden. I am also given complimentary canelbullar and a cup of glogg and told that the Swedish church around the block is having a Christmas fair, which I should go to.

The consulate as a mirror into the soul of the nation?

C • Hmm 16

To the start

Wednesday Night-O in Hammarskog, middle course

QR: http://www.dxdeluxe.se/linnekartparmen/show_map.ph...

Results: http://www.oklinne.nu/onsdagsnatt/results.php?id=1...

617/2000

Tisdagsbana A2.

We were a group of eight who skipped the club's half-marathon training in favor of running in the forest. I am really glad we did that! Nice pace, good company, and lots of navigation, as this course was almost entirely in the woods. Wet and very cold in the swamps, and foggy in Hågadalen with a huge moon overhead - a perfect Nåsten night.

C • training camp 1

Pre-gympa run with Ross on the lit trail in Stadsskogen. I am excited to go back to the US this week, but I will miss living with Ross and Sam here!!

C • Ha 3

Rockgympa. Was doing the exercises more properly the second time around, and was really suffering. I think it's a really good program, and I'll try to keep doing it back in the States. Also, I think I will be in a lot of pain tomorrow.

C • Remember remember! 8

Innebandy. Lots of sweaty fun, as usual. Plus I took a club to the lip from one of the other Americans.

Pre-running Vinterrejset with Mandus. Long and tricky, with lots of puzzle-solving and confusion along the way. Now I am sleepy.

608/2000

To start, from finish

Training on Lunsen designed by Mandus, with no controls in the forest. First part was contours-only, and for the second we had the entire map. I ran together with Ross. We took turns leading and orienteered well for the most part except #4 on the first part, which I screwed up, attacking early and then having no idea where we were. After that things went well, and we had a nice flow through the rest of the course. Really great training, and so much fun running on Lunsen!

Part 1: http://www.dxdeluxe.se/linnekartparmen/show_map.ph...

Part 2: http://www.dxdeluxe.se/linnekartparmen/show_map.ph...

574/2000

Going to go run a 3km on the track now. Never run one before. Unsure of a good goal time, but maybe 10:30.
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C • makkara bet 7

Warmup/cooldown

Well, that was a good goal time, turns out. Ran 10:27, feeling very weak from the start. The lack of track running certainly showed - I kept lifting my feet way too high the entire time. I would love to improve substantially on this by spring.
37
80
85
85
87
86
87
78

Not exactly a well-paced race, either, but glad to have done it... Nice to have Ross and Olle there (way out in front) for company.

Warmup/cooldown

Street-O chase start. Started towards the end since I mispunched last week. Ran ok, but felt pretty slow towards the end.

Map: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22630466/10nov.8%20km.jpg
Results: http://oklinne.nu/documents/documents_open.php?id=...

556/2000

All day at a meeting in Stockholm.

Unrelated: the Swedish Orienteering Federation endorsed the idea of separate sprint-WOCs and forest-WOCs in alternate years (Mr.WorldofO talks about it here: http://news.worldofo.com/2011/11/10/separate-sprin...)
I was not in favor of this idea when I first heard it, but seeing the proposed alternatives, I am starting to believe that this is the best compromise I've heard so far.

C • Split WOC plan 17

KG->Start

Tisdagsbana G in a nice, easy tempo. Ran with a big pack at first, then with Albin, Johan, Ross and Calle towards the end. Afterwards, a meeting with the Swedish national team coaches talking about what the national team can do for the club, and what the club can do for the national team. The general answer seemed to be "not much, keep doing what you are doing." A somewhat strange discussion, really - very one-sided.

Warm-up for gympa with Ross.

Rockgympa at Hågadalsskolan, led by loefaas. This was running-specific strength, such as jumping and hopping and planking and lunging. Tough, but nice to have company in one's misery.

C • So true! Group strength tra... 1

A lot of innebandy after gympa. Very sweaty and sore by the end.

To Stenhagen

Checking out the new ISSOM map Simon and friends drew of Stenhagen. Pretty awesome. Made a list of things that needed to be fixed, but in general it's a great new sprint map for the club.

544/2000

From Stenhagen

Gympa! Rasa convinced us to extend the weekend of craziness and go to gympa. We picked up Mari on the way and drove down to Väderkvarnsgatan and Snygg-Magnus gympa! It was really fun and sweaty, and I was as usual uncoordinated. Good fun.

"World Champion Training": Thierry Guergiou and Annika Billstam were in town for a visit fresh off their US trip and took part in a Linné training.

The training was a mass start race on Lunsen with forked courses and 60 participants. Thierry and Annika won the men's and women's classes, Thierry holding off Rassmus by 9 seconds.

I felt really tired right away, but pushed hard for about 3-4 km before fading quickly. Ended up jogging the rest of the course. The scratched eye from last night gave me a little trouble, but not nearly as much as last night.

504/2000

Morning jog around the neighborhood and Kung Björn's hill. Visited the hairy cows. They were cute.

Long jog to the start of Rodhenloppet.

Rodhenloppet with Andrew.

This is a mass-start pairs night race, and we entered the men's category, which was 12.5km with 21 controls.

There were only six teams in the men's class, but two of the other teams consisted of really good, experienced (40+ and 50 year-old) night orienteers. The pace was really high off the bat, and we were basically just trying to keep up for the first two controls. Going to 3 we took our own route to try and get ahead, but lost time in the very vague area in the control circle and fell about 4 minutes behind.

We then ran well for about 12 legs, making a couple of mistakes, but nothing major, and stayed about 4 minutes back of the teams ahead of us. On the way to 16 I got a pine needle in the eye, scratching my eye. At the same time, we found ourselves in the middle of a vague green hill looking for a control. I provided Andrew with no navigation support as my vision was really blurry, and we ended up losing 9 minutes on this leg after several attempts at relocation.

Our motivation was pretty low at that point, and my lamp was getting weaker, so we slowed down quite a bit. We ended up stumbling into the finish, about 20 minutes behind the winner.

I was glad to finish, as it was a tough 2 hours in the cold, wet, junky, rocky woods. Andrew was an excellent partner, and I would not hesitate to run this race with him again.

477/2000

A rest day, spent at home working and catching up on the latest in penguin science

C • Definite ig-nobel contender. 5

Warmup + picking up a couple of controls with Ross

Circuits! Looked unco, as the Aussies would say.

Innebandy!

Night sprint fail.

Started by messing up 1 a bit and then 2 completely and totally. Still caught Ross since he also messed up and ran with him for a while. He was slowly getting away, but I caught up again when neither of us could find a control hidden behind a bush at a building corner. Together for a couple more legs, even after choosing different routes on the long leg. We then split up after #11, when Ross ran off to #12, while I proceeded directly to #13. Oops. Figured it out on the way to #15, but could not be bothered to go back and punch it. Bah.

Splits (I am at the bottom): http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/sv/default.a...

Map: http://www.oklinne.nu/documents/documents_open.php...

456/2000

C • When 12

Warmup/cooldown

Intervals on bike paths with Johans Hamelius and Aronsson. Felt very tired at the start, and better and better as the session went on. We did (5-3-1)x3 with 2 minutes rest after the 5 and 1 minute after the others. Good for the ankle to run on asphalt - am staying out of the forest for a couple more days.

Björtes backbana, mostly running with Sam. We ran at a nice steady conversation pace, and it was a really warm night, which made for a fun run. Time for the actual backbana was 68:08, everything else is running to and from the start.

C • I guess your ankle is holdi... 1