Training Log Archive: BorisGr

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.

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.

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...

Hehe, my dad sent me this link:
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1...

C • Similar training. 8

To Hagadalsskolan, warm-up, jogging between intervals, back home.

Secret Russian Running Drills

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!

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.

Haha, OK Linne's Sunday morning training just got cancelled because of the Men's XC Skiing Olympic relay!!!

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.

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.

C • One of the things I remember g... 1

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?

C • Ice. 3

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?

C • My suggestion? 4