Training Log Archive: BorisGr

OK Linne Latvia Training Camp. Day 1.
Running to and from the map after settling into our accommodations, a bunch of simple huts in Lilaste, about 40 minutes NE of Riga.

OK Linne Latvia Training Camp. Day 1.
First training: an afternoon run with Kat on the beautiful sand dune woods of Badciems. We did a Talk-O exercises, taking turns leading and saying what features we were using for navigation and what we planned to do on each leg. Got a blister from the sand.

Long easy run in the afternoon with Patrick. Went west through Flogsta and Berthåga, then north towards Librobäck, through the little pieces of forest towards Gamla Uppsala and back through the deserted center of Uppsala. Feeling pretty tired the whole way. Will probably take tomorrow off.

Drew a line-O on trails in Stadsskogen for Cristina and ran around it with her in the morning. Midsummer is here.

C • Midsummer 2

Warm-up and cool-down

Getting back to doing some speedwork and starting with threshold pace intervals - 2x12 min with 2 min rest. I did these on the dirt road that goes along the North side of Nåsten. Felt pretty good the whole way and maintained a pretty steady pace - went about 10 meters further on the second interval. The biggest challenge was avoiding crushing the snails that crawled out onto the road after the rain.

Because of her excellent B-final race at the 1st round of the World Cup in Finland, Sandra gets to run the A-final in the 2nd round Norway tomorrow!

Start list: http://www.odagfinn.net/wc07/WOMEN_A.HTM
Go Sandra!

Also, Brent, Mike Smith, and Charlotte are racing the B Final for Canada. Good luck to all of them as well!

C • Awww Yeah!!!! 16

Easy morning jog around Stadsskogen with Sandra and Cristina. We had made more ambitious plans for this run the night before, but were all too sore/tired to carry them out.

Jogging to/from the start of training with Cristina.

An easy technique session with Cristina on Nåsten. We did a middle distance course and took turns leading and saying what features we were looking for and checking off along the way. This is good training for when one is tired - it really forces you to concentrate on the orienteering, which is something I have trouble with when tired.
I was feeling dizzy and had a headache on the way over to the map, but started feeling better while orienteering and was fine by the time I went home after drinking 2.5 liters of water. Must have been dehydrated after my 3-hour nap this afternoon... Probably still not completely recovered from Jukola and the associated sleep deprivation.
There were cows on the way to the start.

Circuits with Linne after technique training. Not too many people there - by the end, foreigners outnumbered Swedes!
Quite sore from yesterday.

Jogging over to the start with Patrick, Sandra, and Cristina.

A couple of months ago, when we saw that a number of US orienteers were coming over for Jukola, Suzanne and I offered to put on a mini training camp for anyone who was interested the week after Jukola in Uppsala. Sandra and Cristina took us up on the offer, and so here we were, in Lunsen (a must for any orienteer visiting Uppsala), surrounded by flies swarming around our faces and ants very slowly eating our feet. I drew four loops, trying to give each loop a distinct character, and each of us hung streamers for one of the loops.

After setting my loop, I went out and ran the other three, trying to run at just below race pace. I was, however, feeling pretty low on energy which led to concentration lapses and a bunch of mistakes. Nothing where I was totally lost, which can easily happen on Lunsen, but still very frustrating,

Running to/from KG/swamp.

This being my training week in the club, and it also being the week after Jukola, it was time to try something a little different. In the monthly schedule, I entitled this "swamp games", myself unsure of what would become of this. Ths standard plan was swamp soccer - a training exercise Kenny and I had heard about from Swedish orienteering gymnasium students years ago. One problem, however, was the lack of a soccer ball. When dispatching a very kind Patrick to go acquire one downtown, I realized that I had an American football lying around that just needed some pumping up, and so a pump was procured as well as a soccer ball. When coming to the clubhouse with Cristina, I was worried that no one would come to this bizarre training organized by a mere American, but about 15-20 people were there, even including some of our stars. We then ran over to a preselected swamp (nice, open, and soft), and I gave a bit of a speech about my dreams as a small boy to one day play real swamp football with world-famous Swedish orienteers. After this, the pigskin came out, and it was time to explain (somewhat modified for the swamp arena) NFL rules in Swedish. Needless to say, this was quite a challenge, and I am fairly certain I failed. (In fairness, I may well not have fared any better in English.)
Then we played. It only took a few downs for Swedes to decide that there is not running and fighting, and the game gradually generated into a combination of rugby and mud wrestling. This was ridiculously fun and brought out a side of the Swedes I had never really witnessed in a sober state before. All the normal reserve and shyness be damned, they were tackling, pushing, shoving, rolling in the mud, and dragging each other (and us, too) around like teenage girls fighting for a Justin Timberlake autograph. It was great! This applied to everyone - 14-year-old Mandus Ridefelt would jump on top of 2-meter tall Staffan and bring him down with a loud splash; Mats had no reservations about prying the ball out of Becka's hands while shoving her deeper into the mud; and Lars would execute a flying tackle of Cristina, get up and ask if anyone knew who she was.
By the end, everyone was exhausted, the swamp looked like a battlefield, and we were stumbling about, throwing clumps of mud at each other. I don't know about everyone else, but for me it was not only a really, really fun afternoon, but also an experience that gave me a bit of hope that I may yet one day find myself fitting into this society and feeling at home here.

C • fantastic 4

A nice, easy training on Nåsten with Sandra after slipping in and out of consciousness most of the morning and afternoon, having slept 9 hours in the previous 72. I ran ahead in the beginning, saying the features I was seeing and using for navigation. Then we switched, and Sandra ran ahead and talked. She did really well navigating and seemed quite confident in her orienteering, a big change from her visit here a year ago. Very cool.

C • last year 2