Training Log Archive: BorisGr

A bit of a warm-up while waiting for Brendan.

Tiomila 2008.
Mikkel got here on Friday evening, but it did not begin to feel like something very special was about to happen until Saturday morning, when I found Biggins, Kenny, and Will waiting for me as I came out of the shower after my morning jog with the Linné boys. For the first time since Jukola 2006, CSU was gathering in full strength to take on another challenge. Once again, just like two years ago, the exact set of people who received the original email with the idea of traveling halfway across the world and running Tiomila all turned up and ran the legs they were assigned back in October or so.
The weather this week-end was very un-Tiomila-like: 15-20C during the day and well above freezing even at night. We watched the women's relay in the afternoon, getting to cheer for Sandra as she ran away from Simone Niggli on her leg. (By the way, is the 23rd place Sandra's team ended up in the best ever by an American at Tiomila?)
After Ross' start I went back to the military tent and crawled into my sleeping bag outside under the stars, relaxing and listening to the reports from the forest. I dozed off for about the half-hour it took the leaders to get from the spectator control to the finish, and that was all the sleep I got.
After Ross and Matthias ran the first two legs, Brendan did a solid job in hir first-ever Swedish orienteering experience and exchanged to me in 293rd place and 88 minutes behind the lead, just a couple of minutes behind Jesus Orienteering Klubb, catching which became my first goal.
Somehow, right from the start of my Long Night, I felt great. My legs felt light, and it took very little effort to focus on the orienteering. The constant pain in my glute was the only reminder of my less-than-impressive orienteering season 2008. The brand-new lamp battery I bought two weeks ago gave me confidence that I won't run out of light, but I turned it to low power on all the trail and road sections anyway. Leaving the start triangle, I saw a bunch of lamps heading left across the field, taking the around route choice on trails. I went right instead, running by myself, and stuck closer to the line, taking the small trail north from the first aid station. There was a moment of self-doubt when I cut into the green forest heading to the northwest and towards he control, but that was replaced with a boost of confidence when I saw the reflector and JOK's Ian Cumpstey punching just ahead of me. On the looong leg to 2, I didn't really see any route choice and went pretty straight. I drifted a bit off line trying to catch the road to the southwest of 2, but recovered fairly quickly. Was careful on the short legs to 3 and 4, but didn't lose any time. Saw the two route choices to 5 and went left, on the roads and trails, rather than risking going through the fields to the north that could, for all I knew, contain waist-high grass. Passed one more guy shortly after getting on the road, but was then alone in complete darkness, just running along and enjoying the feeling. As I was contouring along from the trail towards 5, I suddenly looked right and saw a sea of lamps (10-15 of them) coming in from my right. Wasn't sure if I caught them or they me (probably the former), but it didn't matter. I decided to shake them. Saw that they went more-or-less straight to 6, contouring along the steep slope, and so I took off on the trail route around, through the small field on top of the hill. A couple of guys went with me. Spiked 6 and saw the group of lamps coming in as we were on the way out.
Another route choice to 7: northern road past the shooting ranges or southern one with the indistinct trail as an attack. The guys I was with tried to convince me (in Norwegian!) to go south. I went north and never saw them again. All alone the whole way to 7, through the empty spooky shooting ranges and along the hillside. Careful again on the short legs to 8-11, not losing any time, but hitting my knee hard on a rock on the way to 8. Annoying. Feeling great running through the meadow down to 12, trampling the occasional flower and spiking another control. Finally, climbing the hill on the way to 16, I realized I was very tired. Lost focus twice on this leg, for a total of nearly 2 minutes lost. Stopped when I found the control and regrouped, forcing myself to concentrate harder in this tricky area - would be a shame to ruin a good race towards the end! Orienteered well to 17-20, but moving slowly, and staying with a small pack of a couple of guys I caught. Screwed up 21, going too far right and not being sure of myself. About 50 seconds gone. From there, all that was left was to slog along through the mud to 22 and 23 and then leave it all on the run-in. As I was finishing, I realized that it was starting to get light. I had been out for 114 minutes and exchanged to Biggins in 254th place. I was very happy with my run, even though my time was not particularly impressive (177th on my leg is nothing to write home about.) Still, I survived, orienteered well and ran mostly by myself. More importantly, I had a blast - long night at Tiomila truly is something special, and I am really thankful to CSU for giving me the opportunity to run it!
The rest of the weekend was a pleasant blur. Watching the team climb in the standings, cheering for Daddy-O and Will, not being particularly upset that we ended up mispunching. Eating some pizza, hanging out on the big rock outside my house, and just enjoying being around the CSU gang, which, as always, felt more like a family than I could ever have imagined possible. Thanks to Ross, Matthias, Brendan, Biggins, Kenny, Mikkel, PG, Ken Sr., Will, and Bubo for an unforgettable experience! This was a definite bright spot in otherwise dismal season for me. Thank you also to Kat and Sandra for being CSU's fans and cheering us on at all hours of the night and morning!
It was also cool to have so many OK Linné people, both runners and organizers, ask about how CSU was doing and wish us good luck all through Tiomila. This definitely added to the excitement.
What's next for CSU? Stay tuned.
Results: http://www.10mila.se/2008/resultat/herrar.html
A handful of pictures, including my map: http://my.opera.com/borisgr/albums/show.dml?id=520...
A tired me: http://picasaweb.google.com/bubo2008/Tiomila2008CS...

C • GREAT REPORT! 5

Event: Tiomila 2008
 

Morning jog with a whole gang of Linné boys down in Hågadalen. A beautiful, sunny morning. Now the CSU forces are starting to arrive. It's nearly time!

Core and stuff at the gym, and then watching Sandra show some of the strength exercises to me and Kat. Will start doing these when/if healthy.

To and from the start.

Training on Vedyxa with Linné. We split up into pairs and then did loops, starting at the same time with your "team-mate" and doing the loop in opposite orders. Very good training, even if my butt hurt a lot after a particularly painful massage by Kat the night before. I paired up with David Schneider, which was kind of intimidating. Luckily, he made some mistakes in this Scandinavian terrain, and so we weren't so far apart. Fun training, gorgeous day.

Warm-up

C • Tiomila 1

Wednesday Day-O on Lunsen.
Did the middle course and tried to run hard. Orienteered surprisingly well, making only a couple of small bobbles, but not much speed to speak of. Really fun to be out in nice spring weather!
Results: http://www.oklinne.nu/onsdagsnatt/results.php?id=5...

Easy run with Sandra and Kat on trails in the nice afternoon sunshine. Butt hurt.

C • You ran very well at Jukola... 1