Training Log Archive: BorisGr

Running to and from the start of backbana, plus a bit of extra warm-up.

Tour de Linné - Stage 6

Chase start on the backbana, two laps. Starting nearly a minute behind the speedy Ross, I knew this was just going to be about survival. Felt pretty empty right from the start and just battled my way up and down the slippery, slushy hills for an hour, thankful for Mats' and Sam's encouragement to help get me up the last couple of hills.

Very glad that I finished the entire tour, but pretty much exhausted after this week. Ross was a worthy winner in our little duel, and has rightfully earned a celebratory plate of kebab that I will treat him to.

Trying to warm up on the snowy trails.

Tour de Linné - Stage 5

Today stage was a middle distance course on Åland, a map about 30km west of Uppsala. A lof of snow had fallen the night before, so this turned at least partially into a follow-the-right-tracks exercise, although it was still very possible to make mistakes out there. The running was very tough and tiring even with the tracks, and I did not envy Andrew, who got to start first and make tracks for everyone. I started relatively ok, but was running too hard, as I made a 180 leaving #7, and all extra distance was hard work. One more mistake overrunning #10, and I was somewhat demoralized out there.
Ross also made some mistakes, so in our battle I came out just a few seconds ahead, giving Ross a 50 seconds advantage over the first five stages heading into tomorrow's finale.

Splits: http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/sv/default.a...

Beautiful sunny day in Uppsala, combined with the first sizable snowfall of the winter, means skiing!! Hard to believe that February 16 is my first skiing day of the winter. I went out with Hamelius right from Blodan, and the first 20 minutes felt like I did not remember how to ski. Then it got better, and I really enjoyed it, especially skiing through the marshes and flying along the fields. Really fun!

To KG, to the start of the 10km via home, back home from the finish.

Tour de Linné - Stage 4

Tonight's stage was a road run on a hilly loop around Flogsta: http://www.oklinne.nu/documents/documents_open_bod...

The men had to run 10km=3 loops. I was tired from the start and just wanted to run under 40 minutes in the slippery and snowy conditions. I was essentially alone for most of the run, as I dropped Lasso after half a km and was way too slow to run with Ross' group. My lap times got slower each time, but I never felt completely dead or broken. I saw the back of one guy in the beginning of the third lap, and worked to catch and pass him, which served as a nice motivation. Mats and Lofas ran it in 34 minutes, which is damn impressive. Ross had 37:50.

Splits:
13:09
13:17
13:26

C • Project Meteorite scores 7

To KG, then the long slog to the start, plus the cold, slow slog back to KG from the finish and then the final death march back home.

Tour de Linné - Stage 3

Tonight's stage was night-O on Nåsten in freshly fallen 15 or so centimeters of snow. Cold and windy, too, especially in Hågadalen. I started pretty late, missed #1 by a minute or so, and was on my own for a long time after that. The courses were very forked, so following footprints in the snow was a risky proposition. I ran pretty well for the next stretch of the course, so I always felt like I was running in slow motion (which, I guess, is really just called "running slowly"). I caught Ross at #8, where he'd made a mistake. We were together at 9, but then I took what I thought was a clever route to 10, running around on a small trail. Well, no one else had taken that route, and so I had to break trail in pretty deep snow, while the straight route turned out to be quite fast running on frozen marshes. I think I lost about 2.5 minutes to Ross just on the route, and another 1-1.5 minutes on messing around in the circle. Long, tough night - I collapsed into bed pretty early after this.

973/2000

Picking up controls from last Wednesday night on Southeast Lunsen with Sam and Lina. Much easier to find the controls during the day!

959/2000

Tour de Linné - Stage 2

The second stage of the Tour was a 17.6km Tuesday night line-O (http://www.oklinne.nu/documents/documents_open.php...) with a sprint prize after the first loop at about 5km. From the beginning, the pace was brutal, and by the end of the first loop Ross was the only person I could see in front of me.

We got together after the sprint prize and ran the rest together in a driving snowstorm. It was pretty rough out there, and I would not have gone around the whole course without Ross' cheerful company. As it is, we finished about 16 minutes behind the Mats- and Loefaas-led pack, which is not so bad. Very tired afterwards.

Running from Ångström to and from the start, plus a bit of a warm-up jog

Rockgympa after the sprint. Very tired.

Tour de Linné - Stage 1

This a week long Tour de Ski - style competition that basically takes a regular club training week and turns it into a series of races. While the stars in the club will be battling it out for the overall win, Ross and I have our own little rivalry going, with some pride on the line for the title of Best American Orienteer in Uppsala: http://projektmeteorit.blogspot.com/2012/02/americ...

Stage 1 (the Prologue) was a long night sprint on the new sprint map of Ulleråker. I had a pretty good run, losing 30 seconds when I couldn't find an opening in a fence, and another 15 when I ran to the wrong hedge corner on the last control.

Ended up 12th out of 20: http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/sv/default.a...

Course map: http://www.dxdeluxe.se/linnekartparmen/show_map.ph...

C • Project Meteorite 3