Training Log Archive: BorisGr

A night run in St.Petersburg with Alli to see some of the bridges over the Neva open to let in shipping traffic. Really fun run. This city is beautiful at night!

To the start

Venla test race, for which I designed the course. I took this at a steady pace - well below racing, but such that I could orienteer smoothly and in control. This was hard to do as the terrain was fairly rough with lots of stuff on the ground, and my legs were tired from the 10km. I did a good job focusing on the orienteering and felt in control nearly the entire time without forcing myself to think about the orienteering - I was orienteering on auto-pilot, and that felt really good. This was the last session of a good block of training before a few days of rest in St.Petersburg. I will start up the next block when I am back in Uppsala on Monday.

I am running Stockholm's Blodomloppet 10km tonight. Not sure what to expect, but my 10km PR is 37:14 from 2007, when I was in better shape than now, but ran a very poorly paced race. I think anything under 38 will be good for my current shape.

C • Woo! 5

Warm-up and cool-down for Blodomloppet

Blodomloppet Stockholm 10km road/trail race on Djurgården and Gärdet.

My workplace was signing up a bunch of people to run, so I joined in, thinking that it is good to get in some sessions where I really push myself. Before the race, Ross and Sam gave a good tip to push to the front of the starting field so as to not get stuck behind slower people. I did just that, and am really glad that I did, as there were not very many people running significantly faster than me from the start, and being stuck would have been frustrating.

Despite my best efforts, I still failed at pacing the first kilometer and sailed through at 3:34, while aiming for 3:45. I settled down a bit after that and felt strong for the next few kilometers, gradually moving up in the field, especially on uphills and downhills. Around the 6km mark the course went into the woods, and we had a long stretch on a narrow, rocky trail. It was hard to pass people there, but I caught the group in front of me, and managed to get by a couple of guys on the rocky downhill.

Around 8km, the course went along a soft gravel riding path, with very soft, mushy footing. I had a hard time handling it and getting into any sort of rhythm, and I think I lost a lot of energy and momentum here, especially since I was not expecting it. The rest of the way to the finish was a struggle, and I just tried to hang on. Two more guys passed me on the uphill finish sprint, and I finished 16th, just around the time I expected for myself given my current shape.

Running over to backbana, and then doing some stretching, running drills, and strides while cheering Ross, Sam, and Kate on backbana.