Training Log Archive: Bomb

ride out to the vineyards area to the east of Freiburg to go wine tasting. Mostly unsuccessful, we only found one place open and their wine was pretty bad.
The ride was really nice though, all along bike paths- along the river, through the vineyards and back through the forest.

Still got a cold and generally not feeling great.been riding around Freiburg with Pete a bit.

C • Bad luck 2

Mtb from Pete's place in Freiburg. In the black forest. Took about 2 minds to rideto the forest, then climbed for an hour, went to a lookout tower over the town, then had an awesome long downhill home. Beers, wurst and sauerkraut at the pub for dinner. I like this town.

Been a bit sick for the last few days. Just a cold, but feeling really tired. Hopefully I'll be good in a day or so.

Ride with Helen from Maidenhead to Henley for pub lunch on the river. Rode Helen's bike, which was a little big. Nice ride, although Helen set a cracking pace.

Very tired and very sore.

Event: Jukola 2012
 

Good warm up in preparation for the mass start, on trails in the forest, in the shade to start with, then in the start area

Venla relay with the Aussie girls. Ran first, with Laurina, Felicity and Vanessa in that order. Team number was 352, so we started a fair way back.
It was quite warm when we stated, and the wait in the start area, with no shade dragged out for ages. Eventually they let us into the start grid and handed out the maps. The gun was super loud and the run out the start chute was crazy. I tried to pass as much traffic as possible without wasting energy. it was about 1.5 km to the start, with a hill in the middle and at the end. Each hill everyone around me slowed to a walk.
The first part of the course went well, heaps of splits but hit all the right controls. The hardest part was trying to get part the traffic in the thick terrain. Even made it on TV at the 2.5 km control.
I'd made it up to about 150 by the first long run through, but then had a bit of a brain fart on the next control - miss read the control numbers for the next two - 43 and 44 and got confused as to whether I'd been to the right place. Took a little while to sort it out and be convinced that I'd done the right thing, and in that time lost a heap of places. Ran ok from there to the finish and ended up 200.
The rest of the girls ran really well and we finished 93rd.our goal was top 100 so we were pretty happy with that.

C • Big day 2

Jukola relay first leg, for a random Finnish team - a corporate team for a supermarket. We started in 1603 so expectations were low. It had also finally cooled down, but was raining a little. Didn't bother warming up, I figured the start run would be slow enough from where I was starting.
Cruised the first section, the start was slow and heaps of traffic. So many people who didn't have a clue. Did a lot of run and relocate orienteering at the start. felt quite good running for the first half.
The middle section of the course was good.the crowds had thinned out a little and the features were more definite so it was easier to hit the controls well. Towards the end I started to get tired and it was a bit harder to keep track of where you were, so I lost a bit of time. The trains had also split into bunches who often didn't know what was going on. I ended up running by myself to find controls a few times. The last section of the course was easy enough, but I was completely stuffed, cold and hungry. I ended up 1035, nearly 600 places up. Got a bit funny in the head after I finished but ok after the first aid people fed me some sugar.

I had been regretting doing the jukola leg, but in the end it was really fun, and a great course. It was also a great everyone to run a night leg and pretty crazy back in the pack. Saw some weird stuff, including wooden hunting targets - a moose, deer and wolf.

Day out in Helsinki before the race tmw. Running first leg for the Aussie team, then first leg for some random jukola team.

Forssa games short distance. Really scrappy terrain and struggled to run.navigation wasn't too hard, but ended up a long way back thanks to running speed.

C • Good luck in Venla 1

Warm up and warm down

Jukola training on a map just near the jukola area. Nice area but quite a warm day and really struggled running

Evening sprint race in Helsinki. Lasted about 2 controls before my legs died completely. managed to visit 10 twice but ok other than that

Run to the sprint race

Intervals in the forest near BJ's place - 2 mins hard, 1 min easy.
had thought it was going to be another really average run, but ended up feeling quite good.

warm up and warm down on the forest trails

Training was a bit of a fail the last week. Working stupid hours getting a report finished before going on holidays (good to know all those last minute assignments at uni were good practice for life as a consultant). Report got sent and now i'm free for a month!
Next run will be in a forest in Finland. Woo hoo!

easy run in the forest from BJ and Leea's place in helsinki. running was slow and hopeless and jetlagged, but it was awesome to be out in the forest on a beautiful (cold) day.

bit cold this morning

Long run over and around coottha. A bit slow and crap today