Training Log Archive: OJ

Moscow champs, medium distance. I foolishly assumed this was the same as middle distance, but the course was almost 10km and the foreswt was pretty green. I felt out of shape and tired from yesterday's short efforts. Made a few mistakes as well in the vague bushy stuff, but didn't embarass myself; finished 3rd, about 3 mins down on Egor Kostelev and 1.30 down on Dima Svetkov. Didn't qualify for a certificate though as it's a 'closed' competition.

Warm up and warm down. My head felt full of sleep this morning so tried to do quite a good warm up. The warm down consisted mainly of jogging about taking photos of the amazing golden autumnal birch forest.

'The Forest Roundabout' - a 10 leg relay in which mixed teams of 5 run 2 short legs each. Really nice weather and a good atmosphere with music and commentary, etc. Very tricky orienteering with the entire map covered in shallow form line gulleys with marshy bits in completely flat bushy forest. Never felt 100% secure, even when I was on a path. Our team won convincingly, but it did have some strong runners in it....Gleb and Tania Gribanov, Irina Neuberg and Egor Kostelev - 2 current Russian team members and one former.

Various bits of warm up and warm down.

Made it to the evening training this time. Nice evening for it and a nice spot on a kind of sandy, beachy spit in a big river. Pretty simple orienteering and very fast, but very enjoyable.

Some warm up and warm down, getting a bit dark by the end.

Quick dash about in the evening, went to check out those weird skyscrapers and found the local wild dog hangout, then beat a swift retreat.

Was meant to go orienteering tonight...really pleased withmyself, I had it all planned out. Ran straight from the archive with a big heavy pack to a park not too far away where I was expecting to find the start. Noone there and I realised I had gone to Thursday's area by mistake (The actual park was on the other side of the city about 1hr on the metro). Got mad at myself, then went for a run around to cool off a bit and headed home.

C • Oh dear 8

After work in the gathering dusk along the Moscow River, just across from the Luzhniki stadium. Did some fartlek intervals, 3mins, 2mins, 2min uphill, 1min, 2mins, 3mins, ran the recovery at a decent pace.

C • Russia! 4