Training Log Archive: Hammer

warmup

Nationals long. much better today but still a large error.
first time I've had a twinge in the knee this month but just one more race to go.

I'm racing on the DGL relay team tomorrow with Nicoke, AG! and Jan Erik. Danish dynamite would have made a great fourth team member instead of me.

Long M45+ - Splits

warmup

Nationals middle. disaster. time lost: 2 on 2, 1 on 3, 9 on 6. with the exception of the 2014 corn maze its been a very long time I've made a 9+ minute mistake. ugh. I just couldn't get into the map in the flat bits and didn't know how to adjust race strategy ...but I beat Oivind. ;-). did another hike afterwards so I'm happy knee is holding up

COC Middle M45+ - Splits

Perfect taper for Nationals. Not! Up and then down a mountain with Tarno and MitoBlaine on a super hot day. Knee was fine so i totally raced
the downhill. was super fun to do that because it has been a while since I felt comfortable on the downhill. But I might pay for it this weekend.
longest run in a while so I'm getting excited about training again.

After two days of tromping around in burned Fort Mac bogs covered in char and breathing in charcoal dust it was great to get into the Rockies for some fresh air and prettier landscapes!!! Great MTB ride with the tarno squad
on the high line trail! then into Banff to the distillery for dinner with tarnos and blain penny and his family. he spoke very highly of SOGO and thought that the term adventure running was "a piece of branding brilliance". we all then went to see some Banff film fest movies and I've decided to not take up rock climbing. yikes

hotel bike followed by some stretching. Knee and hips sore after two days of field work at Fort Mac.

HammerFIT at 4am (jet lag)

followed by spin at hotel. then up to fort Mac for research

Russia should be banned!

Bekkie Scott explains why...
http://mp3.cbc.ca/radio/CBC_Radio_VMS/1011/375/asi...

sprint training with AG! in SM before the rain. Skipped final day of Swiss O Week. Off to Zurich.

Day #6 video:

warm up, cool down and then back towards finish with Etoile's jacket

Epic Day#5. Well after 6 sunny Swiss O Week days in 2006 and four nice days this year our luck totally ran out today. Way up in the alpine the start was 300m above the assembly area and 175m above the finish. on the jog to the start temps were dropping and you could see rain coming in. Organizers announce that the start will be shut down at noon. I started at 1158. Pfew! Spiked #1 (a depression in a boulder field) and then it started to rain and the boulders got slick. Got into some great flow and nailed 2-5 but now it was really raining hard and cold. Spiked 6 and my strategy that worked well on day#3 of running rough compass and relocating off of big boulders and cliffs was working well. That is until all of a sudden the clouds rolled in and it was pea soup with thunder and lightening. Visibility was max 10m and at times less than that. Not safe and it made for very tough navigation. Since I had planned to relocate off the cliffs coming into #7 that strategy kinda fell apart and just like that I lost at least 4 minutes. I had no idea where I Was on the hillside and had to relocate off of #8 to know where I was to find #7. Then it started raining harder and mixed with sleet. Fell hard on the way to #10 and jogged it in to be safe. Likely was leading at #6 but the day will be thrown out anyways. Such a shame as it was spectacular terrain and a great assembly area. Really enjoyed the orienteering.

Oh and because of the lightning the gondola couldn't operate for about 2 hours and the rain made it too dangerous to walk down so we were all stranded on the mtn for a while.

A video of the rocky terrain before the storm:
https://twitter.com/martenbostrom/status/756476906...

Day#5 video:

warmup. no cool down. too frustrated

very tough terrain today. When asked if today's terrain was tough, like the organizers said, Mats Haldin responded with "tougher". I took the first CP slowly as it took some time
figuring out the mapping style. lots of big boulders and bumps and fissures weren't on the map but instead were mapping with the rocky ground symbol. so lots of hesitation but spiked the CP already a minute down on winner. ran well through CP 2 and 3 with some real flow despite the tougher terrain (almost disappeared into a crevice though). then spiked #5 after a tough uphill. Or did I? Wrong code. Wtf? out along ridge and back. nope that's the one i just 'spiked'. so then back out and to another ridge to try again when I realized 4 comes before 5. (2 CPs were close together but on a hillside). dammit I read and navigated to the wrong CP. but the damage was done. I was 5:28 behind leader at #4 and ended up 5:26 behind. The course had over 7% climb today. stunning location again today and I'm really enjoying the short and technical courses. Orienteering is making me fitter.

Day#4 video:

wonderful alpine hike in brilliant weather. Funicular up and sketchy chair lift down. No way i was gonna do the latter so running down the mtn I went. messed up the knee and anticipating DOMS. not how a rest day should be played but what an incredible hike with the Farrands, Grahams, wadd squad and dyee for a bit

C • Beautiful Hike 2

Very cool terrain above treeline at Diavolezza. Started out well but missed #2 while I was planning route to #3 (1 minute). Despite that the route to #3 was poor (lost another minute). Lots of boulder jumping when I could have dropped down 30m and avoided most of the rock. But I was having some issues with altitude so stayed high. Faile. I started to figure out the terrain and map at that point and the last half went really well. Good flow and everything clicked. Great fun. Knee is holding up. Perhaps I just need to do short orienteering runs to get this knee back together.

Fun fact. If you google "Diavolezza orienteering map" and click on images you get a picture of Bash!

Day #3 Video:

C • First place 18

C • Google Images 1

warm up and up and up the hill!

warmup

Stage #2 (short distance day) with the finish line right at the St moritz lake but the terrain was junkie. long grass with lots of rock and fallen logs underneath making it hard to get any flow. I found I wasn't looking at my map enough as I was worried about my ankles and knees. so ended up making lots of 15-45s errors. #1, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. yikes. still able to be competitive in the 45K category (where K must stand for knees. ie a category for people with bad knees). need to ice the ankles and knees tonight before tomorrow's mtn side adventure.

Day#2 Video:

Swiss O Week Day#1. fast terrain and I really enjoyed this. was running straight on the first few legs and didn't really have a grasp on where I was but spiked every CP. so then en route to #6 I decided that since it was going so well I'd save 10m of climb and go straight again. Bam! 4 minute error. Couldn't relocate and ironically had to drop down 25m to relocate and then back up 35m. Just some hesitation on a few other CPs. great fun.

Day#1 Video:

warm up cool down

St. Moritz! Wow. Beautiful. 4,000 participants at Swiss Orienteering Week this year! it's going to be fun. We can see the finish line of day#2 from our Airbnb

Wrote a long response to the ignorant comment about ARK that was on one of the AP threads last week and then decided not to post it (yet). Haters gonna hate.

Today was the prologue sprint for the elite classes. Started out with a golf course qualifier and then a 12 person mass start through the streets of St. Moritz. Very cool where the race went especially at the 2:15'ish mark of the video.

ran the women's relay course. absolutely beautiful terrain. missed #1, 3, 7, and 11 but had good flow and really enjoyed this. great encouragement from the awesome cdn men's team when i ran through the arena. was so great to watch the strong performances by the Cdn junior teams today. great lead off legs by AG! and JE. Then solid runs by the rest with Robbie passing the US and Nicole holding off (body checking?) the American
team in the finish chute. I joke. So proud of Christian and Nicole.

a great week of Orienteering and super strong dominance by the Swiss. coverage was awesome though not enough attention to the women's really race. Yeah I wanted to see AG! with the drone coverage! St Moritz is next.

C • Great week! 7

warm up

lots of stretch and roll while watching the middle final online...and then lots of catching up on work stuff.

view from JWOC middle qual finish line
https://flic.kr/p/J9ARjH

warm up and cool down. As I jogged uphill to the start I thought that this would be an area Bash and Bent would love to traing to get their hill training in. it was hilly.

Then while warming up the clouds rolled in and visibility dropped to about 50m.

C • Hill Training 8

This was fun and challenging. Steep hills. tough side hill running and with only 50m visibility for the first half of the course. Missed the first control by a minute (same one AG! had trouble on, its in the blood, eh), then settled in for a few detailed checkpoints but then had troubles on the two side hill checkpoints. Overall was pleased my knees held out.

From downtown Scuol and then up, up, up towards Motta Naluns. Ran up for 5 minutes then jogged down to meet Etoile who was hiking up, then back up hard for 5 and jogged back down, repeated until legs were trashed. Then we walked down together.

Warmup, cool down nav with women's JWOC course in between. Didn't have a paper version of the map so ran with my iphone. Took a break at the map change since they were taking it down and I couldn't do the run through. CP6 had a gate blocked and the family who owned the house seemed a wee bit peeved people were still doing the course - but otherwise this was fun. Net down hill course but I sure felt the steep climbs. Didn't see any cows. Time: 17.07 (only 76 seconds be AG! who finished in the top 30 at JWOC sprint again)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HammerFIT at altitude

knees sore. in Zurich for the day. nice boat tour.

**and now wainfleet bog is on fire (again)

Downloaded a PWT map of Pingvellir onto my phone, threw on the shoes and tada my first ever O in Iceland. Pingvellir is the ancient Icelandic parliament (an old rift valley of the mid ccean ridge). Stunningly beautiful.

OMM Iceland next year or 2018?
http://www.extremeadventureraces.co.uk/media/wysiw...

C • OMM Iceland!!!!! 4

easy jogging while Etoile hiked to a hot springs in Iceland. We broke up the trek with about 75 minutes of hopping in and out of the creek.

Finished off the day eating $16 burgers (me) and $20 fish and chips (Etoile) at Iceland's EuroCup outdoor market while watching Portugal-Wales.

A perfect way stopover and relax, break up the jet lag and rest the legs on our way to watch Emma race at Junior Worlds.

pre flight (and post yet another interview) HammerFIT

rail trail

with backwoods and GHOslo in the Big Sound.