Training Log Archive: schnitzer

20:00 WU
20:00 WD

Session with Christian on the ski slope at Alby. We did plan on running up the steep path but someone had already taken that (some sort of parachute abuse) so we used the path around the side instead.

I've been feeling pretty run down the last couple of days so decided to run at Christian's pace which was nice.

10 reps.

12.6% body fat.

That's 4kg shed since I started weighing myself and over 12 since Hugo was born. Proud of myself but the job is not close to being finished yet.

12:45 WU
11:30 WD

Same 4 compound exercises as last time, same sets of 10 but did the session 2 times (only managed 7 shoulder presses the second time around).

Some fun in the local woods, mostly over the bridge in the more wild stuff.

Easy to start with but quickly increased the effort.

Not really a warm down, had to get back home fairly quickly.

6:25 WU
7:45 WD

Steep hill, steadyish.

A quick set to get back into it. Not intervals, just ran up and down. By a whisker the fastest I have ever gone on this hill. Body working fine, we'll see what happens tomorrow.

10 reps.

1:47.0 27/05/16 today's average
1:53.5 10/02/16 best average for 10 reps
1:47.3 18/09/15 best average (15 reps)

Long trail route, easy with Christian.

On the whole the couple of weeks with virtually no running has done my back some good I think, felt really good today. The same cannot be said for my right calf/ankle/foot however, proper tight, painful even. Actually with the exception of my back my whole body feels pretty shocked by 15km on trails, even at the easy pace.

It's time to get back on track with the training, more regular maintenance routines, back on the hills again and particular work to increase my multi-day fitness to be ready for O-Ringen M40L in 2 months time. Next up however is the club championships (middle only for me - 12th June).

12.7% body fat.

It seems during the last week that the new John was in control and consumed an appropriate amount of calories for a week without training.

Short trail route, I ran it at a steady pace but it felt pretty tough to be honest. Running an hour or so after a TBE booster jab probably wasn't super clever.

I think my cold has gone now, I have felt pretty good these last few days but only this morning have I woken up without coughing.

13.1% body fat.

It seems during this particular illness that the old John was in control and consumed a few too many calories for a week without training.

10mila, Söders 1st (only) team, leg 7 (169/331)

I didn't really enjoy this because of a problem with my contact lenses. Everything was fine warming up but as soon as I started running my vision became blurry. I couldn't concentrate on the map or be confident running through the terrain. I was really fortunate that the orienteering was easy, it could have been a lot worse.

I found number 1 completely by luck but wasted around 45 seconds in the process. Over the next couple of controls I found a way to get my eyes to focus - by closing my eyes tight and this gave me a few seconds of good vision each time.

The time I lost on controls 6 and 12 (around 1:00 & 1:45) were due to a lack of concentration rather than bad vision but unsurprising as I just didn't have a good feeling of control, orienteering using luck (even more than usual!).

Once into the showers it became obvious that the inability to push hard through the terrain through the lack of crisp vision was actually positive for me, individually. Regardless of feeling much better since Friday I certainly still wasn't all that well.

I caught Hugo's cold, I definitely had a feeling it was coming, the last few days and now it has fully developed.

The bright side is that this hasn't happened for over 3 months, a good defence and surprising considering I rarely sleep enough. The dark side is that I should probably e-mail the team and tell them I cannot run 10mila but of course I am not going to do that. I will assume that everything will be fine come Sunday :S

12.8% body fat.

I am in a particularly buoyant mood after yesterday's good run - improving at something you enjoy is great, very rewarding. Even failing is good if you look at it in the right way, set-backs, bad runs etc. It's all part of the journey, a roller-coaster you ride on to add life balance and variety. An individual pursuit that compliments the most important things in life and whilst, unlike those more important things, it never has the power to make one truly happy in the long-term it certainly has the power, similarly to those more important things, to make one unhappy if for whatever reason it became impossible to ride full stop.

Regardless of perceiving it in the right way and perhaps, exactly because it will never make one truly happy I do find myself in a dilemma and probably in a similar way as for pro athletes where the sport is the or equal most important thing in life, although not so extreme as that.

I often find that the good feeling having improved is mixed up with a frustration of wanting to improve more and it makes me a little tired. I think it is the same for people who are the best in the world at something. One doesn't transcend into a state of permanent euphoria when one becomes world champion for example. I've reached the top becomes I must stay at the top or I must get to the top again. I've become the greatest ever becomes I must make it as difficult as possible for anyone else to be the greatest ever in the future etc etc.

I do count myself lucky that I am in a position to be able to have balance. It must be an intense gamble with one's happiness to have almost everything riding on one particular pursuit as it is for the top elites. No wonder you get so many mental f-ups at the top level e.g. Ronnie O Sullivan or Tiger Woods.

Anyway get to the point eh? There is nothing wrong with expecting more from oneself, with pushing the limits, aiming high and being disappointed with failures etc but be sure to balance it out with a good pat on the back wherever it is deserved. When it's obvious that one has improved, significantly better than before then focus on the feeling of finding the controls well, the feeling of bouncing through the terrain all springy like. Take a break, smell the roses and above all always be so super thankful that you can actually ride, regardless of the result.

Christian and I went out exploring today, designing a route to link the best hills together. It would be nice to have a really local hills route, something in between hill reps and trail routes to add some variety. Unfortunately further analysis is required as the little paths are often not in the right places and I don't want to include too many terrain sections. We'll have to go out again sometime to finalise the route.

Haninge Middle Distance Handen-Jordbro ÖM8 (11/51)

What a difference a day makes! Not technically perfect but I doubt my time loss would total much more than a minute. I rehearsed a leg by leg procedure in my head before the start and also tried to plan ahead a bit more.

I lost it a little on the longer legs, making some hesitations and failing to plan enough but I certainly was physically tired even before I started. That combined with a fast and furious middle distance course probably made it a bad choice to start to try and 'wing it' less but it seemed to work in the most important way I wanted it to, ironing out the bigger mistakes.

Haninge Long Distance Handen-Jordbro ÖM9 (3/12)

Narrow chunk of forest I've never ran on before, diced up by power lines, enclosed by residential areas and a farm right in the middle for good measure. Sounds a bit worthless right? Actually it wasn't too bad although the planner could have done a bit better in amongst the detailed pockets of forest and not bothered with the parkland/urban bit at the end.

Lots of paths, unavoidable but I can honestly say that my outlook has changed. A complete contrast from last week but in a different way I enjoyed today's challenge, choosing against the more terrain-based option on the interesting long leg. A 10min blast along easy trails with a little blast across the block to finish and I got the fastest split! Powering along at probably not much over 4mins/km and 20mins later I was still flying. How times have changed.

Unfortunately something else has also changed. Whereas before I would fare better on the technical, shorter legs and lose places on the hills, paths and longer legs now I get lost on the more technical legs and gain places when it gets easier/faster. 3 fastest splits but 8.5mins down on the winner. Inconsistent. I think getting even fitter/faster would help but I really need to do some technical training - form some new good habits to manage the speed.

Lower body only.

13:25 WU
04:30 between hills and gym
11:20 WD

Steep hill, intervals.

The first hill speed session. I purposely didn't do that much, of course my pacing was rubbish, the first rep 40secs up, the last 60secs. The downs weren't consistent either but not as bad as the ups. Anyway generally ok and a very different sort of training to how I have been doing hills up to now.

5 reps.

After the hills I decided to jog over to the local outdoor gym and throw some wood around. Did 4 compound exercises, a set of 10 on each to begin with.

Core coordination session.

Added some shin exercises at the beginning and end of the session, in addition to all of the other recent lower leg woe I have also started to feel a little achy at the front, close to the ankle. I certainly don't want that developing into something more serious.

To complete the efforts to get this week back on track, my new usual session.

It's ridiculous how I never learn, I mean I got away with it just about but just when I really needed to stretch and massage a bit more if anything (after running 3 days in a row for the first time in years) I stopped completely.

I had to stop in the middle of my lower back stretch to roll out and stretch my glutes, everything was fine after that. It's been a while since I had to pay attention to the order in which I do these stretches. Just goes to show how close I am to falling apart again. It's a bit depressing really, I must be old or high mileage or something.

Medium trail route, long intervals.

Split this route into 3 fairly equal sections and hoped to run them slightly faster than PB pace with 5mins rest in between (PB splits in brackets)...

1. 17:35 (17:45)
2. 17:15 (17:20)
3. 11:40 (11:25)

So not quite as hoped, just about managed to beat the PB splits on the first two and died on the third.

Feeling the need to look on the bright side (make excuses in other words) I didn't feel super fresh today, maybe because I ran at lunchtime on the hottest day of the year so far (24C in my front yard when I got back). I am also still not sleeping enough.

After somewhat more than 5mins rest, warmed down on the remainder of the third... 9:55 (7:15).

12.9% body fat.

Järla Middle Distance Åva Södra ÖM8 (27/94)

Ran 3 days in a row for the first time since the Scottish 6 Days 2013 (I think)! Couldn't attack the course today, walked most of the hills.

Like yesterday, made a number of small mistakes. It might be time to put some effort into training technically because I'm not sure how many more 'big' leaps I can make physically. We'll see the next time I run a trail route at a high effort how much of an improvement has been made.

Saturday...
2 long-leg set of hesitancies (I'm lost, lost, lost... no I'm not)
1 full-on relocation style mistake
1 drift from planned route (long-leg)
1 miss in the circle (green)

Sunday...
2 looking at the centre of the circle too quickly (didn't read control descr)
1 drift from planned route (short-leg)
2 mis-interpretation of contours/bad direction
1 full-on relocation style mistake

I think what I need to practice is simply to 'wing-it' a bit less, just a few more mental checks per leg and I could probably save a few minutes each run.

Beautiful semi-open area in the SE part of the map, fast-running, one path (not used).