Training Log Archive: schnitzer

Hmm, not a good start. When I think about it I haven't actually considered myself 100% well since 25manna. Elisabeth the same but a little more severe, Hugo for significantly longer.

Of course for pre-school toddlers it is normal, one just has to spend 1 minute at a nursery, see them each taking it in turns to put toys in their mouths, listen to all the coughing and see all the snotty noses. They don't want to eat vegetables, wash their hands or wear gloves when they go outside. They make it their number one goal to sleep as little as possible.

It is definitely not normal however for adults who should have strong defence systems where all of the germs that the kids bring home simply enter the body and get immediately targeted and destroyed. Adults eat well, wash their hands well and avoid using bodily resources in order to keep themselves warm. These good habits pale into insignificance however in a similar way to 20 a day smoker using a quality moisturiser.

The reason why one gets ill so much and stays ill for so long in the Autumn is exactly the same reason why the kids get sent to the nursery when they have minor colds and coughs. It's the same reason why one goes to bed and can't get to sleep for an hour, the same reason why one wakes up at 5am and can't get back to sleep.

It's these time-pressure driven, middle-class careers and whilst it's probably insulting to 95% of the planet's population to be complaining about it I am thinking that I can't get rid of this situation quickly enough. There's got to be a more balanced way to do it.

That is what this 1000 days idea is all about. I know I said 'I find controls therefore I am' but it's actually much bigger than that. It's training for the rest of my life, a way to force a more balanced prioritisation. A way to limit the betrayal of oneself and those close to one in order to not only make no real positive difference to the world but sometimes even in order to make a negative one.

1000 day training plan starts today, ends Saturday 18th July 2020.

Primary goal - I find controls therefore I am.
Secondary goal - go right before left.

More to follow, if and when I can justify spending the time.

Long hill with Christian.

Our first proper session of the Autumn/Winter. Easy to start with but held the pace very well and it got harder towards the end. Gave it some on the last rep.

Same feeling beforehand as the last couple of days racing on Gotland but certainly no worse. I'm probably just about fighting off the bugs because of the huge benefit of the mini-break i.e. a couple of days of not thinking about work so much and sleeping when Hugo does.

13 reps.

17/18 Ranking Event 10, Gotlands Bro OK middle Ire, H21 5.0km (26/36)

And that's 3 disasters in-a-row. Started well but after each and every mistake I just chased it more and more. Suicidal strategy on Gotland it would seem.

At some point during the 3 controls without a single contour line between them I sat down on a rock and pondered my life.

Today's ranking points - 63.84...
47.27 25/08/17 start
36.00 21/10/17 before event
36.00 22/10/17 after event
24.00 30/06/18 target

17/18 Ranking Event 9, Gotlands Bro OK long Ire, H21 10.2km (DSQ)

Felt almost ill beforehand but running was actually fine, I only noticed my headache on the warm-up.

I don't quite remember it being this bad the last time I ran on Gotland but that was April, today was pure and simple, constant pain. Had to pull multiple needles out of myself afterwards and my arms were somewhere between their normal beige colour and covered in blood. It quickly became apparent that I did well however looking at the others finishing their runs - covered in blood would not have been an overstatement for some.

It's weird because I got the impression from my clubmates that it was going to be enjoyable running on Gotland although my Swedish is still not perfect. Sure the main reason I moved to Sweden was for intricate contour and rock detail but a close second was to get away from the Autumn pain. Today was like I had gone back in time, less interest, more pain.

A rare H21 long distance entry for me but it was designated the club champs so wanted to run against the others. I was a bit lucky and my rough bearings seemed to pay off to start with. About half-way I missed a control by a whisker but wasn't confident enough to circle around a bit so I went out to a track and came back in. I then chased the time back and lost 5 minutes on the next.

I was a bit disheartened after that as I thought that it was game over for a good result. Plus the distance started to get to me. Near the finish I got the long route choice through the village wrong and came out at the 'uncrossable' river pretty much bang on in the middle of the two compulsory crossing point bridges. Found a fallen tree and used that instead and made some self-important justification to myself regarding why it didn't matter. After discussing it with one or two friends I went and DSQ'd myself.

Reflexbana with Christian.

Was determined to run the entire course without mistakes tonight but it wasn't to be. Got much further into it than previously but lost the trail and the enthusiam to run at the same time. Both Christian and myself were not feeling 100% although I'm pretty sure my cold has gone.

We walked around looking for the route and as it happened we were only a couple of mins run from the end. About 5.5km total I would guess. A couple of laps would be a very good workout, especially with snow.

I can't avoid logging this one, definitely a cold.

Team Monday with Olle and Christian. Headed straight out to the start of the reflexbana as neither of them had run one before. Unfortunately made a mistake near the beginning where the route touches itself and it was over pretty quickly. Fortunately I hadn't realised that the route is actually much longer than I thought and Christian spotted more reflective thingies the other side of the track from where I thought the finish was.

After some time we gave up thinking we were going around in circles but the GPS says no. It's actually a really good, varied route, especially when one considers the location, I mean this isn't Tyresta i.e. not over the bridge. This is just in the small compact forest blocks sandwhiched in between the residential areas. I can see myself running this quite a lot over the Winter.

We did knock out a few steep hill reps to finish but I forgot to start my watch again.

17/18 Ranking Event 8, 25manna middle Brosjön, H21-1 4.9km (56/91)

Wow. Orienteering is actually starting to get quite exciting now. Yesterday evening I slept from 19:30-21:30, 23:30-05:00 and 06:00-08:00. 9.5 hours sleep and it made such a difference to the power available out on the course. I don't know why I am surprised.

Maybe it caused me some problems however because I made significant mistakes on several controls. All of the 'I have no idea where I am' variety. Then again I did kind of adopt the yesterday went well so don't do anything different attitude. Dangerous - feeling invincible on the start line, over confident. Probably a very different level of focus from yesterday. Unwittingly I approached the race very differently, maybe.

All very promising however. I can remember many times in the past where I lost around 10 minutes in mistakes on a middle distance course but not many where I still came in under 10mins/km. Comparing splits with Nicklas Wrane from my club afterwards revealed that on several legs where I wasn't losing time I was actually faster - he came 8th and has a ranking score of 24, exactly the sort of level I am targeting for next Spring.

After 8 ranking events this one is unfortunately the first where I haven't improved my score. However it is also the one with the best potential score as a clean run would have got me 18-19 points today. I guess from a long-term perspective that is a good sign.

Today's ranking points - 45.75...
47.27 25/08/17 start
36.00 30/09/17 before event
36.00 08/10/17 after event
24.00 30/06/18 target

Forgot to start watch.

25manna, Söders 1st Team Leg 3, 4.1km (234/1489)

A good performance today, especially considering I got up 5am this morning and 3:45 yesterday morning. Fortunately the combination of fast terrain, a lack of climb and only 4.1km meant that the lack of sleep didn't really make much difference. Attacked the course throughout and only started to feel a bit tired on the short hills towards the end of the course.

Technically very good. Just a softlad route around some green to 3 and a slight miss on one control losing I guess around 30 seconds.

Importantly the 4 of us had a very good leg all coming in within 3 minutes of each other and making up 16 places in the process. More importantly I wasn't last - H16 Elias was over 2 minutes in front of me and the other two oldies came in shortly afterwards.

After a big effort to meet a work deadline just had to get out into the rainy, dark forest. Just ran, didn't pay much attention to paths, pace or direction - hard to get lost on the map closest to where I live.

After a while stumbled across a/the reflexbana. When I think about it I did know it was there, just never been bothered to enquire about or find it. I don't know if I started at the start but followed it until the end (I think). Quite enjoyable actually, might do it again, segment it on Strava even - if I get no objections from the creator (whoever that is).