Training Log Archive: schnitzer

5:25 WU
5:20 WD

Thought I might try out my new road running shoes - bought 2 pairs of them in Scotland at a JJB that had a closing down sale, £75 BOGOF. They are as good as the pair of Nike Zoom I used to have in terms of how light and bouncy they are but I think slightly less comfortable and a lot less good going around corners at speed. So a bit disappointed all in all and according to reviews I have read they won't last that long either. Oh well, at least I got them cheap.

Was a bit concerned after a few minutes of warm up - was feeling a bit chesty. Still, I was determined to see how fast I could go so did half of my 5km road loop at sprint race effort. Some slight complaints from the lower back region but none from the shins so quite happy. I bet it would have been worse without the ultra-light footwear. No significant restriction breathing wise but I was gobbing out some yellowy chunks afterwards - think I need more sleep.

Pleased with 3:50 per km, not bad for a fat man with a blister.

C • Shoes 4

So after a Summer break the Luffaligan starts again and where better to kick off than at Paradiset. Felt truly amazing - a combo of lots of training/sleep in Scotland and then 3 full days off. Was running so strongly found it quite difficult to keep up with the map reading. Didn't make any huge mistakes but was very scrappy both in the circle and on route.

Someone pretty good turned up and did 28 minutes - wow. Regardless of the plentiful hills and lots of rock elites can still do 6mins/km because it is so runnable. I love Stockholm :)

So another Scottish 6 Days is over and it is time to write an essay summarising my current thoughts and feelings.

Firstly the competition itself. Quite disappointing really in terms of the areas themselves but it wasn't unexpected as I am a forest lover and the West side of the Highlands is always going to be much more moorland-based. Plus it has worse weather. At least it was 10 years since the last time it was over this way and it's back to the East side in 2013 - all good, see you there.

Now on to me. I am disappointed to have not improved in terms of my results in comparison to 2009, as I did in comparison with 2007, 2005 and so on and so on. However I haven't had the best time this season with illnesses and injuries and actually there are a lot of positives...

I felt really good on day 6, fresh in fact - contrary to what I expected with much less training leading up to the competition in comparison with 2009. I'm pretty sure I didn't feel that fresh on day 6 in 2009 (maybe I didn't taper enough).

I am not as light as I was in 2009. I certainly didn't turn up at the start line on day 1 at race weight and things got worse over the week eating lots of fatty, sugary food and drinking every night with me Bruv, fairly heavily on some days. I am probably a few kgs heavier than in 2009 and I guess 5kg from race weight which would make a massive difference what with all of the hills. I am the same height as Keith and am carrying much more fat but yet I am running slightly faster. I do appreciate that I have done more running training than him though both on hills and in terrain.

Now it is time to work out what is happening next in terms of my orienteering goals. This process would have been a bit blurry if I was still living in the UK but fortunately I live in Sweden and the Autumn season is much more massive here. I will do races every weekend from now until mid-September including these monsters...

27-28 Aug - Stockholm District Champs Long/Middle
10-11 Sep - National Champs Long
16-18 Sep - National Champs Middle/Relay

So a few weeks to get the weight down and lots to look forward to. No OMM this year for me, can't be bothered with it so I don't have to worry about doing any slow ultra-long sessions with a pack.

My biggest goal is simple - to shave a load of time of my PB for my long Nacka route. I will attempt this some time around my 35th birthday. I was in really good shape for me when I set the best time in Nov 2009 (maybe the best shape I have ever been in) and it will be very satisfying to know that 2 years later and older that I am fitter and faster.

Day 6 (34/59). I was under the impression before racing that I could make up some places overall with a good run but actually even with a perfect run I could have only made up 1. Out of the runners a few minutes ahead of me in the overall standings only Keith and Andy Powell were running slower and certainly not by much and the navigation was pretty easy to say the least.

I made a big mistake on 14 probably losing 2-3 minutes - a parallel error and it took me ages to work out what had happened. Lost 45 seconds on the second last control as well which was severly annoying as it was very simple, I just didn't look at the map.

Day 5 (31/57). Seemed to be in a rather good mood today - physically strong and very few navigational issues - my best run of the week. Finally got the blister pain under control as well with the aid of compeed.

Interesting area and course - lots of variation and the some complicated pockets of detail.