Training Log Archive: Rosstopher

On Saturday night we ran a relay sprint around the Linné clubhouse. Super fun! Sam followed me around with my camera and took video. Check it out on the Wander.Lost blog! Also, check out the Project Meteorite blog for the video that Johan posted from the sprint.

Running a long training set by Simon. As always, really fun. Keeping up with the group until about 12, and then Boris and I decided we were working too hard and we eased off and did our own thing.

Loved the long legs and orienteering with good company is always a good choice :) We cut the course from 24 to 30 so that the cars wouldn't have to wait for us to finish. Did a good job with the navigation until the end when we started seeing people and the woods got a little junkier... those things added to us being tired made for some cringe worthy bobbles in the last section.

Feeling way fresher and more lively than is healthy for a Sunday afternoon, so naturally I had to jump at the opportunity when Rasa offered a ride to gympa tonight. (This comment is intended mostly just to goad Boris a bit, he is advocating for me to take a rest day. And I will.)

Another hard effort, which I could tell because my puddle of sweat became dangerously slippery well before the Brittney Spears song. Arm didn't hurt too much all day, not even during pushups and dips, so perhaps it's finally on the mend.

The Linné crowd was smaller tonight, both because there were only two others and because those two others were Rasa (we need to work on her posting) and Cat T :)

C • Annals of AP fame 3

Intervals tonight were run as a series of mass start forked sprint courses. There were a lot of controls and no flags or streamers, and I don't have a great amount of flow in and out of controls in such situations. The map wasn't perfect either, with lots of construction and otherwise blocked routes. I was the slowest of the guys out there tonight, but I did finish the complete set of intervals. This kind of training is good for me, as good flow in urban sprints is one of my weaknesses.

Back from the intervals to the clubhouse. Then biked home quickly to clean and change for date night. Tonight we went to a Thai restaurant where we got to experience a "Thunder Storm" where the lights were turned off, the sound of rain and thunder were piped in, and lightning flashes lit up the walls synchronized with the audio tract. It was a fun restaurant and the food was spicy.

C • Ahh, koh phangang. Nice pla... 2

Wednesday night race was part of the UOF series and was held in Stenhagen. The roads were very iced up, so I decided to run over in spikes as the nicest way to get over there. Weather was misting and coldish, so not the best.

Started out with a few controls that were on the Sprint Map, and then flipped over to the other side for forest orienteering, and then finally ended on the sprint map again. The course was fun, but I got dropped quickly when controls 3 and 4 weren't hung on the features in time, and I spent too long double checking things.

Running mostly alone, but occasionally seeing lights and bumping into people.

My UOF standings were not really helped by this outing :) but a fun course and good to see that my night navigation is improving even if there is plenty of work to do.

And then finally running back from the race. The weather was rainier, but I was feeling pretty good and enjoying the chance to stretch my legs out in a long cooldown.

I got home early enough to make some beer bread and blondies before Per came over for dinner and games. In other words, a successful evening.

Wander.Lost: Skiing! Sam went on a fantastic ski last Friday right from our apartment! Some day I will skip work and join her. (Ok, I won't because I'm American and I haven't caught on to this whole Swedish work lifestyle).

C • Do it! 3

Bleary eyed, running over to Ulleråker for Backbanan intervals. Running the climbs hard and resting on the flats and downs.

Spirit was willing but the flesh seemed weak this morning :) Ran backbanan with a speedy group of the guys, but I couldn't really keep up the pace of the lead pack. Johan was nice enough to wait for me on the rest sections, even though I couldn't really keep up with him on the climbs today either.

Felt pretty content to survive the workout and made it to work at a reasonable time in the morning. Training win :)

In keeping with my normal behavior, I was 10 minutes late for Hammelius's recovery jog, but luckily the group was nice enough to swing past the apartment and pick me up as I was tying my laces.

Then we picked our way hesitantly around town on crazy ice covered paths, following the whims of our fearless leader. Johan was clearly going to checkpoints that only he knew about on his map, Elisa was not as amused to go dogleg out and back to whatever the feature was that he was heading to next.

Running after the refreezing is not good, though biking to and from work was arguably worse. The best choice would probably be to stay indoors all day :)

C • Studs? 3

Crowded gym tonight, 35 joined for the Rockgympa. Loefaas spent much of the time taking video of us bouncing around/ sweating like crazy.

Felt awake and strong for the gympa, but quite tired after.

A little bit of Innebandy before the strength and a little more afterward. My arm is still quite sore from Wednesday's fall, and I wasn't feeling as energetic as normal.

Running to and then home from the race today. Glad we raced in the morning, as the weather got even worse in the evening.

Stage 6, the final day of the tour. Today was a chasing start based on the best 4 of 5 previous scores. Both Boris and I were pleased to end up in the chase, though just barely ahead of the mass start at 15 minutes.

The conditions were pretty dreadful, soggy snow covering rocky paths on steep slopes. I wanted to break an hour, but as soon as I skidded down the first slope I revised my goal to just surviving the best I could.

On the first lap I was mostly alone, seeing a few other runners on different parts of the course and passing a couple of people in other categories. Near the end of the first lap, Oskar came flying past like I was tied to a post and a short while later David caught up as well... it really didn't take that long for the mass start to roll me up.

I followed David up the hill, and saw that Lutas and Oskar were only doing one lap, and so in a weird way I had gained a place in the overall standings. I tried to keep the pace, but even so I was hiking up the wall not really running on the last lap.

Finished 3:40 ahead of Boris, and 8th in the final standings (showing up to all of the races was a large part of that last one). Tired but satisfied.

Orienteering in the snow. An okay course, but I should have been more careful in the beginning. Got confused a bit by the extra clear-cutting, and then it was mostly a challenge to keep following the tracks in the snow.

Happy to get some bonus points for the tour for having one of the faster finish splits, it was just enough for me to edge out Boris in the points, even though he bested me by a few seconds.

The first stage of the Tour de Linné. A long sprint style course around Ulleråker. I tried to reign in my natural enthusiasm that often gets me running too fast in sprints, and instead I focused on making sure that I took the time to plan my routes. Not sure that this was the best strategy for tonight, in retrospect.

The course was tricky, though, so I still got caught up a few times and there was a lot of hesitation that added up. Boris and I are betting on the outcome of the whole week, and Boris got me by two minutes tonight. Loefaas was the curve wrecker tonight, and I have 201.6 points already to my name :)

map here and results.

Legs a little tired after the weekend.

Monday night means Rockgympa, so I had a quick transition and biked over to the school to join the noticeably smaller crowd that attended rock gympa tonight.

Tonight I felt strong. Made it through all the lunges and jumps, and almost made it through the hip hops, as I just decided they ought to be called.

UOF Cup race number 4. A smaller crowd out there, but I decided that my goal would be to beat my oft times rival Tommy Lindberg.

There was an immediate split of the pack on the way to the first control, and David Lingfors, Tommy, and I had the right fork while Henrik and Niklas had the left. We met up again running across the field to 2, and then on the long trail to 3 Henrik and Niklas had already disappeared up front. David had to stop for a few minutes to let his heart palpitations pass, and Tommy and I were still together for 3 and 4, but then he had the longer forking on 5. I was running alone to the center of the butterfly loop, crossing the field and, wondering why I only saw one set of prints (they looked like Henrik's) when I heard Tommy and Niklas coming up behind me. Tommy and I had the same order in the butterfly but Niklas made a big mistake on his loop. I fell a bit behind, but was still close enough to get some help from Tommy when I drifted too low on 13, and I saw him punching above me. He disappeared, but I was running strong and I caught back up and perhaps passed him on the long road leg out to 16. I was alone for 17-18 but Tommy reappeared as we came together to punch 19. I knew I had it in my legs to out sprint him for the last few controls, and that's what I did. At the end, as we were chatting, he realized that he skipped 14, so a dsq for him.

It felt like a good race and I was pleased if surprised to come in 2nd. Nice open woods, beautiful sunshine, and a good result. Mycket bra.

results

Biked down to the gym for gympa tonight. If you're working hard, the trip down is only 15 minutes. I met Boris there and Lisa also arrived, but no Magnus. He was sick, but his replacement had good music and a really hard workout that was heavy on the upper body. Happily tired by the end. The slow slog up the hill took more than 15 minutes :)

Simon designed a long training on a map to the north of Uppsala. It was a cold morning, but a nice group to run with. We started out running at an "easy pace" and quickly found that our little group of Simon, Niklas, Anders, Boris and I had distanced ourselves from the rest.

I was navigating well and feeling great. Really liked this training a lot. It's fun to see and feel how much better I'm orienteering now, six months after arriving in Uppsala.

map

Rest Day of sorts. Skipped out on SynggFriday to go to a disputationfest. Wonder if I can log 40 minutes of trying to tie my bowtie using a smart phone and perhaps stupid fingers on the train to Stockholm :)

Snabbtdistance with the club. Ran over with Boris and Sam. It was cold, Sam was running way fast muttering "It's cold, It's cold, It's cold" which was funny but also very true. Too cold to be any fun.

We skipped running drills, and just did a couple of ramp-ups to gradually work into the speed session. Right into 3 x 3.33k in Flogsta.

I chased Henrik, David and Niklas around the first loop in 12.27, tried to keep pace with Johan on the next loop for 12.19, and then only the truly crazy and hardcore of us stayed around to do a third lap with Niklas and Johan keeping a nice speed bringing me back around in 12.05.

A nice training, feeling stronger and stronger each lap. Looking forward to the real test next week.

Wednesday Night Orienteering with the club. Tonight was held on a distant map, and I always worry slightly about keeping people waiting when there is a drive back to Uppsala after the race. So, with that in mind I signed up for the middle course, and it seems to have been the right choice tonight.

Sam set courses, and I think they were well received. I had fun, but I found Lunsen to be also a tough place to orienteer at night, not just during the day.

Quickroute My track this evening courtesy of Sam's Garmin. I had a hard time reading vegetation and swamps tonight, getting tripped up a lot, notably on 1, 2, and 8 because of making bad assumptions based on over reading the stuff around me. Didn't realize that 4 was mishung until after I got back, and that certainly helps to explain how I managed to get off so much on 5.

8 was a debacle. I thought, at one point, that I was seeing the clear cut area and so altered my course drastically. Of course I hadn't even crossed the main path yet so changing my direction drastically resulted in wandering lost in the swamps. Not in the best mood for the rest of the course, but it was tough to stay grumpy when cruising through the beautiful white woods on the way to 13. Ah well, next Wednesday will offer another chance for redemption.