Training Log Archive: Rosstopher

Training out at Östuna. Set by Thierry, with plenty of good company. At the start running just ahead of Annika and Inga, but then I didn't check the compass well enough and made a pretty big mistake and so dropped behind a bit.

At the end there was a 1:4000 super sprint section option, which was a nice way to end the morning.

C • Woods 3

This morning Sam planned a special training for the club. She linked together 5 small sections of Uppsala area sprint maps with the idea that you would run between the sprint venues as a group and then do the sprints at higher tempo. It was super fun, but I was wearing the wrong shoes as it was pretty slippery and I would have done better with spikes. Garmin had turned itself on in my bag and was out of battery.

The last control was our balcony, where Sam was stationed handing out saffron buns and cups of glögg. It was a really fun training despite needing to climb the wall to get into the botanical garden section. The sun was shining (so rare this winter) and so spirits were high.

Afterward, I was convinced to tag along and do some extra running, and we went out into Nåsten for an extra loop on some of the bigger trails, running at the speed of chatting :) with Johan, Annika, Rassmus, Thierry, and Olle.

In the evening we had a Julbord with a lot of people from the club coming to join. It was meant to take place in the group hall across the street, but we had mistakenly booked the wrong day so in the end the party was held in our place... perhaps a new record for the number of people in our living room at once? Lovely times, and good club feeling all around.

Last Friday Innebandy of the year. A nice session with lots of running. Despite the fact that our team had more hustle, we were very much outplayed. It's a good group so I hope we will get some gym time next year as well.

In the evening we had a lab party. It was a pirate themed murder mystery holiday party and it was a blast, despite the fact that I was rubbish at actually figuring out how the game should be played. There were some great costumes, and I got to use the stripey Waldo shirt from WOC 2011 as pirate garb this time. The party wrapped up quite late and then I came home and helped (?) Sam prepare for her training. I've never learned anything important in OCAD before midnight :)

Pure running with the club tonight. Met up with the crew at KG and jogged over to the corner of Stadsskogen for drills. Oskar asked me to lead the drills because he doesn't like doing it, and I kinda wished that I had some more time to prepare, but I led a few exercises that I like at least, before moving on to the running part of the session. We did a 45 minute run with a progressing pace, such that our group started at 4 mins/k and increased our tempo every ten minutes, on the dot, by 10 seconds/k. We ran a loop with apparently is called the Ultuna loop, but I don't remember ever running it before... so that was a fun new discovery. I mean, I've run on all these paths before, I just never knew it was a set thing.

I kept up with the pace well for the first 30 or 35 minutes, but then I fell off the back of the pack and found it much harder to keep pace. Still, a fun session and a good piece of work.

Met an Australian orienteerer named Matt this evening. He's been living in Uppsala for 2 months already but I haven't run into him yet. He's fast, but will only be staying for another couple of months.

Sam suggested that I could join her for spinning tonight. I thought that maybe I could make it, but it would be tight on the timing. Turns out that I managed to make it... but Sam didn't :)

It's a small town though, and Linné is a big club, and I ended up on the bike next to Hilda. I had a hard time understanding the instructor's instructions, but I understood that he loves Gloria Estefan and he sang along to most of his songs :) It was spectacular. He was a fairly fabulous blind spinning instructor... awesome!

Tisdagsbana tonight. I arrived at the start before the group headed out, but I was near the back as we headed across hågadalen. Bana R has lots of controls mixed in, which gives a different kind of flavor to the course. I found myself running alone after the turnoff for 10k, as Niklas headed back early. The leaders were just ahead, but I wasn't able to catch them on the track before the navigation got too hard for me to keep up with.

Ran the rest alone. Sometimes feeling very in control, other places grossly misplacing myself, but it was really nice. Spent a full 10 minutes in the sauna afterwards before I could feel all of my toes again :)

Quickroute

Rockgympa with OK Linné. I missed the sprint training that happened just before, it looked really fun though.

While waiting for the stragglers to come in from the changing rooms I initiated a round of introductions. Going around the circle and saying your name and your favorite Christmas song. The Swedes seemed pretty much heavy into the song Mer Jul but there was a wide range in the answers. Listening to 35 christmas song recommendations takes kinda a long time.

Felt pretty awake and strong. Good sesson.

C • Christmas songs 8

A nice session of innebandy after strength tonight. We ended with a very spirited, physical, and long session of 3 on 3... really fun and tiring.