Training Log Archive: W

Virtually the same run as yesterday, but clearly a bit slower. I'm still stuck on Finnish time it seems, so I get crazy tired and then pass out for about 11 hours. I don't have time to nap during the day nor should I, and today was compound by going to Stingray City, which although making me tired, was way cool. Stingrays! You feed them! They smash into you! Good stuff.

Near Claire's place, there's basically only two places two run. Both of which are your basic dirt roads through mangroves. When its kind of breezy, the heat is not so bad. Today, there was no breeze, so it was pretty damn bad! Basically we zig and zag on these roads with the sun beating down and me still kind of sick. I am actually finding the humidity might be helping to clear up my sinuses a little, or maybe its all the cold pills I'm taking.

Either way, although its not great to be sick at my sister's wedding, I'm not exactly getting a lot of opportunities to go running anyway, so, in a sense, its mildly... convenient? The whole 48 hour flight adventure from Helsinki-YEG-Cayman Islands was pretty awful though.

Well, it was bound to happen, having to travel for basically 48 hours, I got sick, just in time to arrive on a tropical island. Nevertheless, I've pounded back some cold pills and ventured out to do some exploration runs near Claire's place. She lives near "Barker's National Park", which is basically a collection of dirt roads among mangroves. Dead flat, not crazy attractive, and super hot. Thankfully there was a breeze so it was tolerable for the most part, but I was still good and sweaty when done. Finland this is not.

FinnSpring relay! And it actually went pretty well! I was on team 4 with Teemu and Gianluca. It was also like, 4 degrees and rainy and extremely windy. So not remarkably nice weather. Although we were well-behind I started just behind a few teams and right with some other teams, so it turned out to be some fun relay action. Not so much a train, but I had a group of 3-4 runners behind me for a little while, until I caught sight of an Ankkuri fellow who, after a few controls, I was able to conclude that we definitely had all the same forkings.

So, I had the luxury of having him in sight and being able to slowly reel him in sped me up a little, and by 12 I had caught him, and was able to overtake him going down to 15, but going across the flat expanse of nothing caused me to veer slightly right and miss. I thought I was right on relative to these rocks we ran by, but, nope, still left. And then to make up time I hurried out of that control and went way left on the next one.

But, having someone right there for those last few controls meant we both ran really hard which was great to practice. I know if I were alone I wouldn't be running nearly as hard as we were otherwise. Good stuff.

I think I'm getting progressively better at the flat marshy barrens of Finland, with the visibility I'm finding myself better able to recognize smaller features and the shape of the land. Sweet. We ended up 30th of about 80 teams and I was happy to have pulled up 3 spots and ran the 23rd fastest. It definitely could have been better, and I really appreciate the different when running a bit more aggressively, so although I'm still tentative, I'm going to try to be more aggressive when I can be.

FinnSpring long. Finally I get to start racing in Finland when its not dark out. I'm trying hard to think about being more aggressive and running harder. In the UK I felt like, although I was running it, I wasn't pushing hard enough, not like I would if it were a straight running race and I wasn't worried about where I was going.So, this time I tried to push myself from the start and what happens.

And it actually went pretty well for a spell, until number 8 where my plan was solid, but I was a little unsure of my position. I looked over to my left and saw a small hill. I saw the hill, but I felt like the knoll needed to be a little further up the hill, so instead I kept going a little, and then doubled back. Eventually I came back to the same place and concluded that little knoll had to be right, and... it was. I was right, but my gut sort of told me I was wrong. But, it started off badly when I was a little uncertain which hills I was going between, so I was starting off on a weak foot.

11 was also quite a disaster. I seem to have failed with the basics, and took a bearing that pulled me way right. At that point I ascended one hill which I thought was another, then crossed a plateau, then went up another hill which was also wrong, and straight into an out of bounds area. Unfortunately this was not the good kind of out-of-bounds where the edge is marked!

I got caught by someone else at 11 and caught a ride for several controls as I tried to run above my speed but be generally independent, so in short order he ran away from me. The rest of the race was also pretty good, but my "straight line" between controls tends to be a little zig-zaggy, and on some straight legs I tended to veer way, way right, and I'm not sure why. But, well right.

I wasn't last in elite, but pretty close. Those two mistakes are quite disheartening because it made my race appear worse than it really was. I felt a little more confident today, but the terrain was also quite easy.

Just your basic bog standard run over to the road of which the name I can't remember. Mustalampin takana. Its not really exciting, but its a nice rolling uphill over a couple kilometers. And by uphill I mean it climbs from almost 60m elevation to almost 100m elevation. The oxygen up there starts to get real thin.

As I get closer and closer to departure time, things seem to be ramping up more and more and more. It annoys me that I couldn't have had all these school related things in January when I felt like I had nothing to do, rather than having so many things jammed into a single week in April. Really, there's only three bloody professors of sport psych at this university, could they not have consulted each other ahead of time when planning this stuff? Makes me sometimes wonder if I should just stay here and try to take over running the program to make it make... more sense.

Did the extremely usual loop around the Jyvasjarvi in marginally improved weather conditions. Still haven't seen the sun in a while, but, its just a little bit warmer, so that's hopeful (though, in retrospect, that hope was premature).

Headed out for a light run but not for nearly as long as I would have liked. Probably made too much of an effort to avoid getting my feet wet. But, to be fair, I'm really tired of getting my feet wet.

I took three days off for "why does life have to be so damn complicated?" reasons, and today was kind of a bummer too. I got up at 545 to drive 4 hours to Salo for a really fun sounding 12k middle-distance-y mass start race. But... my ride slept in, and only got up when it was too late to make it. So, now its 7:30, and I think, I could just go training now, I ate breakfast at 5, after all, but I was just way too tired, and ended up back in bed until 10. Fortunately, then I just flat out got up, got dressed, and walked out the door.

I resolved to do my tempo loop, but rather than the full 60 minute tempo, do a little faster 4 x 10 minutes. Unfortunately I can't assess how fast I went because it would appear, so far, that when you create an interval session with the Polar V800, it does not take an automatic lap at the start and finish of each interval so you can look at it at the end. Seriously? It can do notifications from your iphone but can't keep track of your intervals? Criminy.

Anyway, my calves got quite tight quite fast, and I don't think I was running much faster than if I was doing 60 minutes of tempo. Despite the epic disappointment of not getting to do the race, I was glad I went and did something fast.

C • Houston 13

I'm going to be spending a night and morning in Houston on May 6-7. I don't leave Houston until 2:55, which should give me ample time to do ... something. Anyone have any ideas?

I found the "Houston Orienteering Club" website, which features this at the top; .

I'm not optimistic.

It looks like they have a big park, but its pretty far away from the airport. Their HOC Maps page has their most up-date-map being updated "1/00".

Anyone? Americans, I'm looking at you.

I wanted to do a tempo run, but I tried something different this time around. With spring coming I was able to do a bit more running on non-paved surfaces, so I went over to this road Mustalampin takana (behind the Mustalampi), which rolls and generally climbs in one direction. Start in the middle, I ran to the bottom, and then all the way to the top, and then back to the middle.

It turned out to only take 28 minutes and was around 7km, but there was also 140 meters of climb. I think this is a nice improvement from the dead flat tempo run (though they have different applications), and in the future I think I will run all the way back to the bottom and then to the middle again, which should probably round it out to 10km and maybe 40 minutes. That would be a solid loop. A little better on my feet, much more rolling, and a good holdfast until all the snow in the forest 'round my house melts. Then it'll be time to do more of that in the forest.

There is a map of the area behind Keltinmaki but its super old and not so great. But, I'll come up with some creative way to use it, I hope.

C • old maps... 1

Its going to be a tough two weeks for training before I head back to the C-land for a little while. I've got a vast number of things to do and will be away both weekends for some races. This weekend is Ankkurirastit, and then next weekend is FinnSpring. I'm actually quite looking forward to this weekend, its a mass start long, should be an interesting experience, and plenty of opportunity to "trial-by-fire" work on my focus and independence.

All these mass start races I've been doing have been an interesting experience in trying to balance independence and following. Adding that extra stimulus so many other people has been an new level of taxing on my brain but I think each time I go out I handle it just slightly better, especially the concept of having people following me. I still worry about that a little, but nearly as much as I once did.

Sunday morning got off to a slow start (apparently that's how they roll in this country), so we didn't get to any training until probably 11:30 or so. But, then we did a nice sessions of intervals with a bunch of short loops. It was what I assume is more traditional Finnish terrain, which I'm finding tough but is growing on me a little. Everything looks the same. Although I had some troubles at some point, I also nailed some other things, I just wasn't moving very fast.

Focus was still not quite where I wanted it to be, and I still lose a bit too much time faffing about right within the circles. Next weekend is another race down near Turku, and one of the things I'm really going to think about is performance within the circle. Knowing what I'm looking for well ahead of time.

Travelled down to Yläne for Kevätyö, ("spring night") which is, *gasp* another night relay. Having done tons of night orienteering last fall, I felt less nervous than I might have otherwise, but still quite concerned given this is a relay and I really didn't want to let the boys down.

I let the boys down at #2. There was a long relatively easy leg to number 1. Then 2-3 were quite a bit more difficult. I knew it was going to be a tough leg, but I seemed to try to be aggressive anyway, which was dumb. I wanted to go over the top of the hill and then find myself on a flat area which would make it easy to follow down the small re-entrant into the control. But, the forest all of a sudden got quite a bit thicker and that stopped me from seeing what I wanted to see and I bounced off track, going well above the control, and then subsequently doubling back too low. I found it eventually, but lost quite a bit of time and place. Although there was still people around I wasn't running very fast and making small mistakes left and right.

I had mildly forgotten that feeling of embarrassment I have while running for this team since I'm so many places behind them. I get bothered by my own performance but its all compounded when I feel like I let the team down.

I think I did some things well but also did quite a few things poorly, the mental focus was just not there. As crazy as it sounds, step 1 for that issue may be to stop listening to music so much.

I'm still sort of searching for what specific things I can do differently this summer to make myself tangibly get better while here. Unfortunately the boys in the car were not too enthusiastic about brainstorming, so I'm still working on it. More terrain running will be a good start.

C • Specificity 2

A spin ympärillä Jyvasjarvi to see how the legs feel. They're still kind of tired, but unfortunately I don't really have time to dilly-dally what with Kevätyo this weekend. A night relay. A relay. At night. Yikes. I'm going second on our 4th team (out of 4), so with luck there will be people around that can help out. I certainly did more night orienteering last fall than I ever have before, so I feel more comfortable with it, but by no means does that make me an expert, and I've almost never been on this more traditional super fast kind of flat bare rock Finnish terrain.

So.... I really don't have any idea what to expect.

C • when in doubt 1

I popped out for an evening jog and tried to run all single track trails. They're still a little snow covered, but some are almost entirely clear. It was actually a little bit of everything. Some points were lovely forest, some were crazy icy slippery, and a few times I fell over in the deep snow. Guess I can't complain about variety, at least.

A couple of epic travel days, a Finnish speaking trainwreck (nee, "exam"), and I'm back in Finland and trying to loosen up with some jogs again. I had hoped all the snow would have been gone when I got here, but alas, that is not the case. There is certainly less snow, but the sun and the heat is not even remotely as powerful here as it is back home. I would very much like some decisive heat injections into the weather.

Relay action! My feet were definitely worse for wear, but I'm thankful that this terrain was really not at all rugged and pleasantly soft. Technically quite easy, but that meant running needed to be pretty high speed, and I simply didn't have that.

So, instead. Here's a conundrum. At one point, I was chasing one British fellow and another quite elite runner. When I arrived at my next control, they were looking around confused. There was a control in the middle of the marsh, I was pretty sure it was mine. BUT, from a distance, I saw that the number on the stand was NOT the number of the control I was looking for. So, I corrected a little, thinking I had made a mistake. I tried to relocate, and several other runners (not necessarily the elite runners), arrived, and wandered around a little confused. At one point I saw the "other" elite runner start running away with a purpose, meaning he clearly found the control we were all looking for.

Every time I relocated I ended up concluding that this control HAD to be the right control, but the stand clearly said it wasn't. It was around then that one person shouted and said that it WAS the control we were looking for. The box had the correct number, but the stand was wrong. Everyone around then said something in frustration, and punched and continued on.

If it were me, I feel like if I had been wandering around with others, and knowing we were all in the right place but there was a bit of a mistake by the organizers, I would tell everyone around. It seems like the sportsmanlike thing to do. But one of the elite runners clearly figured it out and said nothing. I suppose there could be arguments for both sides.

Which one is right?

Either way I feel a little silly for A) not checking the box itself, and B) not being confident enough to realize that this was clearly the right place. I know other people didn't notice the problem because the approached the control in a way that they couldn't see the number on the stand, so it wasn't a problem at all.

C • sportsmanlike 4

Polished off this mini-training camp with a trip up Old Man of Conistan, a fairly simply though occasionally steep "mountain" just across Lake Windermere. I was surprised of just how crowded it was, but it was a very easy light jog, and a really nice day. We then continued along the ridgeline and the bounded down a grassy slope and back to the parking lot ("car park").

Given the delightful weather it was a great way to polish off my last day in the UK and yet another reminder why it was crazy to leave this country back in 2011. I miss it. Lots.

Well, most of it. Almost all of it. A good portion of it. I think I'd have to live in very specific places if I moved back. Which is not out of the question, I suppose.

Sometimes I prefer not to look at results. This should have been one of those days. When I finished, I thought I actually did alright. I knew that Frederic Tranchand had finished early in 100 minutes, so being 15 minutes behind him in a long is actually okay. He's pretty elite, so maybe the other winners would be just a few minutes ahead of him. Nope, he was another 15 minutes down on the winner.

Certainly, I made a couple mistakes, most notably on 2 (where I swear there was an extra hill not on the map), a small one on 5, a worse one on 6, and then a few others, but that would probably only account for 5 minutes or so? I was a long, long way behind, and well behind people I thought I could be competitive with.

I'm not quite sure what it was. I'm finding with my running that I very much notice now the difference between my running speed and my orienteering running speed, and I seem unable to find the same leg/hip drive while running in the forest as I do on trails or the road. Although I do ascribe to the idea that my navigation skills hold me back, I feel like this particular long really shone attention to my running speed in the forest.

Is it lack of strength? Should I start going to the gym again and do some heavy lifting? Am I too timid? I know plenty of agility exercises? Maybe I just need to start free-running in the forest - just go play in the woods and run quickly. Maybe I should start wearing a face mask so that I eliminate the worry of smashing my face or gouging an eye. I'm not sure. There's something fundamental I've either lost, or never had. But 30 minutes behind requires some pretty big changes. I may qualify for WOC in the long, but that doesn't mean I belong there if I can't produce a better result than that. I don't know.

C • running 3

I was hurting after the long, but I was resolved to do some more training, so we jogged (well, I waddled) up a short hill just north of our hotel. Thankfully my legs loosened up a little as we went and it wasn't quite so bad. Well, going down was still pretty bad. Mua tosi väsyttää.

You know, I didn't actually think this went TOO bad. It didn't go great, but I think it could have gone a lot worse. I lost time on number 5 due to a mildly weird combination of control placement, control description, and circle placement, but that was probably the worst of it all. Many of my losses stem from running speed and confidence, which work very much hand in hand. So, not major catastrophes, but any drive or aggression I might have had just wasn't there.

I was also hugely distracted by the fellow wearing the new-ish Canadian top that I was continually chasing. I don't mind them being traded away (well, I kind of do), but I think its bad form to wear it when there are other actual team members around. You're not going to see me rocking a Swiss jersey when there are Swiss runners everywhere.

Well, you also won't see that because I don't have one. I assume I will get burned if I touch one.

So, strange side tangent, my Polar has uploaded the GPS tracks I did on Saturday, Sunday, & Monday, a day later. I thinks I did them Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I'm not entirely clear WHY it did that, but I also can't seem to change it to the correct dates. Weird.

Anyway, both Alex and I kind of wanted to make this racing weekend also a training weekend, so after the middle we, along with Jeff, headed to Tarn Hows for a lovely little training session on an open hillside. Nothing too difficult or strenuous, but nice to get out on a map and do a bit more training.

And.... then we were stuck in traffic.

JK Time! I first drove over to Manchester and picked up Alex from the airport. Well, before that I got stuck in traffic on the M6 for a while. And then more afterwards. There was a legitimate concern that we were going to run out of gas on the M6 because I hadn't anticipated to be stopping/starting so many times. Thankfully, we got there in time to both gas up and food up, and get to the start with plenty o' time.

All I've been doing over much of the winter for orienteering was the occasional sprint, so I didn't really know what kind of performance to expect. I think my running fitness is good, having done a bunch of tempo and track workouts, but my sprint focus has really not been there at all. But, I expected this to be a relatively simple sprint so I felt confident enough to hammer it out and let the chips fall where they may.

I would say the first half was fairly easy, but the second half was actually quite difficult! Really only in a "find a route choice without a dead end" way, but a couple times there was definitely some ways to go quickly, and some ways to go less quickly.

After looking closely at the map and my route choices, I certainly think I could find at least 10-20 seconds on making slightly different choices. The most obvious was before the spectator control, when I first started going down some stairs that lead to a dead end, and also didn't notice the passable fence I totally could have jumped; instead going down a twisty ramp that was a bit slower.

I think I almost hit my navigation/running limit with the technical difficulty of the second half of the course, which meant I definitely had energy to spare at the finish. Sure, I was running fast, but physically I can run faster but I really had to tone it down to make good choices.

Its always hard to read into results of sprints because some people tend not to take them very seriously or very hard, but I was pleased at who I was above in the results and who I was very, very, close to. It was 10 seconds between 24th and 15th. Unfortunately I was still my fairly typical ~90 seconds behind the winner, which also suggests I haven't made much ground at all. But, its April. I'm pretty sure it can only get better than here.

AND, I have hit a new personal best on the world ranking list, climbing up to 88th place. Sure, its totally meaningless, but it sure does sound good! Its an easy way to describe to people who don't know anything about orienteering what level I'm at. They don't ask, but if they did....

My distance ranking, though... its less good.

C • World Ranking 6

So, typically in the UK you can run on footpaths. They go through just about anywhere, there are little sign posts that guide your way and you often jump over fences and what not. Today I tried to find those footpaths that would lead me out of town and into the countryside. Instead I found brambles. Lots and lots of brambles. So... I turned around and did routes I was familiar with.

Kind of a dud.

Another run along the river Trent today, doing a little exploring up some road in the neighborhoods. Mostly I just wanted to find a hill. For the East Midlands it was actually a pretty impressive hill. Possibly bigger than I recall the average West Midlands hill is like.

Like.... 15 meters instead of 10.