Training Log Archive: W

Jokilaakson Rastipaivat! Also known as "that race that happens to be right beside where I'm going for Vappu weekend anyway". Handy, right! A little two day event where I was an exciting sideshow as the only foreigner for... well, basically 100 miles. They even put a Canadian flag on my number, cool!

Had no idea what the terrain was going to be like, I'd been on a map around here before and it was mostly flat and flat. This seemed to be a bit more rocky, with some small hills with one larger ridge but not really what I'd call a hill.

It seemed scary at first because it was quite flat, but the visibility was also really good, so I just kept my head up and spotted features as I ran. It was almost a flawless run, a bit of a mistake at one control that probably cost me 45 seconds or so, where things were a little bit weird, another guy had similar problems that I did as well.

But, in all, for a middle, it was a strong race. Physically not strong, but technically good. Although I had a compass, I used it very sparingly, and focused more on reading and features, even though the terrain was very flat.

Kunto Rastit relatively close by to home. And by close I mean about a 5 k jog. Not too bad, did a pleasant warm-up running there, then did the course, still without a compass. Tried to run a little faster, but not crazy fast. Then jogged home again, which was a bit tougher as I was starting to get tired. Fortunately, its mostly downhill.

10 x 1 minute uphill intervals. Classic workout I used to do lots. The hill is not quite log enough (40 seconds) but still plenty hard. Looking forward to brutalizing self up Laajavuori! (4 minute hill).

I think I'm just about back to normal, did a longer run that involved some trails, and it felt okay.

Longer is relative term, of course.

Going out for little feeler runs post cold to see how I feel. Still coughing, but feeling okay.

I went to the UK for a week (more on that in previous training sessions), but "The Big Smoke" got me plenty sick and put me out of comission for a while. No FinnSpring :( , no training at all, just sitting around going through boxes of kleenex and tea. Not fun at all. The little bit of training I did in the UK in the lack of snow got me super enthusiastic so it sucks to look outside and not get to go.

BUT, I think I'm on the mend, so I decided to go out for a real jog dressed up warm to see how it goes. Save for lots of coughing, I'm pretty close to being un-sick, and it was a really nice morning so great to get out of the house. One might have thought that 2 weeks of no running would mean some of my leg pains. But, nope!

And.... now its snowing again. Finland is awesome!

Also, I bought myself a piano, so now I'm learning songs I heard and decide I want to play. Turns out playing the piano is not like riding a bike.

Its going to be a while.

And I did go for a skate ski! And it was slow as molasses. I suppose I should have expected that, since its warm and slushy. I went as far as I could towards Ladun Maija until the "pine needle:snow ratio" got a little too lopsided and I decided to turn around. There's still probably quite a few days of skiing remaining, especially if it stays kind of cool and cloudy.

One mitigating factor, though, could be the 10mm of rain that's expected tomorrow. That could put a "damp"-er on the proceedings. ZING!

Booked my flights to the UK for Saturday! Hopefully can hit some local event in some awful awful forest in the Midlands on Sunday!

C • . 7

I had a "team building evening", so was quite short on time to do any exercise at all, but still managed to squeeze in a short run. I was feeling my legs from the long run yesterday. But, although this run felt slow, it was actually a little bit faster than normal. Cool!

And... then we went bowling. Naturally, I won. This seems like important information to log.

I can't seem to make my Garmin sync with anything anymore! This is getting kind of annoying.

Anyway, went for a longer run. There was a 10k race I could have done, but I felt my legs could only really handle one race in a weekend, instead it was a light cruise in my cushiest shoes, which was probably a good choice. My legs actually felt quite a bit happier about this run than the week before, so that's a nice sign. I also just quickly jogged over and checked out the state of the ski trails, and they are still in acceptable condition. Might have to give a ski a try before it keeps metling, that could be real nice!

Oh dear, just too much logging to catch up on, an entire training camp, for one. So, I'm going to work backwards. Since it turned out I was going down to Lahti on Friday night anyway, I looked for a race to do in the neighbourhood, and there was one! In downtown Helsinki! A few quick e-mails, and, shazam, they let me register late! First sprint of the season, my fitness feels like garbage after a pretty lousy winter, so I didn't expect to much of myself there.

But, I figured I would accept my lack of fitness and focus on having a strong process, planning way ahead, keeping my head up, etc. etc. 100% focus the whole time.

Well, the focus wasn't 100% all the time, but my bad shape + what I think was pretty darn good focus gave me a 7th place finish, 45 seconds behind the winner. I'd call that a solid result considering, but really needs to be closer if I want to get on the podium in the fall. I don't imagine they're all in awesome shape either, but, still.

What could I have improved on? Well, on the way to the start triangle and, by extension, number 1, I immediately noticed how there was a long leg from 1-2, so I actually was pretty slow to number 1 because I spent so much time looking at number 2. It wasn't so much running slow, rather, I was zig-zagging and not fully aware of where I was going because I was thinking so much about where I was going to be going. I'm trying to plan a lot, but that was probably excessive.

The other dumb thing was on 16, where I had settled on a route choice, what I think was the best route choice, and then at the last minute, I turned and chose a different one, because the person I was catching (he started TWO minutes ahead of me), went a different way, and I guess... I thought he was right? I don't know. I had a sudden total loss of confidence. Can't quite understand why. I'm better than that!

Its probably going to be my only sprint in a while since I miss the HuippuLiiga one coming up in a few weeks because I'll be in the UK, so I'm glad I got to race that. Now to become a better runner again!