Training Log Archive: W

Another delightful exploratory run over at the Laajavuori. I went over to the backside and all the way down to the turn off towards Palokka. In due time I might try to go do an around the lake run, but only once I've fully got my bearings over then. Then I went backwards around the 10k loop, and ten did an extra bit along what I initially thought was a ski trail, but I'm now thinking is some sort of horse race track. Its wide, but very soft, and has what looks like jumps. Its weird, but I think its some sort of long-distance race course. Glad to have mapped out more of the Laajavuori trails in my head.

Another shakeout run! In addition to my anticipation for a not broken GPS/HR monitor, I'm also looking forward to getting a hold of some new road shoes. Both my Brooks and Pearl Izumis are ready to be retired. Though, I may keep the Pearl's for the gym. Still, I can feel that they're pretty much done. But what to go with next? WHAT NEXT???

Finally, orienteering in the A) light, B) at the Laajavuori. A nice set of orienteering intervals I tried to do at easy pace. Honestly, day orienteering seems wildly easy when comparing it to the dark!

My mindfulness course I've been taking has helped a little with brushing off mistakes, but I still find myself fairly distracted. Distracted by all kinds of things that are highly irrelevant to orienteering. This is nothing too, but I'm more annoyed by them now. Even with them, I thought I performed well, but felt hurried and made mistakes once I caught up to a group with Pavel and Teemu and a few other guys and we were starting in intervals. My personal expectations gets higher and my fuse gets shorter when I'm around other people.

Also, my feet got quite wet and its about time I find some sort of socks to deal with getting super cold while O+'ing. Any advice?

C • scuba socks! 7

A little light evening shakeout run. These are sometimes awful awful tough to get inspired to do On the other hand, once I've gone and done it, I feel much better about it all!

I didn't have too much time for a long run today, because, stop the presses, I went to a social occasion. That doesn't sound like me at all!

Hyvä yö for a jog, though. Light drizzle, absolutely deserted. If it were Canada I'd occasionally worry about being eaten by a bear, but, ha ha, this is Europe, there isn't any wildlife! I'm in the clear!

C • Social occasion?? 3

On one hand, I'll be happy when it snows so I can't start skiing, on the other hand, I'll be sad because a lot of my favorite routes around the Laajavuori will not be for running anymore, and I'm really liking them. I tried out a different combination of loops for variety and extra climb.

You know, at first I gave Strava a bad rap for thinking I did ridiculous amounts of climb in a workout (609 meters? Hell no?). And I thought that Garmin Connect was more accurate. However, I've since noticed that on the long climb up to the top of the Laajavuori, Garmin measures it mostly as downhill....

So, now I don't know who to believe at all. However, I have just discovered that almost the entire length of my preferred running loop in Laajavuori is used for the Neste Oil Rally Finland Shakedown. Maybe I'll time trial it and see if I can beat their time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDgoCvc5eGI

Running in daylight! What a novel change! I'm not quite sure what they're doing, but there's a lot of logging going on around my usual trails. Its not like they're taking down entire cutblocks or anything, its just that at random times I'll discover a new giant pile of logs. Where did they come from? Why are they cutting them down? Do you think it would be okay if I took a bunch of branches so that I could make my apartment smell nice?

I think I'll do that last one anyway.

Well, its finally time to get back to orienteering. And, what the hell, let's make it a ludicrously difficult night training. Pavel's girlfriend set it on some of the terrain that I think Finn's generally think is "crap". Its just so, so rocky. And not like a cool kind of rocky. Moss covered, lots of holes, weird shapes, its SO hard to move through it effectively, and when I ran in similar terrain at the long champs, I came out with two smashed shins and one purple toenail (projected fall off date: 2017).

And.... it was raining. And dark.

I recently read a study about task and ability attribution, and, now that I write this four days later, the conclusion of that study that ability attribution during negative performances goes down over time, actually feels like its ringing true.

At the time I was quite disappointed, but now that I think about it more, maybe it wasn't quite, quite so bad. I never really found number 1 (there were no flags), and although the long leg from 2-3 was wobbly, I went fairly straight, though I also never found the feature. 4 was likely a disaster, I think I was way too high. But then 6 was miraculously not a problem. 8 was a triumphant masterclass of skluck (skill/luck), and then the last few were also okay, although I once again find myself drifting a lot on my compass, especially in this rough terrain where its quite difficult to stay on the line. I'm told Timo is very good with the compass. Time to track him down!

I decided to try and go make some sort of figure 8 route around the Laajavuori that would include a bunch of climb. So, I went around the base, up the 6km loop, then jumped on the long hill to the top, came back down, and then back up the hill of the 6km loop again. So there was basically three lengthy hills (lengthy being a relative term, of course). Still, it was good, and I'm going to miss being able to run on theses trails once winter eventually comes and OH WAIT! Then I can ski on them instead! Huzzah!