Training Log Archive: W

Tampere suunnistus sprint race. Drove the 1:45 all the way down to Tampere for a sprint. Aside from wanting to do one more sprint race before selection races, I thought it also might be nice to race on the map that's right beside JWOC sprint area next year. Probably not very relevant since its in towns area as opposed to park for the sprint next year, but, good to get a sense of the climb, and oh boy is it quite the climb.

There's a set of stairs in the middle of this map called the "Pispilan Portti", which is the giant set of stairs that reality dieting shows like to make all their contestants go up because its so huge and painful. And, yeah, it was pretty huge and painful.

The bottom part of the course was a fun and tricky area with some natural traps and fences that made it tricky to find the right route. No artificial traps, just the lay of the land. After a few easier legs, there was a very straight forward "climb up these stairs" leg, to the top part of the course, which was also relatively straight forward, but tougher given the brutal climb.

I lost 25 seconds to Tranchand on the 2:30 uphill leg, so that was kind of a disappointment, but aside from that I finished 5th, 8 seconds out of a podium. I'm not sure I made 8 seconds of mistakes, so the only time to gain back would have been from fitness. The concern I have is that being 52s back of Tranchand is not going to get me into a WOC final, especially when the Q is almost certainly going to be faster and easier than this.

C • ? 2

Morning jog around Laajavuori, felt pleasant up the hills, but I'm getting a little bored of those ski trails, even though I haven't run them very much. They're just a little wide and easy. Smaller trails would be nice.

Mona fartlek workout over around Soidenlampi. 2 x 90 seconds, followed by 4 x 1 minute, 4 x 30s, 4 x 15s. Good stuff, but I actually kind of wish it was longer. Maybe that means I should run harder! On the 15seconds, made like I was punching a control, so when my watch beeped I stopped and ran in the other direction. I'm just so clevvver like that.

*grumble* *grumble* Only got to run for 35 minutes *grumble* Super nice day, but forced to meet at the beach and wait while others were late. Really frustrating and I don't know why I left myself be bossed around like that. Eh, who am I kidding. It happens all the time!

Modest repeat of workout I did a few weeks ago. Started on one side of Mattilaniemi bridge, then started a cruise to the other side, then turned around and started the interval back across the bridge, and up to the top. No idea what the height of the climb was, Garmin thinks I had 54 meters of elevation gain, Strava thinks over 600. I think they're both wildly wrong.

Tough workout, lots of lactic acid in the legs, but good fun. Not too long now until I go to WOC in my "worst shape ever", so there will be lots of intensity from now until then.