Training Log Archive: ndobbs

Running around Helsinki. I now have a Finnish personnummer and neoprene socks. The socks got used as mittens running back. I could barely see some of the time the wind was blowing so much snow in my eyes. Evil weather.

C • Next weekend 8

sneachta


Does hanging out in a petrol station for 40 minutes [on the wrong day] in the hopes of being brought out to the woods count as training? Damn.

Including ten laps of the island, with 30s rest, fast enough to warm up by the fifth recovery... so maybe 17-20 minutes fastish.

Long socks to keep the calves alive, knee-length (nearly) tights because they're as long as I have, here, thermal plus highlander on top, buff for 7 or 8 laps. This may be my last time running without gloves for a while. It was cold and a little wet and windy to start with, my nose was ready to fall off, thankfully it dried up after a bit.

I tried warming up and loosening up the muscles in the apartment before heading out. It seemed to help.

HS were doing indoor intervals somewhere, but I need my other runners for that.

Are there good and bad times to stretch? Eg static stretching before exercise is somewhat not recommended. Is it bad before bed, for example, when you won't be moving much for many hours? Other times?

C • Stretching 9

I now have a 3d-printed shark atop my computer at work.

A wee run around and around the little island... 215-230 double paces each lap, 4 laps... 2.5(?) km, plus there and back...

Long training up in Salmi. I broke and skipped the last few km, Markus et al were out for another 40 minutes. My arms were cold and I got cold and then my body stopped being able to run in terrain and I began to stumble.

Fun!

I made it to 13... http://www.plohni.com/maps/show_map.php?user=plohn...

Oh, and I was leading to 6. Oops.

Internet barely works at all. Grr. When it does get going again, I want to check out http://airo.ie/

Should have done more than this. Cooked a proper meal for the first time since the start of September!

This looks like a fantastic idea.

Some aperçus from the first few days:

On Tuesday on the way to work, the tram stopped at a red light. There was complete silence. No-one was speaking. No-one was hawking stuff. There was no traffic noise, no engine noise. Silence.

At lunch the same day, eight or ten of us went for lunch, including several Finns. I was engrossed in conversation with a French guy beside me, when I got a funny feeling. People were looking at us. I looked up and around, everyone else had finished their meals, and they were sitting primly, not saying a word. French boy and I were only halfway through.

On Thursday on the way back into town from training, a middle-aged Finn spoke to me at a bus stop. She said, in Finnish first and then in English, something about urine in my water bottle. It was apparently funny, because there were medical labs in the hospital building next door. A couple of minutes later she said, Excuse me, I'm a little drunk.

On TV, they sometimes use decimal places for temperatures in the weather forecast.

The immigration police dress like college students. The bureaucracy here is less efficient than in Sweden.

People have all been very nice. My vocabulary is expanding all the time. How am I? Loistava!

C • Pick up line.... 2

C • maps, trainings? 6

"Running with map and lamp" in central forest. Took the bus to a random carpark out in the woods and met up with some HS people for training, Line-O in groups of 2/3, alternating the lead. I ran with an Austrian Markus and a Finn (Henke?).

Woods had lots of trails, not all easy to follow. The last five minutes I was a disaster, not sure why.

Fun training. Nice temperature out running, bitter before and after. I need my hats and gloves and scarves and jumpers...

C • Markus 8

Along the coast, around a couple of islands. Plenty of others out running and walking, but no bikinis.

Dark, needless to say.

Ahh, the sweet, sweet sound of studded tyres.

C • Vowels 2

C • I though you were supposed ... 8

One last run to and along Copacabana.

Failed to get to Madureira, instead went up the cable cars again from Bonsucesso. Chatted with some friendly locals.

The lady is a beast. They don't train like that where I'm headed.

More touristing instead of training today, out on Ilha Paquetá with couchsurfer types. The island is in the bay of Guanabara that Rio is at the mouth of, and was a place the bourgeois would come to chill at weekends and stuff. It has become less popular since people realised that what gets pumped into the bay stays in the bay, but there remains many a fine house and pretty garden.

AOWN, not sure if this counts, but one of the dogs there balanced on his/her front paws and lifted the hind legs, yoga stye.

Overcast again, but glad I had some suncream on anyway. Sheesh.

pics

Day trip to Petropolis. It reminded me of France, somewhat.

From the flat via the saddle to Copacabana, along the beach and back. Had pretty much the whole of Copacabana to myself. Some big waves crashing in.

Rio is growing on me.

Wandered Centro today. Didn't go into any art galleries or museums as they were all closed. Even if I had known they were closed on Mondays, I probably wouldn't have known it was Monday. One church thing was closed for renovation, another closed 20 minutes before I got there. I did get into the Real Gabinete Portugues de Leitura, a lovely old library reminiscent of the cultural centre in Beacon, NY. And did a bunch of people-watching.

Called in on Chris at the office, but he was exhausted, so he went home as I went to see http://www.arfi.org/bobines/indexgb.html

No training again, didn't eat much either.

Wandered Santa Teresa, then ambled passed some machine-gun-toting army types and a "Crack, e possivel vencer" truck into a favela, tried the 'downhill must lead to an exit strategy' which failed, got some directions from amused locals and emerged alive, with brother and Nico in tow.

It'll be fun orienteering here eventually.

Speaking of urban orienteering, I was hoping to see some racing going on in one of these pics. Oh well.

C • Acqua alta 8

Stomach not right yet. Went for a walk in Barra da Tijuca with Chris. Cold and wet, but (AOWN) we did see a world's largest rodent!
This isn't the picture Chris took:

Stomach dodgy today, didn't run before travelling back to Rio. The ferry to Angra cost 4.50 reais. Had to wait a couple of hours in Angra as the buses were full, but got to eat a proper lunch. Zzzz.

Ilha Grande,
again a great breakfast (thanks Hostel Holandes), then walk to the beach (via beaches and hills), 2h+, swim, chill, chat, chill, swim, then ran back. Picked up a Manuel early on, or maybe an Imanol, since he was from Bilbao, and he kept the pace high, though we did walk the end of the big hill. Fun to have company.

AOWN. Penguin :)

And another lovely dinner in the evening, good company from all over. A good day!

Ilha Grande, back from Dois Rios... rounded up since I walked there, 2 hours and a bit.

Ilha grande

Nearby AP users, by location:
1: Sao Paulo
2: Cape Verde
3: Mali
4: Haiti
5: Costa Rice
6: Jamaica

And only one in each location...

C • Nearby 2

So I set the alarm on my phone last night for 4:30am, NY time, 6:30 here. Google said it would take 1h15 to get to Parque do Trovador by bus from Chris', and I figured between breakfast, margin for getting lost and time for registration, 7 would be a good time to leave.

So the alarm goes off, I have a wee breakfast, no stress, then look at the time and its nearly 8. Stress! Wake Chris, tell him he has to leave in three if he wants to come, that didn't work, so leave him, put on running gear and head out.

Run past the street the bus stop was on, mistakenly, so ran another few streets and picked up another bus heading towards Vila Isabel. It doesn't seem to be particularly direct, and turned off before the Parque, so I got out at the terminus and ran 500m or so to the Parque. Arrive flustered (without a watch), but it's only 8:42. Yay for Brazilian bus drivers.

Do a little jogging and drills to warm up.

The clock problem, I believe, is because my phone, which I have been unable to switch to Brazilian time, decided to switch to EST winter time overnight. Aaggggghhhhhhhhhhh

I Copa Sprint Elite CO

Vila Olímpica Arthur da Távola
Vila Isabel, Rio de Janeiro

Woo, first time orienteering in a new country in years! Ronaldo André Castelo dos Santos de Almeida and his friends (incl Thaiane) put on a good show on a 1:1500 map in a small park.

The map wasn't perfect, and the control placement was occasionally slightly off, but it was pretty fantastic. They charge 15$ or so for entry (but let me run for free), have SI, preprinted maps, microphone and speaker, medal and snack for finishers, and 41 controls in 2.6km!

It seems they know what orienteering is about. Racing, good times, and thinking fast. Clearly to become excellent orienteers in the woods, they will need to develop a lot more, but they are starting in the right direction.

Put it another way, in more developed countries, the emphasis is more on marking the pitch correctly and having excellent referees rather than passing the ball and scoring goals.

Elite CO also has really nice O-gear!

About the race, lost a few seconds here and there, mostly after the turning the map over (two maps, "laminated" together), in the woodsy area where the map was less perfect.

I think results-wise I was at the end of the leading pack, with Fabio, Vanderle and another guy all just ahead of me.

The Brazilians ran on 22 maps in the two weeks they were in the US. It's a pity I was no longer in Peekskill, they would have been good to host.


And of course, results go up within a few hours of the race -
1. 5729 Sidnaldo Farias Souza 15:42.
2. 1860 Vanderlei josé Bortoli 15:48.
3. 0 Neil Dobbs 15:58.
4. 5689 Fábio Kuczkoski 19:40

Fabio is the guy who won the Bethel sprints by a mile. He had issues finding the first control today, hadn't flipped the map :)

Walked to and along Copacabana, played in the waves, lounged, ran to the end of the beach and back, then into town for açai (yummy!) and a chicken/potato/dumplingy thing (coxinha). Next, a stroll to and along Ipanema beach, cold at this stage, 22º only, in to the Lagoa and back to Copcabana for a bus home.

Fun times, but overcast the whole time... lobsterised nevertheless. Wow and damn!

C • nice memories 4

First time getting one of these too: your IP address is being used by some other device on the network.

Is that suspicious? Or just a cheap-ass router that gets confused?

I took this on the plane in. I suspect it looks better on my computer, full screen.


Apparently US Airways is doing all it can to locate my bag.

In Rio!

A couple of slight hiccups along the way.

One checked bag is still in CLT.

I neglected to write down my brother's apartment no. and building, just the address, on paper - and forgot that he had actually provided me with those details. The taxi driver was bemused, I hope, that I had no idea where I was going in the apartment complex, the security guards too.

And then this email: "Thank you for confirming your ATM withdrawal. Unfortunately, the ATM used is compromised, meaning that your card and PIN number have been captured for use in fraudulent transactions." Welcome to Brazil.


Thanks to all who welcomed me into the community and helped make my stay in the US so wonderful! Hope to see many of you in Helsinki!

Along the waterfront.