Training Log Archive: ndobbs

IR Pirttimäki

These are such lovely woods to orienteer in. Yum yum yum.

no o

Missed a race because everyone's away, and no good public transport option. First time that's happened in a while.

Did maths and cleaned the apartment instead of training.

C • sorry 2

http://cfco2014.provence-co.fr/en/race-details/pro... ??

Afraid a big stone might land on you?

for some reason 10 minutes was enough

I have now met an Auschwitz survivor. He is also a lively and brilliant scientist.

I'm sure Ireland won't instead concentrate on getting kids "pedalling" rather than *peddling* to them. Where is the IT proof-reader?

Saturday's wonderful madness

Results and Friday's map (gps tracking) here - http://tow.ee/en/2014en/live_and_results/

C • full fat coke 2

Iltarastit Kattilajärvi
9km course

I'm spoiled, really, getting to do this on a weekday evening.

Bits I did well, but still room for improvement. And I still don't like my shoes. And my pace graph is way too up and down. I think I am fit enough to keep running at a reasonable pace, but don't seem to do it. Not that the terrain isn't sapping at times...

WotD, courtesy of Timo: Hunaja, olen himassa! ~ Honey, I'm home!

Tempting: http://www.femman.org/?tocID=2383&sprak=swe

Woke up this morning and my foot was a whole lot better. Still a little sore, but didn't bother me too much jogging around, way less painful than yesterday.

Was going well for the first 30 or 40 controls (and minutes) but got a bit slower after that, got stuck in green once, made a couple of mistakes in the contour only, even started a butterfly in the wrong order.

I'm not sure why, but they have big green spiders in Estonia.

Fun times. Helped pack up after the even a little too for some strength training.

For those who think all Estonians females are naturally blonde, I saw a couple of these over the weekend:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjVEce4t4uE

But my foot hurts for some reason, so I'm not sure I'll be able to run.

Keila-Joa, Estonia

I think I sort of ticked Estonia off my list last year doing some training inside Tallinn, but this was my first proper course.

Woods were lovely, course was challenging, but my foot wasn't the best, so I spent most of the time limping carefully.

My foot is growing now. Didn't rip anything, but tomorrow could hurt more.

Don't have memory of foot hurting like that yesterday, but today walking is sometimes painful, sore spot is between arch and ankle bone, slightly swollen. Was thinking maybe something was bruised or broken, then that maybe something bit me, or maybe a ligament isn't happy, I really don't know.

Beautiful orienteering in Träskberga, Sippoo. Really beautiful!

Was tired beforehand, but decided to run fast and have fun... which I was doing, falling over quite a bit too. And I made biggish mistakes to the first two controls, but that didn't matter. Going to 10 I made a mistake I didn't quite believe was possible, ended up the wrong side of a spur, had to scramble down a steep slope, go through a strip of green, cross a wee field... and at the other side I realised my thumb was naked. Strange. So I turned back, retraced steps as best I could, as far as the bottom of the slope, no sign of the compass. My trusty compass, in use since 2006 I think, maybe 2007. Maybe the replacement will be magnetic.

How mathematicians should be remembered.

SLEET

SLEET !??

That white shouldn't be there.

C • I guess 3

When I grow up, I want to be president so I can go out into the woods and watch Jukola. http://areena.yle.fi/tv/2184300 55 minutes in. And to be mafia.

All 17 HS Jukola teams finished, and 18/20 Venla teams!

A good way to pass the 1000 control mark (counting from Jan 26).

Kuopio-Jukola !

6th leg

Route!gadget

A bunch of 5-10s mistakes and hesitations, plus a couple of 30s... slow and safe, but not as sharp as I would like, nor as racy.

Took the team from 115 to 109. Good performances all round up till then, though ten or twenty minutes faster would have been possible. Last leg must have been hungover or something. I didn't do enough to give us a proper shot at top 100, but dropping 43 places seems a lot.

Team bib 148. Finished 152.

Bed at 9 the night before, might have slept an hour before getting up 10.50 to go see the start and watch the first leg. Back to bed just after 12, alarm set for 4. I could hear the commentary from my tent, so I half slept, half followed the race. Good at least to know what leg was still in the woods... haven't missed my alarm and my leg! Ate a couple of biscuits at 4, put on O-gear, sat in my warm sleeping-bag for twenty minutes, then went out to the team tent. Not half as cold now as it was at midnight. By the time Ross and I were set to run, it was almost pleasant in the sun. Ross had a ten minute headstart on me, no way I was catching him the way he was running.

Shoes were mostly ok for the race, some of the downhill gave bad pain to the right front tendon/ligament going from shin to foot again, laces possibly a touch too tight. Otoh, feet weren't slipping around, with two pairs of socks.

Oh, anyone want to buy a pair of newish Sarvas, size 42.5, used all of two times (SM keski final and Prisma-rastit).

Jukola model.

Nothing too scary, just a bit rough underfoot.

WotD: pikkurilli ~ little finger (Am. pinkie). Also, pikkiriikkinen ~ wee, tiny.

Quick spin before heading Kuopiohon Karin kanssa.

WotD: suunpieksäjä ~ gabbler, prattler, great (or idle) talker, regular parrot for talking; braggart, swaggerer, blusterer

Clubmates have a grandmother with a house ten minutes from Jukola-land, which is pretty sweet. I imagine outside mosquito season it is a wonderful place. It sounded like I was trying to sleep in a beehive (mehiläispesä) with all the buzzing going on (and this indoors). After a few hours the buggers went to sleep sated. Kari had decamped to his car.

Olemmeko wir practising langues del mundo nu perchè Corn an Domhain comença dzisiaj?

Slow jog, good company, good views from the top of the ski jump ramp. I'd say amazing, and one could see miles in all directions, but since this is Finland, there just wasn't much to see... Suomenlinna, Malminkartano (I guess), Tuomiokirkko...)... which means 50m asl is higher than everything else around. To be back in the Dolomites...

Hamstring is a bit dodgy today, so skipping Kytäjä Jukola training.

And no-one has admitted to finding my raincoat. A whole 7 months I had it... hopefully there'll be good deals at Jukola.

Another good sprint map in Warsaw. http://app.trackcourse.com/view/mp2014sprint-m21

C • Map 3

Was hoping for a night leg, since that's more epic, but the team ain't bad...

HS 3
Tommaso
Tapsa
Anton
Ville
Andrei
Neil
Tommi

HS only has 17 teams entered.

To work, faster than usual or I'd have missed lunch.

Legs are tight, quads/thighs esp need work. And Jukola will hurt.

and home

left hamstring is tweaking

HS Jukolan katsastus

Still didn't get my racing mojo working. Mistake to 3, didn't read the approach before planning route, and then thought I was going for a re-entrant rather than the cliff, probably 1.30 lost. A few hesitations besides that and some stopping to think about routes. Eikka ran 52.

Päivänsana: kalju ~ bald. Not to be confused with: kallio ~ bare rock. They sound completely different. Apparently kalju is also Estonian for cliff.

to start

And then back out to change two emit yokemebobs. Tried to remain zen working the screwdriver as mosquitos attacked.

Then had a quick swim in the lake and sat by the bridge for a couple of hours ready to rescue anyone who fell into the cesspool. No-one did. The bridge was bouncy enough to be entertaining. Meanwhile, my sockless feet lost a lot of blood.

After a siesta, went to Sornainen to help unload the truck, along with half the Jukola 1st team, amongst others.

Looks like great terrain for the WC in Kongsberg. It's a pity that the WC has been sufficiently messed up that not many are participating.

3 hills

May was a weak month for training, only 14 hours. Sickness plus allergies. June should be 25+, maybe.

I will shortly hit 1000 controls since my birthday, but I don't think I am taking full advantage of them and my navigation is not improving as it should.

There are at least two main issues.

One is a lot of my orienteering is slow. I haven't been racing enough. I haven't even been ordinary running fast enough. Part of this is not being entirely comfortable with local terrain, though this is starting to change. But I am out of practice racing racing and need to change this. Back in France 2005, for example, I was racing much more regularly and my orienteering was sharper.

Second, I haven't been reviewing courses enough and doing visualisation properly.

I can't do much this side of Jukola, but afterwards I should do better.

Not that I know what I'm doing with my summer.

I seem to be getting less good at traveling.

Going to Denmark/Sweden I forgot my passport.

Going to Ireland I forgot my raincoat.

Going to Italy I lost my raincoat.


On the other hand, I did pop briefly up to the citta alta of Bergamo after dropping the lads to the airport and chanced upon Panificio Tresoldi. Super tasty cheese and rucola filled thingummyjig followed by the tastiest pastry in a long time, don't know what it was called either but it had pistachio creme patissiere inside, a perfect crust and was scrumptious.

Oh yes, the other reason for thinking my travel skills are deteriorating.

On Thursday I flew from Verona to Helsinki via Munich. In Munich we were ferried by bus to terminal 2. After being questioned by customs (where do you come from? well, I was just in Italy, or I'm Irish, but live in Finland. No further questions) I went upstairs expecting a short walk to my gate. I look at my boarding card, 18.40, look at the departures screen, 18.40, flight to Helsinki, going from 1D, and I was in terminal 2. Go back down, ask the customs guys where the hell is T1, signs seemed lacking, they point me to asign and I'm on my way. Fifteen minutes later I'm going through security, flight is already boarding, security guy says I'm in the wrong terminal, the 18.40 flight is Finnair, and I should hurry to catch my flight. Huh? Okay. 18.40 was my flight's boarding time, I have 15-20 minutes to go back to T2. Go downstairs, signs don't correspond to the directions I got, I stop, confused. Old German lady starts talking at me, am I looking for something, and my bag strap is trailing on the ground. Great, must remain polite, say I'm going to T2. She then proceeds to give me directions which are pretty excellent, shortcut through the carparks, I blow her a kiss and run off. Back through T2 security and make it to the gate as my flight is halfway through boarding.

Good times, but times not good enough.

Longest stretch without internet in a long while ;)

Hinterbeck

Not very sharp here at all. Brain tired. Did three controls map-memory and they were fine, most of the rest were sloppy.

Decided a haircut would be a much better use of time than a second orienteering session, so no Kubelek for me.

Bought a bunch of cheeses from Caseificio Pennar.

Platanek

Perhaps surprisingly good given what went on the day before, I wasn't half as shagged as I'd expected to be.

Some issues in the technical bits, and the downhill wasn't as fun as I expected.

I did try taking the trench and tunnel to the last control, but at 12ft under with a low ceiling, no light and wet feet, I turned around. I was a bit scared there would be a hole, but thinking about it now, the water was a good sign.

Monte Zebio

Disappointed. Should be running better than this, and made a couple of totally unnecessary mistakes as well as a couple of somewhat unnecessary ones. Plus not pushing enough, just going at a fast trot.

Got overtaken by Emily and Conor at the end. They were both running very well, like I ought to be but don't right now.

Long hill to the start. Maybe should have done more fast bits as warm up.