Training Log Archive: ndobbs

changed my mind, it'll be day off day off day off day off. Might start again on Fri or Sat.
Went shopping yesterday, new Mizuno runners, gloves, fleece, mattress and quilt. Hopefully I'll start sleeping better now.

C • :) 3

as everyone else, including a couple of clubmates here running for Kalmar, was having fun running Smalandskavlen, poor me was left in my apartment doing maths... couldn't cope any more by 6pm and had to go for a run, unsatisfactory at 36 minutes, but probably as far as I can go without damaging the foot...
will go day on day off for the next few days...

and 13 mins of it was orienteering, a schools park race just across the river from my place, took me all of ten minutes to get there :)
didn't run fast, tried to be carfeul, park was flat wwhich helped...

foot still f**ked. and the other might be on the way. Feel like it's not unrelated to the Achilles tendonitis type problem I had back in the spring and was a complete bitch to get rid of, excuse my french. Resting doesn't seem to do any good, running seems to be the only 30mins I've been guaranteed to not get a twang, it doesn't seem to like sitting at the computer, so maybe i'll spend a little less time on ap... :(

going to try playing around with the soles on the new shoes tomorrow, or revert to the old ones temporarily...

C • Crap!!! 2

double pain in the ass is I can't take proper advantage of the enforced rest cos supposing it's a tendonitis I shouldn't drink... oh well, maybe I'll be a productive mathematician for a while :(

nice evening. talking to strangers ain't that bad an idea despite what boris might think (although perhaps he woudn't mind if *I* got raped and pillaged).

At twenty to seven I checked the internet to see if there was anything interesting on in town, saw Jezioro Łabędzie was playing in the National Opera at 7pm. Figured it would be sold out, but though I would go down and check just in case, at least it would give me an excuse to go inside the building and ogle the glamorous ladies.

So three minutes later (yep, I live practically next door) I was in the queue for last minute tickets. Some woman comes up to me and starts speaking in Polish to me. I look blankly back at her. Meanwhile, the woman in front of me in the queue is responding, in Polish, that she would very much like the free ticket to Swan Lake. Doh. Apparently there is a point to learning Polish. At least the woman that was in front of me was no longer in the queue. Ten minutes later, after the first bell has rung, a Spaniard asks the queue in broken English whether someone wants a ticket... I pounce on her.

So I get a free ticket to Swan Lake. A couple of minutes later, we install ourselves in our box on the fourth floor, close enough to the stage that we can only a quarter of it, which might explain why the ticket originally cost 4 euros. We move boxes so that we can see a half the stage... not the most satisfying.
At the interval we were bold and sneaked into the more expensive seating. Good move.

This was my first ballet experience. It's not bad, but I think theatre and concerts probably have much more to offer. There were enough white panties to satisfy a seminary of Christian Brothers, or perhaps a court of Russian aristocrats back in the days... I didn't see the artistic merit in them hopping up and down leaning forward with one leg stretched out behind. It'd be impressive in gympa, though.

The head girl had anorexic arms. Artistically they were very effective. I couldn't tell just how thin her legs were, but she must have some muscles. Made me think about orienteering girls, some of them also appear too thin, and a few of them apparently have or have had severe problems, and others not at all. Ballet dancers probably starve themselves, or did at one point. I'm sure I saw something like that on telly once. Raises the question to what point you can "damage" your body in the name of art, or sport, achievement in general I suppose. Maybe one should have to wait until one is eighteen... but that could be too late...

Weightloss seems effective in orienteering too, unfortunately. Also in athletics, as Jonathan Edwards showed. We're still waiting (Marc) for a WOC classic winner to weigh in at over 70kg. Despite my best efforts, I find it hard to come up with a strong argument against orienteering girls thinking they need to lose weight. The best I can do is try to convince them that it it is not but eating less but by training more that the benefit comes. Where is this going... maybe to sleep... Zzzzzzzz

PS coming back to the beginning, ended up eating in a Mexican resto with some new spanish friends afterwards...

PPS I think tomorrow (Sunday) is a day off to rest the foot

of which five minutes were afterwards, jogging back to the event centre, cold.

Grand Prix Warszawy 2008, Kabaty.

Unfortunately my first ever 10km was just shy of 10km, but close enough:)
Apparently the actual distance is 9.8... which wouldput me at 3505 for 10km which doesn't seem unreasonable.

However, since it is probably fast enough to qualify for a woc final, it would seem to suggest that i can't read a map to save my life, or that i don't run agressively enough when orienteering, or both.

Trails were flat, plenty wide enough and essentially dry.

Race wasn't particularly exciting, oscillated between 6th and 8th. Couldn't see any of the km marking (apparently there were some!) so I didn't know what pace I was running at... and I wasn't expecting the finish to arrive for another minute or two. Thankfully it did, as I was beginning to falter... still, I think I judged the pace about right...

orienteering is so much more fun

stuck around for two thirds of the prizegiving for the previous year afterwards - fit orienteuses are much cuter than fit runners, albeit based on a very small sample size.

ps don't think i could do it much faster without training a fair bit. It felt like leg strength was just as much a limiting factor as heart and lung capacity.

Foot was fine running. Got a serious twang out of it trying to climb out of a row of seats afterwards, considered falling to the ground and screaming but the pain went away after a second or two of standing normally. Not good. I don't know whether it needs a day or two of complete rest or just to be treated carefully... I've had this problem before and it has goneaway in the past... and I don't know whether it was unihoc (=innebandy apparently) or basketball that dit this or if it is the new shoes... or a combination

but I don't want to get properly injured this side of 2010

au bord de la Vistule,
2/3 on grass/trails

muscles sore from yesterday.

Bought new shoes on Tuesday, North Face, for everyday walking around in...
Today going to Polish lessons I got those nasty searing pains along what I suppose is a tendon under the foot.... not sure whether it is due to the shoes (lack of arch support?) or yesterday's training. Considered not going for a run but it didn't hurt when out so all for the good...

C • That's funny... 3

JOT training
toning/stretching/stuff led by Pani Ania for maybe 20 or 30 minutes, followed by a game of unihoc followed by a game of nbasketball

Our team was a bit weaker so I had to work hard... sweated buckets, heart wsa pounding, threw my weight around a bit in the unihoc (isn't it great being twice the size of 16 year olds)... I think I mightn't get invited back :)


It was great fun, but I can't see how this is particularly useful training - indoors one sweats way more than is justifiable for the exercise done... and it seems like hard impact for little benefit... maybe I'm wrong on this, but I think the 3*10minutes that I had been expecting would have been more beneficial...

C • Actually... 4

evening jog in warsaw

after dark, but not too cold yet. running faster tomorrow...

Drove backto Katowice airport this morning (3hrs, tiring!), then waited over an hour for a bus that left 40mins late to Katowice train station, waited an hour and for a train that was 15 minutes, got into Warsaw at 19h, twenty minutes late... long day.

So since I was very happy with yesteday's run I think I'll write some more. The control descriptions and race info said we would have 15km (enough to scare Paddy into retiring). I had decided to start at middle-distance pace and see what happens. It was maybe 5°C, quite cold, good temperature for me. I was cold at a couple of points but it meant I didn't sweat *as much* as usual and perhaps could keep the rhythm going longer.
Strangely I managed to keep running more or less at the fast pace I set out at and stay lucid. I never tried pushing too hard on the hills, not even with Mats chasing me out of 6. There was only 305m climb and we were dirven up a fair bit to the start, so there was relatively a lot of flat and downhill. Contouring and gentle up/downhill I am good at running, steep up I am not, and get burnt at. Steep downhill I am usually not so good, this time it was not rocky and a bit of motivation sent me running fast down. Also on the long downhills I was with good runners towards the end of the course, so I could use them for navigation.

The first thirteen controls I did entirely on my own. MH punched the sixth after me and went off his own way to 7. VL and MH punched 9 a bit after me and I didn't see them again until coming out of the 13th....

14 I had a bit of help, they came out the way I went in, 15 and 16 they helped too, but I was still keeping control, slowing to check the map. 17 I took my own route, 18-22 I was with Kowal and Scandi, still reading the map...
Oh, just checked, Scandi was Mattias Karlsson, the eventual winner.
So I had help, but perhaps none one wouldn't expect in a woc... and I was orienteering all the way and never felt like I couldn't think. I don't know how much further I could have gone at this pace. In recent months I haven't been able to do more than thirty or forty minutes without losing concentration. I feel like I was up a level yesteday... pity there are no more competitions this side of spring :(

Might run a 10km next Saturday.

I seem thinner than at the start of the training camp.
results here:
http://cm07.aljosa.org/?c=vysl_cm_ne

C • The french map you posted l... 2

http://cm07.aljosa.org/vysledkyne/h21e.htm
for splits.

See Sandra Zurcher's log for maps from the week, many of them are the same as those we were training on.

Found yesterday's map courtesy of Jon Pedersen:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2047/1569887862_c1e...
Major route differences were on
7: I cut up earlier to hit the path/ride that head(s towards the tenth, then along the bottom of the fence, then I climbed diagonally out of the green where running was bad.
10! I (and most peoplle?) went back up along the ride to the path, straight across from the path junction...
14 I was making a mistake, was too low, ended up dropping to the path a contour or two below the control, not a bad idea actually... but i slowed down to think...
17 I dropped 6 contours diagonally to hit the path, climbed a little along to the end of the first path, then contoured to the next path, directly to the control...

C • Holy crap 4

Maybe I should get dumped more often.

Did a two minute warmup and started running agressively what I expected to be a 15km course. Worked fine! My first mistake was when I stopped for maybe 10 or 15 seconds before finding the 6th control which was a re-entrant in a whole heap of gullies. I heard trees crashing behind me as Mats Haldin, who started two minutes behind me, flexed his pecks. Pity the Czech forest.
He overtook me after the 35m climb to path and jogged away from me as I bust my gut.
He stayed on the path longer than I had planned and I decided to stick with my original route choice. It didn't look bad on paper but the green was a little too green, so I had to climb out of it onto perhaps the ideal line. Stopped 4m from the 7th control, wondered where it was, decided it shouldn't be far and then saw it. No big cock-up yet!
Eighth control I went over the rocky ridge, not as bad as I feared, losing 10 oseconds on the downhill.
Ninth I ran well, typical Irish Wicklow forest control, running down a ride and dipping into the green to pick off a boulder. Heard more trees falling and as I went out to the ride on the other side, saw Valdimir Lucan leading Mats down the hill as I was climbing up. He gave me a smile. I felt good!!!

Pretty much perfect controls 10 through 13.

On way to 14th I went off line and LaLa and Mats overtook me, I dropped to the path below, kept the speed up, had to climb back up to the control but was maybe only 15-20 seconds down.
15 was a big descent, Mats showed us the control (thanks Mats!), with me maybe 10s behind.
16 I was maybe 30 seconds behind after contouring across a slope with a fair few baby pine trees and tussocks to slow progress.
17 the pair of them headed off contouring, probably not a bad idea but thought diagonally down, gently up a path and then contouring to the next path and running up it was good, and they were far enough ahead it wasn't worth following. In fairness my route wasn't far from optimal I reckon ;p
They were maybe 40 or 50 seconds ahead at the end of the next path and I didn't see them after that.

Slowed down to spike the 17th and dropped to the path, with someone flaking it behind me. After the flat 750m along the path came the big descent, 175m to the 18th, I was flaking it keeping pace with a scandi and Wojciech Kowalski. Another 80 or 90 down to the 19th with a wee climb at the end and more up to the 20th. They missed the 21st, as did I, then looked at the map and realised it was the cave I saw yesterday on the other side of the mound of stones we were at. Scandi followed by me at that control. Contouring to the 22nd, running fast, distracted by Kowal, looked at my map cos I didn't trust the other two and we were passing a wee yellow patch with a green X in it which caught my legs and sent me flying, first up and then down onto my chest... good thing it was a soft landing! Had a choice between down to Kowal's control or up to the Scandi's, I chose the wrong option because it was lower and I was tiring perhaps. Still pelted it from there to the last two simple controls before the finish.

Perhaps my best ever "long" distance run. Felt bloody brilliant.

Mattias Karlsson ran 60 plus a few secs. The top Czeechs would probably take a minute or two off of that, but 15% down ain't bad :) nice way to finish the week :) Counting everything I lost nearly two minutes, but that's being picky. :) :) :)

How does one draw extra-big smiley faces???


:)

Melchior,
Zlate Hory
goldmineterrainifanyoneisinterested


very tired in the morning depsite 8hrs sleep and another couple in bed: borrowed padraic's hrm, most of the time lying down i was hovering around 70, managed to get it to drop to 57 momentarily, then back up into the sixties...
normal resting hr being 45ish...

So I decided not to push too hard for the first part of the rate, and definitely not on the hills.
The first 7 controls were pretty easy, actually all the controls bar maybe 3 were easy, although not necessarily to spike :)

mistakes on controls 3,15,18, total of maybe 2:30-3mins. Pretty happy with the run given my shape this morning.

Patrick was faster than me on half the splits... got him by a minute in the end thanks to him being a muppet ;p

winning time was around the 40 minute mark. Definitely possible for me to break the 50mark physically but the 5-10 secondf mistakes add up fast in this terrain. Have to get faster if I'm to head towards the 45-47 woc qualifying time standard...

Incidentally, the techniques are not that dissimilar to the simpler Irish open mountain terrain, running across or diagonally up/down slopes, picking off a few details on the way, looking for bigger features (rocky outcroppings etc), the visibility is in general quite good here...


Checked hr after lying in bed for a couple of hours, back to lower fifties at the lowest... lower than before the race, still a fiar bit of recovery to go

running UP to the start - destroyed by Patrick 3mins

back down the hill, missed the third control by a handful of metres and lost a minute, also lost some time getting to the control on the other side of some green, not running agressively either

Vyruv Kamen, Zlate Hory

"Sprint" training... 1:5000 but other than that not going particularly fast, maybe because I was tired after the week and doing this directly after the downhill training... interesting in one or two areas... map dodgy in one or two areas possibly

Adamov

nice enough area, not particularly technical, bellyflopped on seeing Patrick on the way to the third control, bruised my ribs... overtook him en route to the 5th, then went over my ankle, lost time on the tenth and got overtaken, nver saw sight nor sound of the bugger

slow after that... lost time on a 30cm boulder covered in moss without a control flag

didn't see the big rocky thing on the way to the last control that, inspecting the map a day later, turned out to be mud spatter

zmieczony

Morning training
Women's classic course from the competitions three or four weeks ago. Went over the top to the second control, stopping for a couple of minutes on the big rock on top of the hill to admire the scenery and chat with Patrick who had magically turned up there at more or les the same time.

Tried out a couple of route options I hadn't run in the men's race before so that was interesting... again it was physical and tiring, if nothing compared to the previous visit here.

zzzz

Dlouha Voda

Afternoon (early evening)

up the hill (180m?) to the 6th control and did the course from there to the finish

tiredtiredtired managed to keep moving though!

Cerna Voda

Blackwater... day 2 morning training

caught patrick maybe 4 minutes at the 4th control, map was strange here with some felling and a hard to spot marsh...

ran the rest of the course more or less with him, occasionally taking alternate routes when it seemed interesting

not orienteering especially well

Vidnava

perhaps the most fun/nicest map of the week. Skipped the first three controls in the green as they didn't seem too interesting and I wanted to have some energy for the fun stuff later on.

At the 7th control I sped up after being overtaken by AMHausken... was still just behind her at the 10th after a slightly nicer attack to the control... mistake at 11 and she was long gone, Sandra was hot on my heels then, as she was for the next 5 controls... nice to be orienteering a little more agressively again

also nice to be on a flatter map without the steep up/downhills

Vyruv Kamen,
Zlate Hory

Czech training camp day 1

Up early this morning after 3 or 4 hours sleep to get the train to get the bus to get the car from Katowice airport at midday, having left the apartment at around 6:25am.
Managed to drive the Mégane down no problem in 2h30... despite this being the second time driving since passing my test in June :)
Today was first time driving on motorway, first time driving at night, first time in Poland, first time in Czech Rep... Patrick is a brave man!!!

So straight after getting our room (actually our second room, the first one had thousands of flies in it incl lots of dead ones on the bed) we got changed and were dropped off by the church at the upper end of the map for a middle distance... mostly downhill but apparentlyover 100m climb in the maybe 6km course

god i'm crap :)

second day of sztutowo eoc training camp weekend thingy.

No paths on the map and parts blanked out so the idea was to work on compass, relocation etc.
Also there were dummy controls after the blanked out areas in form-line vague terrain which made life interesting.

heel was hurting, didn't want to push hard so I was slow....

terrain up here is really nice and it was a good two days training...

dropped off at the bus stop twenty seconds before the bus arrived, very very lucky since I had no idea of the timetable and buses are irregular - meant I got home in time to welcome Patrick.

to from trainings... collecting a couple of controls...

mass start
Polish squad EOCLatvia training in Sztutowo, not far from gdansk

followde to 1,2,3
leading 6,7,8,
worng fork(!!!!!) at 9
droppedat 11
mistakes 11,12,15,17,18,21
hesitant 14,20
ok 4,5, 10,13,16,19

nice terrain, paths remoced from map, the big feature contours was easy navigation, high visibility; the vague stuff was tough, occasional form lines on a 2.5m contour inteval map... mid-sized stuff with a few marshes and lower vis to the soutg.

WDwojak won in 48

Walked around Stutthof concentration camp between trainings today with Wojciech. Stomach-turning as usual;good to be reminded how disgusting humans can act.

Sprint training in the afternoon, 7500 map.Dwojak won again in 2130, I lost almost two mins on the second control but then ran well, only making a couple of minor errors, maybe 3mins total lost...

which means I'm nowhere near fast enough;...

inside heel hurt quite a bit

didn't sleep particularly well last night either, still just a little too warm. Not sure what to do, other than wait for winter to arrive :)

C • address 1

travelled to Sztutowo today - train was uneventful, had a bit of time in Gdansk so took a stroll up to the fort above the station... bus to Sztutowo was easy enough too.

Had looked at the map before leaving and knew the name and the rough location of the accommodation in what seemed like a small country town/village.
What I expected to be village centre with maye terraced houses and street lights and stuff was actually a network of cement slab roads and dirt roads with single houses and poor lighting and a general sense of lostness... which I soon was. Well, the scale was much larger than Ithought, which meant I took longer than expected to do three tours of the place the accommodatiion was on, ask for directions a couple of times in pidgin polish and eventually find the place.

This took long enough that I missed dinner andsince the pizzeria was momentarily shut(for how long we couldn't decipher) i ended up buying sandwich material in a wee shop with lots of drunks outside drinking cheap alcohol...

late run, started at 11pm, so went to the river and ran south along above the tunnel where they bury the traffic... such a good idea :)

again probably 50% on grass...

day off tomorrow as travelling to sztutowo, the first camp in poland to be set up and the last to be liberated by the Allies, close to 100,000 dead. Maes a change from Kiev... or maybe not. Actually the camp might be the other side of town from where we will be orienteering. I hope so anyhow.

So coming up, this weekend I'm trainign with Polish squad on a EOC preparation camp for Latvia, then head back to Warsaw Sunday evening where I pick up Paddy and head down to Czech camp early Monday morning. I'm gonna be shagged by the end of next week :)

C • "im gonna be..." 1

to and around the citadel

tired and hungry this afternoon/evening... think i'm not eating or sleeping enough or both...

bought a nice and snuggly (i hope) kingsize goose down quilt... so no more sleeping bag for me :) i reckon it'll be worth the trip to Ikea, even if they didn't have the mattress I wanted in stock...

wow, up along the river, 99% on trails after the citadel... undeveloped land, prone to flooding i suppose... not especially pretty, but at a reasonable distance from the road, by the Wisla, can't complain. Especially since it should be extendible if I need some more :)

yet another rest day.... travelling again, didn't get home till late having left ballymacaw before 8am.

stopped off in dublin - discovered it was freshers week in trinity so i made a couple of randoms join the orienteering club. nice memories...