Training Log Archive: ndobbs

blue loop (6km) in the morning, plus skated a km backwards so did it three time. early on was hanging out with boris and kat. breaking 7min/km by the end.

yellow loop (5km) in around 40 in the evening while kat did the 6km classic skiing 2 minutes faster

Then sauna, naked roll in snow, sauna, cooked dinner for our wonderful cabin (home-made deer burgers with poached eggs and veg), played dice and cards... great day :)

Orsa Grönklitt - OKLinnE Ski Camp

skating the yellow loop (5km). well over an hour in the morning, under an hour in the evening.

watched some of the skiO races.

arsta loop

rydbo night training map in hand
slow

only got up at 12 so feeling slightly less awful today

Lill-Jansskogen
NightO
from the office, running a course AQ planned and set out. There were little red streamers with littler reflective bits. I found them all. Two sets of footprints had visited the controls before me. One mistake on the second last control, one on the third (small), a couple of minor wobbles too.

Got within ten metres of some deer at the fifth control.

Tired. Only got to sleep at 4:15 this morning. Don't know why I was having trouble sleeping. Stupid, especially since I had to get up at 8:30...

forgot to mention, nearly dislocated my shoulder while falling uphill skate-skiing in an awkward position. Going to take a good while to recover, but no major damage done afaik...

Drove Kat to Bosön, then went home, had a bite to eat and then to bed exhausted. A little maths then dinner with AQ and BS. Got presents of flowers, potatoes and wax! Great evening! :)

Drove to Mora. Went the wrong way up a one-way street. A car came in the other direction, so I kindly pulled in to a snowdrift. Got stuck. Alex got us out. Continued on our merry way. Passed a goat with a big red penis. Didn't see it.

Skating in Vasaloppet snow on Boris' skate skis. Took a while to get moving. Did 2 2.5km loops and a bit more. Looked "stuck" to Alex. By the end I felt like there was some forward movement at least. Unfortunately I didn't know I should have been training classic in preparation for the afternoon.

Shower, sauna, shower then back to the cabin in Orsa. Passed a goat with a big red penis. Saw it. Colleted our stuff. Drove to Grönklitt. Exited a roundabout not by an official exit. Reversed back onto the roundabout. Continued on our way. Approached an uphill junction to turn right to Grönklitt. Car ahead of me in the middle of the snowy road started reversing. I stopped. Car ahead went forwards again and turned towards Grönklitt. I tried going forwards but failed. Reversed in the middle of the road towards the car behind me. Then went forwards and off to Grönklitt.

Inaugral Irish Ski-Orienteering Championships
Grönklitt, Orsa

Held in conjunction with Junior SkiWOC and Nordic SkiO Champs under the watchful eye of IOF Event Controller Carl Fey and an international jury.

Due to adverse conditions, the race was only confirmed minutes before the start, by which time I had spent a couple of hours in the buffet, gaining several uncompetitive kilograms.

As the Irish Squad physio was demonstrating clear bias in aiding the physical preparation of my principal competitor, I had to make do with Boris for my pre-race massage. He also didn't wax my skis. Nevertheless, I started the race with my head held high (a good six inches inches higher than my competitor's) and my feet still in skating boots.

In all the frantic speed and frenzied emotion, the first part of the race went by in a blur. As I picked myself up of the snow, things became clearer. Mr H had an apparently insurmountable lead. My only hope was to take him out as he came back on my tracks in the return leg. Yet, as I approached the squad physio, aka turning point, I perceived a figure wobbling incontrollably while facing in the general direction of the ditch. Turning point (aka squad physio) was looking on concernedly, but unable to help as she was the turning point. As traumatic shock set in, I began laughing relentlessly. My stomach complained even more pointedly as the sausage and fish and potato and pasta and pork jostled for position. Heading down the hill, gravity and poles worked hard but the ice under the skis combined with non-existent techinque made speed a distant dream, which, approaching the finish line, overtook me on the other tracks. Denied victory by a handful of split seconds, I could only take pride in my second place in the Irish Ski-O champs.

Next year I will be back, lighter, faster and with a modicum of technique.

------
Changed quickly then hopped in the car, minus Alex, for the drive back to Uppsala. Left at 6:53. Eniro predicts 4h36. I was the only one predicting arrival before my birthday. The road to Mora was slow. We did pass a goat with a giant red penis. We did see it. Then conditions improved slightly. Stopped in Gävle for chocolate korvar. Continued on our way, without meeting snowdrifts. Arrived chez Boris and Kat 10:59!!

Went to bed in their living-room. Five minutes later Minna lands on the bed rubbing her whiskers against mine. Scared me a little but we curled up together and went to sleep.

Woke repeatedly during the night. At one point I was surprised to see Boris eating breakfast, wondering what he was doing that for at 6:10 in the morning. Then I realised it was Czaba. He was wondering what an Irishman was doing sleeping in his living-room.

C • Holy crap! 4

Drove to Uppsala, picked up Boris& Kat and more skis, packed them in to the car along with Alex and her skis... drove to Falun, stopping in Ikea for lunch along the way to give Alex a taste of Swedish culture.

Boris waxed Czaba's skis for me. I got them on eventually and then tried double-poling on the flat. Nothing happened. I didn't fall, I didn't move. Cleared a bit of the ice from under the skis, tried again. Moved a couple of centimetres. Then tried Boris' skis. moved a little bit more...
did two loops of whatever trail we were on. Fell often. More moving and less falling the longer it went. Boris' coaching helped!

Got changed. Drove to Orsa, avoiding several monsters along the way. Passed a goat with a large red penis but didn't see it.

Parked in the snow in front of the cabin, then had to vacate the driveway so a monster could clear it. Parked there in less snow afterwards. Dinner and dice. Good day.

Arsta loop

Felt like crap, esp after 25mins...

yesterday I said I was feeling better, that only lasted a couple of hours, then wasted again. didn't sleep properly again, decided against going to a lecture this morning, got up 11.30 instead. gah I hate this.

battling against a virus I guess

Stayed up until 3am since the American Ski-O team's flight was delayed and the team was staying with me.

C • The American ski-o team is quite appreciative 1

waster week

got up late, went to the army museum with a friend (oh yes, sweden had an army, fought lots up until someone decided it would be better occupied building canals and railways).

still tired, so after lunch and a bit of mathematics went to bed for a couple of hours. feel better now, if I were to go for a run it would have to be with o-shoes on in town, or on roads, not much fun nor very useful. better off resting more. I'll take o-shoes to the office tomorrow.

13hrs in bed last night, asleep for most of them. Didn't get much sleep Sunday night and felt very run down Mon&Tue, still tired today... zzz

stupid effing training

one yellow and one green loop from kth, except the trails were icy death-traps so I spent half the time pussyfooting, half the time in the woods beside the trails and took some roads towards the end of the green loop.

C • Don't worry... 1

VinterSerien Högdalen or some such, near Ragsved T-bana.

Got up early (8am) for breakfast and went back to bed. Dragged myslef back out of bed and to the race, where I turned up as one of the last starters around midday. Control cards!

Dödstrött so I wasn't going out very fast, just enjoying reading the map when we were in the nice bits of forest, and withstanding the bits when we were running around a rubbish dump. Made one mistake on the 10th? control.

At the 16th control I slipped down rocks and tried catching onto a large sapling. My hand slipped down itand I figured it wasn't going to look nice. So I punched the control and then examined the damage. A nice 2cm gash starting on one of the crease lines below the little finger. I don't know how deep it was/is. Jogged for another few controls but blood was still dripping out at a reasonable rate at the 20th so I skipped the last few...

At the finish I was asked whether I knew S-J Gaffney. I said no, but that with a name like that she was definitely Irish!! Got myself cleaned up a little, got changed etc. Met NickB outside, and Bellen(?) and eventually SJ Gaffney, turned out she was Scottish :)

Possibly not the most useful training session in the world, but it was fun anyway.

Yummy!

Lidingö training in Vaxmora.

Part 1: 4.6km of Line Orienteering in 40:37
Part 2: 6.2km of contour only in 55:09
Part 3: 2.2km of 1:5000 in 19:31

Distances are Garmin, course length was something around or over 11km. I made one big not very parallel parallel error in the contours only part.

Better orienteers were doing the course in around 1h30.

Night-O training in Rydbo

I'm not sure I should class this as orienteering. I was basically acting as support for Andrew - the battery of the headlamp he'd borrowed from Giac wasn't securely attached and had an annoying tendency to fall to the ground.

My Garmin displayed the same tendency towards the end. As I fell down some rocks and got tangled up in branches, the strap broke. I discovered this a minute later running along a trail. Brought A back to what I hoped was the scene of the accident and he spotted the watch.

We were out for maybe an hour and fifteen.

Definitely broke seven hours for the week!

warmup on the treadmill. innebandy players below made it almost bearable.

An hour of strength training in the gym led by Andrew (Thanks!). Confirmation that I don't have much by way of muscles :)

pre-breakfast pre-lunchtime run around langholmen

only a little rickety after last noght's race.

picked up repaired bag and O-shoe and some pastry thing on the way back.

KTH
3 yellows (2.6km; 130m)
1 green (3.0;110)

felt surprisingly ok... must be getting less unfit. Going to break 7 hours running this week. For a change :)

before and after SMBN

Stockholm Mila by Night
Jarvafaltet

16:46 down on the winners. Since itś a mass start this is bad.
More details later.

Arsta loop.
Pre-breakfast lunchtime run :)

6 pull-ups!

C • improvement 7

went to KTH hallen and joined the gym.

I didn't do any training because I didn't have a padlock for a locker. Instead I ate chocolate cake.

:(

Vinterserien 1
Tyresö

Fun race. Not especially difficult navigation, interesting route choices, well planned.

Made a few mistakes, nothing drastic. Also one bad route choice, going straight instead of around to the 6th.

Still not good at terrain-running, not flowing properly at all. At least I'm feeling stronger than I was a month ago.

warm-up for today's race

NCSport race in Nasten, Uppsala.

Another classic from Neil. Mass start, first few controls were in any order and I was well down already, but only a little behind Boris (and apparently Andrew). Was in a string of maybe 7 runners, Boris was leading it and sped up and dropped out of sight. I followed the group which wasn't on the same course as me. Great. Lost in the mliddle of Nasten. And on my own, apart from the odd straggler who wasn't on my course :(
Hung out there for a while, then pottered east until I found the big marsh, a mere 11 minutes after discovering I was lost. 14 minutes slower than Boris on the leg!

After that I ran ok, made maybe 5 minutes of mistakes and I did enjoy the orienteering.

I guess I'll sort out my navigation in the spring. My competitive racing strategy is all wrong. I should have been way further up in the train and pushing hard to stick with the good guys. Brain needs rewiring for this.

arsta loop

balmy out. 1 or 2 *above* zero apparently

arsta tur och retur
Got lots (relatively) of greetings today. Must be something in the air. Lovely day despite the cold!

forgot to add, 2 sets of 4 pull ups! God I'm tough.

First the teaser question. Andrew recently gave me one of these:

What is it? Hint, from the producers' faq:
Q: "Is there a battery attachment?"

A: No. The *______* was designed for its intended purpose only as a device to prevent *____* trauma during *____*.



Okay. So back to the training. Plan was to run from Hjorthagen to Bosön, do a few intervals on the indoor track their and then get the bus back. Andrew checked the internet and there was a bus at 8.02pm which suited us perfectly.

So off we went. First time I ran with a backpack in ages. 39.15 to get out there in the snow.
5 minutes warm-up there, 10.55 down and a few more minutes...

C • Banana Guard? 3

2*5*400m. 90s rest, 6minutes between the two blocks.
Andrew's idea of fun :)
I prefer this to Giacomo's idea of fun which was 10*1000m!
It hurt less than I expected, maybe because I wasn't pushing hard enough.

rounding mostly to the nearest second, we have time, minHr, maxHR:
75s, 130, 185
75s, 144, 188
73s, 149, 190
74.5, 148, 191
75s, 147, 191

76s*, 131, 184 (note here garmin HR has bug, graph doesn't agree with text)
74.5s, 141, 188
75s, 151, 193
75s, 142, 192
73s, 144, 193

*for some reason, expelling gas backwards for 60m made me go slower on this one.

4 sprints. Fastest was 4.28 I think, faster than all but a few! Orienteering courses should only be 20m long :)

So afterwards we had a quick shower and AQ and I headed out to catch the bus. Funnily we arrived at the bus stop with a minute or two to spare. AQ said the bus was normally wait, but when it hadn't passed in the other direction after a couple of minutes I decided to check the timetable myself with a little doubt, because little Christmas is a public holiday in Sweden, and guess what, no bus. So either www.sl.se didn't know that today was a public holiday or Andrew ahd been checking the paper timetable and not realised it was a holiday. Which could it be? Surprise, Andrew decided to look up the timetable for tomorrow! Agggghh!

So we walked out to the main road where more buses should pass. Next one in 20 minutes. Great. And me without coat. Brrr. So I started hitching, despite AQ's pessimism about my chances. One car passed, no reaction, dicks. Five minutes later a second car passed, got a look, but they didn't stop, dicks. Five minutes later, still no more cars and I was getting cold and desperate. So what did I whip out when I saw the next car coming but my bright yellow hitch-hikers' thumb enhancer (cue Andrew, "No Neil, don't!"). And hey presto, we have a ride!!!

So I quickly threw away the skin of the banana I was eating and hopped in the car. Heaven!


Footnote: So we found a lovely sociable Swede. However she wasn't from Sthlm originally, so perhaps it's a local thing. Further study is required. And then perhaps a working group to review the findings.

C • Awwwww 3

felt yesterday evening like I'd scratched my eye orienteering... today it's bloodshot and weeping and doesn't like being open much.

C • Brush with a needle... 3

brrr

arsta and back. Mälaren is way more frozen than last time.
eye got back clear again after being open about an hour, still aggravated.

-11 feels like -11

hej-count:
26 unrequited, only one reply, it was the last one too. He had a beard and long hair. Where would we be without hippies?

C • Visit? 2

Passed some baby goats and some of these:


unlike in the photo, everything bar the creatures was white and frosty with a dusting of snow.

C • Best for you in 2009 2

Orienteering training in Jarvafältet just off the E4 north of Sthlm, starting from
Bögs gard.

Made a balls of the first one and a half controls so Andrew caught me... then went ok for a while. More mistakes at the end. It was mycket fun and not as cold as it could have been.

My car coughed a bit this morning but once it warmed up it went ok.

AHR 169
Max: 193, in the 180+ zone for much of the first 35mins

C • Bögs gård 1

Nothing like a bit of masochism to start out the new year. However, the traditional swim had to give way in Sweden for a run in the woods after next to no sleep.

The back garden of Shelley's house led straight up the rocks into the woods, so away I went. Beautiful, sunny, frosty, rocky Swedish forest. I think Solsidan is on the east end of the big Nacka map, but I didn't have a copy so just took a compass bearing and headed off. 'Twas lovely. And then I arrived at Damm lake which was frozen, and I started running around it. There were some impressive icicles hanging off of crags abutting the lake. At some points where the cliffs touched the water's edge I tiptoed gingerly out onto the ice rather than climbing up and over. The ice was clear like glass. I paused in a patch of sunshine to admire the scenery and think how life, even hungover, could be great. Then I heard "pweng, pweng pweng, pweng..." like the sound of some 1960s futuristic laser guns which had me well-confused. Then there were some scritch-scratches and a skater appeared. Apparently this might be the answer:
http://www.acuvib.com/in20014eva.pdf
Amazing.

Continued on my circumnavigation and some more skaters arrived. Skating looks like fun! I tiptoed, walked and finally ran across a few more bits of the lake on my way around before heading back. Got within 50m of the house before switching on the Garmin "back to start" function, which is pretty cool.

I'm going to have to get my digital camera repaired.