Training Log Archive: ndobbs

rights-of-way around Kenilworth, with Hugo. Early morning (started 6:55!).

Breakfast was well-deserved. Full English, plus two weetabix, alpen, fruit salad, yoghurt, more fruit salad and a muffin :)

C • I miss Kenilworth... it's l... 2

around kenilworth and its outskirts with magnus. lovely evening

Cambridge to Coton towards Madingley. Strange, it not being freezing.

Visiting Ismael and Delphine en route to a conference in Warwick.

Cambridge is a special place. Had a stroll around a couple of the colleges. Makes TCD look common :)

First APlog with my brand new macbookpro, bought yesterday as a replacement for the laptop I left in Pataias. Lighter and faster than old one, perhpas cos it's not carrying five years of photos and music etc.........

C • what is TCD? 3

daffodils! colour!

A quick run around the arsta loop. Finished emptying and cleaning the apartment today. Met with the landlady at lunchtime, finished putting stuff in the car by around 4pm... dropped skis off to andrew, ate carrot cake, dropped the car off to nicu at kth, printed out my tickets and made the bus to the airport with two minutes to spare. The bus seemed unperturbed by the snowstorm.

Tough day!

arsta loop

3:12 across the railway bridge, fast enough.

tourist run
past my new apartment and up to Sofiakyrka, back along skånegatan to ringvägen, then through Tantolunden to home...

yesterday when I got out of bed the tendon(?) going to the middle toe of my right foot was quite sore when weight was put on it walking forwards... still a bit sore today but less so. Wasn't sore on Sunday. Random.

C • Apartment 2

Mörtsjön
IFKL technical training
Lift out with Emil, Nick, Maria and Matte...

Group tennis intervals, or some such. 6 loops of 3-5controls. 10-15 second start interval. I went out after the girls, but first of the boys. Only one medium-sized mistake and a couple of small ones (<20s)

Ran hard into an electric fence on the second or third loop... took a fair bit of skin off of the top of my left shin. Hit it again after a foot went through the ice... gonna hurt tomorrow.

Good fun, good training, great area, technical and tough.

Map extract, without controls.

Centrum Team Sprint
First leg.
Started at teh back of the pack (55-60 teams) so I was happy enough to be not far behind at the first control. Possibly took a dodgy route at the 6th, otherwise I went fine until a small mistake running into a boulder in green, 10 seconds, at the 11th I think. Right behind AnnikaB heading across the field. Started to have trouble breathing, saliva drying in my throat. Too cold for racing. Stayed behind her up the hill and dropping down into the second last control.
Overtook her on the path to the finish. The second last control wasn't my second last control. FAN. No excuse.

Felt like crap while waiting for Andrew, possibly ran too hard on the first loop.

Made a balls of the first control on loop two, at least I checked the code(!)...

This sprint was more urban than the first one which was essentially forest (running around the yellow loop area). A couple of route choices around fences/buildings in the university area, did these well I think. A little sloppier on the forest controls.

in Dubliners with Nick and Ruairi,
watched Ireland win its first grand slam since 1948 by destroying the welsh team 17-15 and relying one of the 23 guys called jones on the welsh team to miss a last-kick-of-the-game penalty... whew :)

exercise bike plus a little cadence test on the treadmill...
160-165 steps per minute, steady, whether at 11kph or 16kph...

apparently 180 is what elites run...

strength training with andrew. felt less like I was going to break this time.

feel worn out despite two decent nights of sleep in a row.
fighting a virus. need more sleep. mightn't go training today.

Green and Yellow loops with company. Thanks Kat!

still exhausted...

exploratory jog out to my soon-to-be new playground, Nackareservatet...

took 40 minutes to get onto the map from Hornstull with a couple of mini-detours, it'll probably be 20 from my new place.

Quite a bit of slush and ice left on the trails, so a fair bit of the running was in terrain, map in hand. Got three controls :)

Came back via T-Bana. Had a few minutes to wait in Bagarmossen, and I wasn't particularly dry or warm, so I spent a while running up the down escalator.

Fun run.

HAPPY PADDY'S DAY!

C • http://www.youtube.com/watc... 1

tourist run, tired
discovered new part of södermalm west of slussen, really pretty...

Brunn/Ingarö
IFKL träningdag, morning only.
Made a balls of the first few controls. It's a nice map, but whether because of the snow or because it's a tricky area, I had trouble reading myself back in any time I ost contact. After the first of the three loops I made an effort to keep contact and things went better. Later on I was succeeding in looking up, matching far off features and simplifying the navigation. Progress in a day.

Skipped the evning langnatt session, no headlamp and visitors staying...

hard to call what I was doing orienteering.

In the evening, AndreaB and I cooked pasta. Before that we went running on Grönsta, before that we went shopping.

I had the thierry map, so part of it was contour-only, part of it was missing. I didn't have a compass with me, but that wasn't really the problem. There wasa lot (6in) of snow on the ground and I wasn't taking enough care reading the map. Got lost a few times, once badly. Didn't enjoy it.

fartlek in tanto

there was maybe six inches of snow on the ground (not much or just slush on the paths) so I put on the oshoes and went for a padded run in the park. Foot still aches a little, but seems to be on the way to recovery.

exercise bike, kth hallen
with Positive measure sets of ergodic rational maps

plus some stretching and wobbling

to Kat: I try to keep track of my running hours... logging biking this way (minutes as seconds, hours as minutes) lets me keep track of what I do without it distorting the record of what I principally focus on.

C • There's a better way. 1

decided today was a good day to bring the car to the mechanic. Surprise, surprise, after a few weeks alone, it wasn't very happy about starting... is there water leaking into the fuel tanks o the engine?
hope they will fix whatever is causing that pb, also the heating, and the leaking radiator... and that it'll cost less than the car :)

some costs of replacement of stolen shit:
- internetbanking security code generator thing: 400sek (cost to make - 20 sek?)
- mobile broadband modem: 895 sek (cost to make, 50-100sek?)
- library book: 300sek

it is snowing today too. red cars are the most colourful things around. That and some blue eyes... to think in Portugal there were orange oranges and blue skies...

reimersholme

luckily it was above freezing (groan) so I didn't need my headband, among the gear remaining in Portugal...

just a wee jog before stretching while the laundry was being done. Clean clothes...

kth hallen
started late in the evening, only did 45 minutes. knees are grinding a little so lowered the intensity

followed by a bit of wobble board

C • why? 1

Up early for the flight back to Sthlm.

Slept for part of the 4hr flight, which was welcome. I was awake for the descent. As we broke through the cloud layer we emerged into a world of black and white. The absence of colour was not so much depressing as surreal and it felt like we were entering another world of bleak Siberian forest and snow.

Back in Stockholm colour reappeared. After a quick shower I went to visit an apartment at Metargatan 12 near Skanstull. Strange place, old style. It'll be a pity to leave my wonderful apartment in wonderful Hornstull, the only positive so far is that I'll be a mere 15 minute jog from Nackareservatet...

to castelo da foz...
hummed and hawed before finally plumping for the sleeveless top - there were clouds and showers threatened. As it turned out I had blue skies all the way and the Atlantic spray was a welcome coolant before starting the return leg. Lovely. Except that it's mostly on hard surface.

Down to the Douro and along to Castelo do Foz. Strange when you go around the corner and calm river gives way to crashing Atlantic waves.

pre-dinner run in Porto. Lunch (roast veal, yummy) was jostling around in my stomach so couldn't get the pace up. Just controlling the belly made it hard work.

"Conference" dinner was lobster and crab and cockles and mussels.

Arrived in Porto last night. Nice to have a room to myself, albeit in a hotel.

Where to start?

- Just got a month's notice that on the apartment in Stockholm.
- While my foot isn't worse, it's still sore.
- I can't read a map.
- I can't run fast.
- I was robbed. This is the biggie. On Friday after the model event in Pataias, we went to the beach of Polvoeira, or some such. It was glorious, the Atlantic ocean, cliffs, blue sky, beautiful sand, waves... Sun-bathed for an hour or two, went for a jog-stroll around some rocks at teh end of the main beach, coming back got hit by a wave, the water was so nice I had to go in for a swim. The beach was very steep and the waves at the edge were big, so there wasn't much swimming going on, but it was magical. Back into the sun for another while, then we went back up to the mini-bus. It was open when we got there, which seemed strange. Opening the back, most of the bags were gone: mine, Ionut's, Wojtek D's and Darek's. fuckfuckfuckfufckfuckfuckfuck After some hours scouring the roadsides in the neighbourhood, we recovered lots of stuff that the robbers dumped... but not three computers, a video camera and a dose of other stuff. My losses include: laptop (happily I backed it up only recently), the backup (who is stupid?), Petzl Ultra, compass, SI card, orienteering socks, maps, library book, maths articles, phone charger, some clothes...

Still, with such nice company and good orienteering it was hard to be upset. Life is great :)

C • Damn 7

Meeting do Centro, day 2, no compass

Given my current fitness, this was just an endurance test. I tried to keep a decent pace and after about an hour I was knackered by the sand. My legs could still move (more slowly) but in order to make decisions or think at all I had to stop. Complete brain rot. It was great. I switched to economy mode, running on autopilot and with minial brain use. Didn't make too many mistakes, will count them up later, and was very happy to come in in under 2 hrs.
It was way more "fun" than I expected and while the big forested sand-dune features didn't require intense concentration, you had to keep a good line not to lose time.

Kowal won in 83 minutes or so.