Training Log Archive: Bashman

Jarfalla OK MTBO
This was a monster event. It actually took place the day before but we had the tapes and the maps so we were going to do it anyway. No real mistakes it was just incredibly gruelling. Fell over my handle bars twice and had countless smacks with my shins. Only me tim and dane actually finished, would have been around 15 mins of the leader, in about 6th. I won out of us three but a coach beat me. Ah well glad to have finished.

We attempted to do some training but we were all very tired so headed back and lay down.

Hellas Langdistans - H18 - 5th by 9 mins
What a race, it was that kind of area that when I picked up the 1:15 map at the start, I almost screamed. But I focused and had a learning race which has been analysed tremendously. Start was fine, I sort of found 1 by chance because I was planning the rest of the course ahead. Two was quite easy, follow a marsh for what seemed like forever, over a big hill and bam! Caught Tim, my 3 minute man and ditched him straight away. Down and up to 3 and then the monster leg, very scary.
I had mixed plans starting this leg, but they all started with safely going up to the re-entrant and hitting the path. By then I decided to chicken out and bomb it around the paths. Around half way through I decided that this had lost me a lot of time, and when I finally hit the control, I was sure I had messed up and Tim had overtaken me once more. That wasn't the case though, because I got the best split. If only I had know that I wouldn't have had a nightmare later on. Thought I saw "Tim" So chased him to 5 without really planning at all. Going through 5 I was in 2nd place, damn.. Caught Mikey, my 10 minute man, and was a bit surprised. We then spent 3 minutes running around looking for 6, probably because I was so surprised and didn't check my direction. Then, keen to catch my time back up, I legged it to 7 and got totally lost, as in I'm still not too sure where I went. I met Dane eventually, who I thought had caught me, and was also looking for 7. We both searched until he told me he was looking for 4. I had a good laugh, pointed him in the right direction, relocated and yess, spiked it (not). This tactic that I have, trying to catch up lost time, really doesn't do me any good... 3:40 lost.
Cleaner through 8, taking things slowly( but still 1 min lost), and I had the realisation that this was technically my first "orienteering" course ever, because you actually had to orienteer, and there was no luck involved at all. A strange concept but it makes sense for me. Poor route choice to 9, lost me a few seconds (30). And then I had a few alright legs to finish off with, and my motivation came crawling back. 10 was good, followed myself the whole way. Best split on 11, just running really, 20s lost on 12 because there wasn't much of a hill at all. Only a bit hesitant on 13 and then ran the best run in.
As I said, lots to learn from this race, and I think it taught me well for the rest of tour. Would have had a good time without mistakes, on M18 too, not too shabby I think.
http://obasen.orientering.se/winsplits/online/en/d...

WU with a few drills.

Orminge - snake town
Didn't actually see any myself but I think a few others did. Feeling a lot better today, not making too many mistakes. Fell down a cliff at one point in front of Doug who claimed it was a miracle I survived uninjured. One long legs, and three control picks. Followed by a good swim.

Two trains in the centre of Stockholm.
1 - Mass start with me ali tim will and dane. I had some good routes but then I dropped back and tried to catch them by challenging, didn't work out well and came last.
2 - Mass start, same people but with Gustaf, joe and mickey too. We absolutely nailed it to 1, but then Will lead us down a horrible route choice. It was then just a race between us. I took it quite well and finished first in the pack, apparently only 1 min down on Gustaf but I'm not sure how hard he pushed. Good training for EYOC.

Banter warm up with the boys and route choice wars at an easy pace with Tim.

Very nice training from an old railway. Very tired all day but perked up towards the end.

Wu/d with Gustaf leading

OK Ravinen training
A sort of clock relay thing, and I got paired with one of the fastest juniors who wanted to do the easy legs - fine by me! 7 legs each, but all very short. He came back in first so I got a big cheer heading out. Most of the orienteering was fine. At one point I raced Gustaf and witnessed him messing up AND falling flat on his face. The race was so intense that I ripped my back and scotjos top open, oh dear. He got away on the run back because he was clocking something well below 3:00/km. We eventually finished second or something, but it was a lot of fun anyway.

3 training loops
Same forest as last night. Achilles still painful so only did half the exercises. Got massively lost on one loop but it was a tough area so not too fussed.

WU/Drills

Melkes Minnes Relay - H16
A fun relay in memory of a swedish elite runner in which each person in a pair does 2 short legs. Tim had a good race and came home in 1st -> lots of pressure. I headed out, smacking my head off an apple tree branch, it wasn't going to be a good race...
First few controls were easily placed in some urban bits. Then straight up the hill into more complex stuff. I knew the chasers weren't far behind so I tried to keep a calm head and spike each control. This worked out fine but coming off the hill I was a bit too cautious and was caught up by a chaser. He led me into the control and then absolutely bombed it down the path. I didn't have trouble keeping up, it's just I knew he'd burn out pretty soon. I sneakily took him by cutting in early into a control leaving him confused. Then I opened a gap to him as he tired running to the next hill, making sure I didn't cut into the OOB like EVERY SINGLE OTHER RUNNER did (including him I think). Up the sharp climb, spiked, then along the top, missed. He caught me back up with a few of his friends and we battled a bit into the finish, leaving Tim to go out in a chasing 3rd position.
Overall disappointed as it was such an easy race and I had a lot of a physical advantage over the other runners on my leg. A few of them collapsed on the finish line whilst I was feeling pretty fresh.

Melkes Minnes - H16 - Leg 4
Tim made a bit of a mess on his 3rd leg (phew!) so the pressure was off. However I amde even more mistakes and lost too much time on the easiest controls. Not going to go in depth because I think I was just mentally tired. We finished 5th.
http://www.sno.nu/images/arrangemang/melkers/2013/...

Run with Scott on the ski trails from the Sodertalje Clubhut. He went off to do a bigger loop but I was fine with the 5km one. Left Achilles sore...

WD

2 x clock relays from the klubbhut, pretty easy but harder in the dark.

Travelling to Stockholm + may as well be a rest day