Training Log Archive: roar

SHI relays today. Ran them and did pretty alright. Went out with Eoin and Josh but dropped them pretty quickly, though Eoin could still see me until 5. Ran cleanly, felt pretty good too oddly enough, though my knee was at me once or twice. Even ran up the hill to 16 though it killed me! knee was sore then descending from 18.

Knee killing me afterwards so no running tomorrow is happening

Event: SHI Relays
 

looks like it might be kill the relay and see how my knee is for the long. If it's not good well what can I do

there is definitely a hill both to and from college

Local event thing in Edinburgh. Running around some housing estates on 1:6000. Was pretty easy though there were a few route choices to be considered.Had fun

Knee was definitely sore afterwards

Garmin is not working

first day of new college in Edinburgh today. Good times

First cycle to and from college

Back in Helsinki after driving 6.5 hours this morning, up at 4.30, on the road at 5 and in the airport around 11.45. I've a day done and it's not even lunch time. Get home at 1700 so time to kill yet

WOC 2013 training Finland on Vuokatinvaara again. We ran the Nordic tour course as far as 17 since there were works going on on the ski slope on the leg to 18. Went hard enough, at least what was in the legs after the week of training. Conor caught me when I made a mess of 9 because I couldn't see the veg change and I thought it was the ski slope. Wearing glasses is a huge disadvantage. I really need to get more contacts. Was 35:30 to 17 and then we had to run back up to the top of the hill!

GPS died a death of not staying on so I have no data either, distance is a complete guess

still in Finland. Training happening but don't have internet all that often so I'll put it all up next week

WOC 2013 training in Pollyvaara. Another long area so runnability was good. There were definitely a few hills around though and the body was feeling the week's training. Oing wasn't great since I was trying to run too much and finding it hard but I lasted out the course which the others didn't do though the end bit was possibly a bit pointless. Good for the old stamina and so on I guess. Had some fun adventures in the marsh on the way to 17, had to turn back when I was sinking quite deeply!

Was very tired at then end. HR still on the fritz

Oh god! WOC 2013 training in Sopasenkallio. A middle area that was pretty rough. Rocky underfoot in the runnable, green was green and there was a lot. It was slow going and tough to stay focused on the map. Was doing a control picking exercise but the flow was poor

HR monitor stopped working today

WOC long training Huhtikangas. Again a beautiful long distance forest. Stupidly runnable except for the bits of climb and the green near the end. There were a few bits of lower visibility runnable forest that it was hard to see coming on the map but if you could navigate it didnt matter! straight line almost always best! Orienteering was mostly pretty perfect, was a bit hesitant in the green and missed 16 by being just a bit low on the slope.
I kept it clean by concentrating basically and reading my map as often as I could!

Note the pace!

Sprint training course by the event centre in Vuokatti with Conor. Was fun but the rain made it a bit slippy in the forest in my runners. Kept up with Conor as far as 10 but then he had more speed than me and I didn't read my way to 11 properly. Don't have the map because we just borrowed ones from the GB squad

Session no.1 of the day. Persevaara, middle relavant training. A rough enough area, at least compared to yesterday! There were a lot of Swedes around too which made life interesting
1 was fine. made a mess of two because of the standard green reasons. I decided I would man up to it since I'm normally afraid of green but it was not the right decision. Then I found a MASSIVE path that on the map was a ride and that confused me a little. Conor got it and could see me when he was getting it but I couldn't see him. 3 was easy and then the veg was crazy at 4 but I followed some Swede and it was fine. 5 was weird for veg again but I had the confidence now. Passed out Jerker Lysell here. just kept map contact for 6 and it was fine and then broke in front of the Swedes for 7 got it and saw conor leaving! caught him at 8 and then we were together for 9 and 10. could have dropped earlier for 9 but I have been told it was pretty horrible anyway. Went right for 11 which turned out better. 12 was grand, straight and then Runessson appeared. I went higher then them for 13 and got to the area, knew I was too high and started to come into the circle on to see Conor, Runesson, Bergman and some other Swede all standing beside this cliff saying it should be here, and it wasn't. I hesitated and then lost my chance to find it before then.
We then had fun train times to 14 running along the path and we all split up and came into 14 together but I had to delay jumping off the cliff to not jump on Bergman!

Warm up the start of session 2 with Conor and Darren

Oing with Darren and Conor. We did a few controls quick enough and then regrouped. It was a good session, made me keep good map contact and speed. Mostly really clean apart from 8 where I misread where the path bend was and ended up too high. Was close to it but we were all running around like headless chickens so I went out to relocate and hit it at the same time as Conor who relocated the other way!
10 was an interesting leg then, I kept pretty straight but the forest wasn't good enough for it to be the best choice. Conor's right was better and Darren's left was worse.
To 11 I went out to to the ride which the others never saw and caned it just to make a point!

Fun times today though the side of my knee is a bit sore after. Having confidence is really important here and keeping map contact.

Finland Long training in Matinmaki near Kajaani on 1:15000
Conor and darren were about at the start but then Conor took a lead and I was hitting controls in and around Darren the whole time.
Orienteering was much better today than yesterday kept it pretty clean for the most part. Do need to pay a bit more attention to my compass direction at times, leaving 1 and 7 I was bad, 7 particularly so. 9-10 I didn't stick to my original plan and it meant I was into the green area too early. Had a few controls where I just didnt see them as I ran through the circle! (sub 5m kinda thing)
Oh and the forest was amazing. Really open and runnable in most places though there were plenty of hills and there were a few bits where it was tougher running

warm up to the start and around the place before the first race in Finland of this trip!

Oh jesus... Did a bit terribly today. There's a lot of analysis here

1: picked up the map and was already lost for ideas. Decided to run up the path a bit and come in the veg change to the re-entrant to try and keep it easy enough. Executed pretty well by reading my map the whole time.
2: Plan was to go to the top and come down again but already I let the hill push me and found an elephant track and ended up not climbing and not really knowing where I was. Went past it and then relocated roughly only to miss it again and then relocate properly
3: Was a bit high on the leg and so was at the open rock spur just above it but didn't recognise it due to lack of experience with the terrain. Once I read the map it was fine.
4: decided on the straight route choice. Executed fine (it was easy!) but could have checked the compass more out of 3
5: firstly read the map wrong and thought it was all downhill on this leg, then it wasn't and i never looked at the map again. Eventually read there was a re-entrant I should be to the right of so saw a re-entrant and went right without checking if it was the one I was supposed to be at. It wasn't
6: went down the left ski slope as far as the big rock, then a bit further and cut in using the line of hills to guide me. Pretty nice
7: went straight. Spent time telling myself to read the map and look at my compass and spiked it
8: went right out to the path for easy runninng. Didn't choose an attackpoint in any real sense though so I was a bit hesitant coming into the control
9: Was an absolute mess. Plan was to go up the hill and see the veg change and the green marsh but I never climbed enough, thinking about orienteering like Thierry or something. Was way too low didn't understand what was happening and lost my direction a bit. Then I pulled a 180 since the map had no north arrows (but my fault really) Ran off in some direction attempting to relocate but it wasn't a useful one cause it was backwards. Eventually came to my senses, saw darren going somewhere crazy, and tried again. Though i did everything right but no control circled around and then found it
10: didn't pay attention at the start of the leg, just trying to run. Was too far right in the wrong valley thingy and then didn't read the descriptions and went looking under crags. Copped it eventually.
11: ran out to the path and to the bend, but the bend never happened since I was already past it, cut in hopefully and didn't find the control obviously. knew it was back the ways though.
12: At this stage I was asking myself what I was at so I pulled it together and said lets concentrate. Ran on the compass and picked off features and read the map to read me into the control. Spike
13: Out to the path and then as far as the bend (AN ATTACKPOINT!) compassed in and spike.
14: noted i needed to go around the hill and keep some height so I did that and was able to go straight into the control
15: out to the clearing across thew marsh, ran at the top of the slope until the boulder and hill and dropped down onto the control.
16: run
finish: run

The answer to todays problems is attackpoints for finding the controls. Executing the actual plan that I said I would and actually looking at the map and compass often

Easy run around the Meadows and Bruntsfield

Doing a lot of organising of stuff today as part of moving to Edinburgh. Didn't get a chance to get out. Next week in Finland will be hard anyway I guess...

In any case the three flights of stairs it takes to get to my apartment that I have done many times carrying heavy things nearly counts as training

Firts run in Edinburgh! ran down to the bank to give Regina the stuff she had forgotten and then out through the meadows to Holyrood Park. Did a path under the crags and then went up Arthur's seat proper from the other side. It's steep. Nice technical descent down some winding uneven steps and then back along the meadows!

Nice stuff. Should hopefully be able to run up these hills before too long!

getting the ferry to scotland tomorrow evening.

Short warm up

Fingal Scatter series no.1 in DCU. New area for me! Was a bit of fun though it was pretty hard to interpret the map in a few places. Was mostly clean but a few small silly things when the map was weird or else my brain! The early HR drop is because I arrived at a control and had to wait for the queue of small juniors who were punching it in front of me. Would have been better off leaving it out I think!
Fun in any case, came 3rd in the end.

Run in Jenkinstown. Did 5 easyish 5 hard except at the end when I realised I would be ending on hard so I did 10 hard. Was a really nice session. Felt good and enjoyed running in some new place, even if I have now run on every single path there is in the forest!