Training Log Archive: nh

Ran first leg for the Verdal 4 team in the Loffe-Älgjakten Relay, and came back first out of everyone. Quite a simple course which you could push quite hard in. Also helped that we had 4 of the controls yesterday. (1) Start order meant I started quite far back in the mass start but I was leading at the start triangle. Didn’t realize you could run between the forest and houses so I took the track around, which was longer, but I still arrived at the control in about 3rd I think +0:05. (2) Had this leg yesterday in reverse so I knew exactly what to do. Perhaps I could have cut the last section straighter, but the forest was pretty crappy. (3) There was another spur between the two streams and thought I had hit the hill already +0:20. (8) The leaders were running across the field when I came out of the forest so I gunned it to catch them, and luckily they took the wrong track off the main one. Held the lead until the end. Interesting that I had a lower average heart rate today even though I ran at a higher intensity than yesterday.



Coming in first in the relay. Second place maybe 100m behind

Came 2nd in the H21 Grade at Loffelunken in Sweden. Quite easy terrain with lots of tracks, but there were a few vague areas where I should have been more confident and kept running, rather than trying to relocate in an area with no features. (1) Ran over a car crossing a stream which was pretty cool. But in the circle I couldn’t see the control because it was hidden behind a tree, and the knoll was very flat which made me uncertain +0:05. (2) The control I am most gutted about. Thought I had gone too far on my first approach so turned around and ran back along the ridge to try find the small hill. Instead I saw control 3 turned around again. If only I had looked around more when I thought I had gone too far, because I was practically on the control. (5) Anton went right and I went left but the times were very similar. (7) Should have been more confident on my bearing again. Either would have hit the control or the ride to the right of it and nailed the control. Instead I tried to figure out where I was in perfectly flat featureless forest. (11) Too high even though it felt like I was on the edge of the flat at the top of the hill. (12) The mistake here was really annoying. There was another control on the knoll just south of 12. When I got here I thought I must be at the knoll by the track, but the felled forest was too close, so I was really confused. I jogged back and had a look after and the two controls were MUCH too close. My Garmin measured 13m and my pacing 16m. Since they were on pretty similar features, they should have been at least 60m apart. It seems so pointless to have two controls so close together. If you want to split courses up to prevent following, doing this on controls 15m apart is not going to split anyone. Lost +0:30. Results...

Ran back to look at how close the two controls were to each other

Test ran the 3km for next Friday, as well as running there and back for warm up. Going to be a pretty slow 3000, gravel tracks covered in puddles and quite slippery in places.

Came first in a pretty simple sprint, but still managed to stuff up some route choices. Ate way too close to the run as well so my stomach was really full, and this discouraged me from doing a good warm up. Overall I wasn’t focussed at all so had a pretty poor run. Didn’t push to hard because I was afraid of getting a stich, but I got one anyway. (2) Almost ran past it, the change in vegetation was much more subtle than I expected +0:05. (6) Ran all around the knoll looking for the control, should have read the description +0:10. (7) Didn’t realize the track in the middle of the leg was actually two tracks that didn’t connect +0:05. (8) DEFINITELY should have run left, the steep bank after the forest was horrible +0:40. Really can’t seem to focus for these Wednesday events. Hopefully I can be in a better state of mind for the races in Sweden this weekend. Results

C • Nik 2

Chased the cows around the farm and in the forest trying to separate them but it was so difficult trying to sprint past them and herd them one way when they kept wanting to got the other way. And then once we had separated them partly the others would just run and catch up so they were all one group again. Then once we had the two we wanted and were herding them down the track to the field and stopping them running off into the forest, another cow jumped the fence and chased after them so we had to separate them all over again. Then while herding them down the road I had to run alongside through peoples properties, jumping fences and bushes trying to stop them running off the road and trampling the gardens. So it was quite a workout, I was sprinting back and forth most of the time.

Training with school on Blommen again. Ran route choice legs with the coach, each of us going a different way and then comparing afterwards. (1) My way was really easy and simple and actually a lot faster. (2) Going straight was a bit slower than right because the slope down to the control was a lot greener than the map suggests. (3) Faster going straight again, pretty crappy going out of the control again though. (4) A bit too close to the slope but the clearing was slightly in the wrong place though. (5) A lot of felled areas on the top which confused me and I took a few seconds to relocate when I crossed the power line.

Club relay training for the event in Sweden next year. Pretty simple training and we went to a few controls too many times. Didn’t make any mistakes but perfected a few route choices when I went to controls multiple times.