Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Event: O-Ringen Höga Kusten
 

Salen was where my international elite career ended (my last run for Australia was in the 2008 World Cup series there, which demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that I was no longer at the required level), but I don't hold that against it. I hadn't twigged when booking that the actual settlement of Salen is well below the ski villages, and had a rather hot and uncomfortable night (ski village rooms are designed to keep heat in, not out).

Headed out early in the morning, a distinct smell of smoke in the air, for an out and back on a quiet road along the west side of the valley - only saw two cars, although there were enough tyre marks to suggest that the road also gets some nocturnal* use (what's the Swedish for "hooning"?). This should have been a nice setting for a run and I was hoping for an hour, but the Achilles was intermittently troublesome, and not really improving with time, so discretion was the better part of valour.

Some of the rest of the day was spent crossing bits of Sweden which will be familiar to many who have spent time in Sweden but were new to me (including seeing tangible evidence that Malung actually exists). I'd always planned to come this far south before heading up the coast - staying the night with a long-standing friend who's been mentioned here before - but the fires further north would have forced me to do so anyway.

(* - is it still nocturnal when it doesn't get dark?)