Training Log Archive: Lizzie

Gränsjakten mellom
Nice terrain and nice weather, an enjoyable middle distance down in Stromstad. Was hitting the controls well and going quite smoothly for the most part. only thing sitting at the back of my mind was that Sunday was meant to be twice as long, and I was tiring in the terrain already!
Nice clean race aside from getting the wrong route choice 5-6. I wanted to avoid the green (correct choice), so went back out to the small track, at which point I realised I could have dropped straight down the hill to a larger track...so I was running 2.5sides of a square rather than 1.5. Oh well. Otherwise, only blip was having fun searching all over the ruin at the penultimate control, rather than read my description.
Ended up 3rd 1min behind Miri, who made the same two mistakes as me, so I can't pin the time difference onthem! :)

Foot is remarkably OK following all the ice and rest yesterday. I was obviously just being a wimp.
Went for a spin around Høiåsmarka, which always gives a ridiculous looking km rate thanks to all the rooty single tracks. But it's boring to stay on the gravel paths ;)
Having said that, I've given up on taking anything other than lysløpa on the 2nd half up to høiås. Anything other track and I'm slower than if I ran. Caught Thomas up as he was running up lysløpa. Got the added entertainment of watching a not-quite-so-in-shape guy trying to chase him up one of the climbs. It was an impressive, but short lasted effort!
Stopped for a chat at the top, then looped home on single tracks.

Token, but better than nothing

Jog out to the start. HR more normal today, jogging along at 140

Headed out to do the EM (but now VM) Middle training course out at Skolleborg with Karoline.
Pretty heavy and tough going with the veg, but beautiful terrain. A lot of hiking on the uphills, but was moving steadily at my nice slow pace.
A number of the controls involved hitting the feature and then having a treasure hunt for the tape, as they were often tied to the bottom half of the undergrowth, which is much taller and greener than when the tapes were hung in April! I took the time to rehang a couple of them, as they were bordering on ridiculous (and I assume Magne and Thomas have already run the course, so they won't complain that they are now hung too high ;)
Enjoyed the training, but wish I'd cut out at #15. I was picking my way through thinned green stripes to 17 when I innocuously hit the top of my foot on the end of a stick. Was OK finishing the training, but I must have hit it directly on the bone to my 2nd littlest toe. Painful and stiff after.

After some umming and erring, and consulting Dr. Brother back in NZ, I took up Kine's offer of a lift to ER to get an x-ray of my foot. Just to be safe.

Unfortunately, it turns out Halden ER is only open certain hours during the summer. Classic Norway.
Weighed up the effort involved in getting in today to see my Dr for a referral up to Kalnes (plus the hours involved driving up and then waiting for an x-ray at Kalnes) vs the chance that anything was actually broken.
Decided this was a sign that my foot was OK, and opted to go home and RICE things out.

Kept Kine company for her intervals at the fortress. She was planning 3 x 15min, which I'm dubious about calling intervals, more like masochistic torture, especially given the temperature. I didn't have any intention on joining for all 3 though, especially at the speed Kine set off at!

Stuck with her for 1.5 ints, then succumbed to the delights of the ice cold tapwater in the fortress rest-rooms. Joined for the last hill of the 2nd loop, by the end of which my legs were 100% lead. So jogged around while Kine did her 3rd int.

Another day with an achey chest and higher than normal HR. Both I've been told is nothing to worry about,. The former is post-op adjusting still, and the latter is either the same, or my immune system is working on something. Either way, I'm keen and want to get out and enjoy training, but my body just isn't playing game yet. Have to patient.
Efforts were: 2.85km; 13.40, and 1.4km; 6.17, and a 1.17 bonus hill.

Decided to be reasonable with my groin and not go to club intervals. Go me. Instead hunted out some flat or uphill strava segments that I could give a go if the legs were feeling up to it.
Did a nice little effort up to Venås, then headed over to a couple of longer segments over the back. The grass was too long and the small track too rooty to take these comfortably though, so left for another day.
You'd think I'd know all the little tracks in this little block by now, but no, still ended up on ones I didn't recognise. Took the time today, and think I've got them all mapped out now though ;)

C • New recruit in ACT football 2

Long day at work. Priorities were kitchen, sofa and bed once I got home

Jog in Nordmarka from Kine's parents'. My first time actually running in this part of the wood. Quickly got beyond the extent I'd explored with my hospital recovery/sanity walks. The contrast between hobbling painfully around in the snow 6 months ago to running pretty near normally in the blazing sun now is hard to get my head around.

O-festivalen Long.
Jogged up to the start to at least pick up my map and take a couple of controls on the way back to the finish. Groin felt alright, so decided to do 1, 2, 8 - finish.
Managed to top the live results by an impressive margin. If I knew it was that easy to get to the top, I'd have stopped bothering getting all the controls on a course a long time ago! ;)

Grumpy day with my groin.

Filled in my novel about Venla. Scroll down for it. Might have my gps available if I ever sort out my DOMA.

Played left back today... then did my groin.

bleh day

Out for a jog around the Venås tracks. Nothing much exciting to report, except that despite the forest being super dry, I still managed to find the one single track that is muddy.

Football training. Plenty of exercises with 40-50m sprints, then standing in line waiting. Strava gives a kind 36min moving time for the 90min training.
Also had to retrieve a goal from where the wind had blown it halfway down the overgrown bank into the lake. Bonus strength training.

First time at club strength in 3 weeks. Fortunately the same for Iliana, so we shared a mat and suffered together.

Took in my team's football match on the road home from the airport. Got there just before half time and was immediately told to warm up. Unfortunately (for everyone), I was then put in central defence as apparently we need speed there (true), and apparently I was the best choice (I doubt true).
Defending in the back line is very different from defending in midfield, as I quickly found out, to the detriment of the score line... didn't have so much fun to be honest. Once it was apparent that we had no chance of winning, I shouted at our coach to switch me to midfield. we had gaping holes there so at least I could make some semblance of a difference.
So frustrating. We have some issues with our team line-up, but the coaches are switching the wrong players in the wrong positions in a misguided attempt to fix it.

Venla. Running 4th leg in a very strong Halden 2nd team. Was reserve for the 1st team, but quietly happy I wasn't needed to step up just yet. That said, after a couple of mistakes within the first team, and stable runs by my team, I was sent out all of 2s behind Elena in any case!



In contrast to Tio, where I had my most nervous/toughest moments the evening before, this time around hardest was at the arena before running. The heat and the dust and the atmosphere triggered memories of O-ringen and Jukola 3 years ago. I knew once I got out ont he course the memories would fade and I'd be OK, but had to take some time to calm down and work through the feelings beforehand.

So yeah, headed out at the same time as the first team, and just settled into a comfortable pace as Elena disappeared toward the start flag. No sooner had I looked at the first leg than Maja came past with ridiculous ease as well. I didn't try to stick with her, (and let's nto kid, I couldn't have if I'd tried) not least as she seemed far more agile at dodging the slow-moving roadblocks on the small trails out of the start.
I ended up nailing #1, actually getting there the same time as Maja, who took a less direct route toward the end of the leg. Unfortunately, I had the wrong control code in my head, and ran away from the post again, thinking it wasn't mine. 30m later I checked again as the features matched entirely with my control site...which figures, as it was my control. Bumbled my way to #2 in the vague stuff, and then headed off to the left of the big depressions to #3. Was frustrated to see a few girls had caught me at #3, and that they were all coming into it along major tracking from the right of the depressions...it turns out my split was the long one and the only one that sent us to the left of the depressions. So that combined with my stuff up at #1 had dropped me back a bit.
#4 I played it safe and stayed on the edge of the open area as long as possible before heading in to the forest and depressions. A few girls had major issues here, so happy with my choice. #5 was back out in the open, a bit more dodging past previous legs, and then we were obviously out into Leg-4 only territory, as the tracking suddenly vanished and we were left bashing through the rough open alone!
#6 and 7 were longer legs into the more detailed terrain. I was together with Black Sea OK and Lynx at this point, but neither of them seemed certain, so I stuck to my own safe route. This paid off on 6, but I lost track a bit on 7, and had to take a pause to reconfirm where I was. Lost a bit here and was back with Black Sea at the end of the leg. 8 and 9 were short legs in the detailed negative topography. 8 went well enough, but 9 I couldn't figure out up from down on the map. Unfortunately none of the three of us could in fact, leaving us standing still for 20s+ before finally clicking. Once I'd clicked back in though, #10 was no issue, and I could drop the other 2 teams.
Took full advantage of the water stops on the road and hung onto Kamilla Olaussen as she came steaming through. Quickly let her go as we entered the technical rocky depressions though, as losing contact in there would have been a disaster. Didn't take the optimal route to my control, but found it cleanly enough, as I did the 12th. Andrine was just ahead of me heading out of the area, and I caught sight of Cat, although she was headed to a different split.
From there we entered the faster area toward the arena. I kept one eye on Andrine and one eye on the map, hanging to her back as we went through the spectator control and back out towards the rough open area, gathering in the couple of teams ahead of us as we went. I could see Cat gaining on us through the rough open, and by the time we hit the edge of the forest again she was right beside me. Here Andrine took an odd route into a big depression, the two other girls went as if to follow her, then decided against it and contoured. From my vantage point a few steps back, I opted to stay up on the rim of the depression, which allowed me to slip past Amelie and the other girl, and keep in touch with Andrine, with Cat right behind me.

Back into the flatter stuff that was criss-crossed with tracks, and Andrine started edging away. Cat eased past me too, to whom I said "Let's go Cat...and by Let's go I mean, you go. I'll stick with you another time"
I think the comment came parlty because I know where my fitness is at right now and it's nowhere near Cat speed. But it also just slipped out because that's what the truth has been in previous years. I could run the course fine until the 2nd last control, and then, sooner or later, I'd be reduced to walking and taking pauses, and often struggling to stay conscious. And so of course I assumed that I wouldn't be able to stick anywhere near Andrine and Cat in the last controls this year.
I was surprised then, to find they weren't pulling away from me like expected. And although Andrine put the foot down at the last control, I was still just a couple of metres behind Cat. And then, I was slowly gaining on her? Having told her I wouldn't stick with her when she came past, it actually went through my mind that it would be pretty shitty to pass her now...but holy then, I'm last leg of a relay, I kind of have to do it if I think I can right?
Fortunately for me though, Cat took any decision out of my control by gapping me in the last 50m. Which I was a little bit glad for ;)

All in all, a really fun weekend. Happy enough with my race - I lost a fair bit in mistakes and hesitations, but I also did a lot of things right, and there was a little bit of speed to be found at the end. All in all, another step to getting my mojo back :)

C • Great! 3

Jukola training #2. More complex depression stuff. This one didn't go as smooth as yesterday. I had a nice plan before starting each leg, but as soon as I got about 100m into the detail, I'd have no idea. And yet, keeping on my compass, I kept reappearing about 30m from the control each time. I'm guessing that's not a solid tactic to take into tomorrow though.

About 2hrs after getting back to the accommodation I'd figured where I'd run on each leg ;)

Jukola training #1. Headed out on training map #8 and took some legs in the complex rocky depression area. Was pretty enjoyable and managable so long as you didn't run too long without looking at the map! kept it short given it was 7.30 before we started, which my stomach had something to say about.

Standard 50min single tracks in høiås marka. Heart rate got a bit high at times, but I find it hard to pull back my pace when flowing through the single tracks. Got back to find red-cross waiting at my front door, so did an extra loop of Toppveien to give them time to move on before I came home.

Opted out of club intervals as still recovering from last week, plus the match last night. Went to our 'light' football training instead. Suspiciously high amount of sprinting for a light training.

2-1 against Drøbak 2.
Not sure how, but they have two teams in the same division? Given this was a monday night match, i'm not convinced they didn't have some of their first team players there though.
Still, we didn't play well and I didn't play well. Got subbed off at half time, which never feels nice. But pretty sure we were just rotating players as I came back on after 70mins. That's what I'll tell myself to make myself feel better anyway ;)

Nice jog to the start with Lone, sign posting was limited to say the least, so we weren't quite sure we were headed the right way. But we got there :)

Flex-løp at the coast. Started off ok on the first 3 controls. But then decided to go straight on the long leg to 4. Near instant regret. The undergrowth was so heavy and my body was just not responding at all. Tired legs and a painful stitch where my diaphragm is still a bit stuck post surgery. Not sure I can blame my big as mistake on that though, misinterpreted the hills and scale by the control (1:7500) and may or may not have ended up off the map ;) Eventually relocated and continued but with such low energy levels and the heat it was just not enjoyable, even at a walk/jog. Called it quits at 9 and jogged tracks to the finish.
The main point of going today was to be social and get to the beach, so can happily tick those two off

Single tracks in høiås. Took a lot to get me off the sofa and out the door, but once out my legs ticked over nicely

One last site visit for work (hail, snow, sunshine and rain) x 2, all in 1hr.
Then the long travel home. Our flight was delayed just enough that I missed the 11pm train back to Halden...didn't fancy waiting an hour for the 12pm, so got a lift to the office and slept there instead :/
So eventually got home midday saturday. Woo!

I managed to tire out my boss, so no field work today ;) Unfortunately, I also tired myself out, so was still a struggle to get out running. Explored further out today - up the valley and through the saddle...then the track kind of just disappeared, so I ran where I felt, with a vague plan in mind. Then I saw a nice tower of a hill which looked like it would have a nice view, so hiked up it. I wasn't wrong.

This photo looks suspiciously as if it is sunny...which I don't remember it being. In any case, it was hailing 5 mins later as I descended. My intended route had to be altered a bit thanks to steep snow slopes which I didn't trust, but made it down to the coast in one piece. Then it was a bit of a hike back to the hotel along the flats. The first part was nice, on small tracks in the coastal marshlands, but could have done without the 3 km road bash at the end.

Still, really nice to get out for more of a proper explore.

Another tough day in the field, so no running. The weather changes every 5mins here, within one day we have snow, rain, hail, sleet, sunshine, gale winds, complete calm...and all repeated about 20 times! It's OK to work in, but very tiring.
Saw some very cute reindeer babies today. And had fish for dinner, so I didn't have to feel bad while watching the reindeer.

Dragged myself out while the others were napping again. Started off up the valley out the back of Honningsvåg again, but then turned right and onto the smaller ridge. Not quite as jagged and rocky as the other side, but still a bit of tip-toeing. Down to the water supply, up the back to a saddle, then back along the same ridge as on Sunday. A very fast steep decent back into town, something like 22% gradient.
More of a view today:

Monday Jun 4, 2018 #