Training Log Archive: Lizzie

Final day, driving back to Halden from our overnight campsite in the hills W of Seljord. Disappointingly couldn't get an open fjell camp spot, so opted for an 'average' lakeside spot.
Stopped in Drammen to explore Kjøsterudjuvet, a 1.5km long gorge. Didn't disappoint. A lot of fun clambering up the river, very ankle friendly with lots of rock hopping ;) May have lost the proper track on the way down, but that meant to didn't get mowed over by downhill bikers. so win-win really.
Then back to Halden by 3pm, leaving us 9hrs to both pack up and move out of our respective apartments.

A wet day, so well spent visiting as many waterfalls as possible. Easy enough after all the rain over the last days, and what must be one of the most waterfall laden roads in the world.
Spent enough time stopping and checking out different sites that we ran out of time for our intended end-of-day hike. But it was still raining then, so neither of us were too disappointed I don't think.

Longest walk we had to do to a waterfall/giant cliff/view was probably 750m.

Torrential rain overnight, glad we looked ahead and opted for a cabin rather than camping. Spent a wet morning in Bergen (of course), before heading south toward Haugesund. Stopped enroute to take in Stovegulvet. Beautiful but windy on the tops but the cloud was high enough to get sweet views over the coastal area. Shame about the giant concrete tower on top, but that can be cropped out of photos ;)

Got a 4min run in at the end as we were on the 4wd track (ankle friendly enough) when it started raining.

Managed to find a local sports club in Stangehelle that rented their kayaks out with zero fuss, and 100kr each compared to 700+ that the tourist places charge.
So mint. It was dead calm on the fjord and very few boats to deal with. Yeah it may not have been Sogneford, but was probably preferable with fewer others on the water!
Paddled up the fjord, took lunch, and headed back before the forecast torrential rain and storms hit. Did some extra laps of the fjord at the end as neither of us were ready to be done!

Had a perfect night for sleeping under the stars before heading west toward Voss. Had a bit of faff trying to get hold of a place that could rent us kayaks, eventually putting it off til tomorrow and settling for a hike today.

Straight up and down for some nice fjord views. A handful of others on the same route, but far outnumbered by goats :) need to check name of where we were, and distance and climb. But who really cares when the terrain and views are so good!

C • Misread that 3

Up to Oslo for my 2yr (slightly less) check up at Riksen. CT scan went smoothly, and they got the iv line in me on the first go, which is close to a first!
So in and out within an hour and onto the train up to Hamar to meet Marika for some roadtripping :)

First match back. Vs Råde.
Down 1-0 after 4mins thanks to their #9 who can shoot and turn on a dime. Woke up after that and had the best of the first half. Until a mix up in our defence passed the ball straight to #9 in the 45th min. So 2-0 down at the half.
Continued to dominate in the 2nd half and finally pulled a goal back. Then went on to equalise with a freak goal straight from a corner. Defense did a good job of covering #9 so this time round she couldn't win them the match on her own. Even when we went ahead in the 84th min and they got more and more desperate we managed to hold things together enough. So nice to havea come from behind win, especially after how we imploded against råde last time.

Team was very happy to have me back. But I know its just cos it means they can run less ;)

Off to Göteborg for the weekend. My bag seems unreasonably empty without any running kit or shoes?

Long run at Erte with Eva, Jo and Øyvind. Really beautiful evening; sun out and the light playing off the lakes and through the trees. Trials nice and muddy, just the way I like it :)

Collecting the winter controls at høiås. Really enjoyable jog through the terrain. Bit wet, very slow, but nice. A couple of the controls were hard to extricate from the trees thanks to spring/summer growth. Like a mid-run brain puzzler.
Came back to hoias through the heavily thinned and then felled section. Should have trained here.more pre-WOC...

So somehow we ended up with a 3000m test the week after WOC? Nice to do it while we're all still in town in any case.
Left Elena and Jo to do their speedy work, while Eve, Kine and I went pack hunting for around 11mins. Feel a bit bad as I was tucked in behind Eve for around 2900m of the test...bad form. But she had the pacing fairly spot on, something which i struggle to do myself. Felt like I was running within myself the first couple of km, but a good strong finish.

5 x 200m with 1min breaks

jog between 3000m and 200m reps, and warmdown after

First time in a couple of months. Very wary of the my ankle, but it actually wasn't painful at all during the session. Not that it was very intense...same old drills, haven't missed anything in 8 weeks it seems. Although my ball touch is definitely rusty.
I can run though...and that's all my job in the team is, right?

Last HSK strength dance party for me :(
Felt a bit of a cripple between my ankle and bruised tailbone. Not much hopping around or sit-up for me!

Sound track was much better than the WOC banquet at least.

C • WOC Party Soundtrack 3

WOC Relay 1st leg, 14th

Out there to enjoy it today. Had a clean enough run, no real time losses aside from cutting corners in terrain here and there, and that shitty green stuff toward the end of the course.
Unfortunately had a longer split on the first loop, and was a bit back at the run-through. From there I had my group and stuck with it. Worked my way up the pack to lead the group for a bit, but the last patch of green toward the penultimate control mixed up the group.

Nice weather for a run.

WOC Middle Final 38th=

Yeah, not what I was aiming for. Big disappointment. And for the most part, the main failing today was mentally. I got negative from around #4, and let it ruin my race. Complete opposite from the long distance mentality. Staying positive I could have still had a decent result, I wasn't running badly. But got inside my own head and then blew up on #11. The bullshit leg from #12-13 just did it for me, and from there it was a matter of getting through to the finish. There were fighting moments, but overall, just, not happening.

Bit of a kick to the guts to have such a shitter of a race on this particular day. But ,life goes on!

jogs from the accomm. sussing out the way home from the party for Saturday ;)

WOC Long distance, 25th.

Good physical feeling throughout this. A bit surprised to have the short loop at the start before getting into long legs really. Actually threw me off a bit. Was scrappy to #1, before getting #2 and #3 cleanly. Saw my Ukrainian 3min girl exiting onto the long leg as I headed to #4. However, I then slipped on the wrong hill and lost 30s on #4. Stood for a while at the control figuring my route. Saw Left straight away and was about to head that way (biased by seeing the Ukranian), when I did a second check for alternatives. Spotted the route to the right, through th emiddle of the fields, which had a nice line into the control, so opted for that.
However, my exit to the road was very sub-par. Didn't realise quite how bad until I saw the tracking after, but yeah...a couple of minutes lost :/ Once through the fields, I opted to take the safer option out to the far W and the track which took me within 100m of the control. However, a bit more faff enroute to the track lost me another 30s+. Can see here that taking the terrain route was faster, and perhaps at WOC I should be taking that risk. I mean, when else to take it?
Nice and clean through the shorter legs and into the second long leg to #8. Opted for the track out to the road again, which I'm fine with as a decision. However, my line from the road through to the control again lost me a lot of time. Should have gone along the road further to shorten the terrain bash.
Was caught by Eveli at #8, which was disappointing, as I'd been feeling physically good. We ran together through to 10. Then the track option to the L on #11, out to the golf course. Here I could see just how she'd caught me, as as soon as we were on track she was 20m ahead of me! She cut through the terrain at the end of the leg, however, allowing me to sneak ahead.
We caught Aislinn just at the run through, and headed out on the last loops as a three. However, Evelii split from us to go straight, while I followed the fairway before following the line of the terrain down to the control, with Aislinn alongside. No sign of Eveli at the control, but we caught up my Ukranian 3min girl again (disappointed I saw her so early on , and not again until here.)
I got the wrong route choice back through the golfcourse to the third last. Very annoying, and not helped by the tiny blue stream on the map being very un-jumpable on the ground. And then, moment of the day, half way to the penultimate control, when the Ukranian suddenly started Maria-Sharapova-screaming with every breathe she took! Absolutely hilarious/horrifying, and led to a fast finish from me, as I was running for my life from her!

Happy in the finish, but with analysis can see I lost a lot of needless time on the long legs. Always room for improvement eh. Best long result for me since France 2011 (and honestly, that was an anomalous year!). So gotta be satisfied with the come-back

WOC middle qual

A steady race, not pushing the pace too hard, as I knew a clean enough run would have me in the top 15. And if not, a cleanish enough run should have me in as top kiwi.

So took it careful on the longer leg to 3, across the strike of the land, as i've been messing up similar legs lately. Got a glimpse of Svetlana behind me as I came into #5. Decided to stay higher on #6 for the easier runnability. However, I got my compass wrong and ended waaay too high. Svetlana came past beneath me and I knew I needed to be on her line. Unfortunately there was a giant marsh between us that took a bit of getting through. Stayed calm and corrected my mistake, but peeved to lose 1min+ through sheer misconcentration.
From there through the next controls it was leapfrog with Svetlana, until she got a gap on me on the rock climbing section of #10. Direction was a bit off on #11, dropping some more time, but kept it steady into the finish.
Through to the final in 11th place, feels like job done, but not a very satisfying race tbh.
Ankle OK throughout but not appreciating the angled field we had for warmdown!

Oh, and moment of the day when a Belarussian did an epic faceplant right into a mud puddle, right infront of me in the finish chute. He did not recover aye, i finished well ahead.

modelling skjog

guess on time and distance as didnt have my watch on. Did one leg twice as i messed it a little first time and didnt need that fresh in my memory tomorrow. :)

C • Good luck 1

little skjog from the team accomm. Nice hill just across the road, found a sweet tree house, a disappointing ropes course, a couple of deer and some fun rocks (but maybe not in running shoes, after rain, 2 days out from WOC...)

Gillingsrød. A couple of o ints but no real speed or zip. Can save that for a few days.

Cruisey Stangås loop with eve and Ellie. Via the tunnel and lake.

15 x 30:30 on the ellipse

O ints with Elena and Marika.

Legs recovered enough to push hard today. A couple of frustrating mistakes, but reassuring speed when I look at the tracking. Trick is then to hold back a little on the effort, as i think i can afford it speed wise, so that I'm not then drawn into mistakes

2x 20min pre and post strength

Back home with a couple of days to myself before the WOC circus begins. Arrived back 3am last night, so not much happening today aside from lazing and coffee.
Great week in Scotland, excellent company, beautiful terrain for the most part, and the weather gods gave us a pretty easy week. Will update my log eventually.

Just a jog round venås tonight. Ankle has been pretty good the last week, hopefully good news for next week. Its definitely better in terrain than on tracks still though. So might have to go for the straighter, tougher running, route choices next week :O

Final day at Grandtully. Really good final day course, with minimal climb and mostly downhill (they still managed to make the first control up hill though :) A vague forested slope, so accuracy in compass and height was to the fore today. Not so much for me unfortunately, with several slip ups costing me. Still, had a large lead in the overall competition, so a reasonable run today was enough to take the overall win - for which i take home a nice paper-weight.

WRE long at Craig a Barns.
had been anticipating this one all week, well known for it's toughness, and with a 10km long distance on it...
So all in all was surprised that it wasn't actually a 2hr course. The setters were kind to us :) Had my plans disrupted pre-sstart when I learnt that actually Cat started 3 mins in front of me, not 3 mins behind... So no waiting for her to come through and seeing how long I could hold on ;)
Bit of a slow start, with some needless messing around on #2 (I mean, all messing around is needless, but this wasn't even in a mistake or anything, just kind of enroute). Picked into things from there as I caught Fay to #5. Took a nice route to #6 with lots of track running rather than contouring in steep forest. Bit surprised that this was the only long route choice of the course.
Thankful for the drink at the end of the farmland bit, before heading into the technical light green hill top. 1min mistake on #11 in here as I wasn't accurate enough with my bearing or stepping stones. Out into the heather, and it was a matter of picking the right elephant track and gutsing it through. #17 was a beauty of a climb, before heading back into the light green stuff for a last chance at mistakes. Held my head through here and through the last open controls to come into the finish 3.5mins behind Cat, in 2nd. Happy with that.

Back into things with a 10 contour climb to the first control (plus 25+ to the start!). Fast and open running today, some light green plantation at the far end, but otherwise was just a matter of setting course and letting my legs do the work. Took a couple of routes to admire some ruins, and a sweet hill fort at #3 :) Orienteering tourism.
Got stuck in some horrific bracken on the long leg to 12. Had to happen again at some point I guess!