Training Log Archive: BorisGrIn the 30 days ending Sep 30, 2006:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| « | » |
| » now | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fr | Sa | Su | Mo | Tu | We | Th | Fr | Sa | Su | Mo | Tu | We | Th | Fr | Sa | Su | Mo | Tu | We | Th | Fr | Sa | Su | Mo | Tu | We | Th | Fr | Sa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Saturday Sep 30, 2006 #
Running warm up/down 25:00 [2] 3.13 mi (7:59 / mi)
shoes: 2006-2 VJ Falcons
Long warm-up run to the start; cool-down while waiting for Kat.
Orienteering race 39:35 [4] *** 4.8 km (8:15 / km)
spiked:11/17c shoes: 2006-2 VJ Falcons
Middle distance race in conjunction with the kids' relay, Osterakerkavlen, just north of Stockholm. Was very tired due to an unexpected very late night and early morning, so I didn't quite have the legs to run all out, and the concentration level wavered throughout the race. I mostly felt in control while running, but definitely had a few lapses that add up to about 4-5 minutes lost over the whole courses. No big mistakes, which is nice, but still not satisfied with the run. On the bright side, this time last year, when I came into the finish feeling "not satisfied", i would usually be in the bottom quarter of the results, and this year such runs seem to put me around the middle of the pack, which sure seems like improvement. Also, the bottom of my foot didn't hurt during the race, which might be a welcome breakthrough before the World Cups!
Friday Sep 29, 2006 #
Running 12:00 [2] 1.41 mi (8:31 / mi)
shoes: 2006 VJ Falcons
Jogging to the start of the maphike and then back from the finish with Kat. It's nice for both of us to have bikes here - now we can bike right to the woods and not have to run on pavement to get to the map.
Orienteering 30:00 [1] ****
Map-hiking with Kat. A nice exercise, teaching you to concentrate the whole time and try to read pretty much every feature you see on the map. On a fine fall day such as today, it's also really enjoyable. The woods are so pretty this time of year!
Orienteering 9:21 [4] **** 1.34 km (6:59 / km)
shoes: 2006 VJ Falcons
Running a few legs of the map hike hard, just to test out how the hurt foot feels in the woods. Didn't feel great, but still better than last week-end. Will hope for the best for the World Cups.
Thursday Sep 28, 2006 #
Running 53:31 [2] 6.49 mi (8:15 / mi)
shoes: Montrail Trail Shoes
Running to KG and back, plus warm-up and cool-down.
Running 29:02 [3] 6.0 km (4:50 / km)
shoes: Montrail Trail Shoes
Pacing and navigating for Kat as she ran the testbana. I thought of racing it myself up to the last moment, but the hamstring felt tight when i was warming up and did a couple of strides, so i decided to run with Kat instead and help her find the way - it's tricky. It was lots of fun, and Kat ran great, beating all but the two fastest girls, both of whom are on the Swedish national team. I did manage to get us a bit lost a couple of times, but i don't think the result would have been more than 15 seconds off in one direction or another. I also got to run ahead and open the cattle gates for Kat to run through each time we entered or left a field. :)
Wednesday Sep 27, 2006 #
Running 25:35 [2] 3.41 mi (7:30 / mi)
shoes: Saucony 2006
Morning jog. Legs pretty sore, hamstring pretty sore. DX Deluxe is coming tonight!!! (Again, check out dxdeluxe.se if you haven't yet.)
Running 5:00 [2] 0.56 mi (8:56 / mi)
shoes: Montrail Trail Shoes
A bit of warm-up for DxDeluxe. Part of it in a silk robe for effect.
Orienteering race 13:09 [4] *** 1.45 km (9:04 / km)
spiked:23/29c shoes: Montrail Trail Shoes
DxDeluxe!
This year's edition was on the brand-new 1:1250 Eriksberg map (http://www.dxdeluxe.se/maps/qual.png) and featured about 120 competitors running around, trying to find 29 controls on a very forked 1.45km course. It was total madness and a great spectacle all at once, as rocks of 40 centimeters were mapped as giant boulders, and a single pine tree was enough to create a whole splotch of white forest on the map. After "training" for this by going on the last two years' maps, i did not have too many problems with the scale, but did lose concentration a couple of times, and a single concentration laps here can cause you to end up on the opposite side of the map before you know it... The controls were marked only by SI units placed on the ground with the beeping turned off, so you had to bend down to punch whenever you spotted the "flag". This mostly went uneverntfully, except for one control down in a great chasm of 25cm or so that i bent down to punch, but could not reach, and ended up toppling onto the SI unit, obscuring the whole control circle! Eventually, i got around the whole course in 13:09 and finished in 28th place out of 65, more than 3 minutes behind the amazing winning time of 9:55. The qualification was followed by the final, where the three best from each gender mass-started on a 500 meter, highly-forked course, mostly in full view of us, the spectators. The "finish arena" featured a giant video screen with the map and courses displayed, loud music playing, and throngs of adoring fans. All that was missing from having a World Championship atmosphere was the voice of Per Forsberg screaming "and he is too late, that's for sure!"
Anyway, after all the racing we all headed down to the clubhouse for some bastu and beer, followed by pizza and a banquet, where the exhausted Troeng brothers were toasted and applauded for their impressive efforts, and DxDeluxe merchandise was awarded to the winners. A good time was had by all.
This year's edition was on the brand-new 1:1250 Eriksberg map (http://www.dxdeluxe.se/maps/qual.png) and featured about 120 competitors running around, trying to find 29 controls on a very forked 1.45km course. It was total madness and a great spectacle all at once, as rocks of 40 centimeters were mapped as giant boulders, and a single pine tree was enough to create a whole splotch of white forest on the map. After "training" for this by going on the last two years' maps, i did not have too many problems with the scale, but did lose concentration a couple of times, and a single concentration laps here can cause you to end up on the opposite side of the map before you know it... The controls were marked only by SI units placed on the ground with the beeping turned off, so you had to bend down to punch whenever you spotted the "flag". This mostly went uneverntfully, except for one control down in a great chasm of 25cm or so that i bent down to punch, but could not reach, and ended up toppling onto the SI unit, obscuring the whole control circle! Eventually, i got around the whole course in 13:09 and finished in 28th place out of 65, more than 3 minutes behind the amazing winning time of 9:55. The qualification was followed by the final, where the three best from each gender mass-started on a 500 meter, highly-forked course, mostly in full view of us, the spectators. The "finish arena" featured a giant video screen with the map and courses displayed, loud music playing, and throngs of adoring fans. All that was missing from having a World Championship atmosphere was the voice of Per Forsberg screaming "and he is too late, that's for sure!"
Anyway, after all the racing we all headed down to the clubhouse for some bastu and beer, followed by pizza and a banquet, where the exhausted Troeng brothers were toasted and applauded for their impressive efforts, and DxDeluxe merchandise was awarded to the winners. A good time was had by all.
Tuesday Sep 26, 2006 #
Running 14:57 [2] 1.76 mi (8:30 / mi)
shoes: Montrail Trail Shoes
Running to/from start of backbana from Polacksbacken, with Kat biking along.
Running 29:15 [4] 5.0 km (5:51 / km) +300m 4:30 / km
shoes: Montrail Trail Shoes
One lap of the backbana in the morning on another lovely day. Felt relatively strong this time - the hills were still really tough, but it felt better than the last couple of times I've run it. This was my best time for the loop - I've never raced it, as I don't really want to break my head open on the downhills, but it's nice to be going at the same intensity as before, but with a faster time.
Orienteering 15:27 [2] *** 1.5 km (10:18 / km)
shoes: 2006-3 VJ Falcons
DX Deluxe training! Running the 2004 version, on a 1:1500 map around Blodstensvagen with Kat and Suzanne. Lots of fun, getting excited about this year's edition of the race!
Running 13:15 [2] 1.56 mi (8:30 / mi)
shoes: 2006-3 VJ Falcons
Running from Blodstensvagen to Kung Bjorns Hill and back. Didn't actually do the course at KBH, since i've done it so many times now. Just walked around instead and sat on the hill, admiring the view and the sheep below.
Running warm up/down 10:00 [2] 1.11 mi (9:01 / mi)
shoes: 2006-3 VJ Falcons
Warm-up for the club night champs.
Orienteering race 1:10:00 [4] *** 8.92 km (7:51 / km)
spiked:12/15c shoes: 2006-3 VJ Falcons
OK Linne night champs at Lunsen! I think this was the longest night-O i have completed in Sweden, and also my best race. Even though it was Lunsen, it wasn't the most technical course, with many options for trail route choices. I did go straight on the longest leg and was pretty terrified of just running for what seemed like ages through identical looking little swamps, rocky knolls, and the like, until finally finding myself at a trail intersection a couple of hundred meters from the control, almost right on the line. My result wasn't spectacular - 12th place, but the winner ran 60:43, and i was quite happy being 9 minutes back at night over 9km in Lunsen.
Monday Sep 25, 2006 #
Running 1:11:11 [3] 9.82 mi (7:15 / mi)
shoes: Saucony 2006
Went out for a run on Stadsskogen to see how the foot would hold up on trails and more even surfaces than just the forest. It went better than i expected and didn't hurt too much. Maybe i'll try to stick to running on evenish surfaces this week. Actually timed one of the loops today - 29:56 for the second one. Another beautiful day!
Running 16:44 [2] 2.16 mi (7:45 / mi)
shoes: Saucony 2006
Warming up with Kat (11:53) and then running to the gym after intervals. I went to see my naprapath in the afternoon, to get one more hamstring treatment and ask him about the foot again. He decided that his earlier diagnosis of the foot problem was wrong, and it wasn't a moved ligament: that was a separate problem. Great...
Running intervals 15:00 [5] 2.61 mi (5:45 / mi)
shoes: Saucony 2006
Was going to run with Kat as she did her tempo run, but her foot pod didn't work, so that fell through. Instead, i decided to try a short interval session (first one in a while) to see how the hamstring and foot would hold up, just running on gravel. I ended up doing 5x3 minutes with 1 min rest in between. Felt good and probably should have done at least one more, but the hamstring felt tight on the last one, so i decided this was enough for now.
T.rex training 1:00:00 [3]
Gympa!
Sunday Sep 24, 2006 #
Running warm up/down 20:00 [2] 2.22 mi (9:01 / mi)
shoes: 2006-2 VJ Falcons
Warm-up, jogging to the start.
Orienteering race 54:20 [4] *** 7.1 km (7:39 / km)
spiked:14/18c shoes: 2006-2 VJ Falcons
My foot was really hurting in the morning, so i was thinking of not going to the race at all, but decided that some orienteering is better than no orienteering, and went and signed up for an open course - 7km instead of the 12 that H21 Long had. The race itself went ok - one sizeable mistake (about 2:30 lost), but not much besides that. I wasn't running extremely fast, but kept a nice, solid pace. I definitely think of this as good training. The foot was so-so, varying between hurting a lot and being a nuisance. I really need it to heal by next week...
On the bright side, Kat once again showed fantastic form, winning D20 with a solid run and pocketing another gift certificate for 200 SEK from NC Sport, the local orienteering supply store. At this rate, she should just turn professional, and i can quit the sport and become her manager.
On the bright side, Kat once again showed fantastic form, winning D20 with a solid run and pocketing another gift certificate for 200 SEK from NC Sport, the local orienteering supply store. At this rate, she should just turn professional, and i can quit the sport and become her manager.
Saturday Sep 23, 2006 #
Running 30:00 [2] 3.33 mi (9:01 / mi)
shoes: 2006-3 VJ Falcons
Long jog to the start + cool-down.
Orienteering race 43:18 [5] *** 5.28 km (8:12 / km)
spiked:14/17c shoes: 2006-3 VJ Falcons
Langhundra Dubbeln - middle distance.
This was a tougher area than normal Uppland forests - more stuff on the ground and lower visibility, especially near the start, where a lot of people made mistakes. I started well and felt fast despite the constant pain in the foot. Was running very well through the first 7 (2 min back of the lead, 9th place!), but made a big mistake on 8 - didn't see a hill printed under the circle, thought i was in a different place, lost 4+ minutes. Grrrr. Ran pretty well the rest of the way and ended up 25th of 47th. Disappointing, as I felt strong and thought I could do better, but still encouraging to feel confident orienteering in some of this stuff. Splits at http://www.svenskidrott.se/Downloads/29284/docs/Re...
On the bright side, Kat won D20E by seven minutes with a great race!!!!!
This was a tougher area than normal Uppland forests - more stuff on the ground and lower visibility, especially near the start, where a lot of people made mistakes. I started well and felt fast despite the constant pain in the foot. Was running very well through the first 7 (2 min back of the lead, 9th place!), but made a big mistake on 8 - didn't see a hill printed under the circle, thought i was in a different place, lost 4+ minutes. Grrrr. Ran pretty well the rest of the way and ended up 25th of 47th. Disappointing, as I felt strong and thought I could do better, but still encouraging to feel confident orienteering in some of this stuff. Splits at http://www.svenskidrott.se/Downloads/29284/docs/Re...
On the bright side, Kat won D20E by seven minutes with a great race!!!!!
Thursday Sep 21, 2006 #
Running warm up/down 25:00 [2] 2.78 mi (9:00 / mi)
shoes: 2006-3 VJ Falcons
Warm-up/cool-down with Kat and Suzanne.
Orienteering race 43:58 [5] *** 6.18 km (7:07 / km)
spiked:13/16c shoes: 2006-3 VJ Falcons
OK Linne 25-manna test on Nasten/Norby. Foot hurt during the warm-up, but was ok once the adrenaline kicked in. Felt fast and ran hard the whole way, made a few errors, but nothing too big (30sec, 45sec, 45sec, 45sec) and even caught Bjorn somewhere in the middle - he got away towards the end, but i still got him by 3 seconds. He is the guy in the club ranked directly above me, so it's always good to compare with him...
Splits at http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/sv/default.a...
There were two versions of the men's course - 1a and 1b, but they were basically the same.
Splits at http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/sv/default.a...
There were two versions of the men's course - 1a and 1b, but they were basically the same.
Tuesday Sep 19, 2006 #
Note
I went to see Thonny Wall, the naprapath, again today, and got some news: the hamstring is basically (knock on wood!) fully healed, so I should be back to full strength in that respect soon. He also looked at my foot and decided that it's a problem with a ligament being pushed to the other side of a bone on top of the foot - apparently a common soccer injury. He said it isn't serious and should go away in a week or so with some stretching and massaging.
Also, I am slowly climbing up the Swedish ranking list - up to 596th, from 780th or so, where I was in the beginning of the year.
Also, I am slowly climbing up the Swedish ranking list - up to 596th, from 780th or so, where I was in the beginning of the year.
C • foot 1
Running 20:50 [3] 2.78 mi (7:30 / mi)
shoes: Saucony 2006
Running to KG, plus warm-up and cool-down. Was in a hurry to get to training on time, so i set a new PB from home to the clubhouse: 12:50.
Orienteering 48:52 [4] *** 6.59 km (7:25 / km)
spiked:12/16c shoes: 2006-3 VJ Falcons
Club training in Norby woods, right by the clubhouse. The training consisted of four loops with relatively simple (though not always) control placements, but many route choices and decisions to be made along the way. Often, taking trails around paid off, as the woods in Norby are pretty rough with a good amount of junk underfoot.
Loops and times:
1.35km - 9:13
1.88km - 14:26
1.95km - 15:18
1.41km - 9:54
This was run as a mass start, with people doing the loops in different order, but i missed the start, as I was explaining the exercise to Paul, so I ran most of it by myself. I think it was better this way anyway, as I had to navigate by myself at high speed. Felt good physically today, but took the downhills tentatively because of the foot.
After the training and the obligatory sauna, the club had a Swedish Champs celebration/cake eating, to celebrate the club's results from the last week: Micke Nordstrom's 7th place in the Night Champs; Mats' 5th in the middle; Sofie's 3rd in the Night; Annika's 3rd in the middle; the guys' (Ulf-Tomas-Jan-Mats) 5th in the relay; the girls' (Lina B - Sofie - Annika) 2nd in the relay; and Albin's amazing win in H15 Swedish Champs followed by 7th in the H18 Swedish Champs. A great week for OK Linne and lots of cake for us!!
Loops and times:
1.35km - 9:13
1.88km - 14:26
1.95km - 15:18
1.41km - 9:54
This was run as a mass start, with people doing the loops in different order, but i missed the start, as I was explaining the exercise to Paul, so I ran most of it by myself. I think it was better this way anyway, as I had to navigate by myself at high speed. Felt good physically today, but took the downhills tentatively because of the foot.
After the training and the obligatory sauna, the club had a Swedish Champs celebration/cake eating, to celebrate the club's results from the last week: Micke Nordstrom's 7th place in the Night Champs; Mats' 5th in the middle; Sofie's 3rd in the Night; Annika's 3rd in the middle; the guys' (Ulf-Tomas-Jan-Mats) 5th in the relay; the girls' (Lina B - Sofie - Annika) 2nd in the relay; and Albin's amazing win in H15 Swedish Champs followed by 7th in the H18 Swedish Champs. A great week for OK Linne and lots of cake for us!!
Monday Sep 18, 2006 #
Running 33:30 [2] 4.67 mi (7:10 / mi)
shoes: 2006-3 VJ Falcons
Running from home to the start of control picking that Kat drew for us. Foot hurt quite a bit the whole way. I'm a bit worried, will see my naprapath tomorrow and ask him.
Orienteering 26:30 [3] **** 2.5 km (10:36 / km)
shoes: 2006-3 VJ Falcons
Control picking on Nasten without controls. Lots of fun - many short legs and fast running on a nice, misty morning.
Orienteering 15:00 [1]
Map hiking for a bit of the control picking, with Kat and Paul, and a bit by myself afterwards.
T.rex training 1:00:00 [3]
Gympa!!
Brought Paul along this time. Lots of fun!
Brought Paul along this time. Lots of fun!
Sunday Sep 17, 2006 #
Biking 45:00 [2]
The outside of my left foot has been hurting the last few days, so I decided to take a short bike ride in the morning before going to Stockholm with my friend Paul.
Saturday Sep 16, 2006 #
Orienteering race 1:25:24 [4] *** 11.29 km (7:34 / km)
spiked:21/26c shoes: 2006-2 VJ Falcons
Sigtuna classic race. Apart from losing 6 minutes on a mis-mapped first control (i was caught by the next three guys starting behind me there, and we all ran around like idiots trying to figure out what was wrong until one accidentally bumped into the control), it was a pretty good race for me, running fast and maintaining decent concentration most of the way through the very fun, detailed, and runnable terrain. Of course, the six minute "mistake" didn't help the result much, but i was pleased with the race overall.
Running 15:00 [2] 1.76 mi (8:31 / mi)
shoes: 2006-2 VJ Falcons
Warm-up/cool-down
Friday Sep 15, 2006 #
Swimming 20:00 [2]
Nice afternoon swim in Centralbadet. Day off from running.
Thursday Sep 14, 2006 #
Orienteering 1:10:13 [2] *** 6.5 km (10:48 / km)
shoes: 2006-2 VJ Falcons
A nice, easy afternoon run on Nasten, running parts of the H21 course from the Linne club champs that Rob set back in August. It felt very much like a non-Swedish course: the challenge was more in the route choice, execution and actually getting to the control, rather than not losing tons of time in the circle looking for the particular side of a dot knoll like it often is at Swedish races. I really enjoyed it!
Biking 45:00 [3]
Spinning class at Ekeby Friskis & Svettis with Kat. Good fun, lots of sweat.
Wednesday Sep 13, 2006 #
Running 25:35 [2] 3.41 mi (7:30 / mi)
shoes: Montrail Trail Shoes
A shuffle around the neighborhood on a gorgeous september day.
Swimming 20:00 [1]
Swimming in Centralbadet! While Kat sped around her workout, I struggled through 400m of improvised breaststroke and backstroke. The reward for this was a nice time in a steam room directly afterwards.
Running 17:00 [2] 1.89 mi (9:00 / mi)
shoes: 2006 VJ Falcons
Jogging to and from the start/finish to the parking lot.
Orienteering 57:22 [4] *** 7.18 km (7:59 / km)
spiked:23/26c shoes: 2006 VJ Falcons
Technique training/ O-intervals on the southwest part of Lunsen - definitely not the most fun part of that great map. The runnability was pretty bad, with thick patches, and tons of tree branches lying on the ground, just waiting to jump up and grab your foot as you run by. The workout consisted of seven loops, which you were supposed to do at race pace or faster, with some rest in between. I ran them with 2 minutes rest in between each, and orienteered pretty well for the most part, except for sizeable mistakes (1min and 2min) on the 3rd and 4th loops, respectively. It was also very hard to get a good flow going, as the running was so rough, but it was still fun and a good workout, though i feel pretty beat up now.
Length Time
1060 7:44
1260 9:17
960 7:50
980 9:37
1120 7:09
980 9:16
820 6:29
Length Time
1060 7:44
1260 9:17
960 7:50
980 9:37
1120 7:09
980 9:16
820 6:29
Tuesday Sep 12, 2006 #
Running 42:39 [2] 5.44 mi (7:50 / mi)
shoes: Montrail Trail Shoes
Had all these grand plans of running the testbana this morning, but when i got out of the house, i just felt tired and not yet awake, so i bailed and just ran to the clubhouse, a loop around the Norby ski trail, and back home. A beautiful morning, nice and sunny. One highlight was seeing Niclas Jonasson running, fresh off his victory in the Swedish long champs on Sunday. It's weird that he lives in Uppsala but almost never runs with the club...
Running 30:15 [2] 3.95 mi (7:39 / mi)
shoes: Saucony 2006
Warming up and down along the dirt road at the top of Nasten.
Running 20:15 [5] 3.34 mi (6:04 / mi)
shoes: Saucony 2006
Threshold run on the same dirt road I ran on Monday. Trying to keep a 6:00/mile pace felt hard, and I decided 20 minutes was enough, as doing more would have felt more like a race. The conclusion is that I am slower than I was a few months ago, and so I am making getting faster and staying fast a top priority for this year. Racing all summer and having hamstring problems has kept me from running intervals and trying to get faster, so it's not surprising that I have lost some speed, but I hope to get it back after my hamstring is completely healed.
Monday Sep 11, 2006 #
Running 1:28:24 [3] 12.63 mi (7:00 / mi)
shoes: Saucony 2006
A nice early evening run on the dirt road going along the north part of Nasten. The first part was with Kat, running along as she did her tempo run, then i did the same loop plus some extra by myself and had a really nice time. After a weekend spent in the swamps of Karsta, it was nice to stretch my legs out a bit on a nice, straight trail.
T.rex training 10:00 [1]
Crunches, dips, and the like.
Sunday Sep 10, 2006 #
Orienteering 1:30:00 [3] 8.0 km (11:15 / km)
shoes: 2006-2 VJ Falcons
Taby OK long distance race. My mind wasn't into it today, for various reasons, so I did about 2/3 of the course with many mistakes and called it a day.
Saturday Sep 9, 2006 #
Running warm up/down 15:00 [2] 1.76 mi (8:31 / mi)
shoes: 2006 VJ Falcons
Warm-up / cool-down
Orienteering race 1:02:04 [3] *** 8.69 km (7:09 / km)
spiked:17/19c shoes: 2006 VJ Falcons
Long distance race at Vallentuna-Osseby. I ran H21 because I didn't want to run two long classic races back-to-back. Probably a good choice for today, as I felt very tired from lack of sleep the last two days and did not run particularly fast. I did, however, manage a reasonably clean race, aside from a 2 minute mistake on the shortest leg of the course. I was quite pleased to avoid mistakes the rest of the way, especially through the very technical parts in the middle. Ended up 2nd, but a whole 5 minutes behind the winner.
Splits at http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/sv/default.a...
Splits at http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/sv/default.a...
Friday Sep 8, 2006 #
Note
Kat is coming to Uppsala tomorrow!!
Running 33:35 [2] 4.48 mi (7:30 / mi)
shoes: Saucony 2006
Nice afternoon run on the dirt road going along the North part of Nasten while Kat attempted to recover from jetlag at home. I feel like i haven't trained very much since i got back to Sweden, but maybe that's ok given the hamstring and the desire to build volume slowly.
Thursday Sep 7, 2006 #
Orienteering 1:20:51 [3] **** 9.2 km (8:47 / km)
spiked:17/19c shoes: 2006-2 VJ Falcons
Training run at Aland, a nice map about 20km outside Uppsala, in the rain. Surprisingly, my hamstring didn't hurt today, and i felt a lot stronger than yesterday in general. Additionally, i navigated quite well and just had one of those really fun "this is what orienteering should be all about!!" training sessions: just cruising along, neither speeding up nor slowing down, reading the map, spotting a boulder and expecting a control behind it and actually finding it. Just great! The downside was that it was quite cold by the end, and it looks like Swedish winter is just around the corner...
Wednesday Sep 6, 2006 #
Running 8:00 [2] 1.0 mi (8:00 / mi)
shoes: 2006 VJ Falcons
Running to and from the start of training.
Orienteering 1:12:05 [3] 7.6 km (9:29 / km)
shoes: 2006 VJ Falcons
Pre-Swedish Champs training on a map called Stenby in Langhundra. The map lived up to its name and was indeed very rocky throughout. Add to this a dubious quality of mapping, poor runnability, and very vague terrain, and you might guess that this wasn't my favorite place to orienteer. In addition to making mistakes all over the place, i also felt tired and didn't run very hard. Hopefully, tomorrow will go better.
Had another appointment with the naprapath today. I hope my hamstring feels better by the time World Cup rolls around in 3.5 weeks.
On a different note, at one point during the workout yesterday, Rob was running by me and we were approaching this short little fence. As i slowed down to make sure i don't trip over, Rob took a gigantic leap, easily clearing the fence and distancing himself from by a couple of meters. And before that, Ulf got away from me when he jumped a fence that i chose to run around. Thinking about this a bit more, i've decided that i am way too wussy when it comes to jumping over, down off, or onto things. I don't do it enough and probably lose a bunch of time in the woods each time i slow down in such a situation. Perhaps i'll try to work on my jumping and see if it's just a mental problem or not.
Had another appointment with the naprapath today. I hope my hamstring feels better by the time World Cup rolls around in 3.5 weeks.
On a different note, at one point during the workout yesterday, Rob was running by me and we were approaching this short little fence. As i slowed down to make sure i don't trip over, Rob took a gigantic leap, easily clearing the fence and distancing himself from by a couple of meters. And before that, Ulf got away from me when he jumped a fence that i chose to run around. Thinking about this a bit more, i've decided that i am way too wussy when it comes to jumping over, down off, or onto things. I don't do it enough and probably lose a bunch of time in the woods each time i slow down in such a situation. Perhaps i'll try to work on my jumping and see if it's just a mental problem or not.
Tuesday Sep 5, 2006 #
Running 15:13 [2] 1.9 mi (8:00 / mi)
shoes: Montrail Trail Shoes
Jogging from Polacksbacken to the start of backbana after this morning's class, in which i paid attention for the full two hours like a good student should. There, happy, dad? :)
Running 27:51 [3] 5.0 km (5:34 / km) +270m 4:23 / km
shoes: Montrail Trail Shoes
Running the backbana at an "easy" pace - it's really impossibe to keep it easy on these really steep hills. I also skipped a hill towards the end by accident, just didn't see the turn-off and ran right by. So, with that in mind, i figure my pace was just about exactly the same as the last two times i've run it - right about 30:15.
Also, i finally got my bike fixed (knock on wood!), so i may actually be biking places now until it breaks down again.
Also, i finally got my bike fixed (knock on wood!), so i may actually be biking places now until it breaks down again.
Running 33:30 [2] 3.94 mi (8:30 / mi)
shoes: Saucony 2006
Running to and from Polacksbacken and jogging between intervals.
Running 21:42 [5] * 5.1 km (4:15 / km)
shoes: Saucony 2006
Sprint intervals at Polacksbacken. We were given a map with 6 short little sprint courses, varying between 600m and 1km in length and were given the order in which we were to run them. We were also required to take at least 90 seconds of rest between each course/interval. I ran these at about 90% speed, despite planning to go even slower. But the hamstring felt more-or-less ok, and the adrenaline really gets flowing when you have head-to-head competition. Anyway, this was a really fun workout - a great way to make intervals enjoyable!
Monday Sep 4, 2006 #
Running 1:13:31 [3] * 9.8 mi (7:30 / mi)
shoes: Saucony 2006
Thought about going to gympa, but decided that hopping around and flailing my limbs wouldn't be too good for the hamstring, so i went for a run instead. Nice afternoon run in Stadsskogen, two of my usual loops, reversing direction for the second one. Lots of mushrooms and berries out in the woods, very reminiscent of the vague memories of Russian woods i have in mind.
T.rex training 10:00 [1]
Sit-ups, dips, etc. after the run.
Sunday Sep 3, 2006 #
Running warm up/down 15:00 [2] 1.82 mi (8:15 / mi)
shoes: 2006-2 VJ Falcons
Warm-up and a quick cool-down in the rain.
Orienteering race 54:45 [4] *** 6.9 km (7:56 / km)
spiked:10/13c shoes: 2006-2 VJ Falcons
District Relay Champs
I ran for OK Linne's 5th Team. The relay consisted of three legs, and there were just 17 teams entered in the H21 division, 8 of them from Linne. In the non-stop driving rain, my lead-off runner Mattias Karlsson had a solid run and came in 6th, 9 minutes down on the lead (Linne's 3rd team) and 6 minutes behind the first team. Everyone told me that this was a very technical area, so the motto for the race was "avoid disasters", and I managed that reasonably well. I lost some time on a long leg, where i kept zig-zagging on a bearing and had trouble going straight for a while, and then made a parallel error near the control itself, but not many mistakes otherwise - maybe 3-4 minutes lost out there. Bjorn, who ran for the 4th team, caught me near the end, and we stayed together, sprinting it out to the finish. We came in 5th and 6th, having passed a team from another club. I ended up with the 5th best time on the leg, but a good 12 minutes behind Tomas Stenstrom's awesome run (he won the leg by 5 minutes) that put Linne 1 in the lead for good. Still, i was pretty happy with the race, especially since this was my third straight race in Sweden without any major mistakes. Must be a good sign. The results are at http://www.ifthor.se/orientering/arrangemang/dm06s...
I ran for OK Linne's 5th Team. The relay consisted of three legs, and there were just 17 teams entered in the H21 division, 8 of them from Linne. In the non-stop driving rain, my lead-off runner Mattias Karlsson had a solid run and came in 6th, 9 minutes down on the lead (Linne's 3rd team) and 6 minutes behind the first team. Everyone told me that this was a very technical area, so the motto for the race was "avoid disasters", and I managed that reasonably well. I lost some time on a long leg, where i kept zig-zagging on a bearing and had trouble going straight for a while, and then made a parallel error near the control itself, but not many mistakes otherwise - maybe 3-4 minutes lost out there. Bjorn, who ran for the 4th team, caught me near the end, and we stayed together, sprinting it out to the finish. We came in 5th and 6th, having passed a team from another club. I ended up with the 5th best time on the leg, but a good 12 minutes behind Tomas Stenstrom's awesome run (he won the leg by 5 minutes) that put Linne 1 in the lead for good. Still, i was pretty happy with the race, especially since this was my third straight race in Sweden without any major mistakes. Must be a good sign. The results are at http://www.ifthor.se/orientering/arrangemang/dm06s...
Note
So, since Linne is the largest club in the district of Uppland in terms of its elite group, it tends to do very well at the District Relay Champs from year to year, normall taking at least 3 of the top 4 spots on both the men's and women's sides.
This makes picking teams for the district champs an interesting question. Do you stack your top team to make sure it wins and dominates? Or do you make several even teams to make the competition more interesting, making it into sort of a within-club relay champs (you could go all out here by seeding your own runners and picking a bunch of even teams)?
Now, the Linne team selection on the men's side is done separately from the women's. On the women's side, it was decided to go with two relatively even "best teams", with the club's 1st, 2nd, and 6th runners on Team 1, and 3rd, 4th, and 5th on Team 2. As a result, Linne's Team 2 won, with Team 1 finishing second, ahead of IF Thor's first team. On the men's side, however, there was a clear pecking order, with the best team being made of the 3 best runners at the moment, the 2nd team of the next best 3, and so on. And, the top 5 teams (the competitive ones) finished in order as planned, without too much possibility for "promotion" (although team 3 did lead after 1 leg). I asked Mats if it was really fun to have the first team dominate, and why not have the "egalitarian team selection" instead. He said it should be an honor to be on the first team, and something people should be striving for. I thought that was a cool viewpoint, and also that it was interesting to see the contrast between the two philosophies right there, which is why i am writing all this.... I don't know if i have a strong opinion in either direction here, but i wonder if some people do have preferences one way or the other.
This makes picking teams for the district champs an interesting question. Do you stack your top team to make sure it wins and dominates? Or do you make several even teams to make the competition more interesting, making it into sort of a within-club relay champs (you could go all out here by seeding your own runners and picking a bunch of even teams)?
Now, the Linne team selection on the men's side is done separately from the women's. On the women's side, it was decided to go with two relatively even "best teams", with the club's 1st, 2nd, and 6th runners on Team 1, and 3rd, 4th, and 5th on Team 2. As a result, Linne's Team 2 won, with Team 1 finishing second, ahead of IF Thor's first team. On the men's side, however, there was a clear pecking order, with the best team being made of the 3 best runners at the moment, the 2nd team of the next best 3, and so on. And, the top 5 teams (the competitive ones) finished in order as planned, without too much possibility for "promotion" (although team 3 did lead after 1 leg). I asked Mats if it was really fun to have the first team dominate, and why not have the "egalitarian team selection" instead. He said it should be an honor to be on the first team, and something people should be striving for. I thought that was a cool viewpoint, and also that it was interesting to see the contrast between the two philosophies right there, which is why i am writing all this.... I don't know if i have a strong opinion in either direction here, but i wonder if some people do have preferences one way or the other.
Note
The map from Saturday's District Middle Champs, with Micke Nordstrom's routes, is at http://www.mikaelnordstrom.se/maps/dmMedel06.jpg
Saturday Sep 2, 2006 #
Running 25:00 [2] 3.13 mi (7:59 / mi)
shoes: 2006 VJ Falcons
Running (close to full speed) the 2.5km to the start (just barely making it) and then cooling down with Ulrik.
Orienteering race 37:02 [4] *** 4.88 km (7:35 / km)
spiked:12/14c shoes: 2006 VJ Falcons
Uppland district champs in Middle Distance. I was the 3rd started in H21 and hoped to be the first finisher, especially since the first starter was a Japanese guy visiting Uppsala for a couple of weeks. After almost missing my start time due to the long drive to the meet site and long walk to the start, I was a bit rattled in the beginning of the course and decided to slow down to avoid an early massive mistake. That worked out ok, as I came into 3 just behind the Japanese guy and right ahead of the guy who started directly in front of me. That guy was running fast, and i ran with him for the next two legs, but he got away after #7, only to be caught by me again at the second-to-last control. He promptly screwed up the last control, and I ended up the first finisher like I'd hoped.
One weird thing about this race was that it was the first I'd done that used touch-free Emit and it totally confused me. There was a tutorial on these on the way to the start, including a trial control that you can run by, wave your Emit stick at, and see if it registers, but as I was running late, I didn't get to use it. So i get to the first control and see no Emit unit! Confused, i run around a bit and decided to use the good-old punch-the-map technique and move on. I did this for the first 4, until seeing the guy in front of punch 5 by waving his Emit at it and finally realizing what was happening. Oops. Of course, at the finish, as I started frantically explaining my predicament to the officials, it turned out that all my punches actually registered, since I'd been within a couple of meters of each control. Cool.
Anyway, results: I ended up 20th, 8:48 behind the winner (Christer Nygren) and 28% back of the average of top 3, compared with 25th, 13:31 behind the winner (Mats Troeng) and 38% back of the average of the top 3 in the same race last year. I'll take it.
Splits from this year: http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/sv/default.a...
Results from last year: http://www.svenskidrott.se/Downloads/29292/docs/Re...
One weird thing about this race was that it was the first I'd done that used touch-free Emit and it totally confused me. There was a tutorial on these on the way to the start, including a trial control that you can run by, wave your Emit stick at, and see if it registers, but as I was running late, I didn't get to use it. So i get to the first control and see no Emit unit! Confused, i run around a bit and decided to use the good-old punch-the-map technique and move on. I did this for the first 4, until seeing the guy in front of punch 5 by waving his Emit at it and finally realizing what was happening. Oops. Of course, at the finish, as I started frantically explaining my predicament to the officials, it turned out that all my punches actually registered, since I'd been within a couple of meters of each control. Cool.
Anyway, results: I ended up 20th, 8:48 behind the winner (Christer Nygren) and 28% back of the average of top 3, compared with 25th, 13:31 behind the winner (Mats Troeng) and 38% back of the average of the top 3 in the same race last year. I'll take it.
Splits from this year: http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/sv/default.a...
Results from last year: http://www.svenskidrott.se/Downloads/29292/docs/Re...
Friday Sep 1, 2006 #
Note
(rest day)
Off today. Spent the day fuming about the new WC 2007 rules and updating the sprint series standings. Also made a trip to IKEA to look for a new bed, but they were all too expensive. Bought a garbage can instead. They were cheaper.