Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Stayed overnight at Cassie's place (minus Cassie and family, who are in Australia - I had to send her the sad news that a creature or creatures unknown has demolished the carrot crop on the balcony while she's been away), which meant the opportunity to demonstrate to my travelling companion why you'd get good at running on rough trails if you lived here. This was a pretty slow session for that reason, mostly on the small trails and up Kolsastoppen from the south side, before going down the ski slope. Struggled with the back on the first climb, to the point that I might not have continued without a companion, but fine thereafter.

Dropped Jenny off at the airport in the afternoon (after linking up in the morning with Cristina and Lukas), then set course for Sweden. It's fortunate that I had planned to go via Gavle to catch up with an old friend from Canberra days, because as it turned out bushfires in Sweden would have forced me to track that far south anyway. Went as far as Salen today, incorporating a detour to Hamar (short in distance, longer in time because of major roadworks approaching town) in successful search of public wi-fi to do a teleconference with. The tail end of the route to Salen was a little unfamiliar compared to 2008 because the signs pointed down a back road (which I'm guessing was still dirt in 2008), but it saved me 20km so I'm not complaining.

C • The 'snail' saw a frog! 4

There were a few showers around today in western areas, and it was even cool at times at high elevations. That's something I won't see a lot of in the next week or two - a historically significant heatwave is unfolding in central and northern Scandinavia, with 32-34 degrees today anywhere in the Arctic regions which was even vaguely sheltered from the coast and records all over the place (including Bodo's first-ever 30). A bit of a break is forecast from tomorrow but heating up again next week; looking at mid-high 20s at this stage for O-ringen in Ornskoldsvik, with considerable upside potential. There is a total fire ban in Ornskoldsvik (as in many other parts of Scandinavia), which will make life interesting at the O-ringen campsite, although there will apparently be a designated (concrete?) area for campstoves.

C • Heat 1

This run involved going from Montana to Florida and back again, all in under an hour. Before you start wondering, both Montana and Florida are localities in Bergen, the former the location of the youth hostel where we stayed, the latter a site near the lake where Bergen's main meteorological observing site is. As the former is at about 175 metres and the latter is near sea level, this meant a run with a lot of downhill early and a lot of uphill late. I was pretty happy with how it went, and in particular, how I was able to grind my way up a long hill better than I have for a long time (the last 3km were almost continuously uphill). A hint of Achilles soreness at times but nothing to be concerned about.

This set the scene for a day's road trip from Bergen to Oslo which I expected to be epically scenic, and was - particular highlights being around Hardanger Fjord, the climb onto the plateau (including the waterfall at the top), and across the top. A long day but definitely worth it. Back in Oslo tonight before heading for Sweden tomorrow.

This day more or less disappeared (and unlike Jenny, I didn't head out for a short session at 9pm). Made our way from Stavanger to Bergen, a 170km distance on the road which ends up taking five hours because of two ferry crossings (to say nothing of the world's two deepest undersea tunnels - having been neither to the Dead Sea nor on a submarine, 260m below sea level is a first for me), then took the cablecar up the mountain behind Bergen - I'm sure the hardcore run this - for some spectacular views, despite the first substantial rain in town for weeks. (As Bergen gets something like 270 days of rain in an average year, this is unusual).

Main activity for the day was the Preikestolen walk. This is moderately strenuous (4km each way, about 350m climb), and had as much of a stream of humanity on it as the Tongariro Crossing. Some places, though, are iconic because they deserve to be iconic, and this is one of them. I'm not great with heights so I didn't go close to the edge, but still got to experience most of the views.

I also find the Norwegian attitude to such places refreshing, presumably because they don't have lawyers that tell the responsible authorities "unless you put up a sign saying 'if you fall down this 600-metre cliff you will die', someone will sue you because you didn't warn people that falling down a 600-metre cliff will kill you". In Australia we probably wouldn't be allowed within 100 metres of the place. (In general, I don't get the sense that arse-covering is a substantial part of the Norwegian character). Incidentally, with something like 200,000 visitors per year, the known number of accidental fatalities at the site is zero (there have been a few suicides).

The run itself was a bit of an afterthought, quite late in the day back in Stavanger. Both of were grinding the gears a bit, but my quads (which had found the descent from Preikestolen fairly demanding) loosened up, and it turned into some not unpleasant suburban exploration, including a lake and a couple of nice bits of forest.

C • 100 metres 2

Headed out early with Jenny to explore the sand dune forest and adjacent beach. Neither of us had slept terribly well, but it seemed to work out fine - not sure where this form was on Friday (felt good once my Achilles had warmed up in the first few hundred metres). Spent the first section on tracks through a forest over sand dunes, the southern section of which has a permanent course for which we saw a few markers, plus one flag probably left over from a training session. Back along the beach, mostly reasonably firm and with a stiff tail wind. The German car mentioned yesterday is gone, by unknown means. (Presumably this beach gives the Hirtshals equivalent of the NRMA some work).

The rest of the day was the ferry crossing to Kristiansand, scene of one of the less glorious chapters of my orienteering history (the 20-minute mistake at the first control of the 1994 World Cup), then the slow but very scenic drive to Stavanger, punctuated by a stop for the (football) World Cup final. Scored quite nicely in the latter respect, a small, reasonably characterful cafe/restaurant (I was worried it would be a smoky small-town bar). I've got something of a history of finding out-of-the-way places for this particular fixture, three of them involving Finnish bars. (The last time I was actually in Australia when the final was on was in 1994).

Didn't feel too bad today but decided to give it a day to settle down (plus tomorrow morning looks appealing as a training prospect). Spent the day going across Denmark in preparation for crossing to Norway tomorrow - a process which involved a reasonable amount of driving and two ferry rides (one small, one longer). Spent most of the longer crossing screen-surfing between online coverage of the JWOC relay, the AFL and the NRL.

I think Jenny was quite pleased to see a 1:100000 topographic atlas of Denmark on special at an Arhus bookshop (and I wasn't exactly upset either).

Ended the day at Hirtshals, on the northwest coast - sand dune country. Also wide sandy beach country, and what must be one of the few beaches in Europe which can be legally driven on (although based on what we saw, it demonstrated evidence of the limited experience many Europeans have of off-road driving, including one German vehicle which was comprehensively bogged).

Couldn't hold my body together for a full week of competition in the end. I knew by halfway to the first control that I would do well to get around the course; kept plugging away in the hope of loosening up, taking track routes to the extent that I could and hoping that I might come good on the long 9th leg, but I didn't. Shortly afterwards, able at best to jog on the tracks (and, as it happened, sixth-last and going backwards), I decided that it wasn't really worth slogging around half-fit to come near-last as in Gothenburg three years ago, and called it a day (from one of the further corners of the map, too). Did manage to find enough to avoid the Walk Of Shame up the chute, but not with a lot to spare.

Given that this is the second time in three years that I've fallen apart at the last hurdle in a World Masters week after being previously OK, it does suggest that there may be an outer limit to what I can string together at the moment (hopefully not, with O-ringen still to come). At least there was a decent middle to show for this week.