Training Log Archive: riinaF

2min stretches watching tv after I got home from the shop. Legs don't feel too bad actually, my core is worse!

I think I'll go for a tiny jog tomorrow to try and get the legs working

Helsinki City Trail 2017
14km

First time running with a bib but without a map!! I'm not quite convinced, having a map and having to navigate is a good way to not think about how tired you are or how much this sucks or how that blister hurts...

Got to sleep in and had a big breakfast. Took Alepa bike to Eläintarhan kenttä and got there just before 11 when the 24km race started. Watched the start and then waited for my start.

Did some warming up for maybe 15mins, just generally jogging around. Rookie since didn't have my watch on for this.

My start was 12.05 since I decided I'd be in the second start group. The first group was for people who were planning to run the whole thing so I was definitely not in that one!

My goal was under 2hrs and I had figured out that would mean roughly 8min/km. Realised at the start I probably shouldve changed my watch's screen to show my pace......... I don't have it there since I don't really care about my pace normally. But at least I have the autolap thing which meant the watch vibrated after each km and told me the pace which was handy. And it gave me something to do while running to calculate the pace in my head.

First half was easy. I didn't want to start too fast so I decided to stay with the group at least for the first 5km. Sometimes people in front of me were going a bit too slow for me but I decided to stay with them anyway since we were going roughly 8min/km. Passed only some people because they were struggling with the more technical parts of the trails.

It looks like my watch doesn't save the autolap data so I cant see how my pacing was? But I think until the drink station, which was roughly at 7km, I was doing somewhere around 8min/km. After the drink station the course turned back south and I decided to run more based on how I felt.

After 6km I started to struggle though, up until then it had been fun. There were bits where I was doing fine but then there were bits where I was tired. Started walking more, tried to limit it to the uphills still but sometimes ended up walking a bit more than just the uphill. Started to feel better towards the end though and only struggled with the uphills. I didn't have any gels with me but I had some glucose candies, took some twice. And had a cup of water at the drinks station.

Finished at 1:47:49 which was pretty good, faster than I thought and I wasn't wrecked at the end so maybe couldve gone even faster.
It was fun! And I noticed orienteering seems to help with trail running. Especially in my start group there were clearly people who weren't super used to running on trails. They were really careful on the bare rock bits when I went flying past them! And it was even more clear on the downhills. People were walking down the hills and being really careful and I just kinda fell down the hills as fast as I could!! That's when I passed a lot of people even if I wasn't so strong on flat trails.

I think I'll do this again next year!