Training Archive: NixonIn the 31 days ending 2007-07-31:
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| S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tuesday Jul 31 | ||
| Orienteering 36:00 [4]***** 4.2 km (8:34 / km) | |
| spiked:10/12c | ||
| HS training, Pirttimäki. It was raining, lots. I took it a bit easier today, still made a massive mistake though. I didn't do much today, had pytt i panna for lunch, missed the bus to training and cleaned my room, a bit. It turns out that a guy I met on Sunday, Grant Smith, is infact an awesome football player. He plays for HJK in Finland, and used to play for Dundee. He is the best footballer I have ever watched to tour de france with over a few beers. Some very wierd old guy, wearing a bright yellow jacket sat opposite me on the bus today, despite nearly every other seat beign free, he decided to sit opposite me and squeeze his strange little legs past my bag. I thought he was either going to rape me or kill me. Or both. If he was going to do both I hoped he'd kill me first. He did neither. But he was wierd. It looks like I am going to be staying in Ullanlinna for the rest of my time in Helsinki, which is nice. I like it here. I've just listened to Permission to land by the Darkness, an awesome album. | ||
| C • I swear 4 | ||
| Jogging 22:00 [3] | |
| Warming up / down. In the rain. | ||
Monday Jul 30 | ||
| Orienteering 59:11 [4]***** 9 km (6:35 / km) | |
| spiked:13/15c | ||
| Iltarastit, at Solvalla. Monday night training event. Got the bus/train/bus out again, luckily there were a couple of orienteers on the bus, because I think I would have missed the stop. I felt quite good, considering last night. Technically pretty good too, I think I'm starting to get used to the terrain here. There was a TV crew filming at the start once I had finished my run, not sure what for, but their cameras were big and expensive. I nearly impailed myself on a stick today, luckily my thigh of steel prevented penetration. Got a massive brouise though, I aint gonna be able to wear a mini-skirt for atleast a week.
Last night: On the way back from Lahti BJ asked if I wanted to go to the cinema. So once I was back in town I got sorted and then headed to the Aussie Bar. A couple of drinks later we go grab some chicken wings for dinner. A couple of drinks later we go and watch the Film, Black Sheep. It's from New Zealand, and a bit shit, but kind of funny, and wierd. Probably not worth 10euros, but it's better than sitting at home. We then headed back to Aussie Bar for a drink. BJ then had to go, so I headed over to a pool-hall / bar for a couple of drinks and some pool with a couple of Aussies and Finns BJ had introduced me to. We then went back to the Aussie bar for a drink, and then headed over to Onnela. Onnela is Finlands biggest night clubs, and it's huge. Managed to go straight in and not pay because one of the girls I was with is dating someone who works there. Spent half the night on the dance floor in the "retro" room (which was very much like the big cheese mixed with pleasure dome) and the Karaoke bar. Some how, I woke up this morning (afternoon) with no hang-over, result! | ||
| C • Black Sheep 4 | ||
| Jogging (Warming up / down) 20:00 [3] | |
| Warming up / down. I thought my nipples were on fire by the time I was warming down, I'm gonna swap tops with Eljas for a better size. | ||
Sunday Jul 29 | ||
| Note | |
| Feeling very stiff all over this morning, not just the usual place. I think I should get down the gym before I move my next oven. | ||
| Orienteering race 59:52 [5]***** 8.4 km (7:08 / km) | |
| spiked:17/19c | ||
| Lahti-Suunnistus, medium sized competition (I think). The terrain has been used for Jukola twice before. I did'nae get on the elite because I have no ranking. Which is a good thing I think, these Finns are pretty good. Jani Lakanen won the elite. The terrain was amazing, seriously intense negative terrain, loads of ridges and depressions, much harder than any morraine stuff I've been in before. The forest was quite thick, and it was very rocky under-foot aswell, so Jani only did 6 m/km's. I was on H21A. It took me three attempts to actually work out where I went on number 13. It wasn't a big mistake, I just wasn't really paying attention, as I was just on a b-line to the big open area. It turns out though I didn't really go a very good way. Ooops. I did have a very clean run apart from that. I made a wee mistake at 8, I got a bit distracted by catching my 2 minute man, but other than that it was clean. I then went for a swim in the lake and had my lunch. I'm suprised that I didn't feel so bad after yesterdays efforts. I did have to walk up most hills though.
| ||
| C • Elite 2 | ||
| Jogging (Warming up / down) 25:00 [3] | |
| Warming up / down. I don't know any Finnish, so had no idea what start times they were callin out, luckily they were saying names too. | ||
Saturday Jul 28 | ||
| Note | |
| My head hurts; I have a hang over. It all started in the Gallery of Modern Art, which was mostly full of quite typical modern art, or as I call it: shit. there was a good one of a horse though. There was a big white plinth, with a stuffed horse on it, but someone had taken a chainsaw to the horse and removed from the shins upwards, so all that was there was 4 horses legs. Nice. There was a big photo display from Kazakhstan, and everything had been painted Kazakh blue and yellow; fences, bus stops, tower blocks, pylons, barrels, walls. Literally everything. There was a video of some naked "punk shamons" kicking sheep heads (freshly chopped) down a road in some far away Eastern Bloc country. There was some good stuff in there too, but not really worth mentioning.
After the gallery it was time for dinner, so over to D'Wok. They were shutting early so we couldn't stay in and eat there, so it was take-away. And they only gave us one fork. It's ok they, Mr D'wok had plenty more to hand out. It was then to K super-market to buy a drink, and chomp away on the chinese in the shopping center. Classy. Then it was time for the beer festival! Big Beers, Small Breweries, as it said on the glasses. Some pretty good beers, Käki was nice, I can't really remember the names of anything else. The strawberry cider was pretty pish, blueberry cider was good. Although having had 1 cider I had to only drink ale for the rest of the night to make sure I didn't turn into a sissy at midnight. After the beer festival it was time to head over the the Aussie Bar and catch up with BJ. It was an awesome bar, pretty rammed, but good. Good music too, and a tiny little dancefloor. There was this huge guy who looked a bit like the special one off the Goonies, and when Umbrella 'ella 'ella came on he got out his umbrella and went mental for it. He goes there all the time apparently, and is a smart guy, he just loves that song. Once, someone nicked his umbrella, big mistake. A short trip to the docks for a slash, and then to bed. I was not tempted to buy a hotdog. I'm only doing cycling today, so I should be fine. | ||
| Cycling 2:35:00 [3]61.5 km (2:31 / km) | |
| Cycling out and back to Gumbostrand to visit Matti & Maija's cottage. A bit stop and start on the way out, I had to escape the center of Helsinki and I had no idea where I was going. Having to cycle on cycle paths is a bit annoying, kept have to stop for lights and stuff. Once I hit the open road though it was good, and I could push the machine to it's limits. Mainly because I was late for the boat. The boat being a wee nipper of a speed boat. Got soaked on the way out, but it was good because I was baked from cycling in the sun. It was very sunny indeed.
Once we all got on the island we had to carry a 120kg oven up to the new cottage. It was bloody heavy, but a good laugh. With some cunning Finnish engineering we got the job done. Then we had to carry and even heavier rock from to middle of the island back to the cottage to be the main step. That was also bloody heavy, but a good laugh. I think we will all have sever back problems for a while. We than had a nice dinner thanks to Maija, with here amazing blueberry tart. Then a proper sauna, swim in a sea and a cold beer. Awesome. After some Finnish sausage it was time for me to cycle home. I left at about 10pm. Late night cycling, beer, saunas and lifting lots of heavy things is very good preparation for tomorrow's race. I aint doing elite, so it shuold be OK. | ||
Friday Jul 27 | ||
| Note | |
| (rest day) | ||
| Day of rest.
I went into town to by a football. With football in hand I was out of intersport and back on the tram within a matter of minutes. It's nice to be male. There is nothing better than a kick about down the park with your mates. Ofcouse, I don't actually have any mates, but the kick about was fun and it was very sunny. I got attacked by automatic sprinklers that came out of nowhere without warning. Luckily I escaped without getting too much of a dousing. They were doing bungee jumping down at the sea-front. I was going to have a go, but realised that I didn't really enjoy things like that and it wouldn't be fun. I listened to The Pigeon Detectives, the song that they play on the radio back home is nowhere near the best on the album. I got my bike back from Green Bike, BAA baggage handlers managed to screw the rear-derailer. E&L insurance can pay for it though. I'm going to go the the gallery of modern art later, I'm not a massive fan of modern art, but it is free. | ||
| C • Beer event 3 | ||
Thursday Jul 26 | ||
| Orienteering 51:46 [4]***** 7 km (7:24 / km) | |
| ahr:172 max:185 spiked:10/12c | ||
| Länsirastit, OK 77 training event on Pirttimäki South. Sweet area. Intensity was more like 3.5, feeling a bit tired in the legs, but it's OK because tomorrow is a rest day, and rest I shall. It was a bit of a mission getting out there. Walk to the bus, bus to the center, walk to the station, train to Espoo, walk to the bus, bus to middle of no where, walk into forest. Again, I had a nice driver, I pushed the stop button and went to the door, and he stopped where I wanted, no where near a bus stop. Legend. I ended up havíng the same guy on the way bag. I bet to him it looked like I went dogging. I didn't go dogging. I do have the map of the local dogging area though, and have been told not to be alarmed by strange men hanging around.
I was just going to go and do my own thing on some other area I have maps for, but I thought it would be better not to use those maps up when there are training events, plus I can maybe learn a bit about Finnish course setting. Today I was thinking about what Jukka told me last night; simplification. I was quite good, although I was still doing a few fanny dances én route which didn't need to happen. I nailed all the controls, just a couple of issues in between them on a few ocasions. I found one of the permenant controls, a small but exciting moment of my day. | ||
| Jogging (Warming up / down) 15:00 [3] | |
| Warming up / down. Not much warming down, I had to make the bus and I didn't have much time. Luckily, I am very good at making buses. | ||
Wednesday Jul 25 | ||
| Running intervals 30:00 [5] | |
| max:193 | ||
| 6 intervals on a forest track in Laakso, nearly 1km I think. Feeling really really good. It was a bit up and down, but I was up those 10m like Rasmussen on rage. I was going to do km's on the track, but there was a decathlon going on, so I couldn't. It's pretty hot here, I worked up a very manly, all over, sweaty gleen. I nearly got run down by a bicyclist (female) at the end of the last interval. So had to slow down, I lost at least 1 second. To be fair to her, she was hot, so I'll let her off.
On the tram on the way out a slightly dodgy looking girl kept looking at me in a strange way. I know I didn't have any shit on my face, so I thought she was going to try and pick my pockets. I had her number, nae chance pal. She didn't mug me, she didn't even try. I guess it's because she isn't actually a pick-pocket. She did look dodgy though. Maybe it was her day off. | ||
| C • like rasmussen on rage 1 | ||
| Jogging (Warming up / down) 21:00 [3] | |
| Warming up / down. Literally, nothing to report. | ||
Tuesday Jul 24 | ||
| Orienteering 35:47 [4]***** 5.7 km (6:17 / km) | |
| ahr:177 max:185 spiked:12/12c | ||
| Taitorastit, club training on Solvalla. I was suprised again to find out that although I have only been on abuot 10 maps in Finland before, this was one of them. Really nice area, good fun. I was on such form that I was even able to notice that a control was in the wrong place, I must be good. Not good enough to notice that another one was also in the wrong place, but who am I to tell the Finns how to orienteer. It would be like them telling me how to be sarcastic.
I was on really good form today atcually. I knew where I was almost all of the time, and I knew where I was going for a lot of it. I have been entered for a race on Sunday, it will be good to get spanked and learn what is needed to be done in these types of terrains. Today I went down the magistrates, witnessed the aftermath of suspicious marriage between some Finnish dude and some Thai girl. I registered as a resident of Helsinki. It meant that I could get a travel pass much cheaper. It's not me trying to play the system, the hot girl at the ticket office said I should do it. I got my travel pass from a hot girl at the ticket office today. 92 euros for 64 days. It's 2 euros a trip normally, and today I made 4. I'm well on the way to saving money. On my way into town I saw a lady walking a big dog. I say "big dog" but I think "domesticated bear" would perhaps be more suitable. It was huge! I saw another lady wearing what just might be the worst t-shirt in the history of the world, ever. It had aproximately 24 mickymouses all standing infront of a nation's flag weaing sterotypcial clothing for that country. Brilliant. I also saw a second-hand shop, so I may have to pop in and spend a few euros on something. Maija made an awesome blueberry tart tonight. Yummy | ||
| Jogging (Warming up / down) 16:00 [3] | |
| Warming up / down. Nothing to report, except my confusion over the plural of Micky Mouse. | ||
Monday Jul 23 | ||
| Orienteering 59:33 [4]***** 9 km (6:37 / km) | |
| ahr:179 spiked:15/19c | ||
| Helsingin Suunnistajat's Iltarastit, it's a training event. Just like a training event in the UK, only it was on a good area with good courses, it was free as a club member, it wasn't over organised and I didn't get DSQ for waming up along a track in the "competition area" like I did at INVOC's colour coded event. It was raining, and the bush was wet, but I still had a really fun run. I've actually been to the area before, back on a training camp in 2003. I was much better this time. Only a few wobbles, and the 5 mins of running with absolutely no idea where I was, but it was OK, because I knew I would hit the massive crags or the big marsh eventually. I hit the marsh, then the crags and all was well. Although looking at it now not only did I not know where I was going, it was a bit of a shit route as well.
I got a lift with a guy called Mikael. What a guy. Chatty as, and very funny. He needs a new exhaust on his car. I nearly didn't make it to his work to get the lift. I went to get the bus to Tapiola, but i hadn't written down what number the bus was. Shit. There were loads of buses. I knew it was onehundred and something. Shit. There are all onehundred and something. 103, let's have a go... nae chance. Shit. 106??? Nae chance, but he told me it was the 109. Bingo. However I got off the 106 just in time to see the 109 pulling away and off to Espoo. Shit. Traffic lights; red: result! So I legged it down the road, tapped the window and got on. Edinburgh bus drivers refuse to open the door unless they are within 1m of the bus stop sign. Edinburgh bus drivers are dicks. Finnish bust drivers are nice. | ||
| C • Finnish bus drivers are nice 1 | ||
| C • Helsinki nearby maps and how to get there 2 | ||
| Jogging (Warming up / down) 22:00 [3] | |
| Warming up / down. Nothing to report, except I think me toe is definetly broken. | ||
Sunday Jul 22 | ||
| Running intervals 20:00 [5] | |
| Track intervals down the olympic park. In 1952 it hosted the Olympics; Emil Zátopek won the 5km, 10km and Marathon with world records in each. He'd never even run a marathon before. I maybe wasn't up to that standard today, but I was feeling pretty good. It was nice and sunny. I got the tram and on the way back from the track HKL did a raid to make sure everyone had tickets. The old dear next to me didn't have a ticket. She thought she was saving ?2 but instead it cost her ?80. Ha. The track was really nice, well kept, all the equipment was out and it was free to use. Finland is a nice country, Britain is a shit hole full of council estate scum. There was an amazing glockenspeil player in the centre of town, much better than the guy in Edinburgh who has a broken glock that he can't even play. I think I'm gonig to have some chicken and potatoes for dinner tonight. | ||
| C • Metallica played there week ago 4 | ||
| Jogging (Warming up / down) 20:00 [3] | |
| Warming up / down. Nothing to report, except the heptathlete in the pink top. Nice. | ||
| C • I'm missing the hippo spotting already... 2 | ||
Saturday Jul 21 | ||
| Orienteering 1:00:00 [4]***** 6.7 km (8:57 / km) | |
| spiked:20/24c | ||
| Technique training in Gillerberget. It's an amazing area in Sipoo. My aim was to focus on attackpoints, but it could a bit intense at times and I just tried to stay in contact, I certainly wasn't many steps ahead of myself. I felt OK, as I was never able to run the fast. I never really got lost, which is nice, but it's going to take practice to be able to flow through this terrain like Thierry. It's OK though, because apparently this is one of the most demanding areas around Helsinki.
I went to the dentist this morning to replace a filling that fell out last week in Edinburgh Airport when I was on my way to Czech Republic. The dentist was a nice man. That went all ok, but they used enough anestheic to stun a rhino, so I lost all mobile function of half of my face for most of the afternoon. On the way there I walked past what might just have been the worst busker in the history of the world, ever. An unkept fat man had an assemblage of various percusion instruments, kitchen pans, and other metallic hit-able things. I find it quite hard to strike a perfectly random beat; this guy managed to two completely different random beats going with each arm. He would then ocasionally just sit and bang the same drum for aobut 2 minutes, he then got out some sort of gazoo, and blew that for a while before returning to the pots and pans. The orange standing still man was far better than him, and he was completely shit. I also saw what was either a retard or drunkard fall over and get caught be his mate inches before the ground. He was then led away with an arm round his shoulder. Despite staring I was unble to determine if it was because he was special, or special brew. Tiina showed me her JWOC gold medal today. | ||
| Jogging (Warming up / down) 15:00 [3] | |
| Warming up / down. Nothing to report, other than the strange keyboard arrangement in Finland. | ||
Friday Jul 20 | ||
| Note | |
| (rest day) | ||
| I was going to go cycling, but I remembered that I felt a bit tired yesterday, so could probably do with a rest. Plus it started raining. Plus plus my bike took a bit of damage in transit to Helsinki. BAA will pay, or at least E&L insurance anyway. I'm gonna take it down Greenbike tomorrow for repait. I know less about bike maintenance that Tullie does about football. I had some nice porridge for breakfast today, and watched some of the Jukola which has been saved onto the digi-box. It's pretty good, apart from the very long periods of only talking in only Finnish. Luckily, fast-forward exists. | ||
| C • I want some 2 | ||
Thursday Jul 19 | ||
| Orienteering 51:28 [4]**** 7 km (7:21 / km) | |
| ahr:177 max:190 spiked:8/15c | ||
| Keski-Uusimaa rastit, Hakkari. A local training even for Helsinki, although it was nowhere near Helsinki. It was in a pretty shitty forrest, my Helsinkian guests were not impressed. I thought it was alright, running through a bit of bush makes you make mistakes, it makes me make them anyway. I once again took the cunning tactic of running as fast as I could. Either I was running too fast or navigating too slow, but I was a bit scrappy most of the way round. A monsterous epi at the 10th, not good. I let the old dud in green get ahead of me there, but I dom'd him down the track to 12. Het got 13 about 30s before me. I then worked out that is was probably better to run a bit slower and navigate a bit faster. He tucked in behind my for the next two, which were also the last two. I'm going to do use that plan a bit earlier the next time I go orienteerin. I had a Finnish sandwich afterwards. Finnish bread just aint Kingsmill. There was also a shop selling some white o'trousers, I think I will have to get a pair. I think I may also have to get a leopard skin thong to go with them. I took a tree to the chin today and it hurt for about 3 minutes, I hope is hasn't ruined my attempts at getting a but of face gruff. | ||
| Jogging (Warming up / down) 23:00 [3] | |
| Warming up / down. Nothing to report, except my genius. | ||
| C • who's your genius? Do I know him? 2 | ||
Wednesday Jul 18 | ||
| Jogging 33:00 [3] | |
| ahr:138 max:157 | ||
| So today I moved out to Helsinki. Having eventually moved out of my old flat at some point early this morning I grabbed a few hours sleep before jumping in a taxi (Taxi number 764) to the airport. I thought I would use the self-service check in; mistake. It only gave me my ticket from Edinburgh to London, but not London to Helsinki. I don't think the machines are going to be taking over any time soon. This did mean though that when I got to London I had to go and check in again, and then go back through the x-ray machines. Which meant the bottles of Whiskey I bought at Edinburgh would have to be ditched. Bugger. So I went up to the BA lady, and she took pitty and got some goy to pack them up and check them in as hold baggage. They weren't sure if they would make it alive, so I bought some more in London. They did make it, and now I have 4 big bottles of whiskey. What didn't make it was my bike. It got left in London. Rubbish. They are going to deliver it to me tomorrow. Yeah, right. I had a massiev Scottish Farmers breakfast at Edinburgh, and was nearly sick, then got served and English Breakfast on the flight and was nearly sick again. I had 4 meatballs for lunch. The Chinese dude next to me only had 2 of his. | ||
| C • just curious 3 | ||
Tuesday Jul 17 | ||
| Running intervals 24:00 [5] | |
| Meadows Intervals, what a classic. 4 x 1km tonight. It's been a long day, moving house, going to specsavers, having lunch; very busy indeed. I felt pretty good actually, much better than I did last week in Czech Republic. I think it may have been the Springbuck sausage I had for lunch. If you ever come to Edinburgh, then you should go to Monster Mash, it's amazing.
Slightly more interesting than my running around in circles on a public park, whilst I was away some heavies came round to my flat to catch my landlord. It turns out he hasn't been paying his mortgage, naughty boy. I have officially move out, which is good. But he still has a month's rent as deposit, and I might not being seeing that again, ungood. Tomorrow morning I fly out to Finland for the rest of the summer. Happy days. | ||
| Jogging 20:00 [3] | |
| Warming up / down for intervals. Got high fives from the neds in the playpark. | ||
Monday Jul 16 | ||
| Jogging 27:00 [3] | |
| A wee jog roud some paths before we head off back to the airport. It was 7am, in the shade and still roasting hot. A headline in the newspaper I saw at the airport: Afrika vs Czech Republic, 39'C... damn that's hot. | ||
Sunday Jul 15 | ||
| Note | |
| (rest day) | ||
| Totally buggered after yesterday, having a rest. Went to the start and got my map and then took some videos. I might edit it all up and get something on to youTube, but I doubt it. | ||
Saturday Jul 14 | ||
| Orienteering race 45:00 [5] | |
| Grand Prix Silesia, Middle Distance (a long middle distance)
1:5000 map. Started of in the mental quarry stuff, then out onto some traditionally boring czech hillside. Then back into the quarry right at the end. Technically Thierry, Physically Le Tissier. I'm still feeling pretty done over from getting the shits. It was damn hot as well, a drinks point would have gone down a treat. | ||
| Orienteering race 30:00 [5] | |
| Grand Prix Silesia, Sprint (a very long sprint)
1:2000 scale map again, down the road. Temperature is now over 35'C, getting pretty uncomfortable. I soaked my top in a trough of water to cool me down, but it was bone dry before I even started. The little hill to get to the start was a harder work than it really should have been. Technically pretty shite, orienteering was even worse. I jacked it in at a control which was near the finish, although there was less than 1km to go. Could have done alright, but I also could have died. I was in a state. | ||
| Jogging (Warming Up / Down) 35:00 [3] | |
| Warming up / down. Nothing to report, other than the stupid heat. Damn you, stupid heat. | ||
Friday Jul 13 | ||
| Orienteering race 17:11 [5] | |
| Grand Prix Silisia, prologue sprint.
1:2000 sclae map of an old slate quarry. A total mind bender. It took a while to get used to the scale. Running very fast was a very shite tactic. Quite a few big mistakes. It was a laugh though. GG followed me with a video camera for a few legs, I think he fancies me. | ||
| Jogging (Warming Up / Down) 20:00 [3] | |
| Warming up / down. Nothing to report. | ||
Thursday Jul 12 | ||
| Orienteering 35:00 [4] | |
| Some technique training out the back of Bohemaland. Pretty easy stuff. I went straight on the long leg, even though it was obviously slower, because paths are even more obviously for gays. I kept getting a wierd burning acidy feeling thing in my throat, nae good. I missed number 6. Still feeling pretty shitty after getting food poisoning. Ungood. | ||
| Jogging (Warming Up / Down) 20:00 [3] | |
| Warming up / down. Nothing to report. | ||
Wednesday Jul 11 | ||
| Orienteering 50:00 [3] | |
| First session back after food poisoning and feel rubbish. Mega-hungry and no energy. I probably shouldn't have been running. I didn't do the whole course, my mind was far to busy thinking about chip suppers to bother with orienteering. I did find some controls though. I fell over and cut my knee. | ||
| Jogging (Warming Up / Down) 15 [3] | |
| Warming up / down. I feel rubbish. | ||
Tuesday Jul 10 | ||
| Note | |
| (sick) | ||
| Still feeling a bit sick, stopped voming though, good times. Havn't eaten in ages. I look a bit "concentration camp" just now. | ||
Monday Jul 9 | ||
| Note | |
| (sick) | ||
| I have food poisoning, I think I am going to die...
Up all night, fluid coming out of both ends, not happy times. | ||
Sunday Jul 8 | ||
| Orienteering race 30:34 [4] | |
| Our first session here; a race at the Silva O-Camp. Running against juniors. The terrain was quite nice, the map was quite nice. It was kind of what I was expecting. No real issues, orienteering was fine, although I did mince about on the long leg. | ||
| Orienteering 36:00 [4] | |
| Second session, felt tired. Probably shouldn't have played football in the sun at lunchtime. Again, it was nice. Orienteering was fine. They like to run you into green shit and across open shit. I don't mind, it's the only way to make it difficult, but some pansies were moaning about it. How very softcore they are. | ||
Saturday Jul 7 | ||
| Jogging 31:00 [3] | |
| We went for a wee jog in the trees after arriving at Bohemaland to stretch the legs abit after a travelling for ages. We didn't know where we were going and we didn't have a map. I thought we were going to get lost, but we didn't. Feeling fine, training should be good. | ||
Friday Jul 6 | ||
| Note | |
| (rest day) | ||
| I've just looked at the schedule for next week's training camp in Czech Republic and it looks pretty hard-core, so I'm having a nice rest today. I say that, but I still have to pack up my entire apartment by tonight. I've just downloaded "Teach Yourself Finnish" onto my iPod, it seemed like a good idea at the time, but now I've got further than 3 pages into the book it's looking like it might have been a tactical error.
It's going to be a massive weeked of sport. The finals at Wimbledon, the Tour de France starts in London and the Silverstone F1 Grand Prix, my bets are on Federer, Henin, Vinokourov and Hamilton. But more importantly than all of that JWOC is kicking off down under in Dubbo on Sunday. Good Luck team GBR. I hope they've invented the internet in the Czech Republic else it's gonna cost me a million euros of text messages to keep up. | ||
| Note | |
| I just looked out of my window and saw what I think was the fattest person in the world. It's close between it and the one at Euro Disney who had to get a seat-belt extension on the Star Wars simulator. Which was a rubbish ride by the way. | ||
| Note | |
| Justine Henin just got knocked out of Wimbledon. Confirming to me that Belgium is actually useless. So far here is who I can think of that is Belgian and good at something: Justine Henin, Kim Clijsters, Eddy Merckx, Tom Boonen, Hercule Poirot, Tintin and the Smurfs. Most of them aren't even real. Pointless. Can't we just make Holland bigger? I can think of more of the Euro96 Holland team than I can Belgians. Having said that, they always seemed to kick my arse at Interland... | ||
| Note | |
| It's 11 o'clock and my stuff is no where even near packed. the people moving into my room have already brought there stuff into the flat. Eager beavers. It just took me about 10 minutes to cut the biggest cardboard box in the world up into pieces small enough to fit in the recyling bin. I almost feel good about saving the environment, but the box is obviously made out of dead trees and the bike which came insed the box is made of carbon is its production contributed significantly the the deaths of many polar bears.
I think I have too many clothes. I have a bag packed for my summer in Helsinki with all my best clothes, and bag packed for my training camp in Czech Republic with all my really good, but not quite good enough clothes, and I still have about a million clothes left that I don't want to chuck out. I would give them to charity, but I want to keep them and we can't have tramps walking around looking as good as I do, we need to maintain the devide. If they have a shower and shave and then start wearing my hand-me-downs then there is every possibility that they will be accepted as normal fuctioning members of society, and I just aint standing for it. The more astute will notice this is my millionth post today, it's not because I am bored and have nothing to do, I have lots to do, I'm just an idiot. | ||
Thursday Jul 5 | ||
| Running 47:00 [3]8.8 km (5:20 / km) +230m 4:43 / km | |
| The Bank of England raised the UK interest rate to 5.75%, but I still went for a run. It was warm and a bit wet, good running conditions. I just went for a cruise round the Hermitage, I met a man with two dogs. I think my shoes might fall apart soon, but it's ok because I cunningly bought an identical pair for when the fall apart. A fly flew into my mouth and I swalloed it, not tastey. My legs feel OK, but I'm just going to take it easy tomorrow because I want to be fresh for the Czech Republic, plus I have an incredibly large amount of crap to sort out by Saturday morning and I havn't really started. The Royal Mail better deliver the cheque from my mum tomorrow else I'm going postal on their asses. | ||
| C • Hi 1 | ||
Wednesday Jul 4 | ||
| Cycling 1:25:00 [3]38 km (2:14 / km) | |
| ahr:138 max:177 | ||
| I thought I would go out for an "easy" cycle, but it ended up being up hill and into the wind for the first 50 minutes. It's been a while since I've been in the saddle and my bum was a bit sore, and it wasn't even that long. I went out past Hill End, then stayed on the top road past Eighth Mile Burn, cut back on the A766 to Penicuik, but then cut back onto the top road because the A766 is not deserving of it's A road status, I've ridden on smoother cobbles than that. With the wind behind me and down hill I got upto 66km/hr coming down into Flotterstone. I got a bit wet at the begining, it's monsoon season in Edinburgh just now, but the sun did come out and got I got some good work on my cycling tan. I had a banana at Walstone, tastey.
Time: 1:25hrs Distance 38km Av Speed: 26.8 km/hr Max Speed: 66.0 km/hr Av Cadence: 88 rpm Max Cadence: 120 rpm Av HR: 138 bpm Max HR: 177 bpm A pretty slow ride, it was windy, hilly and I was still feeling tired from the weekend, so I aint too bothered. Plus a new top speed. Happy Days. | ||
Tuesday Jul 3 | ||
| Hill Running 43:00 [3]5 km (8:36 / km) +360m 6:19 / km | |
| A wee jog through hill and glen, checking out the route for next weeks race and making sure Big Tullie does'nae put the tapes out in the wrong place. The posse was me, Big Tullie, Kitch and Eddy. JT was first to the top of Carnethy, I had to walk up the path because my calfs had turned to stone, Kitch just about beat Eddy to the top, but only 'cos Eddy had the shits. There was a nice long drop off Carnethy down to the col and then back off the ridge. There were lots and stops and starts just to make sure JT understood, but I still reckon he's gonna screw it up next week. Muppet.
I went round to Kitch's afterwards for dinner. we had curry, tastey. We had a wee chat about what I was going to do this summer. I got selected for World Cups, Euro Meeting, pre-WOC 2008 camp and I'm reserve for WOC. I aint gonna do the World Cups, they are silly. | ||
| C • mupppet?! 1 | ||
Monday Jul 2 | ||
| Note | |
| (rest day) | ||
| A nice wee rest day today, feeling pretty tired from the selection races and the party. Everyone was on top form last night, although Speakey only managed 5 naked laps of Stew's flat, he owes us 19 more. My mouth still tastes of whatever the E-number is in the red VKs, not nice. I had a bacon and egg roll in Café Artista this morning, tastey. I also read the newspaper for the first time in ages; some Islamic fundamentalists thought they would try and attack Glasgow Airport, but BAA baggage handler John Smeaton was not impressed with this interuption to his fag break...
"What's the score? I've got to get this sorted" "You're not hitting the polis mate, there's nae chance" "So I ran straight towards the guy, we're all trying to get a kick-in at him, take a boot to subdue the guy" "Glasgow doesn't accept this. That's just Glasgow; we'll set about ye" I think Captain Jihad might want to think a bit more carefuly about where he attacks next time, and di'nae come te Scotland 'coz we'll set aboot ye. | ||
Sunday Jul 1 | ||
| Orienteering race (GBR WOC Selection Middle) 38:18 [5]**** 7.1 km (5:24 / km) +95m 5:03 / km | |
| spiked:22/28c | ||
| GBR WOC Middle Selection, Carse Wood
1) Jamie Stevenson 35:47 2) Jon Duncan 36:20 3) Matt Crane 37:22 8) Mark Nixon 38:18 Another good race. I knew it was going to be tough under-foot, and I didn't think anyone would get 35 mins, but Jimbo did. I did a twatish mistake on the way to 1, I got onto a path, thought it was the next one so started running up it, then realised, then made the 90 degree turn back to where I should have been headed. Not too much time lost, but a bit of a stressor. I managed to forget about it and nail the next part of the course. I skillfuly avoided the mental dog that was out there with its mental owners. Technicallly it was all going really well, I was getting a bit tired, and we then entered the last loop. I saw Speakey on his way to the finish and I knew it would be close, so I took the wise tactic of speeding up, and then messed up the next few controls. I dopped a few places there, but I did learn a valuable lesson. Di'nae be a muppet. Lunch at Tesco, I had the worst jacket potato in the world, I hate you Inverness Tesco. Back in Edinburgh we had a load of pasta and then headed round to Stew's for a bit of a post-race party. Lots of drunk people, some naked people, some unkown people. Then it was out to the Cav to dance the night away with all the under-agers of Edinburgh. Good times. | ||
| C • good weekend 3 | ||
| Jogging warm up/down 25:00 [2] | |
| Warming up and down for the Middle race, nothing to report. | ||