Friday Aug 31 |
 | Note | |
| (rest day) |
| On call in ER, no time to get out there. |
Thursday Aug 30 |
| Mountain biking 38:00 [3] | |
| slept:5.0 |
| Nice extended test loop with Jon. Working the hills. Can feel I haven't been on the bike in a while - a little sketchy especially in the loose dirt and sand.... Were planning on two loops, but darkness overtook us. |
Wednesday Aug 29 |
| Running 39:00 [3] | |
| slept:6.0 shoes: 06 New Balance 872 |
| Around the block plus a little bit at the track. Feeling sluggish after all the travel and work. |
Saturday Aug 18 |
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| Event: WOC 2007
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Sunday Aug 12 |
| Orienteering 1:35:00 [1] ***** | |
| spiked:2/2c slept:5.0 (rest day) shoes: 06 VJ Twister |
| Oh, it was sooooo hard to force myself not to race today. But with WOC (and a mini training camp in Kiev) just around the corner, racing again today in this heavy, intense terrain would have done more harm than good. Pity, though, since this stuff was AWESOME. In the end I compromised by doing a map walk in the most delicious part of the terrain (conveniently right at the start). This is exactly the stuff I was made for - super technical, an abundance of details on a super-accurate map, and tough physical terrain. Yes, I am trying to adapt better to flatter, faster and more diffuse terrain - but today's terrain type, with an appropriate map, is far and away my favorite. |
| |
| C • WOC 1 |
| Running 20:00 [2] | |
| shoes: 07 New Balance 790 |
| A nice jog around Härnösand with some strides thrown in, just to loosen up the legs and give the impression of speed.
Probably do mainly a rest day tomorrow - perhaps something easy and fun, like a light MTB ride. |
Saturday Aug 11 |
| Orienteering race 35:00 [5] ***** 4.5 km (7:47 / km) +150m 6:40 / km | |
| spiked:12/15c slept:6.0 shoes: 06 VJ Twister |
| Norrlandsmästerskapen - Middle H21E.
Tough race - very complex in the beginning, changing abruptly to faster/flatter/diffuse after the radio control halfway through. Verrrrry heavy lifting in the beginning, and quite technical - most runners lost time somewhere along the way. I lost about 30 seconds on a route choice to the first control (a long leg of about 6 minutes), then 3 mistakes of ~30 seconds each after the complex area. Up through the complex section, I was actually 6th overall, but with the little bobbles in the "easier" section, I faded down to 13th (out of 50). Not bad - still the fastest Sundsvalls OK runner. But it could (and should) have been better. Starting last in any Swedish race is a very lonely experience - never saw anyone out there except for the guys at the radio control.
Legs felt a bit heavy after the sprint yesterday - will drop down to H21 tomorrow to avoid a 13km race in heavy terrain this close to the WOC. |
| Running warm up/down 30:00 [3] | |
| |
| For the above.
|
Friday Aug 10 |
| Orienteering race 15:00 [5] *** 3.02 km (4:58 / km) +25m 4:46 / km | |
| spiked:13/15c slept:6.0 shoes: 07 Saucony Kilkenny |
| Norrlandsmästerskapen - Sprint. Little town west of Hudiksvall. Dead easy, totally a runner's course. Basically just not pushing nearly hard enough - the effort felt hardish at the time, but didn't even work up much of a sweat by the time I was finished. Way too much left in the tank. However, since I'm not running the sprint at WOC it doesn't matter much at the moment; will ponder it more as September approaches, and with it the NA Sprint Champs.... Ended up 9th of about 22? runners. Race dominated by the youngsters - the Lysell twins and Erik Rost. |
| Running warm up/down 40:00 [3] | |
| shoes: 07 Saucony Kilkenny |
| For the above. |
Thursday Aug 9 |
| Note | |
| slept:6.0 (rest day) |
| Taking another day off. What with 3 races this weekend and a trip to Kiev early Tuesday morning, it seemed wiser to bank some rest rather than train today. |
Wednesday Aug 8 |
| Mountain biking 1:25:00  | |
| slept:5.0 |
| MTB from "home" to the water, with Mia in tow in the CX-1 rigged for biking. Surprisingly heavy going up the hills, had to sit in 32/32 on the climbs. But best of all, my egg beaters were nice - sorry Eddie, no duct tape this time.... Fixed my headset issue (had to buy a whole new one just to obtain a new crown race), still need to iron out a few kinks in the drivetrain, a real PITA without a bike stand. |
| Running intervals 3:45 [5] 1.2 km (3:07 / km) | |
| shoes: 07 Saucony Kilkenny |
| After biking, ran up to the track just to check something. As suspected, the track in Cochrane (a rutty dirt affair surrounding the local high school's decrepit and neglected soccer pitch; no lanes, no markings, but roughly "looks" like a regular track) is probably a bit long. The 1200m there feels like hard work to run sub 4:20, but on Härnosand's nice surfaced running track, sub 3:50 was no biggie. No idea what the real length of the track is in Cochrane (obviously fitness and running surface are major confounding issues, among others), but I'll think of it as "long". |
| Running intervals 3:46 [5] 1.2 km (3:08 / km) | |
| shoes: 07 Saucony Kilkenny |
| More circles... |
| Running warm up/down 35:00 [3] | |
| shoes: 07 Saucony Kilkenny |
| For the above. |
Tuesday Aug 7 |
| Note | |
| slept:6.0 (rest day) |
| Travel day from Sälen to Härnosand - felt like one was due anyway. |
Monday Aug 6 |
| Orienteering 1:15:00  | |
| slept:6.0 shoes: 06 VJ Twister |
| "Speed change" training - see the map on Eva's homepage:
http://www.evajurenikova.com/maps/07_tr_salen_spee...
Nice terrain in the beginning, but rough and not so fun by the end. Quite a lot of loose stones underfoot - those with weak or previously-injured ankles would do well to tape here. Took a few pics of controls in the "woods" - visible from quite a distance if you're coming from the right direction (and the fog isn't socking things in...).
Feeling a bit tired - a rest day or two would probably be a good idea before going to Kiev.
In other news, the bag that the airlines lost on my return trip has still not resurfaced and they aren't holding out much hope (they assume the sticker has fallen off somewhere). I have to wait until it's gone for 2 weeks before they compensate me - though my own insurance kicks in already so I should probably go shopping. Most of the stuff is specialty orienteering gear though, so it'll be tough (if not impossible) to replace. |
| |
| C • On the bright side.... 5 |
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| C • The maps look like the landsca... 3 |
| Orienteering warm up/down 10:00 [3] | |
| shoes: 06 VJ Twister |
| For the above. |
Sunday Aug 5 |
| Running 1:05:00  | |
| slept:5.0 shoes: 06 New Balance 872 |
| Trail and terrain run around the resort area. About 7km on a marshy, rocky and rooty singletrack (had originally been thinking about MTB'ing this later but now not so much), followed by a 5km stretch off trail that included going up and over the top of one of the local ski hills. Steady effort, but not feeling as fast and light as I'd like to be. Oh well. |
| Mountain biking 57:00  | |
| shoes: 06 New Balance 872 |
| Mountain biking ride - pretty easy stuff. We have flat pedals on my Scott Scale (my Swedish bike - built similarly to my Scale at home but with XT cranks instead of XTR, and no carbon handlebars), since Katta didn't bring her bike shoes. It's been 12 years since I biked without clipless pedals, and OMG - how do people ever do that? I found that even moderately technical sections and climbs (things I would have flown up with my regular shoes and pedals) we impossible, as my feet were floating all over the place, not properly centered over the pedals. Yeesh. Fortunately, I do have a set of egg beaters waiting me in Härnosand, so I will be able to ride "properly" there. |
Saturday Aug 4 |
| Orienteering 1:14:00 [4] *** 8.6 km (8:36 / km) +245m 7:32 / km | |
| spiked:7/9c slept:5.0 shoes: 06 VJ Twister |
| "Mountain orienteering" training in Sälen - the map is on Eva Jurenikova's great webpage, at:
http://www.evajurenikova.com/maps/07_tr_salen_long...
However, my course was slightly shorter (I did it in this order: 1, 8, 7, 2, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13). I took the risky straight-on routes to both 9 and 10, and both times missed slightly, with some consequence. On 9 I missed low but managed to find the marsh just past the control to relocate. On 10 I drifted too low and ended up bailing out up to the top of the hill to attack along the trail - ouch. In a busy competition I MIGHT risk those (since there would presumably be traffic into and out of the controls, improving the chances of hitting them with little or no loss), but without some sort of help it's definitely safer to go over the hilltops, rather than contour around a bland hillside....
Nice day out there, managed to avoid stopping to pick blueberries (which are everywhere up there). |
| Orienteering warm up/down 10:00 [3] | |
| shoes: 06 VJ Twister |
| For the above. |
Friday Aug 3 |
| Orienteering 1:35:00 [3] *** | |
| spiked:12/15c slept:6.0 |
| "Hill side orienteering" training (S of Högfjället) - you can see the map on Eva Jurenikova's web page:
http://www.evajurenikova.com/maps/07_tr_salen_hill...
Some trouble with #5 (passed within 10m and missed it), #7 (started looking a little early) and #13 (just a little too low).
Heavy leg lifting compared to what I've been doing lately. A goodish amount of climb too. |
| |
| C • Good Luck 4 |
Thursday Aug 2 |
| Orienteering 1:11:00 [3] **** | |
| spiked:18/21c slept:7.0 shoes: 06 VJ Twister |
| Orienteering training session in Sälen - site of O-Ringen 2008 and associated World Cup races. Raining, about 11C, windy. Visibility less than 150m at the summit, made for some difficult controls (would have been waaaaaay easier with good visibility). Thinking the Norwegians will definitely feel at home here for O-Ringen 2008. Lots of heavy lifting in soft ground and blueberries, and those marshes running down the hillsides. Quite tricky to relocate on a bland hillside if you miss the controls, too. Should be interesting.
The infrastructure here is amazing, and the prices are dirt cheap (since it's mainly a ski resort). We're paying about $80 CAD a night for a brand new 2-bedroom mountain apartment, complete with 2 bedrooms, sleeping for 5-6 people, sauna, laundry machine, dishwasher (full kitchen facilities), flat screen TV with cable, and wireless internet. Got me to thinking, it would be a great spot for a team training camp next spring, maybe just before or after the Tio-mila? Prices are even cheaper then - looks like we could get a 10-bed place for as little as $70 CAD a night. And of course, lots of orienteering maps plus possibilities for long runs in the mountains, as well as mountain biking. If people were interested, I'd happily be involved.... |
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| C • Spring training... 4 |
Wednesday Aug 1 |
| Note | |
| slept:8.0 (rest day) |
| Travel from Gunilla's place in Uppsala up to Sälen. Just couldn't bring myself to get out there - after two full days of being cooped up in airports and airplanes courtesy of Star Alliance (and missing one piece of luggage, which unfortunately contains the bulk of my orienteering gear, among other things), I figured a true rest day was in order. |
