Training Log Archive: Rosstopher

Fell asleep very early after Saturday's efforts but did not sleep super well. Sunday morning came too early and then it was back out to the clubhouse and a jog over to the start of a mass start 10 k race with the whole UTH crowd. Toe unhappy.

Brain dead, but able to proceed mostly on autopilot. Quickroute here. Got really confused on the way to 3, slowed way down in the swamps because I was on a trail/ride but couldn't find it on the map. Knew that I had gotten pushed off my line, didn't realize how far though, so I had trouble relocating.

Slow through the butterfly loops and then a conservative route to 21. Didn't see anyone after leaving the butterfly with Anna, until I got to the end of the course and Simon appeared. I waited at the last boulder for him so that we could cruise back to the clubhouse, and lunchtime, together.

Last official training of the UTH (uppsala training weekend). No quickroute, because it was held indoors. Niklas had held a training at his school once before, but I had never been. I was just happy that we were indoors where it was warm. map.

SI sprint course, 1:750 map, and tired legs :)

I had a pretty clean course, a small hesitation on 1, before I realized that the numbers on the SI units didn't match up, and a wrong turn on 9, when I got turned around on the stairwell.

Good enough for 5th in the qual results less than 30 seconds behind Bronze medalist Olle Bostrom :)

And the final was more chaos. A jaktstart, or hunting/chase start. Which meant that people bunched up like crazy almost right away. Especially when one of the early controls was tucked away behind some bags in the trash room :) map.

I was staying in good contact on the final, but there were so many other runners around, pushing and shoving to get at the controls, that it felt like a mob more than a race.

Great fun. Final results here

A weekend without Synggmagnus is almost unthinkable now! Henrik reminded us that there were awesome Advent fireworks on display in the evening (at 4:30, when it had been pitch black for awhile already) and Sam and I biked over to the castle with Elisa and Johan to watch, before heading down the hill for Gympa.

Naturally very tired, but the parts that hurt the most were where I had fallen on my bike, run into trees in the night and my messed up toe, which I guess is a good sign that my muscles are strong and capable of a tough weekend of training. Seriously, the toe is worrisome, couldn't go deep into the lunges with my right leg because it required flexing the toe joint in the wrong way.

Another fine morning at Lunsen. Quickroute here.

Today wasn't as successful as yesterday, but a fine outing. To start out with, my right big toe has been really hurting since last weekend, but only really vitally when I wear my O shoes. So the Premier, the Onsdagnatt course, and the Friday morning course were all a little painful to start with. However, as soon as my foot would go into one of the freezing swamps (and let me remind you that there are many) the pain would be numbed. This morning it hurt the most of all, and it was hard to even just jog along the path at the start.

Struggled with the challenging "Red" corridor on the way to the start, then shook off the mistakes and had a decent start to the control pick. Got derailed heading to 6 when I came across a "boulder" with a streamer too early. I guess there are a lot of extra red streamers out in the woods :) I figured out my mistake when things didn't match up on the way to 7, but it threw me off my game a lot. As I ran to 8, I was thinking that I was going to 9, so that made me hesitant. Then when I got to the control I realized that I hadn't been to "8" yet so I ran back... clearly very confused.

Anyway, a little more steady after a mistake on 14, but got cold crossing the swamp into the contour only section, and then I got lost thinking that the flat spot I was messing around in was right by the control. It was about time for me to call it a day, so I ran back, hoping to relocate on the way past 29 and 30 (and almost did both times, but lacked the confidence to follow up on those instincts) and I could tell I was tired when I got out onto the trail... as all I wanted to do was run without thinking.

Running without paying attention, it turns out, is not the fastest way back to the parking lot :)

C • O-ing 2

I had told the girls to dump my bag in the parking lot if I wasn't back before they wanted to leave, and Sam wisely did so, leaving a note for me to catch a ride with Inga and Lutas. I was feeling like ending the training morning with something slightly more successful than getting lost and cold, so I grabbed my bag and decided to run home instead. Beautiful day. nice that Lunsen is so close. Feeling improved upon making it back to the house, where Sam had made lunch.

Night Intervals on Nåsten. Quickroute. Well not really intervals for me. It had been a long weekend already what with my work christmas party on Friday night, 3 hours of training in the morning and then 2 hours in the lab finishing an experiment... so I arrived at the clubhouse feeling a little rushed and my toe still hurt. I was intentionally stepping in puddles on the way to the start to try to ease things.

Made a plan to meet up with Simon and Johan after each interval set... but when the whistle blew, I headed off up the trail and almost immediately got lost crossing the swamps. As I neared the control I saw the string of people heading off to #2, but I was unable to successfully relocate until all the lights were long gone, and didn't have a good attack for 2 either.

So I ran the rest of the course as a typical night course. Took a long time, but I was satisfied.

15 minutes warmup along the trail with Jacob. Then off into the woods.

Beautiful day, and I was orienteering very well. Pleased with my performance. Big mistake on 11, but had good control and good flow out in the swamps. You can tell it went well, because I am so eager to share my Quickroute. :)

Left the lab at about 9:45, and was back, showered, and loading a gel at 12:15. 80 minutes running, 40 minutes biking, so a very efficient training session.

C • Excuse me 3

Fell into the deep swamp on the way to 12, so needed to run straight back to the bags to change and head home. Paths everywhere were super icy, and I wiped out once at slow speed on the way back up to the lab. Crummy weather.

To the clubhouse. Which is kind of like saying, to the Batcave!

Jogging out to Flogsta, where our interval loop for the night's session was. I was pleasantly surprised by how quick and painless the running drills tonight were. Johan did a good job of picking out only a few important drills for warming up the legs and getting good form. I was dreading spending too long on drills and thus getting cold.

10 x 3 minutes. Icy paths tonight, and not my best shoes for gripping. I maybe should have worn my inov8s but I've got a bruise on my toe from sometime this past week and wearing my oshoes isn't very comfortable (until the first swamp, and then numbness takes over).

The lead group tonight was Mats easily cruising up front and then a couple of Team Sportia runners that came to their first training tonight, Hugo and Jonathan, and they were both slightly faster than Lutas and me. Inga was pretty close behind us too.

Nice to run with a group. I felt like I was working hard, but not my top speed, perhaps again because of the shoes, or perhaps just too much time out in the forest this week, giving me tired legs :)

From the clubhouse to the start of tonight's Wednesday night race. Wintery weather, but not as cold as last night. Still cold may be preferable to big flakes of wet snow.

Quite a good start on tonight's course, I was catching people and feeling well in control of the woods and the running. Some mistakes, but nothing big until 9. Got into a parallel swamp, and that bogged me down, (pun intended).

Ran with Olle for the next few legs, until I got stuck trying to get through a big pine tree, and then he was gone. Got quite lost on 16, and then my gloves were soaked and I was going too slow. Slowing down made me cold, getting cold made me stupid, and 16-20 were death-march-y. I was choosing routes with the numbness of my feet and fingers and not with the analytical part of my brain.

Still, finished it up, and had fun despite it taking nearly 2hrs to go 8k :) Bastu has never been so welcome.

Thought that I would make up for the lack of posting this week by actually being organized and putting up tonight's quickroute.

The last hill on the course had thawed my hands enough so that I could enjoy the quick jog back to the clubhouse.

I've had the seeds of a sore throat/cold thing hovering and threatening to descend for the past week or so. Shall try to get rid of it for good with fluids, fruit, and sleep.

Training premier! Or perhaps it would be better to say Premiären. Very cool event, lots of special bonus fun parts to augment the first official Tuesday night event of the season. Lots of lit candles out along the course, including a truly beautiful display of at least 50 leading all the way up the valley to where the fireworks were set off. A drinks station set up in the forest, and a pizza and snacks station set up near the end of the course. Also, a Linné quiz section where there was a map fragment with 3 circles, A) B) and C) and a multiple choice question. You had to answer trivia questions properly, while also doing map memory, to get to the next map snippet. The questions were things like "Which Linné member ran the world champs in 2004(answer Kristina Roberto)" and "How many current Linné members competed at world championship events this year (answer, 8)". I had trouble with the question asking for the club's bank account number... because I still haven't ever paid for anything directly yet :)

The line o in the forest was nice, but early on my light blacked out and I assumed it was an empty battery again, and I switched to my backup light again. Each time I do this, the LEDs get weaker and weaker :) However, as Mandus said, tonight was a good night to lose the lamp, because everyone runs a little slower so that you can stay in a pack for the premiären. It was actually a loose connecting cord, but I survived by sticking to the group and looking at where to put my feet instead of the map.

Afterward, a good soup and lots of hanging out. With fun trainings that take so long, it's hard to find the time to post about them or in fact do anything else except sleep and get up the next day and do it again.

We're residents!

C • Awesome! 6

Sam and Lisa invited me along for a pre-Rockgympa run. I was happy to let them set pace and conversation, and I just stuck behind them as we do a couple laps in the Stadskoggen. Lisa and I both like our watches to end on round numbers, so we had to keep going for 3 seconds to make it past 40 minutes.

Two circuits of Rockgympa. I was trying to remember all the exercises and the order so that I could give an English translation to Jordan, but I had to use all my mental energy keeping up with the drills. Sadly Loefaas is forced to take a training break this week, but Elin took over and got us through without any confusion. Feels hard, especially the deep lunges on the second lap.

A few quick games after strength and before the next group came to take over the gym at 8. My team was awesome this week, and we won more games than I have in the past :)