Training Log Archive: Rosstopher

DM-relay. First Leg on Linné team 5. Pretty excited about this beforehand, but it went pretty badly in fact. Garmin out of batteries, so no record of the mistakes, but there were many many mistakes out there today.

Legs felt good and I think I kept the pace well on the way to the start triangle and through the forest to the first control, but then lost all track of everything in the low visibility of the green. Came at the control using the line of big rocks to navigate, but loss faith in my map reading when I couldn't make the rocks make sense with what I saw on the ground. Hit the hygge, bounced back into the woods, missing the control again, then attacking another half dozen times from all the various points I could find, but not ever finding the swamp and the rock I was looking for. Finally got it right, but it wasn't pretty. I guess that probably put me in the wrong mental state for the rest of the course.

Mistakes followed. Sam caught up to me and passed me when I missed a control at the end. I pushed hard to recover and punched the next one with her at the same time, but was unable to get much of a lead in the next couple of flags and we came through the changeover at the same time. She can really move!

My teammates did a great job of pulling us back up to 5th spot, despite also having some difficulties of their own in the forest.

Not satisfied with my performance today. Time to build some good orienteering habits.

results

Orienteering. Lännasprinten. Feeling pretty tired at the start but ready to have a great race. On the way to the first, realized that I wasn't connecting with the map too well, perhaps an uphill start meant straight into oxgen debt?

Wobbled badly, but caught myself on a giant rock and the edge of the marsh, so corrected okay. Lost another little bit first going out of the way and then overshooting 4 a tad, and that's where Erik Linde caught me from 2 minutes. I pushed hard, leading to 5 but at an awful angle and lost time there too. Smooth to the 6th but then really terrible compass bearing on the 7th and lost some more time way too far left of the flag. 8 and 9 were fine, then hesitant coming into 10. Fighting the compass - and losing - on 12 and 13, but saving myself by staying in contact with the contours. I spiked 14, before Rassmus caught up from 6 minutes and then I started pushing quite hard to try to stay ahead again. Okay to 15, but then caring too much about staying with Rassmus and Kate (how cute that they were racing into the finish together) and got really thrown when we were too far right of the proper hill.

All in all, legs felt fine and some of the orienteering was good, but even when I was moving alright it felt sloppy and not fully in control. This kind of result is about what I should expect, but I aspire to better :)

Splits

IGP innebandy on a half court as we only had 7 people show up today. I played on the team with 3, and we had a pretty great time playing. Tim, Marcus and I were running a lot more than the guys on the other team and we won the first game handily. Then we started to get tired and they won the second.

Getting better every week!

Cat suggested that we run intervals today, and so we headed down to the track just after 5 for a session that I took from one of the CSU-running section emails in the last couple of weeks. Samantha Algren, Cat, and I warmed up a bit then set out to do 2x800@5k pace,5x400,2x200@1600 pace, with 2 minutes rest between each interval.

I'm bad at pacing, and I was aiming to do the 800s a bit slower, but everything felt light and easy so it was very simple to get carried away, running 2:33 pace and pulling Cat a bit faster than we had agreed upon.

Then as we got ready for the 400s, we met a spanish student, Dani, studying neuroscience in Uppsala for a few months, and he joined us for the rest of our workout. He is more of a mid-distance runner and had the upper body to prove it, but it was great to have him with us to keep the pace.

Ran the 400s in 68, and again everything felt easy and light, very nice feeling. For the 200s Dani was the strongest and he pulled me through at 30, and then 28 second intervals.

Then after a quick photo session it was up to the clubhouse for the men's and women's teams hang out, where we broke into teams and had fun competitions to build moral. Ending with 7 wonders and snickerdoodles at our place, makes this a pretty perfect day.

25-manna club training in our backyard!

6 loops, starting at the same time as the speedy women - Annika, Lina, Cat, and Sam. Orienteering mostly very simple, but had a lot of difficulty with a boulder on the hillside every time a course went to that control. Also got super stuck in a green patch that I should never have tried to cross and then failed to see the course markings on the last loop and tried to skip a control before realizing the mistake and going back up the hill to correct it.

Legs okay, head a little frazzled, fun to be out when the whole club is involved. Also nice that it was so close to home and thus easy to get back and get warm afterward.