Training Log Archive: Samantha

Middle and Relay SM

Grumpy this morning since I literally rolled out of bed, put on o clothes and headed out the door. Ross had volunteered to pick up some of the controls from last night since no one else volunteered to help the one guy. I was slow and sleepy, which made it really hard to find the controls :)

C • grumpy pants 1

We biked over and back from picking up controls. Saved our legs a bit of work... sort of.

Running over to the club house, meeting up with Lisa and Marta and running over to the start.

Test race for 25manna. I kind of rocked it today, which was fun. I was a bit too eager in the beginning and just bashed straight through the woods, which was not the best plan. Lisa started behind me and caught me on #3, despite me not having made any real mistakes. I just wasn't choosing good routes. I did finally take a good route to 4 and I think I also chose well on the long leg to 7, although I can believe that around might have been faster. I managed to keep my head after Lisa caught me and I ran away and took back the time - good on me for keeping sane.

I actually felt like I was running and reading the map today - it helps that I'm getting to know these woods well and, well, I'll admit, this course wasn't hard :) - maybe a hard orange. But I'll ignore that fact and enjoy that it went well :)

Quickroute
Results

3.71mi

C • Yeah you did 14

Running back home with Lisa.

C • Pelle Svanslös 4

I met up with Lisa and Elisa, who also live in my complex, to bike to Lunsen for training. One the way we also stopped and picked up Hannah, and the other Lisa merged in with us as we were about halfway there.

I felt like a school child waiting for my friends to bike to school :) We were this pack of girls, all wearing Linné jackets and biking with backpacks. It made me laugh, although the Swedes didn't seem to completely understand my amusement. They do this all the time. I never used a bike as transportation as a kid. I biked for fun on my street or with my family on vacations, but never met up with people to actually go anywhere. Anyway, I was amused :) It's all so cute.

I've decided that anything under HR 120 doesn't count.

Running to the start.

My first orienteering on Lunsen... and is it sacrilegious to say that it felt a bit like all the other maps? ;)

We did intervals, mass starting in small groups. This made my experience much easier as I could use everyone around me for reassurance. I would lose my way, keep running, and then find it again. Tired legs and a bit of hip pain. I cut it short while the girls did the last interval.

C • Yes 1

Running back on the trail.

Biking home with everyone. As we passed the streets where people lived they would give a wave and a "hej då!". It was a scene straight from a movie. I need to get used to biking.

Although, I'm having a problem. I often bike in the same pair of jeans and I'm wearing right through the butt. My seat is uncomfortable and is slightly rough on the surface - it's not a smooth seat. But I need to solve this before I lose my favorite jeans!

C • New Seat? 10

Ostrich Eat Large Geese. Some Bears Read Kindles. Quails Eat Pink Juice.

Morning run, finding some of the points along, or just off of trails. Beautiful day!

C • I thought... 4

Over to the clubhouse, warmup and some drills.

3x (3min, 2min, 1min) with 1 minute rest between each and 2 minutes rest between sets. Felt good for the first set, again running off the front of the group. The second set felt harder, as there was someone running right off my shoulder. Ran a bit less aggressive in the third set, but I think everyone thinks they have to run behind me :) HR was a bit high for the effort I felt like I was putting out and legs were also a bit tired. Almost everyone continued on to do 1 or 2 more sets, but I'm racing this weekend (no one else in the group is) and so I'm trying to be smart and rest a bit...

Ha, had my buttons backwards. I hit stop when I thought I hit start and vice versa. Running back home after the intervals.

Long morning run. I had heard from two people that there were nice trails north of here, so I set out to find them. They were around the burial mounds, so I stopped a few times to read some of the informational signs.

I signed into hittaut.nu to log all the points I've been finding and it turns out two of them are wrong. I ran by one today and discovered that it's PU, not BU like I had in my sentence. I wonder if I read it wrong the first time, or remembered it wrong when running away. Today I made shorter sentences and I think that was better. Plus, keeping it to an animal theme made it a bit easier as well.

Velociraptors Often Read Kindles. Hippos X-ray Every Yak. Pandas Deliver Jarlsberg Cheese. Jaguars Yell, "X-ray Tigers!" (And, as it turns out, I was wrong again. It was not jaguars yelling... maybe cheetahs? I'll have to go back to that one too!)

My hip/groin/stomach pain unfortunately ramped up the longer I ran and I was grateful to walk the last 2 minutes of the run on the trails, since I already had surpassed my 1:45 mark. Ouchies.

C • burial mounds 3

C • Hip 2

C • you're funny 2

Picking up controls with Lisa after the event. When OK Linné puts out controls they get someone to first tag the location weeks ahead of time. Then people go out and build control stands. They use the wood that they find in the forest and cut a sturdy branch that they pound into the ground like a post. The epunches are clipped into a base, which is in turn clipped into another base that is attached to a short plank. This plank is then screwed into the top of the wooden post. The flag is put over the top, so that the strings resting on the plank and the flag hangs below the control. When picking up controls you need a screwdriver with you to unscrew the two screws holding the plank in place. This can take awhile! Two screws seemed totally necessary, as the post was more likely to fall over than the screws come out. On the plus side, you don't need to carry stands in and out of the woods. We jest leave the wood posts up - they came from the woods and will eventually decay back into the woods. On the other hand, sawing and building these posts must take awhile. Fortunately, when Linné puts on an event, no one over 16 runs any courses. That leaves plenty of people to help out!

Toon's food didn't taste bland until Toons unearthed a yam.

C • How about sweet potato on pizza? 5

Morning run before we left for Lidingöloppet. I grabbed the hittaut map and went to find more points (hence the silly sentence). I had such trouble finding the first one! The village name was printed over the road section that I was using and somehow I made a strange turn, but then I just couldn't figure it out! Good thing no one was up and moving about yet, as they would have seen me run by many times.

This morning I biked over to Ross's work with my fike (chocolate chunk cookie bars). I left later than I intended and biked furiously. It only took about 7 minutes :) Afterwards I decided that it was just too nice to simply bike home, so I headed another direction and figured I might as well bike to Willy's, the cheap grocery store). Then I biked home and turned a bit early into Stadsskogen for more time riding around. Saw more students "orienteering." Was having a fantastic time on the bike - there is not a cloud in the sky today and the air is crisp and cool on your face when you are biking. My legs are exhausted, but biking around on the flats is perfect. I didn't want to come home, but I am, yet again, applying for the Women in Sports Foundation Travel and Training grant. And since, yet again, I'm doing it at the last minute (it's due today) I had to get home to work on it. I timed it poorly though, since today is not a day I want to spend indoors.

Later Mari is coming over to teach us her spicy curry recipe and to bake kanelbullar! Yay! What would be better? And tomorrow Ross runs the 30k  lindingöloppet in Stockholm. Not me though. I trained hard this week and resting this weekend. I'm joining him for the trip though, to sightsee and cheer :)

C • WSF grant 4

Busy!

Biking over to IKEA. Much closer than I thought - it took just less than 20 minutes to get there and about 24 to get back. It's uphill on the way back :) I bought another fitted sheet and a duvet cover, so that we have an extra set. I realized when I got there that I had no idea what size bed we have here. Turns out we have 140cmx200cm and I bought a fitted sheet for 180x200. Oops :) But better to be too big than too small.

I also learned that it's important to make sure you have no holes in the plastic bag that you put over your wet bike seat. Mine had a very small hole in it, but I had quite a big wet spot on my butt when I got off. And I also learned not to buy kanelbullar from the fancy bakery. It wasn't as good and it was 4x more expensive. Important Swedish lessons of the day :)

Running over to the clubhouse with Ross, and then running with everyone over to the lit track in Stadsskogen.

running drills

Intervals. 1min, 2min, 3min, 4min, 5min, 5min, 4min, 3min, 2min, 1min. 1 minute of rest after the 1, 2 and 3 intervals and 2 minutes of rest after the 5 and 4 intervals. A beautiful evening for running!

There was a smaller group of girls today, which meant that I paced myself on all the intervals. After each one we would meet up again, but I ran off the front for all of them. Still working hard, and I think going at a good pace, but with no one there to push me faster I took it a bit easier. I tried to pick it up in the second half of each interval, but looking at the garmin, I'm not sure I was actually going faster. Probably good since I'm quite tired from earlier this week.

Also, my hip/groin/stomach pain came back again in the evening, which is unfortunate. And I caught the cold that I held off last week. Taking it easy last week was certainly a good idea and now I can let the cold run its course - although I really only had 2 days of a running/stuffy nose, so it's not too bad.

Nice to live so close by! After running Ross and I raced home and biked over to his work for beer club. There were about 7 of this coworkers there, drinking beer in the lounge area. It was fun to meet everyone at work and I volunteered to bring in fika for them all tomorrow morning :)

Ross had to go into work super early this morning (7am!), so he was able to come home early as well. The rain finally stopped, and I finished reading an entire book, so we headed out to Nåsten for revenge. Definitely a bit tired on the way over.

No more monkey brains! Yay! My normal Sam brains have been scooped back in. Phew. That was a close one.

I ran a different course today, but the first two legs were the same, and then I skipped the 3rd control so that I could also have the next same leg (it didn't change the distance much). I took my time today, actually planned legs and stopped when I was confused. What a world of difference. I wasn't moving quickly, but I only lost contact once this whole course and I spiked every control. Granted, some of them I've now been to twice before, but they look different when you actually go the right way to them :) And I managed to run just about 10m/k, which is sort of a pathetic goal, but I'll take it :)

C • That's the way 2

Running home. Tired and thirsty, but happy :)

I signed up for the Swedish Ultralong Champs in about 2 weeks, so I figured I should start running more miles. Sadly, these 9 miles aren't even close to the 17k of the ultralong, but it's a start. I took the hittaut.nu map with me and went out to find some of the points. Like Ross, I made a sentence to help me remember the letters: Yes Sally, Red Kindhearted X-ray Operators Talk Loudly ... to GU - Like Juice... But I have since (in the past 2 hours) forgotten the two words after Loudly. Partially Attributed? Hm. Well that's unfortunate.

C • Long run 12

I biked over to the giant ICA for amusement and to see how long it took. It takes slightly less time than to bike to Willy's - about 16 minutes each way. It is a huge ICA and I was able to find things that I can't find at either Willy's or the local shops. It seems to be the same price or slightly cheaper when compared to the local shops. I have yet to compare with Willy's. I'm not sure how to log biking time, but I'll say I was working hard for about 5 minutes of it all at least - especially when coming back uphill with all the groceries.

C • Garmin it 7

Club training this evening was to run one or two of the courses for this weekend, to make sure codes are correct. I ran over to the start with Boris and Ross.

It's like I forgot everything I learned. Maybe I was trying to run as fast as I did in the relay over the weekend, because this went horribly. I compared myself to a brainless monkey as I was struggling through the woods. The first control was fantastic. Everything made sense - it was like I was seeing the woods with new eyes. I understood it and it was in harmony with me.

And then I tried to find #2... and 3... and 4... and 5... and I never found 6. I was all over the place - not going far enough, going too far, misreading hills, off on my compass. It didn't help that I thought there would be flags at all the controls, because there was at 1 and 2, but 3 only had the tag. I ran through the area 4 times before it occurred to me that maybe on the tag was there, and then I found it in the broad reentrant. Felt like such a loser not finishing, but I was going to run out of daylight. I had to turn my map back in, but maybe I'll try to recreate the course and go try again tomorrow morning.

Aaliyah's song "Try Again" was stuck in my head as I got home. Dust yourself off and try again...

Running back home. Chatting with a club member that began the conversation with "Is Jeff Saeger your father?" Turns out he lived in Boston for 3 months in 2003 (I think). He was on a bike and I was running, so I got home super fast :)

C • Who 3

Bad weather is no excuse for not training, right?

C • Right 7

Ross fixed the gears on my bike! Now the only thing to do is raise the seat which is jammed and bent into place...

I biked over on this glorious evening to Boris's work to meet Boris and Ross for running this evening. After raining all day the sun came out and it was fantastic.

Backbana! Well, part of it :) We were running a bit late, as Boris was meeting people for dinner. I felt quite tired running this and I knew I was many minutes behind the boys, so I cut off the last two hills so that we wouldn't be even later than we already were.

Ross and I then biked from Boris's work to Willy's, the cheap(er) grocery store, for dinner food. Then we biked back home, still in beautiful weather. I have high hopes for tomorrow.

P.S. I'm a bit concerned about my excitement over sunny weather. I hear there isn't too much in the months to come...

C • Sunny weather 13

SM Relay

What fun! I ran first leg of Linné's second team and I had a blast. It's like a WOC relay, but with 3 times as many women. Which means 3x more elbows, branches in my face and mud, but also lots more fun :) I spent virtually none of the relay running on my own, as there were always people around me.

The race started through the field, which really meant through the mud and with everyone running through at the same time there was mud splashing everywhere. That's about when I decided that it was going to be an awesome race :) I ran, with everyone else, straight to almost all the first 8 controls. I followed along generally, but there were so many girls running in front of me, I let them guide the micro route choices. I spiked my first control, although it did come up a bit quicker than I expected.

On the way to the second control I unfortunately lost count of how many swamps we swam, I mean ran, through. Everything was wetter than it seemed, and I was worried I was one swamp off. Luckily, coming out of the last one we climbed up to the open hilltop, and then I was positive about where I was. The group had split a bit here, and I ran with a few others to the south side of the swamp and then swung north, to where I could see a line of girls exiting the control.

Three was a short leg and although none of the girls directly in front of me had that forking, it wasn't a hard control :) I punched it alone and then sprinted like heck to catch the girls I could see disappearing into the woods in front of me, not wanting to be caught between packs.

We ran down the trail by the marsh into the green for #4 and then the group split again - some going out to the trail (I think) and others going more straight. I tried to also go straight, but it was thick and I ended up getting pushed left and came to the open hilltop (these were key navigational features!) southwest of the control.

The group had gotten smaller at this point. There were about 5 girls in front of me and no one behind me, that I could tell. We ran north along the swamp and cut through the narrow section and then headed to the north side of the next swamp. Here there were girls coming from the south, so our groups merged and a lot of people punched 6 together.

On 7 I headed with the group up the big open hill and dropped down right after the cliffs. Then a strange thing happened - the entire pack keep going more west than I wanted to and my compass was showing something funky. I went a bit, but then turned north and there was a hill, just like I needed. I climbed up to the see many girls standing around looking at their maps. I wasn't sure what had happened, but I knew that we had gone more west than I wanted to. Inga, from Linné, turned back right and I silently agreed that was a promising strategy. A few of us went right and over to the correct hill, and at this point we were with the leaders. It was just one huge lead pack.

I lost track a bit of where we were on the way to 8, but we sank into two swamps in a row and then climbed the hill with the open areas and trail, so I was in contact going into the control.

On 9 I just ran after everyone out to the road and then cut into the woods off the corner. I was happy to aim a bit north when the group split a bit and I avoided more swimming. We went by the boulder in the swamp and then hit the indistinct trail and off the hill into the control.

Out to the spectator control, and I unfortunately hadn't planned 11 (I was running too hard!). I went south in the field, but then partway realized that running around the south side of the swamp was a bad idea. One other girl and I cut into the woods before the start triangle and I got ahead of her and was alone for the second brief moment of the relay. I cut through the woods to the logging track around the north side of the swamp, and although I had to run back a bit, I think it was much better than going south. As I left the track and went up the open hill, more girls started appearing. Some disappeared again for a different forking and I punched 11 with only one other person.

We then bashed out different ways to the swamp by 12 and ran along it, meeting up with 2 other girls as we punched 12.

I went out to the trail and as I was running down it, I could see the group in front of me climbing the hill and set off to catch up with them. Coming into 13 I was a bit confused, as I misread which hilltop was which. Another group of girls came along from the right side, and we were again a large group as we did the last 3 controls, which I'm pretty sure were unforked.

Punching the last control was a bit crazy, because although there were 3 punches, people were trying to come and go from the same direction. I was not aggressive enough and punched near the end of our group, as the next was approaching. I passed about 8 people on the way to the finish and punched the finish box in 9th, right behind Inga, our first team runner (she did run a half marathon the day before in 1:17!) and handed off to the second leg.

I had a lot of fun running fast through the woods. It was at a speed that I could not achieve on my own, as I only had to do rough orienteering along the way and worry about the fine stuff in the last 200-100 meters before my fork. Orienteering at speed is fun :)

Winsplits with only my forking
Winsplits for all first leg runners (Splits to the radio controls)
Quickroute

5.18mi

C • Great relay run 4

A bit of a shorter warm up than I wanted because the bathroom line was so long. And then I cooled down with Inga and heard about her great half marathon race.

Man, this was early :) There was only a small warmup area, so I ran back and forth, trying to do a few strides to warm up. My left thumb kept going numb, but luckily everything warmed up once I started racing.

SM Middle B final.

Umph. This did not go as well as yesterday. The first control looked tricky, so I went out to the trail and was very careful on the way in. I didn't take the optimal route, as I went around the downed tree to the right and had to loop back, but it was ok. Then I made a parallel error on the second control, thinking I was going by the southeastern cliff. Relocating was easy since I could just run south to the open hills, but it cost me time.

Three was just a disaster. I decided to take the trail around and I thought I cut in by the stream trickle that goes below the cliff. But I didn't, and was higher. Things stopped making sense, so I started toward the field, hoping to relocate along the way. I didn't and so ran all the ay to the field. I was at the bend in the field, directly to the east of my control. But when I came back from the field, it didn't look like it matched. I found a control in a reentrant and stood for a long time trying to find it on the map. It's right where it should be! It's a tiny contour in the semi open, right on the edge of my circle. But I bailed again back to the stream trickle, and came up that, but again missed too high. The I ran southwest and saw the dangerous cliff with the boulder field below it and then, finally manged to find the control. I then went too high on 4, passing over the top of it as well...

After that I got things more under control and spiked 6. I didn't have a plan to 7, which explains my slow route, but I got lucky and recognized that I was standing right at the top of the narrow reentrant my control is in - I don't know how I figured that out!

A few more interesting route for the rest of the course, but nothing major. I was just trying hard not to come in last :) It was exciting to cheer for people in the finals (although Swedes don't exactly cheer) and it was fun to see both Hannah and Albin sitting on the couch for so long!

Winsplits
 Quickroute

Two parallel errors in a row on 2 and 3. I was super high on 3 - cut in way before I thought I did off the trail. And then each time I reattacked I went the wrong way on my compass - allowing the terrain to push me too much and not being strong enough mentally to follow my compass. Also, no plan on 7 and it shows...

:)

C • SM Relay 5

C • Forsberg not happy 1

Warmup before and the cool down with Lisa afterwards. As we were running we met a parking attendant who learned that I was American. He was an older man and he spoke very good English. He learned that I was from Boston and asked about the Big Dig and our Republican Senator. He practically knew more about Boston than I did!

SM Middle Quali

Today was a beautiful day - sunny and warm and fun orienteering :) I really enjoyed running the middle today, which is a relief. After France I wasn't enjoying orienteering as much as usual, but I have really enjoyed racing this weekend and last. Today I felt like I was able to plan ahead a bit more than last weekend and I felt like my speed was a bit faster, but controlled. I did make two mistakes, each about 2 minutes, on the 3rd and 12th control.

We don't have maps back yet, and I'm not really sure where I went wrong on the third control. I cut off the trail where the hill bent away, but then I must have made a parallel error.

On the 12th I knew I was too far to the right, but I didn't correct as I was going through the green and swamps. Then I thought I was climbing over the hill right before my control, but nothing was there. I stood for a bit, trying to match something up and then found another control on a dot knoll, but there were too many in the area to match. Finally I realized that the open area above me was the powerlines and I had gone too far.As I was running back I heard a beep in front of me somewhere and I thought, "That's mine!"

Otherwise, there were some hesitations and some moments when I was choosing poor microroutes (and convinced I would have the longest garmin length out there), but no other times when things weren't where I wanted them to be. I just made the B final (out of 5 finals) and so I am one of the first starters tomorrow morning, at 8:30! Normally, I like having people in the woods around me, but tomorrow morning I will hopefully be mostly on my own :)

 Winsplits
 Quickroute

For the legs that went well, I really think you can see my plan from the quickroute. you can tell what features I was checking off along the way, or what trails I was aiming to run down. The funky thing on the way to 2 is because there was an extra fence streamered, and I thought it was the out of bounds area, so I went too low down to the field.

Morning run. It's been raining a lot here, so the trails were quite wet. I avoided the deep puddles, but went happily through the mud.

Not my best training week, but with feeling under the weather and races on either end, I feel ok about it.

 Middle qual on Friday, finals on Saturday and relay on Sunday.

C • Famousness 3

omph. I proctored an exam today (yay money!) and tried to get people in the club to pick me up on the way to training, but no one showed up to get me. I then proceeded to get on the bus going the wrong way and it took me a long time to get home. With darkness settling in, I settled in to finish reading the book I started this afternoon. I need to read longer books.

C • Read longer books 13

Map with routes from this weekend up here.

Also, new blog post with exploding mushrooms here.

I don't think I'm going to do this evenings club training. It's some sort of running around the test loop. I feel much better than I did this morning and although I don't really believe in all that superstition about how training hard and in the cold rain can make you sicker, I'm going to play it super safe.

C • :o) 1

An easy morning run in the blustery weather. There were lots of children in Stadsskogen woods this morning out orienteering! And they were all lost. Every single group I saw was wandering aimlessly. One group looked like they were going to ask me for help as I approached, but they wimped out. If I felt more confident in my Swedish I would have stopped. I have to wonder what sort of instruction was given to these kids - they all looked thoroughly confused! I glanced at a few of their maps as I ran past and they were certainly not great quality - definitely photocopies.

Talking to a few people here about their experiences with orienteering in school it sounds like a lot of the programs aren't well run. They use old maps and don't provide good instruction. Instead of encouraging people to do orienteering, they turn people away from it. I'm sure this isn't the case in all schools, but I heard this account from more than one person. It's too bad, considering how well it could be done!

I also found out last night that I am selected to run first leg on OK Linné's second team this weekend at SM. I'm on a team with two other really strong girls and I'm actually surprised I was put on the second team. But someone out there obviously has faith in me, so I'm up for the challenge! Super excited to be running lead leg :) I woke up this morning with a slight cough, which I am determined to get rid of before this weekend!

C • SM Relay 5

C • School-O 9

Spectator race at the SM long final, but we had middle distance. It was another fun race, mostly very solid. I started over running myself at the end and made two silly decisions on the way to 13. First was to go down the wrong side of the hill and the second was to run to the control that I saw on a boulder, even though it most certainly was not mine. In a bit too much of a hurry. Also took a poor route to 10, which cost me some time. Happy with my race though, as it's so nice not to have huge bombs.

 My Quickroute.

Jogging to the start.

Run to the start along the road.

Swedish Long Championships. I had a good race :) Not epic, but solid and controlled. I could have planned better a few times, or taken a better route, or hesitated less, but I basically spiked most of the controls. I missed the final by about a minute and a half, which is pretty good (top 12 make it, I was 14th). Obviously, making it would have been better. It was a fun course and very different terrain than Uppsala. There were actually hills! I was very careful from the beginning all the way to the end and never lost contact with the map. Three times - 6, 7, and 13 I was a bit off in the circle, but I was quickly saved by seeing the control. I think that I took a good route on my long leg, although around to the right on the trail may have been faster. I tied Lisa on that leg and she went around and I went straight. Going to the 11th control I went straightish, when going around on the road seems to be faster - simply because it required less map reading. I wonder if the strongest runners would have found straight to be faster? I continued to be cautious to the very end, which made for no big mistakes, but I missed the final by only a little bit! At the same time, I was certainly smiling as I finished, grateful to have a clean race with no ginormous errors. I will quickroute when I get home.  My quickroute.

Two Linné girls and four Linné guys made it into the final tomorrow. The rest of us will run spectator races earlier in the morning and then cheer for them (hopefully not in the rain).

4.5mi actual distance.

C • No errors feels good. 2

Morning run before breakfast. This was a run where I could run as slowly as I wanted. I just wanted to stretch out my legs this morning before the weekend. This afternoon we join the club and drive to Lång SM in Västergötland, about a 5 hour drive. On Saturday there are qualifiers and I am running in Heat 2. The top 12 in each quali go on to the final on Sunday.

Results will be here. I think this will be just as hard, or harder, than qualifying for a WOC final. That being said, a clean race will make me very happy :)

C • Good luck! 4

Running to the start with peeps.

Today's training was designed to prepare us for the long SM this weekend. The courses were forked so that we could start in small groups and race each other. A group of girls headed out to the start before I could try to latch on, but Ross recruited Kristina and Erik into a group with me. The 4 of us, and Boris, started together. I was slightly of my planned route to 1 and didn't want to believe where I was. I again got pulled off to the side on 2, but luckily my brain figured that out. Then fine to 3, 4 and 5 and then my brain went silly, like it does now, and I ran a strange direction that makes no sense. I wandered a bit to recover from that and there was no one left in the woods with me. Again wandering at 6 because I was too high (thought it was a different reentrant in the circle), but then was fine to 7 and 8. When I got to the finish there was no one there. The field was quite eerie, as the sun was setting and there was a dense mist floating on top of the ground. I then cut back through the woods to the start, which was difficult because my only plan was to run sort-of north.

Running back on the road to the cars.

Dinner in Sweden!

C • rain 6

Rain most of the day, but then it cleared up nicely around 3. Lisa and I met and went on an easy run on trails... somewhere :) It was great to have someone to run with and to get out the door. I am still a bit sore from the intervals and core exercises :) We almost missed the rain entirely, but as we turned back toward home we saw a large dark cloud ahead of us. We did get rained on for about the last 10 minutes, but luckily it wasn't too cold.

With no car or bike I've been walking everywhere, which is a great way to enjoy the beautiful weather here. Sometimes, though, I'd like to get to a place a bit faster. I currently don't own a bag that I can easily or comfortably run with. I was looking around online and I found an REI bag that is reasonably priced and I think will hold what I need (the basics for going to an o meet - shoes, change of clothes, some food an a towel.) I think there was a discussion on attackpoint awhile ago about running backpacks. Anyone know where it is? Anyone have a bag they want to recommend?

C • Backpack 5

Some basics to work on strengthening my core. I'm having lower back pain when I sleep (although not when moving about) and a strange lower, right abdomen pain - really noticeable during leg lifts. Hmm...

C • muscle 8

Running over to the clubhouse.

Warm up with the group.

Intervals with the club. 6x2min, 6x1min, 6x30sec with 1 min rest between the 2 and 1 minute ones, but 30 seconds between the 30 second ones - make sense? :) We were running on the lit trail loop behind the clubhouse. A few short hills, but a smooth dirt surface.

The silly pain in my leg/stomach/hip/groin area made me start of hesitantly, as I wasn't sure how it would feel. Turns out it feels just fine when running fast. Everyone started out fast, and the majority of the boys made their own group. Most of the people in my group faded a bit about halfway through the 2 minute intervals. I moved to the front and was leading with Kristina for the rest of the intervals. Feels good to run fast.

Cooling down with Kristina and then running home with Ross and Lisa. Stopped by Lisa's apt. to pick up her old phone so that I will soon have a way to communicate with the outside world. Also made a plan to do an easy run with her tomorrow afternoon.

Ross and I were planning on meeting some club members to finally head out to Lunsen, but unfortunately both people who could give us rides were feeling a bit tired and/or under the weather. I didn't check my email before walking over to Ross's lab to meet everyone, so arrived there and just walked home with Ross. We then ran to Nåsten to run some of the orienteering intervals from last Thursday's training. About 22 minutes out to the loops and 22 minutes back.

2 of the farthest orienteering loops, mostly in the swamps in small hills. Ross and I had different forks, so we ran our own course each time. I was pretty accurate overall. The one time I had to relocate I had actually been in the correct swamp, but walked by the small tag thinking that I was looking for the reentrant. Lots of fun. It was nice to run without the pressure of other people around me.

Also, I added my maps from last weekend to my DOMA.

DM Relay. I ran anchor leg for the OK Linné second team. Our first leg runner, Rebecka, had a good solid run and passed off in 5th, only about 3 minutes behind the leader. Then Lisa totally rocked it and came through the spectator control in 1st! Cue suddenly nervous me! She held onto the lead and passed off to me in first.

I felt good, attacked into the first control... and nothing was there. I ran around the boulders, checked out the other control near there... I had stopped too early in a flat area that was just wetter than usual and I thought it was my swamp. About 4 minutes lost there, I suspect. The second place team only started about 30 seconds behind me and passed me there without me ever seeing her. Things, luckily, got a lot better after that. I still bobbled the next few, but stayed in contact. I then lost contact on the way to #5. I actually ran right by my boulder - even the side with the control on it!- but was focused on a bigger boulder further on. Once that boulder didn't have a control I decided to start bailing out to the field. I hit a cliff with a control on it and was able to relocate off it. I took a safe route to #6, but then missed from my attackpoint. 7 went well, and then I was standing right next to #8, but didn't see it until a dude came in and punched it. Then I tried to follow him to the last control instead of the spectator control :)

After the map exchange things really came together. I was careful, but sure. I managed to hold off the others behind me and we finished in second! My first Swedish DM medal!

Map 1
Map 2

And I managed to break 10m/k - a feat that really shouldn't be this hard!

4.62mi

C • congrats 8

Warm up.

Middle DM. Ug. Huge mistake on the second control. I haven't quickrouted it yet, but I think I made a parallel error in the swamps. I then hit a control on a cliff, but thought I was on the cliff that was in the circle. Had to bail way around, and then missed again when I attacked, although I was standing about 3 meters away from the control. There was even someone standing at it, but I thought they were lost! After that it could only get better, and it did. Still made a few smaller mistakes, but nothing catastrophic. The super flat stuff at the end was very hard for me to orienteer in. What do you run off of? There is nothing there! Just small bumps that look like all the other bumps, and small marshes. Hm. Must learn that technique.

 Map

C • Learn that technique 1

C • Map for this? 2

Cool down with Lisa. Both complaining about our poor performances of late :)

Warm up.

Easy morning run on Stadsskolen. There are always lots of orienteering markers out in the woods - today I saw one real sized bag and one permanent control. I looked around the internet yesterday to see if I could find maps with the permanent courses on them, but to no avail.

This weekend is the district middle champs on Saturday and the district relay champs on Sunday. I was put on an anchor leg of what seems to be a strong relay team. I'm looking forward to anchoring us to victory (whatever that may be!). Middle results will be here and relay will be here.

C • new colors 2

C • naturpasset 2

Evening training with the club. I realized I forgot my garmin when we left the apt. but didn't feel the need to go back and get it. In tonight's exercise you ran in a small group along a trail at an easy pace and then did 4-5 controls at race pace. It was apparently forked, but we never found any forkings... I went with Sofia, Lisa and Erik (I know people's names!). I made a few mistakes, but it helps that the others did too, so I wasn't last by an ungodly amount each time. I continue to have trouble following my compass and I did a 90 degree error on the last loop, which put me behind. And then there were no markers on any of those controls, so they took me a bit longer to find.

Running to and from the clubhouse.