Training Log Archive: W

The knee was a little bothersome (but not so bad), so I switched to skating today to see if it was any better. Classic also would have been a terrible idea because it snow/rained all through watching the Crashed Ice race last night, so in addition to us getting soaked, it turned the ski trails rock hard and icy. Quite fast gliding, but near impossible to even push off while trying to climb. I like to one skate the hills but that was a no go. I think double-poling would have been the best choice.

Can't even try my good skis, because some parts of the trails are in rough shape. Too bad. Knee is a bit improving, and so is my ski fitness (a little). This weekend is Neljan Vuoren Hiihto, but its been shortened to a 36/18k, so even in bad ski shape, it shouldn't be a problem. Might even be better for me, if I can get the wax better than last year.

It would be hard to be much worse than that.

Another fantastic ski in new-ish snow! In retrospect I should have taken my good skis, I think I could have done it, but there's also some melting happening, since it was warm over night, which is definitely a concern. There's just not that much snow, its quite wet snow, and so its going to deteriorate really, really fast.

Goodbye winter. It was nice having you around. Almost 48 hours this year.

Yay! Fresh snow! Headed out for a great classic ski on the brandly-new groomed trails. My wax was a little stick because the snow was still a little soft, but the conditions were almost perfect and the weather was fantastic. I learned at the end of my ski that I had accidentally hit the stop button on my watch (something my Polar never did), so I guess I've learned my lesson to make sure I lock the buttons before skiing. That is not something I like doing.

Say I'm at the beginning of a ski race, I don't have time to hit start, and THEN hold the back button for 3 seconds while I lock the buttons. Stupid.

The snowstorm has arrived with a vengeance. Big, wet flakes coming down from every direction. Couldn't see a thing. Great night to run! I decided, in light of me knee, to shorten my tempo run a little, but I was glad I did it. I got back absolutely soaking wet, but there was plenty of really nice looking snow now on the ground. It was a winter wonderland!

And in two days, it'll be +4, so goodbye winter wonderland, hello icy hellscape! Better enjoy this while it briefly lasts.

A little warm-up jog before heading over to do weights. My knee has gotten ever that much more bothersome, that I'm really, really relieved that its about to snow a whole bunch. I'm not sure if it will help, but I'm going to try to stop running and just ski in the hopes that will help. Also just trying not to keep my knee bent for too long, as that seems to be a problem. Upside, though, my blisters have pretty much healed! 1 physical problem down, 9 to go!

Just a bit of lifting at the Keltinmäki non-gym. I basically was not sore at all after this session, so my muscles have finally gotten familiar to lifting weights again ,which means its a perfect time to completely stop going to the gym for several months! GREAT IDEA!

Started to get a sneaking suspicion I'm getting a cold, so I spend much of the day slamming back the tea and thinking healthy thoughts. Well, mostly healthy thoughts.

But then it was KortSu cup time, which is the unviersity orienteering club that sometimes does stuff. I rarely know what's happening in these races so I just show up and get handed a map and run until I get to the finish. This was some sort of 4 stage race where the fourth one was a chase start. Kind of wish I hadn't sandbagged the first stage, then!

Anyway, while at one point it had been wildly too cold to go running, its now warmed up to around 0 degrees with a little bit of rain which has switched everything to a sheet of ice. Good gravy I've never wanted a nice normal -10 more than right now. Is that too much to ask for? Really now!

C • Snowmaking! 2

Finally, a ski in the Finald, around the 3k Vierumäki man-made track, because apparently they just don't have enough snow. My legs were awful tired and soon after my arms were awful tired too. Knees are still bothersome, my right one moreso than my left. What am I going to do about it?

Probably nothing.

Nice weekend of training with the boys and I think they don't realize that sometimes I even understand what they're talking about in Finnish. I can't reply, but I can kind of understand. Maybe I won't tell them for a while!

Night-O race right beside Vierumäki. They mentioned we were going to do a night-o and Juha got the maps together, so I was thinking it was just going to be the eight of us. We jog to the main building, and I come around the corner to see like, 100 people. VeVe and KooVee were there too, and this was like a for realsies race, which I was so not prepared for. Wrong shoes, warm clothes, totally not prepared to do a real race.

As per usual, the race started off ridiculously fast and I was having trouble figuring out the map. I don't understand how those guys disappear so damn quickly, but after around number 1, I had totally lost any semblance of the leaders, and was basically on my own. After three I had finally figured out what the heck I was doing. 4 was a long leg and I wasn't feeling very confident in myself, but I should have, because if I had headed into the woods when I wanted to, I think I would have nailed it. But, I was relying quite heavily on tracks in the snow to keep on my route. I'm quite certain I'm mis-punched 5 now, because I was with a group and they all went to one control, which just didn't feel right. But, I didn't want to lose this group by going over the next ridge to another control. Turns out I was totally right. I wonder if every single one of them had that control and I was the only one with the long forking. Hard to say.

After that it was pretty okay navigationally, since the map wasn't too difficult. But, my legs were starting to get really really tired and my knees were starting to bother me again, so the pace slowed down dramatically and so did the brain. Fortunately there wasn't too far to go and was able to jog it in without losing any places, at least not to Jarkko and Timo who were behind me but presumably moving pretty slowly too. Great evening for O+ though, the weather was finally pleasant and the snow was very dry so I didn't get wet at all. Shoes were not the best choice, but I didn't have anything better.

Oh, and after a bit of food and shower, went to play floorball for an hour. We were all pretty spent.

Oh man, its taking off now. Track workout at the weird circular Vierumäki track, though it had those cool track lights that tell you what pace to run at!

Anyway, we did a ladder of 1200-800-400-200-4-8-12-8-4-2, at progressively faster. So, for instance, the 1200 we ran in 4:33, then the 800 at 2:47. The second 800 was at 2:40, the second 1200 was in 4:10, then the 3rd 800 was at 2:31. I figured with the numbers it wasn't too bad, but I was suffering a little by the end. I don't expect to feel great doing these right at the moment, in fact, I'd prefer to feel not great, since that means I know I can get better. I do'nt want to be awesome now, I want to be awesome when it counts! So, its cool. My sore sore legs also didn't help, but this was mostly lungs. Nice to run fast, even though I'm going to regret it in like.... 5 hours.

Here's a question:

Spitting during a workout on an indoor track? Okay or not okay?

Training camp weekend in Vierumäki! Apparently the biggest "sports institute" in Finland, it was also the site of last year's Finnish night champs. They have skiing (if there were enough snow, which there totally is, but apparently they are dainty and can't ski on little amounts of snow), O+, cheap lunches for students, as well as a whole bunch of other sports I don't care about.

Some people were going out for an apparently difficult night-o, but because I didn't bring my real o-shoes (They have disintegrated), I took a little sprint course around the campus instead, which had plenty of forest and was quite nice were it not for the holes in my skin in my heels. Not remarkably focused on orienteering at the moment, but after a while I slowly remembered how to do it and got a bit back into the motions. For this year I'm really wanting to focus on being focused. Doing the right things, even in practice. That's going to be tough for me, I think.

Good gravy, its basically HOT out here! -21! Both of knees are bothering me quite a bit as well as some monster blisters that have opened up on both sides of my achilles on both feet. I believe its from that -26 O+ session from last week. I somehow suspect my knee pain is from that too, but I can't quite explain why. Also, my nose has been red all week and has now started peeling, so I did bad things to my nose then also. Was that a great session or what?

ITS A HEAT WAVE! -23! I've definitely won at least one Canadian Birkebeiner with both ski boots untied in this weather, so the least I could do is go out for a little jaunt to the mustalampi. As expected, my legs are pretty darn sore from the weights, and I think I'm going to continue regretting that for several more days. I also spent some time sitting at the office today, and that really bothered both of my knees. Can't explain that one. But now both my knees bother me. I'm old.

Still cold like nobody's business out there, so I utilized an opportunity to get a free gym visit (for testing it out) and hit some weights. This gym has a promotion for 1 month free if I sign up for a month, but, I also learned today I can get in free from the gym at Killeri (at least to a certain point) so I want to investigate that before I invest in something else, since its much, much closer than this one.

First, did a 30 minute brisk run on the treadmill, following by 10 RM of Squats, one-leg deadlifts on a bosu ball, calf raises, [random obligatory arm exercise], and then Romanian deadlifts, and some intensive core. Its a nice gym, and not nearly as crowded as the university. Its just a little too (and by a little I mean WAY TOO) far away to be too enthusiastic about it. Still, I'm enjoying being back in the gym and lifting some weights. My muscles.... not so much. This is going to be an adjustment.

I don't have access to a treadmill or stationary bike, so I've been forced to take the last two days off, since its around minus bajillion out there.

Sorry, that's an overstatement. Its really give or take a few zillion. But, I think I'll join a new gym tomorrow. I'm willing to pay 20 euros a month for more space than the free university gym. Its too small and too crowded.

My first question will be "how fast do your treadmills go?" Their ability to respond to that question determinations if its a good gym or not!

Its getting mighty cold out, but at the last minute I decided to agree to go to the training at Granitti. But, I didn't want to run all the way from home, so I biked to Ristonmaa, and then ran from there. About 3k warm-up and cool-down. Then it was about a 13k course, mostly on roads and light trails. Even though it was very cold it was sort of tempo paced, hovering around 4:15 pace, and maybe 160 BPM, which is funny because it really didn't feel like it was that difficult.

Anyhow, again, it was quite cold, and I don't know why my legs were still sore, but they definitely were, and near the end, my one knee cap started to get very frozen and painful too. Eventually I finished the course and realized that, oh dear, I still have to run back to my bike, and THEN bike home. It was an awful slow run home, and then I put some extra clothes on and attempted to shiver home with most of my fingers pretty darn frozen and painful. There brief moments that I just wanted to lie in the snow and sleep (which would have resulted in a mild case of death). But I thankfully eventually made it and stuck my fingers in warm water which was crazy painful. I also discovered huge blisters on both of my heels from my Acceleritas, which I haven't experienced before. Now wearing shoes in not so fun either.

All in all, good workout!

A little bit of a warm-up jog before lifting some weights. Clearly I haven't run in a while, my legs were very sore, especially my quads, after yesterday's run. I was also wearing some new compression underwear I got, and perhaps I compressed myself a little too much. Literally to the gills.

Fairly elementary weight session. Squats, Romanian deadlift, calf raises, random arm workout. Aiming for 10RM weight, 2 minutes rest in between, 3 sets. Thinking of raising that to 5 sets. Going to stick with this general program for 8 weeks, though I think when I join a real gym and have access to real equipment, I'm going to add in two more leg exercises. Suggestions? I'm thinking 1-leg press will be one of them.

I took a long long break from Attackblogging after my disaster half-marathon. Because.... I had nothing much to say. Maybe I'll go back and add in the training, but maybe not. There wasn't much. Not nearly as much as I would have liked for a holiday. Was in various places where training would have been great, but sometimes things just don't happen as quickly as one would like them to.

Nonetheless, I'm back in the JYV with some fresh snow, new skis, and hopefully a reignited enthusiasm for training. Let's do this!

C • welcome back 5