Training Log Archive: W

Ouch, my foot is still sore. Thus, it was unwise to go do a run around the Jyvasjarvi on the bike paths. Sure, they may have been slighly covered in snow, but it was still pavement, and that didn't sit well with my foot. Cut the loop short and gingerly ran home. No second workout today, and probably no running Monday.

Tuesday will also be problematic because of this Salibandy tournament we're playing in. And then Beer O+. Oh dear.

Cruised around the Laajavuori looking for more hills to climb. I also wanted to find a mildly interesting way down from the top of the mountain, rather than just turning back around. I found a bit of a single track that sneaks me back down to the top of the other hill, but that's not ideal. I'm sure there's something else around those parts.

A little evening shake-out run in the precipitation. It was initially snow, but appeared to turn into freezing rain by the end of this. I could tell because my jacket was essentially frozen solid. You know how when you run and its like, -3, so rain/snow hits your clothes, you warm it up, and it melts, but then flows to the parts that are less warm, and freezes again? Yeah, that.

It looks cool, but is also a tad cold.

Another classically nice run around the Laajavuori. If I could go and explore this during the day more often, I'd get more familiar with the single track and not necessarily always run on the main trails. Unfortunately since we have about 4 hours of daylight at the moment. That's not always possible.

Starting to experience some soreness in my foot, right underneath approximately the joint between the third metatarsal and the phalanx. It feels like a lump as if its swollen, but it doesn't really look it. I've had that pain before, so we'll see if goes away. One of the problems could be that my two pairs of shoes are very, very much finished.

More Kurko! This time the "horse-kurko", don't ask me why. There was a plush horse on a stick being passed around. Finns are weird. There was a pretty lengthy period after the start where I was blindly following the pack because I really, really had no idea where I was. Then I found myself when we got to some rough open and a trail, and promptly got lost again for a little while. But, as the pack followed along a trail, I realized approximately where I was an bravely venture out into the dark across a seemingly featureless flat expanse of Finnish forest on a wing and a prayer.

But, as I ran across it, I began to feel like I knew, on the map, where this vast expanse was, and that I was actually pretty close to where I was going. Fortunately I slowed down and also noticed that there was a tagline on the circle I was looking for and it was actually a depression. So I generally found it!

Then I botched number 2 and 3.

But, thanks to number 1, I was still generally in with some people, and really, really had fun doing 4, 5, 6, 7 where I lead a few people and pretty much nailed them all. Especially in the case of 5-6 where it was tempting to go to the road, but I decided that this was training, and I should go for it. So I went for the bearing and stayed really straight checking off features along the way. Its like I was really orienteering!

The last few controls were tricky but with the people around it wasn't too much of a big deal. Would have been much more difficult and technically productive to be by myself, but then it wouldn't be any fun.

Good times. Only 4 minutes back.

Night-o is still awesome.

Man, I really regret taking Monday off. I should have looked forward and realized my schedule for Wednesday was going to be from 8 to 7. It was tough to drag myself out and even go for a 35 minuter given I hadn't eaten lunch and was not feeling the running love. That was dumb, now I'm way behind on volume this week.

Since it looks like I won't be getting a ride to Kurko yet again this week, I guess that gives me an opportunity to do a nice evening jaunt. .... Yay?


I was flipping around the internet today and found the "uncyclopedia" entry on Finnish, which is mostly hilarious, but my favorite line is the first paragraph,where it says

"Finnish, I think, was invented by an ancient king who commanded the people in his dominion to speak like him upon the penalty of death. The monarch's name I shall give as Toivo I, or Toivo the Stutterer. It was Toivo's lingual philosophy that 'why use one letter when two or three would do.'"

I got to run in the daylight! Exciting!

With this newfound ability to see things, I decided to pop on a trail that I had seen but hadn't tried before. Its not very long, but jazzes up my route around the Soidenlampi a bit. Add it to my extra bit around through Myllyjarvi and its a very pleasant hour run. May be a bit too rocky in the dark, though. I found some extra singletrack on the way home too which spit me out in some amazing, amazing forest just behind Keltinmaki. It looked so good!