Training Log Archive: W

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.