Training Log Archive: WIn the 7 days ending Jun 19, 2016:
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Sunday Jun 19, 2016 #
Orienteering race 2:00:00 [4] 18.0 km (6:40 / km)
Jukola time! My club seems to have gone insane again and put me on a long leg in the dark, this time leg 3. I really can't explain why they did it again, I'm still certain they've seen me at Kurko-cup, multiple times. Tiomila gave me a certain amount of confidence with these things, but this time there's forking, so I can't be wimpy and follow.
Right off the start was probably the toughest leg of the whole thing, even though the actual control point wasn't. Its just that there's this long leg through varying levels of flat green, and although eventually you'd run into a cliff-y hill, by the third leg you're really at the mercy of the tracks that have formed, and you'd better hope you're on one that's taking you the way you want to go. It was green and dark, so I really had no idea. But there was a few people around that were running confidently, so I let them make the decisions until we hit the road almost perfectly.
From there until around #7 I was pretty much on my lonesome, and sometimes not taking the best route, but nailing just about everything. I made one mistake where I thought I was taking the path but it was actually just an early giant track created by other runners.
Mistakes started coming as I started finding myself among other people. I spent more time going the way they were going rather than where I was going. But, at the same time, when we got to 9, I thought they were going wrong, but in fact it was me. I thought we hadn't gone far enough, so I kept going, and then thought the kallio I was on was the one on the hill before the control, so I continued going north until I concluded I had probably gone too far, and popped out to the trail which made it quite clear I had gone too far. The problem was that prior to getting into the green section I just wasn't paying close enough attention to where we entered. In retrospect its clear I didn't need to travel nearly as far as I did. Maybe for a brief moment I thought I was on a 1:15000 map!
On the long leg to 12, I gave some intensive thought for a while about going straight across the white rather than taking the road run, but I couldn't see a group in front of me, and the people behind me were too far behind. I didn't have the courage to go it alone, at least not in the dark ish. I think in the day I wouldn't have hesitated, because there was enough distinct veg boundaries and marshes that I could have done it, but with limited visibility, I didn't feel it. My brain has really departed from the "bearing and run" strategy, and I look for features in the terrain to read, and I just don't have the confidence in my reading ability for that yet. In retrospect I was okay with that decision because the white forest around the control was quite low visibility and I there was a good chance I would have blown it.
Then, all of a sudden, I was in a huge group. Where did they come from? Did they catch me? Did I catch them? I think they caught me, but that's probably to be expected with a group that size. It certainly made everything more complicated and way less fun, quite frankly. But I could see myself blowing the route from 14-15 by myself, so I let them take over. However, on the road run to 17 I clearly had better legs than all of them, so I took charge and took the lead and dropped them all for a bit before making a dumb mistake at 20. I swear that rock was higher on that hill than it showed on the map.
At that point the group was down to about 4 and aside from one forking we were pretty much together, and there wasn't really a lot of anyone dropping anyone else. I think I had the fitness to do it, and 23+24 were easy enough I could have gone for it, but I didn't, and when I think about it, I don't know why.
In the end we moved up from about 130 to 160, and by the time Janne got done with leg 6 we had moved up to 74, which is 3 places better than last year. Like Tiomila we didn't have a 7th so we DNF. That made me a touch angry.
Anyway, I'm more disappointed in my performance after the fact than during. It wasn't flawless, but it was stable except for 9 where I lost more time than I thought on a bad simple mistake. Still, I had fun, and now I can say I've done the tough night legs for both of the big relays and have a relatively happy memory from both. The weather may have kind of sucked (but totally fine once you got moving and got out there), and my achilles is more sore now than it was before, but I had a good time!
And like, 2 hours of sleep.
QR
Right off the start was probably the toughest leg of the whole thing, even though the actual control point wasn't. Its just that there's this long leg through varying levels of flat green, and although eventually you'd run into a cliff-y hill, by the third leg you're really at the mercy of the tracks that have formed, and you'd better hope you're on one that's taking you the way you want to go. It was green and dark, so I really had no idea. But there was a few people around that were running confidently, so I let them make the decisions until we hit the road almost perfectly.
From there until around #7 I was pretty much on my lonesome, and sometimes not taking the best route, but nailing just about everything. I made one mistake where I thought I was taking the path but it was actually just an early giant track created by other runners.
Mistakes started coming as I started finding myself among other people. I spent more time going the way they were going rather than where I was going. But, at the same time, when we got to 9, I thought they were going wrong, but in fact it was me. I thought we hadn't gone far enough, so I kept going, and then thought the kallio I was on was the one on the hill before the control, so I continued going north until I concluded I had probably gone too far, and popped out to the trail which made it quite clear I had gone too far. The problem was that prior to getting into the green section I just wasn't paying close enough attention to where we entered. In retrospect its clear I didn't need to travel nearly as far as I did. Maybe for a brief moment I thought I was on a 1:15000 map!
On the long leg to 12, I gave some intensive thought for a while about going straight across the white rather than taking the road run, but I couldn't see a group in front of me, and the people behind me were too far behind. I didn't have the courage to go it alone, at least not in the dark ish. I think in the day I wouldn't have hesitated, because there was enough distinct veg boundaries and marshes that I could have done it, but with limited visibility, I didn't feel it. My brain has really departed from the "bearing and run" strategy, and I look for features in the terrain to read, and I just don't have the confidence in my reading ability for that yet. In retrospect I was okay with that decision because the white forest around the control was quite low visibility and I there was a good chance I would have blown it.
Then, all of a sudden, I was in a huge group. Where did they come from? Did they catch me? Did I catch them? I think they caught me, but that's probably to be expected with a group that size. It certainly made everything more complicated and way less fun, quite frankly. But I could see myself blowing the route from 14-15 by myself, so I let them take over. However, on the road run to 17 I clearly had better legs than all of them, so I took charge and took the lead and dropped them all for a bit before making a dumb mistake at 20. I swear that rock was higher on that hill than it showed on the map.
At that point the group was down to about 4 and aside from one forking we were pretty much together, and there wasn't really a lot of anyone dropping anyone else. I think I had the fitness to do it, and 23+24 were easy enough I could have gone for it, but I didn't, and when I think about it, I don't know why.
In the end we moved up from about 130 to 160, and by the time Janne got done with leg 6 we had moved up to 74, which is 3 places better than last year. Like Tiomila we didn't have a 7th so we DNF. That made me a touch angry.
Anyway, I'm more disappointed in my performance after the fact than during. It wasn't flawless, but it was stable except for 9 where I lost more time than I thought on a bad simple mistake. Still, I had fun, and now I can say I've done the tough night legs for both of the big relays and have a relatively happy memory from both. The weather may have kind of sucked (but totally fine once you got moving and got out there), and my achilles is more sore now than it was before, but I had a good time!
And like, 2 hours of sleep.
QR
Thursday Jun 16, 2016 #
Running 25:00 [1] 4.6 km (5:26 / km)
shoes: Brooks Pure Connect 4
Run home from the office in the pouring rain. I'm assessing my progress of my achilles via A) how much it hurts when I first start, and b) how long it stays hurt-y.
Today's answers would be "quite a bit", and, "around 16 minutes". Which, is actually a bit of an improvement.
Today's answers would be "quite a bit", and, "around 16 minutes". Which, is actually a bit of an improvement.
C • Ice? 3
Wednesday Jun 15, 2016 #
Running 30:00 [1] 5.6 km (5:21 / km)
Run to Kohniojarvi for a leg soak after the office. I'm still torn because my achilles does eventually warm up, and I want to run for longer, but I'm not sure if I should push it. 30 minutes of running a day is not getting me fit, but it does keep me active. Gosh I wish I had my road bike with me right now. I'd go back to the gym but I don't want to be sore for Jukola this weekend.
Next week, I swear.
Pfft, I've been saying "next week" for years now.
Next week, I swear.
Pfft, I've been saying "next week" for years now.
Monday Jun 13, 2016 #
Running 50:00 [1] 9.3 km (5:23 / km)
shoes: Brooks Pure Connect 4
Working backwards on training to catch up on a week of driving around and not really training much in Ireland (was technically a work trip, but didn't turn out to be very effective). But, I did get to race the Leinster 3-day, which was way fun. And I'll get to it eventually.
I think I can formally say this achilles problem I've been ignoring for the last 3 months is now truly an injury. I used to be able to just run through it and warm it up, but that's not happening anymore. It was pain for the entire run, and not just on my achilles, but sparking up my calf and being sore under my heel.
My plan is to tape it up with Pink KT tape, do some eccentric exercises, stretch gently, ice regularly and.... not stop running. We'll see how that goes.
I think I can formally say this achilles problem I've been ignoring for the last 3 months is now truly an injury. I used to be able to just run through it and warm it up, but that's not happening anymore. It was pain for the entire run, and not just on my achilles, but sparking up my calf and being sore under my heel.
My plan is to tape it up with Pink KT tape, do some eccentric exercises, stretch gently, ice regularly and.... not stop running. We'll see how that goes.