Training Log Archive: jennycas

New experience for me being in an age class which is big enough to have heats - 84 women in W40, so top 21 from each of 2 heats should go through to the A final, and I'd been a bit concerned when I saw how many of my nemeses were in the start list, that this might not be easily achievable.

Feeling surprisingly non-bad before the start (yay, drugs!) and told myself that I just needed to have a clean run and probably should qualify ok. But the flat course tempted me to run fast, and I was trying to stay ahead of the woman who'd started a minute behind me...she ended up beating me by 2 min, but that was partly because I wasted a minute on a near-disaster which was a cascade of events:
a) come around the building, across the carpark, turn left behind a hedge & punch a control;
b) leave the control to the south, passing another control on a hedge in the narrow gap between buildings, but then finding that I had run into a dead end so I needed to;
c) head back north in order to go around the other end of the building, thus passing the control which I had punched and realising that it had been the wrong control;
d) head south again to punch the control in the narrow gap where I had just been, which was indeed the right one;
e) head north around the building and on to the next control, thinking briefly how much of a near-miss that had been...

Pretty horrified by my brain-fade (obviously running faster than I was thinking) but very relieved to have held it together for the rest of the course, and in fact I ended up equal 15th in heat B *phew*. Would like to be higher than 30th in the final though!

C • Sometimes... 6

Event: World Masters Orienteering Championships 2018
 

Feeling a bit flat today even after a morning stroll around the environs of Kronborg Slot (AKA Shakespeare's Elsinore) and rather daunted to hear that the indoor-O would take 40 min, because I didn't think I could concentrate for that long all by myself, so I invited WATash to come around with me, because two heads are better than one, right? And also because a shared experience is so much more hilarious...this really was fun, a bit like Cluedo (Ms Orienteer, in the Library, with a Piano) and also really complicated and I kept getting so confused about which stairs it was allowable to go up vs down. Couldn't believe how much effort the organisers had gone to to arrange all the chairs & desks in the most complicated configuration possible, and map them accordingly. And of course there was a control on/in the toilet!

The only downside was that after all the stairs, my knees hurt so much that I couldn't manage to run at all for the model event and I had really been wanting/needing some practice at fast sprinting, but I guess it's too late to get race-fit before tomorrow's qualifier anyway :(

There's something weird about the accommodation we're now in: the bedrooms upstairs are fairly normal and so too is the living area downstairs (although pre-cleaned cutlery would surely not have been too much to ask for) but for it to be possible to get upstairs, a circular hole has been cut in the kitchen ceiling and the world's most steep & rickety spiral staircase installed with truly bodgy fastenings. I didn't know you could get staircases at IKEA...

8am train Stockholm-Gothenburg (you even get a 'breakfast box' in first class, and the coffee is not *quite* as bad as airline coffee), where I thumbed a lift with Blair and since we had intentionally both brought the model event map from WMOC 2015, went orienteering on Gothenburg granite, with its distinctive north-south ridges and where bare rock is actually even sometimes mapped. I'd been looking forward to this, and more generally to orienteering in Europe because it would be soft underfoot, but in fact everything is so dry currently (this reminded me of Mt Beckworth in March) that my knees have been gradually getting worse over the past couple of weeks, and I couldn't really manage to run so this turned more into a blueberry-sampling expedition. That didn't stop me from having room in my tummy for an entire Swedish pizza afterwards!

Crossed Helsingborg-Helsingor on the ferry called Hamlet and stayed at the YHA right on the coast (surely a faded seaside hotel from the 1920s) which was full of golden-haired children all presumably on a summer camp, although there didn't seem to be any definite adult supervision.

I'd managed to print off a sprint map of the southern part of Sodermalm, so set myself some sprintervals and walked 2 km to get there (somehow completely failing to find Stockholm Sodra station on the way; I do now know where it is for tomorrow morning). Legs very stiff from last night - partly due to running to/from start on paved paths in spikes - and didn't want to be made to move, but this was at least a good mental route choice exercise and also practice for running around in the noonday sun.

Also, I know Lizzie will believe me even if no one else does: I saw a snake! Just a skinny little thing but it was about 80cm long and made its way up the gutter, across the footpath and under a gate...wonder what kind it was?

C • Snake ! 9

Fed my knees anti-inflammatories and decided to walk not jog the 1.7km to the start. Goal was to run a bit harder today and to always remain in contact with the map. This did mean that I took some wider track routes, but only one resulted in then having to scale a cliff at the end (bare rock being unmapped, it had appeared as just a steep slope on the map...). I feel satisfied that I executed the end of the leg well each time, with the greatest hesitations being when the map showed me the control centred on a small gully but the description said "broad spur" - which happened on no less than 5 separate occasions! I was running around the same pace as a few M50/55s on the same course, and think I wouldn't have been quite so far down either of those age classes as on the previous 2 days.

C • Welcome to Stockholm! 3

When I was sorting through my maps of various cities before coming away, I found the sprint course I'd set myself in 2015 around Gamla stan - I'd traced from the tourist map on to a paper bag, so it's fairly basic. I jogged down there this morning, and promptly made a few navigational errors among the cobblestoned laneways! Managed to avoid garbage trucks and most of the Japanese tour groups (they must get up really early).

Spent the morning wandering on a lovely loquacious leisurely lap of Djurgarden with Briohny, inhaling the scent of the linden trees - which I have been remembering and looking forward to for the past 3 years. I was rather disappointed that they had already finished flowering when I was in Vienna.

Middle distance today, and with 1.5km to the start and nearly 2km back from the remote finish, it's fairly obvious which area they're saving for tomorrow (and that it will have some hills). This was flat and subtle but I felt more confident with my distance & direction today and that I intuited the small hills fairly well, although was definitely moving pretty slowly through the forest and would have been a long way down in any of W40, M50, M55. The novelty of catching the public bus to/from the event hasn't worn off yet (all these people in work clothes got off and morphed into orienteers), and it's such a gorgeous route with lakes shimmering in the evening light.

I couldn't face going back to my dungeon room at the bogan hostel yet afterwards, so wandered into Gamla stan again and paid 4x as much for my dinner as I had done last night*, but it was really good Italian and the only way I could tell that it wasn't authentic was that my spaghetti had been pre-cut into shorter pieces :)

*Ricky & Tash beware: Stockholm restaurant prices are the polar opposite of those in Hungary.

C • Restaurant prices 2

Don't you wish sometimes, that you could bank time? I mean, thanks to the efficiencies of the Viennese transport system and the fact that as it turns out, flights within Europe aren't treated as international and don't require you to be checked in >90min beforehand, I was actually 2 hours early for my flight to Stockholm. I could have done with re-using those 2 hours later on, though; while an optimist might have thought that flying in at 1515 would be ok for an event near Nacka with starts from 1730-1930, the pessimist in me wasn't so sure...

I'm well aware that Arlanda Airport is 40km NW of Stockholm and the airport bus takes nearly an hour to get into the city, so had planned to catch the Arlanda Express train which is 250% faster and 250% more expensive. Thankfully I hadn't bought a ticket yet, because the trains weren't running :( Waited half an hour for my bag to materialise (checking in early has its drawbacks when this means that one's luggage is the last to emerge at the other end), then over half an hour in the Flygbussarna queue - I was lucky to get on the 4th one which came along - which then stopped at 2 other terminals, so basically I left the airport precinct an hour and a half after landing.

Not-unexpectedly, the traffic was shite, especially in the city at peak hour, and so the bus took half an hour longer than it usually does, and I finally got on the subway towards Sodermalm at 6pm. Dumped my bag at the hostel, grabbed my O gear, headed down to Slussen to catch what turned out to be an 1845 bus towards the event. I have certainly never taped my ankles on public transport before! Thankfully the OK Ravinen clubhouse is just across the road from the bus stop :) Arrived at 1905, heard from Briohny how nice the forest is, changed shoes and ran 1km to the start, starting almost precisely 4 hours after my flight had landed.

It was lovely forest, but surprisingly dark among the trees (overcast and trying to rain) and I could only read my map properly when on the top of any little open mossy hills. And yep, the forest is dry all right; it's even safe to go through marshes, although still very slow. Actually, I was surprised how slow I was in general - looked at my watch at control 6 (which I'd taken a bad route to and then got confused by the tracks) and had been out half an hour already. So by the time I finished it was nearly 9pm, and I hopped on the next bus out of there. I'm ashamed to say that dinner was courtesy of the McDonald's at Slussen; after all, the steps up from the bus interchange take you right through its foyer, and I'd never really got around to lunch...

Weird that the sun currently sets an hour later here than it did in Vienna. Apparently that's the difference between 48 and 59 degrees latitude (longitudes are almost identical and the flight today went pretty much due north. At one point I looked down and saw Bornholm!).

C • Events 1

There's a large walled park/garden about 2km NW from where I'm staying, so I went to find it. Therein I saw more people running than I had thus far in the whole of Vienna, and lots of people walking dogs of all shapes & sizes. They really love their dogs here, and since most people live in apartment houses, there are signs absolutely everywhere warning people to clean up after their dogs (picture of a cute dog saying "Nimm ein Sackerl fuer mein Gackerl"). And Inspector Rex is even allowed on the tram/train, for the same price as a child!

I found this out because this afternoon I caught the tram 10km north to Nussdorf, from which it was possible to walk up to Leopoldsberg at 425m, 300m above the Danube and which is said to be the northeasternmost point in the Alps. (History question: what is the significance of 12 September 1683 in these parts?) From there the walking trail towards Kahlenberg dipped into a saddle and I encountered something which I think Ricky & Tash would really enjoy (and which needn't cause Kay to fear that her MTBWOC team members might get injured, because harnesses are compulsory): a treetop ropes course https://www.waldseilpark-kahlenberg.at/

Kahlenberg is at 485m and has a 22-metre tower, the Stefaniewarte, from the top of which there are 360-degree views over Wien and the Donau - totally worth the 1 Euro the little old ladies at the bottom were collecting. There was a cycling race going on in the vicinity and I looked it up when I got home; men did 9 x 20km laps down to the river and back up again, while women did 5 (and were rewarded with proportionately less prizemoney). I wandered back down to Nussdorf at leisurely pace, although I didn't stop at any of the Heurigen, and as I reached the Nutbush City Limits I found a statue which basically said "Beethoven lived here", and in fact the tram left from Beethovenstrasse.

In the evening I decided to do something different, and, having sussed out the delights on offer in the Prater (for some reason I rather like the canival atmosphere of amusement parks, especially at night) took the Wienerriesenrad ferris wheel which rises 65m above Vienna, for glorious sunset views of the city, the hills where I had been earlier in the day - although the river wasn't visible - and the colourful lights of the Prater. Basically there are about 30 cabins into each of which 15-20 people can easily fit, and the wheel takes about 15 minutes to go around. But it's also possible to pay 360 Euro for a romantic couples' dinner inside your own private* cabin, and the waiters step on board to deliver a new course at the completion of each circuit.

*apart from all the people in all the other cabins gawking at you, that is.

C • Sep 12 1683 3

C • Epic 3