Training Log Archive: ndobbs

WC Long,
Fossum, Norway.

Chasing start.

It might conceivably have gone ok if I hadn't spent 15 minutes looking for my Emit brick before eventually finding it 3m to the left of the branch that had sent it flying.

I wanted to cry. I still want to cry.

C • Hug 3

Covered a Scandic towel with blood after slicing my hand swimming this morning. Broke my shin off a rock on the way to the second control after the associated foot went into a hole. Sliced my hand bigger climbing the mountain after the ninth. Re-opened a little-finger slice from yesterday. The Emit incident was 300m after the 19th control. The water after the 20th control had returned to a truck, 100m from where it had been and where I was. I waved disdainfully at the guy. 200m later my Camelbak ran dry, 3 and a bit k before the spectator control. The fence leading to the map exchange was still there. The poles that had been holding the fence had been taken down. The people staffing the map exchange and drinks point were lovely. The strawberry reception at the finish had run out of strawberries.

WC Middle,
Fossum, Norway

Öberg and Waaaalaar Kaaas won in 35:31.

I was 83rd out of 92 finishers. Crap, in other words. Physically I was ok but not good. No power, no zip. But much better than early in the week, at least.

A lot of the race I navigated competently, but made a couple of big mistakes and got a bit sloppy in the second half.

1 ok; 2 ok; 3 lost 30 seconds, kept the head and relocated easily; 4 ok; 5 lost 10 seconds on route choice and 5 or 10 by mildly overshooting the control; 6 ok; 7 lost 10-15s, used tv camera and cables in the circle :) ; 8 was the long leg, chose a good route I think, ok; 9 started ok, then lost maybe a minute, strange; 10 was diagonally uphill, looked scary but not too scary, but I misread a feature (hill on spur too small to be mapped, or maybe it was just a spur?) and made a 2 minute mistake, relocated on a big track! ; 11 lost 30s on zigzags, kept moving...; 12 was ok, got stuck for a bit behind a czech girl in the green, she didn't seem overly excited about her race; 13 I've just seen a nice non-obvious path option, certainly would have been faster than what I did... a little too far to the right of the line, lost 15s; 14 was hesitant a third of the way in; 15, 16, 17, 18 ok, maybe lost 5-8s on 18; 19 I was scrappy, staccato, weaved a bit early on and when I hit the paths, got annoyed with the paths so I went straight to the control :) ; 20 I got confused by a teepee, eventually decided it wasn't (the boulderfield) on the map; 21 oops, caught on tv too, and visible to the arena... I seem to enjoy public embarassment... 20s lost.

So at that speed, 46 would have been a good time... but I can run faster than that (or used to be able to).

Nice swim in the sea, 20+C. Followed by bad pizza. Hope I'll have some energy tomorrow. Gonna be loooonnnnnnnggg

C • 46? 3

WC Model,
Fossum, Oslo, Norway

I need to go back to school. Racing in this is going to take a lot of discipline, making sure there is a plan for each leg which makes it simple, or at least minimises the scope for mistakes.

Beautiful!

Long drive from Stockholm yesterday, shared with JAM. Not much sleep in the hostel with comings and goings during the night... so guess what? Yep, I'm tired :)

C • Good.. 4

Rest HR down to 147, but took some work... still not fully better.

Part of the problem was the large and tasty meal I made myself yesterday evening, so despite going to bed at 10.30 like a good boy, I didn't get to sleep until 12.30 or so. Then I woke up at 4.30, and sleep was broken thereafter. The blinds get quite bright when the sun shines directly on them in the early hours of the morning.

Sommarserien was at Flatenbadet south of Sthlm. To go there I was supposed to get a lift with a dumb blond. Excerpt from conversation:

me: or take T-bana to skanstull and then my car :)
DB: is an option but not so nice :)

So I went to Gullmarsplan to wait for them. And waited and waited. After three attempts they decided against driving through Sthlm, went back to Hjorthagen, and took the T-bana to Skanstull. Only wasted an hour and a half of my time.

Flatenbadet is a nice place for orienteering, detail-rich white forest. Went for a wee swim after. After dinner I won 10kr is a bet with DB.
DB and AQ:


Before running (and after!) I was missing 6 on one and 8 on the other:

C • well done andrew! 2

Rest HR down to below 50, but only just. Still a ways to go.

C • Not so good... 2

another day where I carry training gear to work, but don't bother. Another day off is probably more useful. Zzzz

got up for breakfast, went back to bed. HR has trouble dropping into the 50s, 40 are out of the question

still knackered after another 3 hrs in bed.

three wins out of three over at gg's

there was no love shown

C • you was lucky 2