Training Log Archive: Gswede

Originally had a Madsa classic on the schedule, but, after experiencing the state of my legs yesterday, I decided to take a recovery day and attack Madsa tomorrow. Two map sessions left. Legs felt great.

100 pushups, 10xpedestal, 10 minute plank, 20 pullups

So there's a mid-summer festival here in Otepää tomorrow and Friday down at Pühajärve, the town's lake.

There's a long line-up of artists, Swedes, Finns, and Estonians. Probably the most interesting act will be Tommy Cash, who is Estonia's current "rap sensation." This festival in Otepää will be his first appearance in Southern Estonia. Welcome to deep Estonian culture. Tommy Cash's hit song "Winaloto". Some NSFW images. Okay, maybe everything is NSFW.

Legs were surprisingly tired. Wasn't able to fight through the terrain as much. Focus was placed on reading the contours and using the compass accurately in the green. It worked pretty well. This is the same distance as the relay on one of the most relevant maps. So it'll be great to be rested, have controls, and be racing others.

http://sprintseries.org/doma/show_map.php?user=gsw...

Recovery jog along the lake. Legs are pretty beat. Low mileage and high intensity from here to WOC except for one day.

Slept really poorly last night. It's amazing how much the lack of complete night affects my schedule. I've lived almost my entire life right around 40 degrees of latitude and it would seem that, for prolonged periods, that is where I'm most comfortable. No use lamenting it now, just got to get used it.

Jogging there and back.

Interval sesh next to the lake.

I scoped an unpaved road on my run yesterday that ran alongside the lake. I decided it'd be much better for intervals than the asphalt bike path. It was, but the footing was kinda crappy in a few spots and it did have more climb than I was expecting. No biggie. I just adjusted my pace range from 3:00-:10 to 3:03-:13 and, the same as last session, if I couldn't hit the pace on any of the intervals, I could take another minute of recovery jog.

So the session was 5x1k@3:03-:13 on 1:45 recovery jog (15 secs less than last week)

Times:
3:07
3:09
3:09
3:15 (took 2:45 after this)
3:02

80 pushups, 10xpedestal, 5 minute plank, 20 pullups

Explored the other side of the lake. Beautiful trail network over there. Legs are starting to feel strong again.

100 pushups, 20xpedestal, 10 minute plank, 20 pullups

Focused on going as straight as possible and fighting through green. Failed at 9 after losing focus past the path. But rather than continuing I stopped, jogged it out for a few minutes, and pushed the error out of my mind before starting anew. It worked.

The point of the session was to go straight and push through the green with confidence. Definitely achieved that goal. It was better to stop and regroup to make the training worth it. It's very difficult to maintain a high level of confidence without controls or streamers in such diffuse terrain; it'll be nice to have that type of confirmation.

Also got some great speedwork during my cooldown when I was chased by a dog through the woods. Why do I have such bad luck with dogs in the woods? Or good luck because I was really moving (3:20/k) and reading the map too!


http://sprintseries.org/doma/show_map.php?user=gsw...

This course went pretty well except for three spots: the trails around six were all but gone, legs 8-9 and 9-10 were possibly the worst green I've seen yet in Estonia, and I didn't take the time to get back into the map after a nasty fall on the way to 13.

It took me 10 minutes to get from 8 to 10. I struggled in this terrain because it was super green, had been logged, and was quite diffuse. But I'm sure that we'll have legs like this in the long at some point. Going to analyze how I can attack it effectively.

I stopped at 15 because the point of this session was to get 70-85 minutes of long distance test time. If it were at any other point in the season, I would have loved to continue. But we're too close to WOC to overreach.

Still having trouble finding the physical intensity needed for this terrain. I suspect I need to continue focusing on recovery after the WC and Spanish training camp.

Will, when you read this, just know that you won today. But I'm not done yet.

http://sprintseries.org/doma/show_map.php?user=gsw...