Training Log Archive: Kat

Started the Swedish Ultralong Champs, and then decided to head back in after the first hour, as planned. Although I hate not finishing a race, this was the right choice for me. I got in a good amount of training without tiring myself out, did the really long leg to the first control and visited the coolest part of the map, and experienced the mass start. Perhaps next year I'll run the whole thing.

C • Ultralong 1

Jogging back to the finish on trails and roads.

An easy run by myself around Stadsskogen. I felt sluggish, since I was going shortly after waking up and eating breakfast. Feet felt mostly ok, so I've decided to start the Ultralong and then just see how it goes. Since the course is made up of several loops, I should never be too far away from the finish.

Run with Boris to Nåsten to find a cache. Mainly on trails, but cut through the woods towards the end. Nice run and my feet felt ok, but my right achilles is still really tight. So many small niggles!!

C • NIggles? 2

An easy run with Boris around Norby track, then some small trails around Nåsten. It was raining hard most of the time, but this felt nice after the recent hot weather. My feet felt ok, although I am still worried about the blisters. Currently, I am uncertain about running the Ultralong Champs this Sunday. 16.8 km...

Core and pushups.

Today we woke up, packed the tent, and made the long trek back to Nikkaluokta. This time, we did not take the boat, but we did stop for almost an hour near the lake to eat reindeer burgers. Good stuff.

We set off down the trail to the mountains at 9:15 and returned back at around 19:30. The trek out to the top of Kebnekaise was simply spectacular. We started off along a rocky, dusty trail going down the valley. At one point we hit a stream that we couldn't hop across on stones and had to wade across barefoot. My feet went numb within the first two seconds, but hiking afterwards felt amazing. Too bad the feeling only lasted for a few minutes.

We spent a good chunk of time climbing uphill alongside a river, which we eventually had to cross, again barefoot. We stopped for a short snack break here, and then continued up a steep rocky reentrant. Part of the reentrant was completely covered in snow, but we didn't want to get our sneakers wet so early on in the hike, so we used hands and feet to climb on the big rockslide nearby instead. Then we ascended and descended one of the shorter mountains in the area to get to the saddle right before Kebnekaise. We passed a lot of people on our way here and were feeling good. We could see the top of Kebnekaise from this first peak and we were excited about reaching it. We were also happy to find many mountain streams where we could fill up our water bottles. Nothing beats drinking water straight off mountain ice!

The last long stretch, from the saddle up to the flattish area of Kebnekaise, passed relatively quickly. All we had to do was keep climbing upward on the rocks, concentrating in order to stay on the "trail." At this point, the trail was rather hard to distinguish from the rest of the mountain, the only difference being that the trail had red markings and slightly smaller rocks. Finally we made it up to the top, where the snow started. At first I tried to walk in other people's footprints, but eventually I gave up and my feet went numb. This was the only part of the hike when I really wished I had somewhat more suitable shoes. My sneakers had little grip and I kept slipping.

We dropped our bags about 200m from the top and put on an extra layer to make the final trek out to the pointy top of Kebnekaise. Getting up there required some effort because of the slippery footing, and I often had to claw at the snow with my hands to keep from sliding back down, but finally we made it! And then we could turn 360 degrees and see some incredible views. In a way, it was kind of scary to be up there because the peak is very sharp and sliding down the wrong side of it (down the steep glacier) could be very dangerous. But on the flip side, this sharpness just made it seem even more amazing. I've climbed a few other mountains before, but getting to the top of this one truly felt like being on top of the world. One source claims that it is possible to see 11% of Sweden from the top of Kebnekaise. I do not know if this is true, but we could certainly see a lot!!

After taking some photos, we slid back down the peak and ran through the snow to our bags. Then we started the long trek back home. For me, this was a lot harder than going up because it required intense concentration to avoid slipping on the rocks and falling over. I was grateful when we finally made it back home to our little tent. Once again, we had no trouble falling asleep.

C • Snow = awesome 1