Training Log Archive: Rosstopher

C • Zoom 2

Tonight was Blodomloppet in Uppsala, a running festival more than a running race, with a 5k and a 10k race and lots of crowds and music and something like 13000 participants. I hadn't signed up, but Mats's company had an extra spot in the 10k that they weren't using, so I used that bib number for the race.

I raced really well, felt great the whole way, and had a pretty awesome experience. Off the line there was a pack of 8 running together at the front for about 2 k, then a couple guys dropped off, and Lukas and Mats pulled pretty far ahead. At about 5k, I noticed that Hugo was starting to fade and so I pulled ahead on that hill and set my sights on reeling in Jan and Mattias. At this point it was fun to realize that I was training with all of the people ahead of me in the race, it was an OK Linné party :)

At 7k, Janne pulled away but Mattias seemed to lose a little ground and for the next couple of K I tried to close the gap. I was making up time until we got into the area near my lab, and then he just started running so fast. Down the hill and into the track I pushed really hard, but I just wasn't quick enough to make up the spot.

Ended up 5th, with 34:34 for just over 10k on a course with a couple of small climbs. Very happy. Also, Jan said he'd buy me ice cream if I finished under 36 minutes... so woohoo :)

C • Great run! 14

I very much wanted to have a fast time for my 3k time trial. After the long week of racing at the EOCs I was perhaps not fully rested, but the conditions were just about perfect today. Warm and calm. I headed to the track just before lunch, and was surprised to see it so busy, I guess there was a high school out there training today, it was a bit annoying to dodge so many people during my run. I did a couple of laps to get moving, but noticed that my pace even for 200m strides wasn't as fast as my goal pace for the trial.

Started out okay, but was just not fast enough in the legs, losing seconds on each lap and feeling just a bit empty. I suppose it's to be expected, but I want to get some more track workouts in before the sprint this summer. I think I'm in the best shape of my life, but I seem to have trouble showing that in a time trial :)

I was incredibly nervous before starting to run, anxious to show a good time. Now, after the run, a little let down. Will run another one of these to pace Boris soon.

C • You still beat me by 7 seco... 6

C • tell me next time so can I ... 4

Sprint in Ulleråker.

Feeling spry and fresh, a good effort and a good race. I was pretty clean through the first part of the course, took some less than perfect routes but executed well on 9, 11, and 12. Nothing was a big disaster, and my result was pretty close to the big dogs tonight. Pleased. Course seemed a bit bland, especially since I've run on the map before.

Splits

A nice easy run to work. Lush growth abounds in the Stadsskogen right now.

Then took the day as a rest day, skipping the club hill intervals in the evening and grilling back at bloden with the crew.

I went to rockgympa to enjoy the good company, with the intention of skipping the workout and having a rest day. It was so nice outside that rockgympa was moved to the grassy field near the school. The group was very diligent with the exercises, and to pass the time without the standard music playlist, we instead went around in a circle naming breakfast cereals and animals. I would say that I know more breakfast cereals than the rest of the group combined and that Boris knows more animals than can be considered normal or healthy.

I just did a bunch of situps and some of the other core strength stuff.

C • cereal and animals 4

Team USA didn't have a full relay team, so instead I ran an open course in the morning before the EOC relay started.

I signed up for the ÖM9 course with the intention of racing hard, because I had been enjoying the terrain and the competition. There are always a few really good runners doing the open races, so I knew that I could compare my time with those guys.

I started really nicely with good flow and focus, even if my legs were feeling a little tired heading up the hill at the start. I got pulled off on 6 though, when I saw runners punching a different boulder, and also got way off the line on 8, but didn't lose too much time just a little bit of that nice flow-y feel that I had at the start.

Big mistake on 11 when I got to the circle, but didn't see the feature and decided that I needed to go over one more ridge, but then an okay but slightly sloppy finish. I was probably getting a little tired and not focusing enough on executing my plans well.

Running speed was good, and happy with the race apart from the time lost on 11.

winsplits

Event: 3000m Time Trial
 

Long Distance Qualification.

If you have Java and some free time, you can watch my run as today all the guys wore GPS harnesses.

Splits

I had a good run today, and I am happy with the routes that I took, my most visible mistake was a truly poor attack into the second control, and maybe I lost 45 seconds there, but even a clean run would only have me a couple minutes faster, and only one place higher. I guess I need to run a little faster to compete at this level :)

Even so, my legs were a little bit burn-y as I climbed up the last hill towards the finish, which is not reflected in this photo taken by the organizers.

C • That pictures is awesome 4

Day 1 of European Champs

It's my birthday. So far I got rain pants. I think that's a very useful present. I've always wanted them.

C • Happy Birthday! 8

C • I just watched your GPS rou... 3

EOC Middle Distance Qualification.

I was very excited to race this morning, and I didn't mind the drizzly slightly chilly and very windy weather. I went out for a short loop on the warmup map and was again reminded about how fast the forests were and how subtle the bland features could be, then it was off to the start.

From the start I had a bit of a panic-y feeling when the two others in my start minute ran off a different direction from me, but I knew that I was on a different course and I just headed down the hill and into my control.

I made a mistake on the next control, climbing too sharply, and finding a parallel reentrant in the low visibility of the green slash. Once I stopped moving it was hard to read any of the hills in the terrain around me, and I was quite hesitant as I recovered and found the flag.

The next few controls I hit cleanly and with confidence, perhaps not going straight enough on the line, but moving quickly and anticipating everything that I saw.

To approach control 9, I stayed low along the shelf of the hill until I saw the boulder before climbing up the steep bank. This uphill effort, I am convinced, helped contribute to a large error on the next control. I was climbing steadily across the blank hillside looking for a flag in a reentrant. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw such a control several contours above me and I convinced myself that it was mine, though the code proved that it wasn't. In the next couple of minutes I scoured the hillside and especially a bushy reentrant that wasn't on the map, trying to make sense of my mistake. It took me awhile to go far enough because the reentrant my control was actually in looked green enough to be the vegetation boundary that was just past the control.

The rest of the course was uneventful, I was navigating well, but feeling a little more tired after my big error at 10. The climbing to 15 and 18 was excruciating but it was great to hear Judy cheering me in the finish chute. Per had a break in the action too, and he announced my finish as well which was a cool birthday present in itself :)

I was 41st in my heat, which is indeed disappointing, but even with a clean race my time would be 3 minutes outside of qualifying for the A final. It's a tough field here at these races.

I drew my routes as best I can remember Map and splits are back up now splits after some changes in the women's classes due to technical issues.

C • Hej little brother, happy b... 2

Feeling a bit better today. Today we headed to the official model event for EOCs, and I ran on the 1 :10,000 scale version. I wanted to run pretty hard, to get a sense for what the terrain looked like at race tempo, and also, since the woods were really beautiful, it was just really nice to run hard.

I set out, with the plan to visit the model controls in numerical order, and that was pretty good, I collected 31-43, but didn't want to criss-cross the map one more time to collect 44, so I called it a day.

No real trouble out there, the mapping is pretty clear for me. The marshes very runnable, the green very runnable, and the straight line route choices make the most sense.

Heading down to the rental car place. A drizzly cool morning, but it felt great to run, if only to have clear airways for a few minutes.

Then back up to Bloden to pick up Jeff and Judy and head up north to EOCs

Arrived in Mora, feeling sleepy and sick but happy to have accomplished the hard part of the day.

Immediate turn around and then out for my first EOC training course. Sam had done her typical amazing job organizing all of this stuff, so that she had maps and directions and all of that, and all I had to do was bring my pillow for the car ride and my o-stuff for the training.

The first few controls were through the marshes, which were very runnable and also still a little bit frozen, then it was up a giant hill to a boulder on the slope. I ran to 'a' boulder, but it wasn't the right one, and I didn't see it on the map (partially obscured by the circle) so I assumed that it was one much farther on, and spent some time relocating.

The next tricky one was a long downhill leg towards a vegetation boundary, and I was not careful enough and ended up being much too high on the slope.

A section of clean running through the middle of the course, and I caught back up to Rasa, just to see her again on 17, when I followed the wrong reentrant down the hill.

A really fun training, good to run with Robbie and Rasa in the woods some and nice to get a feel for what the races will be like.

Sick day more than a rest day. Feeling crummy enough that I didn't even think about going to midday innebandy. I would normally have stayed home, but it was a special lab bonding day, and I wanted to join the whole group for soccer mini-golf (just as awesome as it sounds) and then a fancy party.

Good times, good food, but got home pretty late after the party wrapped up, so really shouldn't call it a rest day at all. Still, I think cointreau is universally considered to be good for killing off sicknesses :)

Orienteering on a rainy evening in Vänge. It was a fairly junky forest, but I wasn't pushing very hard, so I didn't mind that much tonight. A few bobble, but overall pretty happy with the navigation... now just to get over this cold.

Sprint Cup race in Stenhagen. Albin had explained that he set the ideal sprint, so I certainly didn't want to miss this one.

I had a little bit of difficulty with the navigation, getting caught by an uncrossable fence near the beginning and then losing some more with a less than perfect route to 13. Really lost time by miscounting trails on the way to 17, and overshot the last control too. So lots of time lost in the end.

Running was okay, but not my freshest and piggest, that's for sure.

Splits

Warmup before intervals. Feeling really stiff and sore. Skipped the drills to sit down and really stretch my glutes. Coming down with the cold that everyone predicted that I would get from Tiomila.

I felt a little bit responsible for the intervals tonight, as Henrik asked me what kind of intervals I wanted to do, and I said "10x 3 mins, well maybe 8x 3 minutes". And then, that's what the workout turned into.

Not too many guys were running intervals tonight, so it was David up front and Henrik for a couple, and then Micke and me, trying to stay ahead of a horde of women.

glad that I was running with Micke, wouldn't have kept up otherwise.

Tiomila. Long Night.

A very tough race. I didn't have a good performance, despite feeling in top form. The course was physically tough, 17.5 k in some fairly soft forests. Also, at night and with hordes of people, I found the navigation to be really tricky.

I made a few small mistakes early on, but really didn't start to make big mistakes until I got caught up in some trains on the long leg to 7, and then the next little bit.

Sigh, the splits spell out the disaster a bit, I think more than just losing a lot of time, making mistakes early in the course left me exhausted for the last section of relatively simple navigation.

A good experience, but I wish I could have a do over, and just be a lot smarter out there.

Splits

This weekend is Tiomila. I will be racing on the OK Linné 3rd team on the 4th leg. That's the Long Night leg, which is 17.5k. I will probably go out at about 1 am, and I hope to take about 110 minutes.

Weather is currently showing clear skies and 2 degrees C for tonight's race.

Cheer for Sam today too, running the 3rg leg on her team. The women run during the day, and her team Linné 3, is very strong.

C • yeah Ross! 1

Not as many people showed up today for Innebandy, so I got to be on the field a lot more today. Fast action, and a nice crowd. I am definitely getting better. I definitely have a ways to go :)

Tonight, there was no organized club training, but Boris encouraged me to go get some exercise, so I joined him for his planned intervals.

We went out to Stadsskogen to cruise around the horse trail loop, and we warmed up and ran 5 x 90-30, and then a minute break before 5 x 30-90. The shorter intervals at the end of the session were quite fast, and I worked hard to keep with Boris.

Felt strong, happy to be out in great weather. We were sharing the track with the guys from Upsala IF track club tonight, so I got to cheer on Hugo and Jonathon when we were resting.

C • Boris 2

Tonight was a tune up day for Tiomila, and we headed out to Lunsen for a course. Although I am running the long night (4th leg) during the relay, I ran the training during the day today. Waiting until it got dark didn't appeal to me :)

I started great, but got off my line on the way to the second when I convinced myself that I was crossing a different marsh. Took a few minutes to relocate, and got a little flustered.

The third was a long leg and I once again crossed a different marsh and got very confused... sigh, Lunsen keeps you humble.

I was okay for the rest of the race, but not clean really. At least my legs felt strong the whole way, and it was such a beautiful day that I was able to be cheerful.

May 1st is a holiday here in Sweden, so we could sleep in and have a relaxing morning. However, what we choose to do instead was wake up pretty early to head over to the backbana course. Cristina and Melissa and I ran over through the Stadsskogen and Sam biked along with us.

Perfect conditions for a lap of backbana. Ran by myself, and tried for a constant effort for the uphills. Wanted to beat my time from last week.

Very pleased, not as fast as Olle was last time, but getting closer to the 25 minute mark.

And then back home for some food and some power grid. Yeah for friends and productive mornings.