Training Log Archive: Rosstopher

Running behind on the whole logging thing - which truly isn't so unusual. I wanted to be quick about logging NAOC races. I have put my routes for the Middle, Long, and Sprint up on RouteGadget, so until I can write more, I hope those can serve as a starting point.

RouteGadget page for NAOC

Blue - Sprint - Splits

Blue Long - Splits

Middle - Blue - Splits

It was Sam's week for course design and, because of the moose hunting, she was assigned the map south of the city close to the lake.

In efforts to make it a day training, we all met up at 4:15 and got as quick a start as possible. I was feeling quite enthusiastic and so I was pushing quite hard for the course.

I was a little confused on 3, and stopped short on 5, at which point Annika caught up to me and then it turned into more of head to head race for me. I think I'm just a tad faster than her, but she's pretty crafty.

I think I am responsible for having us cut off the trail a bit too early on the way to 7, and that meant that we both lost some time and it also meant that I got a bit of a lead for a moment, however, she caught back up on 11, and we were racing again for 12-15. This was where I got a contour too high and missed the pit and she pretended like she hadn't seen the control yet, and then sprinted off while my back was turned. Sneaky :)

A strong finish, but she was way far ahead of me on the trail back in, and I never had a chance. Racing against someone like this made the training even more fun.

It was nice to run someplace with firm ground and lots of hills, felt like being in the states!

No official training was planned but Oskar posted a group run on backbanan. I took a break in the workday to join, but did manage to leave my headlamp and garmin back in the lab.

The group was feeling pretty sore from Rockgympa and other trainings this week, so everyone wanted to go quite slowly. Oskar and Johan planned on running two laps and I joined them at chatting pace for the first lap.

I was quite surprised that we ran 34:37 considering how relaxed the pace felt... I guess that's a good sign of fitness. It was a beautiful evening despite the rainy drizzle.

A fun training set by Johan. Forked orienteering loops mixed with 1k trail intervals. Definitely dark enough for a night-o feel. And I accidentally left my compass in my backpack at the club house, so I did my best to simplify the navigation.

The orienteering went well, but I was certainly way off the pace of the other guys. Saw a lot of the women in the forest though. Losing some time on the tricky control locations. Did my 1k loop chasing down some of the juniors and junior women.

Set off on the second loop mostly alone, missed the first control quite a bit and really blew the finishing leg as well, but the part in the middle was good. Second 1k loop was alone.

Third map loop was okay, but I rolled my ankle a little, and there were times when a compass would have been nice. Couldn't find the 5th control on the loop very well, even with Ursula running right past me while I was looking for it.

A really good use of the Norby woods, needed because of moose hunting season.

C • Endangered 3

Johan has been updating the map in Eriksberg to be a sprint standard map. Mostly just OCAD symbol switching, but it looks good. He put up a training on the website for an early morning forked sprint, meeting outside our building at 8am. Perfect.

I started first and he started a minute after. There were no flags so at times it was tricky to find the feature. When Johan caught up, we were running a fairly comparable speed. I took different routes, where ever that seemed feasible and managed to keep up fairly well, finishing only a few seconds behind at the end.

We planned to compare routes and splits a bit in the evening, but then I forgot about it.

A good start to the day!

Albin posted that he was running a 3k on the track, and Henrik joined in and offered to run at 3:00 mins/k pace. I joined in as well, but with the goal of instead trying to run about 9:36.

Conditions were cool but otherwise perfect for running, and the first 800 felt smooth and easy. I let Henrik and Albin block the wind for me, and I wasn't too worried that my first couple of laps were a bit faster than intended.

They quickly broke away, and my pace thereafter fell off. I kept pace for another k, but then the last 3rd of the race was more of a struggle. Just glad that I finished in under 10 this time.

The road to better speed starts here :)

After the 3k, as we were cooling down, a large group of Linné runners ran past to see how we had done. Lisa had led her group down, and so Sam and Boris and the rest of them were there to chat with us and encourage us. They continued on their way, and I swung past work to grab my stuff before practice.

My first time back to Rockgympa this season. We were only doing two sets of the three, but that was definitely enough. A huge crowd of people, almost not enough space to have us all make one circle... if it gets any bigger we'll have to do concentric rings or something.

Everything went smoothly except for the planks. Supporting my body on my extra elbow hardware is uncomfortable, even when padded with a squishy mat.

Innebandy/Chaos after rockgympa. At first, 4 teams of 6 squared off, but then as more and more people went home we got down to fewer and smaller teams.

All the playing with work people on Friday's is paying off. I'm still one of the least skilled in the club, but I'm really getting much better :)

Those of us that live the closest and like playing the most kept at it until 8, a very good day for training, and it feels especially good because last week was spent intently preparing for a group presentation that went off very well today.

25-Mannakorten.

Winsplits

Another early morning, because I was named as the trip coordinator for this race. My responsibility was to make sure that everyone got rides to and from the event and that the club flag was put up and brought home.

The race was a mixed bag, some very good running and navigating, and some pretty sloppy stuff as well. I lost a couple of minutes on 5 by not climbing high enough. Really bad compass and direction into control 8 as well, and then some other minor gaffs. Overall, pleased with my fitness and execution when done well. I just need to sharpen up a bit.

Wish that I could have spent a bit more time with all of the fun people who were there this weekend and who live far away! Seems weird that spending 12 hours in the arena is not nearly enough to see everyone :(

25manna relay

Winsplits for my leg. My result is mislabeled as Pontus, there are so many runners that a few mistakes like this happen.

Woke up early to meet the 6:45 bus departure from the clubhouse. I was well prepared with my newly shaved and dyed and styled hair, my vuvuzela, and some red (okay, pink) rice krispy treats to get into the right spirit of the race.

Some shifts in the team rosters had me placed running the 7th leg on Linné's 2nd team. This meant that I got to run with Sam and Boris. Roommate relay team! It also meant that I had a few hours to spectate before my turn came. I did my best to be loud and conspicuous in support of our 5 teams including an early-morning, whole-club, call and response cheer. Our 1st team was on fire, and had worked it's way into the lead and my team was also making some good moves. We had a reach goal of top 30th and another goal of being the best 2nd club team in the race, and we were within striking distance of these two goals the whole time.

Naturally I was quite nervous before the start, it's an honor to be on the 2nd team and I wanted to prove myself. Luckily, the 7th leg is the one with the least amount of pressure in some ways. It is the last leg with 4 runners, and so the 8th leg runner doesn't go out until all 4 of the 7th leg runners return. Since I was going out 3rd in my group, and Mats was going out 4th, my only responsibility was to do my best to finish ahead of Mats so that I wasn't holding up the show.

I had a strong and focused race, working hard and staying in contact with the map on the somewhat simple course. It wasn't perfect, I lost some time on control 4 when I thought that I saw the spur my control was on over to the right. I went to investigate and then panicked for a moment. Once I recovered things were smooth again. Lost a little more time on 7, when I stopped short on another hill which looked cliffy to me, but then a super quick finish and handed over ahead of Mats.

Mission accomplished.

The rest of the day was spent cheering - our first team suffered a bit of a set back on leg 7, they ended up in 7th overall - my team ended 39th overall, and 2nd of the 2nd teams (not much time separating us from our top 30, and 1st second-team goals). Our third team was the top 3rd team in 82... a really great result. And then I think the 4th team was about 130 or so... but the results are currently down so I can't check. The 5th team was disqualified for a mispunch, but there was a lot of enthusiasm and team spirit for all.

Innebandy without subs today. A fun group, and topped off by the fact that I scored the game winning point. Only downside was when Ilka accidentally pushed me over and I landed directly on the cut on my knee. Ouch. By and large, Friday innebandy is a pretty safe activity, no pushing or falling. Or maybe I fall more often, but can only remember when it hurts?

Another long day at work, and a Swedishly long meeting that started at 4pm. Thus, there wasn't really any way that I could bike over to training on time tonight, as I had hoped.

Instead, I joined Sam for a very relaxed chat/loosen around Stadsskogen and then past the store for mail and dinner food.

Wish there was more time to train, but all in all, very satisfied with life just now.

C • Nice job on Saturday, first... 4

Sam enticed me out for an early morning trip around Backbanan. On the jog over I wasn't feeling particularly motivated to push hard on the course, so instead I opted to run along behind Sam. Pretty wet and slippery, so taking it a bit easy was a safer course anyway. Knee felt pretty good except on the faster downhills where my bruise was complaining a bit.

To and from backbanan. Feels very good to have gotten in some exercise so early in the day. No training in the evening, instead microscope time at work.