Training Log Archive: Cat T

I think that might be me for the season. Ive been battling some irritation in my heel for some weeks (everything tightened up from suddenly running up lots of hills) and after that race and a maybe a bit of celebrating on the way back to Stockholm it feels like i shouldnt be running on it. Its not great to miss blodslitet but i think as it is it can get better with a couple of weeks of rest, but i might do something more damaging if i train another week and race something that tough.

Hopefully i can still do something lighter in the forest by the time i get to norway :-)

Halikko. Leg 5, which is one of the parallel ones with 3 runners, with Ludvig starting just ahead and Filip behind. Did a lot of admin while travelling but a bit frustrated that i neglected to do anything to get my head in the right gear for finnish forest. Realised when i was running vacant and planless to control 1 that i should have done some homework. Got near the right place on compass but then faffed about circling into it. Maybe a minute? After that a little bit shaky to 2 but then found some others to run with and did a much better job. Controlled and minimising time loss, not a great performance but i felt like id found something of my better self! Finally. Not feeling like i could quite dig to the bottom after no sleep and odd eating, but was running fine, not redzoned to keep up with the mini train (it was mostly men running this leg, they were a bit better at some of the rough / steep rocks but i could close the gaps on other places and when they lost seconds in the circle)... It was difficult orienteering and we didn't all run perfectly but 9th in the end was good. Excellent day out and so pleased to finally find more racing mojo again! Motivating for the winter.

Very early into the changeover, parallel legs are a bit nuts and i had no idea what was going on, so best to be ready just in case.

Travelling to Halikko!

a bit late out, got on a roll with admin. time to re-run saturday (but on the long gaffle) to see what ive learnt. purposefully avoided too much analysis so far. nice to have some slightly different legs but also be able to look again at some bits where i messed up and take better-informed routes. didnt do everything perfectly, some bits where i thought i knew the place better than i did, but a better feeling than in the race, so i like to think this camp has been productive.

made life difficult by running from the bottom of the hill and being repeatedly distracted by nice rocks

really stressed, only a ridge run could fix it. luckily there's an absolute gem of a ridge at the next town (Mala Skala) to take my heavy legs up. perfect light too. close between here and idre for coolest camp of the year.

Kalich. Found a course from a race 2 years ago, where i could look at times and gps tracking after. thought it was a middle so really not v happy with how long it was taking. a couple of stops, got caught in some rocks trying to be sure i was in the right gap and one bit of new planted forest that had grown impenetrable since the map was made. felt at the time like i didnt do much right.

turns out it wasnt a middle, feel a bit better after doing the analysis.

more Kalich, a bit because i'd left my thermal at the top. two control picking loops on the hilltops. maybe from running here already but i found that i wasnt faffing about as much. not perfect but not as bad. still one bad route choice and always difficult to read the contours under the rock detail.

Drabovna, more insane rock formations and steep hills. lots of this was actually quite low intensity, it wasnt easy to take the orienteering at any speed... tried to make it a mix of intense stuff and places where i could open up a bit more. two more quality sessions to go, should be a bit shorter than this. feel like i am entering off season mode, not so worried about my awful speed, it's just important that i try to get something good quality done while i'm here.

place is gorgeous, especially in autumn colours, so weird that it was also deserted. in the uk they would be charging entry fees...

Thought it would be a good time for the touristy run. Went to see some more rocks, which were very nice :-)

Quite tired legs, mostly control picking round some sandstone.

Went somewhere called Bora, which must be right up there with the places near millau as some of the craziest rocks ive been on. Even more so because it didn't look too much on the map, but the crags on the ground were all v high. Lots of squeezing through tiny gaps and scrambling. One bit had "danger of death" signs everywhere, which wasnt ideal. Maybe not the best place to wear trainers but enjoyed it. Helped that i stolen the right training and tapes were still out.