Training Log Archive: BorisGr

Model event for the middle distance at Aydat after driving from Bern with Sandra and Viktoria in the morning. The terrain was virtually impossible to run through and, when you could run, you certainly couldn't read the map at the same time. It was funny to run into a depression and see Jani Lakanen come into it from the other side, look at the map, and throw up his hands in confusion with a smile on his face.

Long warm-up run to the start; cool-down while waiting for Kat.

Middle distance race in conjunction with the kids' relay, Osterakerkavlen, just north of Stockholm. Was very tired due to an unexpected very late night and early morning, so I didn't quite have the legs to run all out, and the concentration level wavered throughout the race. I mostly felt in control while running, but definitely had a few lapses that add up to about 4-5 minutes lost over the whole courses. No big mistakes, which is nice, but still not satisfied with the run. On the bright side, this time last year, when I came into the finish feeling "not satisfied", i would usually be in the bottom quarter of the results, and this year such runs seem to put me around the middle of the pack, which sure seems like improvement. Also, the bottom of my foot didn't hurt during the race, which might be a welcome breakthrough before the World Cups!

C • Nice result! 1

Jogging to the start of the maphike and then back from the finish with Kat. It's nice for both of us to have bikes here - now we can bike right to the woods and not have to run on pavement to get to the map.

Map-hiking with Kat. A nice exercise, teaching you to concentrate the whole time and try to read pretty much every feature you see on the map. On a fine fall day such as today, it's also really enjoyable. The woods are so pretty this time of year!

Running a few legs of the map hike hard, just to test out how the hurt foot feels in the woods. Didn't feel great, but still better than last week-end. Will hope for the best for the World Cups.

Running to KG and back, plus warm-up and cool-down.

Pacing and navigating for Kat as she ran the testbana. I thought of racing it myself up to the last moment, but the hamstring felt tight when i was warming up and did a couple of strides, so i decided to run with Kat instead and help her find the way - it's tricky. It was lots of fun, and Kat ran great, beating all but the two fastest girls, both of whom are on the Swedish national team. I did manage to get us a bit lost a couple of times, but i don't think the result would have been more than 15 seconds off in one direction or another. I also got to run ahead and open the cattle gates for Kat to run through each time we entered or left a field. :)

Morning jog. Legs pretty sore, hamstring pretty sore. DX Deluxe is coming tonight!!! (Again, check out dxdeluxe.se if you haven't yet.)

A bit of warm-up for DxDeluxe. Part of it in a silk robe for effect.

DxDeluxe!
This year's edition was on the brand-new 1:1250 Eriksberg map (http://www.dxdeluxe.se/maps/qual.png) and featured about 120 competitors running around, trying to find 29 controls on a very forked 1.45km course. It was total madness and a great spectacle all at once, as rocks of 40 centimeters were mapped as giant boulders, and a single pine tree was enough to create a whole splotch of white forest on the map. After "training" for this by going on the last two years' maps, i did not have too many problems with the scale, but did lose concentration a couple of times, and a single concentration laps here can cause you to end up on the opposite side of the map before you know it... The controls were marked only by SI units placed on the ground with the beeping turned off, so you had to bend down to punch whenever you spotted the "flag". This mostly went uneverntfully, except for one control down in a great chasm of 25cm or so that i bent down to punch, but could not reach, and ended up toppling onto the SI unit, obscuring the whole control circle! Eventually, i got around the whole course in 13:09 and finished in 28th place out of 65, more than 3 minutes behind the amazing winning time of 9:55. The qualification was followed by the final, where the three best from each gender mass-started on a 500 meter, highly-forked course, mostly in full view of us, the spectators. The "finish arena" featured a giant video screen with the map and courses displayed, loud music playing, and throngs of adoring fans. All that was missing from having a World Championship atmosphere was the voice of Per Forsberg screaming "and he is too late, that's for sure!"
Anyway, after all the racing we all headed down to the clubhouse for some bastu and beer, followed by pizza and a banquet, where the exhausted Troeng brothers were toasted and applauded for their impressive efforts, and DxDeluxe merchandise was awarded to the winners. A good time was had by all.

C • Looks great! 3

Running to/from start of backbana from Polacksbacken, with Kat biking along.

C • Cat on a bike 2

One lap of the backbana in the morning on another lovely day. Felt relatively strong this time - the hills were still really tough, but it felt better than the last couple of times I've run it. This was my best time for the loop - I've never raced it, as I don't really want to break my head open on the downhills, but it's nice to be going at the same intensity as before, but with a faster time.

DX Deluxe training! Running the 2004 version, on a 1:1500 map around Blodstensvagen with Kat and Suzanne. Lots of fun, getting excited about this year's edition of the race!

Running from Blodstensvagen to Kung Bjorns Hill and back. Didn't actually do the course at KBH, since i've done it so many times now. Just walked around instead and sat on the hill, admiring the view and the sheep below.

Warm-up for the club night champs.

C • yes! sheep 1

OK Linne night champs at Lunsen! I think this was the longest night-O i have completed in Sweden, and also my best race. Even though it was Lunsen, it wasn't the most technical course, with many options for trail route choices. I did go straight on the longest leg and was pretty terrified of just running for what seemed like ages through identical looking little swamps, rocky knolls, and the like, until finally finding myself at a trail intersection a couple of hundred meters from the control, almost right on the line. My result wasn't spectacular - 12th place, but the winner ran 60:43, and i was quite happy being 9 minutes back at night over 9km in Lunsen.

C • That's a nice job! 4

Janne's backbana in Uppsala - Splits

Went out for a run on Stadsskogen to see how the foot would hold up on trails and more even surfaces than just the forest. It went better than i expected and didn't hurt too much. Maybe i'll try to stick to running on evenish surfaces this week. Actually timed one of the loops today - 29:56 for the second one. Another beautiful day!

Warming up with Kat (11:53) and then running to the gym after intervals. I went to see my naprapath in the afternoon, to get one more hamstring treatment and ask him about the foot again. He decided that his earlier diagnosis of the foot problem was wrong, and it wasn't a moved ligament: that was a separate problem. Great...

Was going to run with Kat as she did her tempo run, but her foot pod didn't work, so that fell through. Instead, i decided to try a short interval session (first one in a while) to see how the hamstring and foot would hold up, just running on gravel. I ended up doing 5x3 minutes with 1 min rest in between. Felt good and probably should have done at least one more, but the hamstring felt tight on the last one, so i decided this was enough for now.

Gympa!