Training Log Archive: BorisGr

The morning after surviving the club's annual party (this event deserves its own training entry, but what happens in the clubhouse stays in the clubhouse), it was time for Stora Våndan, the annual rite of pain and suffering that I only managed to avoid last year by organizing it. This year's course setters decided to break my course length record from last year and raise the bar to 21.1km for H21. Besides being long and painful, Stora Våndan is a handicap race, where H21's start by running a loop, then come to the next start point and tag D21's, H20's, and H35's, who then start running also. Whoever gets to the next start point first starts whichever classes are waiting there, and so on. (Naturally, on each loop, H21's have a longer course than D21's, who have in turn a longer course than H50's and so on.) First one to finish wins. This event is traditionally rigged in a way that H21's have no realistic chance of winning, and this was the case again this year, as the best H21 was well over half an hour behind the winner, an H12 runner.
Anyway, the sorry bunch of us, hungover H21's, gathered at the start ready to embark on this Odyssey shortly before 11am. The weather was about 0C with a few inches of wet snow on the ground, and more wet snow dripping from the tree branches, making sure that we were soaked and frozen pretty much the entire way.
The first loop is traditionally run at a very easy pace, and then the pace gradually escalates. The whole group (7 of us) ran the first loop together easy and then tagged the girls, who took off a lot faster than we were moving. The pace went up slightly then and grew steadily for the next few km. Then after the third start point, I made a mistake and had to run really hard to catch the pack. By then Ulrik had made a breakaway attempt and was gone. Soon enough, Mats also went for it, and the remaining group consisted of Patrick, Andrew, Lasso, Måns Winnem, and myself. We stayed together pretty much the rest of the way, horrified to see after 100 minutes and 22 controls that 20 controls still remained! On the last two loops, the pace really went up, and we mostly took turns leading. Then, we all missed the second-to-last control. Patrick recovered first and took off for the last one. Lasso and I followed with Andrew just behind. Patrick missed the last control, and Lasso got in the lead. I punched just behind Patrick, but ran out to the trail at the wrong angle and had no hope of catching either of the guys. This was quite an epic experience, and I am glad to have finished and am impressed with my comrades-in-arms for surviving as well. I actually felt reasonably strong most of the way, especially after recovering from the catch-up sprint I had to put on midway through the course. After the finish, though, all I could manage was to collapse in a heap and ingest whatever food I could get my hands on.
I can't wait till next year!
Splits from H21 (only a few controls had SI units): http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/sv/default.a...
Map Part 1: http://my.opera.com/borisgr/albums/showpic.dml?alb...
Map Part 2:
http://my.opera.com/borisgr/albums/showpic.dml?alb...
(Sorry for the poor image quality. Time to get a new camera.)

Easy run on a gorgeous winter morning with Patrick and Mari. Thin layer of snow, frozen marshes, and sunshine. Just perfect! We did "Rob's loop", through the north part of Nåsten and then back through Hågadalen and Stadsskogen.

My first trip to the gym this year. A bunch of core, then legs, and some arms and shoulders. Boring as usual. I'd rather be in the woods.

Jogging from KG to the castle and back, plus running down the hill between intervals.

Secret Russian Running Drills

Hill intervals at the castle hill. I felt a bit out of sorts in the morning, so I decided to only run 6 of these and start out taking it easy in the beginning. This worked well. I was well behind the fastest guys on the first couple, but was closer and closer to the front as the intervals went on, and felt strongest in the end. Nice feeling. The loop was around 625 meters long with 40 meters climb. It starts out pretty flat, and gets progressively steeper, and finishes off with 50 or so flat meters at the top. The jog down took around 3 minutes.
Splits:
2:20
2:17
2:17
2:15
2:13
2:09

Circuits and stuff after the intervals.

Running from Polacksbacken to and from backbana start.

Wednesday lunchtime backbana, by myself this time. Pushed reasonably hard, especially on the uphills, though the time wasn't very fast. It was quite muddy and slippery, so that probably made some difference. Legs felt surprisingly ok, almost no hamstring pain.

Warm-up and a slight cool-down

Wednesday Night-O at Jumkil.
Did the middle course again, this time with my normal lamp. Orienteered pretty well and felt surprisingly good running. A few small mistakes towards the end, but mostly in control otherwise.
Results: http://www.oklinne.nu/onsdagsnatt/results.php?id=4...

Janne's backbana in Uppsala - Splits

Tuesday night run, Course M. A lot of scrappy woods on this one, mostly running along rides. Spent most of the run with Andrew and Patrick. Was quite tired, not surprisingly, after a 2.5 hour plane delay got me home at 3am this morning. Patrick and Andrew did a great job navigating, so I was mostly cruising along in the back making sure we didn't do anything silly.

C • Oh no, what a shame I wasn?... 1

Running around one of the courses from the Oxford City Race with Kat and Scott. Running is just so much more fun when there is a map involved!

C • Oxford! 2

Core strength at Kat's place after the run.