Training Log Archive: Anvil

Finally got out and hiked the ring of peaks surrounding Stamsund.
Timed it just right so the clouds were receding as I started to scale the first peak - the sun was being a bit cheeky though and coming out as I was going uphill then disappearing when I wanted to take a photo.
A few very scary sections along the edge of some very steep drop off had me on the verge of being a pussy and turning round until a bloke passes me in the other direction with his tiny little dog - so I hardened up. He did give me a few tips of which track to take when it split which helped, I would have ended up on a dead end overlooking a 50m drop if I hadn't.
Was a lot shorter than expected and I took far too much food, but still ended up eating it all. I'm now addicted to these little jaffa cake biscuits - they're super cheap too which doesn't help.
Gonna take it easy(ier) over the next couple of days, July is going to be mental with races.

C • jaffa 1

Still in Stamsund.
Same basic out and back route as yesterday, but steered clear of the crappy tree pushing tracks and shitty gravelly ski tracks. Tried to go a bit faster in the rocky and marshy sections to make myself work a bit . Tried the 'disengage brain' technique in the rocks which works quite well once you've got good momentum up, but not so well when the track takes a sharp unexpected turn - a few joints got twisted more than they would normally like to keeping myself upright in those situations.
Norway again stands out against its neighbours in that people acknowledge you and even smile back when you pass them on trail. Bizarre, I had got used to all the grumpy scowls in Finland!

Stamsund.
Was meant to do a hike of the surrounding mountains, but cloud was coming in and I knew the photos would be not so good so decided to sleep in instead (to be fair, it is a Saturday).
Found a track that went along the base of the mountains which was a lot of fun, very soft in places and some awesome stuff amongst some rock. A bit of back and forth along some dead end tracks and others that petered out around a lake - I was getting into pushing trees out of the way with my hands type areas at some points.
I spent a little too much time looking up instead of at my feet in places, came a fairly hefty cropper at one point and had to sit and feel sorry for myself for a while. Surprisingly no blood lost though.

Just had to attempt the ocean this far north. After nancying about finding a good entry point on the rocks (lots of seaweed and sharp limpet things), got in, lost all the air out of my lungs, got out again.
Wasn't as cold as I expected, but, still pretty damn cold. New milestone - furthest north I've been in the water.

Had planned on a run, but was it was hurting walking up steps today and just couldn't be arsed.
Then as I was walking back for the supermarket I got the urge to climb a nearby hill. It didn't look so bad, lots of nice green grass.... but it was bloody steep with lots of holes and some new evil bigger brother of nettles growing on it. I now know not to scratch.
Killer views from the top made it worth it.



See.

Kabelvåg to Svolvær and back.
Tightarse run. It's a 5.5km trip and costs 29 NOK (~6 bucks) for the trip and its faster when you include all the waiting.
It's actually 2 runs with a 4 hour Trollfjord and fishing cruise in between. I didn't catch anything (why ruin a constant lifetime benchmark), but got to eat what other caught. Nothing better than eating something that was alive 30 minutes ago.
Run itself was pretty uncomfortable, I'd stuffed myself on the breakfast that was included in the hostel fee (as I said, tightarse), and then was full of fish and bread on the way back. But, some nice scenery, a photo stop and undulating hills at least provided distraction.

Reason for photo stop

Kabelvag
Lofoten Islands, Norway. This is what I've been looking forward to and it hasn't disappointed. The bus ride in from Narvik was all kinds of jaw dropping awesomeness. Big pointy jagged mountains with lush green slopes amongst clear as glass water.
As for the run, felt pretty average - just hugged the coast line as much as possible. Lots of little granite hills, reminds me a bit of Tassie East Coast, just a lot greener and more epic.

Narvik.
Norway rocks. Up till now, I've enjoyed the runs I've done since Helsinki, like you enjoy a Sunday roast - enjoyable, but kind of forgettable. That was more like it. After an awesome train ride from Kiruna coming in along the edge of a fjord, I was feeling pretty sleepy but decided to head out.
Only had a basic tourist map, so headed for a spot marked as a view point and from there, headed up into the hills. After constantly climbing for 20 mins, I came up to a lake in the middle of nowhere with a little hut and a bunch of kids having a BBQ and fishing. The terrain was awesome up there, all open and spongy and covered in rock. Did a bit of a loop (this is what I hope some of the upcoming races terrain will be like here and in Switzerland) and headed back down.
Spotted some light poles and headed towards them (good rule of thumb here) and zigzagged back down the hill through some more awesome terrain.
Heaps of fun and great views. Good thing I didn't have the camera - I'd still be out there!

Kiruna.
The camp ground I'm at now is on the outskirts of town surrounded by forest and paths. Found a map at the start of one of the paths and picked the blue circuit that looped around the base of the big mountain/ski run/quarry/old open cut mine. The loop I picked turned out to be a wide gravelly ski trail that wasn't much fun to run along, so when a little single trail branched off with a sign saying 'Midnattsolsomethingsomthing' I decided to take that instead (my guess is 'Midnight Sun Trail' given by the smiley sun on each sign and the fact it was the only marked trail that wasn't lined with lamps).
Much better, it wound its way through the forest up right to the top of the hill, awesome where it got all moor-ish at the top and you could go cross country on the soft springy vegetation. Awesome views from the top, could see all the national parks in the distance with all the snowy peaks and what not.
Awesome area, Lonely Planet frustratingly played it down - there is so much to do here, caving, rock climbing, rafting, canyoning and of course, miles of hiking/ski routes. Wouldn't have faffed around in Finland for so long if I'd known.

Finally made it to Kiruna, a long days travel - 8 hours moving + 5 hour wait at the border. Could go for a run, its 10:30pm now and it's sunny and blue skies - but my legs are shot. Got 2 weeks of no darkness, should be interesting!

Still in Oulu. Went north along the edge of the power station lake, down through the botanical gardens and back along the various bridges and pedestrian tracks through the islands back to the camp ground.
I renew my approval of Oulu, so well set up for pedestrians and I think the entire city has free wifi.
Had to do a toilet stop part way through and think I picked the mosquito breeding ground of Europe. Have never had mosquitos in my mouth before. Not enjoyable.
Long day of travel tomorrow, I'm hoping the 2 minute train to bus connection in Kemi is one of those the bus waits until the train arrives .

Oulu.
Well, it was 11pm, I should have gone to bed, but I couldn't resist going for a run cause it was still nice and bright outside!
Planned to do a lap of the island this camp ground is on, but got sidetracked by developments and went into the forest in the centre where I got disoriented and ended up on a very boggy, muddy trail. Popped up on the south side of the island and followed some duckboard out to the edge of the water and almost got carried out by the squadron of mosquitos living out there.
The little bastards were everywhere on the track back, had to cover my mouth and could feel them in my nose and hitting my forehead all the time. The ones here are pretty slow and easy to squash at least.
Oulu isn't the prettiest city, but I finally feel like I'm travelling again. Looking out into the Gulf of Bothnia (is that right? the big chunk of water between Sweden and Finland) at all the little islands having the sun set for about 2 hours felt good. I'm getting a lot of, 'we don't get many Australians here' a bit now as well, which is good.

Kuopio.
So to the main reason I came here was to have a crack in the 'Worlds Largest Smoke Sauna'. As it's a bit hike out of town I decided to kill 2 birds with one stone (and save some dosh) and run out there. I'm in love with the google maps 'walking' route finder which picked up 2 pedestrian bridges that weren't mapped.
Felt really good running, it's interesting - the last 2 runs I haven't wanted to go out at all, then felt really good once I started.
Got to the sauna and was a bit disappointed. It was pretty small and was filled with families with kids running in and out, not the intense super-hot meditative experience I wanted. And I couldn't find where to pay.
So, I was feeling good still, so ran back, but took a lot of forest paths in the general direction. Pretty boggy in places and didn't have the right shoes but some spectacular forest (once again).
Listened to most of the new Hilltop Hoods album on the way out. Not as good as The Hard Road, but still a few crackers on there. Fifty in Five is just a rip of of We Didn't Start The Fire, but I love it anyway
North again tomorrow.

I'd been looking forward to doing a run at this place for a while. Staying on the shores of Lake Pielinen, I had images of a path twisting along the shore of the lake amongst pristine forest.
What I got was summer cottage development hell. The forest was there, unfortunately it seemed every couple of metres there was a cottage, or a cottage being built, or the forest was being cleared for a new cottage. Add to that all the fences and private property signs (what happened to 'the right to land' or whatever it's called here), I ended up sticking to the main road. Eventually found a gravel track which led for a few nice ks down a spit into the lake (with cottages on either side). There was a big one blocking me getting to the very point of the spit, so I went bush through some very nice white mossy forest. The point was the best, felt very remote. Sighed and turned back just in time. It started raining when I got back and is still going 24 hours later!

Savonlinna. Tried to go for a run, but legs didn't want to. Did a lap of Sulosaari, an island near where I was staying.
On a bit of a come down after Jukola where nothing impresses me. Hope it doesn't last.

Just as good as last time. Running leg 2 this year, unfortunately the emit pre-warning didn't go through so I left Duncan waiting at the changeover for 4 minutes (and lost over 100 places). then made it worst one the tricky first in green, wasting 3 minutes - I'd got into the circle and within 20 metres of the control and didn't see it (visibility was ~1m in the dark so you needed to know exactly where you were, which I didn't).
Apart from that there I didn't lose much time; I took a long track route on the long leg to 4 and probably should have gone straighter and banked on elephant tracks, almost got very lost to 7 be luckily ended up in an area where it was easy to relocate.
For some reason I ended up having a split all by myself on 8 to 11. I was running in a big group of about 20 to 10 and we came across a control I wasn't mine, but *everyone* else punching it and ran off - I knew mine was another 50m, but it was suddenly dark and the elephant track didn't continue down the hill into the dark. It took a lot of effort to force myself down there and was rewarded with a lone soul waiting at the control for me to show him where he was!
14 was another log leg through fairly green and featureless undulating hillside. Decided just to follow the line of runners would be fastest. Occasionally passing by someone 50m on either side struggling confirmed it the way to go. I didn't think it'd be a gaffle and was right.
The hard part of the course was over now, so I just dug deep and tried to pass as many people as possible which was made particularly hard on the penultimate very rough leg which seemed to be made up of creaky old men who seemed to be using more energy stopping people getting past than actually traversing the terrain. Caught up 10 more places in the finish chute! (it was prett long!)
Made up all the places I lost at the start of the course and about 30 more so not too upset, but would have liked to be faster - was 30 mins behind the fastest time. I could easily shave of 10 minutes worth of fafffing round and being overly cautious in the dark.
Still, a helluva lot of fun. There was a moment in the race last year when I was by myself for the first time and was running round the edge of a little lake - the sun was just starting to rise, the birds were singing and there was a thin layer of mist on the lake and it hit me how awesome this event is. I had a similar moment this year, coming up of of a green gully into an overgrown grassy field on the crest of the hill - the clouds had finally parted and the moon was sitting there, huge and yellow lighting up the field and surrounding pine trees.
If you haven't done it, book your tickets for next year now - you can't beat it.
Oh yeah, my pick won - shoulda put some money on it. Cracker finish as well - only decided by the route choice of the 3rd or 4th last leg!

C • my splits 2

Event: Jukola 2009
 

Bit of a trot around the Jukola model map. Pretty much as expected. Freakin' hot, I didn't envy the women doing Venla.

Late evening jog round Pirkkola. Felt tired and shitty to begin with, then we saw a hedgehog that didn't run away. I touched it, quite prickly. Felt better after that. Hanging out for some forest time now!

Event: Forssa Games
 

Late evening run with BJ around Pirkkola. Both a bit tired and struggled a bit for various reasons. Woodchip path is my favourite.
Bring on Saturday!

Run by myself up in Central Park again. Went up to the man made ski hill - these Finns have too much money!
Came back through the smaller forest tracks, heaps of fun amongst the fir trees and old drainage diches/war bunker things. Finished with a loop of the wood chip ski track in Pirkolla, did 5 chin ups on a bar by the track. Beefcake. BEEFCAKE.

Put out TP round some campus for BJ and Rhodri to do some sprint training. Nice area with obligatory forested areas with bits and pieces of rock and little openings between buildings. Fun.

Felt I should break in the new shoes so went for a quick run through Pirkkola, roughly doing an old sprint course. Hint of a blister towards the end.
I really wonder sometimes how orienteering originated in Scandi, every maps I've run on is so rough!

More running with BJ round Pirkolla/Central Park.
Sleep, then train with TV in between. I could get used to this. It is a bit cold though.

Went out with BJ for 3 laps of the fabled Pirrkola loop. Pretty sweet track, twists and turns through the forest, every 100m of the 2.93k is marked and it's lit in the dark.
Did 1.5 laps easy, then 1 hard - I was going to do it threshold, but BJ gave me 2m40 head start and I found myself doing the 1st k in 3:35. The 2nd k is brutal with a few short sharp climbs, but then a sweet section of downhill comes from about 1.6-2.4kms. The last bit is pretty flat and straight - looked behind at 2.4, saw no one, then again at 2.6 there he was - did lots of k rate maths then to work out if he'd get me, but was over the line before I'd come to a conclusion! Me 10:50, BJ 8:50 - freak, but I'm pretty sure he was about to die at the end. Glad he didn't cause I didn't fancy mouth to mouth.

C • mouth to mouth 3

Another lap of 'shit name' Common (thanks ev). To make it more interesting made it a bit intervally alternating pace between easy and threshold for each km. Was still boring.
Off to Helsinki tomorrow!

Loop of Clapham Common from Nicolas place and back. Clapham Common is boring, glad it wasn't my closest park last year - don't think I would have run as much. On the plus side, the lycra clad runners are more plentiful and with an added bonus, are the correct age and gender for such sportswear.
Also a few pretty speedy runners, which lead to a bit of ego racing here and there - especially when one of the above mentioned lasses bolted past without much effort. Feeling good again today - hoping it lasts!

C • Clapham Common 2

Park race at Battersea Park.
I thought it was a sprint distance race so started off fairly hard, surprisingly I didn't die in the arse, but was one of those days where I kept finding myself slacking off and had to force myself to run fast in the 2nd half.
Fun course and a good area - lots of well manicured park lands with twisting paths around little lakes and out of bounds area so lots of trickier than usual route choicey type stuff. I hate to say it, but when I think about it, the standard of course setting is a better over here (I have a theory or 2, but am tired and it's too much to write now).
Purposely took a few less efficient routes cause I wanted to take the minor tracks through the bush (and paid for it with nettles in most cases). Was coming 4th when I left behind the usual suspects, Ralph, Paul and Ed.

C • Map?? 4

From Brixton to the event and back. Hot day. Got a bit lost going back, but found an interesting area with a few nice looking pubs on the edge of Clapham Common, which I'm now informed is Clapham Old Town - you could never fully know this city, there's always something interesting round the corner.
Felt good running today since before the ACT NOL races, finally!

Picked up a couple of new pairs of shoes and couldn't resist taking them for a spine.
Took the 37 to the edge of Putney Heath and did the old big loop of Wimbledon Common and Richmond Park. For some reason I thought I'd get it done in just over an hour - looking back now, I've never done the full loop of Richmond Park, usually headed into the guts of the park where it's nicer. Was a bit of a strugglefest, felt really good for the first 20 minutes and probably went about a little too hard and paid for it in the last 40 minutes. I would pick the hottest day of the year (in this neck of the woods) to do such a long run.
Enjoyed getting back onto these trails - I've missed them, big avenues flanked by huge old oak trees, twisty single trail through bright green bracken and my good old friends Mr Nettle and Mr Blackberry - I didn't miss them so much.