Training Log Archive: Anvil

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!