Training Log Archive: BorisGr

Usual loop in Stadsskogen on a nice, sunny morning. Kat is coming today for the long week-end!!

C • Long weekend 2

Strides on the grass after the run.

Swedish ranking: 496.

C • Ranking 7

A long warm-up for the Testbana, including running a full lap of it with Jan, Mats, Joffe, and Michele. Plus the cool-down.

Testbana. Wet and muddy, a few felled trees across the course. This was my second time racing our test course, a trail loop starting close to the clubhouse and going through both Nåsten and the Norby forest. It doesn't look very hilly on paper (http://www.oklinne.nu/soj/testbanan/testbanan.php), but there aren't really any flat sections, either. Lots of small (and a couple of big) ups and downs and uneven ground the whole time. A good course, in other words. Last year I ran this in 25:47, and the goal this time was to run better and approach 25. There was a good pack of guys running today, and I ended up running with Lars and Gustaf Granath pretty much the whole way. I kept gaining on the uphills and losing on the downhills. Ended up a bit behind them in the finish, but quite pleased with the time - a PR by a minute. Progress.
Results: http://www.oklinne.nu/documents/documents_open.php...

Read the following on Öystein Kvaal Österbö's site today about the warm-up for a race he ran:
"The course setter Per Arne Troset tried a new way of start this year. At the arena we had a pre-start where we got a warm-up-map with 5 controls. The course lead us to us to the real start, there we had to be within 30 minutes to reach our start-time. It worked well and was a nice way to be transported to start while you could warm-up with a course."
I really like this idea!!

Off today. Felt borderline sick last night and so slept until 10am this morning and woke up feeling better. Then was out planting trees with the club all evening.

C • Is this you? 3

Event: Siljanskavlen, Relay
 

A few pictures from the Ukraine camp are up at http://my.opera.com/borisgr/albums/show.dml?id=264...
I can't put up most of the maps until after the Ukrainian Champs in two weeks, so I'll just wait and put up all of them then.

Warm-up and a feeble attempt at a cool-down in the rain. Really didn't feel good during the warm-up.

Siljanskavlen Relay.
Today I learned that running the first leg in a relay in Sweden is very different from doing that in England, which is where my last couple of lead-off experiences took place.
I ran for Linne's 4th team, which consisted of the left-overs that couldn't make the other teams: me and Mattias Karlsson, followed by Rebecka Österberg (who was mysteriously left off the second girls' team), and Tommy Lindberg from Roslagen, who didn't have a team. Our goal was to finish as the best team that had at least one girl and at least one American. We managed that just fine.
Anyway, when running 1st legs at the JK and BUSA in England this spring, both times I started off at my own pace, watched everyone stampede madly at the start, and then slowly reel them in as the race went on and they either tired or screwed up. This worked relatively well - I was 7th and 2nd on those relay legs, respectively. I tried the same thing here, partly because I thought it may work and partly because my stomach was not feeling good at all, and I couldn't go all out at the start. Well, it didn't work. I resisted the temptation to stampede at the start, read the map instead, still chose a bad route choice to #1, and was already a whole minute down on the pack at the second control! This meant that from here on in, I could only lose time to the pack, as I ended up with people who were around the same speed as I was, none of us able to gain time on the impressive collection of names running away in the front. Still, I was around 25th through a third of the course before going up into the vaguer, hillier part of the map. There, I attempt to break off from the pack, promptly screwed up (2 min), ran hard without looking at the map, came to the wrong forking (another 2 min), and ended up running the rest of the way basically having to navigate on my own. This actually went ok, and I didn't really make any mistakes in the second half of the course, but the speed wasn't that high, and I finished 32nd, 13:30 behind the leaders!
My teammates did a lot better and pulled us up to a final 18th place, to go with the three other Linne teams in 1st, 8th, and 11th. The girls won too - a very good day for the club! On the way home, the minibuses were loaded with all sorts of strange prizes, ranging from boots to pasta to motor oil to a rack for storing car tires....
Results: http://www.leksandsok.com/arrangemang/2007/Siljans...
Winsplits of the common controls on my leg: http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/sv/default.a...
Map: http://my.opera.com/borisgr/albums/showpic.dml?alb...

Event: Leksands OK Elitserien, Long Distance
 

Warm-up / cool-down

Elisterien Middle Distance in Leksand, Running Elite 2.
The terrain here suited me pretty well - a good bit of contour detail, but good visibility and runnability the whole time, and not too much crap on the ground to jump over. I felt pretty tired most of the way (might have overdone it a bit at intervals on Thursday), but the navigation was pretty good. A couple of hesitations early, but mostly good control flow, decent speed, and nice and careful in the green areas. Got tired on the hilliest part on the last loop and misread the depression at #16 as a hill, losing close to a minute. Solid result overall - an unimpressive 31st place, but less than 4 minutes from the best time. This was also a WRE, and my score was 975 or so, once again frustratingly close (about 33 seconds) but just short of the 1000 point run I am looking for one of these days.
A good day for Linne, with Mats taking 3rd and Annika Billstam 2nd in the Elite 1 classes!
Winsplits: http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/sv/default.a...
Map: http://my.opera.com/borisgr/albums/showpic.dml?alb...

C • # 16 3

Usual trail loop on Stadsskogen in the morning. Felt sore and tight from the intervals. Hopefully will feel better at Elitseries tomorrow.

C • good luck this weekend! 4

Morning jog around the block. Lots of aches and pains from last night's terrain, but felt a bit looser towards the end.

Warm-up and cool-down.

Secret Russian Running Drills

Trail intervals: 70 seconds on, 20 seconds off, fifteen repeats. As has often been the case recently, struggled a bit at first and started feeling better as the workout went on.