Training Log Archive: BorisGr

Event: Rehns BK, Middle Distance
 

Warm-up / cool-down

Rehns BK middle distance.
Back to the area where we ran the long distance on Thursday, though this time we used the hilliest and most detailed part of the map. It was still very fast with high visibility, but the constant up-and-down was tiring, especially after back-to-back days of long distance.
I didn't get to run H21E because of my low ranking, so I ran H21 and tried for a top-10 or maybe top-5 result. Started out aggressively and missed #1 by about 10 seconds, then kept going at probably too fast a pace, spiking 2 and 3, and finally paid for it on 4, where I approached the control with no real plan and lost about 40 seconds in the circle. Started feeling tired on the climb up to 5, so took a flatter "around" route choice to 6, which cost another 15 seconds. Mostly ok after that, just tired. Ended up 7th, about 2:30 back of the winner.
Results: http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/sv/default.a...
Map: http://files.myopera.com/borisgr/albums/264633/IMG...

C • hmm 1

Event: Faxeträffen, Long Distance
 

Warm-up

Faxeträffen - long distance race north of Söderhamn, Hälsingland.
Very different terrain from the day before - hilly, rocky, low visibility, with areas of really fine detail that was very hard to read at 1:15. Will put up the map tomorrow. This map also featured a number of boulder fields, which were pretty much unavoidable the way the courses were set. I didn't so much race as survive this course, and was quite pleased with myself just for finishing - there were 20 dnf's out of 69 starters on H21E! I made a bunch of mistakes along the way and was very slow and careful on a few more legs, but managed to avoid disastrous errors, except for losing about 3 minutes on #9. I wonder how differently the race may have gone if I had started out aggressively instead of slowly cautiously...
Results: http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/sv/default.a...

Event: Rehns BK, Long Distance
 

Warm-up / cool-down

Rehns BK Long Distance race near Bollnäs, Hälsingland.
Very fast terrain with some areasof contour detail and a good bit of route choice. This was about the fastest I'd ever run for a course this long, and I felt relatively pleased when I came in and saw the best times around 77-78 minutes by the likes of Erik Rost. The Mats came in and blew us all away with a time of 71, winning by over four minutes. Impressive!
I had a total of maybe 2 minutes of errors in execution, but an additional couple of minutes in route choice - I took a few too many "around" route choices, rather than going straight. Lesson learned.
Results: http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/sv/default.a...

Evening jog, part with Mats and Sofie. They started going into the woods a bit, so I turned back, not wanting to twist my ankles in running shoes.

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...