Training Log Archive: bigE

Top notch orienteering but a somewhat lackluster performance on my part. No big errors but a couple silly mistakes. Mostly side hill related. Also the old tank's a little low on gas. Moving my 25kg of gear across Stockholm didn't help but the Swedish training regime is relentless! See if I can muster a bit more energy for tomorrows middle distance.

Long jog to the start!

Some intense orienteering in a burned out section of Swedish forest. Turns out the orienteering challenge was almost identical to the Barrens except without the uncrossable swamps. Easier to get from A to B but way scarier if you loose contact. Which I thankfully never did for any extended period of time.

Really pleased with this training, steadily building up my confidence in these ever challenging Scandinavian forests. Really looking forward to the races on the weekend.

Fun little sprint in a random neighborhood of Stockholm. Made a critical error after letting myself get pulled down an incorrect route choice by two guys in front of me. Thankfully learned from my mistake and had a quite clean second half. For some reason I subconciously expect all Swedes to be good orienteerers and usually make the correct route choices on course. Turns out they make mistakes too. Just the training I need, repetitively forcing myself to make my own decision around other runners. Getting easier and easier as I am learning to trust myself. Certainly payed off today! Winsplits

Another light interval session, this time just running with the club. 2x6x70sec 20sec rec. then 7x20sec sprint 20 sec rec.

Easy but still challenging sprint intervals with the Sundbyberg juniors. One of the 14 year olds actually managed to beat me on one of them all though he had already done the interval before in the other direction. Humbling...

Running for Stefan's old club Sundbyberg IK. What an insane event! Sleeping overnight in a tent during the frigid Swedish spring, surrounded by my own team mates in a never ending arena atmosphere... My mind is still spinning! Or maybe I'm just exhausted/still a little jet lagged. I had a great time and my orienteering was ok too. Realized after the fact that I made all of my mistakes when I was running directly against other people. Really going to have to clean that up. Otherwise all systems are go. Was super annoying checking control descriptions with a giant blanket map though, probably could have cut a whole 90 seconds off my time but I wanted to follow the Sundbyberg code... Don't mispunch at all cost!!! Supposedly Sundbyberg is one of two last remaining clubs who have never not finished 10-mila. It was a good thing we made it too because our second team dsq'd after their third leg runner dislocated his shoulder in the night.

I was especially happy with how I handled the logistical side of the race. It was no easy task to prepare for a 15km course with an unknown start time expected to be somewhere around 6:30am. In the end I slept from 8:30pm to 4:30am, a solid 8 hrs but once again, kind of extreme considering I only arrived in Sweden a couple days ago. Meaning in Eastern time I slept from 2:30pm to 10:30pm!!! Maybe that explains why my body is silently screaming at me ;-) ah well. Had a long snooze this afternoon and something tells me I won't be having any trouble sleeping tonight either. Winsplits

C • Missed you! 4