“A moment of pain, is worth a life time of glory”

…a quote that has stuck with me after watching Unbroken, and I think works quite nicely with my favourite quote of all time “pain is weakness leaving the body”. With tough, painful training (of the non-injured kind) we set ourselves up for glory, and that, right now, is the feeling in Linné. It is just under two weeks until the first “big relay” of the season, Tiomila.

Looking back, the past few weeks have been very stable. By minimising the travelling, and only competing a few times I have been able to secure some very good hours of training which I have put into the bank. Below is a look at a few of the highlights, including my first SM Natt.

Rånässtafetten

A smaller relay, but this time the relay was hosted on a map very close to where Tiomila will be held. Therefore, there were a lot of good teams, some combining it with a training camp in Uppland. I ran 4th leg in the first team with Csaba, Rassmus, Joseph and Oskar. The guys before me had really stable runs, so that I could go out in second position. My race was fairly good and I was able to catch the lead and then create a gap. I handed over to Oskar a little over a minute in front, which meant that Oskar just had to do a stable race. Which he managed comfortably, meaning a third straight relay victory for Linné.

Map

SM Natt

My first Swedish Night Championships, and so a start time of 10:30pm! It was quite a strange feeling starting so late, and it meant that I had to take a sizeable dosage of caffeine before the race. The terrain was fairly nice, but the technique was simple. Run hard on the compass, picking up the few features under the line. Although easier said that done, especially at night,  I felt I handled the challenge quite good making only a couple of small mistakes. I ran by myself, well some guy followed after 17, but I could focus largely on my own race which I think was a good thing. I finished in 12th place, 7 minutes down but only 2 minutes from top 6, which was fun!

Map

Uppsala Möte

The most recent competition, held over the weekend. I ran the night and long (last year I ran the middle and long). I had some problems in the week with some pain in my quad, but it had subsided by the weekend. I had a good race in the night, barring a shit end, and managed to win! The long was less successful and I really struggled in the terrain after the strength training the day before. My legs were really heavy, as was the terrain which made it difficult to sustain a high intensity. The course was also uninspiring, 14 controls over 11km! The end result was #amateurhour of orienteering (see below). It was still a fun training, and it was such a beautiful day in the forest! The days are getting longer and warmer, and I am really starting to see the beauty of Sweden again!

Map Natt
Map Lång

I will now take out some of the training I have invested into the bank, in hope to find some top form for Tiomila. It always feels a little uneasy before the big competitions, a calmness before the storm. I will be running towards the end of the relay, which will mean a very early start, depending on if I sleep or not. I am really excited, as are my teammates, but we are also calm, focusing on the final prep in order to get the job done.

#itsourtime #ogdenexcited 

 

Well it has been 5 weeks since I arrived back to Uppsala after the training camp in Croatia and Slovenia. It has been a stable period of training and working, with two significant highlights being victories in Måsentafetten and Kolmårdskavlen with Ok Linné. These relays are pretty insignificant in the scheme of things, but despite this, there is significant excitement and energy surrounding them.

Måsenstafetten

I ran first leg, followed by Rassmus, Albin and then Oskar. Linné won this relay last year, so there was a little pressure/expectation to repeat the effort. There was some stress in the beginning for me trying to find where to get into the start. Evidently the mass of people congregating was not clear enough. This stress was quickly replaced with focus, and I got into my rhythm once the start gun was fired. I had full control over the technique up to the 7th control. Towards the 8th I made a small mistake, where the group got ahead of me. I think here the tough swedish terrain caught up with me at this point also, and I became tired. It wasnt too far to the finish, so I managed to finish in 6th position on the first leg, just under 20 seconds down. The business was already done, with Rassmus, Albin and Oskar taking over and finishing off the relay in style.

Map

Kolmårdskavlen

A week later, a small team change with Oskar pursuing romance over glory, and it was another victory. This time Kolmårdskavlen, with Jakob running the first, me the second, Jan 3rd, Rassmus 4th and Albin running the anchor leg. Jakob had a stable run sending me out in 18th position. I could then “hunt” the pack down, and eventually caught the front group just before the finish. I was really happy with my race apart from one 20 second mistake to the 5th control. It was even nicer to have the feeling to catch the first group, so that I could give Jan a good position for him to go out in. Then again, Rassmus and Albin were better than the rest, and Linné took the top place on the podium. It was actually pretty close in the end with SNO, so it was even nicer to finish on top.

Map
Video of the finish

The spring weather is starting to arrive now, and following day light savings last weekend, training conditions are becoming increasingly more pleasant here in Uppsala. I ran one of the coolest trainings ever last weekend, a leg over 3km with contours only in Lunsen set by Thierry. An awesome challenge!

Highway to Hell

Tomorrow I shall run my final relay before Tiomila, Rånässtafetten, and I will run the 4th leg. We have two very strong teams, so it will be fun to see which of the two teams comes out on top. Our goal for this relay is to demonstrate the strength of our team for Tiomila. The feeling in the mens team is really great at the moment, everyone seems to be in rather good shape so we are getting very excited (even #ogdenexcited) for Tiomila. Then, it is under a month to Tiomila, and my first major goal for the season.