“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