It was back to Sognsvann yesterday evening for my second crack at the lake. I had a chat with the organiser beforehand and he remembered my e-mail and said he would have another look for my time from last week although he looked a bit hassled. My legs weren’t as fresh as last week and it was bitterly cold (my hands didn’t warm up until after I’d finished). I didn’t have anything left for the sprint finish this time and slipped down in to fifth place. I looked at the results the next day as they weren’t giving out any times and could see why the organiser might have been a bit stressed. There appears to be just one guy listed! However, if I search the database for my name, then someone with approximately the right name, appears to have completed zero laps in 11:17. I timed 11:26 on my watch (as I wasn’t taking any risks this time) so presumably it took me just 9 seconds to do the one lap?
Archive for the ‘Running’ Category
Sognsvann revisited
Thursday, April 10th, 2008Sognsvann Rundt Medsols
Thursday, April 3rd, 2008Thanks to the Coombses who, as well as being very hospitable, have acted as our unofficial guides to outdoor activities in Oslo, I found myself lining up with about 90 other runners on the shore of Sognsvann for the second Sognsvann Rundt Medsols of the year on Wednesday evening. This is a weekly race taking place until the end of October which, as the name probably suggests, follows the pretty flat 3.5km trail around the edge of Sognsvann. You have the choice of running 1, 2 or 3 laps with most people opting for just one (as did I).
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More snowy capers
Sunday, March 23rd, 2008Just a half
Monday, March 17th, 2008In order to complicate our departure from the UK as much as possible we headed over to the Forest of Dean this weekend to meet up with my mother-in-law’s family for their (almost) annual assault on the trails half marathon. Pre-race preparation wasn’t ideal with Emma screaming her head off for 90 minutes or so in the middle of the Saturday night (perhaps something to do with not getting fed in the night as of the last few days). This wasn’t conducive to getting up early for that vital pre-race breakfast. The conditions weren’t all that great either. It seemed not to have stopped raining for the proceeding 24 hours although it did finally let up about half way round the course.
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Look on the bright side of life
Friday, February 29th, 2008One advantage of it having taken quite so long to get out to Norway is that we don’t have to experience the bleak mid-winter. The shortest day is around Christmas at just under six hours but, even though we’re only at the end of February, daylight hours in Oslo are now only half an hour shorter than those in London. In another three weeks we’ll have more daylight here. Come mid-summer there’s nearly 19 hours of daylight in the capital. Christine’s thinking of running the Midnight Sun Marathon in which case we’ll get to see the full 24 hours in Tromsø.
Forerunner 3
Friday, February 15th, 2008I eventually did decide to return my Garmin (again) due to the lack of sound. Three days after I dropped it off at their office in Totton (I’m not sure what the security guard thought of me as I was wearing running kit at the time!) a package arrived back. Sadly this time it just contained a watch, not a whole replacement box. The wrapper stated “Newly Overhauled” but the watch has a new serial number so I’m not sure what to make out of that. I can, however, do intervals once again without having to look at my watch the whole time!
SportTracks and Garmin
Monday, February 4th, 2008Version 2.0 of the SportTracks GPS exercise logbook now looks ready for prime time. Having used it for a few days now I have yet to discover any killer new features but neither have I spotted anything that is missing which, at one point, seemed to be likely to be the case. I’m also contemplating returning my Forerunner 305 to Garmin again as the sound has gone which was the first thing to stop working last time. Whilst looking around the Garmin site I spotted the Forerunner 405 which was announced at CES and is due to ship in March. Shockingly it a) looks like a watch and b) can be used to tell the time when not in GPS mode! With such a small screen it is perhaps not surprising that you lose the ability to view routes and the current track but still very tempting all the same.
Running with a buggy
Sunday, January 6th, 2008One of the many kind donations we received when Emma was born was a second-hand running buggy – the sort with three massive bicycle-style wheels. Christine has been out with it a couple of times but today was my first run. Despite its size the buggy is very light and manoeuvrable and on a smooth tarmac surface has surprisingly little rolling resistance. I believe the recommended technique is to give the buggy a push and then run after it. Unfortunately I need to try and work out why ours veers to the left slightly. As a consequence I had to run with one hand on the buggy most of the time which doesn’t do your running style much good! My running speed was down a little but the additional effort certainly kept my heart rate up. On even the slightest incline you find yourself up on your toes pushing so you get a good workout.
Emma slept for 55 minutes of the hour we were out!
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