My body is gradually starting to become more cooperative. However, it still seems to be sending a little mixed signals, but nothing too alarming, so I feel reasonably confident in stepping up the training again. This week has thus offered significantly more training than the previous 5 weeks, but I am still not up to full load yet. But hopefully this week has offered good enough progress for me to go full on next week.

The week's totals end up at 107km and 9.08 hours of running. Nothing crazy, but it's getting close to training. I've got some days with double trainings, so I can get my body used to it again. It has been on the days between sessions I have done it in the form of two short daily runs. 7km jog in the morning and then 7-10km jog in the evening. On the short morning jogs on Monday and Wednesday I have had the pleasure of Daniel Graversgaard's company and Friday morning by Jakob Edsen's. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday have been with intensive training and just a single session on those days. Tuesday was hill interval in terrain near Ørnereden and Thursday was interval on the "Switzerland round" at Thors Mølle - the round that is currently being used at Aarhus' Elite Centre terrain intervals with a view to the World Championships. Sunday long run in terrain in Marselisborg - a fixed route I have with 800m of elevation.

Terrain test loop

Saturday's quality session I ran as a tempo run on the Elite Centre's terrain test loop, which I believe was used for the first time in December 2016. I have run on this in both 2016, 2017 and 2018 until I took my break from orienteering in the summer of 2018. Then I have been running on it again from the spring of last year. Many times have been run on this terrain test loop by both me and many other orienteers based in Aarhus. It can thus be used as a good indicator of where you stand physically - at least in terms of your "terrain form".

As seen on the map above, the loop consists of 107.5 of climb and is 2.6km long located between Oddervej and Silistria (where the orienteering club OK Pan Aarhus has its clubhouse). When the terrain test is run, a total of 3 laps are run and thus a total of 7.8km with 321 metres of altitude. The conditions on the round can vary a lot, for example in winter it is quite "heavy" in the form of precipitation which has made the surface more soft and muddy. This means that the comparison of the times on the loop from time to time must be seen in the light of the condition of the route and conditions.

I have been through the archives and found times that have been run on the loop. These are listed in the table below, where I have only included times under 35min. Hope I haven't missed any times.

My time yesterday, 29 April, was 36.30min. Far from what is required to be able to run in the top at a World Championships, but now I know where I stand after the longer sickness period. The conditions on the loop yesterday were pretty good, as the forest is currently quite dry, so unfortunately no excuses there. That almost makes the run half trail on single tracks and half terrain. I'll run the terrain test again next Saturday, where I hope to shave 1-2min off the time on yesterday's test. Maybe it sounds like a lot, but after the illness, I think there is a lot to gain in a short time.

Now a week awaits, where I will try to train at full load again, so I can get some training in the bank before the World Cup selection races start on 12 May. This will be my last week at home before leaving for Switzerland. Next project WOC 2023 blog post will come next week at the same time, Sunday evening at 8:00pm.