I am currently in Sweden 🇸🇪 working for a couple of weeks. It’s simply a runner’s dream country! Every place of human habitation, no matter how small or large, has at least one 2k or 3k “motionsslinga”, a circular track through a small wood with electric lights spaced along the whole length of it. The track itself is perfect, very compact soil with a thin layer of gravel in some places as well as pine needles, leaves etc.
How did it go? Well, I had been warned that it was quite undulated with a few steep hills. Perfect I thought for increasing my stamina so that I might get fit enough for my post-C5K target of 5k in 30 minutes 💪. I got more than I wished for!
After the first kilometre I had already lost count of the number of hills (and I was only trying to count those of some length), and they seemed to be getting steeper and longer! Although I slowed down considerably, I did not stop and managed to complete my 30 minutes. Distance and pace became totally irrelevant. MapMyRun said an elevation gain of 36! On my normal route back home it’s 13, and the highest elevation gain I have done (once) on my C5K journey was 21. Just pleased that I didn’t stop!
I think I will try the other one on the the other side of town on Friday 😂