After living and training here for almost a year now I finally start to know where to go to train. Simple things that I've taken for granted back in Tampere, such as O-training or hill intervals from your door, have caused me enormous trouble here. I'm used to have everything within 15 minutes from home but things are different here. I've learned now that it takes approximately an hour to get to forest and nearly the same to get to hills. I've been cycling and running around the neighborhood to find some hills without success. So I've learned the hard way that it really is flat here and the easiest way to train hills is by increasing the gradient on a treadmill. It would indeed be a bit strange if the canals were going up and down on hillsides.
But myths are to be broken and so was the myth of flatness. The hills didn't come to my front door one night, I had to go and find them myself. But still, a beautiful country park with mixture of woodland and heathland, steep slopes and high hills, and amazing view over the whole shire, just half an hour's way from us! The place is called Clent Hills. I went there for a nice and easy long run, climbed up to the highest point and got astonished by the magnificent panoramic view. I will certainly go back there again. The more often the better. It's a perfect place for tough and muddy hill intervals!
