World Games over, Colombia-been there done that, time to head back to Europe to prepare for the third of my “World” events on this trip, the World Mountain Running Champs in Poland.

Why return to Sweden? This is the question many people have asked me… I’m sorry to tell you I have no simple answer. Reason 1, In the original planning stages I was going to have 3 weeks in Europe before I needed to be anywhere for the Mountain running champs so I thought I would head back there as it was orienteering central and there was bound to be many places to do some orienteering or something similar. Reason 2, there was plenty of people which I knew I could stay with in Sweden and Reason 3, I didn’t want to take too much gear with me to Colombia as I was going to have to carry a bit of it around with me from place to place during our extended stay there. However as it panned out I there wasn’t totally 3 weeks in the middle completely unplanned and I couldn’t find anyone to leave stuff with in Sweden and was reluctant to leave stuff in a locker at the airport at 80SEK a day for a fortnight…

Aaron and Sara offered me a place to stay when I arrived back in Sweden so as soon as I could get a train from the airport in Stockholm I was off across  the country to Göteborg . After the stressful hustle and bustle of Colombia it was a welcome relief to see some friendly faces, sleep in a nice comfortable bed, stay in a really nice place, recover from the jetlag and get some washing done! Besides that Aaron seemed keen to have someone to smash/train with for a few days I think. Sara was back at her first week of work and Aaron was too in his job of house husband so the whole family was getting back into a routine after the Summer holidays. I was able to help a little bit with the Child minding but to be honest the TV did most of the work!

Aaron and Sara both managed to juggle child minding in the evening and get out and do some training. Aaron took me out on a road ride and smashed me one night and I came along to interval training with the Möndal Outdoor club and elite orienteering training with OK Savadalen on a couple of other evenings. The orienteering was in a really cool area, apparently typical of one type of Goteborg terrain which I struggled with. As it is now late in the Summer the undergrowth has grown up also and what is apparently normally thick forest was a bit thicker. It made running difficult and slower which upset my distance judgement and I pulled up short a few times. Besides being really slow and not being in full control of my concentration I really enjoyed getting back into the Swedish forest for some orienteering….all except the ticks!

Pretty soon my relaxing week in Sweden came to an end and it was back on a plane again to the Czech Republic for a wedding, flight 10 and 11on this trip!