Training Log Archive: Ollie

Måsenstafetten - a traditional Swedish season opener, on the map "Särtryck från Bushhyttan öster" just south of Skavsta airport in Sweden. I was in the Men's Open, 4th leg out of 5. I ended up running in the mini-mass start along with the fifth leg runner (the one and only Ian). I had a great first half, to the spectator control, following the crowd for a bit and then finding a few of the intensely difficult controls on my own. l made a big mistake on the long leg leaving the spectator control though - frustratingly, I was only about 20m away from the control but had to run 400m away to relocate off an open marsh I had visited early. I did eventually find it, but also messed up the next one, and so abandoned my run - I had a plane to catch, and the car going there was leaving at 3pm, with or without me! So my time represents my time to No. 11, then skipping 12-17 and running straight back to the finish - which was being dismantled as I passed through - not a good sign. The other Oxford and Cambridge teams were also completely outclassed by the natives, and finished last, and fourth last, out of 55 teams. Still, Oxford did beat Cambridge, once more.

A slightly disappointing end to a 5-star week of orienteering in the most difficult of Scandinavian terrain.

Varsity Match Relay Race, at Hågadalen, a small "urban wood" area right beside the OK Linné club hut on the edge of Norby, Uppsala, in Sweden.

I was in the mass start for an all-JOK team, handing over to Tony and Pauline. I had a poor start, making a mistake on the way the first control, and felt like I was at the back of the field. I made steady progress after that, the controls coming thick and fast. Half way around, Ian W (distracted) was right behind me, I lost him at a gaffle, and joined Helen, Chris M and Matt L in a group. Unfortunately for me, a trio of dodgy route choices and mistakes right at the end meant they got away from me, but I was in the finish field only just behind them, Tony ready to run on.

A great little area, certainly an easier race than I was expecting (Särtryck ur Nåsten, just across the river and used for the training exercises earlier in the week, looked really tough.)

Ultrasprint race on a 1:1250 map (1m contours!) of a very small wooded area surrounded by housing blocks, in Central Uppsala. Absolutely crazy. 29 controls, which were tiny bits of yellow tape stuck to the ground, or even small yellow post-it notes. It might be an "ultrasprint", but most of my race at least was spent standing still trying to work out where exactly I was and how big the feature on the map really was. Bare bits of rock 10cm high were shown as cliffs, trees were represented seperately as trunks (green cross), canopy (white) and canopy edge (green), and a childrens' slide at one point was a large and obvious feature! Great fun, after realising how small the controls were having spent a while almost standing on top of No. 1, unable to see it! No. 2 was only 10m away, so I (and around 10 others) shot forward, only to realise a few second later we had again overshot... Absolute chaotic fun and a great way to wind down after the relays and VM proper.

37th Oxford vs Cambridge Orienteering Varsity Match, at Norra Lunsen in Uppsala, Sweden. Cold, with a little bit of snow on the ground, and the marshes were generally frozen! The race was in two gaffled loops, the changeover being just after a specator control and beside a frozen lake. The course was planned with fairly obvious features, but it was still an extremely difficult area to orienteer in - a real classic. A few paths in the northern part of the map, but marshes were the only linear features to follow in the southern half.

I had a cautious but good run, with no big mistakes. One five minute mistake on the approach to No. 5 was solved by relocating off a path that was 100m behind the control. There was also two one minute blunders on the two shortest controls of the race - the first one, on the way to No. 12 was due to a "fire and forget" - I took a risk as it was such a short control, and navigated on a compass bearing. The area is so complex that compasses almost hinder navigation, by tempting you to not navigate by feature. The other blunder was right at the end, where I simply couldn't see the (low hung) control right by the finish tapes, until I had run right around the feature and back in to it. This final mistake cost me a place...

Mistakes:
To 5: Poor map-reading (5m)
To 7: Poor feature interpretation (30s)
To 9: Lazy route choice (30s)
To 12: Lazy route choice (1m)
To 14: Poor feature interpretation (30s)
To 17: Poor feature interpretation (1m)

Fantastic area, certainly up there with the other two Swedish Varsity Matches I've been to, in 2002 and 2005. Oxford went on to win the race convincingly.

I finished 13th out of 27th runner, with the World No. 11 taking 51:51 and the best native British time being Joe's 59:30.

Event: 2008 Oxford-Cambridge Varsity Match
 

Didn't go to Eridge today, kept the knee rested. I think it's a little better today. I'll be taking things easy on the training days in Uppsala next week though.