Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

One of the more dramatic days that I can recall in orienteering - it's definitely not every relay which has three lead changes in the last five controls, and the leader at the start of that section departing the vicinity of the last control, not in the company of triumphant flag-waving teammates, but in the back of a helicopter. (As I've noted on the WOC thread, Thierry appears to have recovered very quickly indeed and I think he's probably still going to race this week).

As often on such days my own run was a relatively minor consideration after this - just a quick session around the streets of Olomouc sandwiched between return and WOC banquet. It ended up being my best run of the week - the first time since Monday when running hasn't seemed like a chore, especially in the second half, much of which was spent on a dirt path along one of the rivers. Of the occasional local hazards of dogs and drunks, I saw one of each but both were harmless.

Once again ran poorly after a day when my mind had been on other people's races most of the time. Lost time at 1, a dodgy ditch end in the green, then settled down a bit, but further mistakes, none of them huge, at 7, 12 and 17. 12 was particularly annoying because I'd seen people running the leg about 60 times during the day (it was one of the TV controls) and still stuffed it up. Didn't have a huge amount of energy for the bigger climbs either, especially at 9 where I took the low route and had a steep 11-contour climb at the end, a lot of it through felled stuff, with the flag visible all of the way.

I'm still not at all confident running on loose wet rock, and took a fall coming out of 12 which would have been spectacular for the cameras had they still been there. I ended up with a bruised hand from this and a bruised ego from being comprehensively outsprinted by one of the local W14s (although the latter event is not unheard of - Amber Morrison did it to me when she was 10).

My focus this week has been on things other than my own performances - it's probably no coincidence that my best run by far of the week was the day with no WOC race - but I'm still a bit concerned that I haven't had a really good run physically since Bordeaux. Hopefully I'll be able to focus well next week and come through more strongly then.

Didn't stay around for the public race presentations, so I can't report on whether the Czech clubs still do some of the more extravagant celebrations that I remember from the 1996 5-Days (the club 'train dance' whenever someone from the Lokomotiva Pardubice club went up on stage being the most memorable).

In the name of using this run for suburban exploration, I spent it in search of Stalinist architectural atrocities in the suburbs of Olomouc. You have to look pretty hard these days to find monoliths of decaying grey concrete - a lot of them have had some serious paintwork (one set of apartment blocks had the greatest range of colours I've seen this side of the old Benjamin Way offices, now demolished), and in the spirit of capitalism some have ads on their sides. I did find a few examples but suspect for real highlights of the genre you need to go to the Ukraine or Belarus (or the Housing Commission towers in Collingwood).

As for the run: about as good as I expected after a day of IOF meetings and eating too much at the supporters' afternoon tea before going for a run at about 6.45 (i.e. not very).

I've discovered that Connex run buses here too. This would mean that, had I been paying attention, I would now know how to say "Connex apologises for any inconvenience caused" in English, French, Dutch, Czech and Portuguese. (Most of the time here we've been using the excellent trams).

The longest day in orienteering is a two-race middle distance day. It is even longer when there is a long journey to the event area (and a 1600 metre walk from parking to arena, a walk we did four times during the day), and when it was raining, as it was for most of the morning. It certainly wasn't as hard spectating at WOC as it was actually running it, but it was still a very long day. After filing a report for the OA website and getting something to eat, I finally got back to my room at 10.30 p.m. (Normally I'd regard going to McDonalds in a foreign country as showing a severe lack of imagination, but there wasn't a lot else open at 10.15 in Olomouc).

In between the two WOC races we had a race of our own - just to add to the logistical challenge this was a few kilometres away with a shuttle bus (which worked as well as could be expected). It was reputed to be a tough area from reports we've heard of WOC training there. It was certainly slow, with more rock than we've had on other days, but I enjoyed it more than I was expecting to on a day when competing could be a slightly unwelcome distraction from other matters.

For most of the run my own race was slow and cautious, especially in the green, but reasonably clean. Annoyingly, I then lost time at a late control in low visibility as I did on Monday - about 2 minutes on 18 this time. Lacked confidence, though, running on the wet small rocks in the early part of the course.

Scarily, someone who is presumably not good enough to make the Czech team did 6.5 min/km on this.

The IOF and media race, at an area that was partly fairly easy forest and partly golf course (the first time I've seen a golf course mapped at the level of detail that a 1:5000 map allows, with bunkers and so on). Didn't feel hugely motivated for a fast run but got going once I was into the map, as sometimes happens on these occasions. Running quite fast - at least for me - by the end., and didn't miss anything.

(It looked like a pretty good golf course and I'm surprised they let us run on it, although it had mainly been used for the Trail-O event. The bunker near the start was fearsome and Tiger Woods would struggle to get up and down in two from it).

I found out last time that some of the opposition at this race can be pretty formidable, so it was no surprise to be well behind the likes of Bjornar Valstad, Tore Sagvolden and Sixten Sild. I was less pleased to be 7 seconds down on Tom Karlsen (a regular M55 WMOC medallist). Our splits were virtually identical so we clearly run at the same speed.

Today's event followed the WOC long qualification, and I set about demonstrating what the selectors had missed out on by failing to select me for the long distance. The answer - absolutely nothing.

I didn't feel that sharp in the warm-up and then started very poorly both physcially and technically, missing each of the first 3, 3 quite badly (2.5 mins), although I'm not 100% convinced of the control placement/mapping there. Settled a bit after that but never as strong as I was yesterday. Not really in control through the final control-picking stage in flat, marshy low visibility terrain, but managed to get through without a huge time loss.

This was a poor run, but I was still surprised just how far back I was - 22 minutes compared with 10 yesterday when I felt it was perhaps 5-7 minutes worse than yesterday. On km rates I would have been about 3 minutes behind Kerrin, and couldn't see myself breaking 75 for the WOC qualifier under even ideal circumstances, which would still be a long way from qualifying (albeit perhaps a bit closer than I was 2 years ago in Denmark).

The route to the event took us past a facility which now proudly proclaims itself to be a tank factory. According to Zsuzsa Fey (who has a certain amount of experience of life under communism) such facilities were quite often officially "bicycle factories" in a past life. Probably a fair number were tractor factories too.

One aspect of Australian elite orienteering where my speed has long been noted (more so than on the course) is at the dining table. It now appears that I have a rival, in the perhaps slightly unexpected form of Bridget Anderson.

C • Terrain 5

First day of the public races. For those who are doing them it is six days in a row, two longs then four middles. I´ll miss two days through IOF meetings (it´s four days out of six so I will still get an overall result) and in any case this is not a high priority compared with next week.

This was expected to be the most physical day of the week, and was fairly solid going with several trips up and down an escarpment early on. It was classic central European terrain - lots of tracks and vegetation changes, and point features on slopes with very little definition in the contours.

For the most part I was happy with this run but it was a disappointment to lose a bit of time at the very end - 20 seconds on 18 and 40 on 19. Apart them that I was spiking controls pretty well which isn´t always easy in this terrain, and was also happy with my strength on the hills - even won a split on a steep uphill leg. A pleasantly cool day. 18th out of 50 in 21E when I left.

Previously at a Czech 5-day I´ve seen someone have a smoke in the start box. No-one was smoking in the start box this year but someone was doing it on the way to the start. Also saw a very old Skoda parked at the drink station in the forest, with a number plate starting PVC, possibly a reference to what the car was made out of.

Today was also the first day of the World Trail-O Championships (a form of the sport for the disabled). The Stating the Bleeding Obvious Award goes to whoever put a ´Forbidden Area For Trail-O´ sign at the foot of a steep staircase that was hard enough for the able-bodied to negotiate.