Training Log Archive: Torino

Hiking up from our place to the Fortezza where start and finish were.

Last race of the 5-day event: a sprint in Montalcino. I had been looking forward to it and was prepared with studying the old map, getting familiar with the lay-out of the place and mostly with the determination to get to the podium. But despite of the efforts and adding 2 slightly longer route choices and one smallish mistake as I searched for the flag in the wrong corner of the parking lot, I gave it my best. Well, every second counted, and I came in 5th and only 70 seconds behind 1st. But I was disappointed never-the-less.
It seems like my orienteering world was a bit up-side down: usually I don't do that well in the woods but now in difficult terrain and some very technical legs I came in 1st and 2nd. In my strong suits: the sprints in cities I would usually excell, but not here, it looked as if those 65+ were better runners than orienteers. And, I am aware that I lost lots of speed due to our travelling for over 4 weeks and being busy the time we were home (with the website and more of the 2020 5-day-event we're organising: www.swiss5days2020.ch which is mostly my work, the website and communication managing such as getting a video done and an article in the Swiss O-Magazine).

So, again, no podium and none of those beautiful prizes (plants, wine and more) and no overall placement which I could have probably won if I didn't oversee those 3 controls out in the nowhere in the night-O mass start. But that's life and I'll live.

It was cold, always on the verge of raining again and the dampness settled in my bones. After a shower and packing and going back to the awards to collect yet another prize for a friend from the club who was there by plane and we took home two big bags full of his stuff in our car.
We split up the drive home as most of Italy was on the road on that Sunday afternoon into the night and we stood a very long, tiring hour on the highway between Pisa and Genoa. So we spent the night after Genoa and drove home on Monday again in the rain.

Italy has had so much rain, storms, gale winds (hurricane-like) and mudslides and tons of trees in the Southerrn Dolomites have been flattened which seems to have affected many famous orienteering maps.

Day4 of 5 days of Toscana Classics O-meet. A sprint in the small town of Sian Giovanni d'Asso. The first third we ran around in fields which were partially plowed with very heavy, sticky mud which made for tough running. There were controls almost on every olive tree (!) so one had to be careful to take the correct one. Then, in the village things were easier going with two loops with always short, steep ups either on roads or stairs. Don't know my placements just yet, but it seems as if I had lost a lot of speed after my long travels.

C • Following along 1

jog to the start.

Day 2 of the Toscana 5-day. We were again in the same woods as yesterday in the fog at the beginning but no rain! Normally, this is a beautiful town and region at the foot of a 1700-m high mountain, on 900 m, but we could not really see the beauty of it. It was still nicely warm though.
Our course went a little bit higher than yesterday and now we could see the nicer woods and it went much smoother. At the end, we went down the same slopes as yesterday and the two last controls were again a long, uphill slog into finish. And again, I couldn't quite understand the map again but was still faster than yesterday. However, the other women were also doing much better and the time differences were shorter. There was one woman 1 min faster than me, oh well. I still felt that I had a good chance for overall winning as she was 8 min slower yesterday than I and only three town courses will follow now. But, one still had to finish them all!

Night-O race with "mass start", that is there was a line of starters and we were let go every 30 secs. Also, the order of getting the controls was free which added a twist to the night-O in this small, very steep mountain town.
In fact, I moved quite quickly, had a small bubble in the beginning until I got really into the map. Before I headed downhill into the fields, I checked whether I had all the controls marked off by a pen which I used constantly so I wouldn't miss a flag. Then I crossed the field and ran back up towards the last control and finish where they told me that I had 3 controls missing! I couldn't believe it, for a moment my world fell apart, I was so disappointed. I had only focused and seen those controls in the old center and the one out in the field. Somehow with the glare of the lamp, the map which was reflecting somewhat, I had folded my map not aware at all that there were three more flags further out, somehow not at all being part of the rest of the flags.
I was asked whether I didn't count the flags? Well, I kind of knew there were 14 controls to find, but somewhere between 8 and 9 I lost count and didn't give it a thought anymore. So maddening.
Looking at the others times, I know I could have been ahead of them again, these three controls were quite easy and just running which I am better than most. Well, that's that.
Btw, somehow my Garmin didn't start at the beginning but caught on for part of the way and stopped again before the finish. Maybe I simply didn't have receptions because my phone too, didn't have service.

Day of Toscana Classic: Started when the rain kept coming back and hoped it would stop. On the contrary, between 1 and 2 it came down in sheets, I couldn't even keep my eyes open. Such a strange feeling. Kept pushing on (all across the woods) in the general direction shielding my eyes and trying to read the map. Luckily, I found Nr. 2 and happened to see a bunch of women probably all in my age class. I passed them quickly. The woods were full of dead branches that they had lined up when cutting trees. Very annoying and I always looked for a way around while keeping track of where I was. It was a very tough place for W65, lots of steep down with rocks and cliffs and another VERY steep uphill on hands and feet. The ground was so saturated from these hurricane-like storms that it often slid from under me.
It was hard to keep track of the correct altitude in these kind of conditions and then going along the slope. Had to do a little detour as I was too high and turned back further down to my flag. The last 3 controls were down in town, but I could not read the map very well and had trouble figuring out where I could go through or not. Also, could not quite find the last control as there were lots of cheering people in the way.
Well, when I left, it looked as if I had won by 2 secs to 2nd and over 5 min to 3rd. Don't know whether that stayed true.
I could have done it a lot faster in the woods and especially at the end in town. Happy anyway.
It looks as if this low will stay over the Toscana, such a shame, they really had way too much rain this last week.