Training Log Archive: ndobbs

Back to Sverige

Trip was much less eventful than the week before, chatted to a couple of people along the way, which was nice.

Last week, after getting back to the room post-banquet, I had 30 mins to pack the remainder of my gear and get downstairs for the 5am taxi to the airport, which I did.
Arranging the taxi the previous day, the organisers got a first quote for 440 euros and then from a second company 65 euros, which I thought acceptable, given the airport was over an hour away and in another country.
However, arriving downstairs, there was no taxi. I staggered in a drunken haze towards the Uni-hotel and campus entrance. A taxi arrived, so I waved. It stopped, but wasn't the right company. By now it was close to 5:15, so I bluffed it, "Are you taxi 323 to take me to Kosice airport for 10,000 HUF?" "10,000, ok" was the reply. I got in, closed my eyes and woke up at the airport. Good start, especially since 10000 HUF is less than 40? :)
From there it was plain sailing, slept on the three flights before arriving into Knock, an airport built for a woman who had premarital sex.

C • pre-marital sex 1

Crone Wood through Coillte-scarred slopes along the Wicklow Way to the top of Djouce, where the wind was breath-taking and the view ten metres. Runs like these make training worthwhile.

C • Ireland 5

Keel beach, river to Bervie,
once shoed, once barefoot. I'd hoped to run up Minaun today but didn't trust my ass.

Surfed a couple of waves afterwards.

Archive photo, from the east end of the beach in the winter. The west end is sandy.

Around the north face of Slievemore.
Another favourite run, spongy, short grass and short heather, the occasional sheep path, views out over Dugort, Blacksod bay and beyond.

The north side of Slievemore is barren and uninhabited, visited occasionally by sheep. The nearest plant over two foot tall to this tree is a couple of kilometres away.

Stumbled a hundred metres before I arrived and, catching myself, twanged my butt/hamstring. It hurt. Picked up this prob in the MiddleQ, then it worsened a bit somehow during the relay. Here's hoping it heals soon.

An hour and a half in the Atlantic on one of Ireland's top surfing beaches. Caught some nice waves, loads of fun, first time doing it in a few years. Cold afterwards, warmed up a bit on the run from home afterwards.

Dugort Beach, Golden Strand, Valley Strand. Last two plus the headland barefoot, 25 minutes.

Does wonders for the soul!

WOC Relay
Vers-Sar-Bérc, Hungary

Started 31st, finished 22nd, overtaking CAN, USA (sorry boys!), ISR, SLO, POR, and, ummm, FRA, NOR, CZE... hats off to the last three for coming to the rescue of SWE. I didn't see sight nor sound of them until they came up the run-in.

Best Irish relay since 2004, happy days!
-------
Dave and Nick ran reasonably coming in in 30th and 31st, not great, but within shouting distance of the teams ahead, which was where I wanted to be. 4:30 - 6 mins behind USA, CAN, SLO and POR.

Took a mildly aggressive route to the first (straight line), went ok. Second was short, didn't go straight line, but nothing serious. 3rd, track route, good idea!
Coming to the 4th, caught and passed CAN. One down ;p
5th leg was longer, involved another hill. Control wasn't too hard, 30m east of a lone tree in rough open, but with some veg. Saw two runners running up the hill out of it (ISR? + ?) and caught USA at the control. I took the contouring through green route, figured I'd be forced to walk a bit but save energy compared with the uphill then ridge-run route, and the time was similar, still with USA at the next, also ISR was there. Left of the line to the 7th, so didn't get away.
Skipped the drink, feeling relatively strong, and I missed it, and wanted to psyche out eddie, but met him at the top of the hill anyway, he punched 8 ahead of me.
9 looked dangerous, I made it easy by going north of the line and following the open then dropping through the green. Think I was ahead of USA then.
10th, again, potentially tricky, played it safe, fast down to the path, along the path, dropped to the open corridor leading almost all the way. Easy!
11th, depressions, up down up down up up up. possibly lost a little time on the route.
12th tiny bit left of straight, no prob, except the hill at the end :)
13th, overtook the 3 here I guess. Made a balls of the control, got up onto the broad spur, ran across, didn't see the ruined fence at all, lost a minute and let USA back in the game. Doh. Worried he'd start feeling stronger.
14th, USA was ahead, let him punch ahead and lead the way up the mountain. Another guy (POR?) was there too. They seemed to have a different gaffel, over the top of the hill, and tougher, but then skipped my next control. Anyway, got mine (15) fine and legged it off to
16, where I lost 15s being a bit to the right. The control-watcher was lying down reading a book, so was no help to spot the control :(
17, got a fright after crossing the un-tarred road, thinking it was the road that I was supposed to cross after, but things fell back into place.
I made 18 easy, going to the right of the line, then dropped to the road to the spectator 19th.
Pretty happy going through there, feeling confident about the last loop, at least until I realised it was pretty tricky finding the 20th control on the map. Seemed to find the grottiest possible route up out of the spectator. 20 wasn't too hard (although I got a little confused with all the paths and open areas). Good to 21, except lost a few seconds not seeing the control in the depression immediately, it being on the other side of a pile of branches.
Took 22 handy, no point throwing away a good lead :)
Ran back out to the track to go past the 20th en route to the 23rd, the 50m from the track to the control were the longest ever. The zone was really hard to understand with low veg and broken relief. Couldn't work out what were knolls and which was mine. Checked a couple of bumps before POR arrived. Knew he hadn't punched it, so no panic yet. We spotted it at the same time, I punched first and flaked it to
24, with POR right behind. It was simple (down a big long re-entrant. Then a sprint up to the last control, had a bit of a lead, sprinted more up the start of the run-in, looked back and saw I had enough of a lead... relief. Looked back scared five or ten times up the run-in, which I was enjoying. Apparently I was well pale. Took a couple of hours and a swim in the lake before getting some colour back.

Happy days!!!


That red stripe is not yet part of the official clothing, I know neither how nor when the gash on the knee happened :)

----
edit, climb advertised, 350m,
actual climb, 450m +/-

C • Well done! 4

Started warming up a fair bit before, deliberately didn't take any sports drink until just before the race to try to get the fat burning.

Pretty hot, so returned often to the shade. Couple of minor niggles which left once I warmed up, but the muscles felt good!

C • What 1

C • one spot early 1

pre-brekkie, of which 7 fast

Nice to be out before it gets HOT.

More pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/neil.dobbs/WOC2009#

Lidingö boys:


This photo gets better and better:


The heads on Colm!


And the team:

C • girls 2

C • pics from the sprint qual today 6

Event: WOC 2009
 

MiddleF/Relay Model

Real gentle jog around the model area. A bit rougher than the qualie. Map was a bit dodge, esp near control 34, 40m west of where it should have been in comparison to the charcoal x to the north. Also, a couple of green circles were root stocks and not trees.

Tough to stay cool and hydrated and sleep properly in the heat.

Bat-Cave map, it was crap!!!

WOC is great. Butterflies, composure, nerves, confidence, self-belief, self-delusion, hindsight, and most of all there's no hiding and no excuses.

And the great people, of course!

Pics from: http://live.woc2009.hu/Gallery/08.16.%20-%20Middle...

Shane ready to go:

Yours truly:

C • Could you... 5

Walked to and from the canteen three times. Only took the lift 4 times. Tough day!

WOC Middle Q

Galuzsnya, Bukkszentkereszt

Unfortunately it wasn't technical. There were maybe four or five slightly dangerous controls, but the map was good and visibility was too, so no serious problems.

I didn't have power in my legs running the hills. Perhaps the race the previous Sunday was still in my legs? Maybe I should have taken a rest day instead of driving 3hrs to train on a crap map the other day. Maybe I should train more.

Felt like my HR never got too high. Certainly my head didn't feel like it was going to explode. Couldn't push hard enough. At least that made the nav straightforward.

Happy with my race when I finished, less so when I saw my placing, 24th in the end. That's worse than last year where I was 21st. Partly last year was a little more technical, so others made a few more mistakes, partly the standard is higher every year, partly I was in a bitch hard heat.
5:09 down on the heat winner, 2:38 from qualifying (Last year, 7mins down on TG, 2:40 from qual).
In comparison, 5:09 down would have been 19th/16th in heats B/C. But I still don't have a top-20, and I still want to qualify next year. Grrr.

Details:
1: lost 2 seconds picking my map up off the ground at the start. Merz flew off, the Chinese less so. CHN navigated perfectly to my first control, then looked like he was probably confused as I punched and ran off. Nice start.
2: Easier than I thought. A little slow, but safe.
3: easy, 50m of path in the middle
4 nothing hard yet
5: First really tricky control, in the end wasn't too bad, but I spent ten seconds deciding I was where I was 50m above the control.
6: A little slow, but safe.
7: A little slow, but safe, 5 seconds off to the right/down :)
8: no prob
9: straight straight line would have been slightly better. No pb,
10: Hesitated 10-15s at the edge of the circle.
11: No prob
12: No prob
13: Overtook a Hong Kong guy. First man I saw in a while.
14: Teeny weeny bit left of the line, which meant a little extra climb, but maybe 5 seconds worth.
15: substantially left at the start, corrected and went back in the right direction, got a bit nervous, then Ross Morrison went past, gave me a bit more confidence, then felt a contour, knew where the control would be, ran ten metres and could see the feature 50m away... it was easy after all. 20s lost.
16: Trivial, running hard.
17: Ditto
Run-in - Gave it all, fastest split.
Lay on the ground with a smile on my face afterwards.

C • Exxcellent job 11

A wee spin on the campus with some 20s bursts at the end to remind the legs what they have to be doing tomorrow. Not long left now. Feeling good!

The heat is back.

C • good luck! 5

orienteering intervals with Nick and Shane on Hollestoto

maybe 20-25mins fast

good to get a bit of speed work in

Took a walk/jog around the middleQ model so I can sleep tomorrow.

The area I was on was a little rougher... and contours were a little less bad.

An hour and a half's drive on windy windy roads to get a map not worthy of the name... forest was pleasant enough. Fast on flat and downhill, v slow on the uphills. Met a few more WOCers.

Then drove back, got accredited mostly, etc.

Some pics of Irish and Americans are available at
http://picasaweb.google.com/neil.dobbs/Hungary#

Picture of the day:

Area 15 training
Kisfennsik

Rented a car and headed up another long and winding road, overshot slightly but didn't lose too much time :)

Again, nothing too exciting. Reasonably pleasant, and physically I felt a bit better although still not 100%.

Picked up Nick, Ros and Kyle from the station. nice Hungarian dinner once we got everything sorted.

now I am too tired, despite being in bed just after 10pm and not getting up till 9. hmmm, easy day today, but on a map.

Tamás-kút,
Hungary

Middle training... still v tired, should be back in a day or two. Cloudy today with a few drops of rain in the hills. Temperature dropped to a Baltic 22 degrees.

Forest was not very exciting, mostly white and runnable. v1 was also runnable, v2 slighlty less so. Nothing I haven't done before.

Travelled 50 mins each way on a narrow winding road with some Poles. Wojtek was happy with his form.

Some dirty canadian stole my map. You'd think he'd have gone for something more valuable.
Edit: On reflection, it seems more likely now that he took it in return for services to be rendered. I wonder what they could be.

C • Dirty canadian? 2

for those who want to play Count the Contours (click on it for larger pic):

I seem to be alone in thinking that the area around the first 7 controls (and where a large part of yesterday's course went too) was the most fun and interesting. Must be my French upbringing. We had to flip the map for the last few controls.

So I was chatting with a WOC organiser last night and he was saying that this comp'n is not that popular with Hungarians. He guessed 700m of climb... he said the SK organisers don't actually count the climb, just look at the course and pluck a figure out of the air... and that even if they knew it was over 700 (or in this case 800)m of climb, they would never write that... :)

C • Comparing contours 7

wee jog around the miskolc university campus

not too tired, but not a bad idea to have a rest day anyway after the drive yesterday

Not enough sleep last night... had to get up for breakfast at 7:30!

Szentendre Kupa
Day 2

The advertised 9.9 and 440m climb seemed like a bit more than I needed, so I took the camel and set out not too hard. Managed to go to the 7th en route to 2... navigated perfectly, so I was very happy until I saw the control code! Doh!.
Feet started getting sore in the steep continental slopes and gullies that we didn't visit yesterday. Slowed down and took some dodgy routes (trying to minimise climb and gullies)... Shane caught me 10 minutes after 80 mins of running, so I sped up and beat him back, just, finishing two minutes ahead (8 minutes down). 15 to the finish I didn't make a mistake.

Glad I had the camel as there was no water out there (and not sure I would have drunk it if there were). Tough race.

I counted 167 contours on our course, not sure how many of those I ran, but way way more than what was advertised!

Some Moldovan ran 91. Currently waiting in the airport for Greg to pick me up in a bigger car than what we had. Tired. Drinking lots. And lots. And lots.

C • Fun blog! 1

I may actually only have climbed 144 contours... 720m... not that much really :)

It was hot work for the feet, and good to cool down after:

Aislinn was none too pleased
and Greg and I declined lunch to eat elsewhere, in hopefully more hygienic circumstances...

C • Aislinn 2

after 12 hours in bed (broken sleep, but still good), managed to recover from the flight and travel and tiredness of the day before.

Nice uphill to the start, warm-down with Johnny and Greg...

Szentendre Kupa
day 1
No idea what I was in for, and it was actually a pleasant surprise. A fair amount of dry prickly stuff, some semi-open with scattered veg, very little path running, seemed well-planned.

Ran well, got a bit sketchy towards the end with mistakes on controls 10,12,13,14,15 of maybe 90 seconds total. 12th was the worst, went left instead of right, and then missed the control, didn't understand the map there, overshot it 30m... 40s lost on that one.

http://www.astrois.hu/szentendrekupa-h/2009/result...
Took 4 minutes out of Greg, a bit more out of Shane.

Nice views, hot, sunny day.

8*2mins/1min rest, Arsta

nice session to stretch the legs, travelling tomorrow

Went to Vitabergsparken amphitheatre and watched Sirqus Alfon, reliving the glory days of Eurotrash, then ate Ethiopian instead of packing bags. Currently writing rubbish on AP instead of packing bags.

before and after

Paradiset

I thought we were just going out training for intervals or whatever, but turns out LUFFARLIGAN has started. Third time running on Paradise in a month, but not the same area, this time on on the NE, and it's just as wonderful.

Made one mistake, almost 2 minutes. It was a bit stupid. Speed was ok, fast enough without pushing especially overly hard. ggggg ran 32, also with a 2 minute mistake.

Beautiful day, great weather. Sodden after the race. Warmed down, stretched for a while, then went up to the clubhouse and had a uniquely wonderful Allan Dusch, apparently patented to one Allan Mogensen of IFK Södertälje. Made me feel tough like Valentin N.

After lunch, picked up my brand flashy new temporary passport. Nothing can stop me now!

C • I can stop you now 4

to and from the ski-slope. Back was painful. Also jogging down the hill between reps. Walked down the last one. Ran fast for 2:20 during the run back, felt crap.

4 colms upp backen

sun was strong, hot mid-afternoon... HR dropped to 150 in the downhill "recovery" between reps.

C • Impossibe 3

Flatenbadet

Pure hedonism. Control-picking, blueberry-picking, baking rocks, crunchy moss, swimming, reading, sun-bathing. Happy days.

Bought a crappy 500kr bike. It's not very big.

Forgot to note that I had some ice-cream and a chat with a former orienteering ambassador to the US, Esbjörn Eriksson, on Thursday afternoon.

C • Interesting... 2

y&g from kth