Training Log Archive: NSW Stinger

Rest day. First one for 3 weeks.

warm up

Swiss O week Day 6- final race in Flims
30th place, putting me in 45th overall.
I was pretty motivated to do well in this one. Last race of 8 days in a row and the most WOC relevant, and all the big boys were racing. Muz was starting 2 mins in front so I hoped I could catch him and work together.

I got the first 2 ok, and on my way to 3 I saw Muz, who hadn't found 2. bugger. Anyway I was trying to run up the small hills without too much energy, but knowing the race didn't have many hills. 5 was a dangerous bingo pit on the side of a hill without a good attackpoint. I got a little past it and hit another pit, then saw someone run past and looked back and I could see it. Lost about 20secs but could have been worse.
I was happy with the way I ran 6-8, but 9 wasn't so good. I drifted to the right, not really concentrating on compass, just running , and ended up on the road. Not probs, changed plan and ran around the road for a while and it was quite easy coming off the 2nd track. 10 and 11 I was pretty careful with and got them ok. I was conservative on 12 and came in from above track rather that straight through green. Took a bit longer to find than I expected. Going to 13 I took a lot longer to get to the clearing than I expected, and perhaps should have bailed out there quicker. At 13 I was in 16th place, but I lost 2mins at 14 and dropped to 37th- shit. I had a plan coming into the control but just missed the correct rock, or didn't see it. Then turned right as there were lots of other unmapped rockfaces in there. Searched around for a while in the green before coming back out to the more open forest and followed the tracking to the control. The GPS route showed I must have been close.
On 16 I decided to take the conservative road option to the right, not really knowing how slow it might be going straight. Apparently it was about the same time both ways, but I managed to navigate off the road and perfectly into #20. It took a little time to work out what I'd done when the code didn't match. I lost another 80-90secs and done to 43rd.
I was happy with my nav through the tricky 17-22 section, it all seemed to make sense. Great little area with big rock features and negative terrain.
23-Finish was a seriously fast, easy finish, that brought the elite courses into the finish via open ski runs and a few control picking. A nice way to finish a tough week of races and I managed not to lose to much time to the best.
Mattias Merz won in 37.15, another really good race. If Thierry makes a mistake in WOC, Merz will punish him.
I'm pretty happy with this run, but 42 would have looked a lot better. At least I got most of the controls really cleanly and orienteered in a sensible manner most of the time.
Now for some tapering!

Routegadget- http://solv.ch/binperl/reitti.cgi?act=map&id=26&ki...
Results http://www.o-l.ch/cgi-bin/results?type=rang&year=2...

From 2011 Orienteering Maps

Etapp 5 agains started above Kosi height, but I'm definitely feeling more confortable with the thinner air. I'm a bit annoyed I still can't put together a good run, but there were positives from today. My legs felt much more comfortable and stronger than other days, perhaps because it wasn't so steep and rough. For *most of the time I was able to run at a good speed and with confidence with navigation.
My first mistake was #7. Up to that point I was in 33rd and 15secs behind Simon. At 7 must have been close, but didn't take enough notice of the knoll I passed near the circle and ran a bit too far. It took me 2mins to work it out. Then out of 7 I exited in a poor direction, then overcorrected, then got lost. Another 2mins. So I dropped to 70th at that point.
I also overan 11 by 2mins, just saw some knolls in front and navigated perfectly past the control.
The last part I ran quite hard as I had a bunch of guys to catch back up to. I finally hit the lead at 20 and blew 90secs on that one too going too far to the right. I was never really that confident on that leg. Niclaus Jonasson passed me there and I went hard to stay in sight on the boring last legs. The finish was a reall punisher. I ran 1.05mins, and lost 32secs to the fastest!! I was pretty knackered for the afternoon. One more race left, and it should be the most technical. Then off to France tomorrow night.

Good run from Simon who finished 15th. And Lizzy Ingham won W21E, nice one!

http://www.o-l.ch/cgi-bin/results?type=rang&year=2...

ride from Trin to Flims on Lorenzo's mtb. I didn't really want to ride on the main road so took small dirt paths. Bloody hell there was a bit more climb than I realised and it was bloody humid. As I was hoping on the cable car sweat was literally dripping off. Started at 800m elevation, dropped to 650m and up to 1100m.

Swiss O week Day 4
39th. http://www.o-l.ch/cgi-bin/results?type=rang&year=2...
Routegadget- Routegadget http://solv.ch/binperl/reitti.cgi?act=map&id=24&ki...

Today we got a cable car from Flims (1100m) to Plaun (1800m). Then chairlift to Crap Sogn Gion (2200) then downhill run to the start at 2000m. The first section was about the tree line. The middle part descending through the trees to the valley with some cracking diagonal downhill legs to point features. The 3rd part had a great technical rocky hillside with people everywhere.
Well 39th is my best placing so far, but still not a great run. The first half was shocking, I hardly hit a control right out of the first 12. Continued to come into the circle ok and drop out the bottom without seeing the control. I was 9mins behind, after I'd be running for 34mins. So I only dropped 4mins to Lakinen (winner) over the last 50mins so I'm happier about that. Besides being a bit careful on the ridiculously steep hills I didn't lose much time for the 2nd half, plan to keep that up tomorrow.
Simon 85mins, Jamie 87mins, Muz 89mins, Lorenzo 100mins, Patrick 105mins, Flynn not worth mentioning.

warm up and cool down

Swiss O week Rest day. I did exactly that. Rest. I was thinking about going for an easy bike ride in the arvo but a summer storm put an end to that idea. Instead I went for a jog from Trin to the campground to see what was going on down there. Muz and the kiwis weren't there, but Jonas Merz was. He was about to go and hang flags for a training session for Lauenstein (aka Swiss Cheese) and Hertner to do tomorrow. Since the map was the 2003 Middle Distance Champs map, and a truly legendary area I decided to join him. It was even nicer than I expected, the hills all seem bigger than what you expect but the map makes perfect sense. Jonas and I took it in turns naving 3 or 4 controls at a time. A longer session than it started out, but still good experience.
While we were out there Jonas said he would probably get paid 100CHF to set the session and would split it with me. Sweet! Apparently the Swiss National team has a grant of 200 000CHF for training leading up to the 2013 WOC in Lausanne. WOW!

Swiss O week-Day 3 at Vorab Glacier (the Ice cold day)
48th.
Today we had to get 2 gondolas and a cable car to Vorab 2600m. I expected this to be the highlight of the week and I wasn't disappointed. It started on the edge of a glacier, and the terrain was mostly rocky moraine, with small lakes, snow patches, boulders and the bottom part was a bit grassy.
I started 2mins behind Simon so was pretty keen to catch him. I ran the first section quite well, and was sitting in 12th place, 90secs behind, and 1mins10 in front of Simo. So I was starting to see Simo in the distance but the problem was I picked up a bloody idiot who runs fast but can't navigate. I always get annoyed having people like that around me and today was no different. We were going hard down to 11 but pulled up too early and I couldn't make sense of it. Ended up blowing 3mins and Simon ran away. Bugger. Unfortunately I was still with my friend and we raced to 16 together. On 17 he headed off the wrong way and I ran alone until catching Muz at 21. He picked up the pace and ran really well until I finally hit the lead to 26 and made another minute mistake. Finished 12mins behind Andreas Rudlinger.
We the positives were it was a great area and I thoughly enjoyed it. I ran really well in parts and IF I'd caught Simon and stuck with him I would have been 10th. And while it was hard work going uphill, I think I am getting more used to the altitude.
I probably need to hold back a little in parts as it was when I got a bit too confident and upped the pace to far that I made mistakes.

Splits- http://www.o-l.ch/cgi-bin/results?type=rang&year=2...
Routegadget- http://solv.ch/binperl/reitti.cgi?act=map&id=23&ki...

warm up

Swiss O week Day 2
It was hard to get motivated for this race knowing all the Swiss WOC boys were not racing. It was further than yesterday by 2km, and with 700m climb! And it was mostly open terrain that didn't really excite me that much. And the start was a few hundred vertical metres BELOW the finish.
I jogged down to the start, actually I had to go pretty hard cos I was running late. I was pretty hesitant on the steep descent to #1, and missed 2min by just slidding beneath the control and not seeing the feature (ditch). I got 2 ok but was already caught by Agseir Mjsund. I was following him into 4 when we got to the control circle and I worked out we had just passed the control (small gully) and went back, and think he kept going. I again missed 5 by a contour or two and had to drop back to it. Walking up the hill to 6 I just cracked it. My heart wasn't in it so I walked to 12 instead and sat there for a while enjoying the view, but not happy about having to climb 400m back to the finish. I walked up to the drinks stop and decided to have a crack at the long leg 14 (with 300m vertical climb!). Once I got going I didn't feel so bad and pushed pretty hard. I ran 17.40 and the best was 16.53. Then I ran to 18, 19, 20 and home.
So I was still out there for 91mins (stopped for 13). Not really saving my energy anyway. Probably shoudn't have gone to the start in the first place.

warm up and cool down

51st.

Routegadget http://solv.ch/binperl/reitti.cgi?act=map&id=21&ki...

http://www.o-l.ch/cgi-bin/results?type=rang&year=2...

Event: Swiss O Week
 

warm up and cool down

Swiss O week- Prologue
130 elite men running 32 controls over 2.60km in a massed start. Cool.
I ran reasonably well on the first loop, while still trying to navigate and check my codes instead of blindly following. Coming onto the 2nd leg I copped a stick in the eye and had trouble seeing the map. Unfortunately I started following someone in front and skipped a control and had to go back for it. Simo passed me here and I lost about 20 places. I lost another minute later and ended down in 70th and a bit disappointed. Bloody tough work orienteering at such a high intensity after all the training in France.

http://www.o-l.ch/cgi-bin/results?year=2011&event=...

I woke up and peeked out the window and was surprised to see blue sky and snowtop mountains. So I quickly got down to Chamonix and on the 7.30 cable car to Aguille du Midi (3842m). I'd wanted to come up here but it wasn't worth the money unless I could see the views. I beat the crowds and had virtually no line up, unlike at 9am when I came back down. The view was just as good as expected, with Mont Blanc in full glory. I was very jealous of all the mountaineers roping up for a day in the mountains. I'll definitely have to come back here one day.
Then back to the hotel, and on the train to Switzerland.

Running from Chur hostel to the railway station, then round in circles looking for signs to the Orienteering race. Finally found a single streamer and got there eventually.

A warm up event for the Swiss O week around the old town of Chur. Really fun, and it was good to get the legs moving fast again. Only missed a little, one poor route and got sucked into a dead end right near the finish.