sandrazürcher

when we arrived our coach, Tom Hollowell already gave us a big challenge. the first training was on the same map that the 2003 swedish middle distance champs were on (anyone reading this run that race?). the terrain gave me a lot of trouble, not really because i was getting lost, but because i had to go really darn slow to be able to read everything. with the deep ground and slushy snow coming down on us i got pretty cold. really great and fun terrain, but a hard introduction to being in sweden again. we certainly don't have maps like this in switzerland.


over the weekend we ran in the club's ultralong champs and a middle distance race. The terrain for the ultralong was really fast and very flat. I didn't run the D21 course, since i was fresh out of my training break, but the 9km that i ran were really fast and enjoyable. The middle distance was a good test of fast running in technical terrain, lots of clifs on the side of the hill and running over the top and down to the control. pretty challenging but i managed ok for my standards. Franziska and i found out that we do not orienteer at a fast enough speed in sweden to win this type of race and ended up a few minutes back from the leader.

the training camp went into full swing with a very good compass and middle distance training on monday morning. At the end of this training we had the option of doing a 4km course on the same maps as our first day. i wanted to give it another shot and see if i could be a little faster in this difficult terrain. the few days in sweden had already helped and i was much more confident and much quicker this time around. Nice to see progress.

we also got to take part in the club jympa, which gave me some sore muscles the next day. our last training was on the 2003 swedish long distance champs map, our finish was the same as 4 years ago. I got pretty lost by making a parallel error. shows me that i do not use the compass enough and run from feature to feature more. more to learn, so much more.


once again a great opportunity provided by ok tyr to do some quality training. we had the excellent hospitality of the Hollowell's with lost of great food and company. Thank you! And having Tom Hollowell as the official US team coach is also awesome!


now back in switzerland i am getting into the winter training plan and trying to get used to the darkness and cold. We have a bunch of snow, which is of course good news and hopefully i can do some cross country skiing.

maps will follow, still need to scan them in.
Here are some pictures: