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Thea Lillehov

the sunny side of life

April 2008

( Monthly archive )

3, 2, ...20?

Wednesday, 23. April 2008, 22:26:03

10 days ago the Austrian orienteering season started, as usual with the Ultralong Championship. My personal opinion is, that this competition should better be in the autumn, but I try to run it anyway. This year the ultra-champs came in the end of a harder training periode, so I did no particular preparations, I just ran it out of training. The terrain was genial, the map really good and the course okay, even if it was strange running the first 8,5k unforked..(we had mass-start) But, it was a good way to look at how strong the other girls were running. After the long, unforked part, we had 3 small butterflyes (about 3k) and then again 1,6k unforked. Coming into the butterfly for the first time we were still 5 out of 7 girls together. Anita and I had the same forking of the butterfly and most of it went well, except for the two first controls of the last loop, were both made about a minute mistake on each control. I was starting to feel a bit tired, but I was sure the rest of the field felt the same, so when Ursi, Anita and I came back exactly at the same moment after the last butterfly, I tried to take the lead out on the last loop. From the maps hanging I could see we were the leading group, but I had no idea how far behind the next ones where. The nearer the finish the higher the speed got and from the third last to the second last control I ran a bit too much around some branches and Anita and Ursi got 5 meters. From there till the finish line we were all running what the legs where good for, but punching the last control I saw that I would not be able to cath up. Bad feeling... In the end Anita and Ursi both ended up first, with me in third place, 10 second behind. Strange feeling.. I was happy with the bronze medal, particulary since I had not been preparing for this competition at all. But I was also a bit angry at my self for not beeing able to run faster and more aggresiv in the end. After almost 13k orienteering at high speed 10 seconds is not very much.. But, my own foult. And I was happy to see Anita finally winning a gold and youngster Ursi allready getting her second gold!

Link to map/routegadget/results

Last Friday the major part of the elite team took off to Suchy (CZE) for a WOC-preparation camp. We were joined by two of the juniors, one of the best Hungarian junior girls and of course the trainer team. The trainers offered us some really good trainings and of course the first selection race for the WOC. It took place on Saturday, during the Czech Ultralong Champs. We were not running the elite classes, since we would stay for training for three more days, instead we were running D45/H40. For our part 8,5k with 285m climbing. My race was okay, but nothing more. I took bad routechoices on both longer legs and my legs were pretty heavy in the end. I even managed to make a mistake to the last control... The good things to take with me was that I was able to fight till the end, I know how to do the orienteering in the green areas and I am able to run faster than before. In the end I was second, but more than 4 minutes behind Ursi.
In the evening we did some stretching together and Gunnel also tried to get some rock'n roll rhythmes into our bodies, which was a good idea but not very succesful;). The next day we drove about 6h for two trainings, but it was worth it! First session was a normal course, but with typical Czech controls, like a stone in the middle of some very green area. It was a nice terrain, challenging control objects and I learned some important things about running around or not. The negative part was the bad map, some controls placed on a wrong place and the snow. Yes, snow! The first part of the course was really hard to run, due to lot of branches and stones covered in upto 15cm snow. Czech weather doesn't like me!
Second session was a downhill race, twice about 2k, with some forked controls in between. First you had to go uphill to the start and then we started two and two together, both having all controls on the map. If you saw the other one punching one forking control, you had to go to the other one. So it was a hard competition getting first to the control, so you did not have to run to the next one. It made really fun and for me it was perfect to train downhill running at a high speed, since that is not one of my best qualities. Beeing forced to orienteer when you are running downhill was also a good excercise! Running up to the starting point was also good uphill training, even at a easy speed.
The next two days we used for a memory trainig, relay start training (fortunately all runners survived that one!) and a long route choice training. My feeling is that my preparations is going well. I know which part I need to exercise more, but also which part I am doing good. The upcoming trainings I will use for some more downhill-orienteering and also route choice training in hilly terrain.

But first: 10mila!! Tomorrow I am off to Västerås and I am so looking forward to run 10mila for them! I will be running in the first team and will do my very best to help us reach Top20. Last year we weren't that far away from the top20, so it should be possible for us to reach it this year. We will do our best!

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5000m

Wednesday, 9. April 2008, 21:08:52

Today spring has again come to Vienna and hopefully this time it will last for more than two days! Today we had something around 17 degrees, pretty perfect for running. In the early afternoon Anita Seeböck and me ran a 5000m track-test. We do this approximatly once a month. For me one reason to do this is the limit we need to run for the national team. Another reason is that it is a high-quality training and a third one that it is a good way to measure my improvements in running strength.

The conditions was not so perfect as last time, as it was more windy. But it was OK and my form was so much better than one month ago. Working normal hours does help! We were going for 20:00 (Ok, that ist not fast, but you need to start somewhere..) and after some faster laps in the beginning, we ran a steady pace untill the last lap, which of course was a bit faster. In the end both ran 19:53, which ist a PB for both of us. Of course, there ist still a long way to go but it is a start. And on the 8th of May the next test comes. That ist shortly after the WOC-selections, so by then the legs should be speedy enough for a bit better time.

But, before any selections are coming up, there is an Austrian Ultralong Championship to be run. Upcoming Sunday 10:40, 12,6k/450m climb, mass-start, 2x map change, challenging area. Sounds to me like good fun!!

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Spring Cup

Thursday, 3. April 2008, 21:21:16

It has almost gone a week since Spring Cup, but due to lots of work there has been no time for updates. But, never too late, so here it comes.

Last Friday I travelled to Gilleleje, the northern point of Sjælland, via Copenhagen and Hillerød, where I also met my teammates from Västerås SOK. After some tasty pizza in Hillerød we drove up to the rented summerhouse in Gilleleje. It must be a really nice place during summer, but end of March it is more or less empty. Most people you met were there for Spring Cup.
Night competitions makes me a lot of fun, but since I had worked in the morning and then travelled I had chosen not to run it this year. So I spended the evening talking, reading and then having a early date with my bed.

Saturday was the Spring Cup classic event, 9,4K with 22 controls (map will come). My legs felt good when I did the warming up from pre-start to start. But, all ready to the first control I had the feeling that I could not trust my compass, but I told myself that mostly the compass is right and my feeling wrong. The features around me were clear, but still I ran very slowly and insecure. By this I lost 40 sec all ready on the first control! The leg to nr.2 was a longer one, but unfortunately without routechoice problems. It went so nice all the way to the road, then I knew I had to go more to the left, but my compass told straight so stupid me followed it. 2,30 off. Grrrrr. Third control was very Spring Cup, a depression in a dark green area. Technically it was ok, but something was strange on that hill before the depression, so I more walked than ran. 1.18 lost. 4th control was ok, I even managed to jump over the brooks. The the fun started. 4-5 was a bit longer leg with a green area in the middle. On the way to 4., I planned the routechoice - straight on, using the small paths throught the green area and then take the control from the left side. I knew that after the 4th control some hilly terrain and then a path and the green area would come. From the 4th control away I took the direction with the compass - for the last time that weekend and ran off. The hill, the path and the green area came - and then the big blow. It was NOT the hill, path and green area that I thougth it was. It was the same features but in a completely wrong direction. Almost 180 degrees wrong. It took some time for me to realize what had gone wrong and were I was, but then I did not know if to cry or to scream. For a short moment I considered to jog home, competition was clearly not a sucess, but then I decided to use the rest as a good training. At least on the mental plane. It was pretty hard motivating my self again, since I knew the time loss was just huge ( it was about 7 minutes...), but somehow I suceeded and the rest of the course was more or less ok.

After the competition I did a good cool down, also to get rid of the negative thoughts. I also checked on my compass and decided it was time for a new one since it showed north in different directions every time I turned it. After a lunch in Gilleleje we spended the afternoon and evening with chatting, coffee and some preparations for Tiomila.

Sunday was the relay and even if it seems like Spring Cup gets a bit smaller every year it was still around 50 teams in Womens Open. For Västerås SOK Jenny Johnson was running first leg, me second and Sofi Thorsell third. Jenny sent me off in 10th place and I came back in 11th place as did Sofi. My race was okay. To the first control I lost pretty much time since I was not running straight enough, but from then on it was not too bad. On the long leg from 2-3 I ran left and lost only 45" on Signe Söes. The leg 6-7 crossed some big marshes and I had decided to run around on the right side. In the end I crossed the path in front of them. It would then have been better to go left, but I decided to follow my plan and go right. In the end that costed me 2 minutes. I was not beeing very happy about that, but at least I could run out the irritation from 7-8, we had to cross a really steep hill. Then I lost time again. The radio control before the spectators control was not very difficult, but I was very unsure where on the path I was coming out and spent some time there looking at the map. After the spectators control we had a technically more challenging little loop, but everything went fine and the speed was ok. In the end I was not unhappy with the race but not satiesfied either. Many things work well, many things take too long, so there is some work to be done over the next weeks.

This week is a more or less rest week. A couple of easy runnings with and without maps and some straight training. Next week will be much harder, including some intervalls on Monday (1500meters in a 5000m-speed, so not very hard), a 5000m-test on Wednesday and the Austrian Ultralong Champs on sunday. The Ultralong take place in Bad Fischau, on one of the WMOC-maps and they look very nice and challenging. I am really looking foreward to it! Technical facts are not too scary, some more than 12K with 450m climb. But, for sure we will have some very long legs whith challenging route choices and the mass start will probably make all of us run faster. After this competition there will be some days of rest and normal training, before we take off to the Czech Republic for a EOC/WOC selection race and a training camp. And after that... "We will rock you" and then off to Tiomila. I am just looking so forward to it!

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