Thea Lillehov

May 2008

( Monthly archive )

EOC Day 4: back to basics worked

Thursday, 29. May 2008, 07:35:31

Yesterday's long distance b-final was much better than the qualification race. I worked really hard on some mental things the evening after the quali and the morning before the b-final, so in good time before the start I started looking forward to do orienteering again. My goal was to do basic orienteering again, not focusing on runnning speed. Due to this I was preparing and concentrating before the start in the same way as I do at important competitions.
The two first controls I ran very carefully, maybe too carefully, but at least I did not do mistakes and found a good rhytme. On the fourth control I lost the emit-back up. On the way to nr. 5th I struggled a bit fixating it again and did not focus completely on the orienteering. Of course that lead to a mistake, but I could read my self in again after not too long a time. Except for nr. 9 where I went down from the hill too early, the rest of the course was very okay. I had no problems interpretating the map and enjoyed the orienteering all the time. I focused on simple things like keeping in touch with the map all the time, reading everything since it was so a challenging terrain. I was running a faster speed, but not 100%. This worked very well. This will also be my goal for the middle qualification on Friday - orienteering first, speed second.
The course yesterday was one of the most beautiful and challenging courses I have ever seen. Of course the b-final had no butterfly, but for the rest it was just great. It had everything. Sand, seelike marshes, open speedy forrest, green areas where you could still run fast. And almost everywhere detailed contours which did not allow you to take time off. You had to be one hundred procent concentrated all the time. Of course the b-final is not a important competition, but it's nice that it still got a challenging course!
Map will come!

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EOC Day 4: long qualification - just bad.

Tuesday, 27. May 2008, 14:23:13

This morning I was nervous all ready when waking up. Usually this is a good sign, but today it wasn't. I was getting more nervous every minute so I just longed for the start. It started really good, a long leg to the first controll and everything worked fine. The control sat where I wanted it to be, a good start. Longer leg also to nr.2 and then the misery started. First I overlooked the possibility to run on the path, which would have made everything very easy. Then I came too far to the right in the white/green area, and then I cruised around in there for a pretty long time, just don't knowing which direction to go. My compass wasn't very helpful either. Finally I caught myself up on a path very far right. Well, then a lot of time had gone, but I still managed to control my nerves. Control 3-8 went more or less okay, only minor moments of insecurity, but I think everybody had that today. Then, to control 9 I chose to run on the right side of the hill chain, not seeing the path upon it. Well, it wasn't that bad, but when I climbed up the hill, I has some kind of black out and thought I was much more to the right than I was. First around the little path to the left I could read myself in on the map again. Now I was getting really stressed, knewing I was loosing way to much time. I found the control then and tried to run really focused and controlled to number 10. On the fire line before the control I knew exactly where I was, I ran to the re-entrance where the control should be and could not find it. Running out to the path on the right side, back again - no control. Out to the path north of the control and back again, no control. Up on the hills and back to the fireline and finally I found it, in the same re-entrance where I had been at least 3 times. The control was there all the time, I just did not see it. Really sad, because long distance is one of my favourites and I just did not do my job.
Tomorrow I will run the b-final, but just for technical and mental reasons. I want to have a good, longer run to get the sadness and disappointing out of the system. The time until Friday and middle distance qulification I will also use for some mental work and then it should be okay again. At least I feel better now than just after finishing today..

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EOC Day 3: Sprint B-final

Monday, 26. May 2008, 20:19:53

(Photo:Richard Schuh)

This afternoon the sprint finals took place, first out were of course the a-finals. In the womens category Anne M. Hausken finally got her gold medal! Six small seconds diveded between first and third place! In the mens category the sprint-king Emil Wingsted won again! Kerschi did his job very well and reached the 21. place, which is his best EOC-result.

My goal with the b-final was to get more experience with two sprint competitions on the same day. I did not ran at 100% speed, but I tried to run fast without getting too tired. I think I succeded in this, the speed was okay and afterwards the legs were still very okay. Actually they felt better in the noon than in the morning. I did one mistake in the open-air museum which costed me 20 seconds, for the rest it was ok. The two controls directly after the spectators control were a bit tricky or maybe I did not read the control description well enough, because I did not except them to be placed so low. But, that was maybe 2-3 seconds, so not a big deal. The rest of the run was okay and I was satiesfied with both legs and head.

Tomorrow it is long distance qualification. The model event took place on a 1:10 000 map, in the competition we will use 1:15 000. Just one of the strange things here.. Neverthless, long distance is one of my favourites, so I am looking forward to tomorrow!

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EOC Day 3: Sprint Qualification (with map)

Monday, 26. May 2008, 10:11:37

Ok, it was not enough for the A-final, but it was much better than anytime before! I missed the final by 29 seconds, which is about 2 minutes less than at the WOC2006.. In the end, I was 1:54 behind the winner of our heat(W2), Heli Jukkola(Fin). The race itself was ok, only some minor mistakes. On the way towards nr.3 I took the routechoice on the right side and wanted to run through the fence-opening. Coming there I could not see it. Instead of starting a search I quickly decided to follow the street to the left and take the control from there. Well, I might have lost 5-10" there, we will see when we get the split-times. On the way from 10-11 I ran around a flowerbed to much, maybe 5" lost. That was also a long route and my choice was to run around on the right side. It is a bit longer than in the middle, but you don't need to think anymore and can concentrate only on running fast. In the finish I was satisfied with the race, even if it wasn't enough for the a-final.

In some hours it is time for the b-finale, which will be very different. In the qualification it was 60:40 concrete roads:soft ground, in the final it will be only 20% concrete roads, then 20% sanddunes and the rest other soft grounds. In the sanddunes it will probably be difficult, but difficulty is not a obstacle, just a challenge:).

Our team is still not complete, Felix Breitschädel will first arrive this evening. For the rest, everybody was running today and here are the results:
W3: 1. Helena Jansson (Swe) 10:50
25. Karin Leonhardt (Aut) 13:43 (Cut for the a-final at 11:57)
W2: 1. Heli Jukkola (Fin) 10:32
23. Thea Lillehov (Aut) 12:26 (Cut at 11:57)
M3: 1. Jamie Stevenson (Gbr) 12:23
11. Gernot Kerschbaumer (Aut) 13:09 (A-FINAL!!! Cut at 13:27)
M1: 1. Michael Smola (CZE)12:08
28. Markus Lang (Aut) 13:22 (Cut at 12:39)
M2: 1. Emil Wingstedt (Swe)12:03
30. Thomas Lang (Aut) 13:31 (Cut at 13:01)

Only Kerschi in the a-finale, all other will run b-final.

Yesterday we had model event in the area between the long qualification area and the area for the middle competitions. A fantastic area!! Technically really tricky, you have to very careful with the attack points. The underground is fast, but it cost you energy because due to lots of heather and blueberry bushes. I am really looking forward to the long qualification tomorrow, this is the kind of orienteering that makes real fun!

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EOC Day 1 - a small plane and a flat country

Saturday, 24. May 2008, 19:58:40

Puh, we have survived the travel to Ventspils! The plane was of the smaller kind....loud and shaky, but it brought us safe all the way to Riga. On the drive from Riga to Ventspils we passed forrest, forrest and forrest again. Sometimes I just wanted to jump out of the car and have a run in these wonderful areas! Most of the forrest was flat, open, vacum-cleaned and really speedy. Ok, there was some greener areas too, but no paradise without a snake or two! In between we also passed some small lakes and rivers, very nice, very scandinavian. I almost got homesick, those forrest could have been in Løten or in Østerdalen!
We are living in the Olympic Center of Ventspils, it is a really nice place! All the EOC-things, like opening ceremony and model event for startprocedures etc take place here. Perfect, no travelling necessary. And, the hotel has a free wlan, so it looks like I will be able to keep the blog updated:).

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