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!
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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By claudette.bb, # 24. April 2008, 01:18:41