Training Log Archive: nmulder

Ran Day 5 of the Swiss spectator races as a training run for the Relay on Saturday.

Jorat 10 / Chalet-à-Gobet
1:10'000
Course: Open Middle - A

A mix of orange and green diffuculty controls. Easy to start with, so got complacent when I hit the first two technical controls. Lost a couple of minutes there. After that so-so, but not too good. A typical Swiss undergrowth forest, so whites were pretty green.

Results

From Orienteering Maps

Bretaye - 1:10'000
Day 4 of the Swiss spectator races.

Wanted to go at a nice comfortable speed, but changed my mindset when I picked up the map. Looked like an awfully tough course, so I changed into endurance mode.

Even then I took it easy, walking most of the hills. Missed #1 in some tall undergrowth. Then messed up route execution on the first long leg to #2. Then a loop through lots of white forest where the undergrowth was as tall as me. Luckily I was running late, so there were major highways between controls. Poor bastard who had to start first.

Had a good route choice 8-9, contouring around a valley, which I don't think too many people saw. I took it easy and still had a very decent split position.

Caught up with Jeremy who had started behind me, but cut out the 8-9 loop. Course only got interesting in the last 10 controls when we hit some snazzy glacial morraine.

Very long and tough course in the end. Not much fun. Out of 85 starters, about 31 bailed from the course. Only 2 guys, both Swiss national squad, just got in under 2 hrs. With some more effort from my side, I think I could have run 2:10 - 2:20, but I would have been broken for the next week.

Results

Crazy planning for a 5-day event. Good planning for a mountain marathon. My Suunto says we did 1500m climb instead of 625m, but that's certainly wrong. My contour count on my map say 875m.

From Orienteering Maps

Went to watch the Middle Final. Didn't really get into the whole thing, but interesting to see a shake-up of the regular podium placers.

Bois Rond - 1:10'000

Men's C-Heat in the Middle Distance Qualification

My worst run in a world ranking event in 8 years... :-(

Tough forest. Quite physical, lots of low visibility and a lot of map that was on the green side of white. A few controls that were tucked deep into greenery as well.

Hit the first three quite nicely, but then missed #4 by about 5 metres (twice). Found another control that matched the description, but wrong number. Lost about 2.5 mins. Then route choice error to #4 cost me another 4+ minutes. Another mistake at #6, 30 secs. Then came across an Aussie needing medical attention to #7. Threw my concentration and I missed #8 by a few metres. +90 secs.

Probably about 10 mins of mistakes in total, of which 8 mins I would not normally make, so very disappointing. Probably not enough prep in this type of area. So I was under-prepared.

Results

Map coming soon.

Bière-Ballens - 1:15'000

Men's A-Heat in the Long Distance Qualification

Was expecting a tough physical forest, but had to readjust very rapidly on the way to the 1st control. Forest was significantly more runnable than expected, so started running extremely straight between controls. Made very few mistakes, 1-2 mins total. Only 1 major route choice error.

Got passed by Lundanes (+3) at #3, no surprise there. After that a lot of running on my own as 3rd last starter. Was quite nice in a way, as I could settle down and focus on my O', but also didn't have people ahead of me going into controls.

In the end, finished 28th in a field of 38. Quite happy with that, although % against the winner is a bit down. WRE points are very down though. Lack of running speed is noticeable, especially given the forest conditions. Overall a very nice area, and a run that I quite enjoyed.

Results

From Orienteering Maps

Event: WOC 2012 - Lausanne SWITZERLAND
 

Flew to Switzerland from Slovakia.

Or rather, got to Kosice airport at 4am for my 5am flight. At boarding, was told that I had been bumped off the flight. This by the airline that I had been boycotting for 15 years and had only booked with again as there is a severe lack of airlines flying into Kosice.

At least they bribed me to be calm with lots of Euros and then hired a private driver to drive me to Budapest to catch the Swiss flight to Zurich. Only 2 hours later than planned.

Still got to see the WOC Sprint Final in Lausanne. Got the brilliant news on the train there that Michael had qualified for the A-final. First South African ever to get through the qualifiers. He had a few mistakes in the final, so didn't get off the bottom, but great performance anyway. We had a good SA support contingent around the arena.

JWOC Relay.

Both men's and ladies' teams had a good day, even if the final results don't necessarily show it.

We ran Brad-Ant-Jess in the Men and Salome-Steph-Sarah in the ladies.

Brad had a very good run, just +5 off the leaders after leg 1. Ant continued his recent run of good races and ensured a clean run that saw us mantain a good position. Unfotunately Jess was always going to be easy prey for the chasing men's teams behind us, but she did well. We finished only a few minutes behind Canada who also fielded 1 women in their team.

Salome had a problem control on the first leg and lost some time at it, but Steph had a good clean run and managed to catch up, even passing the USA team and getting clear by a few minutes. Sarah then anchored us home well. Apart from USA, also beat a few other teams which was a good result.

Ran the Team Officials race. Jahodna, 1:10'000.

Poor quality printing and 1 or 2 interesting interpretations. (e.g. control 7, mapping an extraction trace as a 'ruined earth-wall' - i.e. the middle mannetjie.)

Paced myself after yesterday, as have WOC races on Sunday and Monday. Used it as a good recovery run from yesterday's flat-out race.

Had a fair run, hit most controls almost spot on, but not necessarily as a result of my actions. Lots of other runners around me in the mass start, so lots of following and feeding off the other competitors.

From Orienteering Maps