Training Log Archive: nmulder

1031 - Bortnychi North. 1:10'000, 2.5m contours. WOC 2007 Middle Distance Qualifier. Had a good start over the first 5 controls, catching Pavel the Israeli (started 2 mins ahead) before 1 and running together till 5. Then he sped up. The rest of my race wasn't too great. I did not have enough contact with the map, and I was slow and uncertain on the medium and long legs. A few times I was out at the control, and a few others I got lucky as I didn't read within the circle well. In the end Pavel ran away by 4 minutes from me. Even if I had stayed with him, I would still have been 3.5 mins away from the 30:35 qualifying mark. Finished 27th out of 41 runners, including a few dsq'ed because of mispunching and over-timing. I've now got nearly a week of rest before the Relays.

Golosiivsky Park. 1:15'000. 5m contours. WOC 2007 Long Distance Qualification. As opposed to yesterdays heat and high humidity, this morning was nice and cool, perfect running weather. My bus was on time (unusually) to the start, so I had a nice, but painful warm-up. Got off to a decent start, but was a bit despondent due to the large number of running legs. After the first water control (#6) I made my biggest mistake in years by heading for #8. Got 70% of the way there before realising and returning for #7. Mistake was about 4 mins. From there I settled down a bit, but lost a bit of interest, thinking that I was now well out of it. My fitness pulled me through though and I made no more serious mistakes. Crossed the finish line and was surprised to see so many people behind me by big margins (10 min plus). Took a lot of scalps. I had a total of 5 mins of mistakes, but this only would have put me up 1 or 2 places, nowhere near qualification. Finished 24th / 36 competitors. Probably my best WOC result yet in terms of position, but definitely not as a % of the winner's time. Left Austria, Belgium, Serbia, Romania, Turkey, Moldova, USA, Canada, Ireland, Kazakstan, Portugal, Hong Kong behind me. China finished 2 secs ahead of me.

C • Awesome 1

Event: WOC 2007
 

Golosiivsky Park. 1:5'000, 5m contours. WOC 2007 Sprint Distance Qualification. Men A heat. 33th / 39 runners. I was a bit hurried at the start due to delays in the organiser's transport system. Only had 20 minutes to change and warm-up. Didn't think too clearly for the first two legs, but didn't make any disasters either. Had a pretty clean race all round, only loosing about 20 secs on mistakes / poorer route choices. Felt a little tired on the last hill but otherwise very happy with my time. Was 3:27 behind winner on my course, which is purely down to my lack of speed. Richard L had a good fast run (best of SA's), whilst Jeremy not so great, as he felt tired and slow.

1000 - Brovary. 1:10'000. WOC Model Middle Distance training. The usual greenery under the forest. I managed to avoid most of the nettles. Pretty green map, so it's not going to be too nice on the Middle Qualie. I just waltzed around a bit. Looking at runability of green areas.

1230 - Feofaniya. 1:15'000 and 1:5'000. WOC Model event for Long and Sprint Distances. Less greenery under the forest, but mainly for the sprint area. Nice parkland and little rubish for a change. Once again, did a slow plod around the course, mainly looking at interpretation of vegetation types.

The SA Team has started a blog for WOC in Ukraine.

http://www.rsaorienteers.blogspot.com/

1200 - Obukhiv. 1:10'000. 5m contours. Finally, a decent area! It was a mission to get there (2 metro rides, 1 mini-bus taxi and 1 private taxi when we got lost plus 2km walk), but it was worth it. Nice contoured landscape with good detail, some splotches of green, but good pine forest with not as much undergrowth. First event that I've enjoyed since we got here... I think it will only be relevant for the relay however... the Long Q will still be a b****. Training went pretty well, no major mistakes, with me cutting it a bit short as the original 7km was a bit too far. This was the last training camp event... now for rest.

C • Good luck 2

1130 - Vyshgorod. 1:15'000. Our first long distance training map, a few kms north of Kiev (metro and taxi ride). It turned out to be a bit of a horrible experience. Most of the forest was variable densities of green (whole fields of nettles and other bush under the trees), with some incredibly steep erosion gullies to cross. To some degree I can't believe that WOC is being held in an area like this. My run / walk was definitely not pleasant. I spent a lot of time avoiding nettle fields, sliding down embankments, climbing up the gullies on the other side and occasionally crossing marshes with a very unpleasant colour. Then there is the rubbish and the roaming wild dogs....

1030 - Bykovnia. 1:10'000. Training camp for WOC. This was a middle distance training area. Very flat, with a few occasional sand mounds (dunes) rearing up under the mixed broadleaf and pine forest. Mixed densities of forest, but generally good runability. Quite a few areas of undergrowth representing nettles and raspberry brambles. Definitely one to stay out of. The first half of the course was weird... very flat and what contours there were didn't make any sense. Didn't agree with the mapping on many occasions. 2nd half had more sand dunes and was much better. Ran 1 or 2 fast legs towards the end... compass quite important here.

1715 - Zaliznychnyi. 1:5'000. 2,5m contours. A sprint training map in the suburbs of Kiev. Getting to the training events is quite often interesting... they generally start with the Metro (+/- 80 S.A. cents fee), then a 20-seater mini-bus taxi ride if the venue is slightly outside of Kiev (R2 fee). This area was only about a 800m walk from the nearest Metro stop. It was a mix of park land and urban forest... not too green but incredibly littered with rubbish. I had a fair run, taking it reasonably easy. Have decided to focus more on getting accustomed to the mapping styles, my physical training is over.

Flew from Manchester through to Kiev for the World Orienteering Champs. Arrived very late / early at the hotel. Interesting place...