NEWS

2009-06-06 Czech WOC-selection

While some of my teammates are fighting on the NOC-long distance in Finland right now, I am at home in Borlänge having some rest after our WOC-selection races in Czech republic, Hungary and Slovakia.

Sprint in Brno, Czech republic (map). Good result but rather poor performance technically with two mistakes 15-20s each. In both cases I lost a bit of my concentration because of other people around me and did not follow my plan. We had two tricky route choices on our course - to the first and fourth control. I did not want to take any risks to the first one and went around with some extra climbing. I think it was a right decision. Actually I am not very fond of this kind of a route choice in sprint, where dense forest is involved. I made also right decision to the control number 4. Runners who went to the left around the hill-top lost at least 20s. I finished 1st (same time as MonikaT).

Middle in Bükk mountains, Hungary (map). Our team was joined by a mapmaker Zdenek Sokolar and he together with our coaches made quite a big improvement of the map used for middle and masstart race. I had no plans for running middle distance at WOC but I still wanted to make a technically good race. I did not do any big mistake but a few smaller. I finished second over 2 minutes behind Dana.

Masstart in Bükk mountains, Hungary (map). First two forked loops and then last part the same course for everybody. Despite studying of the old map before the race and guessing right where the first controls would be I took a wrong route choice to the first control and was about 20s behind already in the beginning. My performance on the second loop was better and I was second, with Vendula just behind me. At the end on the open fields I caught sight of Dana in front of me. I started to think about a possibility of catching her. At that moment I lost some concentration which resulted in a mistake at one of the last controls where also Vendula overtook me. So I finished third. I was not very happy when I reached the finish.

Long distance in Slovakia (map). The most important race for me. I really wanted to make a clear race and get a lot of self confidence from this terrain before WOC. The course had some interesting route choices and a few controls in a semi-open area with partly dense vegetation where many runners lost some time. It was perhaps more technically demanding than it will be at WOC. My tactics before the race was to run rather close to the line and also prefer running over tops of hills (like I did to the 5th control) instead of hill sides. Anyway, I did not always find the best route choice, for example to the second control I ran too much around. I avoided big mistakes all the way until the last control where I lost one minute. Again I think I was a bit disturbed by 2 other runners who were also searching for it at a wrong place. I really have to keep in mind to concentrate on my own performance in coming races. I still won the race by almost 2 minutes.

There are 2,5 months left until WOC and I still have a great possibility to improve a lot of things. The selection races gave me some positive signals, especially uphill running feels better than before. I will run sprint, relay and long at WOC, the same distances as last year but this year I am selected for the relay already now and not one day before the race. I will do some special training to get ready for the program: sprint Q+F in one day, relay, rest day and long final.

Results, splits and maps from Czech WOC-selection races

Czech teams selected for WOC, Euromeeting and WC in Norway

On Monday I am going to Finland to participate in the World cup races and of course Jukola. I have mixed feelings about missing the NOC-long and relay in the beautiful terrain near Salo, but after quite many years of elite orienteering I know rather well how much traveling and competing is good for me.

2009-05-29 Beautiful Dalarna

Right now I am in Brno, Czech republic where the Czech team has its first WOC-selection race this evening. The whole selection block consists of sprint in Czech republic, middle (Sunday) and masstart (Monday) in Hungary and long distance (Wednesday) in Slovakia. I feel well prepared after a lof of good training after Tiomila and also some resting during the last two weeks. More about the selection races on the website of Czech nat. team.

After Tiomila and a lot of traveling during March and April, I was quite happy to be able to spend more time at home and train in Dalarna, the beautiful part of Sweden where I live and work. Quite a few times I have been training together with the orienteering group at Dalarna University where Kalle Dalin, former Swedish national team runner, is a coach. They have at least 3 orienteering sessions every week, check the program.

One of my goals for this season is to become a better runner in "Scandianvian terrain". I have always considered myself to have a better running technique on roads and hard surfaces in general, compared to an avarage elite orienteer. This season I have done more orienteering training and more "terrain" running than during the previous years and I really feel much more comfortable running even in a very stony a marshy terrain. At the same time I try not lose any of my running capacity on roads and paths so I also train on an athletic track once a week together with Mora-orienteers.

My maps from races and selected training after Tiomila
(comments about them are in my training diary in Swedish):

Races
Elitserien long Finspång (Tiomila next year will be held in Finspång)
Middle Finspång
Middle in Horndal, Dalarna
Elitserien long in Gävle
Elitserien middle in Sandviken
Middle distance in Säter, Dalarna
Sprint in Säter, Dalarna
Ultralong distance in Gyllbergen - "Norwegian" terrain 20km from Borlänge

Training in Dalarna
Kniva middle
Long run on old "church" paths near Nyhammar
Long run on paths near Bäsna

Orienteering training in Mora with maps

2009-04-21 Tiomila - "only" 2nd place

2nd place is very good but it is difficult to feel completely satisfied, neither with the result nor with my own performance. A lot has been written about how the race developed so I will only write little bit about how I felt and ran. On Friday afternoon, one day before Tiomila, all our first team runners participated in the elite series sprint in Helsingborg. I was not sure whether it was the best way to prepare for Tiomila but I also wanted to use the opportunity to run a forest sprint as I might run sprint at WOC. Unfortunately I did not have a good run, took some bad route choices and did not feel strong physically. I finished 21st, about 2 minutes behind Signe. I had been sick a few days during the previous week and I could see that my maximum heart rate was still higher than normally. So my self-confidence was a bit down and I had to work hard to find the right feeling before Tiomila. On Saturday morning, before the others got up, I went for a morning jog in Söderåsen national park. I was enjoying the nature and searching for positive Tiomila feelings there for a while. I think it worked well and later, when I was waiting for Dana at the change over, I was already rather sure about my performance. The course on my leg was a bit technical with many controls but it was not forked. I started almost at the same time as Ida from Halden and Sarina from Turun. I had a safe run and missed only very little; the biggest mistake was about 20s at the second control. I came first to the change-over but the other two girls were just behind me so I could feel some disappointment that I did not manage to push harder and run away from them in order to create a bigger start advantage for Lena and Lina. Congratulations to Halden, and especially to Vendula, my teammate from Czech national team who ran the second leg and and got her first Tiomila victory.

Tiomila - map and results
Sprint Helsingborg - map and results

More about Tiomila and our team:
Lena Eliasson's website
Emma Johansson's blog
Article at orientering.se with webTV
Article in Dalarnas Tidningar

2009-04-16 Training on rivals' home ground - IFK Moras OK in Halden

While many clubs spent Easter in southern Sweden, IFK Moras OK went to Halden for a 4-days-long training camp. In my opinion the Tiomila terrain is not very special this year and it is not necessary to spend there many days training. In a long term the runners can profit more from training in the more technical and interesting terrain in Norway.

Our group consisted of over 30 seniors and juniors. Also a few runners from Halden joined us at some of the training sessions. Emil Wingstedt who lives in Halden, held a lecture for us, talking about preparation for important races and he also trained with us during these four days which was really great.

I organized two Tiomila test races, the first one was one-man-relay during daylight and the second one was a normal individual race (rather tough night orienteering for men).

Check the photos from Halden

Our program with maps:

Thursday
Night training

Friday
Pair training
Curves/reduced map training

Saturday
One-man-relay test race: first two forked loops, last loop men, last loop women
Emil Wingstedt's lecture and short strength training

Sunday
Green areas training
Test race with individual start women and men

Monday
Long distance training in Sweden (Map called Ranebo, perhaps one of the nicest orienteering terrains in Sweden)

Before the camp in Halden I spent a few days in Hungary/Slovakia training with our national team. I do not have time to post all maps here but you can find everything on the website of the Czech nat. team. Again the camp was well organized. I got many positive impressions, especially from the long distance terrain and now I have quite a clear picture of what to expect and how to train for it.

The long preparation block with many training camps abroad (Portugal 2x, Italy, Hungary/Slovakia and Halden) is over now and it is time to start to compete. In a few hours I start the travel to Skåne to Tiomila. My club Domnarvets GoIF has probably the best team ever and we are definitely one of the main candidates for victory. I will run the 3rd leg. In the last days I was mostly thinking how to help Mora runners to prepare well for Tiomila but now I will also concentrate on my own club and my own performance. It will be a great weekend.

2009-03-29 Training together with rivals

During the previous week the Czech national team had another intensive training camp, this time in Italy. The Czech team was joined by a group called "Mornarvet" (LinaB and EmmaJ from Domnarvet, MartinJ, AlexeiB and JegorK from Mora, and HelenaJ). We had also some common sessions with the Finnish national team and Kalevan Rasti. I believe we can all profit from training together with our rivals.

As usual we did quite much relay/mass start training in high speed. At least for me the whole program was close to the limit of what my body can handle. I was quite impressed by my teammates. It was pretty tough but I have not heard anybody complaining about anything, not even about a half meter of snow at one of the training sessions or fighting bushes full of thorns at another one.

We spent the bigger part of the camp in Vico del Gargano (on Gargano peninsula, at the Adriatic coast) training in interesting karst terrain in the national park Foresta Umbra, similar to the terrains of WOC 2009. We had also a sprint training in the old town where the locals were cheering as if it was a real competition. I really enjoyed the nature and the demanding orienteering on Gargano peninsula apart from one session on the see coast where the green on the map was impossible to get through.

The second part of the camp was spent in Fiuggi, near Subiaco where the world cup finals were held in 2005.

93 photos from the camp
All maps and results at the website of the Czech national team
The training program in English
Some funny videos on Jan Mrazek's blog
IFK Moras blog with two reports from the camp

I am spending this weekend at home while most of my clubmates are competing in Södertälje/Oxelösund. It was rather difficult to make this decision and I really hope that I have not buried my chances to make the first team for Tiomila. I felt that I have to spend some days at home to "charge my batteries". I have been traveling a lot during this winter, not only to all training camps but also to Stockholm and this week to Östersund for elite coach studies which I started in January. Moreover, I also travel to Mora, about 100km from Borlänge, where I work. So the days spent at home are rather easy to count.

2009-03-09 Portugal camp no 2, this time with national team

After spending almost the whole last week in Stockholm, attending a communicology course, I am first now writing about our training camp in Portugal February 22-March 1st. It was my first meeting with the Czech national team this year. We started the camp with 3 competition days, Portugal O-meeting, near Evora and continued with 3 days of intensive training in Mira.

The races gave me the first opportunity of this year to compete against some of the best runners. I was happy to see that I am in a good shape and probably also on a little bit higher level compared to the last year.

In Mira we had 6 high quality orienteering sessions, all with SI-time keeping. The main focus was on relay situations. I have to say I appreciate the great work of our national coach Radek Novotny. At this camp he prepared all the training courses, set out most of the controls, calculated results and still had some time to talk to us, runners. I was enjoying the fact that I was not responsible for anything this time, just my own training.

Here is a summary of the week with maps and some comments:

Sunday
POM day 2 (long distance) - It is really good that the Portuguese organizers are not afraid to set a proper long distance course. Our course was 12,5km long. Before the race I thought the terrain would be very fast and orienteering simple. So the first part of the course was a surprise for me and I did some pretty big mistakes losing more than 5 minutes during the first 20 minutes of running. For a while I was considering whether it was worth to push hard during the rest of the course or instead take it easy and save some energy for the rest of the week. I decided to do my best al the way to the finish. I did not pass by any of the two refreshment controls so at the end of the race it was getting tough to run fast without drinking anything in this rather warm weather (almost 20 degrees). Anyway it was a good training for the warm days in Hungary in August. I finished 4th, about 9 min behind Simone. Results.

Monday
POM day 3 (middle distance) - A very fast but still technically demanding terrain suited me well. According to the splits I was in the lead at the 6th control but then I did a small mistake, not being precise in the control circle, and lost about 40s there. I finished 2nd, about 1:15 behind Simone. It was also nice to see that I had pretty good physical feeling despite the long distance on the previous day. Results

Tuesday
POM day 4 (middle/long distance) - The most technical race of POM 2009. Three different butterflies in the most detailed parts of the map required high concentration. I did not do any big mistake, only some hesitations and stops when I was about to loose the contact with the map. The terrain was very beautiful. I finished 2nd, about 1min behind Maja Alm. Results.

The training in Mira:

Wednesday
Traveling and "model event"

Thursday
Starts - 9 short loops with 1-3 controls/loop 0,3-0,6km. Map with all loops
Chasing start with butterflies on reduced map (without yellow and paths) 7,1km

Friday
Relay intervals "rabbits and hunters". Rabbits start about 25s before hunters. 5 short forked courses 0,8-1,9km/course. All forking variants.
"Green hell" sprint - training for extremes 2,2km

Saturday
Middle distance (H21E course from WRE 2008) 4,6km
Relay over path qualification and final - our already traditional training as the last session of the camp. Overspeed. Great fun.

During the camp we also did some sightseeing in Evora (jogging on a sprint map), in a village called Monsaraz (where part of the team went to watch a kind of bull fighting, see this interesting video made by Jan Prochazka). We visited also the monastery of Alcobaca on the way from Evora to Mira.

Summary of the whole camp on the website of Czech national team (maps and results)

Next training camp starts already this weekend. We go to Italy, again with our national team. A couple of Swedish runners are coming together with me from Sweden and also the Finish national team and Kalevan Rasti will train together with us.

2009-02-17 Tr. camp in Finspång and my other winter training

This year the winter in Dalarna where I live has been much colder than what we are used to. Already since Xmas the temperature has been close to -10 degrees most of the time and the snow depth is almost 0,5m at the moment. So the skiing conditions have been perfect but of course it is no so good for training of orienteering. That is why our "barmarksläger" = training camps on a snow-free ground are very valuable for us. During the first weekend in February, about 15 runners from my two clubs Domnarvet and IFK Mora had a training camp in Finspång where Tiomila 2010 and Elitserien in April 2009 will be held. We trained on maps next to the embargoed areas. Couple of years ago I competed and trained in these areas which are embargoed now and I can say that the terrain will be interesting at both races. There is actually an area with a very nice technical terrain pretty close to Grosvad (where Tiomila's arena will be) so I hope that also the courses for women will be challenging in 2010.

This time we were not completely lucky because some snow came only one day before our camp started. Anyway it was still only very little snow on the ground and it did not affect out training too much.

Our training with maps:
Loops (to the east from Tiomila area) - with mass start, I ran three loops
Middle distance (to the west from Elitserien area) - I was following one of the Mora runners
Long distance (to the east from Tiomila area) - together with Lena Eliasson, changing in the lead. I think it is really good exercise to run together with somebody else like this. It increases motivation. We often try to help each other by giving feedback on orienteering technique after and during such training.

This winter I have been training together with other runners more than ever before. In Domnarvet we have a strong group of women. For example on Tuesdays we are 5-10 women training intervals together.

Our long distance training is done mostly on skis now. Because of the amount of snow we can choose from several great skiing areas within 30km radius (Bergebo, Gyllbergen, Lugnet).

During the last days I have done some reading and thinking about long distance training and its effects. There are quite many different theories and it is easy to start to doubt what the most efficient way is. Last year I did not do a lot of distance training (= longer than 75min), especially in the last weeks before WOC when I did mostly a lot of high intensity training. During the long final at WOC I had problems with cramps in my legs even if it was not extremely hot during that day and even if I did everything right when it comes to drinking and eating before and during the race. I still got my best individual WOC result, 8th. I had similar cramp problems at Blodslitet (2 hours of running). After the last season I decided that I would increase the amount of long distance training again.

The main kind of my long distance training has been skiing (both skate and classic) during the recent weeks. I often ski for 1,5-2,5 hours and my average HR is usually at about 74-78% of my HRmax with some peaks close to 90% of my HRmax. So it is not completely slow speed all the time. My HR is usually on similar level also if I run but it also depends on how hilly the terrain is. It is still quite much below my average HR when I compete (85-92% of my HRmax when it is long distance, 91-94% when it is sprint). I often drink only water during this kind of training but I also have something to eat with me in case I start to feel that I am getting close to "hitting the wall". Later in the season I will increase intensity of some of my long distance training sessions. I have almost no training sessions longer than 2,5 hours and/or with average HR below 70%; an exception is jogging for recovery/warm up purpose.
My training diary (in Swedish)

Last season I started to do strength training in a gym for legs + abs + back but I stopped when the competition season started. My goal for this season is to do it regularly throughout the whole year, 1-2 times/week. I am not completely sure if I have chosen right exercises and if I have the right technique but here is a video of my training program (sorry poor video quality). I do also lounges with some weights which are not included in this video. It can be dangerous to do some of these exercises so please advise some expert in case you want to start to do them. I train also core strength at least once a week but then it is without any weights.

On Saturday I travel to Portugal again for a training camp with our national team. 3 races - Portugal O-meeting Day 2-4 in Mora and 6 high-intensity training sessions in Mira are on the program. I am looking forward to it a lot.

2009-02-02 Great training camp in Alto Alentejo, Portugal

9 orienteering training sessions, 3 races and 1 strength training session is the summary of our training in the week 19-25th January. After considering many options where to go for this year's winter training camp with IFK Moras OK, I decided to choose a training package in Alto Alentejo, arranged by Bruno Nazario. Last year we went to Mira and used another training package from the same organizer. Also this time we have been very happy with the whole camp. The terrain in Alto Alentejo is different compared to the terrain in Mira (at the coast). It is open but the number of various rocky features makes it technically more demanding. Also the accommodation and food were of very high quality so the only thing we could complain about a bit was the weather. The temperature was about 10 degrees and we experienced some rain showers and strong wind but it did not disturb our training at all. The weekend races, NAOM 2009, were well organized. Both I and Michal Smola were considered to be the biggest stars and had to give quite a lot of interviews. I was especially impressed by the prize giving ceremony which took part in a local theatre with most of the participants waiting until the very end. In Sweden, there is almost never this kind of prize giving. Normally after a race almost everybody is in a hurry to go back home as soon as possible.

I would like to say thank you to Bruno who organized it for us and I also want to recommend this training package to other runners.

Our photos (54) from the whole week (click on the photo in the middle to proceed to the next one)

Our training program with maps:

Monday
Morning: Middle distance Vale da Silvana 6,8km - first 10 controls fast, rest as a "model event"
Afternoon: Sprint Castelo de Vide 2,5km - very hilly and tricky course in the beautiful town Castelo de Vide where we stayed during the whole week

Tuesday
Morning: 3 loops Termas da Fadagosa in total 8,6km
Loop A mass start with extra controls for those in the lead
Loop B chasing start
Loop C running in pairs with one map, map memory
Afternoon: Multi-O Arez 9,4km (line, corridor, direction, memory, contours only)

Wednesday
Morning: Sprint 2km and Butterfly run with chasing start 3km Povoa e Meadas
Afternoon: Round map without compass Termas da Fadagosa ca 4km
Evening: Strength training core stability

Thursday
Morning: Sprint Nisa 2,9km - another town sprint, some interesting route choices
Evening: Long distance night-o Arez 12,4km - this was the toughest training of the week, no reflexes at the controls (only flags), rain, detailed map and scale 1:15000. Michal made the whole course, respect...

Friday
Morning: Easy training Vale de Silvana ca 5km
Afternoon: sightseeing in Portalegre and Marvao

Saturday
Morning: NAOM - middle distance Hotel da Lameira
Evening: NAOM - night sprint part 1 and part 2 Alter do Chao

Sunday
Morning: NAOM - long distance Coudelaria Alter Real

There were about 600 participants at those races. The terrain was little bit more runnable but also hilly compared to the training areas. The night sprint consisted of 2 parts, first a normal sprint course in the old town 1:5000 and then the final part in a park with many hedges on a map 1:1000. I had a pretty good run at the middle distance. During the sprint in the evening I felt rather slow both in my legs and my brain and the same could be said about the long distance where I made some small mistakes. Anyway I am happy that I started the season with so good training and 3 good races already in January.

Results NAOM 2009
Interview with me (in Portuguese)
Impressions about the race (also in Portuguese)

Next training camp will be already this weekend in Finspång with both IFK Moras OK and Domnarvets GoIF (Tiomila 2010 relevant terrain) and my next training camp abroad will be again in Portugal in less than three weeks.

2008-12-31 Last two months summary

Successful ending of the 2008-season in Italy, Thierry Gueorgiou in Mora and new runners representing Domnarvet.

The races in Hungary were not the last races of my o-season 2008. In the middle of November I spent one week in Italy, combining competing in PWT and Venice O-meeting with vacation in the mountains near Bergamo. I had been invited to participate in PWT in Alonte and Lonigo which meant that the start fees, accommodation, some meals and also banquet and sightseeing were arranged and paid by the organizers during the competition days. Thank you, Gabriele!
I ran well both in the qualification race and in the final and finished 2nd and 3rd. Again, the sprint training of the last year has paid off.
The very last race of this year was the traditional O-meeting in Venice. Together with 3500! other runners I was trying to find the fastest way through the narrow streets and crowds of tourists. I had participated in this race once before more than 10 years ago and had some respect for the orienteering challenge. I managed pretty well this time and had my orienteering in control all the time apart from a small mistake after the first control. I finished 2nd, only some seconds after Seline Stadler. Sometimes it took too long time to decide which route I should choose but I preferred to spend some time standing and thinking instead of running without having the whole route to the next control decided. It was great fun. I think every orienteer should experience this race at least once, before the whole island sinks in the sea. We were lucky with the weather, it was warm during the race and no streets were flooded, compared how it looked some days later.

Map PWT qualification Alonte
Map PWT final Lonigo part 1 and part 2
Map Venice O-meeting part 1 and part 2
Our photos from the week in Italy
Official video from PWT in Lonigo on youtube
Results and photos PWT
Results Venice O-meeting (class W ELITE)

The last weekend in November the whole club IFK Mora orienteering gathered to plan for the future, train together, learn each other better and to get some inspiration. The highlight was definitely the training and lecture with Thierry Gueorgiou on Sunday. I was very happy that Thierry could come to Mora. The training he prepared was a multi o-exercise. See the map with the whole course. During the more than 2 hours long lecture Thierry talked about his dream to become world champion, his winning o-technique and also about his training program and what changes he is doing in order to win also the long distance next year. I have to admit his lecture gave me a lot of motivation to train more o-technique. I think it is there I still have the biggest improvement potential.
See also video with Thierry recorded in Mora (7min, youtube).

In December my club Domnarvets GoIF announced that two top elite runners Lina Bäckström and Lena Eliasson will represent Domnarvet from 2009. Lina moved to Borlänge some weeks ago and we have been training together with both Lina and Lena quite a lot since November. I am very glad that we have such a strong team now. The possibility to train in a group with some of the best female runners in the world is worth a lot. We are all motivated for the next season and ready to work hard to improve both on the individual level and also as a team. See www.domnarvet.com for more info about the club transfer.

Some maps from training in November - December:
Long night training in Mora November
Long night training in Mora December (up to 30cm snow)
Downhill-O training in Bergebo (3 km from where I live)
Long training Damsjön (20km from Borlänge, WOC2009 relevant)
Training day in Västerås - WOC2004 middle final men's course
Training during Xmas in Sörmland - map and partly also course from NOC2003 middle

2008-11-02 Training camp i Hungary

Also the Czech team participated in the official WOC-camp in Miskolc last week. Many other Czech runners had been competing in Miskolc before (at JWOC 2001 and Euromeeting 2008) but for me I was the first time there. Even if I studied the maps from the area before the camp the terrain was not always as I expected it to be. It was a very useful experience to train and compete there before the winter training starts.

My focus was on the long distance races on Friday and Saturday so I was happy to see that I could run well in the long final where I finished 5th, about 5 minutes behind Hausken. I though it would be a more technical race but at least our course was pretty much about keeping high speed all the time and running straight.

My maps with GPS route
Thursday - middle training course 1
Thursday - middle training course 2
Thursday - sprint training
Friday - long Q
Saturday - long F
Sunday - middle

Results, splits and maps&courses in route gadget. It would be nice if more runners could draw/upload their routes there.

During this week I have been thinking a lot about my plans for the next year. This season has been my best ever when it comes to results and also running shape. I know I can improve even more and I am motivated to continue at least until WOC 2010. The questions I have been asking myself this week have been about which distances to choose at WOC, how the calendar for 2009 should look like and what changes in my training I want to do.

More about the camp (photos, maps) at Jan Prochazka's blog.
Czech team for 2009
My training diary since the end of August (in Swedish)

2008-10-20 Second place at Blodslitet and Swedish relay team of the year

The idea to participate in Blodslitet came up when Mora's juniors asked to organize a club trip to this race. I was interested in the race and I promised to be a team leader this weekend. We left Mora on Friday afternoon with two minibuses, driving to Töckfors in Värmland close to the Norwegian border. Early in the morning we continued to Fredrikstad. I am happy that it works so well for me to combine my work and competing. On Saturday I had many other things to think about before the race but when I stood on the startline I was able to switch my attention to the race itself.

The first two loops were forked and the last long one was not. I started well and was in the lead after the first one. I was running alone during the second loop except for meeting Hausken at the common control. After the second loop (about 1 hour of running) I passed the arena on the second place, about 20s after Hausken. There were some other runners not so far behind. 20 minutes later I caught Hausken who did a mistake at the 4th control. From there I was more or less following her, waiting whether she would do more mistakes. I prefer running alone but this time I was forcing myself to follow. I am not sure if it was a good tactic, for example there was a possibility to choose another route choice to the 9th control. I think Hausken was not so keen on running away from me neither. During the last 30 minutes I was not so fresh anymore and felt that I was close to getting cramps in both calf- and hamstring muscles. So I had not so much hope left for the fight on the run in. Anyway, Hausken did a small mistake on the way to the last control and we were almost together there but she was stronger and I could not beat her on the last meters.

I have been so concentrated on increasing my speed this year and did not work so much with my endurance. I will focus more on the longer runs in terrain so that my legs can manage long distance races better next season. I will also travel to Norway more often both with our national team and with my Swedish clubs to prepare for WOC2010.

The photo is taken from the website of the race
This was my first race with Garmin - see my map with GPS route
Results
Article at kondis.no with some photos
Short video at the Norwegian-TV

We left shortly after the race - I had to be in Karlstad for the "O-Gala". It was quite a change - from muddy running clothes to evening dress and shoes with high heals. It was a great evening not only because our team won the "Relay team of the year" prize. The prize for the "Coach of the year" went to Peter Holgersson for his great work with the orienteering group at Linköping/Norrköping university.
Read about all winners
The photo is taken from www.orientering.se

2008-10-16 First leg at 25-manna, world cup and 2 nominations at Swedish O-Gala

My club Domnarvets GoIF has almost no H18-35 runners so this year I got a chance to run the first leg at 25-manna. I think the last time I was running first leg was in 2000 so I was curious how it would be, especially with so many people at the start. Our team's number was 83 (out of 340) so I was standing rather in front. I was not the only woman at the start, I think we were 4 women running the first leg. I knew that I had to hold the map properly and avoid stumbling in the rush from start. After some hundred meters I was in the middle of the crowd and there was some pushing going on so I also used my elbows a bit. However, it was a great fun to run with so many people around me. I did a good performance but I hesitated and lost some speed at the second half of the course. I came to the change over about 7 minutes behind at 185th place and 2 minutes after Helena Jansson who was the best woman. To run against men who are faster is a way how to improve and get tougher so I will try to do it again if I get an opportunity. Our team, consisting of 14 women and no H18-35 runners, finished 86th.
Map with my route
25-manna results

On Sunday after 25-manna I participated in elitserien middle distance. I did not manage to find the right focus and there was no flow in my orienteering during the first part of the course. After the spectators control I put myself together and ran a bit better. Finished 16th, about 5 minutes behind Helena.
Map with my routes - part 1 and part 2
Results elitserien

I spent the weekend before 25-manna in Switzerland, participating in the world cup races. The Czech team was rather small here - only 4 runners. The focus of this year was on the WOC and we skipped both the Norwegian and Swedish stage of the World cup . Anyway it was a good possibility to compete against the best runners again and I tried to come to Switzerland in a good shape. My results 19th in the middle and 15th in the sprint were a bit disappointing. I though I would be able run a faster but I also did some mistakes, especially one really stupid at the end of the middle distance race. I did not like the middle, it was a fast but boring terrain. I think it is a pity that the organisers choose a forest like this when there are such nice terrains in Switzerland. The sprint was much more interesting with good course setting and a surprising passage through an underground energy plant, or whatever if was. We were allowed to visit the area of the sprint before the race so we spent some time walking there on Friday afternoon. I do not like when the competition area is not embargoed before the race but on the other hand I understand that it is not easy to find a suitable sprint terrain which would be unknown for all participants.
My maps: middle distance, sprint part 1, sprint part 2
World cup final website

The season is not over yet. Next week the Czech team is going to Hungary for WOC training camp. I am looking forward to meet the team again. This Saturday I compete in Norway, at Blodslitet and then in the evening I hope to arrive in time at O-Gala in Karlstad. I am nominated in category "Coach of the year" for my work with IFK Moras OK and also our team Domnarvets GoIF is nominated in category "Relay team of the year" for our Jukola victory.
All nominations (in Swedish)

2008-10-01 Relay bronze from Swedish champs

After Jukola victory and many good individual results our team was hoping for a medal at Swedish relay champs. The race took place near Södertälje last Sunday, in a very technical terrain. I ran second leg, Emma Johansson first and Karolina A Höjsgaard the last one. Both Emma and I came first to the change-over but none of us two had actually a very good race. It was a challenging course and easy to do mistakes. Karro's lead was about one minute when she started and it still looked well at the radio control but she missed a lot in the final part of the course and was overtaken by IF Thor and Stora Tuna. So we got a bronze medal, which is still great but after the race I was a bit disappointed with myself for all the mistakes I did. Karro could have had much bigger lead when she started.
Map - SM relay
Results
FOTO: Sven Lundbäck

The middle distance champs were held last Friday and Saturday. I had one of my best middle distance performances in the qualification and finished second in my heat but then in the final which was again a very technical race I did not feel the same flow and missed 15-40s at quite many controls. I finished 9th, about 4min behind Helena Jansson.
Map - SM middle qualification
Map - SM middle final
Results from final

After WOC I had some motivation problems but after a while I started to train well again. I have been at two short training camps - in Gnesta (Swedish champs terrain) and in Sälen (running some O-Ringen courses). I have also been training on a track regularly, running mostly short 400m and 200m - intervals. Now I am at least in the same shape as I was at WOC and perhaps even better. Last week I improved my time on one of my test courses (4,5km long) by almost 40 seconds compared to March this year. So it is no problem to be motivated now when it feels so easy to run.

Some more maps from my races and training in August and September:

Swedish champs long qualification - I missed final after 2 big mistakes in the qualification

District champs relay - ran last leg, 2nd (with Eva Elfving and Maria Nilsson)

District champs middle - 4th

Elitserien Vimmerby masstart - 8th

Vimmerby middle distance - 1st

Elitserien Vimmerby sprint - the race results canceled because of a bad map quality

Tuna Ting middle in Idkeberget - 2nd

Tuna Ting long in Idkeberget - 2nd

Training camp near Gnesta - Marietorp 1

Training camp near Gnesta - Marietorp 2

Training camp near Gnesta - Järna

Training camp near Gnesta - Mölnbo

2008-08-11 Vasastafetten and training on orienteering map from 1955

My club Domnarvets GoIF participated with 3 teams in a running relay race Vasastafetten. The whole course is approximately 90 km long and follows mostly the course of Vasaloppet - from Sälen to Mora. I ran the 9th - second last leg from Hökberg to Eldris, 10km long. I think I started little bit too fast and I had to slow down a bit during the last 5 kilometres. Even if the course on my leg was rather flat, there were some wet parts and sand and also some small hills. In total there were 300 teams participating and our team finished 2nd in the women class.

Results
Photo of the whole team
Videos from Vasastafetten

Last Wednesday I organized a special orienteering training for runners from IFK Moras OK. We used a map and course from district championship 1955. There were no contour lines on the map, instead the mapper used short lines to depict hills. This kind of map is in Swedish called "backstreckskarta". The whole course was 13,5km long and had 7 controls.

See the map and course from 1955 (the blue lines are drawn by me = roads)

It took long time for me to put the control flags out in the forest. The winner from 1955 used 1hour and 39 minutes on this course. I knew that it would be very difficult and I actually did not expect anybody to find all the controls. But the runners surprised me. Four of them managed to run the whole course. Stepan Kodeda had the fastest time, approximately 15 minutes slower than the winner in 1955.

11 photos from our training
Photos from the race in 1955
Report from the training (with results) - in Swedish
Information published before the training with links to old newspaper articles - in Swedish

2008-08-04 Mountain race Saudehornet rett opp

Last Saturday I participated in a mountain race Saudehornet rett opp in Ørsta. I have some previous experience from mountain running as a part of adventure races and also from Swiss Alpine Marathon some years ago but this kind of a race - only uphill - was something new for me. Mountain running seems to be getting more and more popular in Norway. I have read somewhere that last year there were over 50 such races held in Norway. In Sweden there are almost no mountain races. Swedish landscape must be one of the reasons - majority of the population lives in flat areas. Unfortunately also the landscape around Borlänge is not hilly enough and I am sometimes envious about people living in mountains like in Norway or in the Alps.

The course on Saturday was 5,5km long. We started in the harbour at the sea level and the finish was on the top of "Saudehornet" at 1300m above sea level. The only flat part was in the very beginning but it started soon to get steeper and steeper. I was more walking than running but according to my boyfriend Patrik, the winner of the men's class Jon Tvedt was running all the way. Pretty impressive. The slope was so steep at the last 200 vertical meters that I was using my arms to climb faster. It was compulsory to carry a backpack at least 2,5kg heavy with clothes (to be able change on the top). I finished second, ca 5 minutes behind Anita Håkenstad Evertsen who is last year's world and European champion in mountain running. Even if the race was not very big when it comes to the number of participants, the atmosphere was nice with many people cheering on the way up. I also have to say that the prizes were much better than what I would expect at a race like this. I got 5000 NOK for the second place. All expenses during our vacation in Norway has been covered.

Results
Report from the race on kondis.no with photos
More photos

Even if the race was very tough I would like to compete in mountain running again. Perhaps during my vacation next summer.

On Sunday we started to drive back home. We stopped in Geiranger (one of the most popular touristic places in Norway) and cycled from the sea level up to approximately 1000m above sea level and back. Patrik had a great fun seeing me wearing orienteering socks together with the cycling shoes and trousers during the downhill ride.

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