OLD NEWS >> September - November 20052005-11-29 Young people do not like to move their body At my job as a substitute teacher at primary school I teach most of
the ordinary subjects like Swedish, maths, natural science etc and sometimes
I am also responsible for physical education lessons
for kids/young people from the age of 10 to 15. You might think it is
the easiest subject to teach since I have a lot of experience from various
sports and also because kids usually like PE more than other subjects.
The truth is that it's actually a big challenge to get the pupils moving
a bit. Many of them are in a very poor shape and they try to find every
possibility to skip the PE or to get through the lessons with as little
effort as possible. The older the pupils are, the worse condition and
attitude to training they have. According to my experiences boys are often
less motivated and less fit than girls.
2005-11-18 AR world championship This
week Adventure Racing World Championship is being held in New Zealand.
The race started on Monday and today the first team - Balance Vector -
crossed the finish line. Four strong Swedish teams (Cross Sportswear,
Halti, Lundhags Adventure and Herkules) came to New Zealand to fight for
the medals. At this moment Halti and Cross Sportswear are still on the
course not very far from the finish. Lundhags Adventure and Herkules have
withdrawn. I was happy to see also one team from Czech republic among
the participants. I think it is the first time a Czech team takes part
in such a big adventure race. The course is over 400 km long and disciplines
are trekking, MTB, kayak paddling, white water rafting, caving and rope
works. Trekking has been the decisive discipline. Bushy terrain and difficult
navigation has been a real challenge for all of the teams. I have spent
a lot of time following the race via Internet. See the site of AR
World Championships with the course description, photos, teams, results
etc.
2005-11-06 Cross-country running Last Saturday I participated for the first time in a cross-country race
in Sweden. It was a 10,3 km long race in Örebro called
Kilsbergsleden. A few weeks ago I made a decision to take part in
several races like this during the coming months. Not because I think
competing in cross-country running is so much fun but because I believe
that it is a good training and a way how to became faster. Last week the Czech national team in orienteering for next season was selected. I am one of the six women in the team. See also my new training diary (written from 2005-10-31).
2005-11-01 More scanned mapsI have added almost 20 maps I have used for my training this year. See maps. Some of them are with my route but not all of them.
2005-10-31 New "training year" starting Yesterday it was the last day of the training year 2004/2005. During
the last weekend I spent some time analyzing my
training diary (excel-file 374KB) and thinking how to improve my training
for the coming year. Here is a short summary of my training (November
1, 2004 - October 30 2005): 420 hours is not much. I guess that the best o-women train about 600 hours/year and some even more. It is obvious that if I want to be a better orienteer next year, the first change must be to increase the number of training hours. However I do not think that one should focus too much on the amount of training (might it be hours or kilometers). It is more important to know the purpose of every training session than to train with a goal of reaching a certain number of hours every week. Almost half of my training was alternative (= something else then running). One of the reasons is that I did too little running in 2002-2004 (when I trained for adventure racing and worked full time during certain periods). Too big increase of the running part of my training in 2005 would not be good for my body (risk for injuries etc.). Another reason for so much alternative training is that I enjoy xc-skiing, biking and kayaking a lot and it is often more fun to train than running. I can also train much more if I train all these different sports and not only running. For example I know that 1-1,5 hours of biking in the afternoon/next day after a hard running training (intervals, tempo, up-hill) often helps my legs to recover better than if I went for jogging or had a complete rest. During the past season I participated only in 30 o-races. It is probably less than most of the other elite runners. Each race requires a lot of mental energy. I am convinced that I have to keep the number of races low in order to be able to concentrate properly during each race. Also my training would suffer if I competed too much. If I competed every weekend then I would have to reduce both the quality and quantity of the training. I am going to have the same approach also the next year. So what are the plans?
2005-10-24 Winter is here It
was snowing a lot here in Borlänge during the last weekend. Now the
temperature outside is -5 degrees Centigrade and it looks like it is middle
of December... Few days ago the Czech Orienteering Federation published the embargoed areas for WOC 2008. Some of the areas are pretty large. Two of them (number 1 and 2) are intended for sprint and are located in centrums of two big cities - Olomouc and Prostejov. The WOC -center is going to be located in Olomouc. I have trained and/or competed in about half of the areas. The area number 8 Hady-Ricky was my "home-forest" during 10 months in 1998-1999 when I lived in Brno. Hmmm... The terrain in the different areas varies a lot but if I try to find a common description then it would be "hilly", except for the sprint areas in Olomouc and Prostejov. There are no sandstone rocks in any of those areas. Few of the areas are located in mountains. I think the WOC 2008 will be technically and especially physically demanding.
2005-10-10 25-manna: my last orienteering race of this year 25-manna
is a huge but a bit special relay race for teams of 25 runners from the
same club. The 1st, 2nd and the last 3 legs (23rd, 24th and 25th) are
run as in a normal relay race while the 4th-7th legs are parallel legs
with 4 runners on each of them. Each team consists of both men and women,
young and old runners and there are special rules about who is allowed
on each leg. For example no D19-34 or H15-49 is allowed on the 23rd leg,
only women are allowed to run the 3rd and 24th leg etc. The team is made
up of a maximum of 9 H21-39s runners and at least 7 women must be in each
team. The last 3 legs are without any gafflings. 25-manna is always held
in Stockholm area. Swedish teams are in majority but there is also a great
number of Finnish and Norwegian teams participating. About 340 teams started
in this year's race and it was won by Kalevan Rasti from Finland. I actually
have one 25-manna victory - it is from 1999 when I competed for IFK Lidingö
from Stockholm.
2005-10-05 Plans for the next year After
WOC in August I started to think about my plans for the next year. Should
I concentrate on orienteering again and try to prepare for WOC
2006 in Denmark? Or should I give priority to finding a proper job?
I
have many nice memories from Denmark. I participated in my first JWOC
here in 1995 (see the picture to the left - it is from the Czech team's
presentation brochure). It was probably my most successful JWOC even if
I was only 16 years old then. I was the last-leg-runner in the relay team
who won the gold medal and I finished 10th in both classic distance and
short distance. JWOC 1995 was held in the the same area as the next year's
WOC - in the forests near Silkeborg. I took out my maps from the JWOC
1995 and from Euromeeting 1994 which was also organized in the same area.
I like the terrain - it is rather hilly but fast with easy orienteering.
Route choices will be important again which I like. I know that I have
to become a faster runner if I want to succeed next year. I decided to
start to compete in cross-country running and generally train more running
and some specific strength. I have scanned my old maps from Denmark: Links: On Saturday our club participates in 25-manna (relay with 25 runners in one team) in Stockholm. We do not have any big ambitions but it will be fun. I have started to run again but on asphalt only - then I can run without having pain. Yesterday I ran intervals for the first time since WOC.
2005-09-26 A lot of biking last week After
the Swedish champs I decided to avoid running as long as my little toe
would hurt in order to give the toe chance to heal. Last week I did a
lot of cycling, most of it in hilly terrain and on small paths. Yesterday
I and Patrik were cycling along Finnmarksturen trail. Finnmarksturen
is the biggest MTB-race in Sweden, held every year at the end of August.
Patrik has participated couple of times but I have never done it. The
trail is 112 km long and consists of single tracks, gravel roads and very
little paved roads. Both the start and finish are situated in Ludvika,
40 km S from Borlänge. The trail is not marked so it might be difficult
to find it unless you have ridden Finmarksturen a few times before. It
took us little bit over 6 hours, inclusive a few small breaks and problems
with finding the trial. Check the
map with the whole track (pdf) and profile.
2005-09-21 Two days full of activities with the university sports group in Säfsen Since
the beginning of this year I have been member of "Idrottshögskolan"
= university sports group at Dalarna University (Högskolan Dalarna).
Members of this group are students who want to combine elite sport and
studies. Even if I have been working most of the time as a substitute
teacher I have also been a part-time student. In spring I studied a course
called "Tests for Athletes -Strength, Flexibility and Motor
Skills" and this autumn I have just started to attend "Sports
Medicine for Athletes". Both of the courses are web-based,
which means that it is possible to follow the lectures via Internet. I
really appreciate this way of learning. I can sit at home and watch the
video from the lecture when it suits me. I can also stop it or watch it
more times if I missed something. On the other hand I understand that
it is not so much fun for the teachers to hold a lecture only for a camera,
without any immediate feedback. During the course the teachers and students
meet also 2-3 times in Falun to devote a whole day to more practical parts
of the course. There is a special web site for the course with many interactive
functions like forum and chat. Both courses are in Swedish. If you want
to know more check this site.
2005-09-19 Relay championships - why so little gaffling? Yesterday
I participated in the last important race of this season - the Swedish
relay championships. Despite the problems with my painful little toe I
decided to run. I got the second leg in our first team with Eva Elfving
on the first leg and Karro on the last one. At the first change-over it
looked really great - all our three teams were in the leading group. I
am satisfied with the first two thirds of the race but the last third
was a disaster. I lost 4-5 minutes at 4 different controls. It was frustrating.
A few times I managed to run away from most of the other women in the
pack but every time they caught me again after my mistakes. What I did
not like about the race was the gaffling system. The gaffling was used
twice!! only at our course (the first 3 controls plus one control at the
second part of the race).
2005-09-13 Too much pain - no final Last
weekend the Swedish championships week started with the long distance
in Smedjebacken. It is actually tougher to make it to the final at Swedish
championships than at WOC. There are 4 heats and 10 bests runners qualifies
for the final. It is the same system as at WOC but there is a greater
number of good runners who run only a bit slowlier than the world´s
best. A few of the Swedish WOCs' participants actually did not make the
final last weekend.
2005-09-05 Worst mistake of this year Last
Sunday I participated in the relay district championship in Grangärde.
The most positive thing about the race was that my little toe was better
this time. It seems that I can start to train normally again, after 3
weeks of very little running training. |
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