OLD NEWS >> January - February 2006

2006-02-28 Training camp in Spain

Yesterday I got back home from a training camp in Spain. It was my first meeting with the Czech national team after WOC 2005 in Japan. We trained in two different types of terrain - in sand dunes near the coast (JWOC was held here in 2002) and in a hilly and open terrain with deep gullies in mountains . The training camp was organized with a help from www.o-travel.com. The choice of maps and their quality was very good; the accommodation in a hotel in Torrevieja with breakfast and big dinner was cheap and much better than what we are used to in the national team and the weather was fine with temperatures between 6 and 18 grades Centigrade. The only thing which we could complain about was the absence of Eurosport TV-channel.

Most of the training sessions were short and fast (sprint, middle, short relay) often with a short start interval or with a mass start. I think this is the right way to go when I train orienteering technique - race speed and high concentration all the time. If I run slowly I have often problems with concentration and make more mistakes than normally.

When I came to Spain a few of my leg muscles were a bit sore but after a couple days of running and a help from one of the team members Vendula Klechova who works as a physiotherapist and masseur in Halden, I felt much better. At the end of the camp we participated in a World Ranking Event Murcia Costa Calida in mountains near a town called Fortuna. It was a long distance on Saturday and middle distance with a chasing start on Sunday. I finished 6th about 5 minutes behind the winner Dana Brozkova.
Map long distance (Saturday)
Map middle distance (Sunday)
Results
I was not very satisfied with my run on Saturday when I took a bad route choice (over a hill) to the 12th control and also lost more than three minutes at the 13th control (I was very close to the control but did not understand the detailed map there). Anyway the training camp as a whole was a very good start of the season and it gave me a lot of motivation to train during the coming weeks. Surprisingly my running shape seems to be fine despite the little running I have done so far during the winter.
See also
Photos (85pcs)
Map from a sprint training in the mountains (near Yecla)
Map from a sprint training near the coast (in Guardamar)
Map from a short relay training near the coast (La Marina)
Description and maps from the whole training camp at the site of the Czech national team

2006-02-15 Four days in Långberget

Långberget (www.langberget.se) is a small mountain resort, located in northern Värmland very close to the Norwegian border, about 600m above see level. It is a perfect place for a cross-country skiing training camp with about 60 km of prepared tracks. Most of them are prepared for both skate and classic technique and their difficulty level varies from almost completely flat ("Kombibanan") to very hilly ("Petterbanan"). Both me and Patrik were very satisfied with our training camp. The skiing conditions could hardly be better. My training summary from the Långberget looks like this: 7 training sessions (4 skate, 3 classic skiing), 10 hours, 150 km. I do not try to hunt kilometers or hours. None of the training sessions was longer than 2 hours. Most of the time I was skiing on the hilly tracks, so the total amount of climbing was nearly 4000m after 4 days. If I compare my skiing training during this and the previous winter when I participated in Vasaloppet and three skiing marathons, I train more skating and I ski in terrain which is much more hilly. I have improved my skating technique a bit and it is without doubt my most favourite way to train during this winter. However, it is time to switch to running and orienteering. On Saturday morning I am going to Spain, Alicante to train with the Czech national team. I hope my legs will cope with the great amount of running without problems. I know I have to be careful not to get injured.
See our photos from Långberget (49pcs) and if you have fast Internet connection you can also check these movie clips (you must have Quick Time player installed):
Eva - skating1 14s - 4MB
Eva - classic 31s - 9MB
Eva - skating2 91s - 27MB

2006-02-09 New site www.jakobborjesson.se

I have created a website for Jakob Börjesson who is member of Swedish national biathlon team and participant in Olympic Games in Torino. Check www.jakobborjesson.se.

2006-02-06 Organizing cross-country skiing race

Yesterday a cross country skiing race called Bergebo Skimaraton was held in Borlänge. I was not participant this time, it was my club Domnarvets GoIF organizing the race. I was responsible for taking pictures and for Bergebo Skimaraton's website. The outside temperature was about -13° Centigrade and I was freezing despite wearing thick gloves and a lot of clothes. I could see that most of the other people from my club were coping with the low temperature much better than I was. Some of them were not wearing any gloves at all! I guess the reason for me freezing so much is that I am born in a warmer country and that my body is still not completely used to the low temperatures we have here in Borlänge sometimes. The race - Bergebo Skimaraton - is very important for our club. It is the biggest income source. After a hard work with the skiing tracks (shoveling snow) during the last week, 250 skiers came to Borlänge to take part in it last Sunday. Many participants were satisfied with the event and our club got a lot of praise for it.

In less than two weeks I will join the Czech national team for a training camp in Alicante, Spain. It will be a nice break from the everyday life here in Sweden. I have been working quite a lot during the past 3 weeks and I have also started to attend a new university course: Tests for Athletes - Nutrition and Body Composition. One of the practical tasks in this course is to weight and register everything I eat and drink during a period of one week.

2006-01-24 Training with a heart rate monitor

A few weeks ago I started to use a heart rate monitor regularly. Before I had a very old one without possibility to connect it to a computer. Now I have one of the latest models - Polar S625X and I have to say that it is much more interesting to analyze my training now. What surprised me a bit is the intensity of my skiing training. See the heart rate graph of my training in Sörskog on January 15th. The training session in Sörskog lasted 2 hours, the distance was 31km and I had only few short drinking stops (during which I stopped the heart rate monitor). My maximum heart rate is slightly over 180 bpm (ca 183). 13% of the training time in Sörskog was on 90-100% intensity level - red colour in the graph (90-100% of my maximum heart rate), 55% on 80-89% intensity level (yellow colour) and 28% on 70-79% intensity level (green colour). My average heart rate was 151 bpm and the maximum was 174 bpm.
The intensity of this skiing training was high but it did not feel like it! This training session in Sörskog was not an extraordinary one. I have done several of this kind (skiing 1,5-2 hours) during the previous weeks. They were showing similar heart rate graphs. See my training diary (.xls).
My normal heart rate during a long run (1-1,5 hours) is 130-140 bpm. I would have to push myself much more if I wanted to run with 150-170 bpm for 2 hours. It would feel like a pretty tough training and take much longer time to recover from it.

Last week on Monday, I finished one of the two university courses, I have been studying since September - Sports Medicine. One part of the examination was a paper and a presentation of a sports injury. I have chosen a typical orienteering injury - sprained ankle. You can read my paper "Ledbandsskador i fotleden" (.pdf 540KB). It is not any scientific work, only a short manual describing the injury, how to deal with it and its prevention. It is in Swedish.

2006-01-10 Xc-skiing - my most favourite training during winter

Last week the great majority of my training was cross-country skiing (9 training sessions). I tried to keep the intensity of my training under 90% of my maximum heart -rate because of being ill during the previous week but now I feel that I can start with high intensity training again. Today I have done the first interval session of this year - skating on a hilly track in Mellsta (in Borlänge). I usually train both classic and skate. At the moment I enjoy skating more because my skating technique seems to be better than classic. Check my photos from last week - skiing at different places (Bergebo - in Borlänge, Gyllbergen - 20km SW of Borlänge, Sörskog north of Bjursås, Granberget near Leksand and Lugnet in Falun).

2006-01-05 Real winter

After being so much ill during December I hope that the start of the new year will be without any other problems. It has been quite cold here in Borlänge, almost -15 degrees Centigrade. I try to protect my lungs and train with "Lungplus" (see what I have in my mouth). It makes the air coming into my lungs much warmer and it lowers the risk that I get ill again. I spent a lot of time in front of our computer during Christmas. I have changed a few things on this site and I have also been working on a new site for one friend. School children are having Christmas holidays until January 10th so it means that I do not work and can train a lot for a few more days.

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