OLD NEWS >> August - December 2008

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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