OLD NEWS >> 2010
2010-07-09 Back from training paradise
On Wednesday I got back from Sälen, which I consider to be a training paradise. I was able to train as much as I planned. I participated in 3 races organized by Malungs OK and ran many training courses from their 3+3 and JuniorCamp training package. The hardest session was probably 13km long course set by Thierry Gueorgiou, who also trained in Sälen at the same time. On Saturday Thierry hold a lecture for 3+3 participants, talking about his WOC-preparations and about his race earlier the same day when he ran the course with a head camera.
All my maps from Sälen: my online map archive
There were so many participants at O-Ringen 2008 which also took place in Sälen so I wonder a bit why more people do not take part in 3+3 as well. It is a perfect opportunity to train orienteering in a wonderful terrain and a beautiful environment. So try be there next year.
Tomorrow early in the morning I am leaving Borlänge to drive to Trondheim for the final WOC-camp with our national team. The training program is designed to consist mostly of fast sessions. Twice we are going to train together with the Danish team. I hope to be able to do some more training on my own because this is supposed to be the last week of my high volume block. The only problem with going to Trondheim and staying in Gjenvollhytta is that there is no Eurosport and no internet so I am not able to watch TdF during the coming week. :-(
Yesterday evening I was in Avesta to get massage from Lalla Dickfors who is also helping Matin, David, Lena and Emma from the Swedish team. There I also had an opportunity to try how it is to be a coach for a soccer team, coaching one session - without a ball. I did a lot of running drills, sprints and some jumping together with the players. It was a great fun for me to see them working hard and still enjoying the training.
2010-06-28 Czech selection races in Trondheim
After Jukola and short visit at home the next destination was Gjenvollhytta, Trondheim to participate in the selection races for WOC. As during the previous years, the Czech team leaders did a very good job organizing four high quality races. Even if I was already pre-selected I wanted to show good performances and see that I can solve the orienteering tasks smoothly. I won one of the sprints and was 2nd (among Czech runners) in the remaining races. My maps with comments (in Swedish).
The Czech team for WOC and WUOC
I am more or less satisfied with my performances even if I guess that I have to run a bit faster to be a medal contender at WOC. On Wednesday I will go for a one week long training camp in Sälen, our training paradise in Dalarna. It is almost a tradition for me to spend the toughest WOC-preparation week there. Besides a lot of orienteering training, I will participate in 3+3 during the weekend. At the same time it is a club training camp for Mora. So now I have a little break, resting and gathering energy for the coming weeks.
I am completely uninterested in the ongoing soccer world cup but I am looking forward to the start of Tour de France this Saturday. I have become a big cycling fan despite not riding a road bike myself. So finally, Patrik borrowed a bike for me from his cycling club yesterday and we had a short ride around Borlänge.
2010-06-15 One day at home
One thing I like about orienteering is coming to new places, new countries and new terrain types. The downside of all the traveling is that I do not spend so much time at home. And when I am at home I usually drive once or twice a week to Mora (100km from Borlänge) to work. So sometimes I can feel I am getting little bit too much of it. I had this feeling when I traveled to Luleå last Thursday for Elitserien races Friday - Sunday but at the same time I was a bit excited to run orienteering in demanding terrain so far in the north.
The weekend was then not completely as I hoped it would be. Despite exploring the terrain and relevant maps at 2 "model events" before the first race, I totally screwed up the middle and finished 10 minutes behind the winner. I had some problems with stomach and diarrhoea after a lunch at Arlanda so it perhaps disturbed me a bit but still... I was then feeling bad during in the evening on Friday I decided to skip the long distance on Saturday and instead watched the GPS tracking and later cycling (famous Alpe-d’Huez climbing) on my computer. On Sunday I was able to run again. It was a nice sprint course in the UNESCO site - church village, where we had to slow down and speed up many times on the course passing areas with a lot of small wooden houses. Technically not so good race for me but I could feel my shape was so much better compared to a few weeks ago so I was enjoying it. In the afternoon, before flying back I went to the forest where the Saturday's long distance was held and ran the whole course which helped me to regain my "technical" self-confidence a bit. All the 3 races in Luleå were very good and big thanks to organizers for all the work they did.
About EOC - I have written many comments and posted photos via Twitter. All my maps are in my map archive. I am very happy about my 5th place from the long distance, actually for the first time among 6 best at a big international championship. I could not believe my performance was enough for such a good result but I think many runners had the same impression after running this tough course. I have to admit I like when the course is so long, I could see that towards the end my speed was improving so I hope for " long" winning times even at WOC. The whole EOC was a great experience, the races, the country, sprint arena on a beech, dolphins, interesting terrain.... I told myself I have to come to Bulgaria again, the mountains we could see on the way from Sofia were really attracting me. Of course, it would be better with more spectators, GPS-tracking, live video and maps according to ISOM, easier to read but for me it was the best EOC I have been to and I hope that in the future we will be able to run top international races even in other than the handful big o-countries. I suppose IOF should be able to help the organizers more for example with providing live results, GPS-tracking and web-TV.
Now I have already turned my focus on WOC. The Luleå races were one step, Czech WOC selection races 22-25/6 (in Trondheim) is the next one. If you want to participate in those races, read this info.
First of course, there is Jukola, with tough terrain and slow km-times in my mind. I have just looked at the pictures from 2008 when we won. Domnarvet's first team is selected: Lina Bäckström-Eva Jurenikova- Dana Brozkova - Lena Eliasson.
2010-05-28 On the train to Arlanda
I have just started the long journey to EOC in Primorsko, via Arlanda, Budapest and Sofia where I will join the rest of the Czech team (runners: D. Brozkova, R. Brozkova, Dockalova, Klechova, Svobodna, Topinkova, Dlabaja, Chromy, Kodeda, Mrazek, Prochazka, Smola, Sedivy). My plan is to run sprint, long and hopefully relay. The whole program is too tough. I want to have a chance to feel fresh during the last race, which is long final next Saturday in a very hilly terrain. From the old maps it looks like it could suite me well. I was working quite hard in the previous week to improve my shape by a lot of high intensity training so let's see how fast I can run now. It will be for first time for me to run orienteering in Bulgaria but I have been at the Black Sea coast before, at about the age of 10 on a summer vacation with my parents in Sozopol, a town close to Primorsko. The weather report says it could be rather high temperatures which could affect some of the runners since most of us have not been able to train in such a warm weather this year yet.
I guess the possibility to use Internet at our hotel will be limited so I have fixed a Twitter account to be able to send some short updates from my phone.
So now I am hoping I and my bag will make it all the way to Primorsko today and I am also looking forward to meet the rest of our team.
2010-05-21 Motivation och inspiration
Jag tror att alla elitidrottare upplever perioder då de ifrågasätter varför de håller på... varför de anpassar i princip allt de gör till idrotten, varför de plågar sin kropp så mycket, varför de inte har något "riktigt" jobb etc. Även om jag för det mesta är starkt motiverad så dyker det upp sådana frågor i mitt huvud då och då, speciellt när jag upplever att jag inte utvecklas. Nu under våren, efter kanske den bästa träningsvintern nånsin, gick det inte direkt som jag hoppades på. I april var jag mest sjuk och skadad och på nåt sätt tom på energi. Mina resultat förra veckan var ingen katastrof (SM sprint 8:a, Elitserien Arvika lång 9:a och Elitserien Arvika medel 16:e) men jag känner att det är så långt kvar upp till toppen. Jag ska åka på EM om en vecka men jag märker att funderingar om det inte vore bättre att sluta satsa och börja jobba heltid smyger in sig.
Jag vet att i såna stunder är det bra att stanna upp och fundera över vad det är som gör att jag lever det här livet. Visst vill jag hela tiden se en utveckling och få bättre och bättre resultat men det är även mycket annat. Att kunna uppleva att jag är i form, att jag har flyt i orienteringen, att det känns lätt att springa. Att pressa mig till max på intervaller eller testbanor elller springa länge och uppför... det kan vara riktigt skönt, i alla fall efteråt. För mig är det också viktigt att kunna uppleva naturen, att kunna se nya platser, bestiga nya berg......medan jag tränar och tävlar. Skulle jag vilja byta det livet mot att sitta på nåt kontor hela dagarna?
Jag bli också insprirerad av andra, Thierry som hela tiden försöker utveckla sin redan utmärkta orienteringsteknik, Marianne som tränar så ofantliga mängder.... Under senaste åren har jag också blivit mer och mer intresserad av att följa proffscykling. Att kunna se hur andra plågar sig kan ge en hel del motivation. Så nu kollar jag på Giro, studerar kartor från Bulgarien och ser fram emot att åka om en vecka.
2010-05-05 Strange Tiomila and Halden instead of Trondheim
Also the Czech team planned to train in Trondheim this week but after realizing how much snow was still left in the terrain, the coach Radovan decided to go to Halden. The others are already there and I am going to join them today. It was nice to spend some days at home after Tiomila....
Tiomila this year was not as I hoped it would be for me. One week before the race, when I was at Tiomila camp with Mora, I got a strange cramp in my left quadriceps. It started during a breakfast and got worse while I was walking in a forest and putting out controls. At the end I could hardly walk and also driving car was difficult. Two physiotherapists were with us at the camp and none of them was able to find out why I had this problem. So I was limping around at Stigtomta, which was Domnarvets selection race for Tiomila and on Monday I called Domnarvets coach and said I would not able to run Tiomila. I was rather busy organizing the camp and enjoying coaching a group of almost 35 runners so I was not too sad about not being able to run myself. Photos and report+maps from Mora's Tiomila camp.
Luckily, the cramp disappeared during Tuesday and Wednesday and I was able to run again. However, the teams were already selected and I felt that it would not be right to try to get a place in one of the teams after telling I would not run. Finally I got a last leg in our 3rd team anyway. I was enjoying running again even if my speed in the forest was far from what I want it to be. My Tiomila map. I had only very little training during the last 3 weeks before Tiomila (first I was sick after Ultralång-SM and then this problem with the cramp) but I know how to get into shape if I only can stay healthy during the coming weeks. The EOC is the second biggest goal of this year.
2010-04-09 Training camp times over, ready to compete
I think Minna Kauppi would soon go mad if she lived like I did during the last few weeks - thinking orienteering almost all the time, both training myself and working with orienteering. Organizing training and camps, setting courses, discussing training plans, analysing GPS- and heart rate curves....
After 3 months of almost no working I started to work again as a coach in IFK Mora in the beginning of March. There is still some snow in the forest here in Dalarna and the only o-technical training we have done so far has been either sprint orienteering in the town or intervals with some map reading and memory using maps for coming races.
2 videos from our Tiomila training indoor one month ago.
For Easter I went together with 16 Mora runners to Doksy, Czech republic for a training camp organized by Radek Novotny, Czech national team coach. High quality training sessions in the interesting sandstone terrain with controls out in the forest made it possible for me to combine my job and my own training. It was my 5th o-technical camp this year. Check my map archive, there are already about 50 maps from this year,
and also 48 photos from the camp.
If you are interested in training in Doksy, check: www.sandstones.cz
Before the camp in Czech republic I also spent 9 days in France at a training camp of Czech and Swedish national team. The photo above is from a "social activity" during one of the evenings. Great training with many challenges, perhaps the most difficult o-course of my life but also one day of sightseeing in Paris made it an unforgettable experience. Some photos are in my training diary, more is written on the website of our national team.
Now I feel more than ready for the competition season. On Sunday I participate in the Swedish ultra long champs in Ronneby.
2010-03-07 From orienteering paradise to Vasaloppet
After 5 days with our national team in Slovenia, I came back to snow and skiing in Dalarna. Patrik participated in Skatevasan on Friday and I went with him to Oxberg and Mora to support him (fix extra drinking controls along the course). It was -23 at the start in Oxberg, where this photo is taken. Now I am watching Vasaloppet on TV. It is always amazing to see 15000 people starting skiing towards Mora.
My maps from the training camp in Slovenia are in my map archive. We were staying in a little village Pliskovica, close to the Italian border, about 1km from the best map. There was no snow at all in this area, only a little bit at one map further away from the coast. It was my first encounter with the Slovenian carst terrain. Orienteering was as fun as I expected it to be. One of the goals of this camp was to improve our compass routines; a map with blank areas was used during the first two sessions. The last session was a chasing start where I "managed" to take the loops in the butterfly in a wrong order and had to run one loop twice. I always remind my athletes about being careful about this kind of mistake when I organize chasing start training...and this time I did it myself. If you are interested in orienteering training in Slovenia, check: www.orienteering.si
It is less than 2 weeks left until my next training camp. The Czech and Swedish national teams are going to train together in France (in Clermont Ferrand and Fontainebleau areas). But first I will do some skiing here in Dalarna, the conditions are really good now.
2010-02-24 Portugal - very good training also this year
After 2 high quality training camps in Portugal last winter I wanted to go to Portugal again even this year. The first week was spent together with a small group of runners from my club Domnarvets GoIF - we took part in the first 2 days of POM in Figueira da Foz and then we traveled to Evora and used maps from a training package organized by Sun-O. When my club mates went back to Sweden last Thursday I stayed in Portugal for some more days to participate in NAOM in Crato last weekend. Now I am back in the snow chaos here in Sweden, I was lucky to get home from the airport...
Winter is important time for me to work with my o-technical routines. I almost always have some specific goals for each training session and even for a competition. It can be working on my compass routines, reading descriptions and codes in advance, concentration levels regulation etc. I think my biggest challenge is maintaining a high level of concentration during a whole race. I find it easier during a long distance compared to middle. It takes longer time but I can afford to "rest my brain" a bit during some parts of a long distance course. During a middle distance there is usually very little time to be able to afford to run with a lower concentration level.
I had my best performance of the week at NOAM's long distance last Saturday. My legs were already very tired but I managed to run the whole course almost without mistakes and finished third 3:39 after Helena Jansson. Both POM and NAOM were very well-organized races with interesting terrain and good courses. It has been a great pleasure to run orienteering in Portugal this year again.
Some photos and a lot of comments are in my training diary and most of the maps and in my map archive.
The photo is from Joaquim Margarido's Orientovar blog.
I had two rest days completely without training after the last race on Sunday but for today xc-skiing training is planned. On Friday I am heading to the airport again, this time for a training camp in Slovenia with our national team.
2010-02-10 First camp of this year in snow but soon traveling to Portugal
My first training camp of this year was in southern Sweden two weeks ago, close to the place where Tiomila 2009 was held. The camp was organized by Göteborg-Majorna and I was glad to be allowed to join them. It was supposed to be "barmarksläger" (snow -free-ground-camp) but this winter in Sweden has been very rich in snow, and during the camp there was some 10-20cm on the ground. Never mind, we still had some good training sessions even if it was a kind of "slow motion" orienteering. I believe all this running in snow will pay off this summer in the "soft" terrain in Trondheim. One of the training sessions was running a part of the course from WOC1991 selection race. It was an interesting course with many route choices, actually rather tough with crossing a deep valley a few times. Maps from this camp are in my online map archive.
More photos from the camp (from Johan Strand)
Now I have a clear idea which races and camps I want to participate in this year. WOC is the main goal (long, sprint and relay) but I will also take part in EOC and I want to concentrate on the Swedish elite-series slightly more compared to previous years. As a part of the final preparations for WOC I plan to spend about a week in Sälen, in a similar way as I did in the last 2 years. Our national team will have 2 camps and all WOC-selection races in Trondheim prior to WOC. Here is my season plan (pdf).
Right now we have perfect skiing conditions in Borlänge but it will be very nice to leave it for 10 days and train and compete in Portugal (February 11th-22nd). On Saturday I will compete for the first time since middle of October (POM2010). I am counting days!
I have been doing quite a lot of theory-o-training both in front of my computer and during running on an indoor track (together with o-högskolan). I have prepared some theory o-exercises for runners from Mora, here is an example (in Swedish). We have also a tactical project organized by our national team during which we receive some maps with exercises every week so I really cannot complain about a lack of opportunities to train o-technique.
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