World Cup Middle Distance

     The middle distance race was probably my favorite out of all the races this weekend. The organizers fulfilled my silent hope of having the course really technical, and I ran it quite well. To number one I took a simple route choice from the left and it turned out to pay off as I caught up to Ross right at the control. I tried not to be distracted by him and focused on my own route choices. To number 2 I went straight on a bearing and checked off the features on the way, noting mostly of the hill with the clearing on it.

     From that point Ross passed me and helped me indirectly by pinpointing the exact control locations when he was leaving them, while also helping me adjust my direction going into each control. Leaving 5 I stopped to plan my route and that was where I relatively lost him up until I exited the foresty hills into the marsh, which is where I saw him again crossing a bit left of the line. I crossed the hill, then tried to go around the impassable part of the marsh by the cliff, and finally up towards the next marsh. From there I used it as a handrail to hit the path, from which I then sidehilled and precision orienteered into the control. On that leg I lost 2 minutes due to the zigzaggy route, also the marsh was not as bad as I had thought it would be, this would be the first mistake I made on the course. There I saw a Latvian guy, (who probably caught up to me) and ran to 7 which was just a bearing control. There I stopped again to make a plan, and executed it. From that point I did not see the Latvian guy or anyone else on the course.

     To number 9 I fell into some elephant trails, while later veering off to the first little hill just before the one with the control. I stopped there for a second before I realized where I was, and then continued to the control. At that point I noticed the path route choice and decided that I wanted a brain break, so I booked it to the path on a bearing and then ran the path down to the spur, with the knoll, and the stone wall going through it. From there I hit the control. On this route choice I lost about 40 sec and it is my second mistake.

     Next I kind of bailed to the path and then left it at the clearing on a bearing, while checking off hills on the way to the control. From 11 I exited quickly down an elephant path as the terrain was getting simple and found myself stranded over a 4-5m cliff. Sadly the elephant trail went right over it so I had to follow in pursuit, though perhaps I was not as fast as some of those before me who had made it (I expect that people pretty much jumped it). I lost about 15 seconds hesitating, making up my mind, lowering myself over the cliff by holding onto moss (which I was praying would not rip out of the ground) with one hand, and a bad sloper with the other, in order to get my dangling feet on a ledge partway up the cliff from which I could then jump down. Map was in my mouth.

     From there I booked it to the road, up which I ran to the clearing and entered the forest from there I climbed up one contour and then sort of contoured into the valley with the two cut-lines, up which I then sidehilled up diagonally towards the control. To 13 the first thing that hit me was to use the roads to get to the hill with white forest and attack the control from there, but after another second of contemplation I decided that at a World Cup, most people would use the very convenient power-line to the control. Sure enough there was a very nice trail stomped out by the 100 runners before me. Unfortunately I chickened out at the second road because I did not want to climb the hill leading me to go around, then regret my decision, try to cut back across the next hill, regret that, continue back to the road, and cut up to the control from there.  Leaving the control I began fighting my way through the green at about 11min/km, while trying to make a plan on how to get to the road before I stopped myself, took a bearing and booked it through in that general direction.

    Next I ran through the arena. To 15 I went left up the road, then up the trail, and then straight. From 15 I continued straight around the left side of the hill before I crossed back over to the right side of the smaller hill with the little clearing on top, from where I continued on to the left side of the big hill looking for the most optimal place to cut over it but to avoid the most climb. At one point I just cut in and started to climb and found myself on the spur with the clearing. From there it was easy to get to the control. I ran on a bearing to 17 trying to foresee the marsh, which was very indistinct, but found myself readjusting off of the little yellow hill and yet even from there drifting off a bit to the right before I saw the control a bit to my left. 18 was a bearing leg straight. Going to 19 I cut up to the path which I nailed and then ran a bit past the spur on the trail, from where I cut down to where I thought the control would be and ended up sidehilling about 260 degrees of the spur before I saw the control and ran up to it. 20 I just booked it down to the road looking for buildings, and then maneuvering around the right side of them, inside of an elephant trail to the go-control. Then I ran the finish sprint. :D

World Cup Sprint

     The world cup sprint was a relatively easy race because I did not make too many mistakes during a majority of the controls. At the beginning of the course I was sort of flustered, but by luck turned down the correct alley to number 1. From there I continued straight because I hadn't planned the next control. For number 2 I missed the alley which I was supposed to turned down and went down the next one, losing tons of time at that point. From there The course got better as I went left to 4 and right to five. The SI air didn't work for me three times on the course and I had to run back each time. The control after the spectator control was a tough one, I took the straighter route, but unfortunately the stairs were slower then running around the left side on the roads. Most of the route choices were not too difficult. Here is a map with my route choice:

World Cup Sprint Relay

Fredriksten

     The World Cup Sprint Relay was one of the most intense races that I've ever run, mostly due to the atmosphere around me, rather than the technical difficulty of the race. Surrounded by the strongest runners of most European and Scandinavian countries was quite nerve wracking, as I tried to warm up and keep the thought that 99% of these people were better then me.

     The day before I had spent 2 hours scouring the ramparts of the fortress Fredriksten looking for potential traps and openings to certain sectors of the castle. If the course were to pass through here then this would be vital information that would help me immensely. The area to which we were designated to warm up in was just east of the main fortress, with the arena lying to the south. When it was time for the 3rd leg runners to assemble and move to the arena where their teammates would be tagging off to them, then we were aligned into four columns according to our team`s number and marched to the hand off area. There we continued warming up with occasional glances at the runners passing the spectator control up on the hill, to see if our teammates were close to finishing.

     Eventually the lead pack came in, tagging off to their 3rd leg runners with occasional runners coming in behind them whom were separated or in their own groups. Shortly afterwards Robbie Anderson came in and tagged off to me leaving me to run off in the general direction that many of the runners before me had gone. After I opened my map (with a slight struggle) I decided in a split second what my route choice to the first control would be. If I recall correctly then at the time going south seemed shorter therefore I booked it in that direction. After the race I learned that on this leg I had taken the optimal route choice.

My relatively straight route choice to 1

     My decision to number two was extremely rash, as the first option that I saw was straight, for it was very easy navigationally. I had been expecting something much more technical. Therefore I didn`t look to the sides for either of the route choices around the hill which would have been faster. I was not the only one who made that mistake, apparently Judith Wyder also took that route choice, although the result of taking it cost her the lead.

     As I finished the leg I unfortunately realized that it had not been the fastest one by the fact that runners who had punched around the same time as me were closing in on the control from the road to my left, while I was still descending the cliffs and uneven hillside on the final half of the leg. I would say that I managed to do a good job in putting that thought out of my head and not letting it distract me for the next route choice. Sadly there is not much to brag about for nailing the 3 control, as it was painfully easy.

A very easy control. Should have put it in those knolls, that would have been crazy!

     Going to number 4 I tried taking an accurate bearing which ended up disintegrating in to following the contour which I was on, therefore when I neared the control I had to cut back to the left.

  
     Going to number five I first tried avoiding as much climb from the beginning that I could before going straight to cut distance afterwards. It worked relatively well and I believe I covered a portion of the leg on a path.

   
     The next control was obvious but what I was trying to do was plan ahead so that I knew which direction to head out when I flipped my map at the map exchange. Unfortunately, like the last time I had a map exchange, I managed to mess this one up too. I orientated my map with the north lines, but alas not with the arrows that are on those lines; or the numbers on the controls. So as I had my map 180 degrees in the wrong direction the only think that made sense was the two lakes by the finish, and so I started running to the start triangle that was apparently on the other side. As I got pretty close to the spectators I registered the thought that the course setters probably wouldn't send us through that area and so I stopped and tried figuring out what the problem was, after a while I found out; that my map was upside-down and so to my dismay I began running in the correct direction.  Otherwise the next control was quite easy.

The mistake is quite sad...

     The route to number 9 wasn't very innovative other than you had the option to go right around the wall, which I did because it felt closer to the line, or continuing straight. I think I made some time on that leg other than a small hook at the end. To nine I went straight on a bearing and just looked up.

8 and 9 routes

    Number 10 was interesting, as I thought about whether I should go right or left. I instinctively chose left, and fortunately it was faster, that can be seen from the fact that I got to my control before the German would have, who was right behind me at number 9, although he was going to a different control.

        Running to 11 I tried to avoid the hill by using the path to the right for a portion and then cutting in a straight line to the control. This may not have been optimal because the German caught up to me, and passed me. He went more straight but he was also running faster then I was.

     For control 12 and the final loop I pretty much just tried catching up to the German, and I was not able to. There wasn't much route choice and I tired tanking it in order to catch up to him but I was spent at that point in the course.

Second spectator run-through

    

Final legs. Nothing special.

     Overall the course was decent, though it was very disappointing that the course planner had not been able to use the fortress. I am not sure if it was because of liability or if they hadn't been able to get permission, but ultimately the course didn't go there and there was no concrete reason provided as to why that was.

     I had a fun time, and gained lots of experience by racing the best runners in the world.

World Cup Long Distance Part 2

     I ran through the spectator control and received a not very crucial energy gel which I ate, then continued out of the arena. During my time there I heard something that distracted me and mentally offset me for the next control which I then messed up. It was one of the only controls that I messed up and actually unintentionally lost contact with on this course. To top it off I ran right to the correct rock at first, but then turned around and tried to relocate because I thought that I had lost contact, and eventually came back to the exact same rock to find out that the control was apparently right behind the spur which the rock was on.

     

     After the fiasco with the rock at control 18 I was caught by a Latvian guy, and as I was in a foul mood after making a mistake, I bee-lined straight to the next control as the Latvian ran sharply left. I found out why the Latvian ran left in about five seconds as I approached a cliff, and as I was still in a foul mood, I didn't let it stop me and breached it quickly. From there I continued straight up the spur to the control. The Latvian reached the control just moments before I did, therefore I don't think that I lost a lot of time with my route choice. We ran to number 20 on a bearing and he just missed the control a bit to the left giving me the opportunity to catch up and pass him.

    To number 21 we ran down straight to the second trail that leads around the left side of the cliffy hills and cut off from it where there was the knoll with the cliff. From there we ran on a bearing and were able to catch up to Giacomo Barbone from the American team, and a New-Zealander who helped us finish the attack to the control. At this point I tried going solo at the next control as I took a different micro route choice through the terrain that gave me a little bit of extra distance, which unfortunately dissipated after a slight hesitation before 22, leaving the New Zealander to get to the control first. After that my instinct was to run down through the saddle and right of the lake until I could cut up to the control, but alas I was sucked up to the hilltops by the other people I was running with. Through this area I lost contact a little bit and was trying to relocate on the run as the New Zealander and possibly the others navigated. I had a rough vision of where we were as the Latvian and Kiwi ran through the re-entrant filled with green, leaving me to avoid it a bit by swerving to the right. A bit further up the Latvian began breaking away from the same direction and navigating by himself, while I believe that I relocated on the hills right after the trail.

      I cannot remember who hit the control first, whether it was me, Giacomo, or the New Zealander but it doesn't really matter because what I do remember is that I had already made a plan beforehand, so when I punched the control, I hightailed out of there on a bearing as fast as I could. This was the point where I knew that it would be crucial to pass these guys, otherwise it would be too late afterwards. I recall that Giacomo was relatively close behind me and that the New Zealander cut down to the right while I headed straight for the side-hill, from where I ran to the power line. There I unfortunately made a mistake where I lost a couple of seconds and had to turn back to the hill that I had overshot slightly. This allowed the New Zealander to get back into the lead as he did not lose any time, and therefore did not wait around long at the control before he ripped it to the finish. I believe I hit the control first but Giacomo passed me on the way to the go control. From there the New Zealander had about 3-4 seconds on us, and because I didn't feel that I had earned the dignity of beating all of them in the finish sprint I just settled on passing Giacomo, which I did successfully, and came in right behind the New Zealander. The Latvian runner was behind all of us. Unfortunatly they all beat me bcause they passed me elsewhere on the course, but the good news was that I they had passed through the spectator control 5 min before me, which meant that I made up 5 mins on them in the last loop.

    Thus ends my epic of the long distance World Cup race in Halden, but if you did not fall asleep throughout that race analysis, and would like to read more of such tales then come back tomorrow (unless you are reading this after June 10) for another exciting article about the sprint relay where the Canadian team was leading at one point in the race, ahead of the top runners of many much more sophisticated countries orienteering wise.

World Cup Long Distance Part 1

     The World Cup Long distance was a very challenging race in may different aspects including physical and technical. I had set my mind on taking a slow and steady approach to the World Cup course as I did not know what to expect from it. It turned out to be a relatively good long distance course where certain route choices made the difference between first and fifth place.

     To the first control I ran to the clearing and took a bearing from the end in order to hit the control because I did not want to miss it. I didn't know what to expect and I thought that it was going to be more difficult. Most of the elites went right on the line. I then stopped to decide my route to number 2 and chose to go straight because I didn't believe that I was fast enough on the road to make up any significant amount of time that way. Unlike Thierry Georgiou (who nearly always goes as straight as possible) I tried avoiding some of the climb by continuing left at the first road in order to pass between the smaller hill and the bigger one, and then continue down to the forest left of the lake. In this section I just tried finding the easiest way through because it was not very runnable. Due to the slow vegetation I tried staying in the white forest between the green and the lake up until the road from where I could stay on the right side of the green patch, and eventually find myself on the cut-line that was very fast. From that point I continued with a bearing to the clear section of forest, from where I angled towards the power-line which I followed a ways up until I tried cutting it to the control in a straighter line, but ended up veering back to the power-line to finish the attack. 3 was not very interesting. When I left to number four I made the mistake of trying to save climb by sidehilling through the cliffs right of the line, before continuing onto the path from where I headed with a rough bearing to the sort of spur with a rock and a knoll on it. From that point I headed to the small hill from which I then took a bearing to the control and drifted off a bit to the left. 5 was a bearing control.

     The long leg, was... well long now that I look back at it (apparently 3.2km) but at the time I didn't really register that and just threw myself at it. The first plan that hit me was to go to the right around the really big hill the way that I had come down to 2 originally, to the road, up the re-entrant, between the hills, up the next re-entrant, and then down by the right side of the lake. (Needed to stop or else there would be no question that that was a run-on sentence). After that point I would continue up around the right side of the first little hill, then between the two other hills, up the re-entrant with the cliffs in it to cross through the next two saddles in order to reach the point where I could finally precision orienteer my way to the control. That unfortunately got scrapped as I wussed out and did not go right, right after the first hill when I was on the left side of the spur with green over it.

     So I readjusted my plan and set off again on my journey. This time I continued straight into the clearings, and then along them with a little bit of climb until I was under the power line and made my way through the cliffs to the river. Which I crossed, then saw that there was private property in front of me, crossed again to avoid, then found myself once again on the wrong side of the river leading me to nearly cross it again, but I was fortunately saved by the sight of the little footbridge and the decision to take it. From there I ran up the road to the trail which I followed up until the lake, where I decided to get off and cross over between the two hills and onto the second half of plan A for control number 6. When I reached the point from where I had to precision orienteering into the control I took care to slow down, and pay lots of attention to every detail until I hit the control. I stopped nearly four times in that complicated section. When I entered I saw Matej approach the control at the same time, and I hoped that I had not flustered him, as I had started 10 minutes behind him and immediately after punching we both set off in different directions.

     I am proud to say that I ran nearly the entire way the route that Thierry Georgiou took with variations around where I ran over the cliffs under the power-line (he cut to the road earlier and took the foot bridge) and then when we left the trail (he cut over the hill more). Matthias Kyburtz went the way I had originally planned to, and Gustav Bergman ran a variant of that.

     To number 7 I tried running into the re-entrant, then along the cut-line, and finally around the left side of the green. A Finn caught up to me on that leg and I tried keeping up with him, so he helped me finish the attack into that control. Then we took his route choice to 8 which consisted of running to the path and then cutting straight through all of the green to the control. Going out of the control I tried once more catch up to the Finn but alas he was nimbler through the green and ran off, leaving me with only my rough bearing which I had been holding on to since I left the control. Looking back now I see that I recognized the hill with the clearing left of it, continued then to the left hoping to recognize something. Eventually I ran into number 6 which was very fortunate as I was able to finish the leg from there by running into the stream cutting through the details and cliffs past the trail to the hill. Over which I then ran and hit the control with a bearing. Unfortunately I did not take the correct route choice on this leg that Thierry Georgiou and Matthias Kyburtz took, which was very surprisingly straight. Analyzing this it helping me recognize that I should take this protocol more to heart.  I undershot 10 a little bit.

     To 11 I high tailed it to the path, and accidentally had to cross some cliffs, after which I hit the trail and attacked eleven from the south side of the second hill that is sort of connected to the big hill. Thierry Georgiou and Matthias Kyburtz (who were running together at this point) cut between the two cliffs and pretty much went straight. To 12 I again ran to the trail and cut off from it around the bend and nailed the control, which was also what the winner did! Going to 13 an Italian dude passed me and messed me up bit as he seemed to be swerving along his line a lot. Fortunately he was running in the correct general direction, so I hit the control. 14 was a bearing control that I hit relatively well. When I ran to number 15 then I first ran to the trail and followed it up to the cliffs, from where I ran straight until I hit the trail which I followed to the footbridge (which was a log), went straight over the hill, then veered right to the path inside of the re-entrant. I finished the leg by trying to contour from the left and sidehill into the control. I stopped a little bit short due to the ambiguous vegetation boundaries, and lost a couple minutes. 16 was obvious, and so was 17.

 
     And thus ends my first episode of my World Cup experience. Stay tuned for part two of the long distance which will be released tomorrow, and will feature the story behind the map exchange including an epic chase to the finish control.

Halden Maps and Trainings

     Due to my extremely new found ability of blogging correctly, and bad time management I have not had time to make elaborate descriptions of each of the trainings that Matej and I were doing in Halden, during our preparation for the World Cup in which we would be taking part of. Here is a number of maps with my route choices drawn, and pictures of the terrain in which we had been running in.

A very nice marsh (Others can be a lot worse)

Control picking at Hoias

Classic forest with features in the background

Middle distance training at Hoias

More terrain; a knoll

Glorious cut line!

WC Middle distance training at Lindsfjord

An example of a dirt trail

WC Sprint Relay Training Intervals

Fossum

      On Thursday I had another experience of the vast possibilities  of orienteering trainings here in Norway. The first training that I ran was a race that had occurred roughly two weeks ago, on a ski slope with an extremely steep finish at the end. The beginning of the course was decently, easy, or so I think because it was difficult for me to confirm that I was actually at the right spot, due to the lack of flags at every station. One of the last controls had a sort of optically elusive route choice which I failed to take, and saddened me to think that I hadn't noticed it.

     The next day, I slept in and then got out on the next map, Stein Nord,  which was relatively close to the house, and extends for many kilometers behind the Fossum clubhouse in conjunction with other maps. I jogged a portion of the distance and walked the rest. After a big hill to the start, I began running and my impression of the terrain was that it was quite friendly, with many point features and soggy, obvious marshes it was easy to make plans and execute them.

First Race in Norway

     After competing in a seemingly long stay-awake-athlon, which took me across the Atlantic Ocean, to Frankfurt, where after another four hours I was able to get on my final flight to Oslo where I was picked up by a local friend, Lars, from the train station that Matej and I came to. Shortly afterwards, it was confirmed that there was a race to which we could go to, as I had originally thought that it was a training, leading to the conclusion that I would be going. The race was a sprint race, not to difficult trap wise, but hard enough to give me a slight headache as to which route choice was faster on some of the legs.

     My warm up was more dynamically / stretching orientated vs running a lot due to me feeling quite tired and not wanting to exhaust myself during the warm up too much. When the race started I began running to the start triangle, which I didn't know exactly where it was, along with the fact that the north lines are not so evident, leading me to have my map disoriented. I had to stop at the beginning to find out where I was in order to know which direction the building was around which I was about to execute my plan. here I lost a massive 14 seconds, which accounted for a majority of the time that I had lost in comparison to others. I also had to remember that here in Europe you need to push yourself if you want to do good, as you won't get away with just a good run.

    Anyways back to route choices, to number one I went right around the building, shaving off the corners of the clearings to make my line as direct as possible, before I hung a right around the second building towards the tree. I was able to punch all of the controls surprisingly well, with emit as it is not that hard to operate. Next to 2 I wanted to keep it as simple as possible so I came out left from 1 around the fence, then entered through the gate heading across to the right side of the building and turning in at the corner. Somewhere before I punched, I saw the gap in the fence on the left, therefore making me take the left route choice to 3, which was faster then going right.

     On the way I planned out 4, and decided to come back the way that I came because it was easiest. The other option would have been snaking between the buildings, which might have been faster. 6 and 7 were easy. 8 was tricky, and planning ahead I couldn't decide which one was faster, therefore I ended up going with left. After the race someone said that it was at least seven seconds faster. To 9 I went right. To 10 I intended to go from the left but exited 9 from in the wrong direction, due to the control surprising me, concluding me to run it from the right. To 11 it may have been slightly faster going from the left, I went from the right. I don't believe that there was a big difference. 12 and 13 were obvious. To 14 it might have been faster from the left, but the running was easier from the right so I went right. To 15 I came back the way that I came in from, and then 16 was obvious. To 17 I ran around the right side of the second building. And that concludes my race. I had a strong finish. Otherwise I had a good race and I was just running too slow.

Preface for 2015

I suppose that its already a new year and I haven't been very up-to-date with my blog due to the fact that I've been at the US JWOC qualifiers in Kentucky, at The Flying Pig race, and at an HPP training camp, which both took place in 2015. I think I am going to just jump the gun and write about my stay in Norway, and later Europe.