Well, the weekend has come and gone and we were in
I was lucky, I guess, in that we both (Christine and I) had early start times and that Gitte wasn't running, so both Hanna and Aisha were catered for. Additionally the weather was spectacular and perfect for running - blue skies, no wind, about 15 % - and no high tide! So we were all set. I had been resting for 3 days due to doing a long run with Warti on Wednesday that knocked the stuffing out of me, so I felt well rested and ready to go.
The race started well, I always seem to have a fairly good feel for
7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 were all in very densely packed shopping areas, with loads of tourists walking around all starry eyed. Bearing this in mind I certainly could have improved my route choices on one or two occasions. On the way to 8 I left out a small side street, which would have saved me 20 m and about 10 s, the way to 9 was plagued by tourists, and it certainly would have been faster to take the longer (about 50 m) but quieter way, I recon here another 10 s.
10 was good, 11 I made my only "real" mistake and ran down the wrong alley. I caught it very quickly and I guess I only ended up running about 60 m extra, plus a stop to reread the map, say 15 s. 12 was good, 13 was slow as the map wasn't 100 % correct and so I stopped to read carefully and chose the wrong alley to attack the control. Another 30 s gone.
14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 were all good, although I was starting to slow down, but I was still trying. My knees were beginning to hurt as well. My route to 20 was plagued by indecision, as first I wanted to run north, and then decided on south - all in all about 100 m extra distance and 20 s. The finish sprint was as to be expected for a fat old fart :)
Finish time of 62:36, 6th place (winning time just under 58) - I was happy! My goal had been to get a top 10 place and I had achieved this. Total distance of the run was 12,5 km, which meant I was doing a 5 min pace, which was OK for me! Sorry that I have no map, but it is just too big to scan it in - maybe I'll do it on the weekend and post it - if anybody is interested (post a comment)!
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Running the channels
Monday, October 30, 2006
Attack Point
Well, it has been a long time, and this won't be a long post either, but I promise to try to post before the end of this week :)
Actually the main thing I wanted to post was 2 web sites that should be incredible interesting to all you athletes and orienteers out there.
The first one is Attack Point which is a online line training logbook. It's a really great way to write your diary and let everybody know how your training is going. Additionally I'm finding it to be a bit of a motivater as well, as I hope to move up the attack Point ranking over the next few months (currently about 700). I see that Richard Lange is using it (maybe he is not aware of it) to enter his OL splits, and is ranked about 400 at the moment (a good aim to go for), but it would be nice if some of you guys down SA way could use it, so I could see how you are training :) My training logbook is called "richi", please feel free to add me to your favourites!
The other great link is Route Gadget and is aimed for all you OLers out there. It is relatively easy to set up on a server, and then check out my clubs homepage to see what you can do with it - A really cool piece of software.
So hope you are all well, till the next post...
Actually the main thing I wanted to post was 2 web sites that should be incredible interesting to all you athletes and orienteers out there.
The first one is Attack Point which is a online line training logbook. It's a really great way to write your diary and let everybody know how your training is going. Additionally I'm finding it to be a bit of a motivater as well, as I hope to move up the attack Point ranking over the next few months (currently about 700). I see that Richard Lange is using it (maybe he is not aware of it) to enter his OL splits, and is ranked about 400 at the moment (a good aim to go for), but it would be nice if some of you guys down SA way could use it, so I could see how you are training :) My training logbook is called "richi", please feel free to add me to your favourites!
The other great link is Route Gadget and is aimed for all you OLers out there. It is relatively easy to set up on a server, and then check out my clubs homepage to see what you can do with it - A really cool piece of software.
So hope you are all well, till the next post...
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Can of Worms
It seems that I have inadvertently opened a can of worms with my last post about training. On the weekend more fuel was added to the fire when Christian won the Junior Match and therefore proved that his race in mid-summer wasn't just a one off result. Of course, I was extremely proud of this, as I have worked closely with Christian as his personal trainer for 4 years now!
I would just like to state for the record. Although the trainer of a top athlete is important, and although I believe the training plan and method is vital to performance, it is without a doubt the athlete who is ultimately responsible for the result. Christian's attitude to training and working professionally, his honesty and openness in accepting praise, criticism or the truth about his performance, his realisation / analyses of his mistakes and his limitations and most importantly his ability to train hard set him above the rest and make him what he is today. Not me, not his parents, not his running buddies, not the club, not even the Austrian team - although we all do play a part. It is still Christian Wartbichler himself that makes it all possible.
So well done to him, Congratulations Christian - you are on your way to becoming one of Europe's finest orienteerers - I wish you all the best in the coming years.
Anyway, through this win, there has been some new discussions on the official mouth piece of the Austrian Federation. It the forum, one of Austrias' leading trainers (Wolfgang P) made some comments as to "Trainer of the Year", and this call was re-iterated by one of the youngsters who trained with me a while back (thanks Andi). I am personally not looking for any awards, nor do I spend many of my spare hours doing it for recognition. I do it because I love it and I know that I can, and that is enough for me. If my athletes win, that's just a bonus for me!
However, although this award actually does exist (Trainer of the Year) since the beginning of the year, I will not be eligible to win it because I do not have the qualifications as set out by the ö–fol with regards to trainer qualifications. Naja, no surprises there, but disappointing anyway (for the why, read the post below). I hope there are some more comments made on the forum - I personally do not think I should add my own comment - but I feel more should be said on the subject.
So that was my trainer blurb for today - I post a description of the last few (shockingly bad) races in the next days :)
I would just like to state for the record. Although the trainer of a top athlete is important, and although I believe the training plan and method is vital to performance, it is without a doubt the athlete who is ultimately responsible for the result. Christian's attitude to training and working professionally, his honesty and openness in accepting praise, criticism or the truth about his performance, his realisation / analyses of his mistakes and his limitations and most importantly his ability to train hard set him above the rest and make him what he is today. Not me, not his parents, not his running buddies, not the club, not even the Austrian team - although we all do play a part. It is still Christian Wartbichler himself that makes it all possible.
So well done to him, Congratulations Christian - you are on your way to becoming one of Europe's finest orienteerers - I wish you all the best in the coming years.
Anyway, through this win, there has been some new discussions on the official mouth piece of the Austrian Federation. It the forum, one of Austrias' leading trainers (Wolfgang P) made some comments as to "Trainer of the Year", and this call was re-iterated by one of the youngsters who trained with me a while back (thanks Andi). I am personally not looking for any awards, nor do I spend many of my spare hours doing it for recognition. I do it because I love it and I know that I can, and that is enough for me. If my athletes win, that's just a bonus for me!
However, although this award actually does exist (Trainer of the Year) since the beginning of the year, I will not be eligible to win it because I do not have the qualifications as set out by the ö–fol with regards to trainer qualifications. Naja, no surprises there, but disappointing anyway (for the why, read the post below). I hope there are some more comments made on the forum - I personally do not think I should add my own comment - but I feel more should be said on the subject.
So that was my trainer blurb for today - I post a description of the last few (shockingly bad) races in the next days :)
Congratulations
Well, can you believe it! Well done to Christian for winning the Junior European Match U18. After his win in the Junior European Championships (U18), he has now proved that this just wasn't a once off result, and won again in an even stronger field. Well done, Christian - an excellent result.
Also congratulations are in order for that wonder runner, Dion. D, you are always surprising me with your excellent results and a 3rd place in the Voet is a result to be proud of. Additionally, congrats on the Table Mountain Race, The table Mountain Challenge and the Tokai Forest Run - all excellent wins! This must be a record year :)
Additionally, well done to Richard for his virgin marathon (he claims the Jungfrau doesn't count, and by that standard does the Voet count?) in the excellent time of 3hrs 23 - very good dude, especially considering the only orienteer in field got lost and you ran an extra KM!
Way to go to you all.
Also congratulations are in order for that wonder runner, Dion. D, you are always surprising me with your excellent results and a 3rd place in the Voet is a result to be proud of. Additionally, congrats on the Table Mountain Race, The table Mountain Challenge and the Tokai Forest Run - all excellent wins! This must be a record year :)
Additionally, well done to Richard for his virgin marathon (he claims the Jungfrau doesn't count, and by that standard does the Voet count?) in the excellent time of 3hrs 23 - very good dude, especially considering the only orienteer in field got lost and you ran an extra KM!
Way to go to you all.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
I'm sick and tired of it!
Really I am. I am getting sick and tired of Austrian people telling me that I don't know what I'm doing when it comes to training. What I fail to understand is how some of these people take the time to criticise or analyse my training methods without looking at their own training first, or that people who have never been a top athlete or trainer, have never even started a trainer education themselves can speak out against my training.
I was very fortunate in that I was able to grow up in a country like South Africa. There are many differences to Austria, but one of those is that in SA you HAVE to do sport at school, and this from the early age of around 8 years. I was never a ball man (i.e Cricket, Soccer or Rugby were not my strong points - I was too small) and so I took to other sports where my smallness wasn't a problem. At that time it was Cross Country running and I have stuck with it my whole life - it has become a way of life for me and one that I have been following for 26 years.
When I was 11 I won my first school championships and although I have only ever won 2 running races in my entire life (thanks Dion :)) I have trained regularly since I was about 11 years old. Then I hit the jackpot. After school I went to University, where I joined the UCT running club. At this time, and throughout my entire Uni life, I had the pleasure of a coach called Chris Sole.
Chris is without a doubt, and will remain until the day I die, my absolute idol. He was possibly one of the best coaches in South Africa and had a personality that made him one of the most successful athletics coaches the length and breadth of South Africa. Chris himself was the only person ever to run 26 consecutive South African X-C Championships. Chris's love was for the forest and hill running and he instilled in me a deep respect for the simple things in life and hard training. I cannot remember how many times I ran with him through Newlands forest with my other running buddies and we discussed training.
Chris did 2 things as a coach that I feel made him exceptional. One was that he was always able to explain to me why he was doing what training, so that I learned to understand what we were doing, when and why, and second was that he ran with us, trained with us, knew our strengths inside and out and trained us accordingly. If I had a problem Chris always knew where to start with the diagnostic. I never questioned him. If he said run, I did, if he said stop, I did. I did not pretend that I knew more than him (nor will I ever), and I never argued with him (I was only in my early twenties and he was in his mid thirties) about training. I just listened and learned.
In Austria it all works different. In order to be recognised as a trainer, you have to qualify and pass a trainers exam. What a load of crap. Here in Austria, every second person thinks they can be a trainer just because they have done the education, doesn't matter what their actual experience is or their age. The other side of the coin is that if you don't have this qualification, well then obviously you cannot know anything about training can you? Well I've heard it from various people and I see it all the time, that is just not the way it works. Most of the trainers here are quite useless, especially the trained ones, and the more successful ones are often those that come through the sporting lines and are not qualified - go figure! This is the opinion of a large part of the coaches who train athletes here in my own Salzburg area.
I have even thought about getting this qualification myself once or twice, but you know what, I don't think I'll bother. It occurs time and time again, where I see that my training is not only more effective, but also based on sound principles that help the runner improve and learn at the same time. I model my training on Chris Sole - that's good enough for me,
and apparently for the Junior European Champion as well!
I have read books, spoken to top athletes and trained with some of the best runners the world has to offer (I have trained with Paul Tergat once). I believe I can provide a certain amount of experience when it comes to training. Last night one of my running buddies again told me I was talking crap, contradicting myself and not making sense. He claimed he has read all the same books as me and come to completely different conclusions, that he has spoken to top Austrian athletes and heard other stories, that he reads lots of web sites from the top athletes and knows how and what they train, so I did him a favour and went through those books and web sites, just to ensure that I wasn't talking crap - and what did I find out? Well you guess!
Please do not misunderstand me. I know that there are a lot of people out there who have different ideas about training, and that these ideas also bring success. I do not pretend to know every thing about training, and I am constantly learning. However, in my 26 years of running, I believe I have tried just about every form of training that there is and I still try new forms all the time - I take what I finds works best (through experience) and use this. The basic principle works for me, as well as for a top runner, as well as for a social jogger.
I am sick and tired of constant excuses and moaning. I continually hear about illness, iron problems, stomach problems, injuries, lack of talent, tiredness and demotivation. Cruches, all of it! I have one piece of advice to all you doubting Thomases out there. The time has come! I have proved I know what I'm doing, now it's your turn. It's your turn to shut your mouths and to prove to everybody that you actually do know what you are talking about. It's time for deeds not discussions. It's time for all you qualified trainers out there to prove me wrong. It's time for you athletes out there who believe your training is better to prove it. IT HAS BEEN LONG ENOUGH NOW!
Stop talking about it and show me!
I was very fortunate in that I was able to grow up in a country like South Africa. There are many differences to Austria, but one of those is that in SA you HAVE to do sport at school, and this from the early age of around 8 years. I was never a ball man (i.e Cricket, Soccer or Rugby were not my strong points - I was too small) and so I took to other sports where my smallness wasn't a problem. At that time it was Cross Country running and I have stuck with it my whole life - it has become a way of life for me and one that I have been following for 26 years.
When I was 11 I won my first school championships and although I have only ever won 2 running races in my entire life (thanks Dion :)) I have trained regularly since I was about 11 years old. Then I hit the jackpot. After school I went to University, where I joined the UCT running club. At this time, and throughout my entire Uni life, I had the pleasure of a coach called Chris Sole.
Chris is without a doubt, and will remain until the day I die, my absolute idol. He was possibly one of the best coaches in South Africa and had a personality that made him one of the most successful athletics coaches the length and breadth of South Africa. Chris himself was the only person ever to run 26 consecutive South African X-C Championships. Chris's love was for the forest and hill running and he instilled in me a deep respect for the simple things in life and hard training. I cannot remember how many times I ran with him through Newlands forest with my other running buddies and we discussed training.
Chris did 2 things as a coach that I feel made him exceptional. One was that he was always able to explain to me why he was doing what training, so that I learned to understand what we were doing, when and why, and second was that he ran with us, trained with us, knew our strengths inside and out and trained us accordingly. If I had a problem Chris always knew where to start with the diagnostic. I never questioned him. If he said run, I did, if he said stop, I did. I did not pretend that I knew more than him (nor will I ever), and I never argued with him (I was only in my early twenties and he was in his mid thirties) about training. I just listened and learned.
In Austria it all works different. In order to be recognised as a trainer, you have to qualify and pass a trainers exam. What a load of crap. Here in Austria, every second person thinks they can be a trainer just because they have done the education, doesn't matter what their actual experience is or their age. The other side of the coin is that if you don't have this qualification, well then obviously you cannot know anything about training can you? Well I've heard it from various people and I see it all the time, that is just not the way it works. Most of the trainers here are quite useless, especially the trained ones, and the more successful ones are often those that come through the sporting lines and are not qualified - go figure! This is the opinion of a large part of the coaches who train athletes here in my own Salzburg area.
I have even thought about getting this qualification myself once or twice, but you know what, I don't think I'll bother. It occurs time and time again, where I see that my training is not only more effective, but also based on sound principles that help the runner improve and learn at the same time. I model my training on Chris Sole - that's good enough for me,
and apparently for the Junior European Champion as well!
I have read books, spoken to top athletes and trained with some of the best runners the world has to offer (I have trained with Paul Tergat once). I believe I can provide a certain amount of experience when it comes to training. Last night one of my running buddies again told me I was talking crap, contradicting myself and not making sense. He claimed he has read all the same books as me and come to completely different conclusions, that he has spoken to top Austrian athletes and heard other stories, that he reads lots of web sites from the top athletes and knows how and what they train, so I did him a favour and went through those books and web sites, just to ensure that I wasn't talking crap - and what did I find out? Well you guess!
Please do not misunderstand me. I know that there are a lot of people out there who have different ideas about training, and that these ideas also bring success. I do not pretend to know every thing about training, and I am constantly learning. However, in my 26 years of running, I believe I have tried just about every form of training that there is and I still try new forms all the time - I take what I finds works best (through experience) and use this. The basic principle works for me, as well as for a top runner, as well as for a social jogger.
I am sick and tired of constant excuses and moaning. I continually hear about illness, iron problems, stomach problems, injuries, lack of talent, tiredness and demotivation. Cruches, all of it! I have one piece of advice to all you doubting Thomases out there. The time has come! I have proved I know what I'm doing, now it's your turn. It's your turn to shut your mouths and to prove to everybody that you actually do know what you are talking about. It's time for deeds not discussions. It's time for all you qualified trainers out there to prove me wrong. It's time for you athletes out there who believe your training is better to prove it. IT HAS BEEN LONG ENOUGH NOW!
Stop talking about it and show me!
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Weekly babble
Well, what's been on the go since I lasted posted (besides Richi getting the SA titles I mean)....
Well on the weekend we had the Austrian national junior team here in Henndorf for training. This was organised mostly by myself (making the courses, organisation and control checking, setting and collecting) with Franz Helminger (control setting and collecting) and Franz Nagele (course setting). It was a great success, the trainings were very good (not my words) and relevant to the terrain in which the next major competition is.
It is, of course, exceptionally physical doing all these control setting exercises in the forest, so Sunday evening I was really buggered. Wolfi and I ran round the course collecting controls on Sunday after the last training and I was really struggling, Aisha on the other hand had the weekend of her life - she had as much fun as a dog like her could have. However, the fantastic braai at the Müllers afterwards helped me recharge my batteries. Additionally I could just sit and watch a brilliant men's cycle world championships right here in our very own Salzburg - really well organised, and a very exciting event. Well done!
Hill training on Tuesday was again really good, with all three of us (Warti, Markus and myself) going over the 500m mark (climb), which was the goal of the exercise - Warti even hit the 600m mark. The weather has started to turn and so we are getting home in the rain and darkness, and soon we will be taking some lights with us.
On Wednesday it was just Aisha and me on a beautiful but wet run over Henndorf forest and today the three musketteers hit the road round Kienberg during our 10 x 3 min interval session. Another good one, sorry about Markus's stomach problem though, which slowed him down a bit at the end. All in all, another really good training.
All this training is doing me good, but I'm buggered, so I'm off to bed. Keep well all, keep training and most importantly, keep smiling :)
Well on the weekend we had the Austrian national junior team here in Henndorf for training. This was organised mostly by myself (making the courses, organisation and control checking, setting and collecting) with Franz Helminger (control setting and collecting) and Franz Nagele (course setting). It was a great success, the trainings were very good (not my words) and relevant to the terrain in which the next major competition is.
It is, of course, exceptionally physical doing all these control setting exercises in the forest, so Sunday evening I was really buggered. Wolfi and I ran round the course collecting controls on Sunday after the last training and I was really struggling, Aisha on the other hand had the weekend of her life - she had as much fun as a dog like her could have. However, the fantastic braai at the Müllers afterwards helped me recharge my batteries. Additionally I could just sit and watch a brilliant men's cycle world championships right here in our very own Salzburg - really well organised, and a very exciting event. Well done!
Hill training on Tuesday was again really good, with all three of us (Warti, Markus and myself) going over the 500m mark (climb), which was the goal of the exercise - Warti even hit the 600m mark. The weather has started to turn and so we are getting home in the rain and darkness, and soon we will be taking some lights with us.
On Wednesday it was just Aisha and me on a beautiful but wet run over Henndorf forest and today the three musketteers hit the road round Kienberg during our 10 x 3 min interval session. Another good one, sorry about Markus's stomach problem though, which slowed him down a bit at the end. All in all, another really good training.
All this training is doing me good, but I'm buggered, so I'm off to bed. Keep well all, keep training and most importantly, keep smiling :)
Congrats
to the new SA short distance and Relay Champ Richard. Sorry you couldn't add the long to your bag of medals! Way to go dude!
Friday, September 22, 2006
Them thar those tirolian mountains
Well I promised to get a short commentry about the weekend up, and I wanted to get it done before the next weekend arrives :) Work has been keeping me snowed up, and the additional computer problems I have been having haven't made it easier!
So last weekend was the Austrian relay championships on Saturday and the 8th ranking event on Sunday. To be honest I knew before going that I wasn't going to be competitive, but at least I've started to train again. I was in a relay team with Roland "Sportvogl" Vogl and Uwe "I'm even slower than you Richi!" Merl, so we hadn't really reconded with a chance of a podium. I was the start runner, and after control one I knew this was going to be even worse than I imagined. I came in last and a good 20 minutes down on the leading teams. I've attached the map but won't go into the mistakes - too embarressed.
Uwe took over and had a steady run, taking just 10 minutes longer than me but unfortunately keeping that last place intact. Roland took over and actually managed to overtake another relay team, so we came in 2nd last. The upside was that 3 teams infront of us had been disq., and with a field of 7, that left us...yup...you guessed it, in 3rd place.
And then it happened, this a..h..e guy who runs the other OL shop got our team disqualified because Roland is not an Austrian national (neither am I) and does NOT have his main residence in Austria (I do). He claims RULES are RULES, but the rest of the OL family know the real reason, he is a bad business man, and the only way he can get to Roland is by doing something nasty like this. So we didn't actually get medals, but a consolation prize of chocolates, which Gitte really enjoyed!
We spent the night in a great little alpin hotel in the Solden valley, at a height of just over 1580m. It was actually the high point of the weekend, especially the food, which was very welcome after a hard day in the forest :) The only problem was that Hanna had problems sleeping (she hardly didn't) which of course means that parents Richard and Christine didn't get any sleep either :(
Sunday was another story entirely. The 9 km were always going to be absolutely murderous, and thats what they proved to be. I was in the forest for 2 hours and I worked hard for every minute. Certainly my orienteering skill has been seriously neglicted this year, and it really shows. I hope that I will be able to get back to form before the end of the season comes around. The map is great, well drawn and very technical. Some errors on my part were to 1 (forgot to concentrate), 5 (wrong attack point) 7 (compass error) 12 (bad route choice) 13 (deliberate bad route choice) 14 uncertainty - the list continues - but actually I was quite enjoying myself, even if it was taking forever.
Over the second half of the course, things did improve, except for control 25 were lack of sleep and motivation (and not to mention over 100 minutes in the forest) took control and I spent 10 minutes searching for a control that I passed 3 times before actually finding it. Naja, without this mistake I would have been happy. If you are interested, there is this fantastic gadget that you can use to look at the routes - it is worth a look! So that is the story of a 15km, 400 hm , 2 hour ordeal on Sunday.
On the plus side, Christine was in a league of her own and cleaned up on her course. Can you believe it, somebody said to Christine that she was taking away ranking points from the other ladies - I was trying to figure it out. She hasn't trained seriously since last summer, hasn't trained at all since Xmas, has had a child, major operation, has lost her job, found a new one and she is still too good for the D21K - I think the others need to look elsewhere to be honest!
And that was the weekend really - it was not really great, but it wasn't bad. I hope that I can improve on my preformance at the next few events :) If you are interested in the results, then please check them out here.
Keep well, more later,
Richard.
So last weekend was the Austrian relay championships on Saturday and the 8th ranking event on Sunday. To be honest I knew before going that I wasn't going to be competitive, but at least I've started to train again. I was in a relay team with Roland "Sportvogl" Vogl and Uwe "I'm even slower than you Richi!" Merl, so we hadn't really reconded with a chance of a podium. I was the start runner, and after control one I knew this was going to be even worse than I imagined. I came in last and a good 20 minutes down on the leading teams. I've attached the map but won't go into the mistakes - too embarressed.Uwe took over and had a steady run, taking just 10 minutes longer than me but unfortunately keeping that last place intact. Roland took over and actually managed to overtake another relay team, so we came in 2nd last. The upside was that 3 teams infront of us had been disq., and with a field of 7, that left us...yup...you guessed it, in 3rd place.
And then it happened, this a..h..e guy who runs the other OL shop got our team disqualified because Roland is not an Austrian national (neither am I) and does NOT have his main residence in Austria (I do). He claims RULES are RULES, but the rest of the OL family know the real reason, he is a bad business man, and the only way he can get to Roland is by doing something nasty like this. So we didn't actually get medals, but a consolation prize of chocolates, which Gitte really enjoyed!
We spent the night in a great little alpin hotel in the Solden valley, at a height of just over 1580m. It was actually the high point of the weekend, especially the food, which was very welcome after a hard day in the forest :) The only problem was that Hanna had problems sleeping (she hardly didn't) which of course means that parents Richard and Christine didn't get any sleep either :(
Sunday was another story entirely. The 9 km were always going to be absolutely murderous, and thats what they proved to be. I was in the forest for 2 hours and I worked hard for every minute. Certainly my orienteering skill has been seriously neglicted this year, and it really shows. I hope that I will be able to get back to form before the end of the season comes around. The map is great, well drawn and very technical. Some errors on my part were to 1 (forgot to concentrate), 5 (wrong attack point) 7 (compass error) 12 (bad route choice) 13 (deliberate bad route choice) 14 uncertainty - the list continues - but actually I was quite enjoying myself, even if it was taking forever.
Over the second half of the course, things did improve, except for control 25 were lack of sleep and motivation (and not to mention over 100 minutes in the forest) took control and I spent 10 minutes searching for a control that I passed 3 times before actually finding it. Naja, without this mistake I would have been happy. If you are interested, there is this fantastic gadget that you can use to look at the routes - it is worth a look! So that is the story of a 15km, 400 hm , 2 hour ordeal on Sunday.On the plus side, Christine was in a league of her own and cleaned up on her course. Can you believe it, somebody said to Christine that she was taking away ranking points from the other ladies - I was trying to figure it out. She hasn't trained seriously since last summer, hasn't trained at all since Xmas, has had a child, major operation, has lost her job, found a new one and she is still too good for the D21K - I think the others need to look elsewhere to be honest!
And that was the weekend really - it was not really great, but it wasn't bad. I hope that I can improve on my preformance at the next few events :) If you are interested in the results, then please check them out here.
Keep well, more later,
Richard.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Hill Training and Marathon Running
There is something to be said about training in the rain - generally speaking these are good runs. However hill training in the rain is always excellent and yesterday was no exception. Markus, Christian and I headed off for the hills at about 17h45 and I was strongly reminded of winter hill training with Chris Sole running from the UCT clubhouse.
Plan was to do more than last week (20 minutes) of uphill and maybe even a bit faster! Certainly both Warti and Markus were better than last week, I was only marginally better, but we did manage 23 minutes of uphill runner which I was pleased about. We did hit the 400m mark in total so mission accomplised.
It was great to run in the group again, and I was reminded how much fun we had back in South Africa during these runs. And of course you get to push each other, as Markus found out yesterday. We all have it in us, it just needs to be beaten out :)
Also just a word of congratulation to Arthur and Frank who ran the Wachau Marathon on Sunday. Arthur ran a PB of 3hrs12 and Frank unfortunately had a few stomach problems but still ended up with a sub 3h30 run. And all of this with a head wind! Well done to you both. Results can be found here!
So, report about the weekend OL races will follow,
Richard.
Plan was to do more than last week (20 minutes) of uphill and maybe even a bit faster! Certainly both Warti and Markus were better than last week, I was only marginally better, but we did manage 23 minutes of uphill runner which I was pleased about. We did hit the 400m mark in total so mission accomplised.
It was great to run in the group again, and I was reminded how much fun we had back in South Africa during these runs. And of course you get to push each other, as Markus found out yesterday. We all have it in us, it just needs to be beaten out :)
Also just a word of congratulation to Arthur and Frank who ran the Wachau Marathon on Sunday. Arthur ran a PB of 3hrs12 and Frank unfortunately had a few stomach problems but still ended up with a sub 3h30 run. And all of this with a head wind! Well done to you both. Results can be found here!
So, report about the weekend OL races will follow,
Richard.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
New post-Hanna record
Well, it's official - I managed three days in a row :) And 2 of those days over 60 minutes! Way to go Rich. On the weekend we have two orienteering races in Henndorf, so I think I will rest today and make an easy jog tomorrow!
But maybe somebody will persuade me to run later this afternoon......
But maybe somebody will persuade me to run later this afternoon......
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Running the hills
Yesterday I had a great training with Wolfi (aka Stomach Attach), Markus (aka Black before eyes), Warti (aka Go like hell) and Veronika (aka Speedy con weyrich). We headed out into the hills in Henndorf Forest and did 3 x 5 min and then 5 x 1 min on some of the steepest hills that we have around Henndorf. I checked my training dairy - haven't trained that much since before Hanna was born :)
Anyway, it was a great run and I hope we can do a lot more training in a group this winter, provided that Markus (aka I'm always late) can get there on time :)
Have a good day all,
Richard.
Anyway, it was a great run and I hope we can do a lot more training in a group this winter, provided that Markus (aka I'm always late) can get there on time :)
Have a good day all,
Richard.
Monday, September 11, 2006
The Wallerseelauf
On the weekend were 2 orienteering events in the furthest away part of Austria that you can get to. Consequently Christine and I decided to skip these two events, and I planned on running the Wallersee Half Marathon, which is a half marathon around the wallersee. A really beautiful run which has about 1/3 road and 2/3 offroad tracks, but I was weak, fat, lazy, slow, did I mention fat, and wimped out on the morning of the race.However this didn't put me off going to watch my mates Frank "I help Arthur" de Busscher, Arthur "I started way to fast" Schuchter, Mauricio "all the way from Columbia" Comi and Veronika "Achensee Winner" Weyrich running round the lake. I was able to see them at a few spots, and Frank "Come here Aisha" even took Aisha for the last few KM's which gave him the extra power to pip Arthur "Mr Constant" by a mere 50 m. Both ran times around the 1h28 in preparation for next weeks Marathon in the Wachau.
Veronika "taking it easy" came home in 1h40, and club newbie, Mauricio "no shirt" came sliding in at 1h46, but he was hampered by two very nasty blisters on his feet. This was not enough however to prevent our boys Arthur "the hair", Frank "the non hair" and Mauricio "first race, first podium" from taking third place in the men's team competition - well done Dudes!
The weather was fantastic and the winner Gerhard "almost came to our club" Lettner ran a smashing time of 1h13'07 to break the current record. A fun time was had by all, and this is certainly a race to put in the calendar for next year. I guess the next big occasion is the Wachau marathon next week - good luck Frank and Arthur,See you all at training,
Richard.
P.S. Race results can be found on the Seekirchen Skiclub homepage!
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
2 win weekend!
Well, on the weekend we had a nice OL weekend away in Lungau. Lungau is a valley in the province of Salzburg, and a truly spectacular (scenery and forest wise) place. I must say we really enjoy going there, and over the last few years this is the place where I have got my best wins!
And so it was again on the weekend. The first race was the Salzburg relay championships and here we have developed a system whereby we are able to keep the race as interesting as possible by creating teams that are quite evenly matched. This year was again no different, except that the guys who created the teams might have under estimated me :) So they decided that being as though I was the weakest OLer of them all (in the elite Cat - I normally run H35) they should put me with Warti (the strongest runner). I must admit I didn't really think this was fair to Warti but then on the other hand I knew that if I did my best we might be able to get a podium finish.
I was the start runner, and surprised myself and a few others by being the first to the first control :) Cool! After that Norbert took control and started to run away from me. I didn't see anybody else until Mani caught me up at control 5. Norbert was still just ahead, but I was getting tired, and thus I made my first big mistake. I kept pushing though and ended up 4 minutes behind after the first leg - the teams I favored were all ahead. Warti took over, and after 19 minutes came back in second place behind Robert (Norberts partner). Wolfi and Luki were at this stage just behind us in third. The question was, where was Phil?
Points to the mistakes: (1min 20s)
I must admit I was quite bushed. I took off after Norbert for the second leg and after he made an uncharacteristic mistake at control 5, actually catch him up again. However he started to pull away from them on, and I lost him on the way to control 6. I kept pushing and although I didn't make any mistakes, the gas was gone. Control 9 to the finish was walk / run / walk / limp / stop / breath / carry on! After anaylsing the watch data I had a max pulse of 193 and an average pulse of 183 (over 26 minutes) - this was way over the limit. Again I reached the finish behind Norbert, but this was the telling thing, this time I was only 3 minutes behind him. Sandwitched between us was Wolfi.
Points to the mistakes (1min 20s):
1x about 10s as I had climbed too high
2x about 30s due to bad route choice - should have gone straight
3x about 20s, missing the road and going back after short relocate
4x about 20s - to tired, didn't go straight
The last leg was then a nail biting experience. Lukas was on the other loop, so Norbert and I knew it would be between Robert and Warti. If Warti caught him, then it would all be over :) And so it was, Warti caught Robi at control 10 and then it was just pure running until the finish, and thus it was that the old fat slow man and the young thin fast boy won the Salzburg relay champs - cool :) Norbert and Robi were just behind (less than a minute) and Wolfi and Lukas about 3 or 4 behind. On reflection, the teams were quite even, and had Phil given it his best shot, there would have been 4 teams fighting for the gold! Excellent - well done to all.
On Sunday was the 6th Salzburg Cup, where I was allowed to run H35, although after a technical problem with the software, I wasn't sure I would be able to get a run in. However, Leo and I were able to solve the problem and I started 30 minutes late. The course was long and hard (well for me it was) 6,3 km with 280m Climb. After the relay I was feeling somewhat empty. In the end I tried to keep it slower but constant, and was able to keep this pace until the end. A few small mistakes, but some really good route choices. I was able to run the fastest time in the H35, just piping Florian by 3 minutes. It seems that he gets stronger and stronger. However, all the elites where ahead of me.
Points to the mistakes (3 min 10 s):
1x about 30s as very tired after "sprinting to the start" - small control circle mistake
2x about 10s came down to far west, otherwise excellent route
3x about 40s as you can see the map has no north lines, small compass error and then went right instead of left
4x about 90s twisted twice, once while crossing the river, two small map reading mistakes
5x about 20s missed the pit on the way up, had to come back for it
I felt my route choice 1-2 and 4 -5 could not have been better. All in all an OK race without any major errors or mistakes - I was happy!
And that was the weekend - sorry no photo's, didn't take any. I'll post something on the other blog later this week,
Richard.
P.S: You can find the results on the SOLV website!
And so it was again on the weekend. The first race was the Salzburg relay championships and here we have developed a system whereby we are able to keep the race as interesting as possible by creating teams that are quite evenly matched. This year was again no different, except that the guys who created the teams might have under estimated me :) So they decided that being as though I was the weakest OLer of them all (in the elite Cat - I normally run H35) they should put me with Warti (the strongest runner). I must admit I didn't really think this was fair to Warti but then on the other hand I knew that if I did my best we might be able to get a podium finish.
I was the start runner, and surprised myself and a few others by being the first to the first control :) Cool! After that Norbert took control and started to run away from me. I didn't see anybody else until Mani caught me up at control 5. Norbert was still just ahead, but I was getting tired, and thus I made my first big mistake. I kept pushing though and ended up 4 minutes behind after the first leg - the teams I favored were all ahead. Warti took over, and after 19 minutes came back in second place behind Robert (Norberts partner). Wolfi and Luki were at this stage just behind us in third. The question was, where was Phil?Points to the mistakes: (1min 20s)
1x about 20s as I ran 20 to 30 m too far
2x about 20s as I got off track on the compass, about 20 s for going the wrong route
3x about 20s to relocate and then find the control
2x about 20s as I got off track on the compass, about 20 s for going the wrong route
3x about 20s to relocate and then find the control
I must admit I was quite bushed. I took off after Norbert for the second leg and after he made an uncharacteristic mistake at control 5, actually catch him up again. However he started to pull away from them on, and I lost him on the way to control 6. I kept pushing and although I didn't make any mistakes, the gas was gone. Control 9 to the finish was walk / run / walk / limp / stop / breath / carry on! After anaylsing the watch data I had a max pulse of 193 and an average pulse of 183 (over 26 minutes) - this was way over the limit. Again I reached the finish behind Norbert, but this was the telling thing, this time I was only 3 minutes behind him. Sandwitched between us was Wolfi.Points to the mistakes (1min 20s):
1x about 10s as I had climbed too high
2x about 30s due to bad route choice - should have gone straight
3x about 20s, missing the road and going back after short relocate
4x about 20s - to tired, didn't go straight
The last leg was then a nail biting experience. Lukas was on the other loop, so Norbert and I knew it would be between Robert and Warti. If Warti caught him, then it would all be over :) And so it was, Warti caught Robi at control 10 and then it was just pure running until the finish, and thus it was that the old fat slow man and the young thin fast boy won the Salzburg relay champs - cool :) Norbert and Robi were just behind (less than a minute) and Wolfi and Lukas about 3 or 4 behind. On reflection, the teams were quite even, and had Phil given it his best shot, there would have been 4 teams fighting for the gold! Excellent - well done to all.
On Sunday was the 6th Salzburg Cup, where I was allowed to run H35, although after a technical problem with the software, I wasn't sure I would be able to get a run in. However, Leo and I were able to solve the problem and I started 30 minutes late. The course was long and hard (well for me it was) 6,3 km with 280m Climb. After the relay I was feeling somewhat empty. In the end I tried to keep it slower but constant, and was able to keep this pace until the end. A few small mistakes, but some really good route choices. I was able to run the fastest time in the H35, just piping Florian by 3 minutes. It seems that he gets stronger and stronger. However, all the elites where ahead of me.Points to the mistakes (3 min 10 s):
1x about 30s as very tired after "sprinting to the start" - small control circle mistake
2x about 10s came down to far west, otherwise excellent route
3x about 40s as you can see the map has no north lines, small compass error and then went right instead of left
4x about 90s twisted twice, once while crossing the river, two small map reading mistakes
5x about 20s missed the pit on the way up, had to come back for it
I felt my route choice 1-2 and 4 -5 could not have been better. All in all an OK race without any major errors or mistakes - I was happy!
And that was the weekend - sorry no photo's, didn't take any. I'll post something on the other blog later this week,
Richard.
P.S: You can find the results on the SOLV website!
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Rieder City 10km
or better known as the Cannonball run by the plebs (Wampi and Kampi)!
Yes, I decided that I would run the race on the weekend, and with my current status of training, I thought this was very brave :) We all met at the school on a nice Saturday afternoon for the drive to Ried, about 70 km away. Everybody was full of confidence and wanted to ensure that this would be a fast run.
There were 2 races actually, firstly the Juniors and Ladies ran the 5km, where Christian "leading bunch" Wartbichler finished an excellent 2nd in a time of 16:44, a new PB. Good running I thought! Veronika "looking cool in shades" Weyrich also had a smashing run, finishing in just over 20 minutes, and winning the ladies W50 cat. Well done to both of these runners who achieved the best results for us on the day.
The second race, a saucy 10 km chopped into 4 laps of 2,5 km was thankfully decidedly cooler as we started a bit later. Wolfi "go from the gun" Kampel, and Arthur "Training for the marathon" Schuchter blasted off from the start, leaving Richi "60 minutes" Gathercole to bring up the rear. Wolfi "The stitch man" had to slow down a bit, leaving Arthur "Can I get a PB" alone at the front. Richi "cannonball" was slowly but surely eating the field from behind. Wolfi "Stitch better" and Warti "lets help Richi" were great support during the last 2 rounds for Richi "getting faster".
In the end, Arthur "sub 40" ran 39:20, Wolfi "how does Richi move so fast when he's so fat" slightly over 43 min and Richi "wow" ended up running a 43:30 min 10km. Slow I know, but for 4 months zero training, not bad I hope. The prize giving was excellent with Warti "missed the snowboard by 10m" and Veronika "the OL lady" getting some great trophies. I think a good time was had by all!
See you all at the next race,
Richard.
P.S: Results at www.rieder-stadtlauf.at
Yes, I decided that I would run the race on the weekend, and with my current status of training, I thought this was very brave :) We all met at the school on a nice Saturday afternoon for the drive to Ried, about 70 km away. Everybody was full of confidence and wanted to ensure that this would be a fast run.
There were 2 races actually, firstly the Juniors and Ladies ran the 5km, where Christian "leading bunch" Wartbichler finished an excellent 2nd in a time of 16:44, a new PB. Good running I thought! Veronika "looking cool in shades" Weyrich also had a smashing run, finishing in just over 20 minutes, and winning the ladies W50 cat. Well done to both of these runners who achieved the best results for us on the day.
The second race, a saucy 10 km chopped into 4 laps of 2,5 km was thankfully decidedly cooler as we started a bit later. Wolfi "go from the gun" Kampel, and Arthur "Training for the marathon" Schuchter blasted off from the start, leaving Richi "60 minutes" Gathercole to bring up the rear. Wolfi "The stitch man" had to slow down a bit, leaving Arthur "Can I get a PB" alone at the front. Richi "cannonball" was slowly but surely eating the field from behind. Wolfi "Stitch better" and Warti "lets help Richi" were great support during the last 2 rounds for Richi "getting faster".
In the end, Arthur "sub 40" ran 39:20, Wolfi "how does Richi move so fast when he's so fat" slightly over 43 min and Richi "wow" ended up running a 43:30 min 10km. Slow I know, but for 4 months zero training, not bad I hope. The prize giving was excellent with Warti "missed the snowboard by 10m" and Veronika "the OL lady" getting some great trophies. I think a good time was had by all!See you all at the next race,
Richard.
P.S: Results at www.rieder-stadtlauf.at
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Fuschlseelauf
Sunday saw the running of the Fuschlseelauf. This is a beautiful scenic 11,8 km run, round the Fuschl lake, on forest tracks. A selective course with some hill work over the last 3 km's or so. Traditionally orienteers do well here, as the footing is treaterous and often quite slippery. Although I have a best time of around 44 mins and a best placing in the top 20, our best time in the club was run by young Manual Wiesberger last year in 43:11 where he got the fith place.
This year Christian W, Markus K, Frank DB, Wolfi K, Veronika W, Birgit E and Emma K took part for our club. Wart had a great run, finishing under 45 mins, a PB for him and a win in his class. The rest had good runs, most meeting their goals, except maybe Wolfi, who was looking for a better time (there is always next year).I hope to be fit enough to run this race next year!
R.
Finally....
Well I finally got started. Ran on Saturday a small round of 5 km in 32 minutes - felt absolutely rubbish, and then ran the same loop yesterday in 32 min but felt much better. Today I'll try an extended loop :)
Christine and I have been thinking about what we want to do for the rest of the summer. First is the Ried 10 km on Saturday (www.rieder-stadtlauf.at) which I think I will jog, and then we have a few orienteering races in September and October. I feel that we may leave most of them out and just concentrate on getting fitter again :)
So until tomorrow,
Happy training,
Richard.
Christine and I have been thinking about what we want to do for the rest of the summer. First is the Ried 10 km on Saturday (www.rieder-stadtlauf.at) which I think I will jog, and then we have a few orienteering races in September and October. I feel that we may leave most of them out and just concentrate on getting fitter again :)
So until tomorrow,
Happy training,
Richard.
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Got to get back to it....
So...
I'm creating this blog to help me get my thoughts about sport out, and to get myself training again - enjoy reading it!
I'm creating this blog to help me get my thoughts about sport out, and to get myself training again - enjoy reading it!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)