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 :)
Thursday, September 28, 2006
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!
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