Sporty Talk

Mrs Garmin and Robert Merl

2011-07-11T08:34:00.000+03:00

I was given a Garmin 305 as a present for my 40th birthday and to be honest it's one of the best running watches I've ever owned. It can't do what a Polar can do with regards to heart rate, but bearing in mind that it costs a third of the price (and that I'm no longer a performance athlete), and I think I can suffer that loss. A friend of mine also has one and he has started calling it "Mr Garmin". I'm more inclined to call it Mrs Garmin as it is a particularly fickle and more often than not a little inaccurate.

The first thing that bothers me is how long it takes to find the GPS position. Literally 5 minutes of standing in EXACTLY the same position and it will have found enough satellites for me to start running. If I start running during this process, then it never actually settles down and I don't get any files for this running. This means I often switch the watch on 10 to 15 minutes before I go running.

The second thing that gets me is that it only records in 2 dimensions. I mean WTF...... Why is it not possible to develop a software that does this all correctly. I understand that climb is not so important to the average Joe, but for a mountain runner or an orienteerer, climb is exceptionally important. Honestly, quite shabby for a top GPS to be fair.

And thirdly is this "auto pause" option which drives me to drink. I used to have it turned off, but then it measures the entire time you are out, which is often not actually your running time. Then I turned it on and it works more or less OK, but NOT if you are running hills (because it only measures in 2 dimensions). The "auto pause" function doesn't work on position (go figure) but rather on straight line speed. I have yet to discover what the speed is at which it starts recording, but it is definitely faster than I can manage at the moment uphill, so it is often stopping even though I am actually going uphill at the time.

Point in fact is yesterday’s small hike up the stoawandel. Although I took almost exactly the same route, the uphill was apparently 600m shorter than the downhill and took me (downhill slightly longer - time wise) than getting up the hill. Oh well. The missus in still in fact the best watch I have ever had, so I'll live with her fickleness a bit longer :)

And now to Mr. Merl. WOT a performance he has given over the last week. World Champion and Vice-World Champion - WOW. Well done Robi, keep it up! Next hurdle is the Elite World Champs!

A small injury....

2011-07-04T09:13:00.000+03:00

I'm always the one telling people to go slow when they start running again..... Ha Ha, I should have followed my own advice. The problme with starting to run with ambious people is that they always want to push push push and so you get a bit dragged into it. And so it was this time.....

I haven't written for a while but started to think about it a few weeks ago when I started running regularly again (i.e. more than once a week). My new job takes me to Zurich and we sort of got a small group growing where the 3 of us (Max, Tom and myself) run form the hotel in the evnings after work. The problem is that both of them are over achievers and always pushing that bit more, so I have to struggle to keep up. I noticed already the signs on Monday last week after the Salzburg sprints that I was doing to much and mostly too fast. Start slow I always say.....

Oh well, during an easy run on Saturday I slowly felt the rip coming on, and pretty much nothing could stop it. By the time I got home I was in agony and have been limping since then. I'll take a walk / jog to see how it is tonight....

Bummer, hopefully it's not too bad and I can get back to training soon again, otherwise I'll never catch Max and Tom......

Just a short word to the Salzburg sprint champs. My level of fitness is probably at the lowest it has been since I was ten. I'm a good 10 - 15 kilos too many and my resting heart rate is now over 60. But I still try to get out there occasionally. The sprint was in a great little town called Hallein, perfect for sprinting. The map is tricky and difficult to read at full speed and so it was on the first leg. I made 90 s mistake to one control on a course that took me 20 minutes and Robi 14. TTTOOOOOOOO much I would say. I was very disapointed that I forget my routine and calmness so quickly. My aim was then to settle down for the second run, which went perfectly well. No errors and a clean run...... I was still some 4 minutes behind Robi - our shooting star.

Oh well, no more orienteering until August I think, so I'll have some time to get back into shape.

Cheers for now,
Richard.

Salzburger X-country Champs

2008-12-03T13:08:00.004+02:00

Salzburg and Cross Country Championships - now there is a story. There is always something that adds spice to these annual championships and this year was no different. It all started way back in March when they were supposed to be held. After months of preparation the day of the champs dawned bright and beautiful - not! We had a massive storm move through our area and the champs were postponed.

Until November 22. And so it was that the day of the champs dawned bright and beautiful again - not! It was a typical Salzburg winter day - cold, snowy and windy. That did not, however, deter the 12 henndorf runners who made their way direction Eugendorf in the cold wintery conditions.

The track was worthy to be called a x-country loop, so much better than the normal dribble that gets served up around here during winter. It was a curvy loop with up and downhills over a soft field bottom, that wasn't yet frozen. Total length 1 km (maybe a bit short) and a height difference of 25 m per loop. The track was also very slippery and difficult under foot and so I knew our orienteerers would be perfectly suited to it.

The first race was the u16 where we had two runners taking part, Laurenz and Clements. The race started well and after the first loop Laurenz was 4th. By the end of the second loop he had moved into the lead, and won the LM title U16. Clements had a great "first time" run for the club as well and finished well up.

The second race was the juniors and the Men short, where yourstruely decided to take part. As most of you know I haven't been well for more than 2 years now and am still suffering some bone infection that the operations were not able to remove. This means I haven't trained since god knows when and am fairly unfit *putting it mildly*. Here we had the most entries, the field been lead by Felix "gogles" Breitschädel and lead by Richard "mad dog" Gathercole (me) from the back as well. Felix eventually finished in 3rd place, followed closely by Warti and Wolfi. I lead up the back markers.

In the junior race Mani finished 3rd and Luki was 4th underlying our strength in the junior classes. Which of course didn't end there. We only had one Lady running today (in the U18 champs) and she came away with the title, so well done also to Alexander Breitfellner!

That left just the main (long) race where we had 4 official entries and 2 unofficial ones *grin* Our best runner was Andreas "German import" Eberhardt who finished an excellent 5th place and proved that he is getting back into top shape again. Reini, Andi and Arthur challenged for positions in the middle of the field and generally had a great time.

Once it was all said and done, the general feeling was that we had fun and enjoyed ourselves. In some areas the results were not as planned, and in some they were substantially better. The racing at the next LM cross will certainly be interesting.

So enjoy the winter training,
Richard.

P.S: Results here!
P.S.S: Photo's here!

Humble Pie

2008-09-02T18:14:00.002+03:00

I been thinking about how to write this post for months, since last year November in fact, when I was in a angry and very disappointed state. I didn't however post the original blog entry I wrote (and saved) but rather waited and waited so that my anger would subside, and so it has, and I'm so glad I didn't post my original thoughts on the matter - sound cryptic to you - let me explain....

During late 2006 the Austrian orienteering committee approaced me and asked if I wanted to take over the post of Elite chief for the national team. I was a bit surprised and decided to take on the roll after various discussions with different people. Problem was that at the time the team and team management was in a complete and total shambles. There were a lot of different parties all blaming each other for various problems.

I was thrown in the deep end and struggled for months just to get to grips with the problems and bring harmony to the team, which I'm sorry to say I was really struggling to do. I battled on through this and did my best but I was definitely not having the easiest of times. Having said that I was slowly starting to make sense of the situation and was getting to grips with it.

There were a lot of undercurrent problems with the trainers, there were problems with the performance of some team members, there was a major budget issue and I was constantly being made aware by the orienteering public in Austria that they felt various team members should not be on the team (in particular the ladies). I took as much of it as possible in my stride and started to try and sort out the problems. We had an excellent meeting in late September where many of these issues where talked about at length.

And I had started to formulate a plan for 2008 (and to my shame) it was a hard plan. No more trainer from the Swiss, no more ladies in the team, a reduction of team members (only those that made the cut), a slimming down of the junior team. I had hoped that one of the trainers would stay and that I would be able to get a previous top trainer back onto staff. And this is the plan I started to go forward on....

And then in November it all changed. The committee elite decided to step down, leaving me with no support. And I was voted out of office and replaced by Richard Schuh. I was bitter and twisted, it wasn't fair, it wasn't right, not after all I had tried to do and so I planned to write a damming and hurtful blog post.

However, with hindsight I could not have been more incorrect. Richard turned out to be the perfect man for the job. He was able to hold the team together, and with the full support of the new committee he built an excellent training staff. They started the year full of motivation - all my original plans out the window (to be fair I never shared them with the new staff) - and moved forward with purpose.

And it really seems to be doing the job. The austrians were very good this year (including the ladies) and the improvement is there for all to see. The trainer team is working well together with all the involved parties (Junior team, Army, Youth team) and has gelled into a strong and well organised team.

So I must eat some humble pie. I have been impressed by the way Richard and his team have worked this year. It was a hard year and they have handled it well. Additionally they have believed in the ladies and brought in a top trainer, both for the men and the women. I could not have got it more wrong.

I admit that I could not have done a better job this year - well done Richard. I am impressed and wish the entire team (athletes and trainers) every success for the future.

FYI I have had many inquiries this year as to the reason why I steped down from the post, and I just wanted to clear the air and put my thoughts down on paper (so to speak). I am no longer bitter and twisted, and this is NOT the reason why I haven't been at orienteering events this year. This has more to do with the lack of condition (I'm fat) and the fact that I have two very small children. I have put the issue behind me now and look forward to the next few months of slowly getting back into training *grin*

Finally, a restart....

2008-09-02T18:01:00.002+03:00

Yes, I've actually managed to get myself out on the road after humming and harring about it for the last 6 months. I haven't been completely inactive, however I haven't training since middle of last year (due to health problems) and now I find I need to start again (due to health problems) - vicious circle.

So what is going on? Well, my weight has crossed the 80 kg line and I need to get it down, and I've been having heart rhythm problems over the last week. I need to get my weight back down to normal levels and get the old ticker working correctly again.

I'll be doing a bit of cycling as well but not as much running as previously (I just don't have the time anymore).

So stay tuned for more postings....

100m hobby racer

2008-06-10T12:36:00.003+03:00

Yes, hello - I've finally found the time to sit down and write something on my blog :) And you guessed it, it's a special occasion that is forcing me to do it!

Over the last weekend, the senior provincial championships were held on the track! As trainer (and used to be athlete) I always love going to watch athletics meetings, and it was no different this time. Friday produced perfect weather conditions for running and my athletes used the situation to their full ability. We had entered the 800m (Mani G) and the 5000m (Mani W, Wolfi and Warti) - also Ladies (Elisa and Vroni).

Mani G started the ball rolling with an excellent 2 min 16 s for the 800m (which won't set the world on fire, but for a first time EVER 800m it wasn't bad) - which also brought him 3rd place in the senior championships (he can still run u18). Alas (as you might have guessed) this was also the last place. This didn't dampen our spirits - no it just strengthened our resolve.

Along rolled the 5000m, and I was sure that Mani W would produce an excellent result. And so it was. Mani ran a good race for an in-experienced track athlete (his first ever 5000m) and started maybe a tad too fast. He was running under the top 3 until the first km, which they went through in 3:06 (a little too quick), and then things got progressively slower - 3 km in 9:45 and finishing with 16:32. These are still early days though, and I expect that this will get faster before the end of the season. Wolfi ran a very controlled race, rolling the 3:30's off perfectly and going through 3 km in 10:32. The 4th KM was a bit slow, but after overtaking some athletes and going on his own, he was able to do a blistering last KM and finished in 17:25s - also a nice PB for him. Warti had a bit of a shocker - due to his foot - and was disappointed with his run (and it was the only bad run over the entire weekend)!

In the ladies, it was left to Elisa and Vroni to hold up the Henndorf flag, which they did with style finishing 4th and 6th respectfully in their first ever track race, and hopefully not their last. Unfortunately Elisa missed the 5000m time she had to run by 1,2 s and so she was very disappointed, but the time was still OK, and she has enough time to reach her goal!

Saturday dawned bright and early and we had the first shock immediately. Warti was injured and could not run, which meant there was a person missing from the relay. 1st replacement Reini wasn't answering his phone, so it was left to me to pack my shoes and head for the track in what would be my first ever relay event. That is not where the afternoon started however.

First there was the 400m, which both Wolfi and Mani G were contesting. They finished 5th and 6th respectfully, both of them dipping under 60 s. Following this was, for me, the highlight of the racing weekend, the 1500m for men. Here Mani W was running and I was quite nervous as to how he would go (and so was he.....). The race started nice a slow (tactical - good) and Mani was able to keep up well with the bunch. At the bell things really started to happen, but Mani didn't lose contact with the first athletes. He moved up to third place on the back straight and started to challenge for 2nd place on the final straight. His superior strength saw the day through and he beat the 3rd place man by a whisker of a hair (0,07 hundreds of a second) for second place.

And then in a moment of stupidity, I let the boys talk me into running not only the 4 x 400m, but also the 4 x 100m relay. We had NO chance in the 4 x 100m as the US team are considered one of the best teams in Austria, but it would be fun. After getting tips on how to do a change over from one of the marshals, we were ready. Wolfi started and handed over to me. He arrived about 3 s after the US team had gone through and so I started my "very slow speed wobble" towards Mani G and in the process I passed the US team who had failed to make a correct changeover - ha ha ha ha - we were leading. Our changeovers went well and you guessed it - we were crowned provincial Relay champions in the 4 x 100m relay, in the scintillating time of 56s - and yes - we were the only qualified team!

In the 4 x 400m, there wasn't much difference, except this time the US team didn't drop the baton and so we were relegated to second place - still not bad. I ran the 3rd leg and pushed quite hard, hard enough that I knew the legs were completely sour by about 300m. I pushed on to the finish but my inexperience at changeovers showed and I over extended myself and fell to the track hurting my arm quite badly - however I was able to give Mani the baton and he brought our relay home.

So all in all, a great weekend, and one that will go down in the history for us, when 4 hobby orienteerers and long distance runners won the Salzburg championships in the premiere team sprint event - the 4 x 100m Relay! Cool!

Here are the results - when they get put up!

And here are some photo's - thank you Wolfgang!

The first steps

2007-12-09T21:13:00.000+02:00

to recovery have finally been made (I hope). I decided that I must try and start to run again before we head to South Africa so that I can ensure that I actually still can run :) Was running with Aisha on Saturday and Sunday just easy round the back of the golf course, but it was a real struggle....

I hope that the next few days will bring an improvement :) but tomorrow will be a rest day. However, for my boys, the next few weeks will be hard and long - I wish them well as I head off for a well earned and very relaxing 4 weeks in South Africa...

Anyway, have a good week all,
Richard.

My Venice Weekend...

2007-11-28T12:11:00.000+02:00

... was excellent. We had a great time and the race was very good for me.

As this is really the only race that I've actually concentrated on since the summer, I thought that I would write a few short comments here. Venice is definitely one of my favourite races, and I seem to be back year after year to give it a bash. I think, however, that we might give 2008 a skip this time as with two kids, one of them still very small, I'm not sure if we could manage it.

The race itself was good. I knew that my training would last for maybe 30 minutes of hardish running, and then I would be just trying to keep a good, stable walk-jog to the finish. I think that this type of racing has always been my favourite and I always look for a good result at Venice, so I did not want to disappoint again.

Many years ago (1997) when I first went to Venice I was given various "top" tips from runners who had run this race many times before. Since then I have developed my own strategies, which seem to work very well here, but one thing I never seem to be able to solve is the tourist problem. And this year was not different - so many people - so crowded - it was like ... well ... Salzburg at Christmas!

I had a mid morning start, so I knew there would be tourists, and I planned that in, and got off the main street as soon as possible on the way to 1. I was lucky, I had optimal route choices (no errors at all - even route choice) until 9 - 10, where I bumped intro a young Swiss guy and lost concentration for a second, and took the slightly longer route, so lost maybe 10 s here. Every thing continued going well, except my knees started to hurt, and my ankle was not feeling so good.

Approaching 16 I made a 3 / 4 s error, and leaving 16 I miss read the map, didn't see a bridge and ran round a block of buildings on the left, instead of the right. I guess it cost me 15 s. The last small mistake was the exit from 20, where I went north instead of south and this cost me maybe 10 s. So all in all a good, error free run. After about 14 / 15 my running abilities got less and less and I wasn't able to push anymore.

When I finished I was in 2nd place, and eventually finished in 12th place, which is great for the condition I'm in. The winning time was 65 minutes and I was less than 10 minutes behind. I made a total of 60 s mistakes, which I think is great, and pushed as hard as possible most of the way. There was no stopping and no uncertainty - a good race for me.

I ended up with a KM pace of about 5:35 min / km which is almost 40 seconds down on my KM pace from last year, and a full 2 min (and more) down on my best KM pace (when I was still running Elite), just showing how unfit I truly am at the moment. I'll be back - the question is when!

Maybe I'll see some of you in the next years in Venice! Here you can find the website!

Keep well,
Richard.

Quick Update.....

2007-11-28T11:55:00.000+02:00

Well, I had the operation last week, and unfortunately it did not go as well as the first one. The "anti pain" injections started to wear off after an hour, and so the last 20 minutes I could feel almost everything. And then the stitching.....aaararrrrgggggg!

Anyway, he had to give me another injection before I went home so at least the pain went away again and then lots of pain killers (3 a day for a week) have kept it mostly away. Unfortunately it appears that the infection has spread back into the left side of the jaw again, and so it's a good chance that I'll need a third operation pretty soon. Additionally, after the first operation I was pain free in a little less than 2 days, but after this one, 1 week later, the pain is still very present - this is not good! Another hospital visit on Friday.

And to top it all, I've picked up a cold (it's going around at the moment) so I'm feeling quite miserable at the moment. Anyway, I should be able to run by the weekend, albeit very slowly, and I'm chomping at the bit to get started again.....

Thanks to all you who sent good wishes and SMS's - it was really kind of you!
Later guys,
Richard.

P.S. In the future I think I'll post these sorts of post to our family blog :) Most of you know where it is!

it's been so long

2007-11-15T13:07:00.000+02:00

Yup, really it has, since I last posted something here. The lack of news has also mirrored my lack of training over summer, and this entire year has been a complete write off. However, I'm hoping that after next week, things will start to improve.

You might ask what happened, well let me summarise:
1) After a good winter, the performance was not what I expected!
2) Lots of tests (blood / physical / mental) didn't really help.
3) Doctor then discovered problem with teeth, Dentist said operate
4) It appears that my 4 false teeth were very badly handled when they were capped, and they have formed large infections within the bone in my upper jaw.
5) The first operation, that took 2 hours, was only able to remove the infection from the left side of the jaw, after which I needed to recover, and get the second side done.
6) That is happening on Tuesday.

This has meant that my summer has been one of NO training - why should it? No amount of training can help me here. So I basically stopped training, just occasionally running, and here and there the odd race.

It could also explain the reason why I get so very sick, when I get sick. A normal cold or fever can hang around for 4 to 6 weeks with me, infecting my sinuses, chest and throat. I hope that this will now be a thing of the past, and that I will feel generally better as well.

So there you have it! I'm confident that I will be able to start winter training in 1 or 2 weeks and am looking forward to a great winter. We already have a lot of snow (more snow this year so far than the entire of last winter) and I even managed a small jog with Frank yesterday.

Watch this space and keep coming back for more,
Richard.

A truely great session

2007-04-20T14:54:00.000+03:00

On Tuesday we had a really nice training session at the track by the Salzsachseen. The weather, as it has been, was fantastic and perfect for running and the group was really big. Warti, Frank, Markus, Robi, Norbert, Luki, Mani, Andi and me - 9 in total - split into 2 main groups. The fast ones consisting of Warti, Frank, Robi and Markus and the slow ones (the rest) and really only a "matter of opinion".

The session was 8 x 1000m with 2 minute breaks and boy did it go well. As Warti and his group sprinted into the distance, my group spearheaded by Andi and Norbert set about running about 3:45 min KM's and we were able to stick to our guns, running the first two in 3:48 and 3:47. At this stage Mani and Luki had a longer rest and Andi, Norbert and I pushed the pace to under 3:45 and ran the next KM in 3:43. Man it was going well. Norbert was looking like he was starting to feel it, but I was still going strong.

Mani and Luki joined us again and the pace was definitely increasing, with Mani taking the lead with Andi and running these two KM's in 3:41 and 3:38. At this stage Norbert was fading and Andi was looking a bit jaded. For 2 of the last 3 Markus joined us as well - the fast boys had spit him out the backend. The 6th KM looked like it was going to be a lonely one for me, but at the last second Norbert, Markus and Andi decided to run with and we were able to push out a 3:36, this time though Norbert fell a bit behind and this turned out to be his last km, and Markus was leading by a good 10 seconds.

I was looking good for two more and the boys (Mani and Luki) would be joining us. Andi decided not to run this one and so it was left to Markus to push the pace, and push it he did. Mani was able to keep up as well and we finished off with an excellent 3:32 km. But the pace was telling though - Richi was still feeling strong - the boys were fading, the men were standing *grin*! The last one was just down to Mani, Andi and myself, and right from the word go we were pushing hard. Andi took the first lap, but then I went past and started to accelerate. Christian joined me for the last 300m (thanks) and I was able to churn out a 3min 21 km - my best KM this year. Mani took a bit of strain but was still able to run very quickly. Andi just broke the 3:30 min barrier.

Truaely a great session, and immensely enjoyed by all - I hope we have more of these over the summer!

The one with the Sprinting...

2007-04-20T14:40:00.000+03:00

On Monday afternoon, we had a sprint practice and I really can't say anything more about this training. As a trainer I went into the map area to observe and make points on our elite runners. I found a really good spot where I could see controls 5, 18 and 19 and was able to identify a few basic sprint mistakes, and I'll just write them down here

In a sprint always go the shortest way, ie a STRAIGHT line. It's amazing how many people forget this rule. Always know before you get to a control the direction in which you will run away from the control, stopping to examine this point only wastes time. Always check your control number and control description - in a sprint it's a small area with many controls - so the area for mispunching is huge.

I had a nice run after everybody had left, however as I had already seen 4 or 5 controls it wasn't really fair. Additionally the sprint was REALLY easy so no thinking involved. The only problem was between control 5 and 8, because the control setter had already removed the controls 6 and 7 and so I had to chase her about 150 m in order to get to them, so additional distance, but I didn't actually go to the place where nr. 7 should have been.

Made up some good time at 20 by jumping over the wall - very few people did that, mostly they just ran round. 9 min 45 for 2.6 km was really OK I thought, at about 3:35 pace. I enjoyed it!

The one with the route choice...

2007-04-17T11:41:00.000+03:00

Well, back to Hungary and it's challenging tasks set for me. Monday dawned earlier and brighter than normal, as it was a working day for the masses in Eger and as our room had windows onto the road (I need to sleep with the windows open) we were rudely awoken by the sounds of traffic driving into Eger for work and school!

The training was again to be route choice and this time there were actually one or two routes choices. It was my plan to try one or two things out and my first goal was to get round with as little climb as possible - which worked to a degree, but the route choices were not always so good. And my second was to test out the thickets (as they were sending us through some).

S-1: Naja, climb to the first control :)
1-2: also good
2-3: dodging the thickets was OK
3-4: the long left (but flat) route - going straight would have been faster, but far more strenuous
4-5: Test of thicket (dark green) - took me 2 and a half minutes to do that 250m (downhill). An extremely interesting exercise as the green between 5 and 6 was completely the opposite - no problem to get through at all.
5-6: Did some extra climb, this route was substantially faster than the right or the left one, even though I was running through thicket.
6-7: No problem
7-8: Running on the steep hang was not possible, so I walked over on the contour. Map was not so good here either. Dropped a few meters and had to climb at the end.
8-9: My do or die NO Climb goal can to a standstill here. My idea to run over on the height had to be adjusted halfway thru the leg. However the approach to the control was good, and certainly better than going direct.
9-10: Here I made some silly mistakes. Lack of compass bearing to road cost me time as I thought I was on the main track, but it turned out to be only a side one. Then the map came into play. At mistake x6 the map was substantially inaccurate as although I took the right path, it was incorrectly drawn on the map. Bummer, this cost me 5 minutes, as I couldn't get through the private property. I can't blame it entirely on the map of course and if I had checked first before charging down the path, I would have noticed that the road had an additional bend on it not drawn on the map - this would have saved me much time, but there you go. As Thomas said to me afterwards, that's the way they do it in Hungary, so all in all a good lesson.
10-11: good
11-12: very good
12-13: Tried to stay on the height and climb at the end, but I should have climbed at x7 - this would have saved me heaps of time.
13-14: just a slog
14-F: jogging on the paths back to the car.

Ended up running 12,6 km with 630 climb in 116 minutes. The interesting part was that I only managed 140 climb until halfway through 8-9! Kerschi ended up with over 850 m I believe.

Lessons learned: Learn to ensure that you are where you think you are on the map (double checking). In Hungary there is going to be climb, even running to save climb I ended up with over 600 m so train those hills. Thickets are very differently mapped, so if it's really dark green, go around - not through!

The short long Austrian Champs

2007-04-16T12:54:00.000+03:00

So before I carry on with the analysis of Hungary, here is the newest up-to-date OL story from the house of the Eurogathers :)

On this weekend the Austrian Marathon OL Championships were held in Furstenfeld, and for the elite it was quite the mouth full, but I felt that for the H35 it was possibly just a little short (and also there was almost no climb). We were running on a 1:15000 map, a total of 15.4 km with 235 m climb and 15 controls. I was hoping for quite a good showing and for the most part it started well.

Looking at the start list I knew that a top 4 would be out of the question, and so my aim was to finish 5th, as close to the other 4 as possible. So with that in mind here is the control by control analysis:

s-1: good controlled start, was able to plan 7 - 8 (not really much of a route choice *smile*)
1-2: Staying on the roads, but I could have used the forest more - came round the bush the wrong way...
2-3: Small correction of route choice (xA) when I saw that thicket in front of me. In the thicket by the control I ran to what I thought was the clearing with a control, but it turned out to be a clearing (not on the map) with a plastic bag. Small correction and straight to the next clearing (on the map) where I had the control. I can't really even call this a mistake, although it cost me 1
minute.
3-4: Great
4-5: almost perfect
5-6: Again good
6-7: Route choice - should have just gone to the road!
7-8: I think my route choice was quite good. At mistake "xC" I should have just stayed on the road rather than cut off the corner. The other mistake "x2" was purely compass related - I didn't check the direction - but quickly corrected, and not really much time lost. I stopped to drink at the water, and this is where my problem occurred. As I left the drink control and jumped over the ditch towards 8, I must have landed funny on my feet and I ripped the skin of my foot (sole) from the actual bottom of my foot (this is not like a blister - there was no rubbing or blister water). It has happened to me before, but this was really very painful. So I have a 3 by 3 patch of skin over a largish 3 by 3 wound. I'm not really sure how to explain it, other to say that it hurts like hell. From here on until the finish I was really hampered.
8-9: Concentration (due to pain) was not high, and I misread a path / road junction and then ended up making my only "real" mistake of the race. This mistake cost me 4 minutes.
9-10: Felled area, was murder to run over and I almost gave it up here. Didn't see the control as I ran past and had to come back for it. Lost about 1 minute.
10-11: Limped but OK
11-12: was ok, getting over the gully to the west was hard. Couldn't see the same dam and so overran it slightly, came back for it.
12-13: Again, very painful to get past the small lake on the NW side. Otherwise no problem.
13-F: Limped jogged - no mistakes

I was really disappointed afterwards. I ended up running the last 5 or 6 controls with a heart rate under 160, so obviously I could have gone substantially faster. Still although I got my 5th place, I should have been 4th (as Much didn't actually start) so I missed my goal. On reflection, the mistake at 9 (and it was a mistake) cost me that so I can't be too disappointed. And that was the long. Christine was third in her race and so she was very happy.

The foot will heal quick (it always does) and I will even be able to run today (in normal running shoes) if it's not too bad this afternoon. More about Hungary to follow in the next days...

Check out the results here!

The one with Bindi...

2007-04-13T12:25:00.000+03:00

After a relaxing midday, it was back up onto the mountain for our second training of the day. For those of us with enough stamina it would be a 9 km run, similar to the run in the morning, but with a specific training in mind - route choice. I was forced to use my trail runners, as blisters on both feet prevented me from using my OL shoes. On reflection the main reason for these blisters was running in the hang, and so I will need to work on this in the future.

To be perfectly honest, here the organisers let us down badly, as for many of the controls there just was no route choice available and we were inventing routes to try it out. Perhaps this did help us define that no matter what we thought, it was invariably the one route choice that lead us correctly and quickly to the control. Every thing else should be left at training.

1. After a nice warm up to the start, the route choice to 1 was simple and in order to make it interesting Bindi decided to run low and come round the bottom of the rocks North of the control. This didn't work and he ended up running the same route as me - no difference here.

2. Here I stayed on the contour and Bindi ran over the top on the flatter part. It should have been a no contest, but Bindi was quicker due to my shoes having no purchase. Normally though, stay on the contour.

3. My BIG mistake. Bindi ran straight (normally the only choice) and I was going to run left on the road. Firstly, a run in with deer threw my concentration a little, and then I made the silly error of misreading the map and interpreted a path as a road, thus running higher than planned. Additionally I then made a parallel error when I thought the area above the (nr) 16, was the area to the SW of it. To top it all, when I had discovered the error, instead of just turning around and running the intended route, I ran my mistake out and round the fence to control 3. No more comments here *sleepish grin*

4. We decided on more or less the same route and that threw us. I stayed low until I hit the last but one green (and here I must add to my defence that the map was not quite right - the green/white was badly mapped), saw the depression in green (which I mistakenly thought was the pit in white), thus believing that I was more or less at the correct height and ran over on the contour. Bindi thought that I was more or less correct and he ran after me, and past. I was able to relocate on the open area / steep dip combo and ran back to the control. Bindi did not have so much luck, and spent another 2 minutes looking for the control.

5. With a struggle we figured out two route choices here, one over the top, one round the hill right. Bindi got the correct one, and I the one that was normally not a choice. Added to this was the fact that the map was not great in this area, and that they had set the control on the wrong charcoal burning site, meant I was a lot longer looking for the control than Bindi and only found it when I saw him standing high above me.

6. Again we struggled to find two viable routes and eventually decided on straight line (me) and right over the road (Bindi). Straight line is normally faster and if it wasn't for the fact that I'm so slow on the hills at the moment, so it would have been this time. I was barely able to keep up with Karin and Thea. One lesson learned though, running at an angle over a hang can be very quick and you can make some HM easily in Hungary, especially when the ground is so stony.

7. Here we couldn't find an option and ran together to the control.

I ran back then over the road and let Bindi run on for a few more controls at his own pace. My pace is so slow. Aisha and I came upon a deer, and although she was not on the lead she behaved impeccably and didn't even think about chasing it. She was just as buggered as I was.

All in all a good training with many high meters and a few lessons learned. A quick word to the map. Generally speaking it was not bad in the scale 1:15000, but there were some areas that caused us both a few problems and certainly they were not of EYOC standard. I am sure that the maps will be better for these competitions although Thomas Krejci mentioned that this is normal standard in Hungary.

The one with the blisters...

2007-04-12T17:30:00.000+03:00

Sunday morning dawned bright and early. Every thing was going well, all the kids had taken to Aisha, my headache was gone :) I still had blisters however. I taped myself up nicely before breakfast to protect my ankles as I knew that in Hungary the ground is very stony, and it would be no different today.

The planned training was a 9 km race which formed part of the Eger cup. I was planning on taking it easy. On arriving we were hit by the fairly cool temps and so it was quickly into our kit and off to the start. Once there (and I was the first) it was off immediately and here I picked up on an error that occurred fairly often while in Hungary. I wasn't concentrated enough when I left and as a result made a mistake straight away to the first control. Bugger. Here the rest of the analysis:

S-1: lack of concentration leading to incorrect route choice and I was unsure where I was.
2-3: Could have stayed on the road longer.
7-8: Dropped to much and had to come back up to control
8-9: Control circle problems - no real attackpoint
11-12: drifted right on a bearing
12-13: Incorrect route choice - round the hill right and path was substantially faster
14-15: Map a bit dicey, but mainly lack of concentration close to control
15-16: My blister have blisters - no concentration and tired. Bearing from road was not accurate enough and wasn't able to reallocate. Wandered, no purpose.
16-17: After the mine, followed two others on a different course and drifted off my own bearing.

I took 2 things away with me, one was that the ground was going to be difficult to run over and the other was that sometimes the map needs some interpretation on it's own.

Lunch was had down in a small valley and was really good, and the rest of the mid morning, early afternoon we just relaxed and got ready for the second training.

Oh yes, and did I mention that my blisters had blisters?

The one with the Headache...

2007-04-12T16:37:00.000+03:00

Well, I have just returned from an extended stay in Hungary and I wanted to put down some fingers to keyboard and hold my memories fresh. This will be the area for the EYOC 07 and the WOC 09 and so it was really good preparation for those two events. I will put my maps and thoughts here, feel free to comment!

As I am the Austrian Team Manager, I got to go on this training camp as a official (the one with the money) and obviously I was able to do some of the trainings as well. I left Henndorf (with Aisha) at 6 am on Saturday morning the 31st of March with the intention of meeting some team members in Vienna at 8:30. Perfect planning saw me arrive at exactly 8:30 and once we had stopped for some medicine and "padkos" we were on our way. Getting over the border was no problem and one small traffic problem was all the hold up we had until we got to our accommodation - which we couldn't find due to having the incorrect address.

I arrived fairly buggered, 8 hrs in the bus is hard work, and very dehydrated and this caused the usual heavy headache - but I struggled through. The afternoon training was on a map not too far from our accommodation, but the quality of the map wasn't so good. I didn't have any problems, except between 10 and 11 where the map was not clear anyway, and various gully's were missing and so I was looking in the wrong one. I took it fairly easy and enjoyed the run where I could (headache) - however young Aisha had a great time.

I was happy - this was looking like it was going to be a good week. My only concern were the high meters, and a few blisters picked up while running in OL shoes that haven't been used all winter!

The evening saw us try out our local "restaurant" and I must admit they were good through out our stay in Hungary. Generally speaking the food was good albeit heavy - far too much meat was on offer (every meal incl. breakfast) but we were well catered for, only vegetarians need to worry about Hungary.

As usual you can find my training here on Attackpoint!

Cross / Orienteering combined

2007-03-12T12:22:00.000+02:00

Anyway, after way ums and ahs over the last months, they finally (they being the SLV trainer) convinced me to organise a training cross country here in Henndorf. I agreed and then was hoping that I would be able to combine the SC with the cross country. However, the guys organising the SC said they wouldn't do it, so in the end I agreed to organise this as well.

My organising team did a wonderful job in the end, the cross country course was fantastic and the orienteering was just right for the start in the new season. The XC course was set on a large field, with some small uphills and downhills, lots of direction changes, a bit of forest and of course lots of fast flat on the fields. Although not a lot of people turned up (we were 11 in the senior cat) all that run really seemed to enjoy it.

I had a really OK run, considering that I was extremely busy and tired the entire week before that. I started out at about 8:30 a lap, and was able to more or less keep that constant, with my last lap (out of 4) being the fastest lap. I was happy.

The orienteering also went off without hitches. I started everybody (Christine just ahead of me) and when the last person had run, I ran myself. Christian had set the course and put out the controls so I was free to do this. It was really nice and simple and I was able to run at a good speed without any mistakes (except 10 - 11 where I decided to miss the climb - but this was incorrect). I was surprized that after 8 km and major XC that I was still able to go so well during the OL. Won my class, but was 4th in total behind Felix, Norbert and Robert. (Winning my class is not so hard :) )

And that was the last weekend. Unfortunately since then I have been ill, and was not able to train the later half of last week, but I will head out for a little jog this afternoon to see how my body has recovered!

I wish you all well!

New records all round...

2007-03-12T11:48:00.000+02:00

During Jan / Feb, I was doing some good running and I past another milestone or two in this time. First major milestone to fall was the 122 km week Nr. 6! As far as I can tell this is my official longest week in Austria since moving here in 1997. I have had 2 longer weeks, but both were coupled with Training Camps that were not in Austria (Hungary / Finland).

Additionally I hit the all time longest (on my feet) run for time and height that I have ever done - even my 5 or 6 marathons were never that long, and the height - well - the height (or climb) was just stupid. Christian and I decided to run with the Youth National team on their Sunday morning long run, and then run back to home from where they were - only problem was that they were first running up the Gaisberg, and then to get home we had to run another 20 km.

I have never run up the Gaisberg in total so I thought this would be a great run - and it was! I suffered for the entire following week. We started at 9:30 at the foot of the Gaisberg, and ran up (6,5 km 850 hm) in about 50 minutes. We then had a short tea / biscuit break and started on the way down, but we couldn't find the path, so we decided to just to ... well ... run down the side of the mountain. At gradients of up to 60 degrees, this proved much harder than expected, and both Christian and I hit the level (1,2 km / -600m) about 35 minutes later (that's around 30 minutes a KM).

After this we crossed the valley - took a second stop for refreshments - and started up the Dachsteinblick. Once on the top (another 350 m climb) we followed the ridge track to the hotel "Dachsteinblick" (another stop), took a bearing on Leo and Gitte's house, and ran directly over the fields to them. Man, I have rarely been so buggered - very few Dion / Richard runs got me to this destroyed, but there have been one or two (Swellendam Trail comes to mind).

So all in all, 3hrs 30 minutes on my feet, 28,5 km distance and a massive 1250 m climb! Not bad for a Sunday.

As I said the legs suffered immensely on the following days, due of course to the murderous downhill! I hope that I have learnt a lesson from this - next time use the road - 5 km longer, but easier on the legs, which currently feel like steel.

Here are a few pictures from the long run a few weekends before, which was also a monster. We started off from home and ran the Kolli / 3 peaks extension run. 3 hrs, 26 km and 815 m climb. Markus and Felix ran with me most of the way, and Christian and Mani did a shorter run over the Cross back home!

It was a really great run!

Wow - major long time - no post

2007-03-12T11:47:00.000+02:00

Sorry guys,

Have been busy, and with training - just no time to find the time to take the time to post a comment :) But I'll do a few now...

Enjoy!

Another record week!

2007-01-29T13:36:00.000+02:00

Well, I am surprized, especially after yesterdays failure (I was aiming for 30 plus kms and only ended up with 23), but I still managed a record week. And this record week seems to be an all time Austria record week, as I cannot find any mention of a week more than 115 km or so in my logs - doesn't mean there wasn't - just means I can't find it!

Still no orienteering or racing until now this year, but I'll keep that preparation doing well and hope for the best when it eventually does come around :) This week will be a well deserved rest week with no hard training (except the coopers test on Saturday :) )

Some pics (taken with the phone) included from yetserdays run! 10 - 15 cm new snow on all the roads, more off the beaten track, so very physical run. 2hrs 40 for 23km plus 600 hm!

The most Brutal run of my life!

2007-01-27T22:56:00.000+02:00

Today was one of those runs, one of those "never done that before" runs. After months of mild warm winter, the reality of an Austrian Winter came back this week Tues and we have been having some snow and gale force storms around here, which of course is great for the coming Ski Jwoc, but rubbish for running.

Today took the cake though, blizzard going like crazy, snow falling horizontally, icy roads (and I mean reallllllly slippery), snow drifts! I've done some tough runs in my time (some of them with D, but many of them since I moved to Austria), but I'm sure this was the toughest I have ever done. I recon the wind chill factor took the temperature way under - 30 degrees. Adding layers and layers of clothes doesn't help either (2 hats, 3 shirts / jackets, 2 long tights), must have been 1 kg more than normal plus the added resistance of the extra layers.

Every ten steps or so was a slip, every third step was fired out backwards. Although I had APP for the entire run, I was still 40 s slower round the loop this week (Warti was 6 min slower), but the extra power certainly paid off as I was able to out sprint Warti at the end. Certainly running into the wind Aisha is not affected, so I was able to keep those heavy wind KM's around 4:45 to 5:00 - poor Warti died! I know I'm getting fitter and faster, so just shows what a difference the weather really can make to any running (if you compare it to last week).

Whew, not fun, but in the end great for the mind. If I can train in this weather, then I can train in anything :) Hope not to have many more runs like this in my life! Greetings from a cold, windy and snowy Austria (thank god some things have gone back to normal *grin* )

Record week!

2007-01-21T21:18:00.000+02:00

So, this week is gone past, as usual in it's normal rush. Just thought that I'd post a quick record here :) Since Hanna has been born I haven't really trained that much, but it is slowly improving at the moment, and I have reached a new post Hanna record of 110 km in this week - great for training towards that marathon that Dion's being talking about (but will NOT be jungfrau, anyway not this year!)

A quick check of the logbook puts the last week over 110 km in May 2003 - thats a long time ago :) Anyway, lets hope I don't get injured in the next weeks and that I have a good FEB and Mar and then I'm looking for that sub 2:48 marathon again before the end of the year! Keep training.

Online Training Logbook

12 minutes of hell

2007-01-12T01:00:00.000+02:00

We ran our first Coopers Test in 2007 last night, on a track without light in the pitch black of night. Luckily I had my headlamp with and so at least I could see my watch, but it got me thinking about the coopers tests I have done over the years.

My first coopers test (as I'm sure Dion will remember) was run around the rugby fields of Westerford on a windy, rainy day in about 10 cm of mud with bare feet. As far as I can remember my distance was around 2800m, but don't quote me - we didn't actually run on a track even. In those heady days of Norman Davies, the boys used to run first (and completely muddied the fields) before the girls started afterwards. The idea was that the boys would then help push the girls through to some good distances.

The most remarkable one was the one in which I ran my PB. It's funny how time changes things, and warps your memory but I had always thought that my PB was just over 4000m, in fact it's just under 4000m at 3949m (which is for me good anyway :) ) - checked my logbook from those times. This was run on the UCT grass track and we had a very special guest taking part, Simon Mugelstone, who ran close to 4400 m (at the time he was also the reigning European Junior 5000m track champion).

That was a funny old track, it was just over 440m long but it had character, all of my best ever track sessions were run on this track, and I have many fond memories. I have been over the log books (there are many holes in them) but I have counted a total of 35 coopers tests over the last 23 years (my first test was 1984)!

The strangest test I ever ran was on my own up in Johannesburg in 1992. It was shortly after the move, and I had still properly acclimatised. I knew there was a school nearby with a track so off I'd jogged to find it. I eventually found the school, but couldn't find the track and was almost ready to give it up when I met a school pupil who told me where to look. By this stage I had been running for almost 80 minutes. Once on the track I started my run immediately, but after only about 3 or 4 minutes my nose started to bleed. I pushed on regardless (in those days I was still a member of the polar bear club - tough, young and shirtless) and had some very strange comments and looks while I warmed down the 80 minutes back to my digs! I never repeated that exercise again :)

I have run coopers tests in the rain, snow, driving snow, driving rain, wind, strong wind and the funny thing is I don't remember the good days, just the bad ones. I will always associate a coopers test with bad weather I think!

And no matter what happens, I will always think of the coopers test as 12 minutes of hell!

See my clubs all time list here!

My online training log can be found here!

Silvesterlauf

2007-01-02T11:14:00.000+02:00

Well, what can I say about the 31st of December (besides the fact that it's my birthday)? Well the nice part is that I always can end the running year with a running race, which is good but generally means that I start the new year with a rest day. And so it was this year as well!

The annual silvesterlauf (New Years Run) is currently held in Seekirchen, very close to Henndorf on a short 5,8 km track. This was only the second time the race was held, but already this year they had well over 300 starters. The weather was fantastic, 10 degrees plus, sunshine and no snow or ice! (Is this December 31st?) The problem I have is that I run in the Veteran category, which is by far the strongest cat. of them all, so all I'm ever looking for is a good run.

This year I decided to run the first loop (of two) without Aisha and to pick her up at the start of the second loop. All went well at the start, except somebody kicked me in the head while I was turning on my foot pod - ow! Then after about 600m there was a sharp right, then sharp left immediately, and some poor women got knocked off her bike by some of the more die hard racers. And everybody just carried on running past.

Well I could not stand for that, so I stopped and helped her up, which was not easy as she wasn't the smallest lady, and her legs were tangled up in her bike. With the help of a marshall we were able to get her on her feet and back on her bike in no time at all - except of course if you are running a race - 90 s gone. So then I just carried on, running at a good speed but not full.

Saw a friend Gerhard Haider as well and then caught up with Birgit at around KM 2, picked up Aisha at KM 2,6 and then just carried on through until the finish - no more mishaps. KM times were 5:15, 4:02, 3:57, 3:59, 4:02 and 3:17 to finish up with 24,25 for the 5,8 km - last year I ran a low 22 min time, so quite a lot off the pace :)

Anyway, hope everybody else had a good end to 2006 and a great start to 2007!

P.S. Results can be found here!

P.S (two) Pictures can be found here!

Running the channels

2006-11-15T12:56:00.000+02:00

Well, the weekend has come and gone and we were in Venice for the annual Venice street OL. See our other blog for details about the weekend, this post is about the race!

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 Venice and I decided to go left to the first control, which turned out to be the right choice. Control 1 and 2 were good, during 3 I was able to plan all the way to 5. 3, 4 and 5 were perfect, but my exit from 5 on the way to 6 was incorrect. I missed a route choice, and must have run about 150 m extra, costing me about 30 - 40 secs. However, the route to 6 included a long straight and here I was able to plan the rest of the course.

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)!

Attack Point

2006-10-30T17:27:00.000+02:00

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...

Can of Worms

2006-10-10T12:57:00.000+03:00

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 öfol 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

2006-10-10T12:14:00.000+03:00

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.

I'm sick and tired of it!

2006-10-05T10:27:00.000+03:00

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!

Weekly babble

2006-09-28T23:23:00.001+03:00

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 :)

Congrats

2006-09-28T23:22:00.000+03:00

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!

Them thar those tirolian mountains

2006-09-22T00:04:00.000+03:00

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.

Hill Training and Marathon Running

2006-09-20T11:51:00.000+03:00

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.

New post-Hanna record

2006-09-14T11:02:00.000+03:00

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......

Running the hills

2006-09-13T10:04:00.000+03:00

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.

The Wallerseelauf

2006-09-11T19:58:00.000+03:00

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!

2 win weekend!

2006-09-05T11:39:00.000+03:00

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)

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

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!

Rieder City 10km

2006-08-27T12:44:00.000+03:00

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

Fuschlseelauf

2006-08-24T12:53:00.000+03:00

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....

2006-08-24T11:45:00.000+03:00

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.

Got to get back to it....

2006-08-16T10:07:00.000+03:00

So...

I'm creating this blog to help me get my thoughts about sport out, and to get myself training again - enjoy reading it!