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!
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
100m hobby racer
Sunday, December 09, 2007
The first steps
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.
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.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
My Venice Weekend...
... 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.
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.....
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!
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!
Thursday, November 15, 2007
it's been so long
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.
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.
Friday, April 20, 2007
A truely great session
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 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...
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!
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!
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
The one with the route choice...
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 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!
Monday, April 16, 2007
The short long Austrian Champs
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!
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!
Friday, April 13, 2007
The one with Bindi...
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.
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.
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