Plans and goals 2014

November is always the month of the year where I try to plan my next season with no exception this year.

2013 was a good year for me, but of course I want more next year. And now I know more about the long way to achieve my goals. First of all, next spring I hope to try something I haven't done before, being a full-time athlete for a period. Together with the Danish Orienteering Federation and Team Denmark I try to find the economy to take time off from my studies, to be able to prepare better for European Champs and World Champs. I hope it will be possible, because I feel that this might be the way to take the last step up on the podium.
Another change from previous years is that in 2014 I will not focus on the long distance, but instead try to do well at the WOC-Sprint and the WOC-Sprint-Relay in Italy. My biggest goal for next year is the WOC-middle and the EOC-middle, and it is not possible to combine with the Long distance races in these championships. Besides that, I really want to see how good I can get at the Sprint-distance, because I have never trained the sprint seriously, but have still been able to perform at the highest level.

My goals for next year is to be at the podium (top 6) at the most important races, but of course I dream about a medal.

EOC Middle - top 6
EOC Relay - top 6
WOC Sprint - top 6
WOC Sprint-Relay - top 3
WOC Middle - top 6
WOC Relay - top 6

To achieve these goals I will focus on training well all year at my home in Århus. Last spring I travelled and competed too much and next spring I will be more careful about that. So I won't run all World Cup races, and especially avoid running tough long distance races

The plan for important competitions and longer training camps in 2014:

8-15/2 National Team Training Camp in Portugal
26/2-3/3 World Cup, Turkey
14-20/3 National Team Training Camp in Portugal
8-16/4 European Champs in Portugal
2-4/5 10mila, Sweden
9-11/5 National Team Training Camp Sweden
(20-24/5 Jukola-camp in Finland?)
26/5-2/6 National Team Training Camp in Italy
6-8/6 World Cup, Norway (only the Middle-distance)
10-12/6 World Cup, Finland
13-15/6 Jukola, Finland
1-13/7 World Champs, Italy
5-11/8 National Team Training Camp, Scotland
2-5/10 World Cup, Switzerland
9-17/10 National Team Training Camp, Scotland

Out of shape and Ass-syndrome?

But first, I will say some words about my training in 2013.

Monthly training:

As you can see on figure for each month, the training volume have been going more up and down during this season than earlier. Normally I'm training quite many hours every month during the winter, but since we had World Cup races on New Zealand in january, it would be stupid to travel so long, and then not try to be in good shape. So in december and january I trained less, but with more intensity. The spring training went ok, but since WOC I haven't been training very much, due to several things.

Distribution and intensity:

This season I trained 634 hours, which is a reduction of almost 100 hours compared to last year. But as you can see I actually ran more hours this season than before, and therefore trained less alternative training and strength-training. The intensity has been almost the same, but bigger percentage of total training has been high-intensity training. Last spring I had 1½ month without running, due to 2 fractures in my knee, and also lived in Oslo during the winter, where did a lot of xc-skiing. That explains why I could run more this season.

In kilometers I ran 4895 km this season compared to 5108 km in 2012.

Orienteering:

If you look at my hours of orienteering, I have been doing more orienteering than ever. That also explains why I have been running more hours, but fewer kilometers.

Summing up:

Overall I'm satisfied with my season 2013. The big goal of the year was WOC in Finland, and even though I struggled with injuries, sickness, sore muscles and fatigue (signs of overtraining?) the last weeks before and also during WOC, I was still able to perform well at the longdistance, finishing 8th. I was fighting for a medal for most of the races, but died on the last loop. I wonder what I would have been able to do, if the last preparation had been going well? After the longdistance there was nothing left in my body and mind, and it was impossible to perform well at the middle distance and relay.

I also ran every World Cup race in 2013, and have been doing stable performances all the way. Actually I have my best results in sprint this season, with 3rd spot in WC #4 in Norway and 6th spot in WC#2 in New Zealand. In the overall World Cup I ended 10th, which is the best I have done so far, and tells me that my general level is getting higher.

But the season has been veeeeery long, and I have been competing more than I have been used to. It is always difficult to train well, when you are competing a lot, and it's also tough for your body. I have been more sick than last year, and have also been struggling with my hip and pelvis all year. After WOC I was exhausted and needed rest, but I was still trying to train a little to stay in shape for the World Games. In the autumn the training went better, and I was also in good shape for Danish and Finnish Champs, but still I had pain around my pelvis.

Out of shape

So after the last World Cup races I have not been training very much and I have focused on resting and thinking of everything else than orienteering. I really needed some rest, and my body has been going into some kind of "sleeping-mode", because I have lost my shape faster than thinkable. I did a VO2max-test in the end of october, and it was one of the worst tests ever, sending my physical level back to when I was 17. Maybe it was just a bad day for testing, but also at Smålandskavlen, my running at last leg was extremely slow, loosing 9 minutes, without making any mistakes. But I'm not too worried, and I have now started training more seriously again, so hopefully it won't take to long before I'm back at my normal level.

Ass-syndrome?

I have also tried to find out what the real problem with my pelvis is, instead of just tight muscles, because no treatment have seemed to solve the problem during the season.

The physiotherapist now think that my problems is related to a bad activation of my M. Gluteus, when I'm extending my hip. Because it seems like my hamstrings are doing all the work, and in that way getting too tight, and also turning my pelvis, creating problems in the front of my pelvis as well. Maybe the problem started already last year when I over-streched my knee, got 2 fractures and almost torn apart my hamstrings from my lower leg. In my rehabilitation I did a lot of excercises for my hamstrings to get back the strength, and maybe they are now too strong, making some kind of disbalance around my pelvis.

So right now I'm doing a lot of excercises to activate my gluteus, and tighten up my ass, and hopefully it can make my problems go away. Time will show. But I have a good feeling about it, and it seems like it's helping, because the pain and tight muscles is not bad right now.

And now I also feel well recovered, and ready to start training for a new season!

TERÄ!

Finnish Champs this weekend was up and down for me. On saturday I fucked up the in the qualification to the middle, but in the relay yesterday, Vaajakosken Terä took the double, and I even managed to keep Gueorgiou behind me in the sprint.

Middle distance

Before the qualification race I was a bit unsecure of the level and how I should do my race. Everyone have been telling me the level is really high and you can't afford to make any mistakes if you want to be among the 8 best in one of the 6 heats. So I started out in full speed and tried to stay in control of my orienteering. But already to the 2.control i misread the contours and lost 30 seconds. And to 7th I I had a very bad direction and it took forever before I realised my mistake and also before I found the right control (1½ minute). Otherwise the race was ok, but only good enough for 14th spot in my heat, 1min50sec from the leader and 50 seconds from the final. Pretty high level I must say and hopefully I've learned something for next year...
In the final the Terä guys did well and we had 4 amongst the 10 best, and with Pasi taking a bronze medal. It was great to see him back on track.

Relay

I was very dissapointed with my qualification, also because I was "fighting" with Anders Nordberg to get the spot in Terä's 1.team for the relay (only 1 foreigner in a team): But he did well in the middle, so I was "only" selected for the last leg in our second team. A young and talented team, but could we really fight for medals?
The boys did a great job in the first 3 legs, and we were close to the lead most of the relay. Unfortunately Toni missed some minutes on the 3.leg, but could still send me out as number 3, 2½ minute behind our 1.team with Pasi on last leg, and 1½ minute behind MS Parma and Stepan Kodeda. I started out with Hiidenkiertäjät and Lauri Sild, and less than 1 minute before Kalevan Rasti and Thierry Gueorgiou.

I was running controlled in the beginning and did the job together with Lauri Sild, as we had the same forkings on the first 5 controls. On the way to 4.control I could hear someone coming from behind and Gueorgiou was already closing the gap. But to 6th control Sild had another forking and suddenly I was alone. I was running well in the middle part and didn't see the others, but didn't know if Gueorgiou was in front of me. Punching the 12th control, I could hear someone coming from the side and it was Kodeda. I was not finding the optimal routes to 13 and 14, but was getting a bigger gap to Kodeda. The last loop looked quite easy but with some tough uphills. To 16 and 17 I still had a comfortable gap to Kodeda, but to 18 I thought it would be wise to stay high on the hillside to avoid climbing. But the runnability was really bad in the hillside and I could see Kodeda going fast in the bottom of the hill and he was suddenly in front of me at 3.last control. On the way to last control, Kodeda was still in front of me, but he went a bit left and I was following a big track going straight through the green and thought that this would be my chance. I was pushing hard uphill to the last control, and could hear that I was in front. When I punched the last control I thought that my gap to Kodeda was big enough so I didn't have to sprint all I could, but when I looked over my shoulder to my surprise I suddenly saw Gueorgiou some meters behind me. FUCK...!

I gave all I had in the beginning of the sprint and it seemed like he was not getting closer, and I realised that this was possible. It was a great feeling crossing the finish line and to see the joy and happiness in my teammates and in the 1.team, who had won 1½ minute before. I'm glad I had the power in the end, because beating Kalevan Rasti (with 2 teams) is a very big thing to my finnish teammates and the people behind Vaajakosken Terä. And it is very promising for the future to see the high level in our club.

The terrain was really nice and the course was good and demanding with a lot of forkings (at control 1,2,3,5,6,7,10,11,13,14,19). But maybe a bit unfair to have a forking on 2.last control, so close to the finnish. I had the short one together with Kodeda, but Gueorgiou had a longer on (the rock)...

It was a good performance for me on the relay, and I even had the 2.best leg-time of all runners, which is good for the self-confidence. Now I heading back to Denmark, and will try to do a good last preparation before the World Cup Final i Switzerland in 2 weeks.

Danish Champion in Middle- and Longdistance!

In this blog I will update a bit on was has happened for me since WOC

The World Games

After WOC I was very tired in every way and tried to relax as good as possible, but still kept in mind that World Games would start 2½ weeks later. 

The trip to Colombia and The World Games was a great experience. The atmosphere in Cali and the support from the locals was amazing, and even though they are not used to organize events like that, things went smoothly most of the time... My shape was ok, but I had problems with jet-lag in the first sprint-race and couldn't perform as hoped. The middle distance was better, and I finished in 10th spot, after a ok race, but still with some stupid mistakes in the bamboo-jungle. The high-light of the week for the Danish Team, was surely the sprint-relay, as we had a strong team to fight for the medals. I was running 1st leg, and had the long forkings on the first 5 out of 6 possibilities, so I didn't see the leaders after the first control, even though I was running really well. Unfortunately I got a big bamboo-thorn through my shoe and into my big toe halfway through the race, and it was quite big (2cm), and impossible to get out, so I just had to live with the pain... Running on my heel and outer part og the foot wasn't very efficient, and I couldn't follow the group in the end. But the others did a good job and partly because of several mispunches, we came 2nd. A great end to the games.

Holiday and WOC 2014 trainingcamp

Coming back to Denmark, me and Ane went almost straight on a holiday to Rome and Naples in Southern Italy. It was nice to relax and be tourist, but we still had some nice runs (espacially on Mt. Vesuvius and  the Amalfi Coast). 

After 8 days of pizza, beaches and churces we went to Milan, and met the rest of the Danish Team on the way on WOC 2014 training camp in Asiago. I was good to get an impression of the terrains, even though I have been in almost all the embargoed areas and training maps with the National Team in 2006 and 2009 (except the sprint areas).

Danish Champs in Middle-distance

It is not often that you get the possibility to run in a new terrain and map in Denmark, but this year they got access to use Thorsø Bakker, south of Silkeborg. A great and quite hilly terrain, but also with some green areas, where you had to be careful. The map and course was good I think, maybe except the long leg, which didn't have much routechoice. I did a good technical performance and even though we got back from the training camp 14 hours before the race, I was still fast enough to win. 

Danish Champs in Relay and Longdistance

This weekend Klinteskoven on Møn was again ready for 1000 Danish orienteers to fight for honour and glory. The forest is quite unique in this part of Denmark and it is always a pleasure to run here. This time was no exception. Søllerød OK and O-63 had really done a great job with the map, courses and the arena, and I can't find anything to complain about, which not happens often :) 

In the relay, Faaborg OK's old stars Mikkel Lund and Christian Nielsen ran the 2 first legs and I ran the last. Pan Århus was too strong for us (with a comeback to a motivated and fast Søren Bobach), and I had a tough fight with Rune Olsen on the last leg. I took a better routechoice in the end and we got a silver medal.

The Longdistance was 14,9km. I did a very good race, and made only a few 5-10 seconds mistakes, and I also felt strong in my running. My performance was good enough for another goldmedal like last year, with Rasmus Djurhuus and Rune Olsen, 4 and 5 minutes behind. It's always difficult to say how good my race would have been compared to the best in the world, but when I looked at the course from EOC 2004 Longdistance in the same forest, I could see that my pace would just have been good enough for a goldmedal back then. And so would Emma Klingenbergs race in W21. Of course the courses were different, and the terrain has maybe changed a bit, but it's still good to know that my level is very high at the moment.

On thursday I will travel to Finland, to participate in the Finnish Champs in Middle and Relay. I have heard rumours about the qualification race, and that it is pretty difficult to make it to the final, with 320 runners in M21... But I will give it a try, or otherwise just save the energy for the relay on sunday where Vaajakosken Terä have several strong teams.

Game over

After the middle distance final yesterday, I had to make the hard decision to skip the WOC-relay, and give my body the rest it have been crying for since the Long-qualification on sunday.

This WOC has been different and more difficult, than I have tried before. As I said I was extremely tired 2 weeks before, and also got sick a week before WOC, and didn't train much during that period. 2 days before the longdistance qualification, I started to feel better, and I was optimistic about the races. The qualification went well, but during the race I was very tired, and afterwards my Quadriceps and Hamstrings got very sore. I couldn't walk down stairs on monday, and when I tried running, it was really painful.
Tuesday morning before the Longdistance final I had a morning run, the legs were better, but when I tried to run fast, my hamstrings were so painful, that I couldn't do it. Our physiotherapist showed some magic and during the warm-up I thought that maybe it would be okay.
Despite the difficult preparation, I was able to run my best longdistance race ever. I just thought that I would open hard and see if I could keep the pace all the way. The orienteering went well, and I was focused on what to do, and hardly made any mistakes. Passing the arena I realised that my race was really good, but I was starting to feel tired, and my hamstrings were not far from cramping. The last loop was looong, but I managed to stay in control of my orienteering, and it was just in the last uphill that my legs cramped. I did some bad routechoices in the end, but still finished in best time, and very happy about my performance. My race was good enough to 8th spot, and I was only 4,42min after the winner Thierry Guergiou. I guess I have never been closer to fulfil my dream about a WOC-medal! I was simply not strong enough in the end.

After the race it was difficult for me to walk, and both my Quadriceps and Hamstrings were wasted. On wedensday we had a rest day and, besides a lot of massage, I did some aqua-jogging to loosen up. On thursday it was time for middle-distance qualification. I was not ready at all for that, and I got totally lost on the way to 1st control, and lost almost 5 minutes. I tried to keep pushing and to tell myself that it was still possible to make the final, but I didn't really believe it. But when I got close to the finish I could hear people shouting for me, and I gave it all in the end, and was able to make the final in 15th spot in my heat...
The feeling during the race was mentally and physically awful, and even though my legs were a bit better, I was still difficult to warm-down, because of sore muscles.
Before the final yesterday I was actually feeling ok, and I was optimistic. But I quickly realised that my body was not working as normal. I did some small mistakes in the beginning, but otherwise it was a quite good technical race, and I'm satisfied with that. But of course I was hoping for more than 22nd spot, 5 minutes behind the winner.

Again it was painful to warm-down for my legs, and after the race I also had problems with my stomach. It was painful and I was a lot on the toilet during the afternoon and evening. And that was also the final thing, that made me decide that it would be stupid for me to try to run the relay today. My body has not been working normally during the last weeks, and now I really need to rest, to avoid something serious problems with my legs or my health. Of course it is not easy to abandon our team for the relay, but I have to be clever now before it's too late. And I'm sure that Andreas will do a good job instead of me in some hours.

Despite all the problems during WOC, I'm really happy that I was still able to perform my very best in the Longdistance final on tuesday, but there is no doubt it would have been better for my body to run the sprint.
Now it's time for some serious rest, if I should have a chance to be back on top in a little more than 2 weeks, when we fly to Colombia and the World Games.

First hurdle...

The long-distance qualification yesterday was a hot, tough and difficult one, but I did a good technical performance and qualified easily for the final as no. 9, 4 minutes behind.

The terrain was as I expected, with a lot of areas where the trees had been cut 5-10 years ago, and some old and fast forestparts. The different heigths of the trees in the earlier cut areas, made it quite dense some places, and it was not easy to see the vegetation changes from the map to the forest. Some places it could be ½-1 meter of height-difference from a yellow to a white area, and also seeing the changes from white to light green was difficult. I was accurate with my compass and didn't do any bigger mistakes, but some small ones, where I simply couldn't see the flag. I also lost ½ minute going right on the long leg to the 5th control, but after the first loop, where I thought the undergrowth to be higher than expected, I considered it to be a good option. But the last part was too long.

I'm very satisfied with my technical performance, but I must admit that my body was not feeling very good during the race, and I lost time all the way, but especially in the end. I haven't been training much the last two weeks due to illness and tiredness, and I think it was good for me to get a tough race, to get my body started again. I hope that I will be even stronger on tomorrows final-race. We will see.... I'm starting 14:25 local time.

But before the race tomorrow, I will watch the Danes kick some ass in the Sprint Final!

Ready?

The last 2 weeks haven't been going as planned, but now I'm in Vuokatti and ready to do as good as I can the next week. And I have been listening to the comments on my last blog, and of course or it will be longdistance, and not sprint for me :)

2 weeks ago my last preparations for WOC was to run the Finnish trials for WOC, with a very good start line-up. The middle-distance went ok. I did some mistakes on the first 3 controls and on the 2 last ones, but otherwise a decent perfomance, with tired legs. I was 11th, but almost 4 minutes behind.
On the long-distance race on sunday I started early with the Swedes, but after 20-25 minutes of racing, with a non-functioning body and mind, I found out that it would be suicide for me to continue. I was difficult for me to quit, because it was supposed to be my last race before WOC, but I'm happy I did.
Because I was really tired when I came home, and it lasted for several days, where I had no energy at all. It got better in the middle of the week and as planned, I did physical testing on wedensday and friday. The tests went well and besides some weird lactate-values, showed that my physical level overall is better than before. But on saturday I woke up with sore throat, and before coming to Finland I haven't been training much. I guess the WOC-trainingcamp after Jukola, was a bit harder for my body than expected, and it has been struggling to recover since then.
It's better now, I'm not feeling sick anymore, but I'm still coughing a bit. Today I did some parts of the long-model in competition speed, and the feeling was not too bad, and my body has actually been feeling better afterwards so I'm optimistic. At least my legs have been having plenty of rest the last couple of weeks, since I haven't been doing much else than lying on the couch, watching TdF and JWOC.

On sunday I will run the long-distance qualification, and on tuesday hopefully the final. The middle distance is on thursday and friday, and the relay saturday. The goals are as mentioned last year, to be amongst the 8 best on the long and middle. The training have been going better than ever this year, my WOC-preparations have been good, the terrain suits me well, and I'm very motivated. Let the games begin!

You can follow all competitions here

Last WOC-preparations

Since Jukola I have been living in Kajaani with my clubmate Toni Saari, and doing the last preparation before WOC. Tomorrow we will go southeast to Juuka and Joensuu where the Finns will have their test-races in really relevant terrain. The middledistance tomorrow and longdistance on sunday will be my last competitions before WOC, and therefore important races.

Jukola

I ran the 5th leg on a strong Terä-team. We had a good start with Antti on first leg, changing to Håvard in 3rd place. He lost Kalevan Rasti on a forking in the middle of the race, and after that we stayed 2-3 minutes behind with stable performances from Anders and Juha.
I ran out in 7th spot, 2min50sec after KR. I knew that most of our course would be in area where everyone else had been running, and there would be a lot of tracks. I tried to push really hard in the beginning, and also found a good rhytm in my orienteering. Before the first TV-control I had contact with the team who went out 1 minute in front of me, and it confirmed that I was doing well. I got a gap to the others climbing up the hill, but I hesitated a lot on the most difficult control in the slope, missed 30 seconds and the others caught me again. The rest of the way I did well, the group split up on the last forking and in the end I was only together with SNO, and we also caught Linné before the finish. In the last 15 minutes I had pain in my stomach (it doesn't like to run 3-4 AM), and my speed wasn't that high in the end. But still good enough to finish in 2nd spot, only 1 minute behind KR, and with the best split on my leg, with almost 1 minute.
Jani did a good race, and was getting closer to Hertner, but missed 1½ minute in the end, and finished in 3rd place. Jonne was running good and fast in the beginning, but made a big mistake going into the hilly area, and was caught by other teams, but still fighting for 3rd place. But unfortunately he had a really bad day and couldn't follow the others, and also made more mistakes. In the end he ran well again, but he was very dissapointed about only running in to 7th place, the same as last year.
It was a pretty tight relay this year, and you can't afford to have a bad day, if you want to win. KR did a impressive relay, running alone in front most of the way, and they deserved the victory again.

WOC-camp

After Jukola I drove with Toni to Kajaani, where he lives, and the rest of sunday and monday was easy days, with one middle-distance relevant training on Ansavaara and some corestability training.
On tueday I had two full-speeds trainings, a relay-training with the French national team, and a 10km long distance-training with the Norwegain national team. And yesterday I did a full-speed middle-distance training with the Norwegians and a long slow long-distance training. Quite tough program, but both technically and physically it is important for me know to do things in full-speed, because I have been in the terrains a lot of times. I can't say that I'm doing things perfectly, but many things are good, and hopefully the races tomorrow and sunday will give me the last feedback and some self-confidence in this terrain.

I have been selected to run with GPS, and you can follow the competition with tracking and live-results here
I start 16.18 tomorrow and 9.51 on sunday...

It has been cool to join some of the other national teams trainings, and that is one of the best things about orienteering, I think. Because in what other elite-sport would you let other runners take part in your trainings and last preparations before World Champs, when you know that it can help them to beat your own runners? I don't know yet if I will be able to beat the Norwegians and French in WOC, but I will give it a try :)

After the races this weekend, I will go back to Denmark, and rest well before WOC. Actually I also have to make an important decision, whether I want to run the Sprint or the Longdistance at WOC. I have been training all year to do well in the longdistance, but I also did some really good sprint-results in NORT, even though I haven't been focusing very much on sprint. And it is not that easy to say in which of the distances, I will have the best chance for a top-position. Any good suggestions?

And why do we have a WOC-program so tight, that it is suicide to do run all distances?

On my way to Finland...

I'm sitting in Århus Airport and waiting for my flight to Finland, and the last of 4 WOC training-camps in 6 weeks. On the way is also Jämsä-Jukola starting tomorrow night, which is really a highlight both for me and for Vaajakosken Terä.

This week hasn't really been as planned. I was totally exhausted after the last chasing start of NORT, and I wasn't surprised that I got a bit sick in the beginning of this week. But as always, my body know when enough is enough, and I think that the cold was actually good for me this time, because I'm now well recovered. I have also been busy preparing for an exam this morning, so even though it's not fun to be sick, I have had other things to do besides training. The sickness hasn't been serious, and yesterday I was already feeling much better, so I'm not nervous about running tomorrow night. The legs have been feeling good the last days when I have been jogging, and I'm really looking forward to race in Jukola, which is the main goal for Terä this year (as always...). The club have been close to the victory several times before, and they keep talking about that the team is stronger than ever this year. Our goal is top3, but we have the capacity to fight for the victory. I'm running the short 5th leg, and I'm hoping to send out the Lakanen-brothers in a good position. They are really hungry for Jukola (and WOC this year), and it gives me a lot of motivation to well, because I know what capacity they have in this kind of terrain and what shape they're in.
I was on a Jukola/WOC camp with Terä in the end of May, and the terrain near Jyväskylä and Jämsä is endeed tough and difficult (especially during the night). But luckily we have two strong norwegains in the night, and the terrain is also perfect for them. On first leg we "first-leg-specialist" Antti Anttonen, who lives 3-4km from the arena and in 4th we have Juha Sorvisto, who is in better shape than ever, and have always done solid relay-performances for Terä.

Let the fun begin :)

After Jukola, I will go to Vuokatti and stay there with a club-mate, and training with the Norwegian and French-national team. I will also go to Joensuu and run the Finnish test-races for WOC, which will be my last competitions and tests before WOC.

NORT #3-5. Up and down...

In todays final chasing start I climbed from 17 to 11 after a good race. But the startposition could have been better...

Stage #3

The 3rd stage of NORT was ok for me. I did a solid qualification and finished in 12th spot, with one big mistake of 10 seconds, and otherwise a clean race. In the semi-final, I ended up in a pretty tough heat with some of the very sprinters in the world. I tried to dominate the heat from the start, but I made a mistake in the butterfly and was suddenly in the end of the group out of the butterfly. I had a chance to advance to 10th control, where the group split of, but I misread the map, and lost even more time. I pushed all I had in the last part, and didn't lose any more time, but I was only no.6 in my heat. But our heat was clearly the fastest, and I had the 11th best time in the overall, which gave me some bonusseconds and world cup points. The three best in the final were all from my heat...

On wedensday we travelled to Turku in Finland, and I did another long orienteering session in the afternoon. Thursday was a quite easy day with some sightseeing in the sprint-embargo (!), modelevent and core-stability training.

Stage #4 - DSQ

Yesterday it was time for stage #4 with sprint qualification in the morning and sprintfinal in the afternoon. The qualification didn't go as planned. I had a good start, but on the long leg over the bridge, my mind collapsed, and I lost 15 seconds running up the stairs and then down again the same way... I was stressed after that, and didn't find a good flow the rest of the way, but it was still good enough to qualify in 12th spot. The legs felt good and I was optimistic before the final.

In the final I did a very good race. I can see afterwards that I took some slow routechoices a few places and lost some seconds, but it was quite tricky and everyone lost time somewhere. The feeling was really good during the race, I made fast route-decisions and executed the routechoices well. I started 1 minute behind Matthias Kyburz, and I saw him several places, and new that my race was good. In the end I got tired, and I was 1 second slower than him in the finish. It would have been a shared 2nd place, my best result so far, and only 1 second from the victory!
BUT... The organizers told me that I was disqualified because I had crossed a forbidden road. They told me that I had cut a corner on the roadpassage on the right routechoice to the 8th control, but I just laughed because I took the better left routechoice on that leg. Then they changed it to be the left roadpassage, and I had to go out and check it with the organizers. I didn't see the passage when I was running, but when I was standing there afterwards it was quite obvious, that I had cut a corner of about 5 meters. So it was difficult for me to argue that I shouldn't be disqualified.

When I came back I talked to the organizers and IOF controller, and I tried to make them understand, that their way of making a road passage was not good at all. There were to thin traffic cones on each side of the road and nothing else to mark where the passage was. The controller told me that the passages were for safety, so noone would get hit by a car, and there were guards there to keep the cars back. I told him that there were no guards on the road when I came, and he couldn't understand that. I also told him that I almost was hit by a car in another passage, where the guards had been standing in the side of the road and doing nothing. But he still kept saying that I was the one who had made a mistake. Fair enough...

What pisses me off, is what I heard after the race and in the evening. Two other runners (Tranchand and Kaas) had done the same as me and was also disqualified. But then I heard that other runners in the mens class (fx the runner starting behind me) was about to do the same as us, but then the guards had shown them where the passage was, so they didn't get disqualified. And then before the womens race they made the passage wider, and was also helping those runners who couldn't see where those traffic cones were. Emma Klingenberg (2nd in womens race) told me that see took one step out on the forbidden road, but was stopped by the guard, and showed back to the passage...
I would have cared less if my race hadn't been the best sprint-race of my life, but now it just difficult for me to accept! Why should they even make those forbidden roads in some places, when in other places the roads were free? As orienteers we are used to, that forbidden areas (walls, fences, gardens etc) can be see clearly, or otherwise marked with tape. Why didn't they just mark the passages with tape on the ground? And if you instruct guards to keep back cars and show runners passages, please instruct them to do the same to all runners, otherwise it's not fair!
I guess some of us just have to be disqualified sometimes, so organizers and IOF can get better. Hopefully they will learn something out of yesterdays race, and make it better next time, so we can have a fair competition...

NORT final - chasing start

The only positive thing from the sprint (besides my excellent performace) was that I could still run the chasing start today, but I didn't get any bonus seconds or world cup points.
Todays 12,3 chasing start was tough! It was hot and dry, and the terrain was cool, but quite hilly and soft ground. I started as 17th with runners starting almost every 10th second around me. I made a mistake to the first control (45 seconds) and was caught by other runners, but we ran well, and after the butterfly we were a group of 10 runners. The speed was high, and I was staying behind until 1st mapchange. On the second loop I was more dominating, and we caught runners in front of us. I had a chance to get away from the group before 2nd map-change, when they all ran far to the right, but I missed the control and they caught me again. On the last loop, I was really tired and were struggling to follow, and in the sprint finish, I was overmatched, but finished the race in 11th spot, 15 seconds behind the podium. Our group had been running fastest, and I had the 5th best time today.

Results and gps-tracking can be found here

Overall I'm satisfied with my performances here at NORT. Without my 3 minutes mistake at the middledistance in Norway, and with 90 bonusseconds from yesterdays race, I would have been starting as 3rd today. But you can't afford to make any mistakes in the mens class, if you want to be on top. But now I know, that I got what it takes to be amongst the best, when I'm doing thing carefully, and that is a good feeling.

Now I am really tired and will have some days rest before the last preparation for Jukola and WOC.
 

Almost out of the game...

NORT stage 2 was run yesterday as a middle distance, and I was really looking forward to the race, after my 3rd place in the sprint on saturday.

My body was feeling good again at the warm-up even though it was raining like hell. I did some bad direction out of start point and the 1st control and lost 10-15 seconds, but otherwise it was a good start. To the 5th, I was confused going into the control, and I hesitated a lot and lost even more (20-25 seconds). In the middle part of the course it was more tricky, but I did pretty well here (only minor mistakes and some bad routechoices) and at 14th control I was in 12th position, only 40 seconds behind the winner Carl Godager Kaas.

But I was not very concentrated down to 15th control and when I came down to the waterhole, I saw a flag on a hill, and I was sure it was mine. Normally I'm only checking the code if I'm unsure, but I wasn't really here, and I was already focused on taking the right routechoice on the next long leg. So i punched  it, ran down the hill, passed the marsh and got onto the big track just like planned (like I did it 2-3 minutes later). I pushed hard on the track but I couldn't understand why it was so long to the point where I wanted to go left. And suddenly I started to feel that something was wrong, when I saw the small track going left and I stopped and tried to figure out what I have done and where I had been running. It took a while before I accepted that maybe I had punched a wrong control. But there was nothing else to do, than to run back and climb the hill again, to check it. I was angry on myself, and it was the longest climb ever, but I'm glad I ran back, because I corrected my mispunch. I lost more than 2½ minute here. 

I have worked on accepting thoughts and feelings like those I got out in the forrest, running down the hill again, and not let those thoughts influence my performance. But I must say that it was extremely difficult in that situation, and I didn't really manage to get the right focus back, and on the rest of the course I did a lot of small mistakes, and almost gave up in the end. The only thing that kept me going was the fact that the race was a part of a tour, and every second counts in the overall. So I finished the race, but ended up as no. 42, more than 4 minutes behind. But not out of the game, and that is the most important, even though I'm now pretty far behind in the overall as no.23.

Anyway running in the rocky and steep terrain felt better than for a long time, and even though the first 25 minutes of my race (before my big mistake) wasn't without small mistakes, I still wasn't far behind and within reach of the podium again. So still some positive things to take with me towards WOC-middle.

Now we are in Sweden, living in Arlandastad. Today Marius, Ida and me drove to Uppsala and collected some maps of the famous terrain "Lunsen" from Albin Ridefelt. I had never been there, but the map looked really nice with a lot of small hills and marshes between, and it surely was. We ran 2 hours longdistance training on a map only with contours, and it was maybe on the most difficult courses I have ever tried. You could get lost running 50-100 meters without map contact, and it could take you forever to relocate again. Already to the first control Marius fucked up and was crying for help :) I was running very slowly, but good, and was just enjoying the terrain.

Tomorrow it is time for the famous knock-out sprint in Sigtuna. Last year I knock-outet myself already in the start of the semifinal. This year I will try to knock-out the others instead :)

Good start at NORT

As I was asked to write something on my World of O runners profile, I tried to look back at my previous results. I summerized that I, during the last 7 years as a senior-runner (2006-2013), have been placed as no. 15,14,13,12,10,9,8,7,6,5,4 in international competitions (World Champs, European Champs and World Cup races). 

I don't know if it was a coincedence, but I guees it was just time for me to take the next step today. Even though NORT is not a big goal for me this year, because it is placed only 5-6 weeks before WOC, in an important training period, I always try to do my best when I'm racing. The training has been going well after 10mila, and I have also started to feel some speed and power in my legs the last week after coming back from a Jukola-camp in Finland. I have trained a little less this week, and apparently it has been enough to recover well before NORT. I have enjoyed coming back to Oslo to orienteer after moving to Denmark last summer, and I got the good feeling again last night when we went for a modelevent in the beautiful and challenging terrain of northern Oslo.
The first stage of NORT was a sprint today. My body felt good during the warm-up and I was focused and ready at the start. The race went pretty well. Daniel Hubmann started 1 minute ahead of me and I saw him several times during the race, and could see that I was doing well. I tried to save a little energy in the tough leg to 3rd control, and pushed the speed in the easy parts (downhill). In the end I hesitated a bit some places and took a bad routechoice to 15th control, but otherwise it went well. I was tired in the end, and lost 9 seconds to the winner Matthias Kyburz on the last 3 legs just running slower. But it was enough to get my best result ever as I was 3rd, and not more than 20 seconds behind Kyburz.

Results here
GPS-tracking here

I was a bit surprised about the good result, but it is very nice to see that my shape is good even though I have been trained hard all of may. My goal for the overall NORT is TOP10, and before coming here, I thought it to be a little optimistic, due to the setup, with a lot of sprint-orienteering. But after todays race I feel it very realistic. Tomorrows middle-distance is the most important competition for me during NORT, as a good preparation before WOC-middle, and I'm looking forward to the race.

During the next week of competitions I also need to keep on training for WOC, so I will be doing some long o-sessions in terrain on monday and wedensday. But when it's competition-day, I will give it all I can!

Training-mode...

Since 10mila I have been training hard, first in Vuokatti and Joensuu with the Danish National Team, and this week back in Denmark, with Danish test-races this weekend.

10mila

The antibiotics killed the infection in my leg in 3 days, and started running again on thursday before 10mila, and it was almost painless from the beginning. But the antibiotics killed my stomach instead and on saturday everything was just running through me... I was supposed to run the last leg for Vaajakosken Terä, but we had to change plans, so I got the shorter 9th leg instead. I was only able to eat very little the day before the race, and I had no energy in my body at all during the race. I actually did a quite good technical performance, but still lost more than 4 minutes to the fastest on the leg. We had a bad start of the relay, but did a good job from the 4th leg and the rest of the relay and ended up at a respectable 10th position. In Jukola we will be much better prepared and will aim for much more.

WOC training Camp

The Danish national team went directly from Stockholm to Helsinki and Vuokatti. I was able to eat some more during sunday and monday, without shitting it all out again, so I gained some strength again and was able to train hard and good from tuesday. Luckily there was almost no snow, and we had a lot of high-quality trainings until saturday. We had training-competitions on the three individual distances, and even though Marius was better than me on the middle and long distance, I am satisfied with my performances, and I start to feel better in the WOC-terrain. It was a really tough camp, but I only had one day of easy training before continuing the hard period of training.

Danish test-races

Even though we had test-races this weekend, I have trained a lot last week. May is a very important training month for me to be able to be at my best in WOC, and luckily my results the last years is good enough to get me into the team without winning the test-races. I trained 14 hours in the 5 days before the races, and I felt tired on most of the trainings, and have also had a tired body on the races this weekend.

On saturday we had a sprintrace in northwestern part of Hillerød on a new map. It was a great area for sprint, and I wasn't able to do a really good race. I made several small mistakes (5-10 seconds), and had a bad routechoice which costed me 15-20 seconds. I was still able to finish in 2nd spot, but 48 seconds behind Rasmus Thrane, who did a strong race. Results here

Yesterday it was middledistance in Grib Skov Nødebo. The course was tricky, with a lot of green areas of young forest, bad visibility, but good runnability. My performance was really good, one bigger direction mistake (20 seconds), and some small ones (2x5 seconds), but still a really good race. I finished in 3rd position, 36 seconds behind Marius Thrane Ødum and 17 seconds behind Søren Schwarz. The physical feeling wasn't that bad during the race, but the level amongst Danish male-orienteers is getting higher all the time, and it's not easy to win. Results here

Today we had a long distance race in the same terrain as yesterday, 17,7km. My race was again almost perfect, but I lost some crucial time going to much straight. I had a really tough and close fight with Marius, he was leading the most of the race (but not with more than 40-50 seconds), and I got really close in the end, but he beat me with 8 seconds. I was very tired during the most of the race, but still managed to keep a good pace, and do a great technical performance. Results here

Next up, is Finland and Jyväskylä, with a Jukola-camp (and some WOC-trainings) with Terä.

Infected!

This weekend I was in Tibro, Sweden, to run Silva League and get some good preparation for WOC Long-distance in Finland. But things didn't go as planned...

After the Ultralong I was of course pretty tired, and my legs were sore after doing some strength-training on tuesday. But I ran a long easy training on wedensday, which felt better, and on the O-intervals on thursday, my legs felt okay, and responded well to the hard training.

I travelled with Signe, Ida, Emma and Rasmus to Göteborg on friday and stayed the night at my older brothers place. After a morning run saturday, I travelled with Marius and Søren to Tibro with a good feeling in my body and looking forward to the long-distance race with a really good start line-up.

Overall I'm satisfied with my race. The terrain was tougher than I expected, with some soft marshes and a lot of short steep climbs, and not that good visibility and runnability as I thought. I was running ok in the beginning, but didn't execute my routechoices on the long legs very well. In the first butterfly-loop Marius caught me, and I realised that I maybe was taking it a bit too easy. I did well technically efter the butterfly and the speed didn't feel too bad either, but on 4th- and 3rd-last control I wasn't careful enough with my mapreading, and made some stupid mistakes (2 minutes in total).

Afterwards I was a bit surprised that I finished 12 minutes behind, as no. 37, because it was a pretty solid race I did, and physically it was almost better than expected. 

But I can see on the splits and GPS, that I have lost more time than expected. I didn't understand runnability of the marshes and ran through some really wet and slow marshes, and avoided them, when they turned out to be quite fast. And I also lost some time taking the right routechoice to the 5th control even though I considered it to be faster. 

The split also showed that the running technique in terrain, with rocks, blueberry and cutten/fallen trees on the ground needs some more practise, because I loose more time than usual just running through the terrain. And the generel fitness is better than last year...

Luckily I will have plenty of opportunities to remember how to run in Nordic terrain the next couple of months, where I will be going a lot to Finland before WOC. Usually I just need some weeks of orienteering to adapt to the new environments, because I have been living for so long in Oslo.

I also find it interesting to see the result list, because a lot of good runners is also unusually far behind (fx the Swiss runners). For me it's clear that the early World Cup round in New Zealand has changed the trainingplans for many runners this year, myself included. I don't think that these competitions show the true picture of what will happen in Finland in july, because people are at different stages in their training. 

And the training has been going pretty well lately, so I'm not worried about the results on saturday, and I'm happy that I'm improving techically on the long distance. And even though my body felt good, the Ultralong 6 days earlier might still have affected my physical performance...

But....

All good things come to an end, and it happened to me too this weekend. Because after the race the front of my right shin was quite swollen. I remembered that I ran into a stick to the 5th control, and even though it seemed harmless, a had felt a little pain during the rest of the race. It was just a small wound, and I couldn't see anything inside it, but I used some compression the rest of the day to minimize the swelling. But in the morning the skin was red and painful in the area marked on the picture, and it didn't feel good at all. I contacted the medical staff at the arena, and they told me that I had some kind of skin-infection, and I would take a big risk if I ran, because the infection could spread. Then it was an easy decision just to watch the race on sunday. So the gave me some antibiotics, and told me to see my doctor immediatly the next day when I came back to Denmark. 

It got a little worse during the travel back, but this morning it wasn't as red anymore, but still sore and painful.

Today I have been to my own doctor and both Team Danmarks doctor and physiotherapist. I was worried that there could be some kind of stick/thorn deep inside the muscle, causing the pain, but they can't see anything else than swelling and inflammation, so hopefully the antibiotics will kill the bacteria quickly. I was told not to do any training until they can see me again on wedensday, and if it goes as planned, I can start running again wedensday. 

So I cross my fingers that it will get better quickly, because I really want to run 10mila for Vaajakosken Terä, and be able to train a lot on the WOC training camp in Finland afterwards. And if 3 days without training will be the only break from training this spring (compared to 2 fractures in my knee last year and a bone-bruise in the same knee two year ago), I can live with it!

Danish Championships in Sprint and Ultralong

Last weekend I managed to defend my sprint-title in Nordby's small streets, and not to break my leg on the Ultralong like I did last year, but not good enough performance to win.

The sprint looked quite simple on the map, because it was only streets and private buidings/gardens, and the routechoices didn´t appear to differ much. But out there, it was pretty difficult to spot the small streets and alleys, and you had to be really careful, not to loose contact with the map at any time. 

I started out a bit careful, to get a good feeling with the map and terrain. I missed the street on the left routechoice with some seconds, but I didn't realize that it was more than 5 seconds faster going right (I lost 10 seconds to the best split). On the way to the 5th, I couldn't decide what to do, and lost again 7-8 seconds. On the map-change I was 25 seconds behind Rasmus Thrane, and 8-9 seconds behind Claus Bloch and Rune Olsen. But on the last part of the race I ran well, and had good splits, and caught time on the leaders. On the 19th control, I was in 3rd spot, 3 seconds behind, and all 4 runners within 5 seconds. But Rasmus and Claus both missed the 20th control, and I could keep my lead ahead of Rune, and won by 3 seconds. 

Results here

On sunday it was time for Ultralong in Fanø Klitplantage, one of the best and toughest terrains in Denmark. The sanddunes are quite big and either sandy or covered in small bushes, and the green forest is really tricky to navigate and run through. The course was 22,6 km.

I didn't really do well. I made several small mistakes, and especially going back to the forest after the southern part of the course, didn't go well. In the end, I got really tired and made some stupid mistakes on some of the last controls. Physically I didn't feel strong, and I found it really difficult to move my legs efficiently in the sanddunes. And I died pretty much after 2 hours running. But it was good training, and I didn't hurt myself. 

Marius ran a little faster than me and made less mistakes, so he deserved the victory. I was 3 minutes behind in 2nd spot. Results here

The courses and terrain were really good, and as always I enjoyed running on Fanø. It was a shame that the was no speaking, and that we didn't use GPS-tracking on the Ultralong on sunday.

I have been training quite hard, and now it's time for 2 weeks of easy training to be able to perform well in Silva League in Tibro next weekend and in 10mila in 2 weeks.

2nd in Danish Night Champs

Last night the Danish Night Champs were organized in Guldborgland near Viborg. I've never been in this terrain before, so I didn't really know what to expect, but the terrain lookes quite open and fast on the old map. But before the start, people talked about, that it would be quite dense vegetation, and challenging for night orienteering.

I have always found it difficult to estimate how far around you can go and still be faster or at least minimize the risk of making a mistake, without loosing time in night orienteering. I didn't even consider going around to the first control, but still lost 25 seconds. I tried to get a good start, but I was surprised by the dense vegetation to the 2nd control, and suddenly I got stuck in the middle of the leg, and had to run out to the track. After that I was more careful when I chose my routechoice, because the light green and even white forest could a lot in runnability and visibility. I did a quite good race until 9th control, but then we went into a area (10-15), which looked very tricky on the map. I managed to avoid big mistakes on the first 4 controls in the area, but it was almost impossible to read and understand the way of maping the vegetation and keep the direction, because the white forest was not always very white... You had the feeling of being lucky every time you saw the next control, but my there was no more luck left for me on the way to 14th and 15th, and I missed 1min and 1½min here. I worked hard to accept the negative thoughts on the way to the next controls,  but also made some small mistakes on control 18 and 19. On the long legs I tried to push harder, but wasn't very good on keeping the direction, but still managed to do quite well until 26. I had some problems seeing the 26th control, and again to 27 I missed the control in the dark green with almost a minute, and lost the lead to Søren, which he kept the rest of the way and won by 29 seconds. He had the advantage of catching Rasmus Thrane to the 5th control, and I guess it was better to be two runners out there to keep up the speed, and to spot the controls in the dark.

But I am not really satisfied with my performance. Even though I was maybe one of them who lost less time in the tricky area, I didn't manage to gain control of my race after that, and made a lot of small mistakes in the 2nd part of the race. Physically it wasn't my best day either, and I felt quite tired during the race. But in a period of a lot of basic training, you can't expect to feel strong in every competition, so I don't worry to much about that. 

I don't know what I think about the terrain and the course, because normally I really like when it's tricky and you have to read and understand your map carefully to succeed. But in this tricky area during the night, I didn't think it was possible to navigate according to the map, and when you can't see long, it becomes a question of coincedences and luck. It might be ok to use in day-orienteering, when you can see and avoid the bushes and fallen trees... Otherwise it was a good course, and the terrain was surprisingly interesting. And by having the long easier legs in the end of the course it was still possible to make mistakes, because you were tired. 

Ny sponsoraftale med Løberen og Asics + Danish Spring

Last year the danish running shop, Løberen, helped me getting training-shoes and -clothes from Asics, and for the 2013-season, they have agreed to help me again.

I've always used Asics-shoes for training because they're the most comfortable for my feet, which is the most important about running shoes I think. I never tried Asics running-clothes before, but it has been a positive experience to use their clothes the last year. So I'm really happy that Løberen will continue to help me, and provide me with the best training-equipment for my training.
This year I will also help Løberen by testing especially some of the terrain-shoes Asics make. Last year I have been using Asics Gel Fujiattack, which has a good grip in the terrain, but is a bit high in the heel and heavy for my taste. Now I got a pair of Asics Gel-Fujiracer 2 (right in the picture), which is comparable to fx Inov8 Trailroc 245, but has a more solid sole, and more gentle to the feet, which is good for training, and some competitions in easy terrain.

As a supplement to Asics Gel-DS Trainer for running on tracks and roads, I have got the the classic Gel-DS Racer 9 (in the middle of the picture) for faster trainings. Unfortunately Asics don't make specific orienteering-shoes for running in rocky or slippery terrain, but I have got some ideal sprint-shoes for urban sprint and/or running competitions. They are called Asics Piranha SP 4 (to the left), and has a weight of only 120 grams! Almost just like a sock over a light sole, but still pretty comfortable, and a good grip on asphalt and dry grass.
I have also got some running clothes from their new collection, which is better than last year. I am really satisfied with especially their thights and t-shirts, but their new running-jackets are also comfortable and light.

Take a look at www.loberen.dk  to see what they can offer you. The service is always good, and they will help you get the right running-equipment for you.

Danish Spring

Last weekend I ran Danish Spring (Spring Cup). I was nervous about how my sore and tight front-thighs would react, but like at Nordjysk 2-dages I didn't feel much pain during the race, and it was actually a bit better after the race. Maybe I have just been to focused on any signs on pain when I have been training, that I haven't been relaxed when running. Anyway, a good competition, a map and a compass, can take away all worries, and I haven't felt the same soreness after saturday...
"The Chase" on saturday (which is actually a mass start), went well for me. I did a solid technical race, and because of the forkings I was able to get a gap to the rest out on the last loop, and only Nicolas Oskarsson, Lillomarka, had my back. I know him from Oslo as a fast runner, so I knew I had to do well to beat him. I had a little gap to him towards the end, but I missed the 3rd last control, and he was again right behind me. On the way down to the last control, he accelerated, and normally I would have tried to follow, but this time I wouldn't take any risks with my fragile legs going downhill, and he won the race 10sec in front of me. Anyway, it was a good performance for me, without taking out everything, and again like last weekend, the technical level was higher than before during 2013.

Results

Not many foreign runners visited Danish Spring this year, and it's a shame, because the competitions is high-quality and very good relay-preparation for the bigger relays. I guess it's difficult for danish organizers to compete with attractive terrains and warmer climate in southern Europe, which is very popular during the winter. But I still don't understand why not more Swedish clubs use fx Danish Spring, if they want to prepare in good time and well enough before 10mila, because the setup is optimal. Maybe that's why Norwegian and Finnish clubs have dominated 10mila and Jukola for many years now... :)

This week, the winter has really returned to Denmark, and 5-15cm of snow is lying everywhere. So I have been doing some fast running on treadmill, some longer slow running in the snow, but still some indoor cycling. My legs are getting better and hopefully I will be able to run 100% again on next weeks national training camp. The plan was actually to go to Tidaholm, Sweden, but since there is still a lot of snow in Sweden, we changed the plans to Czech Republic. Hopefully the spring will come soon, and the snow will be gone, when we come back after Easter.
But before going, I will maybe do Danish Champs in 10km on sunday in Århus, if they have managed to get the snow and ice away from the roads by then. Last year I did 31:29, but back then it was 15 degrees and a fast route in Copenhagen, and this year the route is not very flat. But I think my shape is better now, and I will try to make a new PR, if there's no snow and ice...

Nordjysk 2-dages

Last weekend I ran Nordjysk 2-dages in Vester Torup, the same terrain that was used for Military World Champs last year. I don't like to kill other people, so I couldn't run, but finally I got the chance to do some races on the new map in one of the best terrains in Denmark.

Nordjysk 2-dages is the traditional season opening in Denmark, and usually offers good terrains and good courses for the o-hungry Danes, Norwegians and Swedes. This year wasn't a disappointment, and even though the wintercold came back to Denmark the week before, it was still a pleasure. The terrain varies between pretty dense and very contour-detailed areas, with slow runnability, but still very demanding, and more open flat areas. The course-setters had chosen to use the detailed areas with a lot of controlpicking, and slow speed, so the 13,5km on saturday took some time.
I was very excited to see the new map, because the earlier editions haven't been really good... But the new map was very good (most of the places), and I enjoyed running through the forest and being able to navigate from detail to detail, and really understand the map-maker. So I was just enjoying the terrain and courses all the way, and had some of the best o-experiences for a long time.
And was also excited about how my legs would react to some competitions, but after an easy nighttraining on friday, my legs felt good and I didn't feel any problems with my calfs.

Saturday was the long-distance, and I tried to focus on my controlpicking and mental state during the course, and wasn't pushing maximum, especially not in the end. Anyway, it wasn't possible to run fast in the detailed areas, and we didn't have much running on big tracks. It was really challenging most of the way but I had a good flow and was just picking control after control. I made a huge mistake on 25th, were I lost it getting in to the control, and lost 2½ minut trying to relocate again, but otherwise I just did small mistakes. I finished in 1h37min, and it was enough for a clear victory, with more than 11min! The others must have done a lot of mistakes...

Results here

On sunday it was middledistance, and I wanted to run competition speed, to challenge myself in this terrain. I had a good start, but out from control no.3, I had some problems passing a norwegian man in the dense vegetation, and asked him if he could move. As I passed him, he got very angry and sprinted after me, shouting, and I was afraid he would attack me. I totally lost my focus, and missed the control a bit. When I found the right one, I read the wrong number on my description, and searched around for another minute, before realising my mistake (1min45sek in total). It was a tough mental fight on the next controls to get the right focus back, but I managed to do it, and was running a really good race the rest of the way, except for a bad route out from no.13. The terrain from 10 - the finish, was so much fun and it was possible to be very offensive and still be in control of the orienteering. I won 20 out of 26 splits, and was only out of top3 on 2 splits (3 and 13). The results gave me another victory, with more than 6 minutes this time!

Results here 

I didn't have any problems with my calfs, but after the weekend and training monday, my thighs (and especially M.Sartorius) were sore, and I had some pain on the inside of my knee. So once again I had to reduce my running this week, and have been doing some cycling and crosstraining instead. Unfortunately the muscle tension haven't decreased much during the last 3-4 days, and the physiotherapists have once again warned me about doing competitions this weekend, so I won't get injured.
Tomorrow it's time for Danish Spring, and once again I don't know if I will be able to run full speed in the chasing start. I'll decide tomorrow morning when I have had another day of easy training and rest. On sunday I will definitely just be running easy in the relay.
It's annoying that my muscles can't tolerate much running right now, but I just have to accept, that the marathon 3 weeks ago, is still not gone from my body, and that it will take some time to get back in normal training without risking anything...

Thy Trail Marathon

23rd of February I ran Thy Trail Marathon along the coastline of the northwestern part of Denmark (Thy), a race from Lodbjerg Fyr to Klitmøller on small tracks in the sanddunes, the coastal forests and on the beach. 

I entered the race in October to challenge myself, and because the date and terrain would suit well for my first marathon. Unfortunately I got a cold in the end of the camp in Portugal, and couldn't race all of the WRE Long-distance in Osso da Baleia, and I had some easy days after coming back to Denmark. I got better quickly and did an submaximal and VO2max-test on thursday before the race as a part of the scientific study we participated in Portugal. I did a good test, and had a very good submaximal test, with higher capacity than ever before, so that was very good. The VO2max-test didn't go as planned and I wasn't able to reach my maximum capacity.

Saturday it was time for Thy Trail Marathon (and ½-marathon for Ane), and we drove very early in the morning to Klitmøller packed with skis, because we were going to Norway and Sjusjøen afterwards to do some cross-country skiing. 

We were transported in busses south to the start at Lodbjerg Fyr. The weather was really good, some minus dergrees, sunny and almost no wind. The route followed the old "Redningsvej" ("Rescue-road") on the first half, but with some parts in the forest and on the beach. The last part was a lot on the beach, but with some  parts on sandy tracks. The route included 3-5 km on gravel roads, and 1 km on asphalt, the rest were small  sandy "singletracks" or on the beach. During the danish winter (and the rest of the year...) it can be quite wet, and we had to cross 3-4 new big lakes on the first 15km, but because of the cold, they were covered in extremely slippery ice. I was running in Inov8 X-talon, and crashed on the first lake on my back, so I was very careful when crossing ice the rest of the way. The ice was cracking and making some uncomfortable noice when crossing it, but I only break through one time...

I didn't know what to expect from the competition, so I just decided to run my own race and find a pace which was comfortable, and see if I could keep it all the way. I was running away from the others in the beginning, but after my crash after 3-4 km I needed some 100 meters to check if everything was okay. After that I was running in moderate speed (4 min/km) with René Rokkjær on the gravel roads and talking about orienteering, and we did the 2 biggest ice-passages together at 11-12 km. We had to do it very slowly not to slip, and it must have been fun to look at... I had some isotonic energy gels in my pocket, but there were also drink/food every 6-7 km and i tried to get some energy every 20-25min. Unfortunately the water and sportsdrinks were icecold and not very nice for your stomach, so I didn't drink very much during the race.

After the ice-passages we had some kilometers through Stenbjerg Plantage, and I really enjoyed the small tracks there, and got a gap to René after 15 km and decided not to look back the rest of the race. After 18 km we reached the beach for the first time and I was surprised, that the sand wasn't as soft as expected. I did the first ½-marathon in 1h22min, and my body and legs still felt good.

The beach was more soft and stony as we ran further north, and I started to feel tense in my muscles after 25km, but luckily we left the beach and had some more variated tracks the next 10km. The last 10km my thighs and calfes hurted, especially when going downhill, and I struggled to keep up the pace. At 37km we had to go through two short deep water-passages to the hip, and my legs didn't function probably after that, but luckily I didn't get any cramps. I missed the marking going out to the beach for the last time, and passed 2 big ice-passages before realising it, but didn't loose much time, I think. The last 2 km on the beach was extremely tough, because the beach was covered in small rocks, and you had to fight for every step. My stomach also struggled here and I was close to walking some times on the last km, but i reached the finish in new best time on the route: 2h57min51sec, but with 1h35min on the last ½-marathon... René died more than I did in the end and was 8 minutes slower, but still with the second best time.

Ane also did a strong performance and won the ½-marathon for the women.

Results here

This video can give some impressions about the race and the terrain

It was a really good experience and I'm satisfied with my performance and also learned some things about myself and how to find the right pace and push yourself in long races. And of course the good weather was a very important to make it a good day, because 4 weeks earlier, I experienced how bad the weather can be in the same area on a o-training camp.

We stayed overnight in Gothenburg and went to Sjusjøen the day after. I couldn't walk normally the day after because of sore muscles, but I was able to ski without problems, and the soreness dissapeared after some days. I tried to run 3 days after, and I worked ok in the beginning, but after 20-30 minutes of running my thigh and calf muscles tightened up, but I still did 1½h easy running. The muscles were really tight after the run, and I decided just to ski the rest of the days in Sjusjøen, and to variate between classic and skate. I did 20 hours of skiing in 5 days, and the conditions were really good and I enjoyed it a lot, since I'm not living in Norway anymore. I went to Halden for 1½ day to talk with my coach Kenneth, and do some orienteering. My legs were better, and I was able to do 2 o-sessions, including Høiås Day Cup on sunday, but my navigation skills in norwegian terrain needs some refreshment...

After coming back to Århus on sunday I have tried to keep on running as planned, but especially my right calf-muscle is still tight and sore, and my physiotherapist have warned me about running with high-speed, to be able to recover my muscles again after the overload from the marathon. So I'm doing some long slow runs and orienteering right now, including some cycling and strenghttraining, and hopefully my legs will avoid injuries.

I'm going to Nordjysk 2-days in the weekend, to do 3 races in Vester Torup, one of the best and most challenging terrains in Denmark.. Most likely I won't do any of the races in full-speed, but let's see how the recovery goes the next days. There's still long time to next important competition for me, so I'm trying to be patient :)