Outlaw

The joy of base

2012-01-27T07:36:00.000-08:00

The beginning of February will mark the business end of the basephase. Already for many of us no doubt the training volume has crept up to the level where you have twooverwhelming feelings that shouldn't really go together at all. On the one hand you feel extremely fit and strong as a beast and about 10 minutes into everyrun it's just an absolute pleasure that your body is able to work this well.The sessions are mostly not particularly hard so you can often just cruisealong rejoicing in just how freakin’ awesome you are... but then there's theother side of the coin…

The fatigue… the constant niggles that appear and thendisappear before you even have time to get paranoid about them… you wake up andjust feel this heaviness in your ~~legs~~ entire body to the point where youdon't really want to get up out of bed… but once you're up it's not so badafter all and 10 minutes into the next run you’re back feeling awesome again. Thereare times to back off and there are times to push through, willing your body toadapt. Sometimes it takes 20 min+ for the aging body to creak into life &rediscover that groove… but soon enough you're cruising, you’re back inbusiness, experiencing the joy of base.

As usual I jest and sprinkle the melodrama butpushing the limits in training does make you physically, mentally andemotionally vulnerable. It also makes you more awesome than ever but only ifyou get enough rest to absorb the training. So far this Winter I've found a decent balance and phase 1 is nearly complete. Soon it'll be time to drop the hammer... or at least place it down carefully so as not to break anything.

Warning: training-induced insanity may cause you to attempt random new hobbies in a futile attempt to gain balance and/ or fit in with the locals. Do not under any circumstances purchase wool or knitting needles during base phase, knitting is NOT relaxing and at best will give you a stiff neck, back.. shoulders & furrowed brow!

Tramadol for the soul

2012-01-15T08:54:00.000-08:00

This weekend I rekindled the passion with an old flame. I was excited to see her again. She can be a fickle and unpredictable mistress but within minutes of being together again I could tell the old magic was still there. It felt so good, it felt so right. Moments of clarity amidst my silent inner chaos. She looked less exotic than when we were together last summer and much less wild than when we met outside Oslo airport in September. She had softened slightly but her contours were just as intriguing as I remembered. After months apart I found her a little more difficult to read at first and I had my doubts and even fears. She’s broken my heart several times but on this occasion we were both much more relaxed and were soon back in tune with each other’s rhythms. It was everything I hoped for and more. Our past still haunts me, last summer’s romance was particularly rocky. She is incredibly demanding but when we click, nothing is more satisfying.

After Orienteering hurt me yet again last October I knew we needed to take a break and I embarked on a brief fling with Running. He is not quite so high maintenance and he’s always there when I need him, whereas she disappears without a trace every winter and I have to go looking for her if I want any action. I had a lot of fun with him, we both knew it wasn’t really going anywhere and we could just relax, enjoy it for what it was and not worry about the future. He took my mind off her for a while. I enjoyed the affair more than I expected to and have a lot of good memories but towards the end he turned vicious and even slightly humiliated me. I didn’t take it too badly since I’d known all along it wasn’t serious and we’ve remained close friends, spending quality time together often.

Ultimately I know my future lies with Job. Job will put a roof over my head and give me the security I know deep down I’ll never get from Orienteering or Running. I still have a lot of passion for Job but we drive each other crazy and usually not in a good way. Soon I’ll be ready to settle down with Job and give up on these fickle loves but I’ve let a lot of dissatisfaction build up between us which we’ll need to resolve if we’re going to make a go of things long term. Sometimes it’s a rollercoaster with Job too, he’s not perfect but neither am I.

For the time being it just feels so good to spend some time with Orienteering again. I wonder if I’m really her type. I know there are people out there who don’t think we’re right for each other but for now it’s just between me & her. Today I definitely felt like there was still a spark between us. I can’t wait to get her alone at night.

2012.. and so it begins...

2012-01-06T11:11:00.001-08:00

Classic skiing in perfect conditions., a photo by pyrat on Flickr.

Just to taunt the Kiwis (and because I miss them) about the lush snow they are missing I've posted this cute photo of Emily & Chris from last Winter... we've been enjoying perfect skiing conditions in Trondheim and Sjusjøen, a shame Chris'n'Em aren't here to enjoy it with us but they did send some Kiwi poo (chocolate) to fuel the training. Thanks!

It's been nearly two months since my last blog, and I don't seem to have the mental energy to write anything too meaningful now either.. and no exciting maps to show either since I've been on my traditional Winter hiatus from orienteering.

After the New York City marathon I finally took my end of season training break. It was long overdue and I indulged fairly heavily in gluttony, sloth ~~& hard spirits~~. After two weeks off I didn't think I could manage a third one without needing to see a psychiatrist so I eased back in and the physical training has been progressing nicely. Now I'm moreorless up to a decent training volume with plenty of cross country skiing the last few weeks to make the most of the fantastic snow conditions. I haven't felt much like an orienteering athlete since I've barely looked at a map. Until now I've been using most of my time on work instead of thinking about the coming season.

However, that is all about to change and the road will start to point more towards WOC 2012 in Lausanne next weekend when I'll attack my first training camp of the New Year. My first orienteering since mid-November will be with the British team in Swiss-like terrain in England and I'll probably get my butt kicked by all the upandcoming British girls which will be good motivation for the next training camp/ training holiday, in Turkey!

I'm kjempe-excited about 2012, I'm definitely still a "satsende" orienteer this year, in fact maybe more so than ever. I'll still be (occasionally) sharing my rollercoaster O-journey here. Happy New Year blog readers! And say hi to those adventuring Kiwis from me if you see them.. :-)

Here are a few photos to give a flavour of the last few weeks...

Me & Mhairi after she beat me at a fiercely contested NYE hat-game final.

With one of the two Scotsman in attendance. Unfortunately the locals did not fully appreciate their rendition of "O Flower of Scotland"...

At Sjusjøen on a wee break during one of many a long ski sesh

Flat tracks are a bit more common at Sjusjøen than at home in Trondheim and we saw a bit more of the sun too! Some nice groomed cord. (pics by pyrat)

26.2 in NYC Part Three: Collapse!

2011-11-11T11:50:00.000-08:00

After I crossed the finish line and slowed to a walk a wave of exhaustion washed over me. We are congratulated and encouraged to keep walking by volunteers. A girl hands me my medal but I indicate to her to put it around my neck, I can't accept the idea of carrying anything! Someone wraps a space blanket around me, a few more steps, a woman puts a sticker on me to hold the space blanket in place. I am cold. My steps are getting shorter. I am handed a bag of recovery drinks and snacks. I don’t seem to be able to cope with the idea of doing anything more than walking forwards and gripping hold of this bag.

Everyone else seems to be walking faster than me and chatting happily. Other finishers start to look at me and ask if I am OK, I nod back but I'm starting to wonder that same thing myself. A few more steps. I stop beside some medical volunteers. They ask if I'm OK. I say I don't feel too good. I'm wondering if this is normal. It's probably normal. Then two medics put their arms around me and move me towards the medical tent. I'm shaking my head, I don't think I need medical attention, I start to try to say this but all that comes out is "urrrgghhaarrr".

It seems that I'm not really in any position to argue!

"We've got a B-major here, she's about to go!"

Really?

"Are you cramping?"

I think about that for a moment hmm... well I can't really feel my legs from the pain, is that cramp? "Err.. maybe" I offer in reply.

Suddenly I’m in a wheelchair! Now I feel really stupid but I have to admit it feels pretty good to just sit back and let my head roll back while they rush me into the medical tent. Inside the scene is shocking, there are bodies on stretchers everywhere, it's like a war zone but without all the blood and medical student volunteers rush about all around me. It seems pretty ridiculous that all these people have voluntarily put themselves into this state! And to be honest I think it’s pretty cool to get to see behind the scenes. Obviously I’m absolutely fine and don’t really need to be here myself… just a misunderstanding but yeah.. cool to get to see all this right..? ;)

I'm laid on a stretcher bed and someone takes my blood pressure while someone else hands me a packet of salt to eat and some sports drink. The men lying either side of me are in a far worse state than me. But I wonder if they are thinking the same thing about me? I lie there while a lovely girl moves my legs around, to be honest I’m enjoying the attention and I soon perk up a lot and can chat a bit while I drink some salty, warm broth. After about 10 minutes (actually I have no idea how long I lay there, it could have been 30 min!) the doctor comes to see me and checks the chart the wonder women have been scribbling on. I tell him I feel much better and am probably OK to leave. He agrees and explains I've experienced post exercise collapse due to blood pooling in my legs. I'm prone to fainting as many runners are. I randomly fainted several times in my youth. My inner nerd runs through the physiological mechanism in my head. It all makes sense.

I quickly realize it's not so simple as just getting up and walking out because I have no power in my quads and can't stand up unaided! I turn to my angelic medical helpers. "Err.. please can you help me? I'm having trouble getting up but I'm pretty sure once I'm up I'll be fine to walk", they heave me to my feet and say congratulations for the hundredth time. One of them tells me she’s going to run the marathon next year in 3hr33. “Why 3:33?” I ask, “When I decided yesterday to run it next year I looked at the clock and it said 3:33”she chirps “Ah, well, good luck with that!” I decide I must leave the marathon madness immediately.

Once back out in the sunshine I feel fantastic and start to share stories with other finishers heading to the UPS trucks for their kit. Once there I change into warm clothes and phone Elise to find out where she is and how it went. She's happy. She had a rough middle section after starting a bit too fast (like through 10K in 38 min too fast) but she finished in 3:06 and is back at the hotel. She's been trying to phone me. "Er.. yeah.. I've just been having a little lie down.." J

Later that day… we took our medals out for Shack burgers and beer. The burgers do not appear in this photo since we rapidly demolished them after only managing various recovery drinks in the hours after the run.

The next day we take our medals to the top of the Rock to get an overview of where we ran. The weather continues to be fantastic for our post-marathon sightseeing and even though I mostly keep my medal hidden in my bag, I manage to work the fact that I’ve run the marathon into most conversations. We also get plenty of knowing looks and smiles from other runners-in-recovery when we try to negotiate steep subway steps.

I'd just like to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who supported Shoe4Africa’s marathon campaign. We were a team of around 60 runners so thanks to your support and many others we have raised nearly $200 000 for Shoe4Africa in connection with the 2011 New York City marathon and you are also part of over $33 million that has been raised for different charities! Thank you so much!

You can still contribute to the cause at my Shoe4Africa fundraising page and/ or learn more about the good work of Shoe4Africa. On Friday night before the marathon I had the honour of meeting my teammates at a pasta party at Anthony "Goose" Edward's apartment. It was fantastic to meet Toby Tanser and Sally Kipyego but it was even better to just meet other ordinary marathoners, with the same doubts, humour and excitement about running 26.2 miles as me.

I'm pretty sure I'll run another marathon one day. But next time I’ll wear shoes with a little more cushioning and train a bit more like a marathoner. Today I learnt that Paula Radcliffe’s 2:15 World record has been reinstated by the IAAF. Now that I’m a marathoner myself (ha!) I have an even greater appreciation of that incredible run. But I reckon Paula would agree, the New York City marathon experience is hard to beat! J

26.2 in NYC Part Two: Let's GO!

2011-11-09T06:02:00.000-08:00

On November 6th I woke up before my 5:15 AM alarm. When Elise and I arrived at the 103rd street Subway at 5:45 AM we met at least 10 other runners clutching their clear plastic UPS bags, chatting nervously, sipping coffee and munching on bagels all heading for the 6:30 AM Staten Island Ferry. As we sat on the Staten Island Ferry, passing the Statue of Liberty, we forced down some breakfast, gawped curiously at our fellow runners and silently wondered just how painful the race ahead was going to be. Our bus from the ferry arrived at Fort Wadsworth and it was time to part ways. I had been allocated to the blue Alberto Salazar start village and Elise was heading for the orange Grete Waitz village. We posed for this pic, wished each other luck and a fun day and headed towards our allocated corrals.

Once in the start village I had to check in my UPS bag with all my personal belongings and kit for the finish. Just incase there was a problem with my bag I had a metrocard and $20 note in the pocket of my running shorts. I also had on some old clothes: hat, warm jacket and an old pair of jeans from Ally which I could wear for the last hour before the start and leave in my start corral where they would be collected up and given to charity shops. Feeling like a cross between a hip-hop star and a homeless person in my baggy jeans I set about getting some free coffee down me, getting some chat and figuring out where my start corral was. Once in the corral there was still 1hr to wait but I got some great banter with a couple of experienced marathon ladies; one from California and one from Melbourne, Australia. A big guy called Nick from London joined us, he had splits for a 4hr15 marathon taped to his arm: his goal time was about 3hr45 but he'd picked these up at the expo, they were the only ones they had left so his tactic was to beat the splits on his arm. Cunning.

With so much time waiting in the corral it's good to do some positive visualisation of making it to the finish line in Central Park in one piece (above), but I found myself wondering if by the time I got there I would look more like this (below) - in fact part of me hoped that I would.. actually, in a few hours time, both scenarios would end up coming true..

With such a long build up to the race, I tried to stay as relaxed as possible but in the final minutes before the start the excitement inside me was soaring and I couldn't wait to get up on the Verrazano Narrows bridge and get going. Finally at 9:40 AM with music blaring out at us we were off! About 2min40 after the Pro Men, I crossed the startline and started to run or try to run, with so many people everywhere the first mile was pretty hectic but I decided the best plan was just to hang back and stay relaxed, I was sure if I lost some seconds in the first mile it wouldn't be too decisive. My goal pace was 7:15 per mile, I tried to just relax and let the pace come to me and it seemed that by mile 3 when the drinks stations and timing started I was almost up to speed.

The first 10K just flew by, I felt very easy and smooth and was just enjoying reading signs in the crowd, high fiving people and spotting regular Norwegian flags, a Welsh flag and several Shoe4Africa supporters. I passed 5K just 16 seconds behind schedule and at 10K I was busy chatting to another runner but noticed that by now I was bang on pace (44:51). As we continued on up through Brooklyn it felt like a moving party rather than a race, the support and noise every step of the way was even more fabulous than I could have imagined.

At around 10 miles I was running just behind a man listening to music (why would you listen to your own music rather than the 130 bands that line the course?), suddenly he pulled out his earphones and turned to a lean looking woman who had appeared at his side. "Olga!" he exclaimed, she looked at him unsurely "Olga! Remember me, Mike, from Chicago marathon?you're lookin' great Olga", at this point I can tell that Olga remembers Mike very well and is thinking oh no.. not this guy.. he ruined my Chicago marathon experience... Olga looks like she's keen to pick up the pace. Then Mike says something I've been waiting to hear "Olga, you're lookin' real strong babe, it's time to drop the hammer!" Olga pulls away from us. "Nice ass Olga!" shouts Mike. I spend the next half mile giggling that Mike actually said "drop the hammer". hehe

Soon we are climbing up onto the bridge into Queens and passing the halfway mark. I check my watch 1:34:34 at the halfway point and I still feel very comfortable and easy, just as I am supposed to. The thought pops into my head that at this rate I might even be able to pick it up in the 2nd half and dip under 3hr 10. That thought only lasts about 45 seconds. As we descend off the bridge into Queens I notice a spot of pain in the front of each thigh. Uh oh. I hadn't expected to feel any pain so early in the race. Not a good sign. Time to try to stay positive and keep it rolling.

Click me to see bigger splits image

You can see from my splits that this was probably the point where my race began to unravel. However, I still clung onto the chance to beat my Dad's time and finish in around 3hr 12 all the way until mile 20. Most people who run the New York marathon report feeling a huge lift as they come off the long, quiet Queensborough bridge at 16 miles, arrive in Manhattan for the first time and experience the wall of noise from the roaring crowds along First Avenue. But I spent First Avenue having to concentrate pretty hard trying to hang onto the pace. I knew I was starting to lose time, my quads were getting really sore and it seemed to take forever to reach the Bronx.

Once in the Bronx my battle was just beginning. The route only stays in the Northern borough for one mile and then you cross another bridge back into Manhattan with "just" Harlem, Fifth Avenue and Central Park to go. The road is starting to look like a battlefield. Bodies strewn everywhere. When things turn bad in the marathon they go very wrong, very fast. I felt like I'd had my quads ripped out and replaced by bricks (without anesthetic). I had no pain anywhere else in my body and my heart and lungs were perfectly happy. If I ignored my quads I was still pretty comfortable and able to giggle at signs in the crowd like "Screw the Wall!" and "Your feet hurt because you're kicking NYC's ass!" and even the blatant lie "Yeah Shoe4Africa you're looking strong!" managed to raise a smile. Quite a lot of people were passing me by mile 23 but amazingly I was probably passing just as many. A lot of runners were walking, standing still stretching something out or even lying or sitting down on the road.

I was detemined to keep running, even if by now it was just a jog. I used some mind tricks to distract from the pain in my quads and suddenly we were entering the park. I loved the park! It didn't seem hilly to me at all, it was just beautiful! And eventually there it was, the wonderful number 25, just over 1 mile to go. The last mile was like nothing I've ever experienced. The support was unbelieveably loud. I barely noticed the pain anymore. I was enjoying the atmosphere so much that the thought passed through my head that I didn't want this to end, but then I saw a sign saying 200 yards to go and I realised, yes I did want it to end, how long is 200 yards, where is the finish? 100 to go, there it is! I check my watch and see that I'm going to finish in 3hr 20, it doesn't matter, I smile, I raise my arms over my head, here is the finish. I am a marathoner!

3hr 20 is quite a lot slower than I wanted to run the marathon but the New York crowds have made me feel like we are all winners. As I walked through the finish area I felt like such a champion that I never expected what was about to happen... To be continued...

Staten Island is so far away I can only just make out the Verrazano bridge from the top of the Rock (above), did we really run all that way? Yep, all the way to Central Park (below).

26.2 in NYC Part One: the preamble

2011-11-08T05:25:00.000-08:00

I am a major orienteering enthusiast, but orienteering is not my only “favourite” sport. The purity, simplicity and joy of running took hold of me from quite a young age. In fact I took part in my first organised distance running event aged 7, a Blue Peter fun run in Holyrood Park, Edinburgh. I started regularly running cross country races when I was about 10 years old. But I’ve never done many races on roads and even though I kind of assumed I would get around to it at some point I never had a burning desire to run a road marathon.

It wasn’t that I didn’t think I could go the distance. In my early twenties I had some success with mountain marathons and I have no trouble jogging easily for 5 hours or more in the forest or hills. I just never felt the need to dabble too much in the dark art of asphalt running. When I lived in Scotland there were plenty of cross country and hill races to keep me inspired.

Since moving to Norway I’ve become much more focused on orienteering than ever before and at times I’ve missed the off-road running scene I’d enjoyed in Scotland. Maybe it was to fill the void, maybe it was an early mid-life crisis, maybe I just recognized a weakness in my orienteering and wanted to strengthen it by doing something extreme but at some point the ridiculous idea of running a road marathon began to appeal.

Legend has it that the first person to run the marathon died. You have to respect the event, even for someone with good general running fitness and endurance a road marathon takes training, there’s the constant grinding pace and the pounding, the rigors of the road. The required training period for me to have a decent bash at an Autumn marathon would wipe out a significant portion of my orienteering season –which is already too short when you live somewhere with 7 months of Winter. It simply was not an option. The marathon is a race of truth. Your finish time is a matter of pride and says something about you as a runner. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to expose myself like that without having done the proper training.

But there was one race I might make an exception for. One race that would be worth running just for the sheer hell of it. A race with an iconic route spanning five unique boroughs with deep, exuberant crowds cheering the runners every step of the way. The New York City marathon.

Once the idea was born things fell into place quickly. I didn’t sacrifice much of my orienteering season, I just skipped Blødslitet and the rescheduled Norwegian Night Champs so I could do some last minute road training in the final few weeks. I knew I was still somewhat ill prepared to run 26.2 miles on asphalt. I hadn’t even realized there would be substantial sections of concrete! But I’d managed to train really well for physical and mental acceptance of my goal pace (4:30 per km / 7:15 per mile). So I knew I could at least enjoy the first 15-20 miles and feel pretty comfortable. After that I had no idea. My longest run between WOC and the marathon was 19 miles. As well as plenty of 40-50 min tempo efforts I’d done one hilly, easy paced 19 miler and three 16-17 mile runs with up to 14 miles at marathon tempo.

But details details.. there I was and it was time to find out what I was made of. I was eager and healthy and the conditions were perfect for running. So as I stood in the sunshine listening to the Star-Spangled Banner at 9:38 AM on 6. Nov 2011 I didn’t feel any nerves. I felt only excitement, happiness and the naïve confidence of a total novice. The song finished, I ripped off my gloves and the arm warmers I’d made out of an old pair of tights. The announcer shouts: “This one’s for the great Grete Waitz!” and the tears well up in my eyes as the gun sounds and thousands of us start to shuffle towards the startline on the Verrazano Narrows bridge. A little over 26.2 miles lie between us and that famous finish line in Central Park. I have no idea how the next 3 or 4 hours will unfold but I'm smiling as I cross the startline and start to run. To be continued….

2011 review: zero goals to meet!

2011-10-14T10:00:00.000-07:00

Crew on stone, a photo by pyrat on Flickr.

Probably the thing that's happened that will change our lives the most is that our good friends "the Kiwis" aka Chris and Emily have now left Trondheim. 3 years of good times, lateness and taking the piss out of each other's accents are now over. :'-( You can follow their adventures here.

For me the 2011 O-season is also over. The proper way to review the year is probably to look back at your goals and see if you met them. However, I didn't really set any results goals for 2011. The main idea was to enjoy the sport, attack each challenge, try to improve technically and especially mentally. Above all, to stay healthy and get in a second consecutive year of consistent physical training.

To some extent I managed all those things and have some good memories:

Random: Being a competitor at Ski-WOC in the Women's relay, we finished 11th!

I won a Craft Cup race with a near perfect race (except 20 stupid seconds to #1).
4 top 12 results in the Craft Cup, in 4 different disciplines: Night, Sprint, Middle, Long.
Great relays with Wing OK, prizes at Jukola (19th), Midt-Norsk (3rd), District Champs (2nd) and Norwegian Champs (16th) with Marte, Paja, Sara, Tiia and Emily.
... Not forgetting Ofestivalen Men's relay, great success with Ally, Jostein, Øystein & Arne
Super-consistent in the WOC selection races: 2nd in both races = welcome to Savoie, WOC 2011!
23rd in WOC long distance (previous best 39th). Loved the training process!

I've enjoyed the good times and learnt from the bad. I've definitely had my share of bad times in 2011. My total life load was a bit too heavy and my training and form suffered at times. Next year I want to race with that fresh, hungry, excited feeling every time, or at least more times than without. When I had to dig deep and force things my energy and enjoyment account quickly got into debt and eventually that debt had to be repaid with a stint of fatigue / illness / bad shape. There are so many cool races on the calendar and I get tempted... but I'm finding it much more satisfying to try to prepare properly and race as well as possible in a few key races than drag my ass round too many less meaningful events.

Sport would be even more fun if I could feel supercharged for every race. Part of the solution lies in improving my training and recovery. Hopefully I'll find a better balance in 2012.

Back on "goals" then.. would 2011 have gone better if I'd set results goals? I doubt it. If I'd set goals I would never have written down "win a Norwegian Cup race", it wasn't on my radar at all, my best before this year was 10th! I didn't think about results until I started watching the big screen in amazement after my warm down. Results goals make me a little too outcome focused. It's much simpler to just think about all the things that will get you from the start to the finish as fast as possible. Those rare occasions when you totally exceed expectations are pretty incredible but having a great result so early in the year changed my expectations. I started to believe that I was at a much higher level than before and I was often trying to remember and recreate the focused, free, flowing feeling from that one race. A better reaction is to stay completely grounded, always just focusing on the next little step in the face of both good and bad results. It's not compulsory to evaluate a race by looking at the results list. It's motivating to move up the list, but one result does not immediately make you a better orienteer. You are still the same orienteer with a lot of work to do!

The big improvement in my WOC long distance result was a little different. 23rd was the type of result that I felt I really ought to have been capable of in Trondheim the year before. Savoie offered totally different challenges so going out and getting that result this year instead was tricky and I almost threw away my chance in the qualification round! Overall I was at a bit higher level this year, in Savoie something amongst the top 15 might have been possible on a really good day but 23rd was definitely a solid result for me. Even just being able to produce an average run in a World Champs final is a big achievement for me!

Overall it's been an interesting, challenging and fun season of orienteering. I have one more race in me, without a map or compass. On 6th November I'll be running 26.2 miles on the roads of New York City. After 2 weeks of illness when I barely ran a step and 10 days with a stone hidden deep in my arm I managed to get healthy and get the marathon training moreorless back on track. Mileage goals have been binned and now I'm just trying to do good key sessions in order to survive the pain and going along with the idea that it's better to be undertrained than overtrained. The tempo sessions have actually been going quite well and I'm excitedly looking forward to a once in a lifetime running experience in NYC. Please take a look and consider entering my marathon competition.

Time goal? I will attempt to become the best marathon runner in my family, there isn't much competition but it's looking like it could be pretty tight... after the setbacks I'm not confident, the next few weeks will be decisive! ;-) Even if I take the record it will get smashed by my brother or boyfriend as soon as they get up the guts to run 26.2. Just 22 days to go!

Help save lives and win cool orienteering prizes!

2011-10-07T13:44:00.000-07:00

On November 6th I'm running the ING New York City marathon. Why?

It started last Autumn when I noticed the date coincided "nicely" with a nearby conference I would attend for work. Then my Wing-buddie Elise got all keen after running the qualifying time at the Trondheim half marathon. To guarantee an entry I had to run the qualifying time by the end of January and I did so at the Polar Night half marathon in Tromsø. There were various semi-sensible training related reasons for doing a marathon at this point and also the lure of unknown pain in a glam location.

With my entry secured I then joined a large team of runners trying to raise funds for Shoe4Africa's latest project to get a new Children's hospital built. I first learnt about Shoe4Africa when I read Toby Tanser's book More Fire. Shortly after that Helen Bridle and I went to train in Iten, Kenya, got to know some great people there and came away totally inspired by their joy and positivity. Shoe4Africa started out by giving out shoes and have gone on to set up many amazing projects which you can read about at their website. One of the brilliant things with this charity is that donations do not go to wages or office space, they go directly to getting things done where they are needed. The latest project is to build the first Children's hospital in Sub Saharan Africa. You can learn more about the hospital project here. And here's Goose from Top Gun talking about some of the work of Shoe4Africa.

I'd be really grateful if you would consider donating to this cause at my Shoe4Africa page. But I realise that these days simply running a marathon is not a very impressive challenge so I'm making it so there is something in it for you too - as well as the knowledge that you will be helping save lives, see the horrifying stats below the picture of some of our young friends from Iten - if you donate - any amount - you can also enter my marathon competition. The closest guess to my official finish time for the NYC marathon will win a set of maps from all the WOC 2011 individual finals signed by all the medallists, 2 free entries to the Edinburgh City race 21st January - a totally fabulous orienteering experience in Scotland's capital, kindly donated by the legendary EUOC - and an exclusive ebook containing training tips, ideas and inspiration from top orienteers including Daniel Hubmann and Ida Bobach.

If you want some clues as to what time I might run you are welcome to ask questions as comments below and I'll try to respond honestly but as far as predicting a time I have no idea. Current competition guesses range from an optimistic 2:59:32 to 3:47:12. I'm reluctant to call 3hr47 pessimistic since I have no idea what will happen to my legs after 20 miles of pounding those mean streets.

Some sad facts from Toby which help to explain the need for this project.

"4/5 Kenyan kids who die do so without seeing a healthcare provider
2/3 of all Sub Saharan kids deaths are said to be both treatable & preventable
1 in 8 Kenyan kids will die before reaching the age of eight
For a catchment area of 22-million people there is not one single MRI machine
In Tanzania there is one doctor per 19,000 people. In the USA it is One for 300 people
Infant mortality in Sweden 2/1000 Vs 180/1000 in Africa -- where do you want to be born?
Ten million kids die per year before reaching a fifth birthday, and they say about 9-million of that number are in Sub Saharan Africa... could the fact there is not one single children's public hospital have something to do with this travesty?
Main causes of death? Diarrhea, measles, malaria and acute respiratory diseases
3000 kids per DAY die of Malaria in Africa = in England not one single death from Malaria in 13-years
An estimated 530,000 kids die of measles each year in Africa, and a onetime vaccination costs less than a dollar.

‘Opportunity’ to an average Kenyan child? 80% of the Kids who die do so without ever seeing a health care provider in their life."

PS: Many thanks to all those who have already donated!

It's not over til it's over

2011-10-03T00:43:00.000-07:00

Earlier this Autumn, after much deliberation, I decided to end my 2011 season with a long convoluted trip to the Czech Republic and Switzerland to compete in the final rounds of the World Cup and test similar terrain and maps to where WOC will be held next July, in Switzerland.

I had trained well during the Autumn and hoped to finish my season on a high. Not everything went to plan in the last 10 days prior to the races but I still arrived in Liberec confident and raring to go. I started my middle distance race in Liberec full of fight, focused and flowing. I had finally found that incredible feeling when everything is effortless, you instinctively pick out good routes, see the key features up ahead, the controls are exactly where you want them and you feel fast, strong and hyper-aware. What a feeling! It lasted for 12 perfect minutes. Just before the 4th control my dobs skidded slightly on a wet rock and I lost my balance and crashed to the ground, in a split second I went from feeling invincible to feeling agonising pain in my right arm. I noticed there was quite a bit of blood but mostly I noticed the pain and the fact I couldn't bend my arm. The next 5 minutes of the race I staggered, blurry eyed but still in control. Then the pain lessened and I tried to push on but by now I was thinking about pushing and not fully concentrated on the orienteering. Mistake after mistake followed, first small but then bigger. I crossed the finish line disappointed and straightaway the pain came rushing back to my arm. I had taken quite a bit of skin off and made a small pit in my forearm, there was also a bit of swelling and bruising but the damage was not so bad and the medical team at the finish patched me up.

The next day was a long distance chasing start in the same very cool terrain. I had a rough night and woke up with a whiplash type reaction in my neck and shoulders as well as pain in my right arm accompanying every footfall. Still I managed to struggle around the course and even enjoyed the challenge. I was very positive that I could turn things around before the final races in Switzerland and despite my failures I enjoyed my time in Liberec.

The total effect of my weekend's exertions took it's toll and Tuesday morning I woke up feeling sick and rundown with a sore throat, which quickly developed into a full blown cold. I spent the week walking in the training areas for WOC 2012, learning about the mapping style and terrain. The whole time I stayed positive that I would be healthy in time for Saturday's middle distance race and would be able to recapture the fantastic orienteering feeling from those 12 minutes in Liberec and maybe even fight for a top result. As the weekend drew near it still did not look good but I stayed positive right up til about 20 minutes before my start time when reality hit, I was still struggling with breathing and feeling the systemic effects of my illness. It's not over til it's over. But this killed my hope dead, by now it was pretty much over but I still had to get round this course and try to hold on to a little pride and self respect. I made a quiet promise to never put myself in this position again, of racing ill, put my pride in my back pocket and struggled round yet another race. Not fun and absolutely not to be recommended, the only reason I attempted it was because of the relevance for WOC 2012 and the fact it was a mostly downhill course.

The following day I'd had enough of putting a brave face on and burying my frustration and disappointment. This was not how I had wanted to end the season. Hiking up another mountain and walking/ jogging a Swiss National event would not make me a better orienteer. Instead of putting my O shoes back on I walked calmly back to our shitty accommodation in Chaux de Fonds, took a shower, dressed nice, left a note for the team manager and quietly slipped away by train to Geneva 5 hours earlier than planned and met up with an old friend. I felt bad for not supporting my teammates in the World Cup final - but turns out they didn't need it because they ran great :-) - but it felt like me taking back control and self respect after putting my body through some dark times. Relaxing in Geneva was the smartest thing I had done all week. And during my visit my friend Oli showed me this fantastic video "the crawl" which not only provided great amusement but also seemed pretty fitting to sum up my struggle during the last week of my 2011 orienteering season and my desperate crawl to the finish line... especially loving it from "her stalker appears" .. I won't spoil the punchline, enjoy! :-)

Chickn Wings rocking the relays

2011-09-13T02:19:00.000-07:00

Club relay season started before Norwegian Champs and since Elise Egseth was off to the USA I had to take the responsibility and learn to run last leg instead of snuggling in my comfort zone on the middle leg. First attempt did not go well but thanks to great runs by Tiia and Paja we got the bronze medal in the Mid-Norway Champs.

Tiia and Paja are all smiles in the rain, my head is down but I'm happy and relieved!

District Champs and I'm getting the hang of last leg. Marte ran a storming start leg and Tiia sent me out just a couple of minutes behind Mari Fasting. I ran a solid last leg but Mari is in amazing shape this autumn and I am eating her dust, silver in district Champs.

For Norwegian Champs we bring in super reserve Kiwi Emily Wall. Em and I have been training technique together in the forest and head out for a final practice the day before the relay. We have set ourselves a tough goal of finishing amongst the 20 best teams because we are greedy for a prize :-).

Posh dinner before the relay from Wing OK's amazing sponsors Offtrack

Fancy cheesecake will give us the extra edge we need to succeed!

It's Emily's first time wearing GPS tracking (because we were 5th last year). Marte totally rocks the first leg and comes back just metres behind Lillehammer and NTNUi. Marte tried to give them all a headstart by missing 2 min on the first control but she's just too strong and reels the leaders back in - legend! So Emily runs out just behind Bodil. NM felt kind of like a regular Trøndelag race at times since NTNUi, Frol and Freidig were on fire. The podium in the D21 middle distance was Mari Fasting, Bodil and Hanne Sandstad, could easily have been district Champs. Nice picture of Emily coming through the arena passage on the Norwegian Orienteering Federation website, photo 13/31.

I get totally emotionally invested in Emily's race and almost forget I have to race myself. She is awesome and comes back in 15th place still well inside our goal. I proceed to get really overexcited and make a total hash of the first part of the course doing dumb things like this...

Guess I haven't got the hang of last leg yet after all - hurry back Elise! ;). But after my terrible start I give myself a bit of a slap, calm down, manage the rest of the course better and secure 16th place. I see a couple of women on the last loop but kick hard away from each control and take the last few really cleanly desperate to get a gap before the sprint. My legs are pretty much finished but luckily in the end I'm home free and don't have to sprint it out. The Wing crew shout lots of abuse and encouragement anyway... both on the arena passage and run in. Nice. Here's us excitedly getting our NM diplomas & prizes before dashing to the airport.

Norwegian Champs: best thing on the calendar!!

2011-09-12T19:00:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of great things about living in Norway. For an orienteer NM-uke (Norwegian Championships week) is one of them. It's an absolute privilege to participate in these races and I'm buzzing with excitement and inspiration after returning home. I never run out of psych after the summer international races are over because the countdown to NM gives me new butterflies...

Long distance: On paper I should probably be disappointed. Last year I finished 10th and with 12th place this year, my upward momentum has faltered (26.; 15.; 10.; 12.) I made some mistakes and one really bad route choice. So how can I come away from a race like that saying it was "one of my best races ever" and that I am "really satisfied"?

Results GPS tracking

I've got a lot better at understanding my own ability and putting together solid races. Yeah I made mistakes but my relocation was fairly rapid, I kept my head up, stayed positive, kept fighting and managed to orienteer aggressively in really tough, tricky Norwegian terrain (helped by Chris Forne's "full speed, max risk" method ;), hopefully more on that later from the guru himself..) It sounds weird but to me this year's terrain seemed like it would be a lot more "Norwegian" than the long distance terrain the last few years so I knew it would be tough to improve on 10th without much relevant training (Yes I live in Norway - but my local terrain has subtley different challenges and I've spent most of the summer elsewhere). Also I was a bit unsure about my physical shape since I'd chosen to keep my training load up before the Champs because of other goals coming up.

When you're more realistic about current form it's easier to take the positives and also easier to salvage a race and get a solid result even if things aren't completely working. When you're preoccupied with aiming for glory it's easy to give up on some level at the first sign of failure and end up way below "acceptable". This scenario explains a lot of my worst races. There is a LOT to be said for holding things together. NM long 2011 = my best "disappointing" race ever!

Middle distance qualifier: Reality check. Not even close to making the final, nearly 2 min behind the cut off. Some of my Norwegian friends are a bit puzzled by my consistent inability to qualify for the middle distance final at NM! It was a mediocre run with mistakes but not enough to account for my time loss, maybe I was simply too passive, but I felt like I let my orienteering control my speed and that speed was simply too sloooow. Another explanation / excuse is that I didn't rest up enough before the Champs and therefore struggled to recover from race to race. It's a combination of these things and I'll definitely have more respect for the middle quali if I compete in it in the future.

Middle quali results

Rather than be discouraged, there's potential for improvement! Mistakes are a product of the risk that you carry on every leg of the course. To get faster across the whole course you have to improve technically to orienteer more securely at the same speed or just as securely at a faster speed. Once I finally understood this I was like the alchoholic who finally admitted they have a problem and I stopped being so pleased about a few fast split times. This theory does not fit well with Chris' "full speed, max risk" method. Let's just say the genius method is still under development..?

The individual races at NM are pretty awesome but the best race of all is the relay... to be continued... picture story of our tremendous relay coming soon :-)

WOC training: living in a van

2011-08-25T18:00:00.000-07:00

To prepare for World Champs I lived in a van for several weeks traveling around France to Savoie, Clermont-Ferrand, Ussel, the Pyrenees and Fontainbleau. The Mercedes Vito van cost me and Ally £1950 and we bought a £90 sofabed from IKEA that just fitted between the wheel arches. After World Champs we sold the van for £1650. It was an interesting and cheap experiment and a crazy adventure. The van was actually pretty comfortable to sleep in and I did some great training. For WOC preparation it was definitely a bit of a compromise and probably not something I will repeat but on a tight budget you could do a lot worse.

Here is a wee flavour of our trip courtesy of pyrat. There aren't so many pictures from the hard sessions but the ones from the long mountain runs give me an opportunity to show off my great range of silly sun hats..

Another long run another cool sun hat! This was my favourite so I also wore it to the quarantine zone for the WOC long distance final.

I am much more excited than Ally to reach the summit of Puy de Dome.

Ally le Tour-ist at the stage 14 finish area at the top of Plateau de Beille after a tough cycle up!

Alternative training on bouldering routes designed for children!

Game face ready for pairs map memory training with Ally.

After sleeping in the van at Col du Tourmalet we head off for another long jog.

Getting up close to the lovely Andy Schleck!

Free shiz at le Tour after riding up the Plateau de Beille.

After training in Savoie and racing a bit at the French Champs we did a couple of days cycling for alternative training. We rented bikes from Velomondo one of the only places in the Pyrenees you can rent decent road bikes (and very lovely people). Ally was keen to bag a few Cols!

Relay training with the Norwegian team in Revard

Finishing the French Middle Distance Champs

Mountain views

Our amazing solar powered van shower ie bag of water + pipe

BBQ after running intervals in the midday heat in a random forest close to our route home. Meal times and post training naps were a big part of van life, so much so that we almost missed our ferry back to the UK. Luckily we made it and Ally put in a great effort at the Scottish 6 days to finish 31st overall in M21E which gave me even more inspiration on my return to France for WOC itself. :-)

How I overcame panic and choking

2011-08-22T14:00:00.000-07:00

WOC 2011, Savoie, France is now just a memory and I have very mixed feelings as I look back over my preparation, my races and the outcomes.

After WOC in Trondheim it had become pretty obvious that if I ever wanted to see any half-decent international results from all my effort I needed to do something about my fragile head. For years I'd been throwing away important races due to not being tough enough. I'd tried in the past to correct things but always eventually reverted back to my weak ways. It was time that I learnt everything about these non-tough responses and how to overcome them.

My biggest problems seemed to be choking and panicking. Two very different responses with different solutions. Technically and physically I also still had a long way to go to get close to the results I dreamed about but I was making steady progress and gradually getting better results at home in Norway (eg. NM lang 2008: 26th, 2009: 15th, 2010: 10th). However, in the few international races I actually managed to get selected for (due to not being tough enough in selection races) I almost always performed way below my ability.

How I overcame the panic response:

My panic response usually happened when I had got myself confident and relaxed on the startline but then made an unexpected error - often early in the course. It had a simple solution. I just had to train myself to stay calm and rational whenever I started to make a mistake. Like any skill this can be trained with practise. So I have trained and trained this all year. When I made mistakes at WOC it was very natural for me to just calmly figure it out and continue on with the course.

How I overcame choking:

This is a trickier issue. If you are prone to choking you can never totally eliminate the possibility of this response creeping in and screwing you up. But if you don't find a way to deal with it or reduce it you are doomed to never completely find the flow and skills you have worked hard to train in the races you care the most about.

Anyone can suffer from choking but apparently it's more likely if you have self esteem issues or over involved parents. So step one is get over any unhelpful real life issues and limit how much you involve your parents in your sporting exploits (harsh but in some cases necessary!).

Step two is not bringing your personal issues into your racing and instead becoming a tough actor and moving your emotions in the right direction for each race rather than just acting out every emotion you happen to be feeling on that day. This is crucial. I need to feel that I have a fun fight ahead of me and for big races I need to stay as relaxed as possible at the start. Take it less seriously, quieten any unhelpful chatter in my head and smile, laugh, whistle to myself, banter with the start officials, enjoy the view and basically stay as low key as possible for as long as possible. Then boom.. pick up the map, focus completely on the task and be determined to orienteer from start to finish.

After working on these things all year I was pleased to be able to focus on the task in my WOC races and for my efforts I improved my WOC long distance result from 39th last year to 23rd this year. I still made mistakes and I still have a long way to go technically!! I won't bore you with the details of my errors, if you want you can see them on the GPS tracking!

Hot competition

There is another side to the story.. Physically my shape in the long distance final was horrifically bad. After getting myself into the shape of my life (or close to it) my physical performance in the long final was a huge disappointment. Even though I spent the whole summer away from my home in Trondheim in order to train and prepare I was still ill prepared for the heat. Some of the places I trained in the final weeks before WOC were cooler than I expected.

There was a lot of chat beforehand about how the races were high up on the plateau so it would not be that hot. Most athletes prioritised technical preparation, some tackled the altitude. The heat was a huge factor. I reckon it was over 30 degrees for all the finals. I think this may be partly why the Norwegians did not perform as well as I expected. In all other areas their preparation seemed, from what I saw, to be excellent. They are a really hard working team and always a big inspiration to me. The bulletin for WOC next year says the maximum temperature in July will be 25 degrees. This seems like complete bullshit! I wouldn't be surprised if the Swiss team have been given a different bulletin saying 35 degrees ;). If I am going to compete next year I am going to have to prepare better for the heat.

Abysmal British relay

I can't blog about WOC without mentioning the relay. I think it was probably the worst ever set of WOC relay results by a British team, 15th in both relays. Last year we finished 4th and 8th.

I can easily find fault with the training programme which in my opinion was lacking and poorly timed but all the British athletes organised their own training in the relevant terrain and actually the individual results in the forest are not dramatically worse than last year. The Men's results are worse, mainly the long, but the women's results are slightly better for both forest disciplines.

	2010, Trondheim		2011, Savoie
	Men	Women	Men	Women
Long	6., 20., 27.	23., 39.	32., 42.	23., 29., 31.
Middle	13., 26., 36.	32., 39.	11., 31,	19., 30.

But in comparison our relay performance was abysmal and I doubt it is an accident or coincidence. Something didn't work in how we approached the relay and to make this shocker worthwhile we need to learn some lessons and move forward. We have a great vibe in the team now and I'm sure we will stand together and learn from our mistakes.

Can I get tougher still?

This year I didn't make any specific goals for WOC. I basically wanted to enjoy my orienteering, become more stable throughout the whole season and improve technically. I can still see lots of ways to improve further. I need to take a step forward physically and improve my running capacity and economy on hard ground, especially flat, hard ground. This autumn I'm going to do something hard and severe to try to make some more progress and get even tougher!

Thanks to all the people who made it possible for me to improve from 39th to 23rd and to keep a relatively cool head in one of the hottest and toughest WOC finals ever (& be the 1st person to finish it!). Here are some of the people who have helped me take a step forward this year:

Jon Musgrave: My coach for the last 2 years, a WOC medallist & good guy.

Toni Louhisola: GB coach who really cares, an orienteering purist.

Alastair: helps me in thousands of ways to enjoy life and be happy.

Wing OK: Everyone in Wing! especially all the Chickn Wings, Per Arne who reminds me to have the confidence to REST and Chris Forne who epitomises the fun, fighting spirit.

GB team & staff: especially Dave and the physios who worked hard at WOC to get me (and my shoes) to the startline in one piece.

Øystein Kristiansen: the hard work is done at home, thanks to Øystein I got meaningful technique training, at home, all Winter long.

Richard Keegan: sports psychologist who helped me figure out how to use "rough time" in races to my advantage.

Jim Loehr via Jonn Are Myhren: for important lessons in toughness.

Dr Rothman: From Portugal to France to WOC, we got PBs but have more in us!

My very understanding boss.

All my family, friends and teammates: Sport is just one part of a really good life! The most important people are the ones who support you no matter what the result. xx

PS. Also thanks to everyone who cheered for me in the arena or via fb / twitter. :-)

Perfectly judged qualifier (or lucky as hell..)

2011-08-13T09:15:00.001-07:00

Updated: with photos from my runner profile at WorldOfO.

Today I qualified for the WOC long final.. by the skin of my teeth.

I finished 15th place in heat 1, just 16 seconds ahead of Louise Oram from Canada.

If you are being kind, like my parents or Petter Thoresen you might say that I was in the toughest heat.

But if you are being honest like our coach Toni you would say "you made really stupid mistakes on really easy controls... and then you pulled yourself together".

Fair.

I enjoyed it, it was exciting and I even giggled at the control guard who had wriggled into a tiny rocky pit beside one of the controls. I made some attempt to sprint for the line, good job I did. I didn't really enjoy the wait to see if I would qualify and I felt bad for those who had just missed out (been there).

Long final is Wednesday and I will be the first or one of the first to see the course! :-)

Sensational Salpa

2011-06-21T06:54:00.001-07:00

Last weekend sensational Salpa-Jukola was held and it was a pretty good one for my club Wing OK. Last year we finished 34th in Venla and the guys were DSQ. Over the last couple of years we have lost some of our best runners like Stig Alvestad, Lene Bergersen and Øystein Kvaal Østerbø and for this year's Jukola festival we were missing current Wing stars Elise Egseth and Mathias Bjugan. Wing fought hard in the beautiful terrain and ended up 19th in Venla and 77th in Jukola.

I feel that the improvement in our results, even without our very best runners, reflects the work our new coaching team has put in this year. We have done a bit more technical training as a team and there has been even more encouragment for all runners, whatever their ability or goals, to attend these sessions. Almost all of our runners live in Trondheim. Sara Luscher lives in Switzerland now but lived in Trondheim for 6 months in 2009 and we are all good friends and work well as a team. Sara and I also ran for OK Ravinen together for a few years before I joined Wing in 2008.

Orienteering is an individual sport and it's what you do when you are out there alone against the course with the map that counts but to access your full ability you have to engage the right emotions, the ones where it's fun to feel challenged in a positive way. For some people that response comes more easily in a relay situation with a team that you feel part of and want to do your best for.

Chickn Wings Venla 2011 played out like this: Marte is in great shape and ran very well at the beginning and end of the 1st leg but unfortunately made a 4 min mistake at her 8th control. Pavla had a very stable race on 2nd leg and it was great to cheer her over the bridge and up the run in (in Czech). My race in Venla was quite good considering my current form, some small mistakes in the beginning but quite fast and clean in the 2nd half. I lost about 2:30 to the lead (4 min to the fastest leg time) but pulled us up from 70th to 38th. Sara was 9th fastest on the last leg and pulled us all the way up to 19th place. The top 20 teams in Venla were rewarded with a visit to the Jukola stage to collect our squirrels and Jukola medals.

Take it easy man. It pays to arrive early at Jukola, here we are getting a ride in a trailer behind a quad biker to pick up our luggage from the car park and get transported to the school where we stayed during Jukola.

Our guys were 77th but what about the other Jukola teams I was interested in following?

Team 44 Scotland: A lot of solid performances but it was consolidation rather than the top 40 finish they were looking for. After losing some time on the night legs they picked up and finished a solid 51st. Top 40 next year?

Team 498 NOPE team banter 1: Great success! The boys finished 375th to reach their goal of top 400. Preparation included playing the card game saboteur (and loving it), stand out performance by Ed Nicholas on 1st leg, he silenced his doubters by coming back 318th and losing only 17:26 to the lead.

Team 1300 Wing OK 2. Unfortunately Wing OK 2 could not field a full team but Marius Døllner and our excellent team manager Dag Erik Helland enjoyed the first 2 legs. Since the team was incomplete I was able to take the 6th leg map and jog through the course from the mass start at 9:15am after a full nights sleep. It was a pleasure to be in the terrain once more and soak up the special atmosphere.

I have also been competing in the Nordic Tour (NORT) but I've performed poorly in the first two rounds. This means I will start 13 minutes back in the chase start race in Oslo on Saturday. Despite my form dip I think NORT has been good experience for me, a reminder of the routines for international races. I was attending as a self-help athlete which was a strange situation since I was just staying with my clubmates in Finland. In Sweden I'm staying in the same accommodation as the British team so I got to spend some time with them for the first time since last Autumn's training camp in France, which has been fun.

Anyway I'm looking forward to two more races next weekend in Oslo, the final race of NORT and then 2nd leg of the Men's relay for Wing. After that my plan is to finish off some work in Trondheim and relax a bit and then concentrate on preparing as well as I can for WOC.

Happy midsummer! xx

Back in the game?

2011-06-09T12:00:00.000-07:00

I'm up out of my sickbed and "getting after it" in training again. Ideally I would have liked to put in a higher intensity block to get into shape for Jukola and the Nordic Tour (the first World Cup races of 2011). But attempting lots of hard training soon after illness is likely to send me straight back to the sickbed and on top of that I have a little injury niggle to sort out so I've given up on the idea of being in great shape for Jukola and NORT and instead will go for getting all the other important brain and technical bits right, see where that puts me / us and try not to be too hard on myself if I lose a lot of time on the running.

The last 3 years in Venla we've ended up 22nd, 11th and 34th. This year our main aim is to have fun (easy) and the other aim is to finish amongst the top 15 teams (tough). In Jukola it will be interesting to follow our two Wing teams (74 and 1300), as well as NOPE team banter 1 (498) and Scotland 1 (44) who will try to become the first ever British team to break into the top 40.

Wing girls and some squirrels who like toilet paper

To give myself a fighting chance in Finland I've chosen to stay home this weekend and skip the Craft Cup races in Hamar. This means I will topple down the list so I'll just enjoy the last few moments of being top 3, it was nice while it lasted.... (I'll attempt a comeback in the Autumn..)

Playing the selection game

2011-05-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

Last weekend the GB team's main World Champs selection races were held in the English Lake District. My first glance at the GB selection policy for WOC way back during the Winter was like a punch in the stomach. Since I live in Trondheim it seemed that jumping through all the hoops would leave me burnt out, under-trained and skint.

Instead I attempted to do the bare minimum but still leave the selectors with no choice but to pick me for WOC. Tricky. I've made choices that might seem strange but were right for me. Doing my own thing meant I was under pressure to produce convincing results in the Lakes!

Middle race, Bigland: My map with GPS track

Results - bizzarely see Brown Women and Black

The terrain was more Norwegian than French but it was a technical challenge. Actually I shouldn't have even been allowed to start because I forgot to take a whistle, a rule in parts of the the UK which I had forgotten about! On the advice of naughty Ralph Street I outfoxed the start official with the old "twig in the pocket" trick. I then got really nervy (guilty conscience?) and had a bad start by failing to see the bushy 3rd & 5th controls, Hollie passed me soon after and was rapidly out of sight, partly because we chose different routes to 8 & 9 but mainly because of her ninja flow. Later on she started to make mistakes and I was able to catch and pass her but she still won by a big margin with me 2nd.

Long race, Holme Fell: My map with GPS track

Results (M/W21E today!)

As expected it was a fell race and luckily my physical shape felt better today but you definitely had to read the map, something I wasn't very good at all the time. Today not only were whistles compulsory (I took one this time) but also jackets/ cagoules! I wore my Wing jacket and was uncomfortably warm from the very first climb. Soon I was together with Grace Crane. I kept trying to get a gap, feeling like a big sweaty idiot in my jacket. We kept choosing different lines but amusingly (/irritatingly) Grace would always reappear. Even the splitting system didn't split us. Grace's jacket had mysteriously fallen off very early in the race. I was 2nd again.

Claire Ward's winning margin was just as impressive as Hollie's. She's won 3 of the 6 middle and long selection races this Spring. Luckily my efforts in the Lakes were convincing enough and I'm selected for the WOC long distance and relay. Selections.

Hollie Orr handing over to me for Clyde cruisers at the 11-person relay.

Achlean, Strathspey, Scotland 2006

From Clyde's Thursday night terrain runs to the WOC relay! Hollie and I will be joined by "old" pro Sarah Rollins. Note to the WOC speaker: do not call Sarah a veteran!

The Tordenskioldløpet bet

2011-05-11T02:00:00.000-07:00

Ally vs. Me. The bet was whoever was faster in Tordenskioldløpet has to cook dinner for the other one every night for a whole week! After studying the splits from the last 2 Trondheim Sprint Cup races I realised I had no chance, plus I was tired from lots of good training. But then Ally came home from another mountain trip in Hurrungane also very tired. He'd taken his randonee skis to save energy compared to splitboarding (clearly he was worried about the 10K bet) but after 15hrs worth of ascending & descending Gjertvasstind & Store Ringstind I reckoned we were both at least equally fatigued and it was game on!

Mountain exercise is king!

Ally had made it pretty clear that his plan was to sit on my shoulder the

whole way and then outsprint me. I decided as a counter-tactic to start quite fast and hope he never caught me. The start was a bit uphill with lots of people jostling for position but I think I got a better start than Ally who had placed himself towards the back of the 600+ starters. Starting at the back meant Ally lost time early on but perhaps paced it better than me. He passed me at maybe the worst possible moment, at around 5.3 km, the start of the tough climb up Korsvik Alle. After that there's a gentle climb on Lade Alle and then a short steep climb up to see the nice view of the fjord out the back of Ringve Museum. I could still see him ahead of me as we ran back down from Ringve Museum and tried to stay positive that he might get tired on the last 2.5km of flat slog. But his endurance and aerobic fitness is good from all his mountain trips and he easily pulled away and finished 1 min ahead.

Ally ran 40:29 to smash his PB /only other 10K time: 43:16 set on snow at Troms Kraft Mila in January held alongside the Polar Night half marathon which I ran. I did 41:33, was running 39-41 min pace on the flatter parts and up to 45 min pace on the steeper uphills (approx. splits).

It was a pretty solid effort by both of us and we went to Burger King for ice cream to celebrate. Quite a few runners were there, we had run past Burger King twice during the race so we think that tempted them in.

Without intending to sound all feminist, this bet says something about modern day equality. One generation ago women were pretty much expected cook for their men every night anyway and only just getting started in competitive distance running (the first Olympic marathon for women was held in 1984). Now social norms limit women less. We have running role models like Paula Radcliffe (2:15 marathon) to inspire us! Paula has said she was inspired by Grete Waitz, Joan Benoit and Ingrid Kristiansen (pictured below with me a couple of years ago on Lerkendal bridge). What a legend! Still in great shape and very free with advice - in short: run a lot, orienteering is a running sport; check out Ingrid's website for more about her concepts for training and life.

Trondheim O season is go go go

2011-05-08T13:30:00.000-07:00

The Trondheim Sprint Cup has been in full swing for weeks now and after I recovered from Easter* I took part in a couple of the rounds.

Trondheim Sprint Cup 3 Results

Clean race and OK shape = probably the closest I'll ever get to Elise on a sprint race and a rare victory over Ally. Total Chick'n Wing domination with 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 6th! Rumour had it some people had already left town for Stockholm where there was some relay race going on...

Map

Trondheim Sprint Cup 4 Results
Not so clean and bad physical shape = Ally and plenty of others kicking my butt. Chick'n Wings on fine form in NTNUi's backgarden especially Elise who was way ahead of anyone in D21.

It's not just sprint orienteering up in Trondheim. Yesterday we ventured across the fjord to Bjugn, for Vårsleppet. The sprint prologue in Botngård finished inside an ice stadium!

Map

After a picnic in the sunshine it was time for some forest orienteering racing. Middle distance chasing start marsh-and-hill-workout.

Map

I haven't quite perfected my magic training formula but at this time of year I seem to respond well to big waves of training. When I get tired towards the end of a training tsunami, however low-key the race, the competitive instinct pushes me to work harder than I could in a solo effort in this depleted state. It's also motivating to suffer heavy defeats! Ambitious overload can be a dangerous game to play, hopefully I've timed the suffering just right. We had a really fun day on Fosen. When training is this fun, it can't be wrong.

NTNUi dominated Vårsleppet with wins for Mari Fasting & Olav Johannes Deelstra; Olav & Britt Inguun Nydal were fastest in the prologue. Wing's Marte Reenaas and Tomas Udrzal ran well for 2nd and 3rd overall. I ended up in about 6th place, about 5 or 6 min slower than Mari over the 2 races, both of which went reasonably well technically.

Today I've been out in Bymarka collecting til topps code words. I bagged Gråkallen and Storheia and enjoyed great weather and views. I'll never get tired of the view from Storheia, on a clear day you can see the snowcapped peaks in Trollheimen to the South and right across the fjord to Bjugn where we'd been racing the day before. Supert! Photos.

*Easter recovery: I iron boosted for several days and took 2 rest days. Then I got a blood test. My iron level was good and my ferritin level -which gives an indication of iron storage- was also OK but down towards the low end of the healthy range. It's possible iron was a factor in my failure to recover from the Craft Cups at Sandefjord. Something to bear in mind. Anyway I gradually felt normal again and I was able to ease back into training. :-)

Acting like the Easter bunny, feeling like ****

2011-04-25T11:45:00.000-07:00

After my good start to the season in Norway I felt really tired. Even after taking three easy days I could still only jog. I had entered the JK sprint & middle to show form before the GB team for Nordic Tour is selected. Everyone feels tired and/or uninspired sometimes but in sport, whatever your excuses are nobody really cares (especially selectors).

After taking a fourth easy day plus a rest day and trying to act as if I was fresh and motivated my physical shape was still really bad during the weekend, I just felt tired all the time. Luckily I still got within 40 sec of the winner both days (Sarah Rollins and/or Pippa Archer). Results.

So what's up with me? Coach Big Jon suggested low iron which has quickly become the prime suspect. I'm now trying to iron boost by eating iron-rich foods and foods that increase iron absorption (article from one of my favourite running blogs). It could just be all the travel and a big increase in running volume over the last month since I stopped skiing. I will find out.

JK sprint map with route: there were some errors with the printing, the olive green colour showing forbidden flower beds, which were not taped in the terrain, has slipped, or the brown colour for the paths has not been printed properly. I stopped a lot to try to figure out the forbidden areas but presumably everyone had problems with this. Apart from this unfortunate glitch JK 2011 was extremely well organised and had a great atmosphere. I lost about 50 sec total, this isn't my favourite style of sprint race, it's really popular in the UK to use as many controls as possible and place them all as awkwardly as possible. People seem to really love this planning style and it made the best use of this small area. I guess I need more practise though.. :-)

JK middle map with route: Complicated sand dunes! I really liked this map and everything fitted pretty well for me from the start but I was moving slowly and made a lot of small mistakes especially in the last part of the course when I went from feeling tired to feeling really tired.

If you've never spent Easter at the JK Festival of Orienteering, next year could be a good time to make your debut. JK 2012 will (probably) be held in Scotland!

Lucky start to the season!

2011-04-17T08:21:00.000-07:00

On Friday night I got my best ever Craft Cup result with 8th place in a really fun night race near Larvik in Southern Norway. As you can see from the photo I was pretty happy with the result! But I made some big, ugly mistakes, some of which were pretty stupid (GPS track , another case of blind eye at the 10th control, mental note: eat more carrots!)

On Saturday morning Paja and Tomas taught me Czech swear words as we explored the local scenery and enjoyed the sunshine. This was obviously great race preparation because in the afternoon we all set new "best ever" Craft Cup results with Tomas 11th, Paja 16th and me pulling out a shock victory in the tricky sprint race in Sandefjord (map with course, below, sorry for the poor quality, zoom in with your browser to get the general idea).

Apart from a stupid miss at the 1st control (20 sec) my race was pretty clean. My legs felt slow and heavy which helped me stay ahead of myself with the map reading and route choices (map with my route, below). A couple of times I stopped to check carefully whether you could get through where I was thinking about running (no. 8) or to check if I really did have to run all the way around (no. 18), worthwhile when you consider the possible time loss if I'd missed a gap that was there or gone for a gap that wasn't. Livesenter: results, GPS tracking etc

Maybe I'm biased but I thought the course planning was fantastic. I'm not a fan of urban control picks. This was challenging with a mixture of longer route choice legs and shorter legs. In my opinion some sprint course planners rely too heavily on "control-description-reading" tricks or have lots of pointless controls, example below. Bit unfair to pick this example because I didn't attend this race but I don't understand the point of controls 27 and 28. Feel free to enlighten me.

Now I'm tired and took today's middle distance (not Craft Cup, day 2 of the Vestfold 2-dagers) as a slow technique session. This wasn't by choice, I was simply unable to put up much of a fight against the terrain. The forest and Bodil really showed me who's boss and put me in my place. The terrain was more fun at night when you couldn't see all the shite you had to battle through or maybe I just wasn't up to the challenge today.

The next Craft Cup races are in Arendal at the end of May (NM sprint and WRE middle distance). I'd love to participate but it depends on a few things that are out of my control.

Coolest race EVER!

2011-04-16T02:06:00.000-07:00

Late last night Tomas Udrzal and I represented Wing in the first Craft Cup race of the season. A night race with individual start in technically challenging terrain near Larvik in the South of Norway.

Livesenter: GPS tracking, results etc

We arrived in the arena at 10 pm to see flaming torches lining the run in, a huge big screen showing the startlist and many runners and spectators buzzing with excitement about the start of the Norwegian orienteering season. The commentator repeated several times that the terrain was really difficult, really technical, the courses had really complicated gaffling and the runnability was reduced due to green areas and lots of big crags. I listened out for advice from the planner on how to tackle the race. He said something like: "read the map". Hmm helpful.

This was one of the most fun races I have ever run! Even if I made quite big mistakes at 5 of the controls, the feeling of navigating under control through the darkness and obstacles to find the other 13 controls and to figure out what I'd done when I had problems was incredible! I finished in 8th place in D21, 8:36 behind winner Ida Bjørgul and Tomas finished 38th of 95 starters in H21. Today Tomas, Pavla and I will compete in a Craft Cup sprint race and tomorrow we get another chance to sample this crazy terrain in a middle distance race. Will it be easier in daylight? Another Brit Daniel Marston was also carrying GPS tracking, his route to the 1st control gives an impression of how difficult the terrain could be! (Sorry Dan!)

Snowless postcard #3: Grymnatta, pretty grim

2011-04-09T05:56:00.000-07:00

Grymnatta: a rough, tough night race with individual start. If you don't attack it and bring a bit of fight you get punished and end up face down in an icy marsh... I had a shocking race. I let myself get pushed around a bit by the terrain and made a lot of big mistakes in the middle of the course. Still it made me feel tough to run through knee deep ice cold marsh and crazy boulder fields in the dark. What a great way to spend a Friday night. I recommend it. (I'm serious.) Splits

Meanwhile check out the Wing girls Elise, Marte & Paja in the first Trondheim Sprint Cup!

Snowless postcard #2: good news & bad news

2011-04-05T13:14:00.001-07:00

Good news: Pre-season panic training in Stockholm continues (calmly and happily). I've been training with Farsta school and my old club OK Ravinen. Yesterday morning on my way back from training in Nacka forest I found a wooden gym in the forest (bench press using logs etc), it's the perfect place for some strength, drills and jumping tomorrow morning - I tested out a few exercises but was a bit too achey from Ravinen's Monday night gympa session (a lot of tricky core / back exercises) to do much. Last night I ran the Ravinen club sprint champs (map above) and today it's Luffarligan.

Bad news: Norwegian Night Champs has been postponed until the Autumn on account of snow. Obviously a tough decision and sad for the organisers. I'm sad too, Wing are not running Tio Mila this year, so NM night was the race I was most excited about this Spring.

Snowless postcard #1: blind eye

2011-04-04T14:45:00.000-07:00

Having a great time in the mysterious snow free place. Weather good. Snow variable -disappearing by the hour.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of running an almost-snow-free orienteering race on an exotic island. If I turn a blind eye to the 10th control (which I did twice during the race) the orienteering feeling was quite good even with tired legs. Splits.

My legs are absorbing plenty of running kilometres again. 2.4*2 of these km were run with my old friend and new training partner, 10 year old Oliver. I've had a lovely time catching up with him and his family.

This morning I found 22 controls before 9:30AM, all where I wanted them to be! x

The great snow escape

2011-03-31T09:58:00.000-07:00

With heavy snowfalls for the last week the conditions for orienteering in Trondheim aren't great and even in the South of Norway orienteering events are being called off left, right and centre. Even though indoor orienteering and ski orienteering are fun I'm escaping Trondheim in search of snow-free (ish) terrain to get a hit of the real thing.

Wing Ski-O girls at the Ski-WOC relay (Photo by Chris Forne)

And here is another (much cooler) video from the Wing OK indoor club champs that Paja & I organised a couple of weeks ago (video by Andrea Vindal).

Meanwhile Ally is skinning up and skiing down some big mountains between Chamonix & Zermatt. We'll find out whether a month of orienteering or ski mountaineering is better training for a 10K running race. As an experiment the methodology is flawed on many levels.. but anyway it's great extra motivation for me since the loser has to cook dinner every night for a whole week (and it can't be just muesli apparently..)

Ally in hard training for Tordenskioldløpet (photos by Tim Mak):

Ski WOC: a beginner's story.

2011-03-28T08:46:00.000-07:00

The Ski orienteering World Champs were held in Sweden last week, only 3 hours drive from where I live in Trondheim, Norway.

I took part in the relay for Great Britain. I felt it would be a fun, unique experience and that it would be cool to have a GB women's relay team. We were the least experienced team on the start line. Our first leg Sarah Hale is one of the best 16 year old cross country skiers in Sweden (with an English father, orienteering WOC medallist and former double-Swedish Champion Steve "Stan" Hale) but she had only done one ski-O race before the weekend. Our anchor Becky Hoare is also a decent skier, having trained for 6 months last year with the GB biathlon team and Army cross country skiing teams but before Ski WOC she had never done a ski-O race!

And me.. I have lived in Trondheim for 3 years and therefore do some skiing in order to survive Winter training. But it's only the last 2 months I have made a proper effort to improve my skate skiing technique, with the help of Marte Reenaas. I've improved but neglected to do any ski-O races or training on (ridiculous) scooter tracks...

GB Women's relay team: enthusiasm over experience!

Becky skied all the races at Ski WOC and got better every day. Sarah and I skied the model event and public race on Saturday. We felt that if we all skied our best and avoided making orienteering mistakes we would have a chance to beat at least one of the other teams and finish top 12 (27 Nations participated in Ski WOC but only 13 complete Women's relay teams were entered). Our main rivals ended up being Japan who were good skiers with efficient technique on the big ski tracks.

Map from my relay forking

Sarah skied a great first leg. She had some trouble getting her map into her map board. At the mass start you get 15 seconds to get the map in and then everyone starts double poling like hell out of the start.. but after that she had a great race and came back mid pack ahead of some good teams like Lithuania. We did a textbook exchange - Stan had instructed me to start poling gently to get rolling and then double pole hard once Sarah had tagged me - luckily I have watched a few ski races on TV.

Once I'd got my map in the map board (and destroyed the map tree - lifting the whole thing out of the snow by accident) I started skiing really hard on the big track towards the first control. I was trying to dance along keeping my hips stable and I couldn't even see the scooter track I had planned to take to the 1st control, it seemed to be covered in snowdrift so I tried another route.. the next section went OK but I was losing some time to more efficient skiers on the big tracks. To the 6th control I took a long route round to the right on big tracks. In this flat part of the map the snow was crusty and the terrain open so even the scooter tracks were fast so I lost time skiing further.

As we came through the arena and over the bridge I had been passed by everyone, including Japan. But then there was a big steep hill climb and it was possible to take most of the climb on a big ski track. Perfect! Just like the big, evil climbs in Bymarka. I paddled hard, ie heart-exploding-out-of-chest hard, passed Japan and nearly caught Belarus.

The last part of the course was a bit kamikazee, steeply downhill on tiny scooter tracks with lots of twists and turns. The only thing to do was go for it, stay on your feet and try not to overshoot any turns or controls! It went OK but I hadn't seen the other girls, maybe they had different forking? I chased Marte down the last hill and over the bridge - she came in to take silver for Norway as I exchanged to Becky - ahead of Japan and close behind Belarus. I nearly stacked it right before the changeover in my excitement but managed to regain my balance and avoid humiliation. Becky had a great ski on last leg, it was her favourite course of the week and best race and she extended our gap ahead of Japan so we finished in 11th place!

Team Japan - thanks for a great race!

After the race my friend, adventurer Emily Wall told me about a special technique for skiing uphill on the narrow scooter tracks. This would have been useful! I think she had kept it secret in order to outshine me in the beginner stakes ;). But anyway Emily and I have both improved loads since my first attempt at ski-O in Trysil last year, we were much faster despite the steep terrain. I expected to take up to 100% longer than the best but was "only" 65% behind. Coach Marte was surprised and proud of our efforts. Read about the SKiwi WOC experience.

Emily Wall - best Kiwi ski orienteer ever - 37th in the long distance!

Almost all the others in team GB were much more experienced skiers than me, most of them having raced cross country skiing before and I got some abuse for my dodgy equipment and lack of interest in wax. My heavy, bendy poles seemed to be their main concern. Apparently I really ought to splash out for some decent carbon poles. Maybe. I'm keen to keep skiing and maybe do a bit more ski-O since there is a growing ski-O scene in Trondheim. But for now it's time to put the skis away and dust off my running shoes.

Ski-WOC

Women's relay results

Team USA video from the Sprint relay

Indoor orienteering & outdoor adventuring

2011-03-22T03:00:00.000-07:00

Winter rolls on here in Trondheim, so last week Paja and I organised our first ever Club Championships in indoor orienteering.

Our event was extremely compact. The "terrain": a 20 x 30 m gym hall in a local primary school. 26 participants ran 3 courses with total times counting for the final result. There were no control descriptions or codes and it was forbidden to jump over obstacles. But we didn't disqualify anyone, we simply added a hefty penalty of 30 sec to their time for each mistake.

The vibe from the participants was positive and competition fierce. Tomas was superfast on courses 1 & 2 and held a narrow lead over Mathias Bjugan but then snatched defeat from the jaws of victory with a mispunch penalty on the final course. Mathias and Elise were crowned indoor club champions in H/D17. An honour I'm sure Elise is proud to have on her sporting CV along with her WOC-relay silver medal. Report (på norsk) and results here.

On Sunday I had the chance to try a less budget version of indoor-o organised by NTNUi but a ski trip turned into an epic. Eventually, after summit joy, we returned triumphantly to the koia and grabbed our big packs. Ally and I were on alpine touring gear which is heavy but effective for skinning and really handy on the descents. We raced down the powdery hillside through the quiet dusk, even tackling the "snow wall" without hesitation (on fjellski such recklessness would mean almost certain death) and arrived at the car just before dark. Good times.

Smiles and shared tactics after conquering the snow wall on the way up

The World Ski-O Champs starts today in Sweden with the Sprint. I'll be crossing my fingers for Marte & Lars and the Kiwi team in their sexy SkiTrab ski dresses. Next weekend I'll join team GB to ski in the Women's relay. I have, to some extent, improved my skiing technique and am looking forward to the experience. Bring on the scooter tracks, I'm ready to pole like hell!

From Spain to Portugal (like a spoilt brat)

2011-03-10T23:00:00.000-08:00

After good times in Andalucia I hitched with a helpful orienteer to Seville and took the overnight bus to Lisbon. The journey cost me a mere 20 euro and I woke up in Lisbon ready for more..

In Lisbon I met Rachael Elder and Alex Rothman and we headed North to Figueira de Foz. We stayed at a beautiful surf camp run by friendly surfer dude Pedro. There are plenty of good orienteering maps round here and the house is big enough for a large group with two big kitchens and several bathrooms. But we had the place to ourselves! Feeling incredibly spoilt we headed out for training with the Swiss team who were staying nearby. My favourite session was trains on Bom Sucesso (extract below). Map. Headcam footage coming soon..

From Fig we headed inland to compete in Portugal O Meeting. More feelings of being a spoilt brat.. awesome event, sunshine and more kindness and hospitality from Bristol orienteering Klubb who let me crash at their accommodation when the Rothmans eventually got sick of me and went home. I ran a long race (map at the top) and 2 middle races.

My attempts at racing at Andalucian O meeting showed I need to control my speed (like most of the AOM middle race) and react more quickly to alarm bells to avoid "crazy disasters".

The challenge was that POM was about a gazillion times more technical than AOM or as Ally remarked when I showed him the middle race maps: "It doesn't even look like a real place!" Ally didn't join me on these trips because during the Winter he prefers stuff like this:

See his flickr stream for more sickening Winter shenanigans. Anyway.. the POM maps did in fact depict a real place. If anything it was even more insane on the ground than it looks on the maps.

On the whole POM was a tiny triumph for me at least in terms of avoiding "crazy disasters" and I allowed myself a few little internal high-fives. I still made 3-4 minutes of mistakes in total per race (too much!) but the technical feeling is getting better all the time.

Season 2011 in ON! POM results

Andalucia: el training camp magnifico

2011-03-02T11:50:00.000-08:00

Last week I had the pleasure of training together with clubmates from my UK club, Nottinghamshire OC in Canos de Meca, near Barbate, Spain.

Richard "the dark horse" Robinson

Jenny "the wind-farm enthusiast" Evans

James "the storyteller" Taylor and myself were joined by Charlotte "the giggler" Watson from West Cumbria OC for 6 days training organised by sun-o.

If Carlsberg made training camps.. well based on their beer it probably wouldn't be as good as this to be honest. We were spoilt for choice of sessions with most of them within 15 min drive of our spacious, all mod con apartment.

In Spain I found more than 165 controls and embraced a few hefty "learning experiences" (no. 8 and no. 19 on this map). Like techy geeks we nerded over our GPS tracks after each session and tried to improve our skills. For recovery, as well as lots of sleep we enjoyed swimming in the warm sea, watching plenty of Gavin & Stacey and devouring delicious homecooked veggie food.

At the end of the camp we partcipated in Andalucia O meeting (Results). This was a fabulous event with finish arena for both races right at our apartment block and starts within 2 km. I'd definitely recommend folks to head to Canos for training and sunshine (17-25 °C everyday!) Now I'm in Portugal for more orienteering training and races before I head home next week for hardcore panic ski-o training. I've been doing some ski exercises everyday and watching some ski-VM on web TV...

I've been posting a few of my maps from this barmark training period to a set on flickr: Vintersamling 2011. You can click to zoom and view all sizes for a closer look.

Tough love from the European Champion

2011-02-11T08:28:00.001-08:00

Helen Offpiste
Originally uploaded by pyrat

The photo is of me at Oppdal a few weeks ago but Marte Reenaas had me recreating turns like this on skate skis on steep cross country ski tracks last night! Luckily there is no photo evidence.
"Ski agressive!"
"You chickened out on that one!... Again! ...More speed!"

Ski orienteering is not for the faint hearted, Marte told me a story of how one of the girls at the European Champs had to have stiches in her arse after one of the races! Then she showed me how to do tight figures of 8 round trees in soft snow whilst keeping as much speed as possible "perfect ski-o training".

Seriously though Marte is a great coach, she already has me looking (slightly) more pro and converting my (limited) power into more forward motion just by subtle changes to my body position and poling timing. When I'm allowed to use poles that is.. Marte made me and New Zealand ski-O star Emily Wall "paddle" up a steep hill without poles... the pain! ...I tried to explain that I'd run 8*1K at the indoor track the night before and a fast O technique session the day before that.. but this session was all about "tough love" and "dancing" and "skiing agressive!"

We finished with ski-O intervals and a double poling technique lesson. Double poling uphill and double poling on the flat. Different techniques, equally strenuous.

Then I excused myself, shuffled home and lay on the floor.

The pace on my run this morning was pretty slow.. 90-minutes-recovery-shuffle would be a better description.

We had a Wing kick-off meeting earlier this week and set some goals for the coming season and our new coaching team was announced today on OPN.no.
If you can't read Norwegian the general vibe is: Wing will work hard to be good (and crazy) in 2011. :-)

Soon I'm heading to Spain and Portugal for some orienteering (via Neuchatel!) Some areas by Trondheim fjord are now free from snow so it's already been possible to run a few orienteering technique sessions at home but it will be good to get away.. mainly to give my legs a break from skate skiing..

Finally, a note about balance: My balance is improving rapidly, I've been skiing a lot more than usual and crashing a lot less. I now fall about once every 2 weeks. When I first moved to Trondheim, a bit more than 3 years ago, and started cross country skiing, I crashed about once every 5 minutes. As I think I've mentioned before, the tracks here are quite steep ;). Since my skis are attached to my feet by way of boots and bindings I'm pretty confident that better balance on one ski (and two skis) will transfer to better balance on these same feet (connected to my brain by the same nerves) whilst running in rough and rocky terrain. Other people share this theory. But who knows? One thing is for sure: I find ski orienteering insanely fun. Kjempegøy!

2 months til WOC, yes really.. ! ..Uh oh!!

2011-01-25T05:53:00.001-08:00

Really excited about map board
Originally uploaded by sutcliffe_3r

Yep I'm "selected" to ski a leg of the WOC relay on 27th March in Tänndalen.

Time to step up my ski training and get my weeny shoulders producing potent poling power.

I went straight round to my friend Marte "ski-o superstar" Renaas's house to borrow a map board and get some tips. We did some ski technique exercises in her living room and looked at Swedish ski-o maps - there seem to be slightly different styles for how the scooter networks are prepared in different countries and different proportions of ski tracks to scooter tracks - in Tänndalen it seems that the vast majority of the courses will be on scooter tracks.

Examples of Swedish ski-o maps

Mainly I just need to get out skiing more. I'll try to maintain my running (I'm still prioritising running sessions) but ski more and try to improve my skating technique as much as possible before March 27th. In reality I only have 6 weeks to prepare since I'm going "bare-forest" training in Spain and Portugal at the end of February and start of March for some much needed orienteering technique practise.

I think some training for the ski-WOC relay will actually benefit my orienteering too. This time of year the running conditions in Trondheim are pretty vile, I seem to end up running quite a lot on ice in dobbed shoes. From ski-o I get orienteering, balance, agility, coordination, core strength/ whole body strength and endurance training all in one. It's fun and adds variety to my training. Until now I haven't had any goal for my skiing other than just extra hours of cross training. So unless I break some bones this can only be a positive adventure!

The two other girls in the GB relay team (Sarah Hale and Becky Hoare) are good skiers. I'm mainly bringing enthusiasm! This definitely feels a bit "Eddie the Eagle" but I admired his courage and never thought he was a National embarassment.

So we have GB Women's ski-O relay team for the first time in over 20 years. GBR with Patricia Murphy, Isobel Inglis and Frances Murray got the bronze medal in this event in 1975! Hopefully we will encourage others for the future. The organisers are really encouraging more National teams to participate and there will even be a (s)Kiwi team for the first time!

Mørketidsløpet aka The Polar Night half marathon!

2011-01-11T00:00:00.000-08:00

I had a fabulous start to 2011 with wins in an epic New Year's Day rounders match on Lossiemouth beach and the Great Pie-Off back in Trondheim. But the last 10 days leading up to the Polar Night half marathon were not very good training-wise since I got a cold. This was probably more due to catching up with lots of family and friends in different places over the festive period than it was to jumping into the North Sea to celebrate the rounders victory.

Anyway my cold wasn't very bad but I was keen to shake it in time to run Mørketidsløpet / The Polar Night Half Marathon. I'd trained well in the Autumn and had been looking forward to an unusual running experience and seeing the Northern Lights! Also at one stage a friend and I got all excited about the New York Marathon so when I entered the Polar Night half the qualifying time to guarantee an entry to New York next Autumn was in the back of my mind. It turns out for women it's not too tough (sub 1hr37 half or sub 3hr23 full marathon between Jan. 1. 2010 and Jan 31. 2011) especially if you choose a course on dry asphalt! - but that would be too easy right? ;) In the end though, by race day I wasn't even sure I would start.

The race day forecast for Tromsø was -14°C. Luckily it was much milder (-5°C) so I eventually decided to start but still wasn't sure whether I would jog, run or race it, I wasn't sure if my body would cooperate since I hadn't run anything high intensity since Boxing Day and most importantly I wanted to be healthy enough to get back into normal training afterwards.

Survival tactics were needed!

1. Run behind big burly Men as often as possible to shelter from the Arctic wind.

2. Try to run where the snow was the most hard packed and stay out of the softer more energy sapping snow as much as possible.

3. Stay nice and relaxed for at least the first hour of the run.

4. A few sweeties in my back pocket to munch on around halfway.

5. Lots of clothes! Thermal and windproof jacket under my Bella vest (I was trying to set a record for the most Northerly appearance of a Bellahouston Roadrunners vest), windproof winter tights, ski gloves and buff! I took my buff off just after halfway and my hair froze!

My tactics worked and at the turn at Tromsø airport I realised I was just behind the leading lady. I ran behind her for a bit but with about 9 km left to go, having eaten all my sweets and feeling surprisingly strong I decided to wind it up a bit and try to get a gap. I put in some brief bursts of effort and increased my general steady plod a bit and gradually opened up a nice lead. The last 5km got a bit tough, more hilly and softer snow than I remembered from on the way out! My mind started to wander a bit.. "how come on out-and-back routes you always seem to be running into the wind the whole way?".. but soon I was back amongst the pretty lights and candles of Tromsø centre, I realised I could win without a sprint (hooray) and could just cruise in and enjoy the lovely atmosphere. My finish time was 1 hr 34 min 40 sec.

I was met by some reporters from the local newspapers: "Kom du hit for å vinne?" (Did you come here to win?) "Nei jeg kom for å se nordlyset, men det er litt skyet" (No I came to see the Northern Lights, but it's cloudy). But we saw some magical green swooshes in the sky later on after the prizegiving and then out in the wilds on a beautiful ski / hut trip. More photos (or for totally awesome shots check out pyrat's Tromsø trip pics). Kjempeartig :)

Spice

2010-12-26T18:00:00.000-08:00

Variety is the spice of life and in training it helps to keep things fun whilst coaxing the body into adapting to different challenges. After a short technique camp in Kristiansand, I joined clubmates from Wing on a ski orienteering weekend in Venabu. The skiing involved in ski-o is even more extreme than on the steep cross country ski tracks in Trondheim. As well as a fun weekend I got some good balance training for France! Marte insists I step up and try the big girls' course next time, but rumours (/jokes) about ski-WOC are premature! However, there may well be a British team this Winter and any Brits actually skilled in this sport should check this out!

Next stop was Nottingham and in amongst some good running volume on extended versions of my childhood running routes I checked controls at the NOC Christmas event at Walesby scout camp. Later on I ran around the Brown course (map above). The course made good use of the area - not the most technical 45 minutes of orienteering I've done but always a great event with free soup and mince pies and unlike the 10K road race I was due to run, NOC did not cancel their event due to the *EXTREME WEATHER*!

I made it up to Inverness for Christmas and did a traditional orienteering session on Christmas Day at Keppernach a small runnable wood with contour detail. On Boxing Day a group of us joined another great British Christmas tradition: The Turkey Trot. A fancy dress fun run, with "take a prize, win a prize" concept (a good way to get rid of unwanted Christmas presents). The overall winner was the one closest to their predicted time - no watches allowed. The out and back course was 3.3 miles of flat snowy / icy tarmac. Background research showed the fastest female from the year before took 22 min so I predicted 22 min for myself (dressed as Supergirl) but ran 21:21, about 40 sec behind Inverness Harrier Jenny Bannerman, who was way too strong for me after the turn. I finished ahead of Super Ted but behind Geordie from Star Trek. Nairn Turkey Trot

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

God jul og godt nytt år!

I've been mapped!

2010-12-08T05:52:00.001-08:00

Something relatively cool (but also quite nerdy) was just brought to my attention.

Last summer after WOC I went on a bike holiday with my boyfriend from Nordkapp to Å in Lofoten, 1100 km cycling and feral living. A few times during the trip we saw a Google street view car and joked about being mapped.

It happened! At least twice!

Random road on Lyngen

At Brensholmen ferry port

We could have saved even more weight and not taken a camera!?

If you spend a lot of time out training on the streets of our World, maybe it's happened to you too? Personally I'll be sticking to the forests in future... big brother Google is watching you..! ;-)

If you're interested in our Arctic Cycle or want tips for making a similar journey yourself, check out the simplyexcited blog where Ally documented the whole trip:

Equipment list

Finnmark

Troms

Senja, Andøya and Vesteralen

Lofoten

Fresh start

2010-12-06T03:25:00.001-08:00

Into the sun shot
Originally uploaded by pyrat

Just back from a great training weekend in Kristiansand. Believe the hype, I want to go back in the Spring/ Summer and plukk more controls. Special shout to my new friends from Varegg and Ivar Haugen's gang of organised organisers.

The image below gives you an impression of my favourite of the 5 technique sessions I did at Camp Norway. 44 controls, postplukk. I need to do lots more of this type of training before and during next season!