Back in snowy Sweden

Finally I'm back home after more than 2 months away training in South Africa and England. It's good to be back, even if it means lots of running in the snow. I have got back into some really good technical training (some maps below), and some British juniors came out for a long weekend to get some experience in Scandinavia. As well as some tough orienteering training, we also had time to do some night sledging on the Lidingo ski slope and have a bit of a birthday party.

Last week I did an interview for an outdoor gear website, you can read it here.

Labyrinth Orienteering

This interesting sounding training was as complicated as it looked. 75 minutes to score as many points as possible, 1 point for a red control, 2 for blue, 3 for green. Double points if you are the first to a control (it was a mass start). Minus 1 point for each time you cross a 'wall', and for every minute late. I was RUBBISH. The map was old and the vegetation was out of date, but that is no excuse. I started really fast and made a huge parallel error trying to be the first to the green control. I crossed about 5 walls on the way there! After that was much better, once I had relocated, and I only touched a wall once by accident and once on purpose on the way back when I was running out of time.

Really cool training, but I was pathetically bad!

I ran this course from last years club night champs with Jonn Are, nice medium intensity training in quite an urban forest.

Today I ran in the Vinterserien race in Nacka - one of my favourite places to run in Stockholm. Really beautiful terrain, pretty nice course. I made one mistake at number 10 - the control was really tucked away and I ran right past it. Apart from that pretty happy.

UK Cup race 1 and British Relay Championships

The very early British season continued this weekend with the first elite races of the year. First up was the first UK Cup race, the British equivalent of Eliteseries, including all the top races like the JK and the British Champs, and some stand alone races like this. It also doubled as a junior cup race, so there was some pride at stake there too!
The race was held at Hampton Ridge in the New Forest, which is an absolutely beautiful place, but could never be accused of having the most challenging orienteering terrain. The main challenges were understanding how the gorse bushes were mapped (failed utterly at the first control and lost 1.30), keeping direction across featureless heathland, and working out which of the many small parallel ditches are the one which is marked on the map.
After the first couple of controls, I had a close to perfect race, and I was able to push the pace quite well. Towards the end, I caught Peter Hodkinson, one of the top juniors at the moment (he had a pretty good race, less than 3 minutes down!), but I couldn't run away from him, and a tactical falling flat on my face in the mud at the last control meant I didn't have to sprint finish against him :)
I managed to take the victory, but Duncan ran really well until the last part when he was a bit scrappy and let me back in. Great to see the juniors doing so well!
Results

Sunday was the British Relay Championships - the first weekend in March! Bit early for some, and the start list was weaker than previous years. The timing of the race affected my club too, with several of our best runners unable to come. Unfortunately my training mate from when I was back in the UK, Jules Simpson, hasn't been training quite as he used to, but he was doing a decent job on first leg until the technical green area towards the end when he dropped almost 5 minutes! He came back in 15th, 7 minutes behind the rampant favourites, South Yorkshire and Nick Barrable. Matt Halliday, our rising star and junior team member, ran really well to bring us up to 7th place, and in a pack up to fourth place. I started fast, and quickly myself and the South London runner, Ralph Street (another really fast junior!) were running away from the other guys in the pack. We ran at a high speed, and pretty accurately too, and half way we caught the 3rd team (although actually Thames Valley were actually 3rd at that stage, they were ineligible with a foreign runner, Bertuks, in their team). Coming back into the woodland, and the technical green area, I was able to get a gap to Ralph, and caught up with Bertuks at the second last control. Again a tactical tripping over my own feet meant I didn't have to do a sprint finish, although to be honest the effort I put in to catch Bertuks over the last 2km meant I had absolutely nothing in the tank as he sailed up the hill to cross the line. Luckily (for us) they were not allowed to take a prize, so Octavian Droobers took their first relay medal in a couple of years (we won in 2003, and have taken one bronze since then I think, but apart from that it has been a lean couple of years). British Champs bronze to start the year - pretty good! South Yorkshire were run away winners as expected, but it was good to see Sheffield University take second with 3 solid performances. I had the fastest time of the day, and if Jules hadn't made the mistakes at the end, it could have been really interesting to see if I could have caught Baker on the last leg.

Results here

First racing of 2009 - English Cross Country Champs and Interland

This weekend I kicked off 2009 with the national cross country championships and Interland. First up on saturday was the xc, and after a 2 year break I was ready to resume mudrunning with a new club - Aldershot, Farnham and District AC (one of the top clubs in the country and close to my hometown). I was quite nervous before the start of the 12km race, partly due to my large training load this winter which simultaneously made me feel that I should not be at my best, but also that I was running more and faster than ever before. and also because after 2 years, I could still remember how much these races hurt. 1500 men lined up on the start line on a beautifully sunny day on Parliament Hills in northern London. My goals were to try and run a smart race, finish as the best orienteer and come easily inside top 100. The first 400m were all uphill, and I had decided to take this easy and then push off the top as most people kill themselves and get into oxygen debt for a good start. I felt this really paid off, and although perhaps I could have had a better result pushing from the gun, I ran the whole race feeling 'comfortable' (although that word doesnt really apply!). Easily outside the top 200 at the top of the hill, I was then able to stretch out, and spend most of the first 7-8km overtaking people. The course was pretty ideal for orienteers, very undulating with some pretty steep climbs, and very deep mud after 9 other races before hand and then 1500 guys! Part was even in a forest round some trails. On the second lap, I had settled into a position just outside the top 50, and overtaking became much harder, but with a couple of kms to go and some big climbs I kicked in and got up into about 42nd on the last bend. Unfortunately a combination of no really fast work this year, a high training milage and those last climbs meant I had nothing in the home straight and was killed on the run in to finish 48th (41.23). Despite this disappointing finish, overall I was very satisfied with my race. I was 6 seconds from top 40, 33 seconds from top 30, and 61 seconds from top 20, so I feel that with some decent prep for the race, and maybe a couple more xc races under my belt, top 20 is an achievable target. I was also top orienteer, with Rob Baker next in 86th.

My legs then had 18 hours to recover for the first international race of the year - Interland. An annual match between England, Holland, the various parts of Belgium, and sometimes (although not this year) the west part of Germany. This year the match was held in England, very close to my hometown, so I couldn't turn down the opportunity to run in one of the forests I remember from my childhood. Despite the exertions of the previous day, I was really motivated to have a good performance, and although my legs felt a little sore when I warmed up, in general I felt strong and was able to run fast. I had a good race, only losing some time at the 22nd control when I lost my direction a little, and finished the 15km in a little under 74 minutes. I was the first finisher, and I had to wait for all the other runners to come in. Craney and Barrable were a couple of minutes behind, but Fabi was ahead of me at the radio control, and it was a nervous wait for him a the finish. Finally he came in, having lost time to me in the last part of the course, finishing around 1 minute behind me, but he had been running so fast in the start! At the 16th control he was already 1 1/2 minutes ahead and I had been running really good!

Anyway, a nice race in a beautiful forest, a good performance and another victory for myself and for the England team :) A good start to the year.

February- back in the UK, new look GB team, starting to prepare for Tiomila

Sweden - just like South Africa

So I got back from South Africa to wintery Europe and quite a shock. Seeing the sub zero temperatures in Sweden, I decided to stay and train in the UK for all of February (although we had some record snow in the south east of England too!). First up was the new look GB team Planning Weekend, which was the first opportunity to hear our new performance director talk about his plans for the year and the future - exciting stuff! Although we still don't have a coach...

My parents garden in Surrey!

After that I have been visiting a few friends, doing some really good training and enjoying being in the UK for a change. Things I have been doing include some running in the Peak District, joining a new running club, Aldershot, Farnham and District Athletics Club, getting back into some climbing, and last weekend I went out to southern Sweden for a TIOmila camp with Lidingö. It was a really good camp with some quality training sessions and a really good atmosphere, but unfortunately there was 5-10cm of snow, and it was bloody freezing! Down to minus nine in the mornings.

Running in the peaks-

Kick start to 2009 in South Africa

Just as in 2008, I have spent the first part of the year in Dullstroom in South Africa. Dullstroom is a small town in north east South Africa, 2000m above sea level. The temperature there in January is a steady 20 - 25 degrees, and although there are sometimes storms, the conditions are very good for training. There is a good gym with spinning bikes, a forest close by which is beautiful to run in, and endless dirt roads and rolling grassland hills to run in. This year I travelled with Rasmus Soes, and we were joined by 9 orienteers from Switzerland, 4 track runners from Norway, Bjorn Eriksen from Halden, and Emil Lauri joined us for 10 days.
My training month was close to perfect. Some injury problems with my calf in the autumn did not stop me training how I wanted, and I had a really great month - my best training month ever. In 30 training days I did 540km running and 200km cycling. More than 61 hours training in total.

We aslo spent one night in Kruger Game Reserve (pictures below), and Emil and I took part in a race in Johannesburg Zoo, which was said to be the largest orienteering event in South Africa for 20 years.

I am back in the UK now, for the first weekend training camp with the new look GB team. Then it is back to Sweden for a few weeks. I plan to spend a couple more weeks in the UK in February and March, doing some good training and taking in some early spring races.