Last orienteering of 2009

Today I ran my last 'race' of the year, a local event put on by my home club, Mole Valley. I had good memories of the area from the last time I ran there about 10 years ago, and the area lived up to expectation. Really nice forest and a good course.

This is the end to a mixed year - the highs being top 10s in the World Champs Long and World Cup Final, and lows being missing NOC and World Games through sickness.

I started the year living in Stockholm, and now I live in Sheffield. After 1 term of my Masters degree, I am already enjoying it more than my previous degree, and I look forward to carrying that on in 2010. I am also enjoying Sheffield life, with plenty of training in the beautiful Peak District - perfect physical training for Trondheim!

For the first time in 4 years, I am not going to South Africa in January, instead I have 2 exams, and assignment, a training camp in the Lake District and lectures to look forward too. I am off to Portugal though, for POM and NAOM in February.

I have finally drawn my routes on the maps from the Sheffield City race, which was probably the best orienteering I did in the UK this year (although there were some really good races!).

Routegadget for prologue here and final here

Here are the maps from today.

Venice and a quick catch-up

Been a while since my last post and I have been busy!

In the last 2 months I have found a new place to live and started my degree. I am now sharing a house with Marcus Pinker (Irish number 1) in Broomhill in Sheffield, and I am taking an MSc in Sport and Exercise Science at Sheffield Hallam University.

Winter training has started well, and I have a really good program in place including strenght and conditioning at the performance centre at Hallam University.

I have been doing a little bit of orienteering too (not much!). Winning street orienteering races in Cambridge and Oxford. I also went to Venice last weekend. Unfortunately I was a little sick in the week before, so I wasn't quite in best shape, but I was satisfied with my 5th place, about 2.40 down on Mamleev. Not bad for a rookie in the streets of Venice.

This weekend I am doing my last race of the year, the Sheffield City Chase which should be really exciting! Sheffield is my new home, but I haven't explored it much yet, so hopefully I will know it a little better after the weekend.

Some other exciting new developments include a new job - lead coach of South Yorkshire Orienteers - probably the most successful club in the country, and last night voted Sports Club of the Year at the South Yorkshire sports awards, and a couple of new sponsors who I will write about soon.

And that's the end of that chapter....

My new playground

On Tuesday I moved out of my flat in Sweden and headed back to the UK. After 2 years in Stockholm it is time for a change, and I will now be living in Sheffield. Sheffield is the home of outdoor sport in England, and I think it will be a great place to prepare through the winter, both physically and technically. Close by is the Peak District, with endless hilly terrain running. The Lake District is only 2 hours away, and being right in the middle of England, I will be well positioned to travel to races. There are also many other top orienteers living in Sheffield, and I look forward to training hard with them.

I will start a part time Masters degree in Sport and Exercise Science at Sheffield Hallam University on Monday, and I will do some part time work as well (coaching and mapping).

WOC Long Distance top 10!

The culmination of the World Champs this year was the long distance. 17.5km with 750 metres of climbing, and some big route choices. This was the race I was really aiming for this year, and after my great qualification race I was relatively confident that at least my fitness was good enough for a top result. It also meant that I was starting 3rd from last, with only Thierry and Baptiste after me. Realistically, I was always expecting to see one or both of them, and I managed to stay in front for more than 50 minutes. To be honest, when Thierry catches you and you have the same butterflies, it would be more than a little stupid to ignore him - my speed definitely increased after then. I had no problem to run at the same speed as him though, and passing through the spectator control with 2.5km to go, I understood that I had a chance for top 10. I could not stay with Thierry after that though, and he was out of sight on the steep rocky slope to number 30. I really gave everything I had, and I don't really know how I found the last couple of controls! The tough climbs were a killer, but it seems like others had even more problems than I did, and I actually took some places on the last loop, despite feeling like I was going backwards.... As I sprinted into the finish, I heard that I was running to 9th place!

Before the championships, my goal had been top 20. After the qualification, I had small dreams for a top 10, but it was still unbelievable to actually do it. I had a good race technically, losing some time to the 5th (lost focus while taking a gel), and then a couple of little wobbles towards the end (24, 26 and 31).

This was a really nice end to WOC week, after a mediocre sprint race, and a decent run in the relay. I am really happy for Thierry that he took his first medal in the long - he really deserved it after both the problems in the relay last year, and also his selfless act in the relay this year. I will be cheering for France in the relay in Trondheim (after GB of course!).

Results here

My route is shown here - although it is not exactly right in some places!

Will scan some maps in soon with my routes

Photo Richard Baxter

World Champs Relay

The Dream Team! (In a couple of years...)

It was always going to be tough to live up to last year, and I think that it shows how incredible last years performance really was. Matt performed pretty well to come back just over a minute down, but then me and Scott were taught a lesson in just how fit you need to be to fight for medals. Both of us felt good for long parts of the race, and were fighting with some top teams, but as the courses got more physical and the race was coming to a climax, both of us struggled physically on the tough climbs. I started really well, and after 35 minutes running I could still see Francois Gonon in front of me (who came back 1st on the leg). But then the last 20 minutes I had problems on the seemingly endless climbs, one after another, and not only that, coming off the climbs I was in oxygen debt so 3 or 4 times I made small mistakes 15-30 seconds. I changed over 9th, 3.59 behind. I had the 8th fastest time on my leg, 54.51 to Prochazka's 51.55. I should have run about a minute and a bit quicker to be satisfied with my race, but I don't have the physical capacity yet to run like the leaders (although I am getting closer!).

Scott had a tough day against all the big boys, and we finished 9th (but that doesn't include the 4 teams involved in the 'stick incident').

Results here

Map when I get home