Monday, March 25, 2013

Head cam video from MOC Sprint in Matera

In most of the sprint trainings and races during MOC in Italy I was running with a head cam. That gave me good possibilities to analyze my performances, like if I had a good flow in my map reading, if I was in advance with my route planing, and how much time I lost on hesitation or other mistakes. As you can see I use quite much time reading the map in a tricky city like it was in Italy.

I guess it can be good training also for others to watch the videos at the same time as you look at the map and try to follow where I am running, and maybe also take out your own route choices.

Here is the video from the race in Matera (map with comments):


Here is a video from my 2nd leg in a sprint relay in Castellaneta (map):


I have also uploaded a music video some of the boys in IFK Lidingö SOK made last autumn as a parody to "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen :

Thursday, March 21, 2013

MOC in Puglia

Last week I spent in Puglia in the South of Italy on a training camp with the Norwegian National Team. The first four days we participated in the MOC Sprint Camp organized by Janne Salmi and the last three days we ran the Mediterranean Orienteering Championship. It was a strong competition field on both the trainings and especially the MOC races since the whole Swiss Team and many other top runners were participating.

During the Sprint Camp we did in total 5 sprint trainings with high intensity and 3 easy trainings in forest. Wednesday we had a sprint championship similar day, with a Qual race in the morning and a Final in the afternoon. On the other sprint trainings we did several shorter loops.

The first MOC race was a Middle distance. I was not pushing maximum since it had been a though training camp and I did also some stupid mistakes.

The second race was a Long distance with mass start. I was feeling tired in the beginning, and lost contact with the leading runners already on the long leg to the 1st control. But after felling stronger in the last part of the course I was able to finish first in the second group.

The last race was a Sprint in the historical old city of Matera, that is seen on as one of the most tricky places for a sprint after the PWT race held there in 2002. I managed to do a stable race avoiding big mistakes, but lost time on some route choices and hesitation. My result was a 8th place, 1.24 behind Thierry Gueorgiou. I was running with a head cam, and have uploaded the video to youtube.

I have now uploaded maps from all the competitions and most of the trainings to my Digital Orienteering Map Archive and also made a picture gallery.

In total it was a really good training week in Italy. Even if I did not get any top results on the races I had mainly a good flow in my orienteering and felt quite well physical. The week included 8 intensive and 5 easy sessions, and I managed to run 15 hours (155 km) + 1 hour strength training.

Friday, March 8, 2013

Antalya O-days and TC in Turkey

In the end of February I spent 10 days in Turkey with my club IFK Lidingö. Both the Norwegian and Swedish national teams where there at the same time, in addition to other top runners. From Norway it was a flight with almost 200 runners participating on Camp Norway.

The first part we spent close to Side and Manavgat, where we participated in Antalya O-days. I was running fast on the 2nd and 4th stage, that where counting as World Ranking Events.

The last part we spent in Antalya where we trained in several different types of terrain. I was a bit tired when I arrived to Turkey, but felt better in the end of the training camp, and the highlight was a knock out sprint training where I was able to finish first in competition with several good runners. On the Camp Norway Blog you can find  videos from the knock out sprint in addition to a lot of other interesting stuff like GPS analyses made by Jan Kocbach.

I have now uploaded maps from all the competitions and trainings to my Digital Orienteering Map Archive and also made a picture gallery.

In overall it was a great training camp, with mainly good maps covering different types of terrains, well organized competitions and a lot of nice people to stay together with. This was my second time in Turkey, and if you have time you can also read my report and look at my pictures from 2011.