After I came home from Turkey in the end of February I stayed one week on Lidingö, where I am going to move in the beginning of April. I were training together with
my new club IFK Lidingö every day, and had a really good week, including several long runs, intervals, strength and speed training. I did also my first session with cross country skiing in Stockholm.
When I was on Lidingö I also got more info about the work I will do for the club. I will work 50 % as project leader for organizing
hittaut.nu on Lidingö. I am responsibly for making a huge orienteering map covering the whole island. The map will have around 100 permanent controls, and will both be distributed to all the 40.000 people living on Lidingö, and be available on the website
hittaut.nu. I have several competent persons to help me with the project, so it will hopefully work well.
The last week I have been home in Trondheim, where is has been great conditions for cross country skiing. After several weeks with almost only running, it was good for my legs to do some alternative training.
Skisporet.no is a great web page, developed by former WOC relay champion Bernt Bjørnsgaard, showing when the major ski tracks have been made.
Thursday was a fantastic day, with sunshine, fresh snow and perfect tracks, and I was skiing through most parts of both
Bymarka and
Leinstrandmarka, in total more than three and half hour and 50 km. It is nice to again could ski from Granåsen in the south east part of Bymarka, since it was totally embargoed the four years before WOC 2010. Anyway I am doing most of my skiing in
Strindamarka, since it is less than 5 minutes drive from my home (and not as much as 10 minutes, as it is to Granåsen). Next week I will hopefully also explore the tracks in
Malvikmarka, where the WOC qualifications where held, and
Klæbu.
Yesterday I was competing in my first (and only) ski-orienteering race this season on Kvikne, 120 km south of Trondheim. The
Norwegian Ski-o Team had their last training camp before the
World Champs held in Sweden in the end of March, and Harald Svergja had made a nice network of tracks used for an open race. The conditions were challenging, since it was possible to make short cuts between the tracks in the down hills. Most of my race went quite well, even if I missed the specific training for skiing in narrow scooter tracks. But after half of the second loop I broke one of my skies, lost more than 3 minutes on the last part, and finished 5 minutes behind Lars Moholdt.
When it is good conditions I find ski-orienteering even more fun than orienteering, and I have missed doing more competitions this winter. But since my main focus at the moment is orienteering I have tried to run as much as possible this winter, and therefore I will go to
MOC on Sicily the last week in March, and not compete in the Ski-o WOC in Tänndalen, just 3 hours drive from Trondheim.
I have now been 4 days on Sicily, and done 8 good trainings during the MOC Sprint Camp organized by Janne Salmi.
Last week I was in Antalya in Turkey on my first training camp with my new club IFK Lidingö. This was my first time in Turkey, and the total impression of orienteering in Turkey was really positive.
The two last days we were driving one hour east to the holiday village Side, where we were running the first two days of Antalya O-days. 
The Sprint was held in a mix of sand dunes, ruins and an old city centre. I was satisfied with my performance, except a 30 sec mistake to the 10th control, and came 4th, 23 seconds behind Tue Lassen.
It was nice to be able to know my 15 of my new team mates from IFK Lidingö better during the week in Turkey, and my impression of the club is really good. It is a great atmosphere, and several runners are training very well. After I came home from Turkey I have stayed on Lidingö this week, where I have done a lot of good training and got more info about my new work.
The last four days I have spent with parts of the Norwegian National Team on a Sprint Orienteering Training Camp in Evora in Portugal. Evora is a great place for sprint orienteering, and in the area there are several small cities similar to Chambry in France where the WOC Final will be held in August.
We have so far been running 4 sprint sessions with different formats in competition speed, 2 sprints in moderate speed and 2 easier sessions in forest with moments like control picking, corridor and contours. After the trainings we have been relaxing in the pool, jacuzzi and sauna on the hotel. Tomorrow morning we will have a last session in Evora city before we are flying home.
After Tour de Ski China my one month long January trip continued to Australia, where I stayed for two weeks. During this time I visited Melbourne, Falls Creek, Canberra, Ulladulla and Huskisson on the coast, the Blue Mountains and finally Sydney. 
During the trip I was able to see many nice places and exciting animals like koalas, penguins, kangaroos and wallabies. I am thankful to my Australian friends that were helpful with good advices and accommodation. 
It was really nice to change the cold Scandinavian winter with summer and perfect conditions for running training. In Sydney I was also able to participate in a local sprint orienteering race. I had a great time in the small part of Australia I visited, and hope I will be able to come back soon to discover more of the huge country.
In January I was on my longest trip so far in my life, both in time and distance. It started with one week in China, continued with two weeks in Australia, and ended with one and a half week in New Zealand. I will now write a few words and present pictures from China, and will hopefully have time to continue with Australia and New Zealand later.
I looked at the trip as a new challenges and great experiences, since I hadn’t done any special preparation for the cross country skiing season. The races went as I could expect, and I came around number 30 in all of the four competitions. Results
The week in China was great, with several tough competitions and a lot of fun. I meet many new people from different countries and came to some new places in different parts of the huge country.
