3 weeks in Sweden – ready for 10mila

3 weeks ago I moved to Lidingö, and the first period has gone fast, since I have been busy with moving into my apartment, working with hittaut.nu for Lidingö, training and running several competitions.

Except the weekend with SM Night and Sprint on Gotland I have stayed in the Stockholm area. Together with my club mates in IFK Lidingö I have been running the relays Rånässtafetten and Stigtomtakavlen, which have been good trainings before 10mila. I have also been able to do several orienteering trainings on different maps around the 10mila area. In the beginning I found the quite flat, stony and diffuse terrain around Stockholm difficult to both run and orienteer fast in. But last weekend I was able to do some good sessions here, since I was skipped the Elitserien in Jönköping, and now I feel a much better flow when I run in the terrain. In my DOMA you can find maps from all the races and some of the 10mila trainings.

This weekend the big relay 10mila is held just south of Stockholm. I will run one of the last legs for IFK Lidingö. The atmosphere in the club is great, and I am looking forward to an exciting weekend. IFK Lidingö was last year 7th in the men’s class, and won the women’s class, so we have to perform our best to follow up these results. You can follow the whole relay live through 10mila’s online services.

Kvaal Østerbø blir «svensk», Adressa.no

SM on Gotland

Last weekend I was running my first Swedish Championship, when the Night and Sprint where held on Gotland. The highlight for me was the Sprint held in the old city of Visby.

Before the entry deadline I was not sure if I should enter for Friday’s night race, since I have only trained a few sessions with headlamp the last year. But I like night orienteering, and found it a good challenge to enter, sine I anyway was going there the whole weekend and the terrain on Gotland is quite special since it an island.

On the Night race it was a really long leg to the first control, and even if I tried hard to keep a good direction I lost the control in the diffuse area just before the control. After searching for the control some minutes I went out to the road, and took the control from the opposite side after having lost more then 6 minutes. After the huge mistake I had lost the chance for a good position, and I was running in cruising speed the rest of the course. It went quite well until the map change, but in the end I started to be tired, and did some mistakes. When I finished I was told by the organizer that I was disqualified, since I had punched the control just west of the first control I should have had. All in all a really bad night race for me, even if the area was cool. Oleksandr Kratov won, as he also did last year. Results and GPS tracking

The Sprint Qualification on Saturday was in a nice area just North of Visby centre. Unfortunately most of the course was really boring, with only a few interesting legs, and not many route choices. I did a clean race in “qualification speed”, and finished on 2nd place in my heat, 8 seconds behind Patrik Karlsson. ). Results and splits

Sunday’s Sprint Final was held mainly in the old city of Visby. It was several route choices and many narrow streets. I was satisfied with my race, but think I lost a few seconds on my route choice to the 2nd, 4th and 11th control. Jerker Lysell won, and I came on 4th place, 15 seconds behind. My running speed was OK, but I felt more tired than I had hoped, so maybe it would have been smart to skip the night race (like the 3 runners beating me did). Results, splits and GPS tracking

MOC on sunny Sicily

Last weekend I continued the trip on Sicily by competing in the Mediterranean Orienteering Championship south east on the island. Two sprint races and one middle distance were counting in the overall competition, and Gabriele Viale and his team organized again a great event in the south of Italy.

In my new Digital Orienteering Map Archive you can find most of my maps with route choices, and in my picture gallery a lot of pictures from the whole week on Sicily.

The first race was a sprint in the historical centre of Sciacca, witch is relevant for the WOC Final in Chambery. I did a good race, without any mistakes, and won in front of Audun Weltzien and Daniel Hubmann.

The second race was a sprint in the previous city Gibellina, that was totally damaged by an earthquake in 1968. Parts of the old city had been build up, and formed now a labyrinth we entered two times during the course. Audun Weltzien did a good race and won in front of Jerker Lysell. Daniel Hubmann was unfortunately disqualified because of a miss punch, and out of the overall competition.

The third and last race was a middle distance in the coast city Selinunte, and parts of the course was in some archaeologically ruins. I lost in total 3 minutes in the green area around the 7th and 8th control, and finished on a 3rd place. Audun Weltzien won both the last race and MOC overall clearly, while Annika Billstam won the women’s class overall.

Results: Sprint 1, Sprint 2, Middle and Overall
Norsk dobbeltseier på Sicilia, Orienteering.no
Weltzien vant andre løp i MOC, Orienteering.no
- Godt fornøyd med tre solide løp, Orienteering.no
Rapport fra MOC på Sicilia, Orienteering.no
Overlegen MOC-seier til Weltzien, OPN.no

Successful MOC Sprint Camp on Sicily

I have now been 4 days on Sicily, and done 8 good trainings during the MOC Sprint Camp organized by Janne Salmi.

In my new Digital Orienteering Map Archive you can find maps from all the trainings and in my picture gallery some pictures from the first four days.

The coming weekend the Mediterranean Orienteering Championship will be held, with two sprint races and a middle distance.

God matching og relevant trening, Orienteering.no

Ready for MOC on Sicily

Yesterday I was travelling to the Italian island Sicily, where the Mediterranean Orienteering Championship will be organized this week.

From Monday to Thursday I will participate in MOC Sprint Camp, a training camp organized by former Finish National team Coach and World Champion Janne Salmi. I will be several good trainings, with mainly focus on sprint, since it is a lot of old cities there which are perfect for sprint orienteering. But it will also be trainings in different types of forest, and a long run to the top of the volcano Mt. Etna.

Unfortunately we are only a few runners from Norway, but it will be a lot of other international runners participating, among them Daniel Huhmann and parts of the Swiss and Swedish National team.

Friday to Sunday the Mediterranean Orienteering Championship will be held, with two sprint races and a middle distance. I have never been on Sicily before, so I am looking forward to discover the island and running orienteering in warm weather again.

Here you can watch a video of me training in Matera during the MOC Camp 2008:


MOC Sprint Tour på Sicilia, OPN.no

Lidingö - Trondheim

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.

Antalya in Turkey

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 first four days we were training in area around the big city Antalya. The maps were mainly good, and the terrains variables from stony detailed terrains to areas with great runability.

There where at least 50 orienteers on training camp in Antalya, and we got competition from Bækkelaget, Turun Metsänkävijät and some other Finish and Russian runners on the two relay trainings we were running.

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.

In the Middle distance I was running in moderate speed since it has been a tough training camp, and I came 6 minutes behind Valentin Novikov, who won in front of my team mates Jonn Are Myhren and Klaus Schgaguler.

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.

The maps for the competitions were unfortunately not as good as during the trainings, and were partly the reason several runners did mistakes.

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.

In my DOMA you can find maps from some of the trainings and all races with my route choices.