Dislocated shoulder in Norwegian Night Champs

Yesterday the Norwegian Championship in Night orienteering was held in Fredrikstad. I started almost last in the mass start, because of the alphabetic start order, and had problems to pass too many of the 120 runners in front of me on the narrow paths and up the steep hills on the long leg to the first control.

When I was trying to climb a cliff just after the 6th control I dislocated my right shoulder. In the beginning I hoped I could get it back in position at once, and some runners stopped and tried to help me. But it didn’t success, and I told the others to continue their race, and started walking back to the finish. Luckily I was just 100 meters to a drinking control, and the guy there called for a car that picked me up just a few hundred meters from the drinking control.

When I came to the arena the shoulder was very stiff, and the doctor had to work for about 15 minutes before the shoulder came back in position. That was a big relief for me. After that I went to the hospital and took X-ray, and luckily nothing was broken. I want to thank all the people that helped me yesterday night!

Olav Lundanes won the race. Results and GPS tracking part 1 and part 2

I have dislocated the same shoulder once before, and that was also in the Norwegian Night Champs in Østfold in 2008. From the progression I had then I think I can start running on roads after a few days, but should avoid running in forest the coming week. But it shouldn’t be any risk for 10mila in two weeks and the Europeean Champs that starts in three weeks.

EOC selection Sprint

Tonight the first Norwegian selection race for EOC was arranged with a Sprint in Oslo. I did a stable performance, but lost up to 5 sec several places. The running speed was OK, but not the best after being sick for four days after the training camp in Switzerland last week. Olav Lundanes won clearly, and I came on a 4th place, some seconds behind Emil Wingsted and Lars Skjeset. Results and splits

Tomorrow the Norwegian Championship in Night orienteering is held in Fredrikstad. You can follow the race live with GPS tracking, speaker sound and live results from 21.30. The men’s senior class is starting last, with mass start 22.20. On Sunday we have the last selection race for EOC, with a Long distance in Halden.

10mila training

In the Easter I spent some days with my club IFK Lidingö training in relevant terrain for 10mila.

The training camp was started with the two man night relay Svartnatta (that was not in very relevant terrain for 10mila). We had in total 9 man’s teams, and I was running the first leg for one of them. I did a stable performance, and could change over to Filip Dahlgren as second runners, 12 seconds behind Södertälje. Filip did a good race, and kept the 2nd place, close followed by Malung and Fredrik Johansson for another Lidingö team. In the women’s class Lidingö finished 2nd and 3rd.

After Svartnatta we travelled to Borensberg, where we trained the two following days. (I skipped one of the night trainings since I was going directly to Switzerland for a one week long WOC training camp with the National team.) The terrain around Borensberg is not so special, but quite challenging, especially in the night. Last year Lidingö came 8th in 10mila, and we hope to improve that result this year.

MOC in Italy

In the end of March I spent a very nice week in the south of Italy. The first 5 days I participated in the MOC Sprint Camp organized by Janne Salmi in Gargano, 4 hour drive south east of Rome. I travelled together with runners from the Norwegian national team and our new sprint trainer Emil Wingsted. It was also a lot of other good runners there, like Daniel Hubmann, Matthias Müller and Jerker Lysell. In total we had 6 great sprint trainings in very tricky old cities and 3 trainings in forest.

In the weekend after the training camp the Mediterranean Orienteering Championship was arranged in Rome, with two sprint races and one middle distance held in different parks close to the city centre. I did stable performances in all the races, and finished 6th, 4th and 4th. Overall I also finished 4th, behind Jerker Lysell, Scott Fraser and Matthias Müller. Results

It was a great week in Italy, with several really good sprint trainings, some trainings in challenging forest, the MOC races in Rome, and even a short sprint course finishing in the Vatican. I enjoyed also seeing more of Rome as a tourist together with the nice people I travelled together with.

My Digital Orienteering Map Archive is updated with maps from all the training and MOC races, and you can also find several photos in my picture gallery.

Maps and pictures from Portugal

The two last weeks in February I spent on training camps in Portugal. The first week I was together with my club IFK Lidingö and the second week with the Norwegian National Team.

The first days with Lidingö we participated in Portugal O-Meeting in Viseu in the mountains, as I have already been writing about, before we travelled to Mira at the coast, where we were training in pine forest and sand dune terrains.

In the end of the Lidingö camp I got a cold, and had to skip a few days of training, including a WRE Long distance event close to Marinha Grande, that was the start of the camp with the Norwegian Team.

The following day I was able to run the Middle distance. My performance was good, and I finished 2 minutes behind the winner Thierry Gueorgiou and 1 min behind Anders Nordberg in 2nd place. As you can see on the map to the right I managed to run close to the line, and did only some very small mistakes, but was reduced physical after being sick.

With the National Team we had three more days with training at the coast terrains between Figueira da Foz and Mira, before we the two last days went back to Viseu and trained on the maps from POM.

My Digital Orienteering Map Archive is updated with maps from all the races and many of the training (not any of the sprints) in Portugal, and you can also find several photos in my picture gallery.

Portugal O-Meeting

The last four days I have competed in Portugal O-Meeting close to Viseu in the north in Portugal.

Saturday it started with two races in one day. The first was a Long distance race held in the morning, which I was running at easy speed. The terrain was hilly and partly very stony.

In the evening the first highlight of POM was arranged, with a Night sprint in the old city of Viseu, which was a perfect place for a sprint. The race went well, but I hesitated a few seconds some places to avoid doing mistakes. My result was a shared 2nd place with Mathias Merz. Severin Howald did an impressive race, and won clearly.

Sunday it was a Middel distance race I was running in easy to moderate speed. In the evening we did corridor training.

Monday was the other highlight of POM, a Middle distance World Ranking Event. The terrain had a lot of small rock details, and partly dense vegetation, which made it quite tricky. I was quite tired physically, but it went OK technically until the 12th control. When I passed the arena I had the chance to get a top 10 position, but I missed the 19th control with 3 minutes, and did also some other mistakes.

Today POM was ended with a Long distance chasing start. I ran the course in easy speed. The terrain was not as nice as yesterday, and the green was really bad. It was difficult to read from the map where you could run or not. I lost much time several places. Thierry and Simone won POM overall.

You can find maps from all the races in my Digital Orienteering Map Archive.

Tomorrow we are driving one hour west, to the coast, where we will train in pine forest and sand dunes. It will be a nice change from the stony terrain we have met on POM the last days. It is really nice to be on training camp together with as much as 20 other runners from my club IFK Lidingö, and we are having great fun together.

New PB on 3000 m and TC in Skåne

The first Sunday in February I tested my shape in an indoor 3000 m race in Stockholm. It went well, and I was able to keep a stable speed of 2.50 min/km the whole race. I finished on the time 8.29,89, new personal best with 11 seconds. It was a great feedback after the period in Kenya with a lot of running. Results and article on orientering.no

Last week I spent on a training camp with the Norwegian National Team in Åhus in Skåne, south east in Sweden. The training camp was in cooperation with the Swedes, and it was also open for runners outside the national groups, so it was a lot of runners there. It was a few cm of snow, but it was no problem to run in the forest and get good technical trainings. Most of the sessions we had in the pine forest terrains close to Åhus, that are relevant for EOC in Dalarna, but we were also running in Degeberga and Blekinge, which is more relevant for WOC in Switzerland.

Tuesday we had a running test in the terrain, where we ran the same loop three times. I managed to keep a quite stable speed, and had the best time in the Norwegian team.

Thursday we participated in a local night cup with mass start. Everybody was not running the same course so it was not 100 % fair, but it worked quite good to split up the big start field. I came a bit behind the first runners in the beginning, and had problems to get up in the lead, partly because of long forkings. But on the long leg to the third last control most of the runners in front of me ran too much to the left and misses the path, and I could advance to a third place. To the last control I ran to a wrong stone, lost 5-10 seconds, and was passed by several runners. I finished as 6th runner, 18 seconds behind Oleksandr Kratov. Results and splits

Friday evening we were running a sprint from our accommodation on Åhus Strand, before we could relax in the sauna and hot tube.

Sunday the training camp was ended with a mass start race, with two loops and a lot of forking. Unfortunately my performance was bad, but in total it was a good training camp, and it was nice to run a lot of orienteering again after having only focused on the physical training during the period in Kenya in January. Pictures from Åhus

All maps in my Digital Orienteering Map Archive disappeared for some reason before Christmas, but I have now been able to upload the maps from 2011, and have also added some of the maps from 2012. (I will probably add more of the maps from Skåne later.)

Yesterday I travelled to Portugal, where I will stay for two week. The first week together with my club IFK Lidingö and the second week with the Norwegian National Team. The coming days Portugal O-Meeting will be arranged in Viseu, 300 km north east of Lisboa. POM has a though program, with 5 races in 4 days, but I will only run Saturdays Night Sprint and Mondays Middle distance World Ranking Event in full speed. The start field is really strong, with several National Teams and clubs participating as part of their training camps.