Wednesday 1 May 2013

Denmark Training Camp

It's a funny feeling to start training in November and there always seem to be too many months until the major competitions - but with 7 weeks to go until EOC, looking back there suddenly don't seem to be nearly enough! Each month has been progressively harder than the last but after March/April's epic months of training, the winter suddenly appears to have been relatively 'easy'.

Hans Jørgen and I decided last year we would go to Denmark and travel with the housecar, kindly borrowed from his parents. We could have made life easy and got a boat from Oslo to Fredrikshavn on the north island, and then just spent the training camp in Denmark. Instead we wanted to extend the camp and returned to Hillerød to re-race and train on the EOC 2009 maps. I was kindly sent the PDF's of the maps which we then had printed by BML printers (which arrived about 60 mins before we were due to leave, after HJ chased the Postie around Brandbu on his bike).


Day 1 - Sunday

Easy training on the relay maps at Hareskov, using the 'all gaffles' map on the M21. I had to get the nearest/smoothest control at each of the gaffles while HJ had to get all three. Some fun singletrack and a gorgeous day. Shorts were worn, pasty legs and no tan lines!

The afternoon consisted of a ride to Aldershvile for the Sprint distance, which we were both racing. The map had changed a bit in 4 years as there are high numbers of pedestrians in the dog forest.


The courses themselves were fairly even between 2009 and 2013 for us to race them - we had no controls to guide us or to stop and punch, but the additional paths and disappearance of others probably meant we lost the same amount of time (stopping to punch, compared to stopping to relocate). I made some big boo-boo's, usually due to paths not being there, but on some occasions due to getting too excited and riding down the wrong track! Still, it was enough for our times to be equivalent to 2nd and 3rd places.






W21 Long Part 1 - route choice
Day 2 - Monday

Long distance training on Gribskov. The singletrack has developed in 4 years so now some sections are really rather cool and neat to ride! The morning was spent on a relocation exercise - one rider in front with map, drops second rider off at random point, second rider then must navigate to control.

The afternoon was then a harder session than planned with route choice around the W21 course, which often ended up being a race between us!








Day 3 - Tuesday

Got lost - 180° error just to get to the start (my fault, distracted by singletrack).

W21 Middle
We finally made it to the middle distance area, but things really didn't go to plan. I began to feel unable to reach max HR zone, and had bottle cage issues, plus numerous felling issues covering paths. Our times were well down on the winners, for me about 10 mins behind. Trying to compare a training race to a real race is ok, but in this case there was so much felling and tracks disappearing, most of the time we were just making stuff up to get to where we needed.

The afternoon was a great 'recovery' session on Geel Skov - a small forest that packs a punch with 10km of singletrack, short sharp hills and technical climbs and descents. It's a fun course which progressively gets harder as you go around. We stopped on a few occasions to practice certain sections, as our skills were rusty after a winter of disuse. Getting gearing right is crucial, but brushing up my skills helped no end for later in the week.

Day 4 - Wednesday

Event website and results: www.mountainbikeorienteeringworld.com

Already tired, so 'easy' technical training in the morning. A quick google search revealed 4 MTB forests around Aalborg, so we headed to the steepest and most technical looking. After going around the course once I was fairly knackered, but pleased to have ridden everything. Some of the hills were steep to go down so it was good practice. We rode around the roads for another hour before calling it a day and getting lunch.

CAMP CUP 1 - After a nice afternoon sleeping and catching up with Charlie and John at the Denmark TC, it was time for the night race. I started well beating HJ to control 1, but then things went downhill just after 2 when I took a singletrack that looped around so much and then spat me back 100m from where I started. 2 minutes binned there. After that life picked up again, and was mostly ok. I lost about 3 minutes in total on the course and was about 3.5 mins behind the leader and 5th place.



Day 5 - Thursday

CAMP CUP 2 - This was a long race - so after starting early last night (10pm when it was actually dark, unlike the hundred people who started in the daylight!) we got up early in the morning to avoid the queue at the start. I was one of the first starters on the elite course, but nevertheless rode well. Still unable to attain max HR, I rode consistently and finished 3rd, about 20 seconds behind the winner. Only one route choice mistake on the long leg where I lost 30 seconds changing my plan, but a minute down on the fastest split.

We then rested, slept and recovered before training at 1630 for some easy training. Used the last of our Falupølse supplies :-(

Day 6 - Friday

CAMP CUP 3 - A middle distance, lots of controls packed into a small area. I felt I had a really good strong race, making only one minute mistake near the 3/4 mark, but also losing 30 secs at the beginning on an unmarked ride which was quickly realised. I finished 4th but nearly 5 minutes down on the winner.

Afternoon sprint training, doing multiple laps of the WE, ME, and WL courses.














Day 7 - Saturday

CAMP CUP 4 - Unable to get anywhere near either HR z4 or z5 today. No surprise considering how tough this week has been - many races, and lots of training. Not too concerned as I have an easy week after this, so I will be recovered by EOC.  Made a MASSIVE error to the first control losing a whopping 3 minutes! Oops. By control 3 Susanna Laurila had caught me up, and we ended up riding together a little bit, which was rather amusing at times! Laurila was riding much faster than I, but making some mistakes. It was entertaining because, at each control she was riding away from me and out of sight, but by the next control I would be back ahead before 'whoosh' she comes flying past me again! At 13 I then made an entertaining error by going the wrong way and crashing into a thorn bush (sand+high speed=bad idea), so she got away. But for the half the course we rode together (ish), I think we both learned something. This area was a challenge to ride on, as there were many small paths which were bumpy and wiggly, making map reading while riding hard. Instant decisions were being taken by most athletes at the controls.

Easy (read physical) afternoon training again.

Day 8 - Sunday

The ultralong. Fortunately not a camp cup. I cruised around taking my time, enjoying the nature and getting frustrated with the older guy who followed me everywhere. He rode into several small mistakes with me, until I rode faster at the end to get away. Anyway, I was left riding on my own for 60% of the course until John caught me and we rode together for a bit. We parts ways when we took different routes, mine proving to be 20 seconds faster, and I then finished a couple of minutes ahead.

Hans Jørgen on the other hand had a more eventful time than I - with a 1hr 15min split time due to a puncture, failed spare tube, walk back to housecar, change bike, realise back wheel is very bent, walk back to housecar, change bike back and get new inner tube.

This is a fairly extensive account of our camp, but it was an unusual week with high training hours and lots of map work. We had a great time in Denmark, and many thanks go to the organisers for putting on the camp. I also won the camp overall, but mainly thanks to two of the faster athletes over the week mispunching/DSQ'ing.

Event website and results: www.mountainbikeorienteeringworld.com