Race 5 - Swedish Champs Middle

D21 part 1

I decided not to write a race report yesterday as I really wasn't pleased with my performance in the early stages of the course, and felt I needed 24 hours to write something that was fair. Rather than be 100% negative! I spent most of yesterday evening reflecting on the race, what went wrong and most importantly why. I then spent some more time coming up with a plan of attack for the long today (but more on that later).

The first control was easy, but it was controls 2 and 3 that caused all my problems. I realised later I have never encountered this style of terrain before - notably that in the area of 2 and 3. The terrain is moderately hilly, and the mess of contours make little sense while biking (or stood still) as the terrain is formed of 20-30m high hills with depressions between. The paths also, follow no structure here. They are neither solely on ridges or in valleys, but instead form a random unpredictable pattern in the terrain.

D21 part 2 (1)

I opted for no.2 to go around a little. On the big track then cut the corner a little. I lost a minute to Ingrid here who continued on the fast track and came from NW up the slow track all the way. A negligible difference on the map, but in reality my choice proved costly.

To 3 again, I stuck with the route I knew, getting a little stuck in sand on the sharp corners, and lost another 40 seconds. Less than before, but the general downhill nature of the early paths helped a little.

D21 part 2 (2)

After that it was a fairly unremarkable race, I didn't see the road option to no.6, and to no.7 I didn't see the fast track that I had folded off the edge of the board (you can see the crease line to the right of no.7!) Over those two controls I lost another minute.

By this point I was 3 minutes behind, but naturally didn't know this. I saw Cecilia on my way to no.7 and figured she had gained a couple of minutes on me.

However, to 8, 9 and 10 I found I understood things a bit more, and started to mingle in the other competitors split times. I'm not sure why I suddenly changed mentally here, but I started to know which would be the better choices. Rather than guessing and not succeeding.

I spent time thinking about the next leg, and chose to stay on the flat. Longer than the north route, but safer navigation and a chance to pedal.

Using the easier navigation on this leg I could think more about the next one. At first I felt going over the medium path to the south was better, but on closer inspection saw the contours and small hill tops. Instead I chose to take a risk and take the slow track to the north. In fact this turned out to be rather fast, the sand was harder at the edges where cars have driven and soft in the middle. Crossing the middle was treacherous, but in the end I was much faster than my other competitors on this leg.

Race face (Jonas Bierson)

I was disappointed when I finished. Looking at the splits, I lost 3 mins in the first half, and pulled back 90 secs in the second half to only be 1min 30 behind Ingrid, in 4th (2nd in Swedish Champs). It took a while to see the positive in the race, that my biking speed is ok and matching the others. The mistakes at the beginning - well, it's a learning opportunity! At any rate, the time is far better than last years SM middle, where I went exploring in the woods for 7 mins ... so the improvement is there. I just need a little more consistency.

SM Middle Medal winners (Sven Ake Nordenmark)

Race 4 - Swedish Champs Sprint

The Swedish Champs weekend are being held in Borlange, close to where HJ and I lived in Falun until a little more than a week ago. Our Swedish club, Kvarnsvedens GoIF OK, are hosting the competitions.

The first competition of the weekend was the Sprint, with first starts at 5pm in the afternoon. The weekend is competitive, as 5 of the Danish women and Ingrid Stengard FIN, have made the trip here, so along with Cecilia Thomasson SWE there are 5 women from the top 20 in the world. Any performances are therefore a good gauge of fitness as all the women here have potential to win medals in the Europeans in two weeks time.

D21 Part 1

I was fortunate to be one of the later starters but with all day to prepare I was feeling nervous by the time I could start!

But despite the nerves, I pulled out a good race to win by 1 sec over Cecilia. I also finished some minutes ahead of the Danes and Ingrid, so it's a performance that I'm relatively pleased with. I was leading overall for most of the SM course apart from two controls. If the Danes are taken into account, I took the lead after the 8th control, having been a few seconds behind until this point.

Mostly the race was ok. I lost a few seconds to no.2 but the simple RC gave me opportunity to plan later (an opportunity I should have used to plan the long leg!). The first part of the course was deceptive and planning ahead the forest controls was crucial. Here the orienteering became far more challenging with paths everywhere, and at high speeds, they could be easy to miss. It was enough to keep track of where I was and wanted to go, so planning the long leg was put by the wayside.

Idiot! A snap decision. North to the railway. 30 seconds slower than south on the roads, and a 50 secs slower than going through the middle. About 10-15 seconds were lost near the control, with a steep sandy climb, a push off the bike. The other two options had a nicer route into the control and no climb whatsoever. At this point I was two seconds behind the overall lead having had more than a 30 second advantage.

D21 Part 2 (Sorry for being 90° rotated!)

Map change on the move, more standing punches - just enough to hear the beep and see the flash. A risk that the punch may not register, but by the time the SI card is in the unit, I'm already accelerating away.

A few more good controls, then somehow an awesomely fast leg. I felt this could be one of the key legs. Two options were presented, through the big depression or to the left on the flat. I think I gained most of my time on the exit from the control here. After the long leg I had regained my lead to a mere one sec and then extended it to 10 secs by the road crossing.

No.19 another risk. Hard to see the cut through path while riding. But it was there. My eyes didn't not deceive! And then came no.20. I stopped to check the map at the foot of the hill as the circle of no.20 was obscuring a path. I rode on, made the turn and then skidded past the control. At least I could punch on the move as I rode back up the hill, but it lost my 14 sec advantage. Now for the toughest part of the course. The final 2 control sprint. over the bridge, punch, follow the tapes, punch, race for the line. I'm glad my speed has improved this year as while my times were a second slower than Cecilia, I held the lead. Just.

One second separated us at the finish. Close one! But my first Swedish Champs title.

Results: http://eventor.orientering.se/Events/ResultList?eventId=5689&groupBy=EventClass

Photos to follow later!

Race 3 - Denmark Long

Sometime in the near future, I will start coming up with more interesting names for posts! But for now, Race 3 - Denmark Long will suffice.

Lessons learned from Daniel Hubmann nearly became Friday's title, as on arriving at the start I realised my GPS watch is magnetic, as north on my compass was about 45° off from where I expected. Perhaps Mr Hubmann can be excused for his mistake a few weeks ago! If you missed reading about it, you can find it here.

Onto the race on Sunday. My second of two hard races over the weekend. Warming up I felt my legs were a little sluggish, but after some sprints I at least felt they were better.

At the start I was ahead of the Danes - Hoffmann, Søgaard, Lisbygd and a few others. It was a good position to start in (not optimal as I was being chased) but good for me to feel under pressure all the way and start with athletes chasing me.

Part 1

I started well, picking a good route to the first control. Disaster struck for 30 secs on the approach to the control where I slipped on a root, and somehow the chain dropped off the front chain ring and back cassette . It took 30 secs to put back on, while getting a little knotted in the process which again needed sorting out. But 30 secs at the beginning of the course is no biggie - I should have been on for a time around the fastest split here, highly unusual for me on the first control. I saw my 2 min woman here so knew I had gained a lot of time.

I knew the best route to 2 was to go left on the big tracks, but on seeing my 2 min woman, I changed my mind, took a risk to go right. The risk was based on the fact the path into no.1 was marked as 'slow' but actually good riding. My second option to no.2 was along the 'slow' path to the right of the straight line. As the path to no.1 was good, I decided the risk was worth taking if I could gain some more seconds.

It was not worth it! About 100m into the path, the mud began, and carried on until I hit the fast path. Two mins binned here.

On the way to no.3 I was my two min woman again, but knew she had pulled back about a minute on me with my error earlier. On the way to 4 I didn't want to turn around and go the same way, so I carried on straight, taking a longer route and losing another minute.

On the approach to no.4 I saw Nina, my -2min woman who had clearly gained time on my mistake to no.2 and then overtaken on the mistake early on to no.4. I pulled her back and sat behind her for a couple of controls - taking time to plan the rest of part 1 of the map and waiting for my chance to ride away.

Part 2

At control 7, the opportunity presented itself. I had decided in advance I would take the north route to no.7 as the line into the control seemed better. I could then carry on without turning on the way to no.8. Nina and Caroline (my 2 min woman who I finally caught at 6) went to the south, so I stuck with my plan and went north. I was about 30 secs faster here and saw them on my way to no.8. I then lost 20 secs just after no.7 as the path was bad. I should have turned at the control. I reached no.8 before them, but saw they were not far behind.

Another route choice where I stuck to my plan that had been decided some controls earlier. I went south this time, taking a nice line into the control. Again, this was a little faster than the north route Nina took.

The route to no.12 was another decision leg. Was it faster to go right out of the control and straight up the fast track, or go left and chance it on a medium path? The latter was the shorter route, but the former was easier biking. I opted for the latter, but rode up the road for a few metres before turning after a few secs. Turning at no.12 I saw Nina was right back behind me, so I knew I had to hold it together. I also knew as long as she kept me insight, she was unlikely to make a mistake, and therefore finding 2 mins at the end of the course was going to be hard.

No.13 after my lesson from no.2 I stuck with the big path. I also knew the quality of the paths around no.13 was poor, so I kept my route in simple.

Control 15 was a leg that split Nina and I, both trying to take a different route to gain some ground. I went straighter, she went faster. We arrived at no.15 with Nina a second or two ahead. After that, with one control left, I sat behind again. Nina however was much smoother on the singletrack sections and pulled a few seconds away. Guess it must be those 27.5 inch wheels! She certainly carried speed well on the corners and roots. I pulled back at little to no.16 and it was then to get to the finish.

Sunset from Jønkoping (unaltered image!)

I finished 4th today. Nina won in 1.27.34, Lisbygd in 1.28.54, Søgaard in 1.29.29, and me 1.29.49. There was then a sizeable 10 min gap to 5th.

It's hard to say what could have been without my mistake early on. Without the 2 min time loss to no.2, I wouldn't have taken the idiot's route to 4 (the idiot's route hadn't been in my plan for the leg). But without Nina around, would I have sustained the high pace for so long? Likewise, I wonder if Nina hadn't caught me so early whether she also would have carried on pushing maximum all the way to the finish. I certainly think it would have been a very different race!

The long distance doesn't feature in my plans for the year. Today was only raced hard because I planned an easier day on Saturday. All my training has been geared towards the sprint and middle races, so for me to have been focussed on the long and been relatively close to the leaders was a good thing! Yesterdays extensive route choice focus seemed to have helped today (mostly!) and after the first part of the course, the routes I took were generally faster.

Event 2 - Danish middle

Part 1

Part of my training plan for EOC involved today being a 'restitution' day, with HR no higher than 175. Most of the course would therefore be in zone 3, with the occasional jump into z4 on the hills and harder paths.

Part 2

It's difficult to not race when in a race environment. The competitive instinct kicks in each time someone rides past, and the impulse to chase and overtake is hard to ignore. But with my watch bleeping every few minutes notifying my my HR was above 170, it was a welcome reminder to slow the pace.

But with a slower pace, comes increased brain space. And increased brain space brings more thought of route choices, racing thoughts, songs, future and past conversations, and thoughts about competitors. I think it's ok to have 'down' days with orienteering (as long as they are decided before and not spontaneously during the race) . Being on top of your game and focussing 100% all the time just leads to mental fatigue and ultimately less motivation (some months down the line).

Part 3

The goal was to focus on considering all route choices, and economical riding/map reading. So while that side of the event was successful, in places the actual execution left something to be desired! As I was considering all route choices and thus, the fastest one, in a 3 places I turned the wrong way out of junctions before immediately remembering 'I didn't want to go this way, I decided left was better'. Fortunately not much time was lost here, and they are mistakes that I don't make when in the zone.

There were two main errors to the race. The first and worst, was a mis-relocation error - in hindsight (oh, such a wonderful thing) I should have known I was on the fast path, not the slow one and turned right instead. After a minute of not finding the railway crossing, I turned and went 20m past my original point to find the tunnel I needed.

The second was stupid and not following my own advice I wrote down last year - STICK TO YOUR PLAN!

Nina Hoffman caught me during the aforementioned mistake, and after that I was seeing her regularly. On the way to no.12 I saw she was riding the asphalt road to no.13, and once I punched 12, decided her route was better - NOT. After hitting the road I realised my error, and stupidity of not following my own plan. -90 seconds and an embarrassing mistake to make.

But the issue here isn't really anything to do with my lack of skill, but too much brain space. By being able to think so much more about all the options available, I actually spent too much time thinking, and not enough time deciding the important things.

Near the end of the course, the area became more technical. More thought was required to stay on the ball and not miss a control or path. Here I found some flow and had a fastest split to no.18 (my only one of the day) and was much closer in time to the Danes.

I finished 4th, 6 mins behind Camilla Søgaard. Considering my speed was 3kmph+ less than yesterday, a 6 min deficit isn't so bad. It could easily have been more had the Danes not been making mistakes too.   My HR was fluctuating between z2 and z4 with the majority of the course in z3. The difference in speed is really noticeable from moderate intensity to max!

I'm looking forward to tomorrows long distance, and being able to push hard again. I love feeling focussed on races and using all my brain power for the course, not thinking about it so hard and everything else too. While the long distance isn't my favourite discipline, I feel ready to bring some pace into the race and get my game face on. A repeat of yesterday's performance will be welcome



!

Race 1 - Denmark Sprint

Assembly in the sun!

Part of the preparation for EOC involves races in Denmark and Sweden.

Today's race was a sprint in Fredriksvaerk forest, 20 mins north of Hillerød. On departing the boat in the morning, we were greeted by 21°C and sunshine. We drove straight to the event, via the food shop and mobile phone shop for internet, so we arrived 6 hours before the other competitors. Lunch in the sun and a short run, before a nap. HJ spent all afternoon topless and now has sunburnt shoulders and chest! Massive LOL!

Part 1

At about 4pm we saw dark clouds looming on the horizon. We knew thunder was due so decided we should get out at 6pm at first start and hopefully be back before the rain. The plan worked like a charm, as, after our cool down, the rain started and the thunder rolled. Fortunately, we were safe and cozy in the bobil.

Onto the race. We chose to come to the weekend of events in Denmark as the standard of competition here is high. A good gauge of our pre-EOC form is to compete against these athletes.

Denmark is currently issuing the map in the 'starting moment'. We used the format a month ago at the Denmark TC, and since it was training, I didn't really notice the difference. However, in today's race, the 'starting moment' map suddenly made things a little harder. Trying to punch the start, take the map, put in the map board, orientate it and plan a route in the space of 2m to the start kite was tricky. Not only that, but the immediate 90° angle to no.1 had me confused for a few seconds. I got over it, and rode the corner before doubt set in and I paused for a couple more seconds to check.

Part 2

Not the best of starts made worse by a small mistake to the first control. With no time to look at the map, I dived off on the first right hand junction I came too, before taking left again. I lost about 20 secs here with the wrong gearing on the small climb after the left turn and then tried to jump on just as I was passing some perpendicular ruts, which meant I had to jump straight off the other side!

But, with control one in the bag, I could focus on the coming controls. However, the route to control 2 didn't really fit with the map - a cool down later showed the path to no.2 actually came up to the hill to the east and met the main path corner. Leaving the slow path, I actually had to ride straight ahead, rather than left then right to the control. I was starting to settle in on the way to 3, but had to run a hill to the control from the nearest junction when two older competitors were having problems negotiating some roots. On controls 2 and 3 I was only 7 secs or so behind HJ who had the same legs on H21.

A bit blurred but heading to the final control

After this everything went a lot smoother. I was riding well, navigating well and knowing always where my next junction was and which way I should go. I even successfully handled standing punches, and turning the map while riding. Simple skills individually but under pressure in a race, they become a little more challenging.

When we left the event I was two and a half minutes clear of 2nd, so a good lead for a 23.37 min/sec course. We won't know until later this evening the final results.

Split times

Three weeks and counting

This time in 3 weeks, I'll be in Poland, with a mere one day left until the biggest race of my year so far. The European Champs sprint in Zamosc. A day after that it's the middle distance race, also my focus for the championships.

EOC consists of 5 competitions, but I will only be competing in the 3 individual days, due to a large failure of interest by other GB team riders. Thus, I am the only GB competitior making the trip to Poland, and therefore unable to compete in the Relay or Mixed Sprint Relay competition.

Technical training

The MSR is a race I have really been looking forward to after having watched a few Ski-O races at their EOC in the winter. The format is also being introduced to Foot-O, which is a change I welcome as I think GBR would have strong chances to get top 6 places there. It's also an exciting format and with GPS tracking and (hopefully) short gaffles, it will be a fight to the line. Competitions like this become interesting and exciting to watch when going into the last leg, there are several teams in contention for medals. It's great to see who can hold out under such intense pressure the longest.

Anyway, I had been looking forward to my first chance to compete in the MSR, having missed EOC 2011 in Russia. But sadly I won't get the opportunity, but it does mean I get three recovery days between the middle and long races. I would say 'rest' days but I will be using the spare days to recover and get in a couple of easy hours each day - no sense resting completely and dropping off my speed/fitness.

It's going to be a busy 3 weeks. On Thursday we are leaving to go back to Denmark. Originally we had planned on the WR events in Turkey, but in the end the flight times were just too inconvenient to do the trip cheaply. With arrival times at 1am, and a very late departure back to Norway, I felt the impact on sleep, recovery and training/racing was just too great to potentially not higher my WR score.

Image from WOC last year

So, instead I will be pitting myself against the Danes, 3 of whom appeared to be strong in the early season. Lisbygd is making something of a comeback after a few years away, while Hoffmann appears to be riding well after her WOC bronze last year. Soegaard, a few years my junior and multi-sport athlete, was in very good shape in Denmark to win the ultralong over Hara and Laurila of FIN. It will be a good chance to see how my fitness, speed and strength compare, 2 weeks out from EOC.

We then travel back to Sweden for the Swedish Champs in Borlange. My first chance this year to compete against Cecilia Thomasson, and hopefully bag a SM title. I have forfeited my chances of British title this year, due to a) not being able to attend the races and b) having more competition in Sweden with Ingrid and Cecilia.

After Sweden we head back south again to Zamosc for EOC and a small organised training camp before. Not a hard training camp. Just some time with a map in relevant terrain for a few hours per day.

Wanted: Superhuman navigation skills.

Team Hadeland OL!

Wanted: superhuman navigation skills.
Must have excellent direction sense and be able to read map in technical terrain. Should not need to stop to read map, or mispunch!

With the European Champs approaching fast (those counting will know its a little over 5 weeks away), HJ and I decided to make the most of the excellent MTBO terrain Mora and Rattvik have to offer.

For those who went to the World Cup in 2011, the terrain hasn't changed. It's still rooty, steep, confusing, wet, and fun. Some of the tracks have changed rideability, but mostly, everything out in the forest is medium or slow.

My memories of the World Cup were all the women racing off up the ski track at the start, and then getting into the woods and suddenly thinking 'Sugar honey ice tea, where the fudge am I?' Of course, the next 5 minutes consisted of one rider hesitantly making their way in a direction, being followed by 30 or so women, before realising the map still didn't fit. Amusing in hindsight, a little like watching junior relay events when all the competitors stop at the start kite! I'm ashamed to say that I was part of the mayhem out there.

Rocks and roots, it's bumpier than it looks!

I went into the training knowing the pitfalls and traps of terrain like this. I knew to be careful. To always plan ahead. But thinking about how to MTBO, and imaging oneself doing it successfully, is far easier than actually being out there, as the map board shakes and rotates, as one clatters their way over the countless roots and uneven ground. Suddenly, just reading the map became hard, let alone trying to pick out a path to take.

And it is here that my job description comes in. Superhuman navigation skills, would be very useful here. But not just navigation. A superhuman sense of direction is what is needed most. Because, if you can ride in the right direction, actually getting to the control becomes a little easier. The map is one of those where, you look at it and think 'ok, there's a lot of paths, going NW-SE, and SW-NE, plus a number at 45° angles to these'. But, when the map gets rotated, all of a sudden, the tracks look exactly the same again! So when the mapboard is shaking, and the bike is bouncing, just trying to pick out a good route becomes nearly impossible. Just riding in the general direction for the approximate amount of time becomes the best plan of attack.

One of our courses

Not only did we decide to challenge ourselves mentally, but we opted for a physical session too, with several sprint courses with a few novel twists. We even made life harder and had no controls out. Meaning, I couldn't just ride blindly in the right direction and hope to see my control. I actually had to navigate. But, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. In fact, apart from a mispunch at 7, it was pretty good out there. There were no headless chicken moments, no 'I'm lost' moments, and actually, no 'this doesn't feel right' moments. I simply eased off the gas a little when I needed to get things right (which was most of the time), and pedalled harder when I knew it was possible (not very often).

Overall, it was a good little training session we did, and I'm already looking forward to the next one :-)

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

And so it begins ...

To be honest, the start of the MTBO season can't come soon enough now. The snow is melting, and I've been biking with spiked tyres for the last month and a bit.

Today was the first rainy day of the year in Falun. At least, the first proper rainy day. It may have drizzled a little while we were in Lushaugen and England. But not like this. It's great though. The snow is definitely melting, and very soon I will have experienced all four seasons in Sweden. Just got to wait a while longer for spring.

The weather seems just as confused here as it does in England. I am informed that snow in April is a rarity, but it's still possible to ski. Not that I can ski right now - my boots are at Madshus for repair after insane skiing hours from December to the end of March (with 6 weeks break in England).

So, as nature looks forward to summer, I look forward too, to all the joys that summer brings. With warm weather, sunshine, shorts and jerseys for biking (as opposed to 2x thermals, a wind jacket and waterproof, and thermal bike trousers with overshoes and double socks). It has been sunny. And fairly mild. But nothing like the dry summers I dream of.

Spring always brings the MTBO camp in Denmark. This year, a wonderful 4 weeks later than normal - so warmer weather and maybe some fresh green trees. It's always great to kick of the season with the camp, and I missed it last year. It started near Copenhagen in 2006/7 for a few years, before making a leap across the water to Åhus, Sweden in 2010. Then it returned to Denmark but to Aarhus in 2011, before heading back to it's roots in 2012. This year, we're in for a treat with new maps in Aalborg.

Thumbs up for MTBO!

The camp is great for many reasons: there are races, there are bikes, catch up with friends after a long winter, and best of all, there are maps! With 5 races in 5 days, plus daily training sessions, it's an intense few days. I've timed it this year to fit in as my 3rd of 3 progressively hard training weeks, so I will be well and truly fudged by the end of it.

It's a great gauge of early season form for many athletes. In 2009, I finished 2 mins behind Michi Gigon in the first race and remarked after 'it's great I can get so close to you after 4 months of hard biking'. To which Michi replied 'and it will be a bigger time gap come the summer after I've done 4 months of hard biking!' And she was right. Come the summer and WOC in Israel, she was much further ahead of me than 2 mins ...

In 2010 I won the overall camp cup and became incredibly optimistic about my form and WOC in the summer. Sadly, the training camp turned out to be my best results of 2010. So after learning the lessons, this year I know that no matter how I perform in the races, no matter how fast I feel I'm riding, the only race that counts is WOC in the summer. I can win or be 10th in Denmark, but it doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things.

Having said that, the camp is the perfect opportunity to brush off the winters cobwebs from my map holder (and bike), and refresh my brain into how to orienteer. The map is no longer the green of Ski-O. No longer do I have to fear for my life on every descent! I doubt I can just pick up where I left off last year. There is going to be some really good competition from the women though - top placings in the races are going to be hard to come by. At my last count, competition from 20 women all equally capable of a top 5 place. But there are some names missing: Schaffner, Gigon, Jaggi. Athletes who have proved themselves at the highest level.

Orienteering at Lagganlia - from W.Carlyle

Winter has been ok. I was chuffed after running in the week (to the gym and back so about 40 mins), to find my legs didn't hurt the day after. Having not run for nearly 7 months, it was a pleasant surprise. Maybe there will be more running in the coming months, but I doubt it. For starters, I can't find my running shoes, or my orienteering shoes. They're probably stuck in a Tesco bag in the shed covered with mud from the last time I wore them which was ... maybe coaching on summer tour last year ...

The plan for the summer is extensive. It involves A LOT of ferries, and car driving. I'm kjempe tempted by Pilsen in early July, but I think I will decide after EOC in Poland. I believe the training will be better in Brandbu, but races in Czech are always good quality and a chance to do some prep for WOC 2015.

There are races in Turkey, Denmark, Sweden (SM), Poland, Finland, Estonia, Portugal. Maybe Austria in Sept, and maybe Czech in July. There's the O-Ringen MTBO planning and mapping to finalise with HJ, and another Foot-O map to make in Norway. There's probably going to be HJ's bike to repair (oh no wait, he already broke it!) Life is going to be busy, training is going to hard. Results, I can only perform on the day ...

MTBO thoughts. Why don't we ...?

Having started Ski-O this winter and completed the majority of a season, I've begun to notice some aspects of the sport that make me wonder: why don't do we do things like this, or in such-and-such a way?

1) 1 minute to look at the map in MTBO. Why? It gives us time to put the map in the board, especially when the map is a difficult size and requires special folding to get as much of the course on the board as possible. Re-folding means time lost.

BUT, what if organisers made sure (as far as they possibly can) to make the maps for events one of 3 'standard' sizes - A4, 275x275mm, or 300x300mm. There are many boards out there on the market, and I have recently started choosing the board I use for each event based on the published map size.

So why not reduce the time with the map to 30 seconds, or even 15 seconds for an A4 sprint map?

2) Still a little related to map size. Map scale.

I looked at the M21E courses from the World Cup in Poland last year, and the middle was 1:15000 A4. The long was 1:15000 A3. Why was the long not 1:20000? It would reduce the map size and result in less re-folding (especially considering there was a map change). Given how far athletes can ride in a long distance - large maps are a faff. Possibly for some events, a 1:25000 or 1:22500 scale might be used.

3) Why don't we have long mass starts? A common argument against mass start races (esp. in Foot-O amongst WOC athletes) that mass starts reduce the navigation element. True to some extent, but mass starts also make everyone race a little harder to stay with the pack. But if the course is well gaffled, as in Ski-O ESOC long distance last week, the majority of competitors won't see many others on the course except for common sections. When the loops are gaffled, including a long, middle and short gaffle somewhere out there, then you don't know who is leading until the finish. HJ was 15th and 5 mins behind the leader after his second loop, but he had a shorter gaffles, and the short forking at the end and finished 18seconds behind the leader in 2nd place. He said after 'apart from the common controls, I wasn't skiing with anyone after the first 50% of the first loop'.

Racing harder pushes athletes to the limit so their chances of mistakes are higher. Yes, head to head racing is tough, and it hurts. But it's also fun.

4) Why is the red group only ten athletes, and not 20, or 30? Currently you can be ranked 11th in the WRlist, and despite requesting a late start block, you can be starting as the first of the late starters, eg middle of the field.

Yes, in Ski-O I felt a little hard done by, when I was in the first 10 starters, but I also am not good enough to be starting just in front of the red group (a possibility with requesting a late start at the moment).

Why should an athlete from, say, Belarus, who goes to WOC in their first international race for MTBO,  start in front of the red group? Surely it's fairer to have random allocation 1-10, 11-20 and 21-30. Anyone ranked in the top 30 can then choose their start group, early, middle or late, but are likely to be in the first 30 or more starters.

Additionally, with the current established method, I could be starting behind 3-4 athletes I know I can catch. If I can overtake them one by one, I will over the course be riding faster. Seeing athletes who start ahead of you can be a real advantage and can easily lead you into tracks and controls. But if I am starting amongst the 11-20 best in the world, I am less likely to see them out there as they often finish in a similar place in the results to me and ride at a similar pace. Therefore I am more likely to spend the course on my own, so the conditions are more likely to be the same throughout the last 30 starters, with less chance of packs forming.

5) Why don't we have special equipment points? Currently the courses can start at a remote location and the course will take you across the map to the finish. But if a mass start gaffled long is introduced, with 3 or 4 passes of the finish/start area, then an equipment point will be useful.

But the current argument against such an equipment point is that it's unfair on smaller nations. Well, sport is always going to be unfair towards smaller nations. Take Ski-O, GBR send a team but no officials, so any equipment point is un-manned. There's no-one to hand us drinks as we pass the stadium. And the same is true in MTBO. We just have to do things differently: have drinks set up before the start, carry a camelbak etc. Likewise in XC skiing, the GB team is far smaller than the Scandinavian teams so coaching zones are far more beneficial to larger teams who have many officials.

An equipment point doesn't need to have coaches and officials in it. Instead, 2 or 3 organisers would suffice, and teams/athletes can set up their spare kit in advance - wheels, tyres, tubes etc. Organisers would merely be there to ensure no-one panics and nabs another teams kit! There could also be some 'all-teams' kit which is provided by the organisers/IOF. A cheap make-do wheel, and some tubes. This way, smaller nations who travel a long way to the event and can't take spare wheels on the plane have access to kit if its needed.

6) Why don't we have a Mixed Sprint Relay at WOC? A fantastic chance for men and women to race together. It's been in Ski-O for years. Foot-O are introducing it soon. So why don't we have it at MTBO WOC too.

7) Now the Long Qualification has been scrapped, for some athletes from smaller nations, the sprint and middle will be their only chances to compete at WOC. Take GB, last year 2 of our men didn't qualify for the final, but this year there is only one space available, so 3 men will travel to WOC to not compete in the long final, but one or two of those will only get to compete in two races (if a junior rides the elite relay again).

Why don't we ensure the Sprint and Middle races are held on two consecutive days, (possibly the weekend at the end of the week), so athletes only eligible to compete in the Sprint and Middle distances can travel over for a long weekend, rather than have a weeks holiday and two races. I'm sure many athletes would prefer to not take so much time of work if they are only competing in two races, and would prefer to travel for a long weekend and the banquet.




These are just some thoughts that I've been mulling over for some days. Athletes often say they don't want change. Remember the introduction of the Sprint at WOC/JWOC? Remember when we started using SI/EMIT? And currently the introduction of the Mixed Sprint Relay in Foot-O?

Once athletes try something new, they are more likely to appreciate the pros and cons. Just discussing points in a room somewhere and hearing 'the athletes don't want this' isn't helping the development of our sport. I think that athletes become comfortable with what they know, so they think they don't want change. Maybe they do want change and they just haven't tried the alternatives yet.

But I do think, EOC and WOC are not the places to try new ideas for the first time. Start with a major WRE, or World Cup early on in the season (look at Hungary 2010, World Cup, and the introduction of the new MTBO 4x2 track system - athletes didn't realise that distinguishing further between difficult and medium riding was needed. The new 'slow' fills the gap perfectly, and the chances are a 5th category of indistinct might be useful too).