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Two remapped jewel – Rude Skov & Geel Skov

My two home forests, just a short jog from my place have been remapped. I had the pleasure running on the Geel Skov map a couple of weeks a go, in relay training with some mates. Unfortunately I was still hit by a cold so only jogged, but it didn’t make the experience worse! We even entered an area which hasn’t been mapped before.

I should get even better when I ‘ran’ a middle distance competition today in Rude Skov. Just looking at the map it’s just making me wont to run! a total different story compared to the old map and what a pleasure! Enjoyed the entire 49 mns even though I’m still not 100% over my cold and just jogged around.

A big thanks from here to Troels Christiansen who have managed to supervise the Ukrainian map makers, and create an awesome output!

Now I just want to get out and train on the new great maps...

Maps
 

Midgaardsormen:
A 9 leg relay the Danish equivalent of Tiomila and Jukola… though only with 38 teams at the start line. My club Tisvilde looked really good on the paper. We had a late injury but as the same happened for our worst competitor Faaborg it looked to be a good fight for the money. Faaborg lunched the Gold from the start With Mikkel and Tue on the night legs, instead we had the strongest runners in the end. The result was that Faaborg was in the lead with 8-12 mns on the first 6 legs. A great run on 7’th leg and we were back in action and the game was even. 8’th leg didn’t change that and I started 8 sec behind Faaborg on last leg. I had a short split at 1’st and 3’rd control and got a gap. Lucky me the legs felt better than yesterday, without feeling great. I guess it help to get them fired up so the got used to having a hard time. Managed to give us a 2½ mns win. It’s always great to win a relay and it feels good to be able to give something back to the club, as thanks for their support.


(Tutzon)

Map and results
 

Mountain race, Stupidity and 5000m

 After 2 days of guiding cars at Norway Cup (The largest soccer tournament for youngsters in Scandinavia), with a lot of dust and sun, rumours were about a short mountain race in Normarka.

 The race was a bit harder than I expected, and I’m happy I asked Mikkel for help regarding shoe selection, as my flat runner would have been hopeless. Managed a second place on a route there suited orienteers well. The back side was that I got attack by wasps which resulted in swollen calves.

I did intervals the following day and got a cold, not to server. Got persuaded to do the Danish 5000m Champs.

O-Ringen Örebro
As WOC in Trondheim, which has been my main goal for the season, to my big surprise was not relevant for me; I had to come up with something different. A week before O-Ringen I decided to enter the races. My plan was to perform well on first stage - ‘Long’ distance (75 mns winning time) and the sprint on stage 3. The preparation since the selection races has not been WOC like but still decent.

Stage 1: The races didn’t go as planned. After a wobbly start on stage one I sprained my ankle at 4’th control, as I jumped down a 1½m cliff and landed badly on my right foot. As the rules stated that any runner not finishing one stage was not qualified to start on the following stages, the decision was easy. I continued on in an easier pace and with focus on not making more damage. Except for a 1½ mns mistake at 11’Th and 3mns at 14 I did reasonable, but the pace was too low.

Stage 2: (Middle distance) the plan was just to ‘survive’ by taking care where I placed my feet and instead focus on the navigation instead of trying to keep a good pace. Even after half a roll of sports tape secured around my right ankle and a couple of pain killers, the plan didn’t work for long and a mistake at 5’Th control was the start of a bad race. The lesson learned, which was similar to my experience from the middle WOC selection trial, was that I’m not focused enough if the plan is not run in normal race speed, and I do too many mistakes navigation wise.

Stage 3: (Sprint) The race I have look forward to and with the ankle getting better I believed I could do a good race. A lot of sports tape and some pain killers were on the menu again before the race. The ankle felt better and I didn’t have much trouble with it on the hard ground and even surface, compared to the rocky ground on stage one and two.

The tactic was to have a plan before I started any leg, and push the pace on the long legs. I got an early time loss going to second control. I almost crashed with a female runner at a narrow passage and my mind shifted to third control and I ran 5m up the wrong ally before I noticed the error and 10 sec was lost. I kept a good pace over the next section of the course, but had to see another 10 sec lost at 7’Th as I didn’t see the control behind the hedge the first time and ran half way up the stairs before I saw the control and had to go back down. A bad route to 9’Th added up to another 5 sec, I simply didn’t see the right alternative. The biggest time loss though was on the long leg to 13’Th where I was 16 sec of the pace. The right option going backward out of 12’Th was too long compared to the only slightly longer distance from the line going left along the river.

Even with 3 errors and a bad route choice I still ended 15’Th which is not too bad the field in mind, but I can’t be happy with my race due to the errors I made. 

Stage 4: (longish middle 45 mns winning time) The terrain was supposed to be more run able, and the map samples looked great. From the lesson learned on third stage the plan was to go competition speed, and let the ground slow me down where it was too rocky for my soar ankle. After some hesitation and challenge by the rocky ground for the first couple of controls I settled into a good flow and my biggest mistakes were at the easy control 13 and 14. I didn’t quite manage to read the green boundaries going into 23 and I had to go to the road to relocate. Especially happy to see that I did a reasonable good job on the long leg to 9’th. Compared to 2’nd stage I can only be happy with the result as 20’th.

Stage 5: The plan was to go hard from the start and try to catch up some time, as my legs and ankle felt better. Started out well but got surprised by flooding one the northern route one the long leg to 3 and lost a lot of more than 4 mns to the runners around me. With time loss in the circle at 5’th, 6’th and 9’th control (a control most runners lost time on) I had by now been passed by more than 5 runners. With a decent run on the last third of the course I was able to gain one place on the stage and ended as 38. Not quite a top 20-25 as was the goal before hand.

All in all it was a great week in Örebro and it’s always a great experience to run O-Ringen and you know it’s well organised, with good courses and maps and with so many Danes around and good company it was a fun week.

Maps and results

Norway

Since 1 May my base has been in Oslo. The focus has been on improving my running skills in the tough Nordic terrain as well as my navigation skills. It has been tough period, but beneficial. The conversion to tough Norwegian terrain has not left me with out marks. I have had a few close encounters between my knees and Norwegian rocks. Hence I haven't been able to do any proper interval sessions in the last 1-1½ month, but have been able to put in some faster uphill running and stair intervals.

NORT and Jukola with Bækkelaget
together with the national coach, I decided to do the NORT (Nordic Orienteering Tour) even tough it would be without fresh legs due to the hard training period just before.

The legs finally loosened a bit before Jukola, and I ran with a big surplus of energy, unfortunately a bad route choice and a mistake half way left me some minutes behind. I was able to speed up and gain close a couple of minutes of the lost time on the last part of the course, but more than three minutes behind around 23 position is not good enough. From Tiomila we knew that we had a great team and our goal was top 10, but also that a good performance by all of us could lift us even higher. Due to mistakes and injuries we ended as 13’th team, still a decent result.


WOC Selection races:
My focus have been on preparing my self so good as possible for the Long test race in Verdal in early July. Due to the knee trouble I had to shift some of my focus from the sprint, and only did one good sprint training with Rasmus Søes, Mikkel Lund and Maja & Zenia leading up to the test races, where I got a god response technically. Looking back I have to admit that I trained too much between Jukola and the last NORT stages and between NORT and the selection trials. Running at an odd hour at Jukola and the lack of sleep is somehow always more demanding that I presume. Hence I wasn’t fully rested before the trials which I felt on the in the middle and long distance races in the demanding terrain.

Sprint
It was expected that the sprint would be long, hence my plan was to start 'easy' and focus on the navigation, it worked well though I was still 4'th at control 4. The focus was on the long legs, and the plan was to carefully select the best route choice and push hard, which also worked well have 3'rd best split on both the long legs even though I lost 3-5 sec missing the last turn before 9'th control.  As for the last couple of races I had to take pain kills to be able to run properly (bend the leg more than 90 degrees) due to consecutive smashing of my right knee into Norwegian rock (before Jukola, before the WC in Raufoss and on the WC in Raufoss - guess it takes more than 2 month to learn to stay upright in Norwegian terrain ;-). I did 2 mistakes and three bad route choices. Lost time (5 sec) on the route to 5'th, as I not as planned ran straight down the slope as there was to much scrub in the terrain, hence the right route around the house was faster. lost 3-5 sec on the way to 9'th as I missed the turn between the houses. Didn't see the passage to 12'th and lost 5 sec going around the house. lost some 5 sec as I lost the  map contact to 17'th and searched to early. On the route to 20'th it was 7 sec faster going more straight. All in all the speed matched the best, but I made a too many mistakes (approx 25 sec) and with 35 sec behind Kvaal who did a good race with a small time loss on the long leg to 9'th,  it was enough for 8'th place.

Middle
The middle was never important for me due to the strange Danish selection system (The philosophy of having the best possible team with the best runners don't count for the Danish team anymore - as the only team in the world?) where two runners are preselected based on their Junior results and Tue Lassen have proved that he deserved the 3'rd spot. Hence the plan was to focus on the navigation and safe some power for the long distance. The plan felt apart on the way to first control, as I missed 45 sec due to an unmapped watercourse junction which sent me too far down the hill. I got a little stressed and with another big mistake at 4'th, I couldn't help to work a little more with the speed. With a very bad route choice to 10'th where I lost 1½ mns the race could not be saved. I got company with Christian Christensen. After the arena passage CC took the lead and I never got it back. Lesson learned: There is no easy races, you need to focus even though your not going fast!

Long
The focus for the test races has been on the long distance and with the good result on the sprint I had the backpack full of confidence. The plan was to go easy from the start, but not too easy as the first 1/3 was expected to go in fast open marshy terrain and the last 2/3 in terrain similar to the middle distance. I knew the long legs, the butterfly and the last 20 mns of the course would be crucial. We (the BSK gang) expected that all legs except the long legs more or less would be fastest so close to the line as possible, so the tactic was easy.

It was a fantastic start, straight out in some awesome terrain, even though I started maybe a little to easy. Did a stupid 2 mns mistake at 4'th as I dropped to much going out of 3'rd control. Hesitated a lot on the semi long leg to 8'th and tried to go over the hill, but finally decided to go round, lost 45 sec or so on not being consequent.

Got Company with Olle Kärner, and due to the terrain and that on all the shorter legs the best route was on or close to the line we only separated on the long legs with slightly different route choices. The legs were not feeling as good as I expected and I had a feeling that I was not running fast enough. I'm still not 100 % best friend with the terrain which might influence the speed as well as my dodgy knee. Was focused on not making any mistakes in the end and at the same time not drop too much in speed. Managed well except a ½ min time loss on last control, before I realised it was the same as yesterday.

Have to be impressed by the times clocked by the locals, this show how important it is to train in specific terrain.

WOC 2010 - Trondheim
No WOC of me, even though I won two out of three selection races - unfortunately the selectors’ valuation of my races are that they will not be sufficient to qualify for a A-Final!!!

Hence I'm not going to experience the great sunset in Trondheim. At least the car trip to Trondheim meant a stop over in the world heritage listed Røros, for a rhubarb cake and a Hot choco, so the trip was not totally waste of time.



Though Would have been nice to know beforehand that we didn't ran for a WOC place, a few of us might not have made the 2 times 8+ hours car trip. Unfortunately our head coach is not world Champion in Communication.....

Strange to experience that Denmark (as the only team?) is not sending the strongest possible team to a World Champs - never heard of that before!

Maps and results

Danish Champs W-end
After 1½ month where I have gone from one problem to another ranging from food poisoning, a sprained ankle, an asthma diagnosis to an unmoveable knee and the compulsory follow on troubles, which means that I haven’t done any fast sessions except the competitions I have competed in. Hence I was really unsure of my leg speed and form leading up to this w-end.

Danish Long Distance Champs Krengerup 25 April 2010 – Mass start
My plan was to go hard from the start to be sure I was with the lead after the three loops (Motela forking) and then hope there was power enough in the tank to make it home on the last long loop. The tactic more or less worked as I was in the lead with companionship with Rasmus Søes (who had the same order on the 3 loops and lead me the way where I hesitated or made mistakes) as we were in the lead after each of the three loops. I made mistakes at 3'rd and 20'th (around a minute in total). Rasmus then had the lead the way until 27’th where we both lost time (I 60 secs and  Ramus 2:15). Hence I got a 1 min lead, Rasmus was caught by the chasing pack with Tue & Rene with Rasmus Djurhuus about 15 sec behind chasing them. The decider was the long leg to 31’st. I went for the straight option and the rest of the boys took the wide northern track option which was just over ½ a min faster. Rasmus Djurhuus got contact with me on 32’nd. He took the road around to 33 and gained 20 meters. And as I ran for the wrong butterfly loop to start with, and lost a minute and Djurhuus was gone. I was feeling tired by now but kept the same pace as Djurhuus, and was able to narrow the gap as Djurhuus made mistakes in the end and I got a glimpse of him before 44’th were I saw him 30 sec ahead of me on the road. I finished 32 sec behind Djurhuus and had a gap on just 2 mns to Rasmus Søes who took the Bronze.

Danish Sprint Champs – Nyborg Vold 24 April 2010:
A nice surprice, the body was responding better than I had feared and I opened in high pace and was leading with 6 sec at 4’th control (10 sec faster than Mikkel Lund the Winner). Did a mistake (13 sec behind fastest split) at 5’th when I changed my route choice after running a few steps in the other direction and took a poor route to 7’th as I climbed over the rampart (12 sec behind fastest split: running along the lake on the eastern side below the rampart). My last mistake was going to 11’th as I misread the position of the tower and drifted to the left (14 sec behind fastest split). Have to be happy with my speed had 3 fastest splits and 13 splits where I was among the three fastest (out of 21 controls). Ended fifth 11 sec from the silver position and 27 sec behind the winner.

Happy to see my two Bækkelaget SK team mates (Mikkel Lund & Tue Lassen) were one and two from the top, when I could deliver a good race.

The good news was that the body felt better than feared, the results as expected but not as good as I hoped for.

Now the focus is on Tiomila with Bækkelaget SK with me on the long night leg and Eliteserien in Norrköping on Friday.

Maps and results

Night Orienteering
The winter is over and with that the night O-season as well. Though with Tiomila looming in the near future, Night-O is still high priority for another couple of weeks.

I spend the last couple of days in Finspång on a Tiomila preparation camp with Bækkelaget. For me there were only night-o on the menu, due to a soar knee from a bruise at Spring Cup and Eliteserien.

The two night-o trainings in difficult terrain was good preparation navigation wise for the Danish Night-O champ the following evening. The Camp included a Tiomila selection race Friday evening on a course from Kolmården Kavlen 2009. The course was planned as a day leg, so we where challenged navigation wise in the cold dark night. I got a good feeling navigation wise, and most of my time were due to a misunderstanding concerning the control codes on the EMIT stands. The selection race was a good reminder about how important the technique and compass are at night.

Very early the next morning I flew from Norrkjöping to Copenhagen and from here I went straight to Jutland for the Danish Night O Champs in Grenå Plantation.

The agenda this time was 15.3k in a flat forest with simple navigation. My tactic was to make it simple and ran around the as much as possible.

I made a few ½ mns mistakes and lost around a minute on 24’Th otherwise my biggest time loss was when I had to find the 2’nd last control and the way home without light. I tried to make it as simple as possible but unfortunately someone had placed a few big rocks at the edge of parking area on my way to the last control and in the dark dark forest I managed to run straight into it with my left knee. The Head lamp defect stunt did set me 1½ mns back, but didn’t influence my placing, just the training the next couple of days.

Maps and results
 

07-05-2009
to
12-05-2009

I have been in Trondheim a couple of times before, all trips have been associated with orienteering, but not really much running as I on my previous visits to Trondheim have enjoyed the annual O-day (a big post season party with orienteers from all over Norway). This trip to Trondheim was different, as orienteering was the main purpose.

We got our first little warning when we were flying into Trondheim as snow was a part of the landscape. I have packed some warm close but was not prepared for the cold weather and cold accommodation. The Norwegians had 'stolen' our initial booked accommodation so we had to settle in some small cold camping cabins. Though we couldn't complain about the view



I was good to get a better idea about what we can expect next year => big tough marshes

Unfortunately the Camp was a little short for me as I twisted my angle very bad on the Middle distance race, and flew back to Denmark early to get some professional treatment.
 

Keepint the flag and spirit high!


Claus lost some time on second leg, but we kept the spirit high and flighted through the night. Especially Jakob Lööf did a fantastic long night where we almost got a glimpse of the leading pack.

When the night was over and the sun approached we figures on the result board ended on 7. We were aiming a bit higher than that, but we have to be happy with the results anyway, it was a good team effort and I'm sure we be back next year to fight for a top position.

News articles from Kristianstadsbladet about PAN and tiomila:
Norskt i topp – Pan sjua
Lööf: Bästa insatsen i stafettsammanhang
Bloch: Jag sjabblade bort topplaceringen

Pre-race
"Bästa laget under min tid"

And thanks to our team leder Janne Nilsson:
Tid att stämpla ut



Maps and results

 

Short (4k) 8'th March
Same route as yesterday, but the difference was that it had been raining all night so this time it was deep mud, even better for us orienteers. Everyone expected that we did worse on the short cross, but I guess most athletics runners don't run two competitions in a row and we had a big advantage due to the muddy conditions. So the results were:

Rasmus Søes # 7 (13:46)
Rune Olsen # 12 (13:52)
Claus Bloch # 17 (13:58)

Even better Signe Søes won the female short cross, I'm sure all the cheering and support from the other orienteers lifted her to the victory!
Full results here
 

21-02-2009
to
27-02-2009

22-10-2008

to

27-10-2008

Therefore I was unsure about my current form. But there was nothing to worry about I had a good speed in the forest.

I decided to go hard from beginning. Didn't feel superb but pushed hard. Caught a "slower" runner at 4'th control, the last couple of times that have happened I have made mistakes on the following legs. I rushed my navigation a bit and didn't follow the plan and made a ½ mns mistake at 6'th a poor route to 8 and 9. a 15-30 sec error on 13'th and we were together again. and then I lost 15 sec on the second last and 10 sec on the last control to very stupid mistakes. I had the legs to play for gold but due to poor concentration I ended 6'th 1:04 behind Jamie. Was leading with 20 sec on 5'th control, so that's just not good enough.

Maps and results
 

EOC Trials Kristianstad:

Had a fairly easy week of training after a hard training camp in Czech, so focused on some speed work and nursing my left calf.

Sprint:
The legs were feeling strange before the race, guess it had something to due with the excitement of trials for a Championship.
Due to a late start time I heard the times from the first runners and knew it was going to be around 12 mns running (normal sprint winning time not like 17 mns as for the Danish Sprint Champs). I therefore Knew I had to push hard from the start. The course was fairly easy, most of the time just running around buildings in a park, though which is going to be very relevant for EOC (sprint Qual) and WOC (sprint Qual and Final). Didn't do any major mistakes but lost a little time on 3'rd when I hesitated to much and stoped short of the control. A little time loss on the route to 4 and 13. My biggest mistake was when I ran out of control 10 towards control 1 for a few sec's before I realised it (lost 6'sec to fastest time).

The race got me in just below 12 mns, as the only one. Great start to the trials..but... Just as I walked toward the result board I suddenly got a strange sensation in the right calf. SHIT another muscle strain?

Iced and got in under compress straight away and had it elevated the entire afternoon. The time was crucial as the second race was in the late arvo.

Middle:
Felt stiff and soar but wanted to give it a try. Warmed up for around 25 mns the first 5 by walking around. The calf felt soar but yes I could run, without too much pain (and normally you forget the pain when you have to focus on the navigation). Was still a little bit unsure about the conditions of the calf, so tried to go fairly easy on the first 2 controls and tried not to go max competition speed but keep just below. Managed to run well until 9'th (where I actually was in the lead). Lost time on 10'th stopping to early, and then hell broke loss as I lost time on 11 (25 sec) and 15 (45 sec) a I miss interpretated the map. And with another 45 sec time loss on 17'th it suddenly didn't look that good anymore and I finished on a disappointing 8'th place.

Not sure what went wrong, but one thing for sure was that I rushed too much with the navigation and didn't get a good flow. If it was due to the soar calf and to much focus on the physical performance i don't know.

Long:
The calf was very stiff after the Middle and felt soar. But again wanted to give it a go. So same procedure a long warm-up and the ready to race. Felt okay in the beginning of the race but ½ way on the first loop of the butterfly the calf started feeling stiff and soar, continued out on the second butterfly loop but the calf didn't cope well with the more hilly terrain, so decided to call it a day at the butterfly control and got a lift to the finsh.

Good news:
I'm ready for EOC and the Team Denmark medical team hasn't found any muscle flaw in my calf, and the pain and stiffness was probable due to the muscle and bone were to compact and some strange stretching got it in right place again.

Maps and results
 

I did a reasonable race, though had to get the body work hard here and there. Had a long split in the start and did't ran the optimal route to 3'rd so was a bit behind the pack. But as compensation I had the short split in the end and managed to finished 26 sec's behind.

Unfortunately the race didn't go as we were hoping for and we ended 5'th with the first team and 8'th and 14'th with the following teams.

Maps & Results
 

Nice to get a week of work and a lot of orienteering hours in a warm climate. A great week with challenging orienteering and great to just hang out with the pack.

Check out the photos here
 

Euromeeting - Seefeld Austria

Sprint:
Beforehand it was known that the sprint would be 2/3 in forest and 1/3 in urban area. With 29 controls on just 2.9k it was expected that the controls were going to be very close in the forest part.

Started to slow as I was just cruising in normal middle distance pace. Made two 10 sec mistakes otherwise okay. Missed 40 sec on the first control in the urban area, as I lost the direction crossing the first intersection. Ended up around 2 mns behind, which was pathetic.

Had trouble with setting my self up for the races and didn’t really feel I gave 100%

Relay:
Ran first leg. My thigh was stuffed in the beginning so I was just cruising with the pack. Though due to large splits I had to go on my own from 3’rd. Got the wrong track on the way to 6’th but without checking the compass I didn’t discover it before it was too late so had to run the extra meters around the hill. Though this was not the major problem for the day. The major problem was that I couldn’t count from 6 to nine. Ran straight from 6 to 9. Struggled a bit with the pace and concentration on the next couple of legs, but pulled my self together after the spectator control and lost around ½-1 mns to the leaders with the same gafling. Another disappointing day.



Long:
Tried hard to set my self up for this race and focused on a good proper warm up. Started easy but first ‘mistake came’ fast. Took a bad route choice to 2’nd and lost 1-1½ mns. Did another poor route choice trying to go round to 5’th, and missed the direction out of 6’th. Saw a Suisse guy on the way to 7’th. Even though I did poorly in the beginning I thought I had caught him. Had him on my tail for the next 8 legs or so until I made a small mistake at 15’th. The butterfly looked crazy on the map, and yep I managed to stuff it up as well. Ran from 17-20 couldn’t find 20 realised the mistake and stuffed up 18 another 30sec. A poor route choice to 27 left me 7mns behind the winner.

Was happy with the fitness, though started a bit too easy, but still not focused enough, but I’m sure that’s not going to be a problem next week for the National champs

Maps here and some photos here
 

WC - O-Ringen -  Sweden

Long:
Got a little bit tougher than expected. The legs and body was feeling tired from all the travelling and jumping of time zones. Looked okay after the first 3 loops when I passed in 36’th spot. BUT totally faded after 1:25 in the long mass start event and ended 54.

Middle:
This meaning B-final for the middle. Did a reasonable job navigating lost around 1½ mns, but didn’t have the speed in the legs after the breakdown the day before so ended 8’th 40 sec behind the 5 place there would give an A-final in the sprint.



Sprint
Not a big surprise I didn’t have the legs after today, where I have struggled with the form. Ended 1 minute behind after making half a minute of mistake.

Maps and splits can be found here

Now it’s time to get some rest and get the speed back in the legs!

Mumbai (Bombay) - India

What an ugly start, had to get up 4:15 am to catch a one hour delayed flight of of Brissy. Even better had to do a stop in Sydney and Darwin so we could be another 2 hours delayed and I had a fair chance to lose my luggage….yep good enough all flights on my way home to Copenhagen were at least one hour delayed! Reason being, too dark in Brisbane? Too much wind in Sydney, to hot and humid in Darwin? Too messy in Mumbai? Too much rain in London… and that’s for sure.



Survived the tough negotiation in the airport concerning a taxi ride to downtown Mumbai. Managed to get half price compared to the first place I asked. Though still only DKK 50 (AUD 12) for a 1½ hour taxi ride. I took the pleasure and paid the DKK 10 extra to get aircon.

Merde the streets even in downtown looked like shit, I relaxed when I saw the façade of the Hotel, which actually was the only okay looking building in the street.



After the compulsory eat all those weird things at the breaky buffet so you don’t have to eat any of the stuff they are selling in the street trick, I was searching for a running gear shop. Got set with running gear, but what the F&$#, running was like being a monkey in the Zoo. Everybody looked strange at you and you even got some cheering here and there.

Got a private tour around town for 3 hours, with my personal guide and taxi driver. Total costs 2000 Rps. Around 250DKK or 55 AUD, including map, water, fresh fruit and fresh coconut juice not bad at all. Even checked out the House of Gandi and checked out Holly cows!



More photos can be found here
 

Noosa:

Another 10 hours drive from Dubbo, and a left turn in Brissy yep there you find Sunshinebeach. Nice place to hang out. Classic Australien winter with 20 degrees, nice cafés and good surf.



 

JWOC Dubbo:

Just a small walkabout! 9 hours drive from Melbourne and we arrived in Dubbo 2 am in the morning. Dubbo was cold, great granite terrain, good spirit and yep outback NSW! Good stuff it’s not as bad as those real outback NSW towns were all you can get at the Café has to be fried! Hoggster and AceJase did a fantastic job with the speaking, and AceJase it was top dollar with your Hot Choco machine in the Kitchen!

Ran the NSW Long Champs, Western Plains Carnival and AUS Long and Relay champs. Maps and splits can be found here

A few photos from the week in NSW can be found here

 

Melbourne

Home sweet home Melbourne. Good to be back, catching up with people at PwC and hanging out with orienteering mates. Surprise surprise, they still do nice sandwiches, hot chocos and pies downtown.

Photos here
 

Tokyo - Japan

Tokyo… welcome to the high-tech and high efficiency world. Then how can it be so hard to find an address, well they use there own strange system. I didn’t help when the local couldn’t help, one fellow answered in perfect English “I don’t speak English” sure mate. Knew it was within 3 min. walk from Ginza Metro station but it still took me 25 min to find the Hotel.

But the hotels are nice, and they got heaps of ‘toys’ …. Massage bench, electronic air freshener, computer, multi functional toilet (Heat, wash function… you name it). No bible but the handy guide to Buddhism was in the drawer. And not at least a Danish telephone!



Next morning as an appetiser my morning jog took me around the fish market, so I was pumped for some sushi for breakfast. Some groovy Breakfast it was, and I planned to tru it all. This included specialties as Rice porridge, rice soup, rice crackers, rice… Sushi, seaweed, 5 different coloured fruit juices. Even the waitress smiled due to all the empty plates at my table.



Else had to do the compulsory Temples, River cruise, Museums and Danish cafes?!?! Anyway nice to know you can always go to ‘the Danish café’ or ‘Andersen café’ if you need a Hot Choco and a cake.

Photos here
 

Was focused on doing the navigation job in the beginning and try to push the speed in the easy part. But… missed the first control, ran down to the right cliff but didn’t see the control as it was parked at the side of the cliff. Ran a little around before I hit the control from the other side and saw the control…great start. Did some good splits on the next couple of controls. Lost time on 12 and on 14 as I didn’t see the control on the map before I had past it (was right on the line from 13-15, though bad excuse – just showing that I didn’t focus enough on navigation). Ended on a poor 31’st place.

B-Final

Really easy start, first challenge was control 10…Planned to take it safe going left of the ponds. Though the control was not exactly where I wanted it (and where most runners wanted it) so did a loop. Lost the focus and lost time on 11 and 14 and the second last. All in all another poor race navigation wise. Hope I had some speed, but due to a dead EMIT unit I didn’t get any split.

Maps and some splits here
 

Groovy, enough snow to go skiing. Out on the golf course with headlamp in a strong wind. Survived 1 hour 13 minutes in the freezing wind. Managed another 2 hours 19 on the cross-x skies the following day...

Unfortunately also managed to get a flue....merde!

 

Training as usual in DK
Back on track, did my first 10k race since the overtraining in late 2005. Managed to do 32:36 on a windy course in my Debut in the lion uniform from ‘Blovstrød Løverne’. Am happy about the time though the goal was sub 32:30, no worries that will come.

Snow! Yippie!
BUT – not enough to put on the skies booh. Anywas saddled up on the bike for a nice ride… Went down to Step and Deep for some ‘I have to survive the cold weater in DK’ gearing up shop, Thanks Lars for the service >;-)



Cruised around the awesome white landscape and checked out the deer’s in Dyrehaven. Then it’s fun to train!
 

Australia - Good to be back mate!
‘how is it to be back home mate?’ just one of few txt messages from friends Down under. Wow, I have missed this place a lot, it actually make me feel home! Awesome to get a meat pie, Choco liquorish bullets, Choco hot Cross Buns, fresh watermelon …have to write TimTams’ as well.



Was Buggered after the night leg from HK to Sydney. Cruised a around Balls Head (sprint event). The good thing was that I had plenty of time to check out the Harbour bridge and the Sydney Opera from the course! Nice!

Got a Meat pie at Catoomba after checking out the three sister… haven’t moved since last time I was around! Damn outback NSW is hot, what a change from HK and DK.

Great to run around in the granite again, though wasn’t to focused on the first day around Orange. Only did a good job on the 2’day winning the mass start after being 1½ min down on Shep and Carsten J. do brain malfunction at the fourth control.



Crashed and burned on the 3.day, ran out of gas on the 4’th and tried hard on the 5’th as I won the race last time I ran around Mcquiry Woods. A bad route choice and a small mistake and three fast guys running together didn’t give me a chance. The maps have been uploaded.



Had a great time in Oz, for sure ‘I’ll be back’
 

APOC & Hong Kong Champs
Skyscrapers, Rolls Roys, Money, Scenic views, New Years celebration and shitty terrain!

Hong Kong got it all, maybe except the awesome orienteering terrain. To avoid been beaten by my mom I arrived in Hong Kong in the arvo on December 26’th. After sucking in the vibe and enjoying the skyline on Hong Kong island I thought I was ready for the Hong Kong Night Champs…

Hong Kong Night Champs
Welcome to the Jungle everybody! Yep ‘it a jungle out there’, and HK is suppose to have some nasty snakes around.  It was a 75 mins score event and it took around 23 sec to discover that Green means no go! And small tracks / paths means.. ‘I should have taken my machete along!’ Ended up doing some speed sessions around the ‘park’ on tracks and in concrete watercourses. Ended up with most points (around 285) though a fellow orienteer from Tyrving ended up -285 cause showing up too late at the finish.
 

Macao – Casino, Portugese and Casino….
The small county (even smaller than HK) can be reached by fast ferry from HK in just over an hour…. For most people, the boat I chose got in trouble with some floating garbage, and had to return so my trip took around to hours…. The compensation was an Ice Cream and a drink… not much compared to the stakes at rhe Casinos in Town.

Victoria Peak - HK
If you are in HK don’t miss out the view from the peak. Looks absolutely awesome at night. Did a run from my hotel at the harbour front, to the top, a 500m climb. Lucky me they are serving Hot Choco at the peak station, though there another 100m climb to the top.

APOC
Sprint was held in a park on the Hong Kong ‘main land’. This was the first time ever I experienced a sprint start to go over 5 hours… Anyway I was slipping around in my normal runners and ended 2’nd.

Long and Middle, was in a similar area. High grass, covering Zillions of small rocks and possible heaps of snakes, to spice it up a bit there was some good handfuls of thick green patches. Ended up ‘jogging’ around after a guy just before I had to go to the start told me about the APOC relay, where to Chinese girls broke there legs and had to be rescued, and even better it was shown on telly in the evening…. Year I’m ready to rumble in the junge?!

The Only good thing I can come up with about the terrain was the awesome view! Check it out!



New Years
Lucky me a Danish expatriates from PwC is on a secondment in HK. So celebrated New Years on an Italian restaurant with a couple of Danes and 18 million Chinese People.

The maps have been uploaded.
 

New year new club!
Have decided to run for Pan Kristianstad (SWE) in 2007 after two years with FarumTisvilde OK.

Pan is not new to me as I was running for them in 2003 and 2004. It a great club with a good atmosphere. The big motivators for the club change has been new surroundings, new challenges and therefore new and more motivation.

Had a good day training in Åhus this Saturday as well.

I’m looking forward to the new season, it going to be awesome!

"I hope your wearing your fire-proof O suit, cause I'm gonna be burning through that forest!"

Trondheim, Norway
Have always wanted to go to Trondheim and what better occasion than O-Day can come up?

O-day might be ‘Mecca’ for Orienteers… and you have to go at least once in your life? Were hoping that the trip would give me an opportunity to go skiing after a 1½ year drought. Unfortunately the snow conditions were not too good so had to enjoy the terrain by foot. A few colourful photos have been uploaded.


 

Blodslitet, Frederiksstad Norway 21-10-06
After a couple of days not feeling superb, I decided to start and give it a go. The initial plan was to do the loops and see how I felt. I got in trouble from the start as I lost time on the first control (2min). Luckily I was not the only one, so I didn’t have to run the rest of the course by myself. After the three loops I was feeling okay and spotted a group just ahead of me. I decided to give it a go and speeded up to get contact. ‘Rode’ with the group for the rest of the course, though I was feeling necked in the end but still managed a decent 23’rd spot.

Though the biggest mistake was that I went to the party in the evening, given my poor conditions. The result was that I got really sick again…bugger!



A few photos and maps have been uploaded.
 

Autumn Training centre - Mysen Norway 16-10-06 to 20-10-06
Spend the autumn break in Norway training in the forest around Mysen. Didn’t have the weather with us, but it doesn’t matter as soon you start running in the forest. Unfortunately I got in trouble with my throat and therefore couldn’t train as much as I liked.
 

Tunevannet Rundt - Sapsborg Norway 15-10-06
The early start on the autumn break included a ‘long’ distance race in Sarpsborg - Norway. After an eventually nice sleep in ‘Old Einerbu’ in Mysen, after we had struggled with the fireplace and drunken Norwegian ladies begging for autographs, we were lucky to find the competition area before the start. It was a mass start race and Rasmus Søes and I (only Danes around) did a good job in the beginning and got a 30 sec gap on the way to the 2’nd control. Though I stuffed up the 3 control with 2 minutes, and had to speed up to catch the pack again which I did around control 8. The end of the course included two times 1½-2k racing on asphalt ‘down town’. Unfortunately a bad route choice in the end meant that we were 2’nd and 4’Th.

Map uploaded
 

Euromeeting - Gdynia
Back in the Red & white Jersey, after a couple of years more related to Green & Gold.
As a big surprise for everyone the competition only included Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Poland. Anyway, I didn’t matter too much as all the Nordic countries were represented so there was good competition.

Program:
Sprint, Long and Relay

After an early start and loooong road trip to Poland via Germany and especially the old East German ‘Hitler’ Freeway gave us a late arrival in G’dansk. Still enough time for a ‘jog’ around Sopot, the uptown area in G’dansk. 

Did a light training session Friday morning in similar terrain as the Long dist should be held in. ‘Easy Gully spur’ terrain with a few green areas. Still have some trouble with my left Achilles, but it didn’t bugger me too much. 

Sprint:
Did a good warm-up to get the Achilles' tendon in to speed. Were feeling okay in the beginning and the speed wasn’t too bad and navigated well until the 5’th last control (Control 10) where I totally lost the bearing. Not sure if that have to do anything with the Norwegian chicks jumping around in the forest or the fact that I was stupid. Ended slightly off the map and lost 3 good minutes => it was Game Over. It didn’t make it better that I lost ½ of my left shoe in the forest!

Had some strange pain in my tights more precisely in the muscle on the outer side of the leg, after the race. Couldn’t hardly warm-down. No idea where it came from… maybe the long journey on the Hitler road! Did some wicked stretching in the arvo and crossed my fingers!

Long:
Struggled with getting started, soar muscles in the tights and a soar left Achilles' tendon. Managed to get the legs rolling, and kept a decent pace from the beginning. Were feeling okay running but made a route choice mistake on a long leg in the end and climbed an additional 50m and lost 2 minutes. Made some smaller mistakes as well which added up to around 2 minutes. Were around 6 minutes behind, which probably match my not superb training state at the moment.

Relay:
Same forest as for long. Ran 2’nd leg, going out in the lead with a pack of four people. The pack kept an okay pace in the beginning. No controls were missing as it was the case for the females first leg. Even though there were big differences in the forking the group was together until the last forking. Had a long forking and lost sight of the pack and finished around 1½ minutes behind. Finished 4’th overall, not too bad but not as good as we were hoping for.

Maps, results and a few photos have been uploaded.
 

Back to DK and preparation for WOC:
Felt good returning from Oz, and were confident that I got what it takes. Showed form in the elite races and had trained well over the last two month. Everything seemed to go wrong after Jukola. Got sick and struggled 1½ week without proper training or any training at all. Then I made the first mistake as I tried to catch up the lost training. Did 2 orienteering trainings a day and a lot of speed work and I was feeling better and better.

The next drawback came when I helped my sister move to 4’th floor in an old flat without lift. Carried 25 boxes up the stairs and after orienteering intervals in the arvo my calves got really tired on the warm down, a light stage of ‘overtraining’. Decided to go to Lithuania just to do something different and get away from home as well as get plenty of time to recover and take it easy. At the same time JWOC (my first) was good fun with both medals to Australia and Denmark my two ‘home’ countries.

After some good massage and spa in Lithuania, I tried to get ready by doing to speed sessions in the week leading up to the selection races. The rest of the week was all about resting the legs and I got some massage as well.

Sprint – Universitetsparken Esbjerg:
Was not to sure about my speed, but it seemed to be all right. Made a bad route choice to the 1'st control and lost about 25 sec. (thought I missed maybe 5-10 sec). Speeded up and won the next 3 splits so the speed was there. One bad route choice to 12'th and a two small mistakes in the end pushed me down the result list to where it’s not that fun to be.
 
Middle – Hjermind Egekræt:
Felt confident that I could do it on the Middle with a good race. Were drifting a little too much to the left on the first leg and was sure lost at least 20sec. (but didn’t lose much). Planned to take the easy route choice to the 2'nd control, going round on the track to the right. Tried to cut the corner and somehow I must have exited the gully in the wrong direction and I drifted out the wrong spur. Didn’t realise it before I saw the pit. Went well from here, but had a small time loss on 10. Going out of 12’th I realised that 13’th looked tricky and therefore I slowed down, but somehow I ended up on the wrong spur anyway. Lost some time to 15 as the yellow was really bad (had checked the SUI trials the week before and a guy went through therefore I took that route choice). Legs were feeling tired in the hill, and the speed was still a little bit behind the best but the mistakes made the difference.
 
Long – Frisenborg skovene:
Knew it was going to get tough as the course was 15,6k with 800m climb. At the Danish
champs in 2003 in the same forest the course was 15,2k with 550m climb and the winning time was 98mins. Started confident and with good speed was feeling okay up the hills as well. Caught a guy with 2mins at the 1'st control (he is in the Ukraine team for the WOC!). Lost a little bit on 2'nd going straight. Felt well over the first part of the course, first time I could feel the hills were on the way to 7’Th. I continued pushing and tried to keep a good pace. Got into trouble at 21'st when found my self a little high and decided to
run along the field, unfortunately there were a lot of undergrowth and I was starting  getting tired and lost some time (just over a minute). Were 7'th overall but only a min after no. 3 and still ahead of Jamie Stevenson (the winner). Made the first real mistake on 25 as I was getting tired I was trying to avoid the hills but more or less did the opposite. From here on I was running on fumes and lost around 4-5 mins over the last couple of controls.

WOC / WOC Tour:
Maybe I missed out on the WOC but I still have to go and check it out. The organisers needed some elite runners to help out with the TV production. This included free entry to the WOC-Tour and first parquet to the WOC show.Even after some horrible selection races and some ’tough’ recovery to get on top again, running in awesome terrain around Silkeborg, I can’t stop training in the forest and especially orienteering! I love it too much! It’s awesome!

Performed okay the first 3 days (3’rd, 2’nd and 1’st). After a pool party Wednesday evening, the lack of rest kicked in and there were not too much power in the tank the last three days.

Looking forward!
The next aim is the Danish Champs with the Middle distance here in the end of August and the Relay and long in the start of September. The calves are feeling better and better and hopefully I can battle for medals at the Danish Champs.

Sprint Albany Uni - Awful start with a 15 sec time loss on second control as I expected the control was located on the upper level instead of on the lower level. lost another 15 sec on the route choice to 5. Managed to keep a good pace in the rest of the course and made up the time loss to finish just 3 sec ahead of Chris Forne.

Sunday:
Two middle distance races in Otakanini Topu - Sand dune terrain in the Woodhill forest.

AM - Got a god flow in the beginning and the legs were feeling fine. Read a depression as a hill on the way to 8'th and lost some time. Stuffed it up on 11'th after loosing control halfway through the leg. Cruised the rest of the course.

PM - Was ready to redeem my self from the poor performance in the morning. The race was a chasing start so caught a lot of people just after the first control. Had a good flow until a small mistake at 8'th. Was careful in the low visibility pinafores in the end and managed to get through with out any major mistakes even though the map seem to be weird.
 

Attackpoint online training diary

Check it out at http://www.attackpoint.org/
The best ozi players have lodged there training diary. Some of the people online are:

Troy                - Troy De’Hass
Shep                - David Shepherd
TommyQ         - Tom Quale
Robw               - Rob Walter
Jules               - Julian Dent
Runodk           - Rune Olsen

When do you join?
 

Tassie and Canberra
After a hard training weekend with the tough Tassie girls in Hobart last weekend, the training the comming weekend is scheduled for Canberra.

Two great training weekends and a few more to come in Australia & New Zealand. Looking forward for the next couple of weeks training to get more power into the legs.
 

Canberra

Lynham (Friday)
An easy run in the park! Can still be amazed with the ease the kangaroos can jump a 1.5 meter high fences, just look so easy.

Ballinafad Creek (Saturday)
Cruised around at Ballinafad Creek with Shep to put out tapes for a coming event. Open terrain with some fair hills, topped with the first 50 termite mounts (Map uploaded).

Sparrow Hill (Sunday morning)
The setup up on Sunday was for CHAOS orienteering. Four loops of 1.6 km to 1.6 km in the Sparrow Hills pine forest. A good navigation & speed session, though found the CHAOS at the end of the last loop! (Maps uploaded)

Honeysuckle Creek (Sunday evening)
Detailed granite terrain used for the WC middle distance final in 2000.
The run ability was not that great due to a lot of sticks merely spread over most of the forest. Figured out how some of the big guns could lose 17 minutes on one control, when touched the edge of the map!
 

Tassie:

Cascade Breweries: (Friday morning)
Checked out the site of the Cascade brewery on an easy morning jog before cruised down town for breaky and hot choco!

Hobart SW - Upper reservoir (Friday afternoon)
Did a run with a bit more speed in the afternoon, the legs was pulling up well.

Capes Pillar (Saturday – all day)
The locals (Hanny and Grace) had persuaded the foreigner to do a long scenic run on the south eastern tip of the Tasman Peninsula. As we got moving the weather got better and we could enjoy the scenic coast line in sunshine and merely 12 degrees. Was happy about the recovery snack in the backpack as the tank needed to be refuelled after a couple of hours out there. Finish with 5 hours and 20 minutes I the training diary with at least 1,900m of climb. That qualifies as a good days of training.

Check out the photos here.

4 Peaks (Sunday)
The menu on Sunday was the Four Peaks race. A terrain run over four peaks with around a 1000m climb at the north eastern edge of Hobart with start and finish at the Risdon Brook Dam. Certainly I could feel the long run the day before, but the legs were surprisingly good. Keep a good speed over the hills and have to give it a fair go to follow Hanny’s pace. Check the results here.
 

- 02/04 2006 State League Creswick Diggings, middle distance in Gold mining.
- 01/04 2006 Training Castlemaine - Chewton Diggings, a map with rocks and goldmining a nice terrain, and Crocodile Reservoir traditional gully spur terrain. Still plenty of water out there but no Crocs in sight! buh!
- 25/03 2006 Training Castlemaine on Smith reef
Gully Spur terrain, trying to get a hang of it. Did a couple of runs without compass to force myself to focus entirely on contours.

- 24/03 Crocodile Reservoir (Gully Spur). A after work training Friday evening around Castlemaine. Trying to learn from one of the old folks in the business Mr. Key

The Maps have been uploaded and can be found in the 'Orienteering' section
 

Great Day!

This is how every day should be:
- Easy working day in the morning
- Lawn Ball, Drinks and Fun with the rest of the Co-workers at PwC
- Check out your new beauty of a MTB, special customized by the Famous Melbourne Bicycle centre in Clifton Hill

                   www.melbournebikes.com.au

- Intervals in the park, showing the fastest interval session to date and the fastest interval to date to finish of the training..... Awesome!

The bike of mine:
- Scott Genius RC Limited
- Frame: Scott Carbon R1 HMF technology, scandium C.B. swingarm 90mm rear travel
- Rear Shock: Scott TC 3 modus / LO-TC-AT reb. Adj. / remote control
- Fork: FOX F100RLT Terra logic
- Components: Full Shimano XTR cross country component
- Rims: Shimano XTR WH-M965 fitted with Hutchinson tubeless tires
- Handlebar: Ritchey Carbon WCS, Flat / 580mm
- Seat post: Ritchey WCS Carbon
- Seat: Selle Italy SLR XP Kevlar
- Pedals: Shimano XTR PD-M959

Final:



Preview:


 

Sorrento
Training and relaxation weekend at the beach. A couple of runs and a bike ride in the Mornington Peninsula NP with Ford Nepean where the first gun shots were fired in both the 1st and 2nd World War. And Yep I'm thinking about turning into a Surf pro after the weekend!

Photos to be found in the photo gallery



Chinees New Year Celebration in Melbourne China Town Sunday night with 19 co-workers from PwC. Welcome to the Dog's year and happy New Year! Photos to be found in the photo gallery
 

Run4yourlife (R4YL)
The newest Australian running magazine, with at collum written by Grant Bluet....therefore a couple of pages about Orienteering.

The Danish Viking was pictured in the 3'rd edition......

Front cover:
 

Page 58 and 59 featuring Orienteering:
   

See more on the web: www.runforyoutlife.com.au
 

Madonna – Hung Up “Those who run seem to have more fun!”
 

Yep here can we learn something in Denmark it's not that hard to find an opportunity to place some more holydays in the calendar.

With the change to summertime the new season is going. It started with a long run in the 'frying' sun and 28 degrees along the Yarra and didn't finish before the legs had been turning for 3 hours.

Maps from VIC Champs has been uploaded. Maps from NSW Champs and AUS Champs have been delayed due to, two weeks of har work in Brisbane.
 

Søndag:
Stævnepladsen var rent paradis, omgivet af sneklædte bjerge og den rislende flod, hvor et større filmhold var ved at optage den nye Blockbuster!

Og jo kortet hed ..... ja rigtigt gættet også Paradise. For mit vedkommende var det også paradis de første 5 poster, hvorefter jeg måtte kaste et par minutter i junglen og det løb var kørt. Det endte med et vrik som kostede et fald på hoved i en bæk... men ellers var det forrygende!

Kort med vejvalg kommer snarest at skue - og dog kortet er blevet stjålet!
 

Se kortet fra træningen her.

Taktikken for den lange 10 km bane søndag var at trucke roligt rundt for ikke at gøre mere skade på de usle ben. Da jeg benyttede en af de klassiske fejl på p. 1 med at forveksle kontrol nummer kostede det en 10 mins cirkel inden jeg var tilbage og stemple den 'rigtige' post.

Ellers bød turen på lidt sightseen med gamle Kauri træer og vandfald, og lidt dansk selskab, hvilket ikke er tosset efter 2½ måned hjemme fra.