WOC this way

For an orienteer of my prestige ;o) it seems somewhat surprising that I've never run in a WOC final (or won a UK Cup race). Since I sneaked my way (without cheating in the sprint I hasten to add) into the WOC team in 2003, I've put a lot of work into my orienteering and reaped many rewards along the way, but the golden WOC ticket twice eluded me, when really it shouldn't.

I don't think the team's been announced yet, so I shouldn't really say what I've been picked for yet. But I haven't been picked for the long, sprint or relay. Perhaps after what I acheived last year I should have hoped for more than one run at WOC this year, but I'm really happy to have turned around some recent poor form and put the ghost of last years test races behind me. Nah I'm well chuffed, and feel good about having one race to put all my energies into.

I wasn't especially looking forward to the test races. I never do. Most people do get in a boo at some point, in recent years me especially, and there's obviously quite a lot of tension and thoughts of "ooh he's looking good, maybe I'm inferior" (not in a gay way). Also it cost me a good 350 quid (+ the 130 quid I wasted on Jukola) on top of missing 5 days of Big Brother and several World Cup matches. That said, I was quite confident of doing quite well. I just wasn't looking forward to it that much.

As it turned out, I really enjoyed the weekend. Having Sprotty, Nobthrob, Baker and Johnson around meant there were plenty of people I could try and get into a boo, throw petty insults at and stick Brande stickers over their stuff. Also I beat Neil 3-2 at round-the-clock darts games. I was quite relaxed about the whole "getting in the WOC team thing", which does sort of dominate procedures a bit at the WOC selection races. Funny that. I was relaxed as, so long as I did my best, I wasn't going to be that bothered if other people did better and I didn't get picked (although I kinda thought my best would be good enough). Anyway, the biggest boo I got in while I was away was when I lost 10-0 to GG in table football. 10-0! GG! I hope I don't have to go through that ever again.

Sprint Race
Pretty easy. I didn't take a compass - it's my new thing in urban/park sprint races. Possibly as I don't care much about them, but I think it genuinely helps me focus on getting the right lines in the terrain and I probably wouldn't use it anyway. I felt pretty sharp and only made a handful of small (5 sec) errors (mainly near the start), so I was pleased when I finished. I even remained pleased when I ended up 7th and only 7 seconds off 4th. And I was pleased that I remained pleased. I was also pleased that my now infamous Craft trousers (a replacement pair of course) gave my ass yet more attention. This time I had a yappy rat-like dog throw himself at me near the 10th control. Brilliantly, Dave Rollins caught the moment on camera - hopefully it'll come soon...

Middle Race
I suppose this was the one that mattered to me the most, but I was pretty chilled about it and didn't put myself under any pressure. I enjoyed sarcastically wishing GG good luck, finding a dead pine martin at the start and being accused of doing my warm up out of bounds, when I wasn't. The course was easy, but you couldn't let your attention slip. I made a handful of small (10 sec) errors but was basically as perfect as I could have hoped. My legs felt quite light and I think I could have put on a bit of a spurt over the last 2km, but I decided I didn't want to take any chances, and I was probably doing well enough. I was surprised how well everyone else ran, and once again just got pipped by a couple of people, but 3rd was pleasing and I figured would give me a ticket to Denmark.

Long Race
So the pressure was off this a bit, but I kinda figured that I'd need to run well to get a 2nd run at WOC. The first half felt like the Matt Crane of old (I can't really qualify that statement, but I haven't felt that smooth in a race for a while) and I ran through Rob, Mike and Ant quite nicely (admittedly partly due to Rob running off the map). I've not studied splits properly yet but I think I was up in 2nd at the half-way mark despite a couple of 1 min (?) errors (at numbers 9 and 15), and I felt good in the legs still. But I became a bit of a pussy at the end, and getting a stick in my eye in the green near the 20th control was the final straw and suddenly I started making small mistakes and struggling up hills. I'm sure it was in the head, as I think I'm quite well trained for 80min, moderately hilly, runnable, orienteering courses. Oh well. 7th wasn't what I was after, but I was less than 2 minutes behind Oli in 3rd, and I felt there were very good patches to my run.

Jukola withdrawal

Here are a selection of things I said in my last posting and in my training diary:

"memories of crawling round Ogden yesterday afternoon drenched in sweat"
"I ran back-to-back legs and didn't really drink much water before it"
"his fresher (albeit somewhat older) legs proved too strong for me in the end"
"I'd died off rather dramatically"
"my legs had decided they were going to sit on a sofa ... they certainly didn't want to go running again"
"Trains but crawling"
"deteriorated a lot on the last hill"
"first hot weekend of the year and I suffered perhaps more than I should"

So what happened next? Not really rocket science is it? That's the beauty of hindsight though of course. So I woke on Tuesday with a bit of a sore throat, which kind of explains my poor form at the weekend. I've since had a difficult decision to make with the Jukola being this weekend. I was due to travel out today, but have decided to stay at home and relax in Sheffield and make sure that I am fully recovered in time for the test races. It would be foolish for me to make the same mistake as I did in Estonia. Hopefully Vasteras will cope ok without me - obviously the team will be weakened but it's still a strong team nonetheless and is more than capable of being right up in the top 20 or so.

Week 5th - 11th June: Warm weather training

Woo hoo it's summer! When I woke this morning with sharp cramping pain in my right leg and left foot and memories of crawling round Ogden yesterday afternoon drenched in sweat came flooding back to me, I began doubting whether or not I was glad it was summer. Then I remembered that I had 2 ice-creams yesterday, picked up a tan to die for and have been watching all bar 2 of the World Cup games so far. Chav or not, I've even got a stylish England flag on my car (I did have 2 but one blew off as I speeded back from Castleton on Saturday afternoon in time to get to the pub for the game).

Since getting back from Denmark I had a couple of easier days before doing the footpath relay for Chasers on Saturday. I ran back-to-back legs and didn't really drink much water before it. Running from nr Grindleford to nr Peak Forest in the open was draining but I think I coped ok. It was a tad unlucky that I had Malc Fowler start my second leg 30seconds after me. I held him off for a bit, but his fresher (albeit somewhat older) legs proved too strong for me in the end. Getting met at one of my road crossings by Neil and Carol Lawford of WCH with some electrolyte was a Godsend. Anyway, I was back sat in the Dam House with ma homeys at 1.50pm so even had 10 minutes of build-up before the England game. Lucky I didn't arrive at 2.04pm.

Sunday I went to Honley Woods District event with Oli, Jenny and Neil. It was a gorgeous area, but was pretty hilly and I made a few mistakes and felt that I'd died off rather dramatically over the last third of the course. But of course it was hot for everyone and Oli and Neil both finished saying similar things. In the end Oli beat me by 2mins, with Neil a minute behind me. We'd all had fairly scrappy runs - I reckon I lost around 3mins - but Oli was probably the strongest at the finish. Results
I had a go at some moaners on the event bulletin board and got accused of being a 'semi-professional orienteer'. I wish.
After a delightful lunch at Rosie Whitehead's we zoomed off for yet more training at Ogden. I think my legs had decided they were going to sit on a sofa and watch either the Grand Prix or Holland v Serbia. They certainly didn't want to go running again.

It was a shame to miss the Harvester as it sounds like it was pretty good fun. And now Sprotty joins the list of UK Cup race winners (quality stuff!)...grrrrr. But with Jukola (1st leg for me!) next weekend and selections the weekend after, a relaxing(?) weekend in Sheffield was probably ideal. Still, I'm glad SYO won (never thought I'd say that) and by a huge margin too. EUOC take the relay league but I wouldn't swap our JK win with them for that.

Training
Mon 5th 45min o-tech/trains – Vesterskov with Jamie and Rob
30min easy
Tue 6th 45min o-tech/steady – Horbylunde middle course
60min cycling
Wed 7th 90min o-tech/steady – Sletten/Sonderskov. Classic course
60min cycling
Thu 8th 30min easy – Rivelin taking in Alc-O
Fri 9th 65min steady – Stannington/Rivelin
Sat 10th 45min easy – round Bradwell checking out footpaths
65min fell-race – footpath relay
Sun 11th am - 55min ­o-race – Honley Woods. 8.0km, 350m climb, 23 controls, 53.08 mins, 2nd place
10min easy
pm – 50min o-tech/easy – Ogden. Trains but crawling

Week 29th May - 4th June: WOC homework - Danish Excursion

Just got back from a wee cruise over to Denmark with my pal and training partner Rob Baker. If I was Thierry I'd write pages about the terrain and handy hints, and if I was GG I'd stick a load of maps up. But I'm neither. Rob was a pleasure to have around despite a couple (and the rest) of 'forgetful moments', deciding that Aarhus is pronounced 'our house' and spending the whole week singing Madness and having a habit singing non-existant backing vocals to songs on the radio.

Good things that happened:
1, Jamie stay with us - was a good laugh, made us raise our game in training, brought lots of food over, brought a car over, booked the campsite, spoke Danish...
2, Helen and John Palmer were there - did the washing up, gave us something other than orienteering to talk about (golf)
3, Got hire bikes with baskets on the front
4, Went into Silkeborg to 'hit the town' on Tuesday but got tired/bloated/bored so bought a video, watched it and went to bed
5, Drove from Stansted to Sheffield in 2.20hrs without being overtaken.

Orienteering:
I felt really at home in the terrain - it was quite like Cannock Chase. But not the same - it would be dangerous for me to think that.
Physically I was quite tired when we got out there (end of 2nd hard week in a row) and the hills and leafy vegetation are very sapping. But I recovered a bit as the week went on, and by the end was cruising along nicely through the forests. It should be easy to train for relatively runnable forest, path runs, relentless hills but never more than 50m climb... Cannock Chase! It suits my physical strengths nicely.
Technically I was pretty good - doing the basics well - maybe I wasn't 'on the edge' in any of the sessions but maybe that's the way I should be all the time. I learnt you can go a long way round on route choice but that sometimes straight wasn't as hilly as it first looked. The green (even the light green) was much much slower than the white. The white was very variable (open-beech-4mpk-sexy-stuff / leafy-nettly-tussocky-beechy-oaky-stuff / coniferous-brashy-no-vegetation-stuff).

Next up:
Jukola 18th June - heading out with Oli on Wednesday 14th June for a bit of training in Vasteras.
WOC selection races 24th/25th June - heading out with Jenny on Wednesday 21st June.
Busy busy busy. Recovery will be the name of the game in between all this funness. I can start training specifically for WOC after the test races. I think my shape's good enough now to get what I want out of these races anyway. This weekend I'm running a footpath relay in the Peaks for Walton Chasers on Saturday, and thinking of going to a district event near Huddersfield on Sunday.

Training:
Mon 29th 25min o-race – York 1st by 1second!
25min easy
Tue 30th pm – 30min easy – roads
eve – 75min steady – Rivelin with Northrop.
Wed 31st am – 40min foxdal intervals – 45x15s on Longshaw/Blacka.
20min easy
eve – 35min steady – Rivelin
Thu 1st Jun am – 70min cycling – Moscar/Bradfield.
eve – 30min o-race – Eccy Woods Spring Cup. 1st by miles!
20min easy
Fri 2nd 105min steady – Onesmoor trig
Sat 3rd am – 65min o-tech/easy – Sonderskov
pm – 35min o-tech/sprint – Skade Bakker
Sun 4th 95min o-tech/hard – classic course with Danes
20min easy

Victory in the Sheffield Spring Cup

Last night was the much hyped show down between myself and Neil Northrop. The winner of the final Spring Cup race in Eccy Woods would end up being the winner of the whole series. Simple as that. A 'who can do the longest warm-up and start last' game ensued, duly won by Mr Northrop.

Colin Best had planned a very twisty course with quite a few path options but finding the right path was hard enough. I had as clean a run as you can expect in Eccy Woods this time of year. The map isn't perfect so I just decided I'd leg it and not concentrate too much and rely on local knowledge. I probably lost a couple of minutes, but if I'd been orienteering properly, I'd probably have ran a couple of minutes slower. Neil made a few mistakes and in fact ended up 3rd behind Mike Sprot who had a 'clean but steady' run. Neil hid his boo quite well from me, instead trying to con me that he'd hurt his ankle. Mat Palmer's laughing gave the game away.

I guess if I tried any smugness against Northrop he'd just remind me that he's won 4 UK Cup races to my 0, so I won't bother.