Still in Sweden :)

First I need to make a confession: On Friday I just did a strength training with warm up and cool down, because it was snowing heavily and therefore an O-training wouldn't have been possible! ^^ But I will catch up with it today together with Johan "Bambi" Wikström :P

Snowing heavily (it was very windy too)

Well, as I told you in my last post, we took part in "Kringelträffen" in Södertälje. I ran H21L, but just like a map-longjog at lower medium speed. The 13,2 km course was really nice with some technical parts. One big mistake at control Nr. 13. (-> I thought I am on the other path, which ends south-west of the control. Didn't recognise the green area and after recognising I thought it is the small marsh... stupid, I know...)

Results: http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/sv/default.asp?page=classes&databaseId=11244

Map with my routes:



finish area on Saturday with the new OK Tyr flag ;)

We were staying the two nights in SNO's clubhouse at Tvetagården. Saturday evening we cooked tacos with meet, chicken, green salad, tomatoes, paprika, onions and taco sauce. Delicious! :D

On Sunday we competed in the Måsenstafetten in Oxelösund/Nyköping. I ran the first leg in the first team. 2nd leg: Henric Brohede, 3rd: Oskar Siebeck (Anders Lindberg was injured), 4th: Jens Öström, 5th: Johan Wikström. The course lengths varied from 8,0 - 8,1 km, no spectator control, but a pre-warning 2-3 min. before the finish.

My race:
In general I had a lot of problems entering the control site. I very often lost direction shortly before the flag. In addition, I made a huge mistake at the 7th control, which cost med around 5 - 5:30 min. Now in detail: Starting from the first line I had no problems to cope with the speed in the beginning. As I mentioned before I had problems to keep direction. This started with the first control. It then happened again at controls 3, 9, 11 and 15. But control 7 was definitely my "highlight": After the leaving the long marsh after half of the leg, I didn't read the map for around two hundred meters and therefore I lost direction. At the knoll behind the big marsh I passed Nr. 43 (I needed 44, which was just 50 m to the right...). I thought I need to go more far and so I continued. Then I got completely lost in the area, because the marshes, green areas and small contour details were really diffuse. I couldn't relocate myself and so I decided to run to the east and try to see one of the rock faces. When I saw one, I thought it should be the most northern one (but I wasn't!). Adjusted compass and tried to attack the control again. Because I was too deep I didn't find it... Luckily - after some time - I saw the yellow, open hill, which finally guided me to the control. Lot of time was gone, the pulk was gone, concentration was gone... Anyway, I tried to focuse as good as I can. Except some parts, it worked out quite well.

Results: http://www4.idrottonline.se/templates/Page.aspx?id=234373

Map with my route:


Surprisingly, I met Klas Schagurk (-> see results :P) alias Klaus Schgaguler and Elisa Elstner (she is working as an au-pair in Uppsala and running for OK Linné) there. I was happy to meet Elisa again, as I haven't seen her for a long time :)


the muddy finish area on Sunday :D

Now I am leaving for the O-training at "Kronoparken". Vi ses i skogen! :)

Hemma igen (home again) ;)

Warti is going to Sweden - or better was going: On Tuesday early afternoon I took the Ryanair-flight from Bratislava to Skavsta. I stayed a night in Nyköping at the Railway Vandrarhem, which is just next to the Central Station. It was really nice - cheap, nice rooms and cooking facilities. In the morning I did the first training, consisting of some warming up, running exercises and a short run. At midday I went by bus and train up to Karlstad where Tobias Öström alias Tobbe picked me up from the station.

In the evening it was getting serious then: Tyr's Allans prövelöp was on the schedule. A night race (for the younger ones a day-course), which is held every year some weeks before 10Mila. As always it was a mass-start. This time it was a 1:5.000 scale, I didn't understand why - but it was a fact.

The race itself
I started fast and took a "safety-route" to the first control. Then the butterfly started and I had exactly the same loops as Henric. After the first big butterfly a smaller onw was following. It was just one loop, but here we splitted up due to having different order of the controls. Heading for the last control in the butterfly I saw a light again - yes, it was Henric! We were together again. Shortly before the map change I was able to break away a bit. I was pushing hard, but at the 1st control we were together once more. On the long leg to the 5th I lost Henric and now I thought I will make it and maybe that was the mistake, because I should have taken the path - although it's much longer. Maybe I could have avoided my mistake then... At the last control I paced up again and so I won the race! :) Henric who is around 40 years old had a really good speed the whole race. I guess he can't run faster, but with that speed and making no mistakes it was hard to beat him! And as you can see here -> http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/sv/default.asp?page=table&databaseId=11227&categoryId=4&ct=true it were just 6 seconds.


1st part of the race (with my route)



2nd part of the race (with my route)

I stayed the night at Öströms place. Today I planned a short course on the home map "Almarskogen", which I ran in the morning. In the afternoon I went to town with Tobbe and Jens (Grevilius), followed by a track training in Våxnäshallen in the evening. I did a nice semi-hard session: 6 x 1.000m in 3:30 with a break of 3:30. The others from Tyr (around 20 people!) made another interval training.

Tomorrow I will do some O-training on "Skutberget" and a strength training. In the evening we are driving to Södertälje to run Kringelträffan on Saturday and Måsenstafetten in Oxelösund/Nyköping on Sunday. More from these events on Monday.

Good night and have fun :) Hej då!

O Intervals in Katzelsdorf

Today our training group did a fast o-training in Katzelsdorf. Warti was already on his way to Sweden for a training camp with his club OK Tyr, so he was not participating.
Max prepared 6 short courses for us. They were mostly downhill and varied difficulty.
The task was to run up from the finnish of a course to the starting point, turn over the map and run down the course to the finnish.
We ran it in pairs due to 2 maps (A,B) starting from each starting point. So I ran with Kerschi all 6 intervals, which was quite hard. Especially uphill it was sometimes hard to hold his pace.
It was a very nice little competition with close contact and some crossings of the courses.
I think Kerschi won 4 of the 6 starts, but my gap was never really big, so I am quite satisfied with the training.
Now finally here are the maps:

2.396 ...

... km I run a year? No, should be even more :)
... times I go to toilet a year? Could be, I don't know :P
... as a result of 12.840 divided by 4 minus 814? Yes, but not in this context ^^

... is the amount of steps I need to run uphill on the Türkensturz at medium speed (A2) :D

Today we (Thomas L. and me) did a muscular endurance training consisting of running up on the Türkensturz three times; A1 - A2 - A1. After the first time, it started to become boring, so we decided to count our steps. I counted until 100, said "hundred" and Thomas then counted the one-hundreds (100 = 1, 200 = 2, ...). 23 x 100 + 96 steps later we arrived on the Türkensturz :D
Considering the length of 2,4 km and the ascent of 245 highmeters, we made with an average 1-m-step an ascent of 0,1 highmeters.

Ok, well, enough mathematics now ;)


Türkensturz in summer

Lipica Open 2009

While Tobi and Wolfi were running the ÖM Cross in Leoben I took part in Lipica Open 2009. This year the 2-days-event were held on two different maps: "Dutovlje" on Saturday and "Veliki Dol" on Sunday. 840 runners from 19 countries have entered in the competition. We (= 6 other runners from Salzburg and me) left Salzburg very early at 5:45 a.m. and drove down to Lipica. Sunshine and temperatures around 13° degree centigrade welcomed us in Slovenia. As there was no rain the days before the event, the finish-area and the parking space were mud-free, which was likable for both runners and organisers. I ran M21E both on Saturday and Sunday. In this class 73 competitors from 11 countries fought for the overall-victory in Lipica Open 2009. Amongst them, well known names like Petr Losman, Marc Lauenstein, David Schneider, Csaba Gösswein (3rd), Klaus Schgaguler, Lenkei Zsolt (2nd), Audun Weltzien and Daniel Hubmann, who finally made it with a vast winning margin by 11 min.! (Especially Daniel's performance on the 2nd day was incredible: He clearly won the race by 7 min.!!!)



Saturday:
I had an early starttime and started my race at 11:09 a.m. First controls were really o.k. and I had no problems to get into the map and plan my next routes. Then my first mistake appeared: The 6th control was placed in a small depression with a rock face on a hillside. Honestly, I had no attackpoint from the path down the hill and so it happened that I passed the flag some high meters below the depression. A strange circumstance was that I saw the rock face, but I thought it can't be mine (or better I thought this "something" in the landscape isn't shown as a rock face on the map) :( I lost more time there than I thought (1 min. loss of time!).
Second and last mistake occured shortly before the 9th control: Due to not reading the map carefully enough and not checking the compass, I misinterpreted the map, lost direction and didn't recognise it until I saw the big road east of the control. Now it was no problem to attack the control again (2 min. loss of time). After this mistake I was caught by Aleksi Leskinen from Lynx/FIN. I was not able to keep his pace and so I lost 40 more seconds into the finish. 13th place for me today, 6:20 min. behind Dani Hubmann.


map Saturday M21E
map without course here

Sunday:
Although I had very tired legs yesterday, I had a nice warm up and my legs felt fresh again :)
First couple of controls went o.k., until the 7th one: I wanted to avoid running through a small green area with rocks and therefore I lost direction. I thought I'm running right under the line, but in fact I was far to the left (I lost ~ 1:45 min. there!!). A bit angry I tried to keep up the speed (which worked just in a few parts ;) and focus more on the map. Slightly before the 14th control I was caught by Petr Losman. Having Petr just behind me I was leading the whole way to the 15th control, but just before entering the control site, I misinterpreted the map again: I thought the control has to be north-west of a hill, because I didn't see the small brown line, which shows a depression (In the finish I talked with Petr and he mentioned, he was thinking the same. We lost around 45 sec. there). I continued with making mistakes and lost 30 sec. at the 16th control (it was a bit the same as the day before at the 6th control: I saw the object but not the flag and therefore I was unsure and not self-confident enough...).
Petr was gone now, but I pushed hard and I always saw him running ~ 100 meters in front of me. At the 21st he lost a bit the direction and I could close the gap. 15th place for me in the 2nd stage of Lipica Open 2009, 13:20 min. behind an amazingly running Dani Hubmann!


map Sunday M21E
map without course here

All in all I'm satisfied with my performance (running as well as technique) in Slovenia. It's time to start the fast trainig now and I hope to increase my speed based on this.

Detailed results here
Main page here

ÖM Cross

This Sunday Wolfi and Tobi took part at the Ausrian Cross-running championships held in Leoben, Styria. After a long winter without competitions or very fast track sessions it was time to put the spike shoes on and feel the high speed again. It was a quite warm day and the course was pretty dry and fast which dissapointed us a bit because the course looked quite easy and fast for us orienteers . Some track runners complained that the course was way to steep, but I guess they have very different measures.

At 13.10 we started our race at the end of the pack and took in many places on the first hill where some already paid for the fast starting pace. We took in quite many positions at the uphill and downhill parts and closed up to a group of about 6 runners after the first lap. When overtaking other runners I didn't pay attention for one second and so Wolfi got a little gap after attacking at a small hill after the start. After the second hill his gap got a bit bigger and I was fighting to hold his pace. After a good sprint by Wolfi he finished 6th in the U23 class 17 seconds before me on 11th place. We are both satisfied with our performances, finishing 1.10 and 1.27 behind some of the best track runners in Austria.
One highlight of the race was the performance of our National Team colleague Thomas Lang who sprinted to the top at the first 700 meters. He sure got some TV time for that :P, but after 700 he pretty much hit the wall and we caught him up after 1200 meters and he finished some minutes after us.
It was a really nice experience to run this event and I think the progress in our running shape is starting to show.
Our orienteering season will kick off with Tiomila in Sweden, where we will try to performe well for our swedish clubs.

Results

On top of the world

Ok, well, I'm going to start with our posting around orienteering, training and just having fun ;)

My first post has nothing to do with orienteering in special, but with great alternative endurance training: Last Sunday I was ski mountaineering with my mum, dad and grandpa. We went on top of the Zwölferhorn, which is on 1.522 m a.s.l. and situated in St. Gilgen, a bit south-east of the city of Salzburg. It was the most beautiful skiing trip I ever had, with a more than sunny weather and around 12 degree centigrade :D I went around 1:40 h uphill (~ 1.050 hm) and some 20 min. down in nice powder snow. While my parents and my grandpa took it easy I captured the peak 2 times (went the whole way up, skied down to the half and went up once more). On top of the mountain I was rewarded with an overwhelming view over the mountains!


last meters to the top and south part of the Wolfgangsee


north part of the Wolfgangsee and Mondsee in the back


typical mountain range of the Pre-Alps

beautiful powder snow as far as the eye can see

the tired summiteers ^^

Christian Wartbichler

Born: 20.12.1988 Orienteering since: 2001 Lives in: Seebenstein / Henndorf Profession: Professional Sportsman Club: SC ASKÖ Henndorf Orienteering (AUT)/OK Tyr (SWE) Coach: Markus Kössler / Richard Schuh / Richard Gathercole Best Results: EYOC 2006 Classic 1st, JEC 2006 Classic 1st, Austrian Championship Titles Sponsors: ÖBH, Sportvogl, Isostar, Intersport Eybl, Gasthof Gastagwirt, Petzl

About me:
I'm a 20-year-old professional sportsman and I'm employed at the Austrian Army. Compared to my friends I started relatively late with the wonderful sport of orienteering. It took me a lot of time and overcoming to try orienteering for the first time, because I had (and still have) much problems with my ankles. Soon I recognised that I can't go without orienteering and therefore I started professional and purposeful training with my coach Richi. After around two years the training began to pay off and first good achievements appeared. Without doubt, the most beautiful one was my victory in the EYOC longdistance 2006 in Slovenia, followed by the win in the JEC longdistance in Switzerland half a year later. Due to the great support by all of my sponsors, my swedish and austrian club and of course the Austrian Army I can focus on a more intensive and better training than ever and I'm hungry for new challenges. Let's see how the story continues ... :)

Wolfgang Siegert

Born: 24.02.1988
Orienteering since: 1997
Lives in: Seebenstein / Klosterneuburg
Profession: Professional Sportsman / student
Club: WAT (AUT) / Göteborg Majorna OK (SWE)
Coach: Manfred Zeilinger / Markus Kössler
Best results: JEC Relay 2008 1st; JEC Middle 2008 3rd; JWOC Long 2008 24th, some Austrian youth titles
Sponsors: Bundesheer









About me:
I am also a 21 years old student of Business Engineering from Klosterneuburg near Vienna. Orienteering is a very big part of my life since I started at the age of 9. The first steps were difficult, but I stayed with the sport and it has become bigger and bigger over the years until now. At the moment I am employed at the Austrian Army as a professional sportsman.
My aims for 2009 are the qualification for WOC in Hungary as well as top placings at the Austrian Championships. For my new Swedish club Göteborg Majorna OK I'll try to perform well at Tiomila and Jukola.
Although my main support is by the Austrian Army (Bundesheer) I am always interested in new supporters to let me participate at international competitions around the world.