Finished a hard training week + interesting maps!

On Sunday I finished a hard training week including a lot of orienteering, some running, strength and a mountain trip. Overall I trained 18h, 13,5 h without hiking. For me - especially in summer - this was pretty much. I really enjoyed orienteering in the steep slopes with loads of stones and rockfaces in Italy. 2nd stage of Dolomiti 5-days was held on Passo Rolle in half open and half forested terrain. 3rd and 4th race were middle-distances in San Martino di Castrozza, right beneath Passo Rolle. Last stage was in Val Canali with an interesting beginning, an easier middle-part, very tricky controls near the end and just running the last km. On that day I achieved my best result with 12th best time of the day. Finally, I finished on 23rd place overall in M21Elite. The french top runner Francois Gonon won the 5-days of Dolomites 2009, with Mattias Millinger in 2nd and Rasmus SØes in 3rd position.

Now, three relaxing days before I will start my next hard training block, lasting 10 days starting on Thursday and including the O-Ringen competitions in M 21 Elitserien.

Here are my maps from stage 2 - 5 with some short comments under every picture:

Day 2, map Passo Rolle, shortened long distance

I even started with a bad route choice to control 1: drifting too much to the right when crossing the flat depression right after the start. Then two mistakes in the control area at 5 and 6. Then the biggest mistake to 12th control: I lost height and came down to the small marsh. Nearly the same mistake to control 14: But here I climbed a little too much. Maybe a bad route choice to control 10 and a worse one to 15?

Day 3, map San Martino Sud, Middle-distance

Again I started with an awful routechoice to the first control. A very small mistake at 2nd control and some needless highmeters on the way to control 8.



Day 4, map San Martino - Centro, Middle-distance

Guess what? YES! I made a mistake to the first control. Oh, you are familiar to that. Me too :S Running on the yellow area next to the control I thought I'm passing the semi-open area more behing. I don't know why I had such fool mind. But the unbeatable highlight in this run was control 7: first I left 6th control in wrong direction and then I searched the flag for around 3,5 min. because control description said "dry ditch, north-east end", but it was situated on south-west end. Additionally, the control was too high, because making some steps I already reached the yellow area above the control point. It was more than weird there and I was really angry. I managed the tricky part in the end nearly perfectly without big time loss.

Day 5, map Val Canali - Piazmador, shortened long distance

Wuhu, no mistake to the 1st control! ;) As I mentioned before, the last stage was my best one. Although being tired, I was able to push the whole course with hardly any mistake. Small mistakes at controls 4, 8, 20 and 27. A bigger one at 18th control. Bad routechoice to 22nd, where I didn't see the small path leading to the control.

I gained a lot of experience in this week and I'm looking forward to O-Ringen! :)

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