Gold, Grants, and Grrr!
SaMa news: We have been busy, successful, and sick… it has been an interesting few weeks for us.

Marc started school at the end of October, which opened a whole new saga in our lives. His last year in Dentistry is going to be wicked tough… and we are trying to adjust to the new lifestyle. Marc’s typical school day consists of getting up at 6am, leaving for school by 6:30 to get there at 7am, preparing his patient reports before classes start at 8am. For half the day he is in classes, and for the second half he is treating his patients. At 5pm he finally has some time to complete his patient reports, plan his patients treatment, and start working on the lab work that needs to be done. This means he typically leaves school at 8pm at the earliest. His day is not yet finished, because if he has the energy he runs the 16km home, only to get home around 9:30pm. Eight and a half hours later the whole thing starts again! Please don’t get me wrong, Marc is not unhappy with what he is doing, but he is just very busy.

Sandra’s situation has also changed a bit; originally I was only going to be working 50% starting in November, but there just happened to be a project that I could join (and be paid for), making it possible for me to work 100% until the end of the year. I certainly don’t mind, although it makes it a little more challenging to train, but I am very fortunate that I can train over lunch, plus I am very happy to be part of a new team and working on a publication. But I am also somewhat busy!

What has happened over the last three weeks… lets start with the Gold!
Marc, with his teammates Baptiste Rollier, and Thomas Hodel won the Gold at the Swiss Team Orienteering Championships on November 6th, 2005.
Team orienteering is a normal orienteering race completed in teams of three. There is one punching unit (SI card) per team, and two mandatory control points where all team members have to be together. All other controls can be run by single members of the team, the tactic being that breaking the race up between team members is faster than running all together. The team decides at the start where the next meeting place is, and one member begins running to the controls, while the other two run to the meeting place. From stories that I have heard, it doesn’t always work out to meet each other and in this case the member with the SI unit continues, because waiting would result in too much time lose. Marc, Baptiste, and Thomas had a stratigical meeting the evening before to workout the details, but you only see the map and course at the start. The race was close, Swiss team members Daniel Hubmann and David Schneider, with brother Beat Hubmann were only 30” slower on the 12.6km and 650 meters climb course!
Congratulations to the Swiss Champions!

Sandra has also had her success!
I spend most of the summer and into the fall working on writing a research grant to fund what could be my job for the next two years. We turned the grant in on September 15th (Marc’s birthday) and had to wait over a month for a response. Finally on November 22, the Federal Council for Sport had a meeting to decide which grant applications should be accepted, and my grant has been fully financed!!! This secures my job situation for the next two years, and is also a personal success because I wrote the grant myself! In order to celebrate Marc made sure to have the appropriate drinks!



So what is all the Grrrr about?
Well Marc and I are at the time being both sick… it’s nothing very serious, but we have strong enough head colds that training has come off the schedule. While Marc is already feeling better, I am at home sick as a dog… hence I actually have time to write something on our blog. Hopefully we’ll be up and running soon! (no pun intended :-))

Take care and until next time! SaMa

WOC 2006!
Training Camp November '05
Silkeborg, Denmark.
Training volume can be seen under Sandra's training link.

Arrival in Silkeborg: Thursday November 3, 2005.

Training run on Silkeborg Vesterskov with Christine Friedrich (a friend from Switzerland who came with me to Denmark) and Ekaternia Orekhova (the girl friend of US teammate Boris Granovskiy). The rest of the crew (US Team members Karen, Boris, James, and US team coach Tom Hallowell, plus Helen from GB, Christine from Switzerland, and Junior's from Tom's Swedish club OK Tyr) arrived in the evening.

Day 1: Friday November 4, 2005

Training 1: Line-0 + control picking (two loops).
This training was a great introduction to the terrain. I found it a very good first exercise, right from the start we learned what the terrain looks like, and what features are useful for fast, smooth orienteering. My first impression was that the features on the map (especially the contours) were in general easy to read, and that following along the line was not particularly difficult, although somewhat slower than expected. I however made my first mistake after climbing through some light green, and didn't get on the correct ridge. My second mistake in the controls was in issue of concentration, after finding Karen at control 4 with a twisted ankle, and I was thinking more about her on the way to control 5, then the map. Realized my mistake fairly quickly. On the second loop the line-O became easier to read and a little faster. On the controls I found I was getting a little tired, but could still concentrate. Several controls were not set, which ended in a congregation of runners (Helen, Christine, and I) at control 4.
Take home message: Light green is thick and difficult run ability. It will be even worse in the summer. When making route choice decisions, avoid the light green. Dark green is thick coniferous pines, you can get through it, and it won't get thicker in the summer. Sometimes the pines are planted in rows, making running through it not particularly hard.


Loop 1.

Training 2: Middle distance exercise.
Our instruction was to have flow in and out of the controls and to look ahead. Both of these things are something I do not do particularly well. Fortunately I had Tom as a shadow during my course (on purpose), which forced me to have a particularly high level of concentration. I felt like a achieved the flow that I wanted and felt really happy about the orienteering. My main weakness was relocation, both times I made a mistake I stood there stunned, instead of staying calm and working through the problem. I didn't push particularly hard physically (especially on the roads where I would normally bring it up a notch), but was constant in my pace and working hard.
Take home message: At the moment you have realized you are making a mistake, keep moving in order to find a feature to relocate off of, usually there is one very near by that leads you quickly back into the control and saves time in comparison to standing stunned for 30 seconds instead of acting.

Day 2: Saturday November 5, 2005.

Training 1: Route choice exercise.
I was paired with Christine and we executed two different routes to compare which route is faster. On the map, Christine's route is in blue and mine is in red. Next to each control there is a star, the color of the star represents which route was faster.
This exercise was incredibly valuable, and also a lot of fun. In general going around was faster, as in the case of 2 to3 where running through the field was 2 minutes faster, and from 3 to 4 as well, but in the case of 5 to 6, going straight seems to be faster (although Karen and Helen said it was about the same). Karen and Helen compared the route 6 to 7, and Helen was faster going steep up to the fields and down to the control, than Karen going straight. Here I think the point is that taking a easy to execute route is faster even though it was certainly more physically demanding climbing up to the fields. From 10 to 11, the most optimal route is to cut up earlier from the trail onto the trail just after the out of bounds area, Christine stayed longer on the trail than optimal, according to our comparison with others.
Take home message: Trail routes around, and routes using fields were in most cases faster. Coming into a control from a easy to get to attackpoint was generally faster.

Training 2: Pace changing exercise.
This is an exercise that I need more practice at. In the first loop I was chasing both Christine and Karen, and I could really concentrate. But in the last two loops, Christine was always chasing me and I would push too hard on the road and blow up in the forest. Somewhat frustrating not to be more in control, but at least I learned that this is something to work on.

Day 3: Sunday November 6, 2005

Training camp race!
I was having pain in my left knee and was unable to race this course, although I was able to run the whole thing at a jog. My knee hurt most in terrain, which was really a shame, since this terrain is so nice to run though.
My first mistake was to control 2, here I went over the hill to attack the control instead of around, which was 1. steep, and 2. green. Lost maybe 30-45 seconds.
Control 7, came over the hill where we had a control yesterday and was certain I would spike this control. Came off the hill a little to the left and ended up beside the control. This area is an example of where white on the map is not constant in the terrain; there should almost be a vegetation boundary there, just before number 7 the forest gets thicker and visibility drops a lot. I remembered what Tom had told me the night before, and tried not to stop moving, turning around to have view of the hill from yesterday's control and attacking the control again, this time I spiked it. Probably lost 45"-1', I guess.
Control 10, came up to the top of the hill and just was to the left of the control. Dropped one contour line and realized that the control shouldn't be that low, turn back up and went to the right to find the control, lost time 30".




Training camp summary
This was an excellent training camp. The terrain is interesting, and also challenging. I am really looking forward to coming back to this area, and also to concentration on this terrain for the World Championships. I think this is the type of terrain I can also practice for in Switzerland, and am looking forward to doing more terrain running, hill repeats, but also intervals (speed will be important in this terrain, but hill strength as well). I wish we would have had more time, and maybe a rest afternoon on Sunday and back into the woods on Monday. But I guess it will have to wait until next spring!

I would like to thank Tom Hallowell for an excellent camp. A very thought through and organized camp with fun, yet very relevant exercises. Also thank you for the personal coaching, and taking the time to come into the forest with me.