Arizona Christmas

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Originally uploaded by SaMa News.

Arizona Sun… did us well. Here are some pictures from our two weeks adventure in the US. Click on the picture to see more!

Visiting my family in Arizona over Christmas was such a treat, not only have I not been to Arizona for 2 years, it's also been that long since I celebrated Christmas and New Years with my father, step mother and brother, and I could share the amazing desert of Arizona with Marc who had never been before.

Our days were filled with morning jogs in the near by South Mt. Park in Phoenix, and then with the variety of events and activity that sprinkled our vacation. We did two big trips; the first was to the Grand Canyon, where Marc and I ran down to the bottom and back up, a 30 km round trip with 1335 meters climb at the end in 4 1/2 hours. This was the highlight of our trip for the both of us. Marc says "Arizona was incredible. I always feel at home with high mountains around me, but I have never experienced something similar in any way to the Grand Canyon. A deserted plain, and then suddenly, whoof, a huge negative world opens itself. I told every Swiss person it is a must to see before they die!"
The second big trip was a 9 hour hiking tour on "The Ridgeline". This included 1800 meters of climb and was 22km long. We kept a good pace, but enjoyed ourselves along the way. On this one hike, Marc took over 100 pictures… which he seems to do almost every day we were in Arizona. (This is one reason why it's taken so long to get this post up; I have been sifting through photos for weeks!!)

Marc and my father, Peter, also climbed Weavers Needle, a two pitch technical climb after a 3 hour hike to the base. There are pictures of the needle in our album… it's certainly not for someone who doesn't like heights, like myself. I think this may have been a big disappointment for my father that he couldn't talk his daughter into climbing it. Oh well, I left the climbing to the boys… and they certainly enjoyed it!

We certainly had a shock returning to Switzerland after two weeks of sun and 25°C weather. But, on the other hand, it has made the long winter months a little shorter, and recharged our drained batteries. Thanks to my dad, my step mom, and my brother for a wonderful time. Lets do it again!!

High training volume hasn't left time for much less…

We apologize for such a long gap in our news. It's been on our list of things to do for several weeks now, we want to update you on our wonderful trip to Arizona over Christmas and to share results and maps* from our first race of the year the Effretiker Sprint.

The first National A-meet and first round of the Biofarm Cup took place on Sunday, January 15th in Effretikion. s-sport, SaMa's sponsor for orienteering and sporting equipments organized this annual sprint. The event proved to be of high class level, with a spectator control in the event hall, GPS tracking devices provided by FWRD for all the elite runners, and over 1500 runners from other categories to accompany us. It was an exciting event, and it certainly gave me a touch of anxiety at first, but then thereafter reinstated how much I enjoy orienteering and competing. It's a good feeling to get the first event of the year under your belt, although this felt almost "too" early to being thinking about competing, it also felt like the correct timing to evaluate my physical fitness from the winter training months, and also time to start up on a much needed interval program in my training.

The results are here, and I have made a comparison of my spits with some of the runners ahead of me. The GPS tracking device also gave me some addition information.

For instance:
Maximal speed: 14.8 km/h
Average speed: 9.6km/h :-/ seems really pretty slow…
Actual distance covered: 3.2km

Effretiker Stadt-OL (Elite Sprint) 1. Nat. OL A 15.01.06
DE (2.8km, 60 m, 19 Po.)

Sime (1st)- Lea (5th)- Jenny (8th)- Barbara (12th)- Sandra (17th)
1) 1.05- 1.23- 1.23- 1.17- 1.27-
2) 1.54- 1.56- 2.12- 2.24- 2.36- slow (route choice?)
3) 0.39- 0.43- 0.49- 0.51- 0.53-
4) 1.39- 1.46- 1.54- 2.02- 2.07- slow (good route choice)
5) 0.19- 0.19- 0.24- 0.27- 0.24-
6) 0.36- 0.41- 0.46- 0.46- 0.46-
7) 1.34- 1.24- 1.25- 1.45- 1.29- good! Route choice correct.
8) 0.13- 0.27- 0.18- 0.20- 0.29- 12" lost (went to 9 before 8)
9) 0.08- 0.07- 0.20- 0.09- 0.08- fast:-)
10) 0.31- 0.33- 0.35- 0.37- 0.37-
11) 1.34- 2.12- 1.55- 2.08- 1.54- fast, don't know why (better route choice to the left supposedly)
12) 0.44- 0.49- 0.54- 1.00- 0.54-
13) 0.14- 0.15- 0.17- 0.17- 0.16-
14) 0.15- 0.15- 0.16- 0.16- 0.19-
15) 0.37- 0.43- 0.48- 0.46- 0.47-
16) 1.00- 1.15- 1.18- 1.26- 1.55- 45" lost (should have stayed flat around and the up, not up and down, missed the control coming down too!)
17) 0.59- 1.03- 1.14- 1.19- 1.06- Good split!
18) 0.40- 0.43- 0.49- 0.51- 0.53-
19) 0.13- 0.14- 0.16- 0.16- 0.22- slow??
ziel) 0.28- 0.27- 0.30- 0.33- 0.34-
15.22- 17.15- 18.23- 19.31- 19.56-

*I am having technical problems posting my map. When I have actually achieved doing this, I will add my map and routes. For now, if you want to get an idea of the course and see Sime's routes, look here.

Marc did not have, what we would call, an optimal day on Sunday. He writes: "Fortunately the hectic environment of the race stimulated me enough to get out of my haze I had been in for the last few days. Actually, I don't think I would have made it out of bed if Sandra wouldn't have given me an ultimatum. As for the race, well, my brain is definitely in hibernation! Made a 30sec, a 45 sec, a 10sec and 60sec mistake... all only in ONE race! Not such a great start to the season! I ended up 2min31sec behind the winner, our "recently junior" now elite runner Fabian Hertner... in the 18th place. Fabians race was really strong, I am impressed."

When asked if these types of races can also be a positive "wake up call", meaning that a sloppy race is good once in a while to give you a sharp reminder that you've got to pay attention to navigation, too? Marc answers with "Actually, I think you are very right with the "sloppy race" theory. I did learn a lot from that bad race. I hope I can put my experience into practice. To bad it is a long while until the next race."

Marc and I managed to round of some Biofarm Cup points, Marc with 8 points and Sandra with 9 points. The next opportunity to get points is also the next National A meet on March 19th in Welsikon.