Finnish time

After a quite busy season, what about staying 3.5 months in Finland to train even more?

As I had to validate 14 weeks of working experience for my civil engineering studies (INSA), I was thinking that it could be a great experience to do it in Finland and use this occasion to improve my technique in Scandinavian terrain and especially get ready for next year world champs. (WOC 2013). That how I’ve been in Turku from the end of July (just after the WOC) until now.

There, I have been really well welcome: I could find some very good training opportunities and nice training company. Furthermore, as I can say that the work was not extremely demanding, it was like perfect conditions to lives there and train.

As the main goal was to improve my orienteering skill in the Finnish terrains, I’ve done quite many trainings on different interesting maps around:

After the end of the international O season with the NORT, it was also time for some interesting competitions around Turku:

And some other competitions some hours away of Ferry-boat to cross the Baltic Sea:

- The Swedish Middle champs where I didn’t get the final and the Swedish relay champs where we’ve got the Bronze medal with OK Hällen team-mates:

- The famous 25manna:

Moreover, it was also time to establish some ‘world records’ on some running spot of Turku’s orienteers to give references ;) And I’ve also presented how I train and we could see D. Hubmann training presentation. It could give some new ideas of training especially in Finland where the training culture is a bit different.

But it was also fun to do some Finnish activities:

              Happy ending?

Now, as I’m a bit afraid of the Finnish winter time, it’s about time to come back home in France where a new year at school is ‘waiting’ for me (must be the last one!). But before to leave, I was running my last orienteering competition of the year: Raatojuoksu a long distance with a mass start where I manage to cross the line in 1^st position… But the satisfaction was just for a short while until we realize that I was PM because I took the wrong map (n°26 instead of 29) so it was done before to start. (Anyway, would it be challenging to bring the chainsaw 1^st price to France?). Finally, it looks like I have still to improve and I may come back in Finland next year to show better performances…

 GPS

Train enough?

By the way, the end of October means the end of the training diary for most of the orienteers. It’s time to count the amount of training of the year: for me, it’s 575 hours. It looks like no big changes from the previous years, but I think to improve every year the quality and I have done quite a lot of orienteering (40%) with several training camps and competitions:

Kiitos paljon Suomi ja Hyvää jatkoa!

NORT and Finnish preparation

       Last week, the Nordic Orienteering Tour (NORT) was the last important event of the international season with 5 world cup races in 3 different Scandinavian countries with big eforts of TV broadcast (NORT live center).

The 2 first stages were held on the feet of the mythic Holmenkholen ski jumping hill in Oslo with sprints (Qualif + final) and Middle distance.

The sprint qualification was mostly in downhill with some forest part where I had real troubles to find a control after a long leg where I missed more than 1 minute. So, it was really tight to get the ticket for the final: Finally, I took the 30^th and last qualifying spot. Then with the 1^st start of the sprint final, it went rather good and even with some route-choices mistakes on the last part (too long way to go to the 12^th control and too slow to the 15^th losing twice 13’’-15’’), I managed to take the 7^th place quite far behind the 2 leaders but rather close to the podium:

 Map withGPS tracking
     Results

The next day, the middle distance had some really interesting parts with quite area wild even so close of the city. For me, it went rather well for almost every controls but with 2 big mistakes (1’-1’30) when approaching controls (the 3^rd and 18^th), I couldn’t expect a better result than a 25^th place more than 3’ behind our French team-mate leader T. Gueorgiou.

Map withGPS tracking

Results

The 3^rd event of the NORT was held in Göteborg with a very special orienteering race: the Knock-out sprint tournament. {After a normal sprint qualification, the 24^th fastest runners compete in 3 different semi-finals of 8 runners who start together on a small course with some forking. The 2 fastest of each semi-final + 2 ‘lucky looser’ compete on the same way for the final…}. Even if my qualification race wasn’t clean again, it was enough to run the semi-final where I could meet some French team-mate, club-mate and training-mate. My strategy for such race was to stay as much as possible in front of the group to keep an active orienteering and to avoid some ‘accordion effect’ when we have to stop at every controls while the other punch… This technique was working rather well, even-if I had some difficulties in the last forest part and I got attracted by a women control; I could manage to finish safe in front to get the ticket for the final.

In the final, with a fast beginning of O. Lundanes, I couldn’t be in front and should stay patient behind him before the forking in the forest part: there, I was a bit unlucky to get the shorter forking wing in first; then after some hesitations, the guys in the other wing had already caught us and they had the shorter forking left when we have the longer one (was-it a fair forking system?). So, I really had to push hard to come back on the leading group, and with a quite luckily-fast down-hill to leave the forest, I got a really good 2^nd position just behind M. Kyburz. As it was no way to overtake this impressively fast Swiss guy, I finished in a good 2^nd position which is my best individual result ever in world cup.

Replay of the KnockOut sprint on Finnish TV

Interesting article from World of O

The last (but not least) part of this NORT trip was rather north in Finland (must-be my personal most north!) in the same area of the world champs 2013. On the program, we had 2 sprints (qualif + final) in Kajaani followed by the last stage of the NORT which was also the last world cup race of the season: it was a chasing start based on the results of the 4 first races of the NORT (Mostly: time of the qualifications races + bonus time got in final).

            The main difficulty of the sprint qualification was to take care of traps made with fences through the street to add some route-choices challenges. With a safe but fast race, I was 2^nd just 3 second behind the fastest M. Kyburz (again), that was enough to run the final on the afternoon.

            The final was really interesting as it was often challenging to choose the fastest route-choice when it was not the most obvious. I’m quite satisfied of my performance because I was well in control all the course even-if I haven’t taken all the best route-choices and I lost the contact with the map close to the 15^th control. Finally, I took the 5^th place close to the podium.
KajaaniSprint TV replay Sprint

  After the 4 first stages of the NORT, I was starting the chasing-start in the 10^th position some 6’ behind the leader but only 1’20 behind the 4^th and just in front of a very tight starting field. For orienteers like us used to run alone, it’s always exciting to run in contact of other runners. However, with an offensive but too risky start in a technical area, I quickly lost 2 stupid minutes before the 1^st control. I had already lost all my chances to catch the group started before me and I was already running behind all the guys started until the 17^th position… In a very rough terrain, my race was not really clean with some strange route-choices and direction troubles. Thanks to a rather good shape, I could push hard at the end and I managed to keep the 10^th place of the NORT overall ranking. To conclude this NORT, I’m especially pleased to have done several solid sprint performances this week after the really disappointed miss-punch for WOC sprint and my catastrophic European champs sprint this season.

Vuokattichasing-start  TV replay

GPStracking

NORTresul
 

Finally, I’ve got the 7^th place of the overall world cup 2012 (few points from the 6^th place) which prove a real improvement and a good stability with several top 10 result on world-cup competitions this season. It’s nice to see the improvement of my world-cup ranking the last few year and it’s motivating to train well for the next seasons especially when I see all the mistakes I’m still doing!

World cup ranking

After the last stages of the NORT, it was smart to stay some days in Vuokatti area to get used of the relevant maps of next world champs: there, we could meet 2 opposite types of terrain: from very rough and rocky slope to smooth and fast sandy ground forest.

After some 4000 km around Scandinavia and living in 5 different accommodations in 2 weeks, it’s time for me to come back ‘home’ in Turku where I’m staying 2 more months (I have already been there 1 month for some internship works, and trainings of course). Now, we’re approaching the end of the season and we can already focus on 2013 where the main goal is the WOC in Finland, so let’s make a good Finnish preparation!

8th place in WOC tough long distance

The last individual race of this year world champs was the yesterday’s long distance: The terrain was a little bit more open than expected but it was still a very physically demanding race. Before the start, I felt quite self confident and ready for the fight for this event. The shape seemed ok but my technical performance wasn’t clean: I did quite many mistakes from the first control to the last one!

 

Looking theinteresting analysis from World of O (thanks Jan Kocbach for his great job!), we can easily understand some of the mistakes:

Even if I was fast enough close to the 1^st control, I missed almost 1 minute not accurate when looking for the control in the area:

On the 1^st real long leg, as I was not sharp when following the compass after crossing the track: I got stock in front of green losing a lot of time trying to find a right way:

  

Some legs went well like the 2^nd long leg:

Then, some other mistakes around controls (like wrong directions when leaving controls) and not optimal route-choices cost me a quite a lot of precious time, like these-ones:

Red choice around was a bit long

I even miss on the way to the last control don’t following the compass missing some lucidity:

(Results, map with GPS tracking)

Finally, I finished in the 8^th position which is a good result for me (the best one in internal long distance) even if can be frustrated for all my avoidable mistakes! It’s still much much better than my unforgivable miss punched spectator control of the sprint…

Tomorrow, it’s time for the relay where, as the reserve, I will be the 1^st supporter of French team world champion last year!

Live steaming from 11:30

World Orienteering Champs in Lausanne

This year, the biggest orienteering event of the season started last Saturday with the sprint in the Olympic capital:

Although I had not shown a good form in international sprint events this season before WOC (EOC sprint was catastrophic and too many route-choice mistakes in St-Galle world cup), I felt ready and quite confident to face this competition thank to solid sprint performance and good preparation in France.

The qualification was held in between the building of the University of Lausanne and the EPFL. It was a rather classic campus-sprint race where the main technique was to decide which side to go around buildings without big traps; whereas we could expect a very tricky orienteering challenge with routes in different levels. I achieved the main goal to qualify for the final quite well as I was the fastest of my qualification heat.

(Result, map)

On the afternoon, it was serious things with the final: The course was really challenging with decisive route choices decision right from the beginning so it was a bit confusing if we would like to start too fast... Starting in the last position, my race went OK event-if I’ve done some hesitations, passages missed and all my route-choices wasn’t optimal, so I crossed the finish line with the 5^th best time rather satisfied of my performance but behind the Swiss domination. However, it was before I realized that I forgot to punch the easiest control of the course: I MISS PUNCHED the spectator control! :-(  I could almost run on it as it was in the middle of the compulsory route in the arena but completely forgot it… Finally, I continue series of MP in sprint in important competitions (after JWOC 2007, WOC qualif 2009, WUOC 2010 …) almost always around the arena. I may think to change something in my sprint technique routine or focus?

(Split-times results, Map with GPS, , Video streaming from Norway)

Then, after this huge disappointment, it was important to refocus for the next event: the long qualification on Sunday. In a more open and runable forest than expected, it went quite well for me even-if I got lock some times in some green areas and I took my ticket for the final with the 3^rd time of my heat.

(Results)  

So now, it’s time for some rest days cheering French team-mates in middle distance before the long distance final on Thursday thanks to the good live coverage.

Last Swiss-rigorous preparation before World champs!

           After the European champs in Sweden, it was a quite dense period with a lot of competitions (and some important things at school too with exams and projects-reports as always in June: tough but it must be good to come back to the reality!).

          Just the weekend after EOC, we had some selection races with the French team in the nice but challenging maps of the Jura Mountain. There we can also compete with many strong international orienteers so it was really good to compeer routes and see what to improve in that kind of terrain. On the Saturday, it was a middle distance competition and it went quite well for me with no big mistakes and rather good route-choices.  (See the interesting article of  O'training.net)

On Sunday, it was a ‘short long distance’ (around 65’ for the winner) in the tricky Jura terrain too. It went a little worse for me this time as I’ve done a whole loop in the wrong side before realizing my mistakes (~5’ missed…)

Then, The 8^th of June, we had our sprint selection race for WOC in the street of Villard-de-Lans were I won the test-race and I took my first ticket for Lausanne with Vinc, Lucas, Amélie, Celine and Léa (see selected French team down).

           The weekend of the 9^th and 10^th of June, it was the Middle and club French championship in the south of the Vercors mountain. There the terrains and maps are also really challenging. The middle distance was interesting and we had to stay careful in this rocky ground to decide the right route choices and to properly find the control. It went well for me and I took the French champs title!

(Map & Results)

      The Club French Championship (CFC) must be the best orienteering event in France: it’s almost the ‘French Jukola’ ;) where all the French club meet and compete on 4 different leagues (more chances to get medals :p ). For an individual sport as orienteering, it’s very fun to run relay and to fight for a team and even for the club! On this event, the main particularity is the team composition: it should represent the whole club. That why in the 1^st league, it’s a 8-leg relay where it should be at least 3 women with 1 young (under 18) and one master (over 35) + 1 young + 1 master. Then it’s only 3 places left for elite runners. That why it could be a lot of changes during the race as the teams don’t launch there ‘rocket’ at the same time… For some years, I have the chance to run the last leg in a quite strong team fighting for medals in the 1^st leagues: It makes the challenges even nicer to try to get the best result-position for the team (before that, I was also really proud to run another leg in this team). My team has done an amazing job so I started in a perfect 3^rd position quite close to the first competitors. So I run very offensively to tried to catch times and places but I may have forgotten to read the map and to orienteer cleanly so it leads to many mistakes and I lost time instead of catching it: Finally, we took the satisfying bronze medal confirming the good shape of Orient’Express club!

 (Article on OE 42 web page)

(Map)

           The next weekend, it was the famous Jukola in Finland where I’m still impressed to see how huge can be orienteering. Even if this event took place very close to Helsinki, it was a really nice terrain and a quite wild forest with a lot of bare-rock on the ills top. I was also running the last leg with my Swedish club OK Hällen.

And my team-mate had done a good job before giving me the relay in a good start position with the possibility to catch up other teams. The beginning of my race was ok so I could catch some runners but after some mistakes, I was running in a big group with clubs like KOK or Rehns BK. This group were growing control after control… Then, as I had the good idea to take a different route choice for a long leg and as I missed the control, I lost the group some hundred meters before the finish and I couldn’t catch it again. Finally we took the 30^th place that is an OK result (if you compare to the 1 650 teams of the start line) even if I’m not very satisfied of my performance (I didn’t lose any places but I was running with the 23^rd before my last mistake).

(Results + maps GPS but I didn’t run with GPStracking)

           On the following weekend, it was 2 world-cup stages in Switzerland with a middle distance on Saturday and the Post-finance sprint on Sunday. For the middle-distance, the Swiss organizers found some piece of forest still unmapped (quite rare in Switzerland) on an ill slope whereas the sprint took part in the city streets of St Gallen.

The middle went well for me in spite of some mistakes (like 1^st and 8^th control) and wrong route-choices (control 10 to the left) in the beginning. Then, my speed seemed fast enough as I lost only 1 second to the leader from the 10^th control to the end.

(Results + maps GPS : I didn’t run with GPS tracking again)

  Finally, I took a very satisfying 5^th place that is my best performance in middle distance in World cup and it confirm all the solid performances I did in this kind of format this year in France (Selections races, French champs…)

            The post-finance sprint is always a really nice competition to take part because of the impressive and spectacular organization: we are like stars in the arena when we run in the middle of the noisy spectators! It’s also fun to get sharing at almost every controls: not that useful in orienteering. The course was really interesting and it was sometime tricky to find the best route-choices. And that was my biggest mistakes as I took bad decision to the 5 and 6 and I lost a lot of time there (~ 2 times 15’’). Finally, the speed was ok and I took the 12^th position quite close to the top 6 (7’’) but with still a margin to the lead (47’’). So there are still some correction to make and it should be ok for WOC.

(Results, map with tracking GPS)

          The last but not least test-race was the long distance close to the WOC Long and relay area held last Wednesday with many other national teams. It was a little bit tough for the French runners to start the earliest in such green terrain so we should fight with the vegetation and make tracks in the overgrowth. However, it was a perfect preparation for WOC to see what to expect for and we could learn a lot of such race.

(World of o article)

I’ve finally got my second ticket for WOC long distance and all the French team is now decided (See below). Now, one week left before the world champs in Lausanne, so we arrive in the ‘last strait line’ of the preparation where the goal is to be ready the D-day and we will see what’s happens!