10mila, GP Bern, Finnland, Strongmanrun, Biennathlon, ... that's life!

I've done many funny things recently, some of which might be of interest for this blog... ;-)

Let's start with 10mila: Our Järla Team finished on place 39, 27:38 minutes behind the leader. We made too many mistakes. Personally, I had a race very similar to the Venla relay last year: good start (great fun!), but then to control number 4, I guess I did slightly too little prospective orienteering. And then, lost about four minutes, trying to find out where I ended up. Sad but true. It was very important for me to do a good race, and I tried hard to reach my technical aims. The concentration was high most of the time, but I didn't succeed in being concentrated 100% ALL THE TIME. To reach this, I need more experience. More relays, please! :-)
result list 10mila womens relay
10MILA 2013 Women's relay Arena production (I recommend the start and the section after minute 21 :-P)

After 10mila I went home to prepare seriously for the best race ever: the "Grand Prix von Bern", 16.093km. It was my big aim, to run a race time better than 1h, and my running training was geared to this competition. I think I succeeded in reaching a good form this day. Also by reducing the training conciderably before the competition (for the first time longly I managed to do no single running training during a whole day!!!). My legs felt good. But that's not all, unfortunately. I got a side stitch, and problems with my stomach. After 8 kilometers, when my legs started to feel very good, I couldn't use them anymore. I shouted for a toilet. :-) And I couldn't enjoy the race. 1h 04min 01sec was my race time.
Result list "Grand Prix von Bern"

exhausted and not able to cool down because of my stomach after the race. only able to take pictures of my Brooks Racer ST 5 ;-)

The next day I already flew to Kajaani, to join the training camp with the swiss team in Vuokatti. Every training was very nice! When the swiss team training camp was finished, I started my own "survival training camp". Three and a half days orienteering trainings in Finland without a car. The first training I could imagine to reach, was almost on the way to Joensuu. I said to myself: It's not impossible, so try it! In Juuka, I knew there was no official bike rental to get to the orienteering terrain that was 15km away from Juuka. But there were many very helpful people! (Like everywhere in finland!). So I did it. It was absolutely worth it.

nothing is impossible. with this cool bike lended from keijo.

the proof ;-): my training on the map "Aisus" (a bit short; I had to catch the last public bus to Joensuu :-P)

The next days I stayed in Joensuu and gave everything to do 3 WOC long distance trainings and 2 Sprints. One Training was about 30km away from Joensuu, but the weather was nice and I wanted to know if I'm able to do it. I was completely exhausted when I arrived at the training -  in the middle of nowhere. So, it was a "slow motion" training. But: who cares?

"Wir machen den Weg frei. Ihre Raiffeisenbank."

One training was just beside the airport, so I did it in the night before my flight to Helsinki at 6 in the morning. What an adventure!!
Finnland was not only a big adventure, now I'm also prepared for the WOC-Testraces next week.

The next big race was the Strongmanrun in Engelberg. Because of the terrible wheather in Switzerland and the fact that Engelberg is about 1000m above sea level, I was afraid of freezing to death on this saturday in June. But then I rather died of the strain! 15 minutes before the start I got to know that they shortened the course down to about 10km. So it was a full speed race. With plenty of funny obstacles ("Simi rückwärts" was the hardest) and masses of water and mud. Just fantastic!! By the way: I could win the race, like last year! Now I'm the Strongman in womens category. Because Strongwoman sounds weird...
I'm waiting for more good pictures. But these are also not bad for the moment:

this is not me. unfortunately ;-)

Homepage Strongmanrun

As if I didn't have done enough, the next morning I could start in a very good team in the Biennathlon (a relay with inline skating, swimming (this year running), biking and running. This was another great competition, Biennathlon rocks! We made the second place in the category mixed team. Thank you Jeanine, Adrian and Christian!

our finish. adrian is missing.

result list Biennathlon Mixed Relay


Next: 100km relay in the night from friday to saturday! Our team: (Mathys)^5=100 sponsored by Brooks
Then on Sunday: Frauenlauf Bern 5km
Then on Monday: Flight to Joensuu to the WOC testraces and Jukola!

now more than ever

Last weekend, there were two test-races counting for the selection for the Nordic Orienteering Tour (NORT) in June.

Saturday, middle distance, solid race, place 6. Sunday, some bad route choices and one mistake of about 10 seconds, place 9. The NORT is still reachable, I thought. But the coaches found that it makes more sense to give me the possibility to attend the training camp in Finnland in may, instead of the NORT. I was completely disappointed, but tried to see all the positive things out of this decision. For example the Strongmanrun june the 1st. And maybe there will be a family-team at the 100km race june the 7th, like last year. But it's hard, when I think about what I will miss, and how much experience in orienteering competitions I could have gained.

Now I realize that I have difficulty accepting the "No" of the coaches. I think it would be much easier if my results would have been clearly too bad. Or if another one could take my place. Unfortunately it were some seconds that made the decision.

So, the only thing I can do, is to say: NOW MORE THAN EVER! ...and keep smiling :-)

Why not?

In this first part of 2013 I did not only train hard, I already ran quite a lot of races! And I spent 11 great days in Portugal with 19 orienteering trainings, 9 of which were competitions (the Portugal O-Meeting POM in and around Idanha-a-Nova and the "meeting de orientação do centro" MOC in Osso da Baleia). I really liked the terrain there! Often there was not much vegetation on the floor, so that I could run fast. And at the last competition I handeled my race quite well, so that it felt like surfing through the terrain. It's so nice to be healthy all the time and be able to experience so much!!

Actually I don't need to summarise my achievements to stay motivated.. but you may be interested... And I think the most of my results are good enough to be shown here ;-):

The results of Portugal:

POM Stage 1 Long Distance 9.2.2013 W21E place 39: result list
POM Night Sprint 9.2.2013 W21E place 3: result list
POM Stage 2 Middle Distance 10.2.2013 W21E place 4: result list
POM Stage 3 Middle Distance (WRE) 11.2.2013 W21E place 12: result list
POM Stage 4 Long Distance 12.2.2013 W21E place 23: result list
POM Overall W21E place 16: result list overall

MOC Long Distance 16.2.2013 WE place 19: result list
MOC Night Urban 16.2.2013 WE place 3: result list
MOC Middle Distance 17.2.2013 WE place 7: result list

Some pictures of Portugal:

it was still february...

me on top of one of the numerous castels: the one in Castelo de Vide

Järla sprint competition preparation ;-)

SANDY beach in São Pedro de Moel ;-)

me during the MOC middle distance race (the last day)

the terrain near Osso da Baleia

evening ambiance in São Pedro de Moel

My orienteering season started one week after cyprus with the Effretiker Stadt-OL, two sprints (qualification and chasing start), which I could win. Then, almost every weekend I did a race, which was fun!

Here are the result lists of the races I've done:

13.1.2013 Effretiker Stadt-OL, DE place 1: qualification final
19.1.2013 Cross de Vidy, 5km place 4: overall Elite Dames / U23W
26.1.2013 Bärner Cross, 5.5km place 1: results
27.1.2013 Indoor athletics meeting Magglingen, 1000m in 3:03.74: results all events (see page 35)
3.2.2013 Indoor athletics meeting Magglingen, 800m in 2:20.63: results sunday (see page 13)
23.2.2013 Bremgarten Reusslauf, 11km place 7: overall women
3.3.2013 Swiss Championships in cross country, 8km place 8: overall women
10.3.2013 survival run Thun, place 1: results, also men
16.3.2013 Kerzerslauf, 15km place 11: results

A very special event was the survival run in Thun. An approximately 16km long cross country race with 25 different obstacles, part of which you have to cross twice. As last year, I loved it! A lot of dirt and variety!  During my "cool down" after the race I couldn't stop running anymore. I thought: Why not cross the wet marshes again and swim in the dirt? Why stop running when I still have pleasure and energy left? The only thing that could stop me was the fact that the organisers closed the showers soon... It was about four o'clock, four hours after the start. The last two "runners" already had finished their race. I cheered for them, they enjoyed the race for about 3hours 45, while I only had 1 hour and 23 minutes. RESPECT for their endurance!

survival run 2013: first 3 women and the head of Gudrun, my new boar

Me during the Bremgarten Reusslauf. It's always important to get good pictures! No matter how much time it costs :-)

back from cyprus

159.16 km habe ich meine GPS-Uhr laufend in den 7 Tagen in Agia Napa, Zypern, weit getragen. Dazu kommen langsame Joggings, bei denen ich auf Akku-Sparen setzte. Eine schöne Zahl! Die Trainings waren auch qualitativ super und haben mich sicher einen Schritt vorwärts gebracht!
Und die ganze Reise war einfach unvergesslich. Mit ein bisschen Betonung auf "Reise": etwas mehr als zwei Tage verbrachte ich auf der Hin- und Rückreise. Ich liebe es, mich in einer wildfremden Umgebung durchzufragen! Dank einem Missverständnis bin ich durch halb Zypern chauffiert worden! Und ich habe hautnah erfahren, wie schwierig es ist, vom Griechischen Teil Zyperns in den Türkischen Teil (wo ich meinen Abflug hatte) zu gelangen! Aber auch der Aufenthalt: So etwas mache ich nächstes Jahr sicher wieder. Laufen, Klippenspringen, doofe Spiele spielen, sünnelen, crowlen lernen, Gangnam Style im Musik-Fernseher hören, vergeblich gute Kafis in der Stadt suchen, gigantische Büsi-Herden entdecken und ablichten, ....usw....

Win am Überwintern

Huch, so schnell geht es, und ich habe mich nicht mehr um meinen Blog gekümmert! Vielleicht habe ich einfach besonders seriös trainiert in letzter Zeit ;-) so dass ich gar nicht mehr dazu komme. Es ist einiges passiert! Zum Beispiel muss ich mitteilen, dass ich 2013 nicht mehr Mitglied des Swiss Orienteering Teams sein darf. Was allerdings nichts an meiner Motivation ändert!
Kürzlich bin ich einige Laufwettkämpfe gelaufen: Hallwilerseelauf, Bieler Cross, La Neuveville, La Trotteuse Tissot in La Chauy de Fonds. Alle mit sehr zufriedenstellenden Resultaten!
Am Greifenseelauf bin ich meinen ersten flachen Halbmarathon gelaufen (1h24). Wie habe ich mich doch gelangweilt! ;-) Dort habe ich mich entschieden, dass so lange Distanzen wettkampfmässig im Moment nichts für mich sind.
Meine Pläne: Am 27.Dezember entfliehe ich der Kälte und fliege nach Zypern ins Lauftrainingslager. An der Laufkleidung wird sich gar nicht so viel ändern (auch hier laufe ich bis 0 Grad Celsius gerne mit kurzen Hosen), aber ich freue mich riesig auf wärmere Temperaturen am ultimativen Partystrand Agya Napa (der übrigens in den Wintermonaten ziemlich verlassen ist. Eben ideal um hart zu trainieren.)
Im Februar folgt die nächste Reise: mit Järla und dem OL-Nationalkader nach Portugal. Da denke ich als erstes an die ultraschnellen Waldböden, die es dort ab und zu hat. Herrlich!
Die Weltmeisterschaften in Finnland bleiben ein (ambitioniertes) Ziel. OL ist und bleibt die beste Sportart ever. Daneben passt der GP Bern mitte Mai in meinen Kalender und auf diesen trainiere ich hin, sodass ich mich 2013 zu den Stundenknackern zählen kann!

Aktualisierungen der Agenda und Büudli folgen irgendeinmal! Zuerst kommt das Leben, dann das Bloggen!

New PB in 5000m! And two other achievements

Yeah! Now I’m satisfied: I made 17:36 in 5000m track. For the five different kilometres I needed 3:25, 3:27, 3:35, 3:37 and 3:27. It’s somehow a victory, even if it was not as fast as one could expect due to the test on treadmill in spring. I have trained to reach 17:00 on 5000m. But from time to time I had to realize that there is a difference between a performance test and a competition and I can’t get that much faster than 2011, when I made 18:14. One reason is indeed that I, as an orienteer, can’t hold to a perfect running training plan. There are simply too many competitions and training camps. After all an orienteer also wants to get better in orienteering, and not only in running!

At the official 5000m in Langenthal on 22 August (three days after a very hard long distance swiss orienteering championship race), I said to myself: okay, your form is not very good and the weather is too hot, so a bad race time is more probable than a good one, but you have to try it anyway. What I did then, was not clever at all: I started much too fast (because I felt extremely good in the beginning) and got much slower during the race, which ended in a race time of 18:24. A horrible result. I already reached this in February 2011 alone in a training. So, directly after the race I decided to try it again before the end of this season. The best possibility was last Tuesday. Kevin Hegg, a club colleague, volunteered for being my pacemaker. Thank you very much!! Thanks to him I could reach my biggest aim: run a more or less constant race.

A completely other kind of victory was the one at the sprint orienteering championships on 9 September in Zofingen. I really liked this sprint! I was exhausted in the finish. It would have been interesting to see how much time I lose on the world cup swiss girls (who were in Finland at this time), because I had a quite good race with only some little stops. Anyway, this gold medal made me feel that my trainings not only answered the purpose of my well-being and joy, they also made me better and faster.
SPM article swiss orienteering 
SPM results

The same with the victory of the last stage of “4foulées” in Les Bois on 12 September. A 10.8 km race on meadows and only few paths and roads (very funny :-)).
4foulées results

Even though these two victories always also depend on the other competitors, they make you think that you can’t go that wrong with your training. A very good feeling! Although not really justified…;-)

Next: Greifenseelauf in Uster on Saturday. I'm looking forward to my first half marathon! And then, in the beginning of october: 25manna in sweden!

It's getting winter slowly.. perfect conditions for swimming in the Aare and cold lakes, like the oeschinensee.

me on the way to one of the last controls at the sprint championships. I'm still working on a better running style ;-)

me at the prize giving ceremony of 4foulées in Les Bois

 

Two other adventures. I'm still alive...

We proofed it yesterday: we can also do rubber rafting on the Aare (in swiss german "Aareböötle") in pouring rain and wind. We did Thun-Rubigen (where we finally were sane enough to stop that experiment ;-)). Of course without the Uttigen-Schuss (a “step” in the river near Uttigen, that is almost 2 meters high) because we had just a little boat. We walked this part of the way with the boat on our heads. It started raining when we left in Thun and stopped when we were save again in the train. We have expected this, so we put everything important in plastic bags, I pulled a yellow postfinance poncho over me and my bikini and my sister preferred normal clothes and an umbrella. You can imagine how stupid we looked like!! Unfortunately (or luckily??) in this weather only few people are walking along the Aare. But when we saw someone we waved to this person and sang our songs even louder than before ;-). It was hilarious!! Yes, we WERE cold, we WERE wet and we WERE afraid of the big waves. But after a certain time, the moment came when I accepted everything and could really enjoy “Aareböötle”!! It was even harder to get out of the boat and stand on my own frozen feet than just remain seated in the water in the boat. The fact that the water of the Aare was slightly warmer than the air surely helped us stay in the boat. I will never forget this adventure on august 30 2012.

  

The other adventure was in the evening before. It was one race of the “4foulées” in the Jura. The train brought me through a heavy hailstorm to Saignelégier, where the weather was dry and stayed almost dry. The race was 9.5 kilometres and resembled an orienteering race without reading a map! There were only short parts where it was flat, I was always fighting and minding the slippery cow shits on the floor. The second woman Laurence Yerly with whom I fought on the first three kilometres didn’t overtake me again, so I won the womens race in a time of 39:44.8 minutes. In the finish I must have been looking almost dead (I also felt so), because the one who finished just before me asked me something like: "Are you okay?" I could answer him and soon said: "Une très jolie course!" ...and a whole evening, where I could practice my french! Now I know why they had already more than 600 participants.