from january to april

A lot of things happend since my last post in January (!). Logically. You can always think: if I'm not blogging, my life is going on well. I'm blogging, when the bad concience is getting too big. As it is the case now. Actually I have a lot to tell! Or rather: I had. Sometimes I wrote some sentences down, that I absolutely wanted to include in my next post, but now I can't find those pieces of paper anymore. Except this one, probably from one day in February:

"Marzili - still my favourite place. Realized this yesterday when I granted me a short swim in the 6 degree cold Aare. Simply the best!"

The picture belonging to this cold-water-flash is locked in my dead mobile phone.. anyhow I don't manage to wake it up again.

Ok. There were lots of runners-highs in my numerous trainings which were sometimes excessively long ;-), there was a try to improve my 800m an 1000m best times indoor (failed), a greeeeat one-week running training camp in Lanzarote (sport from dawn to dusk), a freestyle snowboard course, the swiss cross country championships (3rd place), the survival run in Thun, the sprint training camp in Italy, and then the testraces where my foot-injury started. My biggest fear was that it doesn't get better. Because I had to realize that I'm absolutely not made for no running at all! This fear was the worst. But as always I have to emphasize the positive things: Have you ever done an orienteering training in high heels? I have! Thanks to my injury. I began to love these shoes, that allowed me to do a whole orienteering training without feeling any pain in my left foot, and thus without thinking of it. This was fucking important for my mental health! ..Which is for sure related to my physical health. I strongly hoped that the pain disappears soon, so that the latter sentences were not complete bullshit.. And I can happily announce, that I can already run normal again now!! After about two weeks of a huge training workload of inline skating and biking and strength training and slow-motion-jogging and swimming and high-heels-therapy ;-). Can anybody tell me why I'm always favoured by so much fortune??

So now, the Grand Prix of Bern can come! The testraces for the world champs in Italy too. And if you are in switzerland from mai 8 to mai 10, come and listen (and watch) the masterpiece I'm preparing intensively with "Der chor" these days ;-). Information here: http://www.derchor.ch/website/Aktuell.html

 Ah now I found a note that I've made after my running camp in february:

"I'm back from Lanzarote with about 206 km running training in my legs (within exactly 7 days). Great that I sometimes don't feel like running now! The first day at home I even felt more like biking!! It was just awesome there on the impressive canary island and in the club la santa, which was simply a paradise for me (more than 30 sports, a shop with plenty of chocolate and ice creams, cold sea water, ...)

one day I wrote down some impressions. It was the 7th of february, the 3rd day of my training camp:

Every day I discover my new "one and only" sport, wednesday it was step aerobics. I could haldly stop! Thursday it was windsurfing. I got soon addicted to the feeling of the wind in the sail."

"shopping in the swiss alps"

Nothing's impossible

I'm definetely looking forward to the season 2014! The latter has already started with the first race of Elite League which was a lot of fun (as expected) and ended up with a fifth place for me (as set as my goal). Cool!
Results 1. Nationaler OL 12.1.2014:
qualification race
final race

The weeks before without any competition felt weird and made me hungry for more. Even so they were great! Parkour, inline skating, snowboarding, running as much as I wanted, work at the kiosk, jump in cold water and of course: be mad at any given opportunity. Please note that my motivation is not always at the highest stage. For example, in the last orienteering training I made only about 3.5 km in 1 hour due to a lot of walking/climbing instead of running. I was very tired and stumbled over the fallen trees like a awkward jumping jack. But it was beautiful, sometimes I couldn't help laughing at myself, and it still counted as an orienteering training!)

Here an incomplete list of what I learned in the last days:
- Caffeine makes me run 12 km as a cooldown even if there is the final race a few hours later. This day I ran not less than 42 km, I calculated! Second cooldown after the final race included. Yes, the endless running started to bore me and made me tired somehow, but I couldn't stop! At about 16:30 I broke off with a 50 second bath in the lake in the nearby park. Nice! It was about 360mg of caffeine...
- It's possible to go to an orienteering training without a map. Just print it within your 8 minutes of transfer time at Bern railway station.
- Football two against one can be extremely funny. You just have to add new rules.
- Parkour with gloves only if you like them dripping wet.
- I'm able to life on bubble gums and peppermint tea during one day. A lot of sport as usual. It was a funny new experiment, it worked!

Some results of races I haven't mentioned yet (which does not at all mean they were not cool!):
Bieler Cross 10.11.13
Langenthaler Stadtlauf 23.11.13
Basler Stadtlauf 30.11.13
Course de l'Escalade 7.12.13
Trotteuse Tissot 14.12.13
Zürcher Silvesterlauf 15.12.13 Sie und Er (together with Gil Meyer)
Zürcher Silvesterlauf 15.12.13 Elite

One of my latest orienteering trainings:

..and some more pictures of a great winter so far:

snowboarding

on track

zibelemärit

freeze

snowshoe walking above the fog boundary

because of too much energy and for lack of anything better to do

on track 2

"meine Auszeit" :-)

Life IS all guns and roses!

My birthday weekend (October 19 and 20) was very - let's say - intensive. Saturday "Les 10 Bornes de Courtelary", a 10km race, and Sunday the final race of Elite League. And between these competitions I said to myself that my birthday is not meant to give me enough sleep.. No, it was definitely a coffee-weekend. But it was worth it!

In any case, at the moment my life rocks. Every day I have a highlight! Monday a heavy rain jogging with a view over the whole Seeland. Tuesday a 22km-training followed by a swim in the cold lake of Thun with the view of the snowy mountains... Friday a mountain jog. But there are not only highlights in sporting terms. For example there are so many funny situations at work. One I can remember: at 9 a.m. this morning, the customer who had bought her packet of cigarettes said: "Danke, schöne oobe, adjöö." (means: "Thank you, have a nice evening, bye.") Haha, the same to you!

I'm getting more and more convinced that life IS all guns and roses! To my English-speaking readers: If you can't say this - I just want to say that life is a permanent party.. For example today. I competed in the short race of "Gurten Classic". 8.4km, about 300m climb. It's incredibly funny to give everything during the race and win with a almost one minute better time than last year (35:07,2 instead of 36:06,5 in 2012). And it's quite practical, that the pain of the muscle stiffness in my right upper leg disappears for the 35 minutes of my race... before it comes again after the finish.. I've never done such a slow cool down before! But still the whole day was fantastic. All the friendly and helpful people, the ego party at the railway-station, the gorgeous sunset at 5 in the afternoon... etc.

results Bürenlauf October 12
results 10bornes de courtelary October 19
results, GPS final race elite league October 20
results Gurten Classic November 3

Now it's time for some pictures. Please don't think I'm smiling like this all the race long! Fact is: when I see a camera, I spend maybe one second trying to smile, before I suddenly change again to my normal running face (which is not beautiful at all - look for example at the picture in the newspaper-article below), and thereby, for example, I miss the course record by 9 seconds, as it was the case on october 19 in Courtelary. But, who cares, the important thing is, that I had fun and that now there's a good picture ;-)

Bürenlauf, October 12

10 bornes de Courtelary, October 19

Article in the "Bieler Tagblatt" of October 14. We learn: don't believe what you read in newspapers!! (The text is full of mistakes)

Me almost dying in the finish of Gurten Classic on November 3

I'm glad that I can also look more or less normal.. :-)

I hope that I go to bed early enough now, because tomorrow I have to get up at 4:45, so that the k kiosk in the neighbouring village opens on time at 5:45! :-) Here are some more pictures:

Now 23 years old. Always ready to eat a whole Black Forest cake. Or maybe better the flowers??

Haha, this is my typical 22km-and-cold-water-smile

mmmmmm!!!!

autumn season

The swiss orienteering autumn season has started (when I started to write this post.. now it's almost finished ;-)), and I'm quite satisfied with my results. I reached my main goal, which was basically: keep your mistakes reasonably small and give all the time everything physically. These goals seem simple, but sometimes help me a lot! First, I made 7th place at the 2nd elite league competition (long distance at Melchsee-Frutt), 8th place at a national competition in "Les Lavoirs", and 6th place at the swiss sprint orienteering championships. Whereby in the latter sprint, I had the impression, that with a better phyical shape, I could have been much better. During the whole sprint I felt my tired legs. That was special! What I learn from this? For example: Enough sleep can be deciding. Sometimes it's funny to watch me handling the new job situation (About 20 hours per week, I'm a sales woman). I'm absolutely not used to it, which sometimes leads to less sleap. And everything happens blow on blow, but I like this! Sometimes I even don't take time to check my e-mails for a few days. And the competitions this autumn are so delicious (if you compare it to meals..) that I'm always almost high in the finish. Somehow very happy about what I'm able to. Even after a race with some big mistakes, like the swiss long distance championships, where I had so much fun in the second part of the race. Last weekend I made another crazy action: half-marathon swiss championships on saturday from 14:45 to 16:07:55,8 and then swiss middle distance orienteering championships on sunday from 13:04 to 13:40:17. Impossible is nothing. About five minutes before my start on sunday, my very very (very!!!) tired legs decided to give their best. Then I fighted and focussed all my race long, which ended up with only little mistakes. And this meant: world cup on 5th octobre, I'm coming!! :-)

Below are my latest results. More maps and pictures may also be interesting but unfortunately there are better things to do than sitting at my computer. Maybe I will add them later. For the sake of completeness ;-).

Emmenlauf, Bätterkinden, 10.5km, 39:31min:
Result list women overall

6.Nationaler (long distance), Melchsee-Frutt:
result list DE
map with my GPS:














7.Nationaler (middle distance), Les Lavoirs:
Result list DE

Swiss sprint orienteering championships:
Result list DE

4foulées étappe 3, Saignelégier, 9.8km:
Result list overall

8.Nationaler (sprint distance), Colombier:
Result list DE

Swiss long distance orienteering championships:
Result list DE

3000m on track with the regional orienteering junior team, Bern:
10:18

Internationaler Greifenseelauf (swiss half-marathon championships), Uster, 21.1km, 1:22:55,8:
Result list women overall

Swiss middle distance orienteering championships:
Result list DE

Lang mae yer lam reek!

Hello again! Here are some news from me -  in a short version because the awesome swiss summer is waiting outside. ;-)

Two months ago, the Mathys-family won the 100km-relay of Biel in 6 hours, 18 minutes and 27.6 seconds. Sorry, but I'm very proud of us. Congratulations to Stephan, Chriiiis, Vero, me and Hansruedi. (result list here: http://services.datasport.com/2013/lauf/biel/RANG222.HTM)

This is me after the 20.6km and my brother who ran the last 23.3km. At about 4 o clock in the morning in Bibern.

One night of sleep later I ran the Frauenlauf in Bern, 5km through the city in 18:10.4, place 17. (http://services.datasport.com/2013/lauf/frauenlauf/RANG091-001.HTM)

Then, there were the two test races in finland, which didn't go very well, but okay. I qualified for the Euromeeting, yeah!

Right after the testraces (around Joensuu) we moved to Jämsä, where I ran the Venla relay with Järla. Place 15! Finally, it seems that I learn how to avoid huge mistakes on the first leg. (see http://www.jukola.com/2013/en/)

Järla on the podium after place 15 in Venla relay 2013. Nu kör vi!

After Jukola (and two running trainings in Helsinki - now I know the city by heart ;-)), I tried to get my dream job. I haven't got it. For a few weeks I was quite disappointed, desperate and hopeless. Moreover my physical shape seemed to be fallen in a deep hole. I needed something completely different and became a farmer for one week. An incredibly impressive and important experience! Details are given personally. ;-)

Fortunately, I had a next goal: the Euromeeting in Moray, Scotland (see http://www.scottish6days.com/2013/euromeeting). I could get okay results in varying terrain and on interesting courses (best was the sprint in Lossiemouth, place 12), and I learned a lot! Furthermore, I got to know the gorgeous scottish highlands! And a little bit of the nice-sounding scottish language: lang mae yer lam reek!

On the hill "Meall a' Bhuachaille" at about 6 in the morning before our flight back to Switzerland. It was windy and cold.

Four days after my arrival in Switzerland the first race of the Elite League took place in Bremgarten. Such a nice sprint! Unfortunately I overlooked an impassable fence on the map and crossed it through a gap. When I realized my mistake I went my way back, which saved me from disqualification. But about 20 seconds were lost. This is almost everything in a sprint. As usual I hadn't got enough after this race and added a second training... My physical shape can't be that bad at the moment... ;-) To my technical shape: I use the graph below as a motivation. I know, one shoud not ignore one's mistakes. I'm aware of the fact that I'm not yet good enough to regularly avoid such stupid mistakes. But it shows me somehow, that I'm a little bit better in sprint orienteering, than certain people sometimes tell me. :-P
Here are the results: http://www.o-l.ch/cgi-bin/results?type=rang&year=2013&event=Aargauer+3-Tage+OL+1.+Etappe&kat=DAL

Graph of the first 11 in the Elite League Sprint in Bremgarten. I'm number 9, Bri.

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 :-)