Laying The Foundations

Training in Haanja

I feel confident when saying that my trainings have gone smoothly. So far this has been the least compromised training plan that I've had in recent years. The variety of possibilities gives an additional good feeling to it. Here are some trainings that I've used to entertain myself... Before snow came, I tried to fool myself with my own course in Haanja (EOC middle final 2006). I'll probably try this course again, after 10 years maybe. Anyone interested in trying this course in the spring, let me know!

20 highest points in
Estonia

And then it began to snow... This gave me the opportunity to have really tough trainings. One sunny and really snowy Sunday I decided to conquer the 20 highest points in Estonia. It took me three and a half fantastic hours to complete this task. Oh, and I didn't have any map with me.

One of three important starts of the preparation season was the Winter Xdream 7 last weekend. It's usually a ~3 hour rogain in snow, using your own muscle power. This time I teamed up with Kristo (since he's the leader of our national team training series). The snow had a slight crust, so we decided to use snow-shoes during the trackless parts. This was our first experience with this kind of equipment. I must say I was really surprised how useful they were and liked the "shoes" a lot. We were satisfied with our choice. Too bad Kristo got a bit tired after 2:30 and it was about 1:30 to go... We lost to ski-orienteers with only 2 seconds! A finish fight! But since I had accidentally broken my SI-wristband in a spruce thicket at a special task, we got -1 control penalty. This meant an 18th place instead of the 2nd! Don't even ask... Nevertheless, a fantastic event! In 4 hours and 9 minutes we covered about 27,2 km, of which 11 km was using snow-shoes.

Winter Xdream 7
blue: running,
red: snow-shoes

I've always used cross-country skiing as a part of my preparation, exactly like this year. My technique is improving and therefore, the quality is better. Again, I'm going to make two skiing "test races" to see how my body reacts to these long efforts: the Tartu Marathon and the more important Haanja Marathon. The goal for now is to be in control of my races and reach higher positions than last year. Of course these are not the main goals of my trainings, but they give a good sense of where I'm heading.

Since this year is a big step for me, I joined a new club with my brother in Finland: Delta. I've had a lot of offers over the last years, but now was the time to move on and seek for a club that provides the propitious possibilities to develop into a world-class orienteer and have a strong relay team. I didn't rush with my choice, so I'm confident that I made the right decision. 

I'd like to thank my moderklubb OK Triangeln for making me the orienteer that I am today. You can take me out of Triangeln, but you can never take Triangeln out of me!