Training Camp in Lungau

From August 31st - Sept 3rd I took part in a little training camp in Mariapfarr (Lungau) which was organized by my club an included the Salzburg Relay Championships on Saturday and the Salzburg Championships on Sunday.


Training:
The first session took place on the map "St. Andrä - Passeggen" - a small but beautiful terrain. To sum up the training: I felt like a bloody beginner! It's unbelievable how many and which mistakes I made. So I was smashed back to reality. 2,5 months without orienteering is definitely not good for your skills...
The second session this day took place on the map "Bannwald" - nothing special.

Friday began with a little test competition for the following Relay Championships. We used the map "Niederrain" - also a very beautiful terrain with some marshes and open areas. Mani an Me won ahead of Wolfi and Luki. Let's say my 2 runs were ok, but I have to be very carful in the green parts of a course.
In the afternoon we did some training for our brain. Have a look on the map, learn how to get to3 or 4 controls by heart and then find them with what you remember. Luki, Wolfi and Me made a little photo session instead *g*

What I got from training?
I can trust in my orienteering skills again (at least most of the time) and 2 blisters.

Competition:

The Relay was held on the map "Niederrain" (a different part as the training yesterday of course). One team consists of 2 members, who run 2 loops of about 3km. My partner was Markus "Kungän" König.
He was the one to run at the beginning and managed to do quit well. He overhanded me the map on 4th position just some seconds behind the leading team. I also started well and always had contact to my rivals. But than I made a stupid mistake to control number 9 which cost me 2 minutes. I reached the finish in 5th position and a gap to the teams in front of us. Now it was up to Markus to fight back again.
What followed? He (and afterwards me) made big mistakes on our loop an finished in 6th place.

Results: http://www.ol-sbg.at/sc/SC-2006/res_staffel06.html

On Sunday the Salzburg Championships was held on a brand new map named "Fernwald". Next year there will be an austrian ranking event on this map. The M19 category was 6,3 km.
I am very satisfied with my run today. After a long time I did not make any bigger mistake. In the middle of the course I caught up to Mani and Wolfi and even managed to break away from them. But Phil also overtook me (he started 2 minutes behind me).
Unfortunately I am in no good shape, so I loose much time because I can't run as fast as I was able to do last year. In the end I finished in 5th place, 8 minutes behind the European youth champion Warti.

Ergebnisse: http://www.ol-sbg.at/sc/SC-2006/res_6sc06.html