Day 4. The weather is worse but the orienteering better.

The weather changed today - started out ok with clouds in the distance, but by lunchtime it was clouded over and by the time we were ready to go training - it was raining.The training event was a long drive - 5 mins straight up the hill. then the walk to the start. The official information said it was 1km to the start, but that was obviously for teams with a manger that could drop them off and then collect them close to the finish.
The parking lot is off the map on the top right corner. We started in the quarry - just below the number 7. Jeremy's GPS failed to record, perhaps due to the rainy conditions, so no track on the map today. We mad a mistake in deciding when to go training, and this was the picture of what greeted us at the finish at 16h30. The car park had 10 cars and a gazebi in it when we started the training 2 hrs previously.
and this was the trip down the hill back to the accommodation. We were wet and cold and ready for supper - and now we really needed to do some laundry too.
Supper was great and another evening at computers for both of us. The sun just went down - long days make for productive days - it is 20 to 10 in the evening.

Day 3 - O gets worse before it gets better

The weather stayed great for the first training day - the third day of our trip.

the view from our chateau - the basement of a house in Arith - Rural France
with lightening fast internet access.

Tired bodies from 2 days racing in unfamiliar terrain kept us lazing around the accommodation till after lunchtime. We then headed back to the Le Revard II map - this time at a new scale - 1:10 000, but the printing was not the same standard and Jeremy found the clearings difficult to read. LITF was Jeremy's summary of the days training. My worst orienteering day so far. I could hardly walk this morning my stabilizers are so overworked, and i just couldn't get in contact with the map today.
Nicks take on the days training was that he took it easy with low intensity recovery session. Flowing through the controls, many similar to yesterday but in a different order and approaching from different directions made for a good session. He did miss the north lines on the map however and had to keep ensuring the map was correctly orientated.

The training map for the day. only friends and family get to see Jeremy's GPS track. Notice the absence of North lines. they were missed! Control 1 was the same as control 5 from yesterdays race, and Jeremy got it wrong again.

Jeremy wasn't the only person battling today - there were some other athletes who came back to the start looking like they should find another sport. Thierry however took the day off from orienteering and cycled up the the event to see what was happening.

The team then went into town, Aix-Les-Bains, to buy provisions for the rest of the week. Carrefour supermarket was an interesting experience. Many of our staple foods were conspicuous in their absence. Yogurt is big, Fresh milk not so much. Pasta sauces were also a little scarce and we never did find the chicken pieces. the standard Nutella and bread was easy to add to the trolley - which was surprisingly cheap - perhaps relative to the Norway costs of last year. Self catering is definitely the way to go while traveling on a budget. The difference is astounding.Jeremy then dropped into Decathlon (sport shop) for some energy drink and got to work the self service check out. The honesty system is impressive - and it seems to work here.

The day was finished off with another late night. Jeremy reviewing papers and closing out with some angry birds, while Nick worked on the music compilations, labeling and rating for his new i phone.

We finish off this blog with some pictures of our walk round Annecy on Saturday.

Nick the photographer. from the top of the hill overlooking the old town.

Good thing this isn't Nicks front door. Many years of subsidence have made it skew - it wasn't built that way - so the guide map says.


The old town where we had some expensive sandwiches with not so expensive ice cream.

Day 2 - French Long Distance National Champs

Day 2 started with blue sunny skies: at 5h50!
The sun gets up early here and I hadn't closed the shutters.
With no food in our accommodation at all we were off early in the search of sustenance.
Being a Sunday Morning, nothing was open at all - so we pegged our hopes on registration having something to eat.
Turn out that parking however, was 2km from registration.
Jeremy had a 9h49 start so timing was tight.

2km walk to registration for a cup of coffee (espresso only) and a piece of cherry pie and sponge cake. 2km walk back to the car gave Jeremy 20 minutes to get ready for his start.This is the view from the starting area. On top of the world with upward of 10 para-gliders enjoying the weather..

The race was a tough one. 40/169 competitors dnf or dsq including 80% of the Irish and British squads.
The race was 14.1km straight line, but there were very few straight line options. green was very green and white was hard work. Jeremy found it very difficult to locate in the forest and spent a long time up and down the road to 5 confirming his exact location before going into the forest.

Jeremy's course and route for the French National Long Distance Champs. Thierry Gueorgiou won by 9 mins in 1h31 putting all comers to shame.

Nicholas ran 2h48 and Jeremy got good value for money with 3h42. He never actually got lost, he says, "I just needed to confirm exactly where I was."
Only 1 water point on the course made it very difficult going. Jeremy walking the majority of the second part of the course with no reserves and dehydrated.
http://www.nationalesavoie2011.fr/ has the results for all classes.

It was a long day out, with another 2km walk back to the car and with most things still closed it was a small cafe that provided supper and provisions for breakfast the following morning.
According to the GPS on Jeremy's arm, he did 30.7km that day - 23km in the race and the rest warming up and getting between the car, registration, start and finish venues.

Next up.
Good value and not so good orienteering.

WOC Training camp 3 - June 2011

2/3 of the South African Squad selected to go to world champs in August are attending the last official training camp in Aix-Les-Bains France. Jeremy Green and Nicholas Mulder are orienteering on terrain and maps similar to that which will be used for world champs in August (http://www.woc2011.fr/) in an attempt to get familiar with the terrain, mapping style and what training is necessary between now and then.

The trip started off with the a race on Saturday where, as they were flying into the area that morning, Jeremy and Nick requested late starts. Little did they know that with a first start at 12h30 and 1 minute start intervals, they would start at 16h55 and 16h59.
(http://annecyso.fr/)
It was the regional middle distance champs and both Nick and Jeremy were happy with their performance on the day.

Here is Jeremy's map with course and track.
Check out attackpoint.com for commentary on the race.

However with the extremely late starts, but the time they finished and got ready to go shopping for food for breakfast, nothing was open anymore... the start of the challenge for day 2.

On the way to the start after a walk around the town of Annecy as we drove from the 400m height of the town to over 1600m start position. This was a view of the surrounding mountains en route with the town below on the shore of the lake.


Next blog post:
shops and closing times:
3 days of Orienteering that keeps getting harder not easier:
Sun and stars: