Todays leg in Route to Christmas is another leg from Switzerland – this time from the World Cup Final weekend. The leg chosen is leg 13 in the mens course the Saturday’s middle distance on September 26th 2009.

Why choose more than one leg from Switzerland? Because the Swiss are good at using RouteGadget for their top events – and the top runners draw their routes regularly as a service to the Swiss orienteering community. It surely helps the Swiss in their development as the best orienteering nation…

The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger):

Webroute

Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers.

Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg:

Complete map in Omaps.worldofo.com

You find the complete map and Routegadget info in omaps.worldofo.com at this location.

Omaps.worldofo.com

The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O was very popular the two last year – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2009-competitions – or old forgotten ones which are still interesting – please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. Route to Christmas will not be interesting if YOU don’t contribute.

There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg – you can provide that yourself in the comments or in the Webroute. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is not straightforward to see what to do on a certain leg. Any comments are welcome – especially if you ran the event chosen for todays leg!

Note that there may be some errors in the Routegadget data (sometimes somebody draws a route for another runner just for fun). Please add a comment below if you spot en error.

Todays leg in Route to Christmas is from Great Britain. We have got a long leg from Northern Champs in Graythwaite – organized by Lakeland OC on April 19th 2009. The chosen leg is leg number 14 in Course 1.

The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger):

Webroute

Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers.

Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg:

Complete map in Omaps.worldofo.com

You find the complete map and Routegadget info in omaps.worldofo.com at this location.

Omaps.worldofo.com

The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O was very popular the two last year – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2009-competitions – or old forgotten ones which are still interesting – please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. Route to Christmas will not be interesting if YOU don’t contribute.

There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg – you can provide that yourself in the comments or in the Webroute. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is not straightforward to see what to do on a certain leg. Any comments are welcome – especially if you ran the event chosen for todays leg!

Note that there may be some errors in the Routegadget data (sometimes somebody draws a route for another runner just for fun). Please add a comment below if you spot en error.

Todays leg in Route to Christmas is from Germany. The chosen leg is leg number 16 in the Men 20 course from the JEC 2009 Long Distance organized by USV TU Dresden at October 24th 2009. Thanks to Bjarne Friedrichs for the tip!

The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger):

Webroute

Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers.

Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg. In this case it was necessary to show more than the usual best 6 runners in order to show which route was the best. Therefore lines are a bit thin, and it might be difficult to see all details if you don’t use the large variant of the leg (click to see the leg larger). Basically, the best times were run by runners taking one of the north variants – while runners running south lost time.

Complete map in Omaps.worldofo.com

You find the complete map and Routegadget info in omaps.worldofo.com at this location.

Omaps.worldofo.com

The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O was very popular the two last year – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2009-competitions – or old forgotten ones which are still interesting – please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. Route to Christmas will not be interesting if YOU don’t contribute.

There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg – you can provide that yourself in the comments or in the Webroute. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is not straightforward to see what to do on a certain leg. Any comments are welcome – especially if you ran the event chosen for todays leg!

Note that there may be some errors in the Routegadget data (sometimes somebody draws a route for another runner just for fun). Please add a comment below if you spot en error.

We have got one of the highlights in this years Route to Christmas today – Karst terrain from Slovenia with comments from several of the runners and the route planner. Todays leg is leg number 7 in the M21E course from the last event in OO.cup 2009 on July 26th.

We have been so lucky to get the course setter Ivan Nagy to give an introduction to the terrain – in order to let you get some background info for choosing the optimal route for this leg.

- The last two stages of OO.cup/09 were held on terrain of Ženček, which I consider a “moderate karst” area – by moderate I mean it is very interesting but not one of those super-intricate areas which are hard to find, hard to map, hard to get to, but easy to plan courses on. The runnability on Ženček is rather low – for most of us at least. This is due to very (sometimes extremely) rocky ground in some parts of the map combined with cut branches and sometimes patches of low vegetation. At places it gets really messy and you can’t really know what to expect because not all the micro vegetation can be shown on the map and too much of black colour would severly hinder the map
legibility. The white coulour is often on the edge of first green. Small footpaths paths are normally well visible but can be slightly overgrown. I think only the hardcore terrain runners can feel really comfortable choosing the straight routes on Ženček (throughout the whole race), but if you are really strong (and a little bit crazy) it can pay off.

The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger):

Webroute

Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers.

Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg. Some comments about the leg from some of the runners:

• Raffael Huber had the best time on the leg, running in S-shape (blue). - At stage 4 and 5 the big paths were usually fast and in parts the ground was very stony. Because we had controls in the same area as control number 7 the day before, i tried to find a route taking me close to the control on a big path, since this area was the most shreddering of the whole map. My teammate always tell that I’m a fast runner but can not read the map – so it was a good decision;+) To be serious i think Jure Zmrzlikar took the best route.
• Jan Prochazka won the race this day, but was surprised to loose 40 seconds to Raffael Huber on this leg (light blue route). - It was nice and extremely stony terrain. I did try to use roads as much as possible, because it was usually faster. I did run straight the leg to the seventh control, because I did not see any other option. I was really surprised, when I checked the splits and saw that I was beaten with 40s. Oocup was maybe the best terrain I did run this year.
• The route in purple by Oli Johnson going all the way around to the north-west seems to be a long detour – but still he only looses about 1.20 to Jan Prochazka on the leg. - It had been that kind of week at the OO.cup, and I thought that I would go for a completely radical round route on this long leg to see if it worked out… It didn’t, but I think you will agree that it was an interesting experiment, Oli comments on his routechoice.

About Mapping Karst terrain

Mapping Karst terrain like the one above is a difficult task. In that regard, I got a few interesting map samples of new and old map samples of terrain which are planned to be used for the 2011 OO.Cup race (thanks to Ivan Nagy for map samples which I was allowed to post here).

• The difference in mapping style is interesting to note. The leftmost map samples is from the older map (less details, made by Cesare Tarabocchia, Italy, latest version 2008)
• The rightmost from the newer map (more details, first two map samples by Zdenek Sokolar, the last sample by Jan Drbal, Czech Republic, November 2009).

Some prefer the mapping style of the old map which is easier to read in high speed – others (me included) prefer the mapping style of the new map which gives a lot more details for the fine-orienteering. Which one do you like better?

Complete map in Omaps.worldofo.com

You find the complete map and Routegadget info in omaps.worldofo.com at this location.

Omaps.worldofo.com

The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O was very popular the two last year – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2009-competitions – or old forgotten ones which are still interesting – please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. Route to Christmas will not be interesting if YOU don’t contribute.

There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg – you can provide that yourself in the comments or in the Webroute. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is not straightforward to see what to do on a certain leg. Any comments are welcome – especially if you ran the event chosen for todays leg!

Note that there may be some errors in the Routegadget data (sometimes somebody draws a route for another runner just for fun). Please add a comment below if you spot en error.

Disclaimer: OO.Cup was one of the sponsors in Orienteering Achievement of 2009. The choice of OO.Cup for Route to Christmas is however done solely on editorial basis, and is not influenced by OO.Cup being a sponsor for other activities.

For todays leg in Route to Christmas we are returning to Switzerland. This time we are looking at leg 12 in the HAL course at the 5. National Swiss race in Hürital at August 30th 2009 organized by OLV Zug. Thanks to Marcel Schiess for the tip!

The question this time: From below, from above or direct! The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger):

Webroute

Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers.

Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg:

Complete map in Omaps.worldofo.com

You find the complete map and Routegadget info in omaps.worldofo.com at this location.

Omaps.worldofo.com

The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O was very popular the two last year – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2009-competitions – or old forgotten ones which are still interesting – please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. Route to Christmas will not be interesting if YOU don’t contribute.

There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg – you can provide that yourself in the comments or in the Webroute. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is not straightforward to see what to do on a certain leg. Any comments are welcome – especially if you ran the event chosen for todays leg!

Note that there may be some errors in the Routegadget data (sometimes somebody draws a route for another runner just for fun). Please add a comment below if you spot en error.

Todays leg in Route to Christmas is from Austria. The chosen leg is leg number 17 in the H21E course the Austrian Championships middle distance at May 17th. This competition was named the best Austrian competition in 2009. Thanks to Martin Veitsberger for the tip!

The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger):

Webroute

Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers.

Unfortunately we are missing the routes for the runners finishing between number 2 and 6 (Klaus Schgaguler, Christian Wartbichler, Martin Binder ++), but Gernot Kerschbaumer was the fastest on this leg with quite some margin. You find split times in Splitalyzer here. Gernot also writes about this race in his Blog, writing about this leg: - To control 17 I finally chose the right option, because the climb on the left side after the path seemed to be to steep for running. [...] Approaching the finish, I knew I had a good run and hoped to take the victory, but I was surprised by the big gap to the second place, Klaus Schgaguler, nearly 4 minutes..

Uou can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg:

Complete map in Omaps.worldofo.com

You find the complete map and Routegadget info in omaps.worldofo.com at this location.

Omaps.worldofo.com

The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O was very popular the two last year – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2009-competitions – or old forgotten ones which are still interesting – please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. Route to Christmas will not be interesting if YOU don’t contribute.

There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg – you can provide that yourself in the comments or in the Webroute. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is not straightforward to see what to do on a certain leg. Any comments are welcome – especially if you ran the event chosen for todays leg!

Note that there may be some errors in the Routegadget data (sometimes somebody draws a route for another runner just for fun). Please add a comment below if you spot en error.

Todays leg in Route to Christmas is from Finland – the long 2nd leg in Men 21 in the Finnish Champs in Night-orienteering. The competition was held on October 3rd earlier this year. Thanks to Jonas Wolff for the tip!

The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger):

Webroute

Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers.

Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg below. See also the GPSSeuranta GPS-tracking from the event here.

Complete map in Omaps.worldofo.com

You find the complete map and Routegadget info in omaps.worldofo.com at this location.

Omaps.worldofo.com

The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O was very popular the two last year – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2009-competitions – or old forgotten ones which are still interesting – please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. Route to Christmas will not be interesting if YOU don’t contribute.

There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg – you can provide that yourself in the comments or in the Webroute. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is not straightforward to see what to do on a certain leg. Any comments are welcome – especially if you ran the event chosen for todays leg!

Note that there may be some errors in the Routegadget data (sometimes somebody draws a route for another runner just for fun). Please add a comment below if you spot en error.

Todays leg in Route to Christmas is a very long leg from the Australian Champs Long distance 2009 – organized by Bendigo Orienteers at October 3rd. The chosen leg is leg 16 in course 1. Thanks a lot for the tip to Andrew Lumsden!

Here are some comments from Andrew about the terrain: The area is eucalypt forest, the rock is granite. The following are relevant when considering route choices:

• The white forest, bare rock and open areas are very fast – going around slow run or rocky ground areas is an option;
• Visibility is generally less than 100m – there is potential to lose significant time if you lose contact with the map;
• The ground is not soft underfoot, so climbing hills is faster than some orienteers might be used to;
• Control 16 is less than 10 minutes from the end of a race with a 90 minute winning time – you are likely to be tired!

The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger):

Webroute

Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers.

Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg:

Complete map in Omaps.worldofo.com

You find the complete map and Routegadget info in omaps.worldofo.com at this location.

Omaps.worldofo.com

The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O was very popular the two last year – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2009-competitions – or old forgotten ones which are still interesting – please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. Route to Christmas will not be interesting if YOU don’t contribute.

There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg – you can provide that yourself in the comments or in the Webroute. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is not straightforward to see what to do on a certain leg. Any comments are welcome – especially if you ran the event chosen for todays leg!

Note that there may be some errors in the Routegadget data (sometimes somebody draws a route for another runner just for fun). Please add a comment below if you spot en error.

Todays leg in Route to Christmas is a long leg in alpine Swiss terrain. The event is the third Swiss selection race for the Junior World Champs and EYOC. Leg number 18 in the H20 course is chosen – starring Martin Hubmann, Matthias Kyburz and Florian Howald among others. Matthias Kyburz actually lost the victory to Martin Hubmann on this leg – can you find out the best route?

The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger):

Webroute

Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers.

Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg. A splitbrowser for the event is available here (unfortunately with a wrong split for this control, so you’ll have to use the table format to get anything sensible out of it).

Another Bonus leg from the same competition

I’m putting up another leg for the same competition as well, as Matthias Kyburz has another routechoice than the rest here – and still has the best time of the ones drawing their route. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger):

Webroute

Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers.

Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg:

Complete map in Omaps.worldofo.com

You find the complete map and Routegadget info in omaps.worldofo.com at this location.

Omaps.worldofo.com

The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O was very popular the two last year – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2009-competitions – or old forgotten ones which are still interesting – please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. Route to Christmas will not be interesting if YOU don’t contribute.

There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg – you can provide that yourself in the comments or in the Webroute. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is not straightforward to see what to do on a certain leg. Any comments are welcome – especially if you ran the event chosen for todays leg!

Note that there may be some errors in the Routegadget data (sometimes somebody draws a route for another runner just for fun). Please add a comment below if you spot en error.

- My favorite map has to be detailed and sandy, Daniel Hubmann said in the Live Chat organized with Hubmann and Simone Niggli after them being awarded with “The Orienteering Achievement of 2009″ titles earlier yesterday. – I did really enjoy to run the EOC in 2008, this is one of my favorite maps [see map here].

When asked the same question, Simone Niggli picked a map from the country where next years World Orienteering Championships is organized:

- There are so many nice forest all over the world… If I have to pick up one I choose the map “Tynset” in Norway. I ran there a World Cup race some years ago and it was fantastic: at the starting point you got the view over the forest with white moss on the ground… it looked like on the moon! And I have good memories because I had a great race and was the winner. [Editors comment: This is probably the Havern-map which was used for the World Cup in Tynset in 2002. You find the D21 Elite course at the Havern map here, a report from the race here, and the relay map from the day after here]

We got a lot of interesting questions for the two big Swiss stars – and more than 800 unique viewers visited the Live Chat either during the day to ask questions or during the evening to look at the answers. You can replay the complete Live Chat at the bottom of the page – but first a selected few of the questions and answers are repeated here:

• Question for both: Which kind of physical trainings are the most important for you both in winter and in summer? Mental training – how do you put yourself into spesific state and how can you keep your focus in performance? Or is it just enough to know that you are already the best?

Simone: Most important is of course the running training (orienteering & only running). But I also like alternative training like cross country skiing in winter, cycling and deep water running during the whole year. For me it’s good to make some training with these alternative forms so that it is not only running which is quite tough for the body.
Concerning the mental training: before an important race I really try to imagine what could happen in the race (different situations like the start moment, making mistakes, meeting other runners…). Furthermore I find the joy for the competition and I’m concentrating on my technical goals. I have still big respect for my concurrance and therefore I never think that I am already the best!

Daniel: Mostly I’m running both in winter and summer and I try to make intervall trainings all over the year. To be ready mentally before a competetion I do always the same warm-up. Then I know I’m used to it and that’s good for my self confidence. During a competition I just try to control the concentration by reading the map.

• Question for Simone: For how many years to you plan to continue running on high level?

Simone: That’s a difficult question and I really have to admit that I don’t know yet.
Trondheim was a big goal after the birth of Malin and I’m very motivated for the next year. If I look forward there are some nice WOCs coming like France and Switzerland… you see, it’s hard to say but I just listen to my body, my head and my family which are telling me the truth.

• Question for Daniel: How much hours per week do you train now at the winter?Can you describe one of your training weeks?

Daniel: During the winter I train about 14-16 hours per week. That means 11 times running, 2 times strenght and twice cycling or cross country skiing.

• Question for Simone: What is your pre-race food? And do you change your diet at all in the days before an important race?

Simone: Before a competiton I like to eat Müsli, bread and tea. I’m used to it and I know that I get the power of it. I use to eat breakfast about 3.5 hours before my start.
I do not change my diet specially before an important race. Of course I look that I eat regularly and enough and that there is enough carbohydrates especially before a long distance race.
With my sister I have a favourite meal before the competitions: lasagne. We use to eat it together if we have a competitons together and it’s always a good preparation…

• Question for Daniel: Do you think you can beat Thierry in the middle in Norway? And can he beat you in the long distance?

Daniel: Thierry is really good in middle distance, but he is not unbeatable. Of course I belive I can beat him next year. But I guess he is doing the same looking to the long distance. If we are both on a high level next year again, everything is possible…

• Question for Simone: How many hours do you train each week now in winter time?

Simone: The last few weeks I have trained between 15 and 17 hours. I hope there will be snow in Switzerland soon and with some cross country skiing training I can train even a bit more.

• Question for Daniel: I guess running is your strongest side. Do you still enjoy technical terrain more, or easier terrain where you are more dominant?

Daniel: I’m not sure if running is still really dominat, at least I did improve my technical skills in the last years. I really like the demanding courses, because I like to keep the concentration over the whole competition.

The complete Live Chat is embedded below: