Marek Karm, the orienteerer (M22)

Wintry orienteering

2012-01-28T23:05:00.001+02:00

Today I made my first real orienteering this year. It was enjoyable even though there was about 10 cm of snow on the ground. I envy those people who live next to a piece of good orienteering terrain.

6,4 km course with route on it

2011 review

2011-12-31T14:41:00.000+02:00

MTBO

The results in 2011 wasn't that good what I hoped. The year showed that I must train more to get better in physically, for example not to fall behind in mass-starts. Orienteering sometimes goes very well but sometimes not, for example Tallinn championships and European championships long. This year I didn't have luck again in the most important start of the year - European championships sprint. I lost SFR punching system there. All in all, no perfect reces in 2011.

Foot-o

I was in quite good shape in the beginning of the spring but there wasn't many competitions because of snow. The season was modest. No fast speed in sprints and too many mistakes in longer distances. The good thing was training in Finland. All in all, no perfect reces in 2011.

Contribution for orienteering

2 times volunteer course setter for trainings (13th January, 1 st December)
1 time course setter fot local evening competition (16th August in Keila-Joa)
2 timed helped with competition organisation (16th January, 23rd April)
1 time main organiser of MTBO competition (8th October - Sügis-MTBO)
Wrote some articles for orienteering magazine "Orienteeruja"
3 new sprint maps (Siimusti, Paalalinna, Vana-Võidu)
1 map re-draw for MTBO (Kuusalu)

Concusion

I couldn't do enough trainings in June and July (different reasons). Beacuse of that the season wasn't good in physically. Orienteering was sometimes poor, so I need to do more trainings with map. I am not happy with 2011 and I am going to make it better 2012. I have been working hard since the end of October and at the moment I am getting stronger and stronger (35% more training hours in Nov and Dec compared to last year).

Some targets for 2012

MTBO Estonian championships: both days in TOP5 and possible fight for the medal among Estonians
Points from last stage of MTBO World Cup in Estonia
Loose less than 10% to the winner in important foot-o sprint races
Technical stability in orienteering (more trainings with map)

Some maps of December

2011-12-24T16:05:00.000+02:00

The weather in December have been suitable to run outside and do orienteering because there is no snow. Until now, I have made 7 orienteering training sessions (includig indoor-o). Some maps:

1st December: I made a course for other orienteerers for mass-start training. Before that, I ran the course as well.

8th December: A training with mass-start - collect as many controls as you can with 50 minutes.

11th December: A training with mass-start. I realised that I can run fast.

24th December: A nice mass-start training in the morning of Christmas eve. The weather was rainy and windy but tough orienteerers were on the start line. I ran on Ülemiste terrain (northern part of the map) 2nd time. First time was in Septermber, 2006.

November for cycling

2011-11-30T23:15:00.000+02:00

November was mostly dry and relatively warm - it was possible to do cycling. At all weekends from MTBO Maraton I enjoyed it in Northern Kõrvemaa, near Tartu, in Tallinn and so on. Most interesting was trainings near Tartu with Rein Taaramäe (Estonian best bicyclist at the moment). Dicovering new places is always interesting, especially beacuse I study geography.

On 6th November in Kõrveküla (photo: Leonid Nikolajev, Delfi)

Even some news were interested in trainings with Rein Taaramäe: Delfi, Rattaprofid, Postimees.

Cycling through the mined peatland at Sirgumetsa

On last Saturday it was MTBO season-closing event of Estonian team. As always, we had a lot to talk about. Terrain is nice there as always. We did cycling on terrain about 3 hours.

Estonian MTBO team at Kõrvemaa (photo: Alar Viitmaa)

What is more, November was quiet. I took part in an indoor-orienteering event and did a lot of trainings. At the moment I am doing some o-mapping in Vana-Võidu - partly quite interesting terrain for sprint and also suitable for MTBO.

MTBO maraton 2011

2011-10-18T19:28:00.000+03:00

The longest individual MTBO race for me - it was about 50 km! The tracks were mostly wide and fast, so the time was 2:16'16''. The course itself wasn't difficult. The map exchanges were tricky because there was 3 different-sized maps. The race was eith mass-start.

The first controls had some route choices in Kuusalu terrain. I made good route choice to the 2nd, so I took an early lead. After that I took my own tempo and let faster riders ahead. Then it was long way to the 7th control with a cut around the houses. At 10th control there was 1st map change to the Raudoja terrain. At 15th control marked route started to the Tõrrepõhja terrain. The course on that terrain was rather easy. Before 21st control I had to take a round because there was some military practice there. Then it was back to the Raudoja terrain. Some route choices were offered with 31st, 32nd and 33rd controls. At 34th control there was a map change but I made it in a bad way becaudse I couldn't see the 35th control on the map. Almost all the way I had moved with Margus V. because we had similar tempo. So I had to trust Margus to take 35th control but on the track crossing before that control he stopped beacuse he had the same problem. I quickly started to fold my map and on the same time Margus saw the control. Then I hurried to the last control and finish ahead of him with 3rd position. It was nice race for the end of 2011 MTBO season.

The maps of the race with my route

Bike Xdream 2011

2011-10-10T20:10:00.001+03:00

This Bike Xdream was the first one for me. My team mates were Kert Martma and Rauno Neuhaus. They are bikers without orienteering background, so I had to make the plan and read the map. My plan was to take 27 (no controls #57, # 43 and #38) controls, because in 2010, 6 teams got 30 points and I thought that 90% could be possible.

Our round was against the clock beacause to take 4 nearby controls from Keila-Joa area and not to let them before finish. Then we moved to the East in the Southern part of the map. The control #48 was reachable only from 2 direcions - maybe we shoudn't had taken that control and control #47 also. With control #45 we lost quite a lot of time because we reached to control from wrong way and we missed small track after that control.

When arriving to the Noth I understood that out plan was impossible and then I planned not to take control #36 beacuse of bad reachability and #56 beacuse it was too far from control #55). I made navigational mistake before 33 and tracks were partly slow between controls #33 and #32. When 3h30min were passed near control #34, I suddenly felt very tired but after control #35 my feeling bot better. Other team mates didn't have problems and they pushed me forward if possible on gravel and quite often on the road. Then I understood that taking controls #54 and #55 is almost impossible. At control #39 I decided to go directly to the finish and it was right decision. Then it was final effort to finish.

When we arrived to the finish I heard tahat speaker told that control time was over. I had some kind of disappointment beacuse we weer only 11 second late. We lost 10 positions on leaderboard because of these 11 seconds. My team mates were happy to take part in such kind of bike competition. In my opinion without map reading it could be boring but hopefully in 2012 they also read the map.

From this competition, I got experience about route planning. If I had taken the target to take 24 controls, we could do it. In this case, no mistakes allowed and stable moderate high tempo is neccessary. I hope to take part and be in TOP10 in 2012!

The map with route

My dirty bike after the competition

Link to results

Link to splits

Link to routes of 10 teams

EMTBOC '11 long

2011-09-27T13:20:00.005+03:00

It used not to be very long race because in previos races the winning times had been shorter than expected. But on Friday, the weather showed it's worse side - it was raining (sometimes heavyly) and what is more, sometimes we had a hail and even some thunder. Track were very wet and there was a lot of flooded areas on tracks. Because of that I was a bit careful at times.

The start area (photo: o-sport-ru)

The race itself was again with mass-start. Start area was very narrow. And again I made a big mistake in the beggining of the race. After 1st control I didn't know my location for a while (first and last time during EMTBOC!) and I got to the wrong track. After that I took wrong route choice tothe 4th control because my route choice was too long. Ather 5th control I didn't turn to the fast track when it was possible earlier. From 11th to 12th control, it was possible to do again better and shorter route choice. My first loop was very long (loop AAA).

Map with a route of long distance part 1

Map with a route of long distance part 2

On the second and shorter loop (loop BBB) I din't do big mistakes but I was slow. Near 12th control my chain broke down and I had to start funning to the finish (to get result whatever it could be and not to take part at singing in the evening banquet). I lost many minutes with that but at least I wasn't last in the finish.

Link to results

The video of the song

EMTBOC '11 relay

2011-09-26T23:10:00.000+03:00

The relay was on the same terrain as the middle distance. In this time, the relay heats were very short compared to previos championship relays. It was like a sprint-relay, so it was important not to do any mistakes. There was 2 teams from Estonia (Estonia 1 - Lauri, Margus and Tõnis; Estonia 2 - Taaniel, Alar and me. Our 1st team arrived to finish with 6th place. Lauri and Tõnis wasn't happy with their performances, Margus made a quite good effort. The 2nd team made stable performance and got 14th place.

My performance was the best of that week. The course wasn't very difficult. In my opinion I made only one mayor route choice mistake (from 3rd to 4th control). Otherwise, quite good race from me too.

Link to results

Link to press release of relay

Map with route of relay

Video of Men's start

EMTBOC '11 middle

2011-09-25T19:51:00.002+03:00

The middle distance started with quite heavy rain at the start. 1st and 2nd control came easyly. Before 3rd I was unsure because I didn't find small track and I had to cut a little bit. Route choice to the 5th control was quite tricky - going from left could be very slow and I decided to go throuh 6th control. A cut before entering the urban area seemed to be good idea but it didn't gave any seconds. Then I didn't do mistakes until 11th control. After that I made quite stupid route choice before 12th control - followed other competitors who weren't so smart. After taht it was easy orienteering again. A stage from 19th to 20th control had interesting route choice. I didn't do the best choice because one open area in the old rocket base area was full of litter. In middle distance, I made quite good race in orienteering but very slow race physically.

Photo on left: me before public control (photo: o-sport-ru)

Link to results

Link to map of winner's route

Link to press release of middle distance

Map with a route of middle distance

EMTBOC ’11 sprint

2011-09-21T18:19:00.007+03:00

Team Estonia arrived to the event centre/hotel comlex in the evening of Saturday. This time Palmtek gave the GPG-logger to all team members to analyse races after competitions. The maps of model events was next to hotel complex Raivola.

Map of model event

The sprint was held in the centre of Vyborg. It began with parade from the event centre to the Vyborg castle where was the start. Traffic was stopped only for the parade, unfortunately.

Team Estonia on the parade (photo: Alar Viitmaa)

The terrain was mostly urban with some hilly semi-open area with lots of tracks and some typical Russian garage area with long garages and some class on roads. First time I used SFR puncing system but about half of the CPs didn't work and I was neccessary to punch to back-up paper.

Map with a route of sprint, 1st part of the race

The old town part wasn’t very difficult – only route choice mistakes with 5th and 10th controls and some small (some seconds) mistakes also. I had total misluck on the 5th control where my SFR punching issue got broken (photo on left). I discovered that on the 1/3 way to 6th control and then I started to search my SRF until 5th control again because it was laying below the control flag – it took a long time according to the sprint. So, I could continue racing but with knowledge that no perfect race from me.

Map with a route of sprint, 2nd part of the race

There was map exchange on the 11th control. The biggest route choice mistake was to the 14th control where I took wrong choice because it seemed fast and I didn’t find think about going back a little bit. And a crash just before 14th control took another 10 seconds. Then came stage 14th to 15th control where I made excellent route choice. Before 16th control I made route choice mistakes again because light pink wasn’t very readable on light yellow, but there was a lot af class – maybe it was good to avoid that place. The rest of the race went well.

All in all, I lost at least a minute because of SFR trouble and some route choice mistakes didn’t let to be in TOP35 and take World Cup points.

Photo on right: me at 19th CP (photo: o-sport-ru)

Link to results

Link to map of TOP6 routes

Link to photos

Link to press release of sprint

Link to headcam video by Mark Stodgell

Dear MTBO mappers...

2011-09-15T00:17:00.003+03:00

Have seen many of MTBO maps in the recent years, some are better, some are worse. But after seeing THIS crap, I need to post some tips for drawing a map. Hopefully somebody reads that.

Fist af all, an orienteerer ≠ mapper and map drawer (automatically). You need first to learn principles of cartography and some points of view about mapping. See my basic presentation (in Estonian) what I posted in October, 2010. There are no verbal comments with presentation, you can ask me.

Secondly, we have nice document called ISMTBOM (version 2010) to follow. It is not very difficult to update maps from 3×2 track symbols to 4×2 track symbols.

Remember that reading a map (on map holder) while cycling is usually more difficult than reading a map (on my hand) while running!

And finally - a good tip about drawing tracks...(see left)

Before EMTBOC '11

2011-09-14T21:16:00.000+03:00

Today I made my final sprint-MTBO training in Tartu. Some small problems with reading ahead, but there was a lot of cars on terrain and pavement edges were up to 15 cm high, so I minimized risks. Not many route choice mistakes, bigger mistake in the end of 2nd race. Shape is getting better after modest summer. Waiting for EMTBOC, especially sprint. Out team plans to go to Russia on Saturday, to visit Vyborg and model event.

I post an interesting map from Saturday - the reljef course of Kolmiksprint:

Estonian C sprint '11

2011-09-06T22:31:00.001+03:00

No speed, no (big) mistakes. Target for next year: full speed, no mistakes.

[RESULTS] [RG]

On the next day, it was possible to try trail-o in Tartu, quite interesting was.

[MAP] [PHOTOS]

New MTBO map

2011-08-31T23:41:00.000+03:00

A week ago I mapped tracks for a new MTBO map in Kuusalu. Hopefully map is good. There will be a competition (Sügis-MTBO) anyway. Details coming later about that. A sample of map is below (draft for mapping and final map). Terrain itself is pleasant - quite boring pine forest for foot-o but acceptable for MTBO.

Some trainings in Finland II

2011-07-25T01:10:00.000+03:00

Headless situation before 11th CP, other parts of the course went well.

Very interesting and variable terrain, slowed down ifneccessary, mistake with 18th CP because of vegetation and map didn't match in my opinion.

Headless situation before 1st CP, a lot of gery on the map, thick ground vegetation on marshes.

Best effort of 8 trainings, only 1 bigger mistake.

Some trainings in Finland I

2011-07-24T18:09:00.001+03:00

Not so interesting course, quite much running below power lines, some stupid maistakes, getting used with Finnish terrain.

Partly very good terrain, no big mistakes, tried to get orienteering under control with slowing down if neccessary.

Direction problem after 4th CP, partly good orienteering, some GPS track failure on the map.

Partly very technical terrain, some problems with map reading, big mistake before finish because some new buildings weren't on the map.

MTBO World Cup 2nd round - long

2011-07-02T17:12:00.003+03:00

The mass-start was nervous, I couldn't read map at all because it was neccessary to boost up towards 1st CP. The long distance map is an example how should not MTBO map look like. Course circles and connection lines were very thin and difficulty readable while riding on slow tracks, too many MN lines and too thin tracks lines. The start was bad - I followed wrong competitors after the CP and took a wrong route choice and I lost a lot of positions. After that I rode alone at times and of course it is possible to do more mistakes when I am alone. It was quite bad performance from me and I was on the bottom of the results list.

Map of long distance

Video about relay (link)

On the map above you can see that some texts are in incorrect format. The texts should be like on a drawing on left.

MTBO World Cup 2nd round - middle

2011-06-25T22:57:00.000+03:00

2nd round of MTBO World Cup was in Leksand and Rättvik, in Sweden. The middle distance was quite technical but even in World Cup, tracks weren't with right symbol at some locations. The terrain was interesting - reljef was partitioned and some parts had dense track network. The weather was unsettled and it started to rain harded after the 6th CP and because of that I "lost" my V-breakes. It caused some risky downhill riding and much slower breaks at controls.

The race itself didn't go well. After 1st CP I still don't understand why I turned so early to right and after that I lost control about my location for a while - very stupid mistake. Stage 6th to 7th CP had route choice - right side: asphalt and loger and left side: track and shorter. I took the shorter choice but the track was much slower that I expected from the map and I lost over a minute. Then it started to go better until 20th CP. After 20th CP I made 2 mistakes on stage - very bad.

Overall, the result could be at lest 8 minutes better. So, there was some potential to earn World Cup points - maybe I can do a clean race in EMTBOC.

Link to MTBO World Cup page

Link to middle distance results

The maps of middle distance

Estonian MTBO C & BikEst '11

2011-06-23T16:07:00.001+03:00

2011's Estonian MTBO Championships with BikEst and WRE was in Southern Estonia near Latvian border and Karula National Park. One part of long distance's terrain was slightly known for me because I took part in Ilves3 (in 2008) and 8th World Rogaining Championships where I got 4th place in MJ class (results) with Ats Sõnajalg. Some trainins were also made there in autumn 2009 (blog post). The second part of the terrain (West from road) was totally unknown for me. Doing some research before the competition I realised that the track density is not high and route choices would be decisive. The target was to lose leass than 15% to winner.

The middle distance started with wrong route choice before 2nd CP where a track was slower than I expected. Then I made a mistake with 8th CP where I went to wrong way beside the river. Then came the stage from 9th to 10th CP. took route choice from right side because I afraid that straight track would be slow, but it wasn't and "my track" was slower than it was snown on map. I lost valuable time with that route choice. Maybe the mappers and competitiors are not yet get accustomed with 2x4 track symbols - I was sometimes unsure because of that during the race. On the other hand, the course was too easy about navigation for middle distance. My result was only sufficient on that day but I lost 19,3% to the winner.

Left: Map of middle distance

Link to results

Link to RouteGadget

Finishing the middle distance. Photo: Peep Eomis (link)

On sunday, there were some windbreak on my way to the event centre (photo below). I was going to be another hot day for competing. And what is more, this long distance (35,6 km) was the longest (by distance) MTBO race for me and the map (1:25000) was with smallest (in cartography: small means bigger numbers) scale in MTBO for me.

The long distance went quite well. I wasn't pleased with the race from 10th to 13th CP. I took wrong way to the 11th CP and had to climb some stairs. To 12th CP I took wrong route choice - tracks were fast but route was too long. From 12th to 13th CP it was fastest do cut, but I didn't and the round was too long. In my opinion, during the course, cuts should not give so much gaining of time. I lost 20,7% to winner, so my race was not good.

Link to results

Link to RouteGadget

Map of long distance

This year's Estonian MTBO Championships were a bit different in map and terrain - so, it was interesting. TAOK made good job organising the event.

Ilves3 & Tallinn Championships '11

2011-05-13T20:51:00.001+03:00

These maps below are my previos foot-o competitions. Overall, the races were not bad at all, but still having quite a lot small mistakes. The feeling while running was miserable in both Tallinn Championships. Hopefully, I realise my potential in Estonian Championships.

Ilves 3 M21E (29th April) Tallinn Championship middle (11th May)

Tallinn Championship sprint (4th May)

Rather bad season kick-off in foot-o

2011-04-20T22:27:00.000+03:00

In the beginning of April, I took part in Ziemeļu 2 dienas near Riga, Latvia. Both days contained running with snow on the ground with too detailed map on dune terrain. Terrain near Riga is fast and pleasant, but microreljef near coast line was difficult to me on Saturday and I made mistakes near coast, especially with 6th CP. The first day could be quite good without that big mistake.

The 2nd day was disaster. Very big mistake with 2nd CP and some other mistakes also. Bad concentration at times but physically it was rather good.

On last Satruday, I took part in Tartu Kevad. Very long headless sitation with 3rd CP and I cancelled the race on that snowy terrain (up to 40cm of snow). Maybe my navigation was poor because of difficult running in snow, maybe not.

Map on right: Map with route of the 2nd day of Z2D

Link to Ziemeļu 2 dienas

Link to 1st day's route of Z2D

Link to Tartu kevad

Maps on left: Today's special sprint training

At the moment, I do cycling and some orienteering at times. I try to make some preparations for Tallinn sprint (foot-o) and for first MTBO competitions. Today, I made sprint training in Annelinn district in Tartu. Good terrain for sprint - more interesting than some provious sprint competitions' terrains in Estonia. At the moment, I am still mapping that terrain.

Skiing still possible

2011-04-12T12:07:00.000+03:00

Veel viimased päevad on võimalik veel suusatada!

Orienteering for 5 years now

2011-04-02T20:31:00.000+03:00

Exactly 5 years ago, I made my first offical start in orienteering. The beginning was quite fast but then it slowed. I missed 10th CP and got "MP". Some CP-s in the forest were quite difficult.

Map on left: First official start at Tallinn Zoo

From indoor to outdoor

2011-03-14T21:33:00.000+02:00

A copuple of last indoor competitions were at passed weekend. On Saturday, there was Wattbike competition in Tallinn. The distance was 10 km as it was on the 18th December in 2010. So, there was almost 3 months between 2 competitions. In December, my time was 14'08,68" (42,42 km/h) and on Saturday my time was 14'00,53" (42,83 km/h). Time improved about 8 seconds - was it good or bad - it doesn't matter at the moment because I need good shape in June. My power per kg is pretty high according to protocol of 18th December - 4,37 Watts/kg.

2 hours after Wattbike competition I took part in local o-event. Second race of the day wan't that bad. I ran the the course quite well with OK feeling.

On Sunday, there was Estonian Indoor Orienteering Cup. I think there was lack of high level but the best indoor orienteerers took part anyway. The qualification to the finals was with 2 races. I made some mistakes on 1st race and my position was only 19th. But on the 2nd race I didn't do mistakes and I was 1st - I proved to myself that I can be the best. With these results I got to A-final. There was 2 map changes there. At 1st map change (8th CP) I was 5th (+32") and on the 2nd map change (16th CP) I was 3rd (+22"). After 16th I moved to wrong CP because there were too many connection lines there - 6th place for me in this way. In addition, the terrain was well-designed and the courses gave many different route choices.

All in all, not bad weekend at all. On Wednesday I will take part in Tartu linnasprint - hope to be quick there.

Map: M21 A-final

Estonian ski-o championships '11

2011-02-13T19:57:00.001+02:00

Saturday: middle - 36th / EST:20th (5,52km / 18CP Results Splits SpBr RoGa)

First 2 stages was easy. Then the course led to a "navigation field" - open and semiopen area with a lot of tracks. Went to 3rd CP without mistake. Then I was a bit unsure to 4th CP and lost 10" maybe. After 5th there was nasty uphill and after that 10" mistake. After that the course was on wide tracks and much easyer. I made small mistake (10") beefore 9th CP becaus it was easy going and I did't read map enough. Then it went to "navigation field" again. Didn't do mistakes, read map a lot. After 12th CP I didn't cut so much and then I got into wrong track which led me to forest (mistake 50"). Before 13th, 14th and 15th was easy. I did a small cut before 14th CP. 16th CP was tricky again - easy going but CP wasn't on wide track. Then I did wrong route choice I think beacuse I did uphill climbing. Las 2 CP were easy.

Totally I made 1'30" mistakes plus wrong route choice in the end. My skies didn't slipped well and of course I am slow on these narrow tracks. Maybe the result is not so important as just taking part in very interesting competition because course setter Tõnis Erm promised technical courses. I just don't want to loose so much to the best but it's OK. Tomorrow it will be long distance WRE.

Map below: M21 course without my route

Sunday: long - DNF (13,04km / 28KP Results Splits SpBr RoGa)

The beginning was OK. Made a mistake after 3rd CP before leaving the "navigation field" (almost a minute). After that it was quite good race for me. No mistakes in the Noerthern "navigation field", maybe small cut had to be done after 9th CP. After 10th CP I decided to go trough Western track and not to make long cut in the middle of map. On the green area before semi-open land there was a branch on the ground (like arch) and unfortunately I skied into that and then the clip went off the ski and the race was over for me. The track was quite bad there anyway. I continued on one ski towards 11th CP but that kind of moving was too tiring to my right leg and it was getting colder. After that I went to event centre.
In this winter I took part in 3 ski-o races and there was 2 retirements - unluck 67%. It goes too expensive accoring to my results.
Map below: M21 course without my route

All info about competition: link

Latvian ski-o C long '11

2011-01-23T18:48:00.000+02:00

First ski-o competiotion outside of Estonia for me (Latvian ski-o championships in long / 1st stage of Est-Lat league) didn't start well. I made a route choice mistakes to the 1st CP. Then between 1st (nr 33) and 4th CP (nr 52) was rather ok. Then I decided to go from 4th (nr 52) to 5th (nr 70) around the map using the gravel road (could be covered with snow and it was). While reaching to the gravel road there was a man (nearby) wearing safery vest and he shouted that there was a rally competition! For me, I was lucky that there was that man because otherwise, I could had been skiing where rally cars drove over 150 km/h and that could be enormously dagnerous.

I still don't understand why that gravel road wasn't forbidden to ski-orienteerers if there was a rally competition. On the other hand, I think it could be quite good route choice. After getting that information I decided to continue trough the lake, but I stumbled (at the y-junction) on very slow speed and broke one ski-pole and I had to retire the race and go back to event centre. After that I got another pole and made a 30' skiing on the tracks of Aluksne.
It could be very interesting and demanding race, because the network of track was irregular and offered a lot of possibilites with route choices. Next ski-o competition will be Estonian championships.

The map of the first part of the course (M21)

Orienteering with pseud-o map

2011-01-06T23:56:00.003+02:00

I have used maps with OSM data before - MTBO trainings with street-o maps. But today, it was the 1st time to do orienteering with pseud-o map. Training with mass-start with small group of orienteerers in Tartu urban area. Course was made by Markus Puusepp - many route choices and possibilities. I think 1st to 2nd was quite clever because I got an advantage there. Before 4th CP I didn't find the way out from botanical garden, so the route is stange there. I think 9th to 10th was also one of the best routechoices. Pseud-o map is good for simple o-training but there are some defects on this kind of map.

2010 review: Mountainbike-O

2010-12-29T01:00:00.002+02:00

I took part in LSF MTBO, Estonian Championships/BikEst, EJMTBOCup and JWMTBOC (incl. WTMBOC relay). The MTBO season was short - first competitions in the beginning of May and JWMTBOC in the middle of July. In the fist half of the summer season I did a lot of cycling and for the JWMTBOC I was in quite good shape.

The most important was JWMTBOC and sprint because the terrain and map suited me very well. Unfortunately I got wrong map (M21) and I was DQ-d. That the case from what I still can't get over because I did a very good race - one mistke with only 20 secons. Of course, I could be in top10 in M20 with that kind of race. Other distances didn't go that well in JWMTBOC. Maybe long was rather ok. Middle distance was technically easy mountainbiking and my result was poor.

Sprints in LSF MTBO, BikEst and JEMTBOCup didn't go that well. Middle distances in Estonian C and JEMTBOCup were good. some route choices were bad in long distances.
Photo: Sirje Rohtla (link)

2010 review: Foot-O

2010-12-28T14:24:00.001+02:00

2010 continued with ups and downs. April was mostly ok (for example Peko kevad) but May was awful (for example Estonian Championships middle). After July I made some good efforts. One of the best moment was getting bronze medal from Estonian Championships in sprint distance (M20) and silver medal from Estonian Championships in nigh-o (M20). By the year of 2010, I am on the 26th place in Estonian ranking (rise: 14 places).

Success: Peko kevad, Tallinn C middle, Tallinn C long, Estonian C sprint

Failure: Ilves3 2nd day, Estonian C middle, Baltic Open Competition, Estonian C long

I liked these competitions: Tartu kevad, Tallinn C sprint, Estonian C sprint, Estonian C night, Suunto Games

Cycling at home

2010-11-29T19:31:00.000+02:00

Now I can do cycling at my home :)

Elite Volare mag, bought from Spordipartner

O-trainings in Tartu

2010-11-26T19:13:00.001+02:00

O-trainings (of national team) started in Tartu. The 1st training was a (long) sprint in Raadi terrain with mass-start. I think I did well beacuse I finished with group. People said that traingins would continue. Otherwise, I have made and will do some additional o-trainings. Results are in national team's blog under comments.

Map with route of 1st training

Street-MTBO

2010-11-06T00:12:00.002+02:00

I used OpenOrienteeringMap for MTBO trainings in Tartu town. The data is from OpenStreetMap and it is a street-o map. I did one training (Tartu S) in the evening with small headlamp. There was some traffic and I had to be careful. But training itself was interesting because I hadn't been is some places before. There was one street which actually didn't exist (11-12 & 23-24 - caused strange route choices).

The other training (Ihaste) was made at daytime. Unfortunately in the beginning I lost front fender, so I didn't speed up on streets without tarmac surface. I found it later on the woodland. It is strange that I made ome mistake before 8th and then I was completely lost for a while. The sky was overcast, I hadn't compass with me and I hadn't been there before - all these factors didn't let me understand the mistake earlier. Because of that, I plan to do some more MTBO (or even roadbike-o) trainings.

Again about mapping

2010-10-31T21:36:00.000+02:00

The 2nd mappers schooling (of Est-O-Lat project) was at this weekend in Kanepi, Põlvamaa. Performers made very interesting presentations about different themes. I made a presentation about basic cortographic principles and texts on o-map. You can view my PowePoint presentation here:

Kartograafia or-kaardistajatele

View more presentations from marek9134.

My suggestion about map texts is here: see link

There was 3 presentations about using LIDAR data. So I made comparison between OCAD's and QuickGrid's reljef generation (2 metre lines) because there was a discussion about different softwares. QuickGrid doen't generate full contror lines nad there are spaces between tha parts on contour line. OCAD generates full contour lines. See below:

For mapping pracice, we had this kind of base material:

While walking and talking with other mappers, I tried to put something on my map and drow some contour lines from LIDAR contour lines:

Only 1 o-session in October ?

2010-10-18T01:30:00.001+03:00

Maybe yes, I guess so if I won't do any trainings with map later in October. This one orienteering session was on Saturday in Kadrioru park. A 6,88km long route with 20 CP-s was a middle distance with sprint map. I made one small mistake before 15th CP.

Link to results

The map with my route on it

Learning how to make maps

2010-10-04T00:20:00.001+03:00

On the 2nd and 3rd October, there was a mapping schooling in Sigulda (town map), Latvia. It is a part of the project about Liking Estonia and Latvia (logo). This project consist of many themes, on of them is Est-O-Lat orienteering league (link in Estonian, link in Latvian). It consists of competitions and other events.

The mapping schooling was held in Sigulda, a town of many wintersports, including bob sleighing. The valley of Gauja river is quite deep - up to 80 metres.

The theoretical part was listening presentations. The first presentation was about base materials being used in Latvia by Metrums company (incl. LIDAR sighal intensivity map). The second presentation was about portable computer or something like that (Trimble's) which runs with Windows Mobile and has OCAD in it. The point was: you can draw a map in the forest with exact GPS coordinate data. Then we had a compact intoduction to how to use OCAD and it's functions. At least, I learned 2 functions which I didn't know before. The last presentation was about too detailed maps in Latvia (in dune-terrains). Some examples were given how map makers use too much form lines or about poor generalisation.

On sunday (fieldwork day), a base material (LIDAR signal intensivity map with 0,5/2,5 contour lines) was given to us. The base material was very exact but if I had to draw 5m contours, I rather don't need 0,5m contours, 1m contours could be enough. Otherwise, LIDAR signal intensivity map could be useful but it can be diffivult to draw tracks and small builings. Then we went to the terrain. Every mapper had it's own part of map and we tried to do our best. I took a part which had a deep Gauja river valley's slope (about 65 metres there). On the slope it was easy to navigate on heights and draw small erosoin gullys with that kind of reljef data on base material. On below, you can see the base material (left/up), base material and drawed draft (right/up), only drawed draft (right/down) and final map drawed with OCAD (left/down).

How a part of map was made

Suunto Games '10

2010-09-28T23:24:00.001+03:00

No comments. See graphs (up - 1st day, down - 2nd day):

Course setting contest for SG M21E

2010-09-25T15:10:00.003+03:00

There was a course setting contest in o-magazine "Orienteeruja" for M21E course in Suunto Games 1st day (today). I also took part and tried to do my best. There was 17 participants taotal, from youth to veterans, from amateurs to elite level. I managed to share 2nd place and here is my vision of M21E course:

The scale is 1:15000. The course had to be boult 14 km long. Location of start and finish were given. There had to be 2 refreshment controls/points and 2 radio controls. I tried to put drinking points on the same direcion from cometition centre because it's easier to organise wather to these controls. Radio controls was put as close to the competion centre and to about 2/3 and 5/6 of the course. I made 25th control as a spectaotr control just for fun. I made some extra job to do a correct and nice appearance. The winner's course with some small changes was used today for M21E.
Link to results and maps

Some tracks for OpenStreetMap

2010-09-24T23:18:00.003+03:00

Today, I mapped some tracks for OpenStreetMap. Additional objects were some tracks in Tähtvere sports park (cycle and rollerskate tracks - blue, gravel tracks - brown).

What is more, it is possible to download OpenStreetMap XML Data (from certain zoom-in level) and import it to OCAD.

Using elevation data

2010-09-20T22:51:00.003+03:00

I have worked with some elevation data with different software (ArcGIS, MS Excel, MS Notepad, QuickGrid 5.4, OCAD 10.0). Now I can show some results. Elevation data was collected by students of geography during June in Misso (E77 road goes through it) with RTK GPS device and tachymeter. Unfortunately, elevation data's density varies on the area and misses at some places at all. One reljef map was made with QuickGrid 5.4 (on right). QuickGrid didn't generate contour lines there where was no data enough. Second reljef map was made with OCAD 10.0 (on righ). This software generated contour lines even there where was almost no data. These two software needs different format of raw data.

QuickQrid needs semicomma format (?): x-coordinate; y-coordinate; z-coordinate

OCAD 10.0 needs ESRI ASCII format: x-coordinate y-coordinate z-coordinate

In my opinion OCAD 10.0 makes mapping more easy because it is possible to add geo-referenced elevation data to the other map data which is also geo-referenced. At he moment, I don't know how to add data from QuickGrid to OCAD.

Furthermore, I can make a sprint map of Misso beacuse I have some data and it is possible to do some mapping on the field later.

On left/down, there is a sample of screenshot of map drawing with OCAD 10.0.

Estonian C ultralong '10

2010-09-13T18:58:00.000+03:00

In short: quite fast beginning (from start to 5th CP, running with Raido and partly with some other competitors), quite ok moving (6th CP to 16th CP, including running with Jonatan 11th to 14th CP), small mistake with 17th and bigger mistake with 18th CP (on the CP-circe the map was not readable), a bit slower part (19th CP to 22th CP), mistake with 23rd CP, trying to move with small group (25th CP to 27th CP, running with Ats and two M35 competitors), a bit suffering (28th CP to finish). I crossed the finishline side by side with Ats. I let him to puch finish before me, because there is almost no difference between 5th and 6th place. Organisers weren't able to put the same time for us.

Link to results

Link to my route

On right: a part of the map, party unreadable (for example near 24th CP)

Approaching to the finish, photo: Marta Olvet (gallery)

Training in Pikanõmme

2010-09-06T19:22:00.001+03:00

The Southern part of the terrain was more runable. If I want to do trainings with high-speed, I will choose Southern part. Next time I plan to do 9,5km course there.

Estonian C long '10

2010-08-30T01:51:00.001+03:00

What describes the race: direction mistakes, wrong route choices, focusing mistakes, mistakes because of map's scale, too many rounds, being somewhere where you don't think to be, some good splits in the end, ability to hold higher tempo. That gave me 7th place in M20. It wasn't my day. The terrain was suitable for difficult long distance and it was like that definetely. At leat the forest wasn't so "green" as it is on this map, for example.

Right: the map with course and route on it

Link to competition's webpage

Link to results

Link to routegadget

Estonian C night-o '10

2010-08-24T00:44:00.001+03:00

The target was to make as easy route choices as possible and not to make big mistakes. From 1st CP to 6th CP it was almost without mistakes but I slowed down if neccessary. Before 7th CP, I wanted to recongise the large reentrant. I detached from the slope before that reentrant but I climbed the slope steadily and foud CP correctly. The forest was not very well runnable there but after 7th CP I wanted to get to the track towards South but I turned to West towards drinking point. With 8th and 9th CP-s I lost some second only. But the mistake was occured with 10th (1'20''), 11th (30'') and 12nd (2'10''). While going to 12th CP I suddenly juts didn't understand anything. with 13th and 14th CP-s I lost some second again. While going to 15th I used the same small path but I didn't turned to left before 4th CP's location and then I arrived to a small depression where was a CP. The steep slope towards NW from 4th CP surprised me a lot because I forgot that contour interval was 5 metres. Then I arrived to 15th CP with mistake of 2'20''. 16th CP came well. I lost some second again near the 17th CP. The last CP and finish came with Tauno who won the race with a large margin.

Surprisely I got my second foot-o medal - silver. Some rivals retired because of different reasons.

Link to results
Link to a presentation about nearby location (in Estonian)

The map with route on it

Estonian C sprint '10

2010-08-23T13:06:00.003+03:00

In 2010, Estonian sprint championship was again in Tallinn, in Tallinn Botanical Garden. I came to competition quite early. First, I bought new o-shoes and then moved to the competition centre. Warm-up showed that the feeling was OK and I am ready for sprint. Before start, I didn't have any pressure at all cause I knew it is very difficult to fight for medals against JWOC squad. My target was just to be pleased with the result after finishline.

The start was OK, maybe I lost some time between 2nd and 3rd CP because outrun was bad. After that it wasn't very difficult orienteering and I passed CP-s without mistakes. On the long leg from 8th to 9th CP I didn't took the best route choice but I was sure about myself moving along the tracks. Then Lauri caught me up with 1 minute but I din't let him to disturb me and I continued with my tempo. After 16th CP I decided to go aroud to avoid darker green but I made a mistake anyway with 17th CP about 15'' maybe. After that I was careful and I tried to avoid mistakes. After 20th or 21st CP, Lauri passed me again and then I speeded up. The very last part near the hills was fast because other competitors went through the CP-s ahead of me.

On the finish line I knew that I made quite good effort because I lost 1'01'' to winner and almost caught up Jonatan. It seems that other competitors made more mistakes in the last part of the course. After waiting some minutes, I realised that I got my first Estonian championship medal in foot-orienteering and I was very happy. In the winter, I took unlikely target to myself to get a medal from foot-orienteering and now I made it. On of the most challenging target in this year came true.

Link to results
Link to Routegadget

Link to map with all CP-s

The map with route on it

Inkscape - an alternative of OCAD

2010-08-22T23:53:00.000+03:00

I tested new (for me) software for trying to make an o-map. The name of the software is Inkscape and it is possible to download it for free. To make o-maps it is neccessary to download additional files to specific folders. After that it is possible to start draving a map. At the moment I don't know yet how to add backgrouds (base materials).

At first, I don't think it is as good as OCAD because Inkscape is not actually for making maps but OCAD is. But this software is free as an alternative way to start making o-maps without paying.

Link for further reading

A screenshot of the software

Technogenious terrains II

2010-08-09T23:49:00.019+03:00

I visited a very interesting summit yesterday. See video:

ENG: What summit it is? What is it's relative and absolute height?
EST: Mis mäetipuga tegu? Mis on selle suhteline ja absoluutne kõrgus?

ENG: Right answer is Kiviõli new "ashhill" (consist of semicoke), relative height about 116m and absolute height about 163m.

EST: Õige vastus on Kiviõli uus "tuhamägi" (koosneb poolkoksist), suhteline kõrgus ~116m ja absoluutne kõrgus ~163m.
Right: The route of visiting the śummit. Somehow the route doesn't match with the orthophoto.

These kind of landforms are definetely the highest hills in relative height but they are not natural. This Kiviõli new "ashhill" is the 2nd highest. The highest "ashhill" is in Kohtla-Järve which is about 118m high relatively. To compare, Estonian highest natural hill is Vällamägi (84m relatively) whigh is o-mapped and there was Baltic Junior Cup last year.

Link to article in Wikipedia (in Estonian)
Link to good article, made by Aarne Luud (in Estonian)
Link to article in Eesti Loodus (in Estonian)
Following photos are made by myself on 08.08.2010.

Kiviõli new semicoke hill (163m/116m)

Kiviõli old semicoke hill (142m/93m)

Püssi hill which is really made of oilshale ash (101m/61m)

Kohtla-Järve semicoke hills (125...173m/70...118m)

WmtbOC relay

2010-07-30T19:07:00.000+03:00

Estonia had 2 relay teams in men elite. There was Lauri Malsroos, Margus Hallik and Tõnis Erm in "Estonia 1" and Taaniel Tooming, Marek Karm and Maret Vaher in "Estonia 2".

Lauri made a good start and he was hear the leader in the 3/4 of the race but he had flat tire (see picture here) in the end and lost about 5 minutes. Margus made moderate effort. Tõnis had mechanical problems almost from the beginning and lost a lot of time and fell behind Maret. So that, team "Estonia 2" made the result.

Link to relay page

Link to offical relay results

Link to relay results with all teams

My race passed under control. I avoided doing any big mistakes. Climbing from 1st CP to 2nd CP was with quite ok speed for me. 1st tricky place was before 9th CP where I made a small stop to read map correctly. I think I won about 4 places in before press control. After press control I fell a couple of places because I had longer forking there. I was happy with my relay result and WmtbOC debut.

The map of relay with route

JWmtbOC long

2010-07-25T20:27:00.000+03:00

Race parametres: little bit over 30 kilometres, little bit over 1000 uphill metres and 16 CP-s. Negative: too slow in the beginning, mistake berfore 6th (many competitors made a mistake there), slow map exchange, chain went down nearly 10 times (mechanical problems). Positive: mostly perfect route choices, quite good at uphills, tempo didn't fall at the end, no stupid mistakes. Result: 22nd place - OK result for me from long distance.

Link to long distance

The maps of long distance. The phi-loops were used to separate competitors.

JWmtbOC middle

2010-07-22T23:59:00.000+03:00

The middle distance was on Tuesday. The beginning of the course was very hard physically because there was a lot of climbing, even running with bike. I think I chose wrong way from 1st to 2nd CP. After climbing, it was possible to relax for a while on downhill before 5th CP. The leg 5th-6th CP needed clever route choice and I think my route choice was good. The first big mistake occured after 7th CP. I left the CP to wrong direction and after that I couldn't recognize the straight way to the 8th CP because there was some curves on that street. finally I fixed my position on the edge of the map and found CP. I lost not more than 2 minuted with that. After that I chose the right side way to the 9th CP but the 9th was not is place. There was only a ribbon with CP number there. So, I looked everywhere about 30 second and decided to move on, not losing motivation for the rest of the course. After race other competitors told that the CP was one other junction toward NW. After that I din't do mistakes - maybe a couple of route choices could be better (10th-11th and 16th-17th). On the SI-readout I got know that race was concelled at all. My time could be worth of about 28th place.

Left: the map of cancelled middle distance

The middle distance was repeated on Wednesday with long prologue. The terrain didn't varied and the course was mostly very easy - MTB race with some o elements. but I still made a mistake to 3rd CP where I took wrong route choice because of misunderstanding the reljef. the leg 4th-5th and after 5th was a real killer-uphill - there was almost 200 metres in a row to climb. The most interesting leg was 9th-10th CP where I din't make the best and the worst route choice. Otherwise, the rest of the course was o-techically easy. Just before 9th CP I got technical problems with my bike. Somehow the smallest front gear wheel suddenly became twisted and I lost time with pulling the chain which was stuck. So, I couldn't use 1-X (lower) gears any more. With 2-X combination I couldn't use 2-1 to 2-3 gears too because chain just came down.So the lowest gear was 2-4 and I had to run a bit after 9th CP. I lost at least 2 minutes with that. After that I think I could be a bit faster and ride in more economized way but at least there was not so much uphill climbing any more. I finished in 38th place with small disappointment - the course wasn't suitable for me and the technical problems also. But I has a bit happy that I din't had to retire.

Right: on the middle distance/long prologue, photo: Mark Stodgell

Link to cancelled middle (results etc.)
Link to middle/long prologue (results etc.)

The video of training and model events

JWmtbOC sprint in Chaves

2010-07-20T15:06:00.000+03:00

I could make the result of my life but unfortunately took M21 map from M20 box - what an unluck! I didn't check the map because I hoped that in such competitions there are right maps on right boxes. In addition, I was not the only one who got wrong map in this way.

I completed M21 course with time if 26'08'' which could be 37th place in M21. But with that speed and orienteering I could be in top10, maybe 8th with calcultions. My biggest mistake was before last CP where I didn't turn righ on time because I din't read map correctly in that situation. On the other hand, I didn't get result but I know that I have potential in such technical urban sprint races. Hopefully, there will be such races in the future.

Among Estonians, Tõnis Erm got superb silver medal in sprint! He was leading the race at many CP-s but lost some time in the very end of the race.

Map: My route in M21 map
Link to results, maps, photos and videos

A week in Finaland

2010-07-04T22:05:00.003+03:00

This week was spent near Turku, Finland. I had an opportunity to work for 6 days and I had time to do trainings also. 3 times it was possible to go (foot-)orienteering as an alternative part for preparing to JWmtbOC. These 3 times were useful for developing technical skills for next bigger foot-o competitions in August. I really enjoyed running on these terrains.

Monday - Tikanmaa / 4,9km / 49'28'' / 10'06''/km / results.

Big mistake with 2nd CP and route choice mistake to the finish. Otherwise, I tried to run as fast as I could read map well and slowed down if neccessary.

Tuesday - Piuha / 7,5km / 1:10'11'' / 9'21''/km / results / RG.

First part was OK until going to 10th where I was unsure. 14th and 15th CPs were difficult but without mistakes because I slowed down a bit. Before 19th I made stupid mistake. Otherwise, orienteering was better than on Monday.

Wednesday - Satava / 5,8km / 52'16'' / 9'01''/km / results / RG.

This is the terrain where I had been orienteered in 2008 (results) and I remember very few about that race. This race was quite OK. I made small mistakes before 1st CP where I was unsure. Small mistakes was made nead the pond before 3er CP. I was unsure near 8th and 9th CPs also. 11th to 12th CP was somehow slow.

Next week, I will continue with MTB-O practices and on Friday I have a flight to Lissabon, Portugal.

EJmtbOCup middle

2010-06-23T18:02:00.000+03:00

The best result of the weekend came from middle distance. In brief, I did't do big mistakes but sometimes I passed the junctions or crossing where I had tu turn. It was enjoyable course and it was possible to cut again. On the other hand, I didn't like dotted tracks because they were very difficult to see or to understand sometimes. The end of the course was easy. Unfortunately, it was only 14" from 6th place.

On Sunday, Me and Taaniel took part in relay. I had to retire becuse a brach broke a part with what is connected a derailleur. Otherwise, we were not able to make a result because we had 3rd team member.

Link to results
Link to route
Left: The first half of the course

EJmtbOCup long

2010-06-18T22:31:00.000+03:00

It was the hardest MTBO long distance ever for me. Terrain was hilly and I couldn't do best routechoices because I have less experience on hilly terrains. For example, the biggest route choice mistake was on 6th CP - 7th CP. I didn't go around through Western part of the map. Other interesting route choice mistake was on 17th CP - 18th CP. The best solution was to cut but I didn't cut. It was possible to cut on other situations (for example, after 4th CP). I wanted to cut after 7th, but the reljef was not sutable for it. Other mistakes was with 3rd CP where I got to wrong track after cut and with going to 12th CP where I missed small track junction. At least tempo didn't fall in the last part of the race. This long distance gave a lot of new experience.

Right: map with route

Link to results

EJmtbOCup sprint

2010-06-03T22:57:00.003+03:00

The EJmtbOCup sprint distance was held in very technical and flat terrain. There were huge amount of different kind of tracks. Until public control (17th CP), I made solid race. The 1st CP was quite difficult but I made quite perfect cut. There was only one bigger mistake before public control - to 4th when I didn't turned left at right time and I and to turn back. Stage 9th - 10th CP was tricky but I saw that left asphalt track was forbidden and I used the right asphalt track. There was small mistake to the 11th CP also. After public control I made 2 mistakes in a row. first of these was wrong navigation on tracks towards 18th CP and then I didn't control to which direction to turn befote 19th CP. And after 20th CP a small (pine) branch was stuck in casette and didn't allowed to use higher gears. Because of that I used lower gear and it was not possible to ride with high speed and I lost time. On the public control I was 6th and on the finish line 12th - it was disappointment because I had some potential in sprint distance. My route is available in RG (link to routes).

Photo: Tomasz Szot

Link to results

Link to splits

Link to M20 map

Link to routes

Estonian MTB-O C & BikEst '10

2010-06-01T16:52:00.000+03:00

Friday (BikEst 1st day / no Estonian C) - distance: sprint (5,96km / 14CP), place: 1st out of 2 competitors in M20. The sprint distance was maybe a warm-up event for middle distance, but I still managed to take it as a competition. A description of the race:

Start - 1st: It was possible to read map 1 minute before start. Didn't notice that it is possible to rida through right with small cut near 12th CP. 1st - 2nd: With a small cut, no problems. 2nd - 3rd: Map was full of details, stopped next to 13th CP to be sure and go on. 3rd - 4th: Through right. That route choice seemed to be the shortest. 4th - 5th: Din't cut this time and drove around. 5th - 6th: Through wide gravel-road. 6th - 7th: Straight to the CP. 7th - 8th: Bckto the gravel-road and then through the obstacle. 8th - 9th: Bach to the dashed track and then I did a shortcut through the woodland and then I arrived to a indistinct track and then I didn't know my location. There was 2 systems of man-made hills and it was misleading. After driving around I found the CP. It was a big mistake - about 3 minutes. 9th - 10th: Around through right. 10th to 11th: After U-turn I did not choose the right track. Arriving to curve before wide gravel-road was the sigh that I went wrong. I lost more that a minute. 11th - 12th: At least 3 possibilities - took route choice. Hoped it's the best. Very interesting part of the race. 12th - 13th: There was no doubt - going though left. 13th - 14th: On dashed track. 14th - finish: Very short riding. Results

Saturday (BikEst 2nd day / Estonian C / WRE) - distance: middle (10,44km / 19CP), place: 5th out of 12 competitors in M21. All the best Estonian MTB-orienteerers took part in M21 class all the days. so the level was high. This day was a WRE event also, but quite few WRE-points were given to M21 class. A description of the race:

Start - 1st: Throgh the 7th CP and then near the sand. 1st to 2nd: The shortest way seemed to be to turn left at first and then turn to right. 2nd - 3rd: On dotted track as less as possible because the wider dotted track was even slower. 3rd - 4th: 2 possibilities - took a choice through right which was shorter. 4th - 5th: Through right. 5th - 6th: Took a risk and used wide sandy tracks. Lauri cought me with 2 minutes. 6th - 7th: Behind Lauri. Planned the same route as he did. 7th - 8th: Straight. 8th - 9th: Many possibilities again, took a choice through left. It was baybe longer. 9th - 10th: Small cut at firtst, then on tracks and then on small dotted track. 10th - 11th: 1 way and fast. 11th - 12th: Back to the dashed track and then to the wide gravel-road. A small cut before CP. 12th - 13th: Through left. 13th to 14th: Continued on small dotted track and then used faster tracks. 14th - 15th: Took a route choice with a shortcut. Many riders had made a trace from the wider gravel-road to the CP. 15th - 16th: Small dotted track was not so slow at all. Then continued towards North and then I made a shortcut again. 16th - 17th: Shortcut back and through a small quarry before CP. 17th - 18th: Used faster track. 18th - 19th: Aroud thought left. I knew that I had made a good race. 19th - finish: Very short riding. Results

Sunday (BikEst 3nd day / Estonian C) - distance: long (17,66km / 17CP), place: 2nd out of 8 competitors in M20. It was the day with last possibility to take medal in MTB-O among juniors becase prewious Estonian championships had been something bad. A description of the race:

Start - 1st: Through the quarry and felled area. After that Tõnis in M16 class asked me if the maps have been changed because he had wrong map. After that I turned to the wrong track which was dotted. There was small mistake near the CP. 1st - 2nd: Through right and later on the edge of felled area. 2nd - 3rd: Moved on towards well-rideable track and made a circle. Maybe it was better to go back from where I approached the CP. 3rd - 4th: 2 possibilities. Maybe I made worse route choice because the dashed track towards ESE was sandy. The track near 4th CP was quite well rideable. 4th - 5th: Small dotted track was practically wide and fast. Then I used well-rideable tracks. The dashed track towards south was indistinct. 5th - 6th: Straight. Didn't want to use road on right. 6th - 7th: Around, on right. 7th - 8th - Towards North and then East. 8th - 9th: Countinued towards East and then turned to right and then towards SE. 9th - 10th: Used the same trace as yesterday towards wider gravel-road and then countinued on aspalt. Turned to Noth towards CP. 10th - 11th: Ran throuh the marsh with bike and then countinued towars CP. 11th - 12th: Used dashed tracks. 12th - 13th: Around, on right. Didn't see the path using foot-o symbol 508.0 to use to cut there.13th - 14th: Firtsly around the marsh and then straight towards CP. At the end, used small dotted track. 14th - 15th: Cut towards North. Then used wider gravel-road. 15th - 16th: didn't notice to go around through righ. I used dashed track. 16th - 17th: didn't noticed wide dotted track towards CP. That track was very indistinct. At least there was a camera-man. 17th - finish: Downhill, not pleased with the result. I really wanted to win, but it was not my best race this day. Results

In this time there was quite few competitors unfortunately. Terrain was very interesting (somehow unique) and suitable for all orienteering disciplines. Courses were demanding. Unfortunately there are no more regular MTB-O competitions in Estonia this year. It is possible to take part in II Bike Xdream (English link) and MTB-O courses on Tallinn O-Tuesdays. In my opinion, this weekend was OK for me BikEst overall - 1st place in M20.

Link to Saaremaa Orienteering Club

Baltic Open Competition '10

2010-05-27T00:15:00.001+03:00

Does Baltic Championships mean that organizing country finds as slowly runable and "green" terrain as possible? I have been on 3 of these terrains and all them are very technical and not very well runable. Otherwise, these terrains are worth to hold BOC there.

The map on left is from Saturday's individual race. N21E and M20open had the same course. I personally made huge mistakes with 3rd and 9th CP-s - just the reljef was not understandable on the dark green area. Results, routes etc can be found here. My season countinues with MTB-O.

Estonian C middle & relay '10

2010-05-19T01:43:00.000+03:00

This year's middle distance Estonian Championships was disaster. One enormous mistake ruined my race and the feeling was not so good during the race. The terrain with the course itself was interesting and partly very technical. The result was one of the worst ranks in Estonian championships af all time. Results Map on right

The realy was interesting. Harju KEK RSK I team made the best relay result of all time in M21. Ats came 15th from the 1st leg - not far away from 11th place. I made good job almost without mistakes, got 6th place in 2nd leg and came out 10th. Mattias made also good job and finished 9th - not far from OK Ilves II team. In fact, we lost to leader team 13 minutes less than last year. The realy result gave us very positive emotions and motivation to make a better result next year. Results Route

Link to OK Võru

Link to news story

LSF MTBO '10

2010-05-11T00:05:00.000+03:00

This year's first MTB-O competitions (II LSF MTBO) were in/outside Keila town. There was sprint on Saturday and long distance on Sunday. Before sprint I thouht that map reading may be strange after several foot-o competitions this year. On Thursday I made very technical MTB-O practice in Merimetsa and I think it helped. The level in M21 was high - our Estonian best MTB-orienteerers and guests from Finland (including current World Cup leader) made the competition to be high-leveled.

The sprint was quite short and slightly technically. Distances between CP-s were sometimes short and at the moment I don't remember a couple of route choices. Speed was moderately good, I made some very good splits and one 30''-mistake. I finighed 7th overall and 4th among Estonians. It was good start for the MTB-O season. Results of sprint Photos of sprint (Eduard Pukkonen) Map on left

Long distance was with mass-start. At first, I made a route choice mistake and lost some positions. After that I move forward. Sometimes I was together with Margus v. and sometimes not. We came back together from Western part of the terrain after 2nd map exchange to the "butterfly" but I left from there before him. During the race, I made a mistake before 22nd where I turned too early to a small track which was not on the map. But I lasted well and earned 8th place overall and 5th place among Estonians. Gap between me and 7th place was too big I think. Results of long Map with route on right

These results combined gave me 8th place which was OK for me. Start for the MTB-O season was good technically and physically. Next MTB-O competitions are Estonian championships (including WRE) in the end of May. After that European Junior MTB-O Cup in Poland and then Junior World MTB-O Championships in Portugal (I guess so).

Tallinn C middle '10

2010-05-10T16:56:00.002+03:00

Maybe Tallinn middle distance championships on last Wednesday have been my best performance this year. I ran uite fast with moderate confidence and I had good control over myself. I made only one 30'-mistake just before 11th CP and some mistakes abaout 5'' but overall it was quite good result for me.

I enjoy the best parts on Kõrvemaa terrains and this part was quite interesting with variety of reljef. The course was decent and you had to find the CP locations before the CP-flags appeared not vice versa.

Link to results

On Friday I took part on the 3rd stage of Estonian Sprint Cup. The Keila Sprint 2010 was the first competition organised by by club and hopefully everything went OK. I finished 11th as well as in Tallinn sprint championshis with medicority.

Link to results

Link to routes

Ilves3 '10

2010-05-09T23:59:00.001+03:00

I post the maps of 1st and 3rd day with my route on it because I forgot to record route on the 2nd day. The terrain was good and demanding. On the 1st day I couldn't adjust to the map's scale at first. On the 2nd day I made very stupid mistake - just passed the track junction while reading ahead and lost a lot of minutes. These 2 mistakes shouldn't exist any more in this kind ofl level. Otherwise, I had quite good orienteering sometimes. In the 2nd part of 3rd day, I used to run faster than on the previous days and I got confidence in orienteering.

Left: map of 1st day

Right: map of 3rd day

Link to results and etc

Tartu kevad '10

2010-04-27T00:50:00.001+03:00

The goal for Tartu kevad was to get more ready for Ilves3. This weekend was technically difficult and physically as well. 1st day went quite well until 16th CP. Before it I lost my sense of direction and wasn't able to cencentrate at a moment. Other big mistake was about reljef - couldn't undertand the height differences. 2nd day was somehow good, but mistake on 3rd CP ruined my competition a bit. Results & etc.

At least I had a weekend on difficult terrain and I hope to get same effect as last autumn when it was easy orienteering in Suunto Games after Baltic Junior Cup in Vällamäe. Today, I did (recurring) cycling from Tartu to Sangla and back (67,8km). Next competition is Tallinn Sprint Championships before Ilves3.

A small video about my today's cycling

Peko kevad '10

2010-04-14T17:27:00.000+03:00

I think it is going better. Speed is not slow but must be higher. Technically it was quite ok because I had only 3 bigger mistakes (30" to 1'15") at weekend. On the left there is the map of 1st day with my route on it.

Link to OK Peko
Link to results of M21A
Link to 1st day routes
Link to 2nd day routes

Technogenious terrains

2010-04-12T20:36:00.000+03:00

There is one very interesting and technical terrain near Tallinn. This terrain is situated some kilometres from Tallinn's east border towards East. That area was dumping area of a mine (map on right). Now it has vegetation on it and it is suitable for orienteering. The main problem is some small nubs of limestone in tall grass what should make orienteereres careful while running there. In my opinion, the mappers have made very good job (samples below).

Maybe, there is more similar terrains in Estonia like that. It is possible in Ida-Virumaa region where is many mines and quarries of oil-shale. I found an interesting sample of topographical map of Viivikonna from study-materials of environmental geology (map on left). On the sample it is possible to see micro-reljef and vegetation also. So that it is possible that there are more similar terrains and technogenious areas could be demanding orienteering terrains in the future. For example a hill which is made of waste of burnt oil-shale could be also a part of orienteering terrain or a skiing-centre (picture below).

Unstability at first

2010-04-05T15:31:00.000+03:00

Estonian o-season starts usually with so-called Cattle-let-out Competition. Format is mass start to M21A & N21A classes on Saturday. There were many predictions also under comments of this post. Best 6 had their own group and another small groups were changing in positions from 7th to ?. This race was not so difficult technically and I avoided big mistakes. Somewhere I had 7th position but it was getting harded physically in the end and I fell to 10th position. The night sprint on Saturday was disappointment when I took wrong control. Unfortunately there was 2 CP-s stolen and I lost time searching them. The middle distance on Sunday was failure. I made many different kind of mistakes. Sometimes (especially in the very beginning of the race) I lost contact with the map. Details are shown on route.

Mass start long: results, route

Night sprint: results, other's routes

Middle distance: results, route

Sample of Saturaday's route

Next competition is Peko kevad. The terrain (topo-map below) could not be so boring as the map sample given in bulletin.

Destination to unknown

2010-03-29T19:35:00.003+03:00

Snow is melting quickly (link) and first competitions are coming soon. Preparation haven't been so good as planned, but quality of trainings have been good. Last Saturady was another chance to do (easy) orienteering before competitions. Forest and park were still so snowy that it is difficult to say anything about the shape, but feeling was ok. So that this weekend will show a lot. It is possbile that next trainig period contain cycling on roads with low of moderate hearth rate and running of smaller distances with higher intensity.

Map on right: Saturday's race in Merimetsa (link)

Orienteering in 50cm snow

2010-03-07T23:59:00.001+02:00

... is very hard physically and gives extraordinary good training session. Sometimes snow is enough solid to carry on while walking carefully, but running is impossible without sinking into the deep snow. So it was mostly walking on the deep snow and fast running on some trodden tracks. Nevertheless, it is quite difficult to concentrate on the map but this time the course was rather easy. I took last wrong CP tn the micr-o discipline because of losing the concentration after the crossing the railway. Near the railway snow was over 50cm deep and crawling was faster than moving on feet. 11'46''/km is very slow speed indeed. 5'15''/km or even faster shoud be the speed for that terrain. I plan to do orienteering on the next Saturday also (see calendar). I think it's going to be as snowy as yesterday. Maybe first competitions are in the rist of cancellation in the beginning af April becuse the are no signs of weather improvement.
Link to results

Photo: Arvo Laanemets (see gallery)

3rd ski-o bronze this year

2010-03-01T22:12:00.000+02:00

This year's Estonian championship ski-o-athlon relay had new rules: competitor must punch only in these checkpoints where it's location in terrain and on map matches. Beacuse of that it was possible to earn more penalty-loops. But for me, that course and orienteering task was quite easy to me and there was no doubts during the race and I didn't earn any peanlty-loops. I think that CP-s don't have to be only on junctions or crossings, they could also be on/near reljef ot other objects. Results are here:

1. 76 Võru I Võru EST                         01:12.05 01:12.05
    1 Jüri Joonas        00:26.40[ 2]              (1 penalty)
    2 Kalev Ermits       00:22.02[ 1] 00:48.42( 1) (2 penalties)
    3 Lauri Sild         00:23.23[ 1] 01:12.05( 1) (2 penalties)
2. 71 Kobras/Põlva Spordikool Kobras EST      01:21.57    +9:52
    1 Rene Post          00:28.07[ 3]              (2 penalties)
    2 Marten Vunukainen 00:28.40[ 3] 00:56.47( 2) (2 penalties)
    3 Taaniel Tooming    00:25.10[ 2] 01:21.57( 2) (0 penalties)
3. 72 Harju KEK RSK KEKRSK EST                01:24.59   +12:54
    1 Uku-Laur Tali      00:26.23[ 1]              (0 penalties)
    2 Ats Sõnajalg       00:33.00[ 4] 00:59.23( 3) (4 penalties)
    3 Marek Karm         00:25.36[ 3] 01:24.59( 3) (0 penalties)

As you can see on the results of penalties. Only 6 competitors in M18-20 passed the course correctly and 2 of them was in Harju KEK RSK team. To conclude with ski-o, I got 3 bronze medals from 3 ski-o disciplines this year in M20 class.

Link to map of all CP-s
Link to photos

Wattbike tested

2010-02-20T15:01:00.001+02:00

One week ago there was a wattbike 7km race and peak force test competition in Starta sportclub. Peak force test was before 7km competition. It was possible to do tata test during 1km warm-up. I got 1371 watts (20. place). 7km distance was absolutely new for me. I didn't actually know how long it could take but my friend told me that 10 minutes should be OK. Race was hard bevcause I made quite fast start but I had some power in the very end also. Time was 9'42,36'' (21. place) with average speed almost 44km/h. The competitors were put into several heats. If I compare with my heat competitors, I used harder resistance what means that I pedaled with higher watts and lower frequency. Yesterday I got files from organizer and I can do a very detailed investigation of my race. Somehow I think it is good that places of force test and a race was similar. While race it was possible to see virual race on a TV sceen whick looked like that:

Now I have road-bike also in addition to MTB because long lower intensity (base) trainings can also be done on roads.

Link to results

Link to photos
Link to Wattbike ENG
Link to Wattbike EST

Mustla-Nõmme terrain in danger

2010-02-08T22:47:00.000+02:00

Estonia has relatively flat terrain, especially in Northern and Western Estonia. The terrain is more variable in Southern Estonia where are most of the best Estonian terrains for orienteering. However there are some good terrains in Northern Estonia too (for example in Kõrvemaa). One good terrain for orienteering in Northern Estonia is situated near Mustla-Nõmme village beside Tallinn-Tartu road which splits the tarrain in 2 parts. The use of terrain is various, from Estonian championships in 1999 to o-thursday evening event. That's the terrain what orienteerers respect because of it's density of (micro-)reljef.

I attended in o-thursday in the South of road in June 2006 and for me the terrain was difficult when I had been orienteered nearly 3 months. My speed was about 10'/km. The terrain in North of the road was visited in August 2009 in o-thursday. If those 2 parts of terrain are compared I think to Southern part of the terrain is more unique and interesting.

Tallinn-Tartu road has very intensive traffic. The road has a lot of curves and there are many accidents. At the moment planning a highway between Kose and Mäo is in progress. Thw new highway will have a new trajectory and hopefully it doesn't cross any land with interesting reljef or else. New highway needs also a lot of material - gravel and sand. The landscape forms of interesting terrains consist of sediments, mostly gravel and sand. So that these landscape forms are potential items for getting material for the road. Furthermore, the possible material is situated close to planned highway.

That have been lead local people or orienteerers and highway planners or miners to a possible conflict. Local people are now collection online signatures from people including orienteerers who support retaining the terrain with most of the signatures on the webpage. Some details of geological reserch areas and etc are included to a map below.

Different greean areas - reserach locations. Red area - quarry and it's possible expansion area. Red line - planned highway's trajectory.

In orienteering forum, some people have said that EOF shoud make a declaration about orienteerer's interests. So I hope it's a matter of time when EOF releases offical statement about that and concerned parties will have concession.

What is more, LSF PT will organize there a 2-day competition called Kalevi Suvejooks on the same terrain in the beginning of June. Hopefully it is not the last chance to do orienteering there. But just in case, shoud I/we participate in there because of that?

Estonian ski-o championships '10

2010-01-31T19:30:00.002+02:00

While walking through the Tartu Toomemägi on Friday afternoon, I got an idea to do a ski-o sprint prologue training there in the evening with headlamp. I had thought about that a month ago and I had already drawn green tracks and a course on the map. The tracks in park were well skiable and without small gravel. I invited Kristo and he invited Markus. We all enjoyed that course and thought that it is possible to do a ski-o sprint competition there. That training was useful to get used with map reading for weekend.

On Saturday, there was a sprint race. I made a couple of smaller mistakes and I lost a SI-card while falling and on the next CP (2nd) I discovered that. At least I found my SI-card and got my result. About 2 to 3 minutes was lost with that accident. But overall, I got 3rd place in M20 class, losing to 1st and 2nd place holders very much. Results, Route

On Sunday, there was a long distance race. It was demaning physically and technically as well. On many stages, it was possible to do many different route choices. I did a wrong route choice from 17th CP to 18th CP. I tried to avoid climbing, but made a circe and a track on the edge of a field was not so easy skiable. My biggest mistake of a race was while going to 15th CP, because I entered to wrong track and noticed that quite late. Some other mistakes were very small I think. I hold my tempo stable from the beginning till the end and got 3rd place again. Results, Route

I hadn't been in Vooremäe before Saturday, but it seems great terrain fot training in summer season (foot-o and mtb-o as well). After 4 weeks, it's possible that my club's team will participate in Estonian championships in ski-o-athlon relay.

Link to competition's webpage

101 O-maps you should run before you die

2010-01-27T00:01:00.004+02:00

... is an interesting poject trying to put together 101 very interesting orienteering maps and make a book with all those 101 maps.

Our ultimate goal, to produce a real paper book about 101 orienteering maps which every orienteer should run on before he/she dies is clear, but not set as a “101% must”. It depends on many people and circumstances how the project will develop. We will of course do our very best to complete it, however most of all we want to enjoy the process of determining those 101 maps. (source)

Everyone can sumbit their opinion about that topic. I recommended to note down Paukjärve and Jussi (on right) maps together because I think that open terrain with (semi) open area and a lot of trenches is quite uniqe in Estonia. Another Estonian map - Juudakunnu is recommended by Jonatan. Hope to see at least one Estonian map in that book in the future.

Link to the article and discussion

Link to the picture below

Jussi terrain

Indoor versus outdoor

2010-01-26T01:22:00.001+02:00

While training quite hard, I had time to participate in indoor-o competition (indoor-o series) on Saturday and in ski-o-athlon competition (Tallinn championships) on Sunday. On both days I decided to do trainings in the evening not to loose possibility to train indoors.

On Saturday morning and before competition I had no feeling about an upcoming competition. I did little warm-up and then rushed to the 1st run. At first, big mistake was made going to the 1st CP and then I mispunch 10th CP and my competition was done/over. There was also 2nd run (combined with 1st run), which decides who goes to finals. I hadn't that opportunity and I just did my best in the 2nd run and I was overall 3rd on that run which was a small surprise for me. There was potential to be an A-finalist.

Link to results, maps and photos

Link to current standing after 4th stage

On Sunday morning it was sunny weather with below -20°C outside and the competiton wasn't cancelled. This competition was first time to do ski-o-athlon for me and it was not so easy at all. The course was almost 10km long and there was 28CP-s. I made one wrong punch and got 1 minute of penalty which dropped me to the 2nd place. The result was not so important as the experience. That sort of competitions are quite easy to organise - why not to organise more such events this winter.

Link to results

Link to SRD SK

Photo: Sergei Rjabõshkin

Next weekend I am going to participate in Estonian ski-o championships. There are also many Latvians participating. Lets see, I try to do my best.

Ski-o-athlon map with all CP-s (Link)

Põlvamaa ski-o ch.

2010-01-10T18:20:00.003+02:00

These competitions showed that how difficult is skiing on the narrow tracks. However, climbing on these tracks is the most difficult. Double pole pushing is a technique which sould be the main thing to train before Estonian ski-o chamiponships after less than 3 weeks. Next time I spend more money on ski-waxing, maybe it helps.

Saturday's sprint was quite technical. The course gave many times to do interesting route choices. At least I didn't do any big mistakes but loss to leader is very big. Start of the ski-o season for me was quite OK anyway. Results, Route

Map of sprint distance

Leaving from start on Sunday, I made a mistake because a junction on terrain and on map didn't match, didn't understand at first and I loss quite a lot of time. One mistake was made just skiing towars wrong CP. there was more "just skiing" on Sunday, but mistakes were made. Again very big loss to leader. Results, Route

All in all, I got new experiences, because prewious ski-o starts haven't gave me a chance to ski on narrow track more tahn 75% of the race. These starts were 4th and 5th starts of ski-o for me.

On right: Map of classic distance

Statistics of my ski-o starts (nothing special, results must improve a lot)

Top Estonian competitions in 2010

2010-01-06T01:41:00.004+02:00

I think it's a good idea to write about top (in my opinion) Estonian orienteering competitions for foreign blog readers. Firstly, Estonian o-calendar have been quite similar in last 4 years at least. For example many competitions are held on the same weekend every year.

At the 1st weekend on April, you can attend in 4 competitions on 3 days in or near Võru. On Friday, there will be Estonian Indoor-O Cup in Võru sports hall (info). On Saturday, there will be a long distance competition called Karjalasevõistlus and sprint in the late evening in dark near Võru. Finally, on Sunday, there will be a middle distance competition called Lihavõtte lühirada. This is the first big o-weekend in Estonia in the spring and most of the Estonian top orienteerers take part in these competitions. Link to OK Võru.

Ilves3 is the one of the biggest o-competitions in Estonia from the 30th April until 2nd May. The rivalry is going to be tight in all classes for sure. This year's terrain should be more pleasant than some years before. Read bulletin in English.

This year's Estonian MTB-O championships is a part of a 3-day MTB-O competition called BikEst on the 28th to 30th May. The sprint on Friday takes place in Kuressaare town and middle and long distances are near Karujärve lake. Please note that Saturday's middle distance is the WRE event and everybody may take part in Estonian MTB-O championships. Link to Saaremaa OK.

The most unique competition is definitely 100KP jooks on 27th June - a competition with a lot of CP-s (100 CP-s on M21A class). This year the competition are held in nice hilly and mostly very well runnable terrain. You can see how many CP-s were in forest here in 2009. A number of competitors is rising every year because of improving organisation and recommendations by competitors. Exact information coming soon.

An 8-hour TAOK rogain is a phenomenal competition - competition with over 1000 competitiors in 2007 for example. A very popular rogain is always well organised as well as WRC 2008 and terrains are chosen to be pleasnat for every type of competitor. This year's rogain will be in the Southern Estonia. More information on this rogain.ee. Photos etc. can bee seen here.

Printcenter Sprint Cup is a sprint competition series of 10 competitions. Competitions are mostly held in Tallinn or near Tallinn. Overall winners get prizemoney. Exact information is here (calendar and bulletin in Estonian).

I hope that these short descriptions of some Estonian competitions are useful. All these competitions has added to the detailed Estonian o-calendar. Almost all competition organisers use this website for online registaration. Use Google Translator, it helps.

No adventure racing for me

2009-12-24T02:20:00.000+02:00

There are many reasons why I haven't participated in adventure race competitions, for example in Swedbank Xdream. At the moment I think that these kind of competitions are not real orienteering for me. The main reasons are:

There are orienteering competitions and adventure racing are at the same time very often, adventure racing lasts too long and I am not physically so longlasting, I am not mentally so strong to compete with the best athlets, I haven't been canoeing and I don't know the technics of it, I don't like to get wet many times during the competition, the orienteering courses are quite easy (sometimes it seems so while looking the maps), competitions are quite expensive.

View to Kõrvemaa (author's photo)

The other elements including rollerskating, foot- and MTB-orienteering are OK for me and never knows when I am ready for adventure racing or someone changes my mind. Adventure racing itself seems interesting and challenging and it is always interesting to read stories (for example this blog of this one) and see videos on Youtube (for exampe this video).

Map samples from this year's Xdream near Väätsa

2009 review: Mountainbike-O

2009-12-13T20:17:00.001+02:00

The main event was JWmtbOC of course, but also I attended in Polish and Estonian champioships - and that's all with 2 local o-events and trainings in Tallinn. It seems not enough at all. Because of that I try to do more MTB-O starts and trainings in 2010. This year's problem was map-reading quality and memory and I was quite slow on difficulty rideable tracks. I hope to be better next year and finally take a medal from Estonian champioships in MTB-O.

Success: Estonian ch middle, JWmtbOC long

Failure: Estonian ch long, JWmtbOC sprint

Riding a MTB in Pirita

2009 review: Foot-O

2009-12-10T16:39:00.000+02:00

The season was quite successful with some failures. The shape was better in the spring but mistakes with the higher speed in many races caused some unstability and because of that (I think) I wasn't chosen to national M20 team for Baltic Championships. Fist time I was the course-setter for a local event. There was a break of foot-o in June which lasted about a month because I was preparing fot JWmtbOC. After the break it was difficult at first but then I got selfconfidence at times. But shape for running wasn't so good any more as it was in the spring. Good stability from Estonian individual Champinships made me a chance to participate in Baltic Junior Cup. After that Suunto Games was the first WRE for me. Otherwise the autum was physically unstable. At the moment I am not doing map-trainings so often. By the year of 2009, I am on the 40th palce in Estonian ranking.

Success: 3rd palce of Indoor-o series, Peko kevad 1. day, Tallinn school's ch (1st place 3. year in a row), Harjumaa ch classic, Kobras Cup 3. day, Estonian ch long, Suunto Games.

Failure: Tallinn ch sprint, Estonian ch relay, Tallinn ch middle, Estonian ch night-o, Kobras Cup 1st day, Baltic Junior Cup relay.

Map on left: Kobras Cup 3rd day - Failure from 1st day turned to success on 3rd day

Cycling in Northern Kõrvemaa

2009-11-22T23:00:00.000+02:00

From the middle of November I try to do a long training (running/cycling/skiing) at weekends. First that kind of training was planned for today - cycling with MTB in Northern Kõrvemaa with trainingmate Kert Martma. Training lasted almost 3½ hours driving on different kind of tracks and paths. Some singletracks were badly driveable near Pikkjärv and Kõverjärv. Other track were mostly wider. I used a 1:50000 scaled rogaining map for navigating. Weather was dry and cloudy whick made it very enjoyable. At the moment I am thinking about next weekend's long training - maybe a 2½-hour running in Tallinn.

Tallinn o-weekend

2009-11-16T19:12:00.002+02:00

I spent time in Tallinn last weekend. SK Tallinna Kompass (link) oragnised a sprint event on Saturday and 1st stage of Estonian indoor orienteering on Sunday. The Saturday's sprint course was quite demanding. In the beginning it was neccessary to find out the right gates with even counting them. I made mistake while going to 1st CP. I didn't use the safe routechoice. After that it was very good leg from 3rd to 4th CP. I think I made that routechoice well. Then 4th to 6th CP-s were boring, but wrong run-out from 6th CP caused extra 15'' loss. I decided to go to 7th on right next to the cliff. While running, it was getting darker and darker, so it was sometimes difficult to read map without headlamp. So I missed the gate near 9th CP and ran around. 11th CP was quite tricky and I slowed down for a moment. On the Western part of the course I didn't feel as well as in the last part of the course. The split times showed that speed was quite good in the end. After leaving from 17th CP I didn't read out the closed gate and lost 15''. I think I lost 1'15'' total and it's a lot for sprint. Otherwise, I hadn't ran sprint courses for almost 2 months. The real length of the course was at least much more that 3km. Race showed that I have repose period was quite neccessary to go on with training in November. (results, map)

Sunday's indoor-o competition was 1st in this winter season. Competition format is changed a little bit but mass-start finals shows the winners and top positions. 1st and 2nd run went without big mistakes and with some small mistakes. 8th place total gave me a position in B-final for ranks 7th to 12th. B-final went well at first, I lead it for most time but a 25''-mistake ruined my B-final slightly and I got 2nd palce in B-final. The fight for the B-fianl victory was tight, I couln't pass Margus in the very last CP-s. Finally, 8. place for that time - moderately well performance from me (link to results and maps). Next inoor-o will be on the 5th December (see calendar).

The map of men's 1st run. Map: osprint.ee

Training camp near Taheva

2009-11-05T22:23:00.000+02:00

Less training from summer until now was caused by moving to Tartu, adaption to new lifestyle and learning hard at times. But last weekend I took 4 days off and took part in training camp in Kuutsi which was organised by OK Ilves. Pleasant terrains were chosen for training which made it very enjoyable. Some training were held near Taheva where multiday Ilves3 competition were in 2008 (results). Just running on terrain showed that it is important to do it more during the winter. Orienteering courses were techically suitable and while orienteering I didn't do any big mistakes. There are a couple of larger hills on map area which is good place to train uphill running. Hope to be back there...

Knowledge must expand

2009-10-27T22:23:00.001+02:00

Progress continues with hard training and knowledge. Knowledge about training, nutrition, equipment, stretching, health and etc becomes more and more importnat if the sporting level rises. Because of that I have to expand my knowlede. Today, I bought a book which is worth worth its price. A lot of illustrative material about stretching exercises are worth to see also.

Today, I made my first skiing imitation training. Quite interesting and good for diversity of trainings. Technique was hopefully good. Before training, I read and watched a video about skiing imitation (link in Estonian). 1:05'30'' with moderate tempo was fine and next time will be in next week. Next time I hope I won't train alone in the Tähtvere's sports park (link in Estonian), today it was rainy. A forum invites to trainings at times (link in Estonian).

This Thursday to Sunday I am going to take part in training camp (organised by OK Ilves).

The map of Tähtvere sports park. The skiing imitation was made naxt to that blue line (circle is 860 metres long).

Questions, thoughts and etc

2009-10-24T00:36:00.001+03:00

In October, I haven't been training a lot. I am quite busy because of learning and other things. During the next 7 days, I must try to answer to at least these questions. After that my preparations begins for ski-o and summer of 2010.

1) What kind of trainings to do in winter - skiing, cycling, running, something else - how much?

2) What would be the weather conditions for training outside in winter - skiing, cycling?

3) How much can I train without disturbing studies at the university?

4) Where is the best places to train in Tartu, in (Southern) Estonia?

5) Do I want to train alone or with other athletes?

6) Can I improve my techincal skills - mow much, in which way?

7) Ski-o season - what are the targets - national level, target to JWskiOC - is it possible?

8) MTB-O versus foot-o - which is more imortant for me in 2010?

9) What are the pros and cons for MTB-O and foot-o for me in the future?

10) Do I need to specialize to only 1 orienteering-sport - in 2010, later or never?

11) Is it necessary to join with o-club in Finland or in Sweden?

12) From where I can obtain motivation?

13) What is the terget level - natonal level, continental level, world's elite?

14) How much can I participate outside Estonia in 2010?

15) How much finance I have for doing sports?

16) Is it possible to get sponsorship or support for 2010?

17) How much do I need to monitor nutrition?

Suunto Games '09

2009-10-06T16:07:00.004+03:00

The last bigger competition of the season in Estonia was Suunto Games. The 1st day was WRE and Estonian Student's Championships in M21E class. Because of that most of the Estonian top orienteerers took part. Last year there was Kalevi Suvejooks, so that the terrain was know for me. Terrain itself is mostly very well runnable with quite dense reljef what makes it very enjoyable. This year's map was corrected if I compare it to last year's map - that was good.
1st day middle distancefor elite classes. Men's course (map on left) was 6,55km long and there were many hills to climb. My shape is average at the moment and I just wanted not to do mistakes. Nevertheless I made an 1-minute mistake in the very end of the course. All in all, it could be one of the best races this year without that mistake. Total loss to leader was about 10 minutes - mostly due to speed. WRE debut was fine.

Results, Routes

The 2nd day's course was 10,54km long. The chase-start was organised accoring to middle distance results. At the beginning, Sergei (who started 1 second behind me) took another routechoice and lost time but Margus took 20 secound back before 2nd CP. Margus was faster than me and I countinued alone after 8th CP where I made a 40-secound mistake. After that I saw Tanel who also passed me smoothly after 10th CP. I continued alone until 16th CP which I took just before Margus who made mistake there. Tanel had also made a mistake there. A small group formed (me, Margus and Tanel) 7 CPs before finish (fighting for positions 16th to 18th). Stage 20-21 was interesting and I took another routechoice (going left from the small lake) and I took back a couple of seconds. Then Margus slowed down before 22nd CP which was in the bog. I passed him and Tanel and took that CP first. I wanted to be careful in the very end and I watched for groupmates in the last techical part of the terrain. I took 17th place because Margus is the fastest man in the finish-corridor.

Results (2nd day), Routes, Total results

In 2010, there will be 100KP jooks at Pikassaare - the competition with 100 CPs in M21A class. Next year's Suunto Games will be in Hatiku, South of Estonia.

Baltic Junior Cup '09

2009-09-28T18:01:00.005+03:00

This year's Baltic Junior Cup was in Southern Estonia (link), so it wasn't neccessary to travel a lot. Model event was organised in Haanja and it showed that runnability can be very slow. Otherwise, I haven't been competing near Haanja or Vällamäe at all, so Vällamägi was something new for me.

On Saturday, it was long distance (see map with route on left). It wasn't so long at all, but it was technically difficult and physically demanding, especially climbing uphill. In long distance, I made 1 bigger and many smaller mistakes. Big mistake was made beacuse I couldn't match the terrain and the map near 11st CP. Orienteering on large slopes is difficult for me because I have small experiance in orienteering on large slopes. But 27th place was somehow better that last year's 34th place in M18 class.

Results, routes of long distance

On Sunday, it was relay (see map on right) . Therewas 5 teams for each federation/team. I was in Estonian 3rd team. But relay was harder for me because I just didn't move as fast it was neccessary. And what is more, I made big mistake while going to 9th CP and some smaller ones also. In the end, it was a challenge between me and one Swedish guy, I lost it beacuse I couldn't punch too fast at last CP.

Results of relay, total results of Baltic Junior Cup.

All in all, it was difficult/hard competition for me and I got some new experience. But I didn't do my best and that's bad. I hope to make a good day at this weekend in Suunto Games. I chose to participate in M21E class (also WRE event on Saturday) - no M20 isn't available. There is also student's Estonian chmpionships in M21E class on Saturday.

(photo: Dace buža's gallery)

Estonian champs (ultra-)long

2009-09-21T22:00:00.004+03:00

Estonian championships in (ultra-)long distance was oranized in Kääriku - that's the same terrain as in EOC 2006 qualification of long distance. Terrain is hilly and runnabilty varies a lot. The race format was mass-start. From the start, it was possible to choose hillclimbing (~45 metres, see photo) or go arount the hill (see piece of map in left - most of us used route A). Tempo was somehow high for me at the beginning, but I managed to keep going with some competitors (whose tempo was better for me) towards 2nd CP. Maybe my biggest mistakes was neat to 2nd CP where I made a mistake about a minute because I looked for a CP in wrong location. After 5th CP I decided to leave from CP to NNE, 2 other competitors went more eastwards. Because of that I started orienteering alone for some time. I found 6th CP without big problems (but someone else didn't) because I was alone and made decisions alone and I enjoyed it in my own tempo. My own tempo was a bit slower compared with others. When I reached to 8th CP, I saw Priit and we went to 9th CP together. Tempo was very high for me, but I wanted to know if I could countinue this way (with that tempo). Whern I ran with Priit, I thought a bit about the position - I could be in good position or I was slow and Priit have made an huge mistake (acutally at this moment, we had 3rd and 4th palce and Priit had made a big mistakes going to 2nd CP). Soon after 9th CP in the forest (with bad runnability) I understood that finishing is more important that temporary high-speeding and I slowed down and let Priit to go in his own. From that moment I didn't see any other M20 competitors and I just continued thinking to last until finish. I avoided big mistakes even though it was physically hard in the end. I finished 4th which was my best Estonian championship position in foot-orienteering. I was quite pleased with my race (see map with route in right) - no big mistakes, I was mentally quite strong, I lasted well until finish and despite that I mostly ran quite slow.

Next target: to make a good race technically in Baltic Junior Cup and improve my last year's position in M18 class (results). Last year I got good experiences there in Sweden, especially in relay where I ran as fast as I could - I realized that I can run faster than orienteering alone.

And finally - some statistics from Estonian championships in 2009 (note: Lauri made clean sweap - congradulations to him!):

Distance/place/location/loss to Lauri/results/map
Sprint_ 5th place Intsikurmu_ +12,4% Results Map
Middle_ 5th place Kalngale___ +33,6% Results Map
Classic 5th place Vastseliina +25,6% Results Map
Long___ 4th place Kääriku____ +20,6% Results Map
Night-o 7th place Saarjärve__ +59,4% Results Map

Estonian champs classic/relay

2009-09-04T20:11:00.005+03:00

Estonian champioships in classic distance was technically difficult and I made many mistakes. Because of that 5th place is fair result fo me. What is more, my speed was not enough to make a great effort. Nothing more to say about that race.

Estonian championships in juniors relay was technically much easier and 5th place for KEKRSK I was OK. Unfortunately 4th place was not very far - below a minute. But overall, my 0-club was the best of Northern Estonia. 3 best Southern Estonian o-clubs were in their own, so that me and my clubmates must work very hard to compete with them in 2010.

Link to M20 results of classic distance
Link to my route of classic distance
Link to M20 results of relay
Link to my route of juniors relay
Photo: Piret Ahman (gallery)

The Baltic Way - 20 years

2009-08-25T22:44:00.008+03:00

The Baltic Way or Baltic Chain was a peaceful political protest on August 23, 1989. Approximately two million people joined their hands to form a human chain spanning over 600 kilometres (370 mi) across the three Baltic states – Estonian SSR, Latvian SSR, and Lithuanian SSR, republics of the Soviet Union. It marked the 50th anniversary of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. The pact and its secret protocols divided Eastern Europe into spheres of influence and led to the occupation of the Baltic states in 1940. The protest was designed to draw world's attention by showcasing popular desire for independence and solidarity among the Baltic states. (read more in ENG or EST).
Source: Wikipedia

Photo: Aivars Liepiņš

Now, 20 years later on 22 and 23 August, 2009, the three Baltic countries will renew the historic Baltic Way human chain in a 24-hour relay run, which will begin in Tallinn, Estonia, and Vilnius, Lithuania, and finish on the evening of 23 August at 20:00 in Riga, Latvia, at the country’s symbol of independence – the Freedom Monument. The 678 kilometre-long relay run will be divided into 1 km segments, and every Balt is invited to join the leading runners at a location of their choice.

Source: http://balticway20.com/

I wanted to participate in that relay-run as just a runner, started on Square of Freedom (graphic iamge) and ran with realy runners about 7 kilometres and then turned back to home. It was nice feeling while running there with other people. I think there could me more orienteerers as the activity was planned by orienteerers. Including warm-up I ran over 19 kilometres and it was solid training for me.

Running on Pärnu maantee. Photo: Marko Mumm (EPL)

Link to "Südametuksed Baltikumile" website

Link to video of Repoter news magazine

Start working with o-maps

2009-08-17T15:08:00.004+03:00

Map is the most important navigational aid in orienteering. With map you can do orienteering even sometimes without compass or other navigational aid. So, I have already thought how o-maps are made and then I tried to try mapping. First 3 objects are located in Tallinn because of more base materials and maps for mapping. Mapping in urban area seems easier at first (making maps according to ISSOM).

Object #1 is located in Pirita-Kose, where I revised semiurban area (firtly mapped by Andres Käär) and mapped personally other part of the map which was urban area. The map (map above on right) was used in local o-event (see event #15 in calendar) when I was the coursesetter for the first time ever. Object #2 is located near to my home. I just try to expand (to North and East) the mapped area and makse some revisions (because of changes and errors) of map called Löwenruh park (link).

Object #3 is located in Northern Tallinn. I will revise Merimetsa area and map larger area which is North from Merimetsa. I have no idea when it will be ready. All in all, mapping and revising mapped areas helps me to understand how the (sprint) o-maps are made and I hope to get experiences for mapping in forests in the future.

Mapping progress at the moment of object #3 - Pelguranna.

Kobras Cup '09

2009-08-12T14:53:00.008+03:00

The target to that 3-day competition was overall victory because the best 3 orienteerers of M20 didn't compete. After 1st day's catastrophic race I realized that next days must be better and without big mistakes. 2nd day was somehow good but not good enough because of a couple of strange mistakes. I felt much better on the 3rd day when running-speed was quite OK and I didn't make any big mistakes. That was the most important for me. In fact, I had the 1st position of the course (M20, M21A, M35) - that's a bonus and the result of avoiding mistakes and my speed per km was better that the M18A winner's. Last year I had total nadir of techical and physical shape in the beginning of August, likewise I felt the same on the 1st and 2nd day but the last day gave me more selfconfidence for the next competitions.

Link to total results of M20
Photo: Tarmo Klaar

DAY/DISTANCE/SPEED/TIME/MISTAKES/
Day1 05,5km 10'28"/km 0:57'32" 15min Results Map
Day2 09,9km 08'30"/km 1:22'16" 07min Results Map
Day3 10,1km 07'00"/km 1:10'54" 01min Results Map

Estonian ch. in sprint & night-o

2009-08-03T14:50:00.005+03:00

The Estoninan championships in sprint is quite important for me. So that, it was important not to do any mistakes. This plan was quite successful, I had only a couple of stops and wrong route choice from 12nd CP to 13rd CP but it was small fault. Otherwise, the course itself was mostly easy. The first half in the forest with several tracks was just running on them, but it's sure that it was possible to do mistakes even there. The second part countinued in the town and real sprint-orienteering started in the very end of the course after 9th CP. Due to average shape of running-speed the 5th place was adequate for me. Some statistics from prewious Estonian sprint championsips are shown below:

YEAR/LOCATION/CLASS/DISTANCE/TIME/SPEED/PLACE/DIFF LEADER

2006 Palmse_ M16 2,20km 17'31" 7'52"/km 7th +27,4%_Map

2007 Mooste_ M18 2,45km 11'56" 5'04"/km 6th +14,1%_Map

2008 Tallinn M18 2,08km 14'36" 7'01"/km 5th +10,6%_Map

2009 Põlva__ M20 3,00km 16'28" 5'38"/km 5th +12,4%_Map

*I may note that it was possible to take 5th place even in 2006 if I could not do that mistake from 1st to 2nd.

Link to sprint results of 2009

The Estonian championships in night-orienteering is not important for me because I dislike orienteering at night and I almost always do at least 1 very big mistake. Tallinn (local) championships in night-o went quite well in April but this time 2 very big mistakes ruined my race. The 3rd CP was just a lottery. When CP area was recongnized I just tryed to find it. After passing CP with only 1 metre, someone called me back to punch at CP. Stones were small there.

After that my clubmate Ats cought me with 6 minutes and then we decided to rise tempo. Orienteering was quite OK until 8th CP where we made small mistakes. After that CP it was wrong decision to run out from CP too fast that it was almost impossible to read map. That lead up to nowhere and loss of locating and bearing was a lesson for me. After 9th CP the outrun was to a bit wrong direction. And after that we continued still together because nothing was to win or lose without big mistakes. That race showed again that night-o is not for me. Tempo was sometimes good - I even won 2 splits (to 7th and 19th). I could draw the route because I had logger attached to my hand.

Link to night-o results

Link to my route

Sprints in Kehra and Alu

2009-07-31T01:17:00.005+03:00

I have made some trainings with map for Estonian championships in sprint with some courses in Kehra town. It is quite good urban terrain for sprint and it is somehow similar to other towns and boroughs where sprint races are sometimes organized. I have no idea why there haven't been any competitions or other o-events there. Maybe me and my trainingmates were the first ones who really used that map. 3 courses (of ~3km) was enough for us on Monday.

On Wednesday there was sprint competition in Alu borough which was a stage of Estonian Sprint Cup. That competition didn't went well because of some mistakes and debility of running speed in the second part of the course. Hopefully I will make good race on Saturday.

Link to results of Alu sprint

Peraküla '09

2009-07-27T14:48:00.004+03:00

Peraküla competition was a nice copetition with good weather and pineforest with mostly very good runnability and visibility. Both day's terrains were new for me and the mapper's handwriting was sometimes misunderstandable about vegetation, especially on Sunday at Peraküla. While running with other competitors, I realize that I can run quite fast. Hopefully I have good speed on more difficult terrains where it is less possible to see other competitors. Some mistakes on both days didn't let me to makse very good results, but totally 4th place was OK for me. Right: Map of 1st day with route

Results (total)

Routes of 1st day at Dirhami

Routes of 2nd day at Peraküla

The vegetation was mapped sometimes like that (photos above), but sometimes all 3 symols were used with the same look of forest.

Map from today's o-event

2009-07-23T23:00:00.002+03:00

Today I took part in local o-event near Tallinn. Vardi was the exact location from where I have some bad memories from 2006. I am slightly getting on with foot-orienteering after JWmtbOC but I am still uncertain at times. This weekend I have opportunity to boost my confidence in foot-orienteering for Estonian night-o championships. Also some sprint trainings and a competition are planned for Estonian sprint-o championships.

Huge mistake seen with GPS-logger

2009-07-09T22:57:00.006+03:00

Today, I made first attempt to log my route with GPS logger while orienteering. I bought it (myLogger GT-120) from Palmtek. First race to try it was just a local evening o-event which was 1st foot-o race after 4 weeks. I took 8,74km long M21A course. It seemed quite OK for me. I made many mistakes and one extraordinary huge mistake which could be the biggest mistake in last 2½ seasons. I just couldn't find the CP location (18th CP) and I just searched with wrong sense of distance. Wery bad...but hopefully great opportunity to learn something again and again because now I can research my routes with GPS-logger.

The map with route (made with Quickroute)

JWmtbOC '09 - long / relay

2009-07-04T22:45:00.007+03:00

The long distance in JWmtbOC was the longest MTBO race for me until now. The tracks were mostly wide and fast and technically the course wasn't wery difficult. It was very important to make right route choices. I think I din't make any serious mistakes. Maybe, some route choices could be wrong. Race was long but tempo didn't fall in the very end of the course. All in all, I got 25th place which was the best result of that championships week. It was small surprise for me that the best result was in long distace, not in sprint or middle distance.

The relay was held on more technical terrain which was similar to sprint's terrain. First part of the race went well, but after 1st public control I misunderstood the course setup after mapchange and I lost some time and confidence. After that, I made some small mistakes. I held 7th position at changeover to 3rd leg. But unfortunately Priit had to retire in 3rd leg because of broken chain about 2km before finish. The final position could be in top 6 but MTBO is sport where equipment/technics matters.

Link to long distance results of M20

The long distance maps are shown on right

JWmtbOC '09 - middle

2009-06-29T12:46:00.006+03:00

I try to describe my route in more detailed way. In short, beginning was quite easy and fast and the second part included a bit more orienteering. I made less mistakes that in sprint the day before.
S-1: High speed start with route choice. Decided to ride on right to avoid more uphill climbing. Turning-point was visible next to vegetation boundary.

1-2: Decided to go on left fefore going to 1st. It seemed a bit sorter and with less turns.

2-3: Very easy navigation. Had ability to do route choices up to the 8th control becaure map was folded.

3-4: Used 2nd way to right to the CP beacure I seemed faster.

4-5: Leaving from 4th CP I turned left for a while but then I realised that my choice was to go on right. Almost 10" mistake there.

5-6: Uphill climbing anyway. I decided route choice because of levaing at 6th. Variant of left seemed as long as way of right.

6-7: Quite easy but I passed 7 CP beacure I didn't noticed that and I loss 10" there.

7-8: Going on right seemed as long as going on left. Maybe my route was a bit slower because of more turns.

8-9: Asphalt in the beginning of my choice was fast but I slowed down a bit on a "dotted" track not to pass turning-point toward 9th CP.

9-10: Easy navigation.

10-11: 11th CP was located not there as it was marked on map. I lost about 5" there.

11-12: Quite easy, because safety-guy or course-marshal was right there where I needed to turn on left towards 12th CP.

12-13: I took route choice not to climb uphill but the "dashed" track was quite slow and badly visible at times.

13-14: Going around on left seemed faster.

14-15: When coming out of 13rd, I saw that route choice of turning right and then left didn't included climbing. Other competitor went straight down and then turned righ upwards. The loss of wrong route choice could be 15".

15-16: Didn't noticed small "dotted" track and went with a round. It was mistake of 10" I think.

16-17: Moved ahead ad then ran up (with bicycle of course). My uphill running speed was good and I got 4th split time there.

17-18: My route choice seemed the best. Quite easy.

18-19: Decided to go around on left and then read which "dotted" track was right to reach 19th CP.

19-20: Again I decided to go around on left. It was same fast as the more straight possible route choice on right. Turning-point towards 20th was identified before while going to 13rd.

20-21: going to public CP was easy.

21-22: 2nd crossing was strange, I loss 10" there. 5 metres apart that crossing was Y-junction. I trach was "dotted" and other was "dashed". The 2nd one was very badly visible. Because of that I missed that turning-point and lost 30". If cutting were allowed I would have turned to West immediately.

22-23: Easy navigation.

23-F: Stopped for a while because at first I did't understood the location of beginning of finish-corridor.

To conclude, I hoped course with more difficult navigation. Tracks were mostly fast and some small mistakes allowed me to take 29th place out of 58 MTB-orienteerers.

Link to middle distance results of M20

Link to map of M20

Photo: Arbo Rae

JWmtbOC '09 - sprint

2009-06-24T23:34:00.006+03:00

After Estonian MTBO chamionships I was quite unsure about taking part in JWmtbOC. But I still made some preparations fot it. When I got know the opportunity to take part I made more technical preparation and finalized it with short urban sprint training with Tõnis. JWmtboC is 2nd mayor MTBO event for me after JEmtbOCup in Lithuania last autumn.

Before sprint, I knew that i am not very fast but I can orienteer quite well. But it didn't go like that. The map with route shows that I made many big mistakes. 1st to could be easy but I lost sense of direction I couldn't understand where pathes are and where there is just open soil and leaves on the ground. I was quite nervous there because there were judges in the forest whose target was to disqualify riders who cut through the forest. After that I missed 2 junction to 5th and to 13rd. In the end of course, I followed other competitor who made mistake there. At the moment I still don't understand why I followed him.

All in all, sprint was disappointment for me. 37th palce wasn't that what I really hoped. Now I have to learn from these mistakes and I hopefully I do that. Otherwise, course was very interesting with several route choice possibilities and terrain was sometimes similar to terrain of Polish championsips in long distance 2 weeks ago.

Link to EmtbOC and JWmtbOC homepage

Link to sprint results of M20

Link1 / Link2 to 1st and 2nd part of M20 maps

Polish MTBO champs

2009-06-10T22:13:00.006+03:00

Last weekend I attended in MTBO event (link) in Poland (several championships). Trip was long by car and feeling was slightly tired. Sprint was in Friday evening. In sprint I made the biggest mistake of the weekend. Going to the 5th CP, I turned left too early becaue I tried to go by memory. Unfortunately I didn't managed to cut after leaving 1st control. Other parts of the course went quite well. That mistake cost a lot and I finished 3rd. Results Map

Long distance was held on quite interesting terrain with stated net of tracks. I made some small mistakes mostly making wrong route choices (to 3rd, 4th, 8th). Otherwise, I think I was too careful sometimes and lost some time. Results

Map of long distance (link)

On sunday, I think I just was quite slow sometimes, but while climbing I felt still all right. I made 2 wrong route choices (to 2nd, 12th) and I passed junction while going to 5th control because the junction was badly understandable. Results Map

Now I have sothing to think about - I have to find out the best routes among all routes possible during the race. What is more, I think I loose time for nothing. Overall results told that the situation is normal but must be better in the future. Finishing 2nd was possible, but not this time.

Link to overall results

The podium was the same as in sprint and in overall results (photo: barlinek24.pl) : 1. Taaniel Tooming (EST), 2. Marco Guizzardi (ITA), 3. Marek Karm (EST)

Baltic Open Competition

2009-06-01T15:57:00.010+03:00

The reason to attend there individually was to get more experinces with difficult terrains. A lot of fallen trees, very detailed map and hot weather made orienteering wery difficult for me. In the long distance, the course was tricky because the same course was used in Baltic Champinship in M20E class also. In fact, I could compare my results with other Baltic M20 orienteerers. Most of the race went quite well, but bigger mistakes to 11st, 13rd, 14th ruined my result because bad feeling caused some loss of concentrattion there. Otherwise, I made some small mistakes also, but at least I realised my location quite fast when I was in wrong location.
On Sunday, there was middle distance also with 1:15000 map. It was tricky but training with 1:15000 is imortant. I made only one 3-minute mistake (finding 11st), other mistakes were below 10 seconds. In 2-day totals, I got 2nd palce in M20 open class (2nd on both days). Big loss on Saturday was a slight failure. Results
On Saturday evening, there was a sprint race in Kuldiga town as a stage of Latvian Sprint Cup. I participated in M21E class as the youngest competitor. That urban terrain was superb for the sprint and I really enjoyed it even though my speed was lower as I should be. I made bad route choices to 1oth and 11th but overall it was useful to take part in sprint. Result was 22nd place out of 33 competitors. The loss to winner was too big - 4 minutes. Results

At next weekend I decided to prefer participating in Polish MTBO championships (link) instead of Kalevi Suvejooks (link).

Congratulations to all Estonian medalists of BOC!

Link to homepage of Baltic Orienteering Championships

Link to results of Kuldiga sprint

Link to map of middle distace