Patrick Hofmeister

Whole Europe is facing a pretty hard winter right now and Jönköping is no exception with temperatures far below zero (up to minus 20 degrees) and 40cm of snow in the upper parts. During these days running training and orienteering becomes even more demanding. I came back to Sweden 10 days ago and since then I have done 3 pretty tough night orienteering trainings. Technically they were not too demanding but physically they were pretty rough though. Due to the deep snow that has accumulated on some open cutting areas up to half a meter, it is usually better to take route-choices far around on roads than wading through the snow. You can follow my routechoices of the recent night-o trainings on the map samples below.

Nevertheless, I also took advantage of the positive side effects of such a strong winter when I decided to go on a skiing trip with some friends from school to the nearby ski run in Ulricehamn, 45min driving from Jönköping. All in all, they had two lifts and three perfectly groomed ski runs there. Since we went on a Monday there were almost no other people on the slope although the weather was fine: sunny and pretty cold. I really enjoyed carving over the slopes and I also had my first experiences on a snowboard for some minutes. It is a totally different feeling but it was worth a try and did not end too badly!

In two weeks from now, I am already in Alicante for a training camp with some guys from IKHP. We will be running “la Primera Prueba de la Liga Espanola”, the first competitions of the Spanish national ranking including a WRE. Afterwards, we will be staying for some high quality map trainings without snow, hopefully! I am already looking forward to training in the sun and also talking some Spanish again!

A lot of things have happened here in Sweden after my last article on my blog. It was a good mix of orienteering and non-orienteering stuff that has dominated my life in the last couple of weeks. So, let me do a short update of what has been going on here in Jönköping:
The october still offered some nice opportunities for orienteering at the end of the season. Especially the big relays 25manna and Smalandskavlen were a blast. At 25manna I was running in the second team of IKHP on the second last (the longest) leg. It went pretty well for me until the spectator control. Unfortunately, I lost a lot of time on the last loop due to some stupid mistakes on two different cutting areas. Nevertheless, I was fairly satisfied with my race given the fact that it was my first relay for my club. As a team we came 36th which made us the best second team in the competition. Since our first team finished 3rd, it turned out to be a very successful day for IKHP.
At Smalandskavlen I started for my German club MTK Bad Harzburg. Honestely, this time it was more about having fun with good old fellows and less about achieving a good result. Nevertheless, we gave our best for sure. I went out into the woods as the last runner. Sadly, I was part of the mass start for late runners. Still, there were a bunch of eager guys in there and I wanted to beat them for sure. The only problem was that apparently they handed out two different course length with me getting the longer one for sure. So, I could not win the mass start as such but was still the fastest on my course although my run was full of smaller mistakes here and there.
After these competitions in october I took it easy with the training focusing more on socializing with my new friends from the master programme. I really consider that as crucial because only if your environment is working well including friends, family and academic carreer, you will be able to perform on the highest possible level. If non-sport life sucks, it directly has a bad impact on your training motivation and your performance. But, for three weeks I am now back in training. My training plan stipulated a total training load of 35 hours and I will almost accomplish the intented amount of training hours. However, I had to reschedule some of the workouts because I twisted my ankle twice the last month. Nothing to be too serious about but some slight adaptation were inevitable. So, I might have improved my swimming and cycling skills in the last weeks which is not too bad because it constitutes a good basis for the upcoming tough winter training. Soon, the night orienteering season really kicks off with the 20Mila. 20Mila is a training on the basis of 10Mila held on a weekly basis during the whole winter. Each week a different stage of 10Mila will be arranged. It is going to be a challenge for me, that’s for sure.

What else happened? Well, i have started my Swedish class in university and I think I am doing good progress. Actually, i was proud of myself being able to present myself in Swedish on our elite team meeting last week. By the way this meeting I am talking about, was held at the Scandic hotel in Jönköping which shows the professionality of the sport here in Sweden and especially in Huskvarna.

After only three weeks in Jönköping, I came back to Germany this weekend to run the German Relay Championships with my club MTK Bad Harzburg. The venue of the competition was the beautiful woodland with a lot of sandstone rocks around Kirkel, only 30km half an hour driving from Saarbrücken. Flying from Gothenborg to Frankfurt Hahn with a famous Irish low-cost airline I could reach the venue in a cheap and quite fast way. To ensure optimal preparation we decided not stay in the mass accommodation but in a very lovely hotel in Kirkel. Friendly service, modern and comfortable rooms as well as awesome breakfast and dinner made it a very pleasant stay there. So, the conditions were perfect. But what about our performance?
We started with Eike on the first leg. Known as a routine start-runner, we were a little bit surprised not see him in one of the first groups coming to the change-over. What happened? The forest turned out to be more difficult than we had expected. Some green controls and tough slopes separated the starter field already in the beginning. Moreover, there was a butterfly forking with 3 loops of different lengths. Eike made some mistakes here and there and was already 9min behind the leader Post Dresden. Christoph was not in his best shape, nevertheless he was able to catch up with some teams on the second leg and was in 6th position when I headed out into the forest as our last leg runner. I started fast, pushed hard on the though first leg, had a bit shorter gaffling I guess and caught up Philipp Müller (Post Dresden) quite early. Our group was unfortunately destroyed by the butterfly which was in my opinion in this way inappropriate for a relay. I had the long loop and also made a mistake of 1min there as I mixed up two cliffs in the control circle. Another mistake on the route to the 12th control and I had no chance to fight for the medals because Ingo Horst and Philipp Müller had already passed me in the butterfly. Finally, we came 6th but more than 15min behind the winner Planeta Radebeul.
The next day was a Middle Distance held as a World Ranking Event. Since my flight was supposed to depart in Frankfurt Hahn already at 15.40, I had to start very early in the starting field. Nevertheless, I had a stable run with only a few smaller mistakes. To the 2nd control I lost some 20s standing on the stone above the cliff, to the 5th I came a bit into the green area and in general I was not sure about my routechoices. Maybe some seconds here and there. But altogether, I was very satisfied with my performance although I knew that there are some guys who can simply run faster than me. Thus, I was not very surprised when I came home to Sweden opening the result list in the internet seeing that Christian Teich and Alexander Lubina were more than 3min faster. The season is now more or less over for me because I decided not take part in the German Long Distance Championships. I intend to make use of the running timeout until November to give my body and my Achilles tendon a break and to focus on university stuff.

Yesterday, it was time for my first start in the blue-yellow jersey of my new Swedish club IK Hakarpspojkarna. For my debut competition I chose nothing less than the DM Lang (Smaland’s Long Distance Champs) held next to Växjö. After some trainings in the Jönköping region as well as at the club house, which is by the way pretty nice being on the very top of a hill in Huskvarna with an awesome view over Jönköping and the Vättern, I felt quite well-prepared for my first competition in Sweden since Tiomila.

Due to inacurrate registration and some late changes in the startlist, I was supposed to be the last starter of the field. The terrain description told me nothing special of the forst: typical flat Smaland terrain with moderate contour features and some stones. Nothing to be scared of, although I have to admit that especially at the beginning I had problems to distinguish between the stones which were mapped and which were not. All in all I had problems to find the smartest route-choice through the very diversified terrain. When I had better taken the roads, I went straight and when the best route was straight I made a long way round. (see 2,10,13) Apart from that, I made a huge mistake at the 9th control. I reckon that many runners had problems there because the stone was hidden in a little green and the map was probably a little bit imprecise in that area. Another mistake occured to the 15th control where I lost the focus approaching the control and had to relocate on the path between the 15th and 16th control. The performance could be considered half-decent, but as I already indicated in the headline with plenty of room for improvement.

Tomorrow we are going to have a relay training with my clubmates at the IKHP stugan. I am looking forward to that one because it is the last rehearsal before the German Relay Championships next weekend which I am going to run with my club MTK Bad Harzburg. Although there are some strong rivals I hope that we are ready to fight for the medals…

The last 10 days I have spent in Miskolc (Hungary), the venue of the WOC 2009. I was supposed to run Long and Sprint during that week but didn’t manage to reach the Finals. Nevertheless, I must say, that I am not disappointed with my races. Technically I had solid runs with no major mistake, neither in the Long nor in the Sprint. What I had to accept once more was the fact that I am still too slow to compete on the highest level. That is definitely frustrating when you are doing good races technically but nevertheless miss the final by some minutes or seconds. If I want to have a chance for the final next year in Norway I have to be faster, that’s for sure. The conditions for training are getting better living the next two years in Sweden. I finished my bachelor degree right before WOC and some days ago I got the confirmation that I passed all the necessary exams as well as my BA-thesis. So, now I can call myself Bachelor of Arts in International Business Studies… what a great title!? The semester in Jönköping has already started this week. Due to WOC I missed the introduction week at the university but I hope that I can compensate that in the next days. I reached Jönköping yesterday, stayed the last night in a hotel waiting for the keys for my student room. But now I am in, living in Raslätt a little bit outside Jönköping with 3 other guys from Spain, Pakistan and Canada. Nice mixture!
The new life in Skandinavia can finally begin…Jag glädjer mig!

Incredible! My three-year Bachelor in International Business Studies at the University of Paderborn is already over… time has been passing by so fast! Although I have to admit that Paderborn is not the very place to be, I really enjoyed my time in Ostwesfalen. During my stay here, I’ve got to know so many nice people, with some of them I could build up friendships that could last forever! Thank you for this great time, Eric and Roman, you IBS students, Sport students, ASG runners and members of the training group LOWL. You are all welcome to look me up in Jönköping that is going to be my hometown for the next 2 years. I am joining the Master programme International Logistics & Supply Chain Management at Jönköping International Business School (JIBS).
But first of all I am heading towards Miscolc (Hungary), the venue of this year’s World Orienteering Championship. Although the recurrent pain in my Achilles tendon prevented me from huge amounts of running training, I feel well prepared for the Champs. I decided to focus on high-intensive running training (like 10×200m, 10×400m, 10×3min int.) at maximum speed while doing most of the other sessions in the pool (aquajogging and swimming) or on my bike. Moreover, we did some good orienteering trainings with a lot of climbing in the terrain of WOC 1995.

I am leaving Paderborn with all my stuff on Friday morning. My first start is going to be on Monday’s long distance qualification. Then, on Thursday, there will be the sprint. So, stay tuned guys….

The last 5 days I have spent together with some other German WOC runners in the mountains Bayrischer Wald, in the middle of nowhere to prepare for the upcoming championships in less than one month. Although the nomination is not yet official, you might assume that I made it into the team.
So, we lived for 5 days in the club cottage of SV Mietraching (many thanks for providing us the accomodation) in 700m above zero next to many good maps. We did 10 training sessions focusing mainly on uphill and downhill running and map reading at high speed. Numerical: 12 hours, 100km and 4500m climbing. Enclosed you can find some training samples of the TC.

Due to the unfavourable German study periods I have to work for the university the next weeks. 4 exams and one Bachelor thesis are waiting for me. But the bulk is already done so that I hope that I can combine studying with effective training!

After last week’s WC races, the national season continued with German Middle Champs this weekend in Oelsa, Saxony. I tried to recover as good as possible from the hard competition programme in Finland avoiding too much running due to the recurrent Achilles tendon inflammation. Additionally, our club organized a regional school competition with more than 500 runners so that I was once again on journey.
Then, on Saturday we had the German Middle Champs which were at the same time WOC test races. Already in the morning I felt that there is something wrong with me. Anyway, the feeling during the warm-up was not that bad.
I started with a slight hesitation to the first control where I already lost 20s. Then, I had some good controls until the longer leg to the 5th. I didn’t prepare the leg in advance so that I was first running along the path but then turned towards to the road because I reckoned that the straight one would be too slow due to the fern. I lost more than 1min compared to the best split on this leg. Anyway, still among the best at 6 control but then 2 mistakes approaching the control at the following controls and I was more than 1 minute down on the lead. The next controls went fine and I could close the gap a little bit until the 15th control. But then I made again a big mistake because I couldn’t find the deerstand in the terrain, I searched around 50s there. Another 2 mistakes at the end and I was finally down to 7th position. Comparing the splits in the finish I realised that apart from several mistakes I could never run a top speed. A few hours later I knew why. After the price giving ceremony I got totally sick so that I could barely move. Shiverings and fever made it a terrible night so that I decided not to run the long on Sunday which definetely was a good decision.

Very exciting days are lying behind me. I have spent the last week in Finland running the World Cup races, NOC and the famous Jukola relay. But everything in sequence:

I started my trip almost two weeks ago via Kaiserslautern where I visited my best friends, then via Düsseldorf to Helsinki. After a first training on the model map, I was really looking forward to the competition week because the terrain looked like fast running in difficult terrain. As a starter we got a tough long distance on Saturday. I managed to avoid major mistakes but had in total a loss of almost 4 minutes. I wasn’t very disappointed although the margin to the winner Daniel Hubmann was more than 23min. During the race there were passing several top elite runners of the red group and I could experience first hand how to run and orienteer in this kind of terrain. Those experiences I tried to transfer to the upcoming races. Unfortunately already the relay on Sunday didn’t go as we had hoped before. Our start runner Alex missed the first control so that he had to run the whole races alone in the forest and changed over to me at the very end of the starting field. I went out with the aim of running a clear race without burning out myself. Although I did some mistakes here and there I could pass some teams and changed over to Leif who also saved some energy for the next days.
After a day off, it went on with Middle distance on Tuesday. I was aiming high because I had the feeling that I can managed the terraing now quite well which was an absolutely wrong assumption as it turned out in the forest of Middle distance. I started fast and under full control to the first one. Then, we had a longer leg to the second where you had to use the compass very precisely not to loose direction. In this terrain we had been already for the relay so I thought that I only had to run more or less in the direction and then relocate before the control. Unfortunately, this didn’t work at all so that I had to search for the control more than 4 minutes. Ok, re-start I was thinking, a good result is gone but use the rest of the course as a good training. I was running the rest of the course with a clear head, had some slight mistakes here and there, but all in all it was ok. Damn stupid this 2nd control. On Wednesday it was time for sprint. We had a qualification in the morning and the final was supposed to be in the afternoon but only 11 of 40 from each heat made it into the final. So, full speed, no mistake was the motto! The beginning was fine. I could run fast and took the right route choices. To he 6th I chose to go around the hill on the road. But right before the control I misinterpreted the urban area with the asphalt where the control should be. I went in and searched some seconds around a doghouse. Then I saw one of the organizers and realised that I entered the forbidden area. I excused myself, turned back to where I came from and attacked the control once again the right way, 25s where gone and so did the final. At the end I had one bigger hesitation to the 11th and a wrong micro route-choice to the second last control. Thus, not very suprisingly I was 1.39 down on the lead.
During the next days we had some training with map or without in Salo region and from Friday on in Mikkeli where the Jukola was held. There, the terrain differed a lot from Salo’s forest as it was more dense forest, had more tracks and roads and less contour details. I was running 2nd leg for DJK Adler Bottrop (no, not my new club, my favorite is still the MTK). Alex had a really good start and changed over to me in 54 position. I had a very good race except of one major mistake where I turned the map to the south and was running around 100 meters in the wrong direction. Fortunately, I realised the mistake quite fast and turned back. After that I pushed harder to catch up the runners that had passed my during the mistake. At the end I could win 16 places and changed over in 38th spot. As expected we lost some places afterwards but with spot 188 of 1400 teams we are happy. Next to come is German Middle distance Champs the next weekend.

The University of Paderborn is coming back from the national University Champs with 5 gold medals in their baggage after very succesful days in Leipzig. We won both the Women and Men individual race as well as the relay. Especially Karin Schmalfeld stroke back impressively with a huge margin of 13 minutes to the next female runner. For me it was the first important national elite title and I am very satisfied with my performace that day.

The individual race was held in a heather terrain about an hour away from Leipzig city. The forest around Lausa was slightly hilly with varied runnability and visibility - the white area on the map sometimes turned out to be quite dense. After a lousy start with hesitations at the first and second control I managed to understand the map better at the next controls trying to stay on the red line as close as posible. Until the 16th control I had a very good race so that I never lost more than 10s to the best split. Then, I struggled through the course and lost some time here and there. The biggest mistake happened at the 20th control: I didn’t realised that I crossed the road, didn’t checked the compass direction accurately and searched for a while on the wrong hill, 1′30 was gone. Nevertheless the victory was never in danger and at the end I had a gap of 2:33 to the 2nd Philipp Müller, 3rd was Sebastian Bergmann.
As the two-times defending champion in the relay we, Karin, Roman and I, aimed high and intended to win the tripple being aware of the strength of the team from Dresden. The competition consisted of two sprint races for each of the 3 runners of one team. As the competition area served the Campus of the University Leipzig as well as the nearby Palmengarten. Whereas the first sprint was rather physically demanding the second one was more tecnical with a butterfly and more controls on the Campus. We had 6 solid races without any huge mistake so that we could finally defend our title from the last two years. What a Championship for Paderborn!

Immediately after the relay, the majority of the orienteers journeyed on towards the famous 24 hours orienteering event in Thüringen. Due to the upcoming World Cup I decided not to run the 24 hours but to start in a 12 hours team. I did run 3 courses (1 Long difficult and 2 Long easy)within 5 hours for my team Mitleidstour and went home afterwards to work for the university the next days.