Getting back to it after crashing my bike
After crashing on my road bike 12 days ago on Harris, my legs and shoulder are recovering and my black eye is fading (now a nice shade of yellowy purple). I have had a couple of tentative jogs and am back on the bike. I am always poor at resting at the best of times and this time it was not much different. I got on my turbo trainer a few days after the accident even when it was still too painful to walk. Probably not the best idea but it keeps me sane!!! I was really worried last week that I had broken my wrist as it was still swollen and very sore. I went for an x-ray two days ago and I am pleased to say there are no broken bones :o)
I am now really nervous at bends when descending on the road bike. This should improve with a bit of time.
Having had to skip the Open Adventure Coast to Coast this weekend, I am now very hopeful of racing the Kielder 100 on Saturday (the UK's first 100 mile mountain bike race). I am definitely on for the Cent Cols Challenge later in September. The Cent Cols looks awesome and well hard, road cycling over 100 alpine cols in 10 days, 2000km and over 40000m ascent.
I also have a new road bike. Those of you who read my last blog will know why I needed one... A Planet-X titanium lynskey and it is great!
Monday, 31 August 2009
Mending
Friday, 28 August 2009
Daniel Hubmann
| Sport: | Orienteering |
| Team Member Since: | 2009 |
| Location: | Bern, Switzerland |
| Day job: | Professional Sportsman |
| Favorite Gear: | the X-Talon. Because it’s light and you can run almost everywhere with it. |
| 2010 Plans: | To master the Scandinavic terrain at the World Champs and to win again. |
To have the full control with map and compass just somewhere out in the forest everywhere on this world is a great feeling!
Started to orienteer when I was 11. Did also some track and flied (PB half marathon: 1:05:59). After the first big success as a junior (World Champion 2002) I started really to focus on orienteering. Since 2007 professional.
Thursday, 27 August 2009
Lakeland 100 again
This is a nice picture of me in action (!!) on the Lakeland 100 race. It is taken outside Lakes runner in Ambleside about 85 miles into the race. I asked for 10 minutes sleep but was woken after a couple, given a drink and food and encouraged to carry on. It is all a bit of a blur.
After a couple of week rest, I have started to train properly and I am running well again. I was thinking of trying a fast (15 or 16 hour) Bob Graham round. Physically I think I can do it but mentally I do not think I can cope. It is too soon from the Lakeland 100 and I suffered a lot there.
So I am going to enjoy some of my favourite races in the Lakes (Grizedale Fell Race, Mountain Trial, 3 Shire, Langdale) over the next couple of months and then do the OMM in October.
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
Macca finishes 13th at Xterra European's
After a solid swim, pulling up to 18th on the bike, I ran through to finish 13th in the Pro field at last weekends Xterra European championships
Tuesday, 25 August 2009
Team inov-8 runners at the World Orienteering Championships.
Over the last week and a bit, the World Orienteering Championships have been taking place in Miskolc, Hungary. The British team included 4 new members of team inov-8, Oli Johnson, Graham Gristwood, Rachael Elder and Sarah Rollins.
The week opened with the middle qualification, with 3 heats and 15 to go through from each heat. Rachael and Oli both qualified (Graham and Sarah were not competing in the middle distance), although neither of them as well as they would have liked. No other Brits qualified.
| 1 | Andrey Khramov | RUS | 15.10 | +0:00 |
| 2 | Fabian Hertner | SUI | 15.36 | +0.25 |
| 3 | Daniel Hubmann | SUI | 15.38 | +0.27 |
| 17 | Graham Gristwood | GBR | 16.39.5 | +1.28 |
| 18 | Scott Fraser | GBR | 16.39.6 | +1.29 |
| 1 | Helena Jansson | SWE | 15.07 | +0:00 |
| 2 | Linnea Gustafsson | SWE | 15.49 | +0.28 |
| 3 | Simone Niggli | SUI | 15.54 | +0.56 |
| 19 | Pippa Whitehouse | GBR | 16.47 | +1.39 |
| 24 | Helen Bridle | GBR | 17.13 | +2.05 |
| 29 | Sarah Rollins | GBR | 17.53 | +2.45 |
| 1 | Thierry Gueorgiou | FRA | 37.14 | +0:00 |
| 2 | Daniel Hubmann | SUI | 37.42 | +0.28 |
| 3 | Matthias Merz | SUI | 38.10 | +0.56 |
| 33 | Oliver Johnson | GBR | 44.01 | +6.47 |
| 1 | Dana Brozkova | CZE | 37.09 | +0:00 |
| 2 | Marianne Andersen | NOR | 37.19 | +0.10 |
| 3 | Simone Niggli | SUI | 37.58 | +0.49 |
| 26 | Rachael Elder | GBR | 45.32 | +8.23 |
| 1 | Simone Niggli | SUI | 1.17.26 | +0:00 |
| 2 | Marianne Andersen | NOR | 1.19.17 | +1.51 |
| 3 | Minna Kaupi | FIN | 1.19.36 | +2.10 |
| 28 | Sarah Rollins | GBR | 1.33.23 | +15.57 |
| 33 | Helen Bridle | GBR | 1.35.33 | +18.07 |
| 1 | Daniel Hubmann | SUI | 1.36.31 | +0:00 |
| 2 | Thierry Gueorgiou | FRA | 1.38.26 | +1.55 |
| 3 | Mikhail Mamleev | ITA | 1.40.40 | +4.09 |
| 9 | Graham Gristwood | GBR | 1.43.49 | +7.18 |
| 40 | Scott Fraser | GBR | 1.54.21 | +17.50 |
Monday, 24 August 2009
Finally he's arrived!
We've been waiting to meet him for 41 weeks and Eben finally turned up late last sunday night (16th). He's a big chap (8lb 14oz) and has length in his favour. He didn't have an easy time of it early on but he's now making up for it with 24hr feeding (I think that's my genes).
Another 16 years and there should be quite a crowd on the parent and child class at the OMM......
Sunday, 23 August 2009
One careful lady owner
The bike is snapped but I am in one piece. I have a cracking shiner, some stiches in my forehead and lots of bruises all over the place. Thankfully nothing broken - I hit the ground hard. On Wednesday I was in the Outer Hebrides cycling on the fantastic roads of Harris. Following a swoopy descent, my rear wheel skidded on some grit and suddenly I was no longer following the road but heading off it, down a boulder strewn 20ft drop off. The snap in the frame is the result of it hitting a very big rock. I am still limping and very sore. The Coast to Coast next weekend at the moment looks unlikely. I am gutted but puting it all into context it could have been much worse. How long do black eyes take to heal???
Thursday, 20 August 2009
Success in the Björkliden Arctic Mountain Marathon 2009
Last weekend Andy Symonds and I traveled over to the far north of Sweden to compete in the Björkliden Arctic Mountain Marathon. The prize for winning this year's Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon was to go and compete in the elite (BAMM 70) category of this race. It was definitely worth the trip with some great scenery, welcoming guests, good running and some stiff Swedish competition.
It was a very similar setup to UK mountain marathons the main differences being that no torch was on the compulsory kit list (it never got dark) and it started with a mass start - which made things interesting from the start gun. We managed to hold off fellow British team, Nick Barrable and Ady Whitwam, for the hill climb prize to the first checkpoint. After that we settled into a more steady mountain marathon pace (well steady for Andy - fast for everyone else). We got our first navigation lesson when we tried to contour the early hills and ended up in some interested rock formations. We had arrived late and missed the briefing where it was announced that not all cliffs were on the map. This basically meant that the top two Swedish teams then caught us up and so we ran with them for a couple of hours. Although one of them tried to take a sneaky different route between two checkpoints only to emerge just behind us to claim that they had been running on nice grassy slopes - not sure I believed that since the route they took did not look like it could have sustained any of the local reindeer population.
After a few more hills Andy's "steady" running seemed to be doing the trick and we were suddenly on our own with the end of day one in sight. We started chatting a bit and taking the odd photo and generally enjoying the scenery. We then took a bad route choice to the penultimate checkpoint and suddenly one of the Swedish teams had caught us up! It was then a dash down to the finish to keep hold of our lead but only by 7 seconds. We were not overly pleased as we had had around a 6 minute lead but it was a good lesson in complacency and certainly got us fired up for day 2.
As forecast the weather was slightly worse on day 2 with the odd sleety shower giving us an a
dded reason not to hang around. The plan was to take it steady and then really push on in the big climbs later in the day. True to form Andy charged up to the first checkpoint like it was the finish (not sure what happened to the plan) and we soon gained a considerable lead over the second team. About halfway through the day we saw the second place team coming down to a checkpoint we had been to and estimated we had around a 20 minute lead - much better than 7 seconds. From then on it was a matter of battling onto the end through the odd snowshower, increasing hunger, fatigue and the desire to sit down. Coming over the final hill the sight of the finish was very welcome. All we needed to do was find the last checkpont next to a bridge and run into the hotel. This proved a lot harder than anticipated with several paths not on the map which resulted in us and several other teams wasting 10 minutes finding the checkpoint. Just as well we had a 30 minute lead. Finally we found the last checkpoint and I got my Scottish flag out of my bag for the run into the finish line and some welcome reindeer meat and bananas.
I would highly recommend this great event located 150 miles north of the Arctic circle in the wilderness of Northern Sweden. Thanks to BAMM for the hospitality and to Inov-8 for the ever reliable Mudclaws that got me round.
Results here
More photos here
Tuesday, 18 August 2009
MTB WOC Long Final
Saturday was the long final at MTB WOC (Above pic - me absolutely nackered, reaching the finish!). After a disappointing middle I was determined to have a successful race here! This turned out to be the hottest day of the week with extra reminders to drink loads in place!
I started well, focused, however going to number 1 my massive track vanished on me. After the mistake I made in the middle I immediately doubted my navigation so faffed around for a few minutes checking I was where I was meant to be. I was! I ended up riding over some felled area from where I could see the track continuing, then I was on my way again - 6mins worse off.
I didn't let this get to me and the rest of the course went perfectly - absolutely no errors! The only limitation, and it was a big one, was the heat, over 40 degrees. I felt fine on the very hilly terrain and was moving fast for the first map, making sure I drank freqently. After the map change we rode through some open and after that I began to struggle. By control 11 I was wandering all over the track and going to 12 I had to sit in the shade and have a drink in sight of the control before I could get there. I felt like I was crawling to the last 2 controls and the finish! But I was so happy to finish with a clean ride!
I think that was the toughest race I've ever done, it took until the 5th race of the Iroc for me to feel as bad as I did at control 12 after only 2hrs racing!
I really enjoyed my first international competition for GB and I'm going to concentrate on getting fitter on the bike this year and getting out with a map a few more times in preparation for next year!
Now I'm recovering, ready for the C2C!
Saturday, 15 August 2009
Dwygyfylchi 9
Just had to post this to give you some practice with Welsh names.....
Anyway last saturday saw a red hot day on the North Coast Riviera region of Wales, and Chris and I were both running at the above named race, handy for Chris as it's only about 2 miles from his door.
Chris did his usual fast start and I tried my best to bluff him into thinking I was going to keep up but after 10 minutes it was obvious I was going to self destruct if I kept going. I managed a brief rally near the end to close the 2.5 minute gap at the top of the hill to under a minute, but then bonked with a km to go and he was out of sight.
Still, a 1st/2nd for Team Inov-8, and I hope to get my legs back from the PBR sometime soon!
Friday, 14 August 2009
MTBO WOC update
On Tuesday I raced in the Middle distance final at the MTB Orienteering World Champs, my legs were responding much better than in the long qualifier but today was the day for my mind to struggle. It was very hot and after a rush from being interviewed to start, I was scrappy to the first 2 controls. This lost me about 3minutes however I got things together again and had a good few legs.
The terrain was dry again, similar tracks to the long qualifier but with a bit more technical riding and a lot more climb.
Going to the 7th control I had a nightmare and headed 90 degrees off course, correcting this involved taking some small paths I would normally avoid, and I lost 15 minutes here! I couldn't believe it, this was my biggest mistake in MTBO ever! I managed 8 and 9 ok with a fast split to 9 but I was getting dehydrated and I took a scrappy route to 10 and made another error going to 11.
Thankfully I managed the last 4 controls without a problem and came into the finish in 1:34:52 in 49th place.
I was very disappointed with this ride after the long qualifier, I hope to have a much better race in the Long final.
While I was not having a good race, Emily was going strong and finished 8th! Only a few seconds from being in the top 6 and on the podium.
Wednesday was rest day, a relax in the dead sea after a trip round Jerusalem was very nice. Yesterday was the relays, after my aweful Middle race I was not on the relay team and so was chief photographer! The terrain was apparently very technical and extremely hilly!
The GB women came home in 11th place, just missing out on the top ten.
Today was the sprint distance final and as only 4 women could race, I was again photographer. However I went out after the competition and completed the course. It was very fast and intircate in places and completely in the open (baking hot by 12:00 when I went out). I lost about 2 minutes on number 5 after coming off tarmac too fast and overshooting on an intricate path network. Another couple of scrappy controls but nothing too bad. It was good to get out with a map in preparation for the long race tomorrow.
Thursday, 13 August 2009
Mixed bag of adventures
After a run of races in June/July which didn't quite go to plan, for a number of reasons, the end of July saw possibly my biggest challenge of the summer, and the chance to put a few things right. After suffering at the Open12 for a number of reasons which all came down to a lack of experience, the Open24 in Northumberland saw me in a determined mood. James Thurlow as ever laid on a great event and the planner John Allen had plotted a great course. Me and my partner Adrian put a lot of things into practice after our Open12 post-mortem and it worked a treat. We had a great race and came in in 4th place, just a short distance off the podium, and also claimed 4th in the overall Endurance Series, again not far off the podium. Congratulations to Neil Hamblin for taking the win in the '24', impressive stuff. I wore my X-Talons pretty much straight from the box and they were awesome, not a mark on my feet, dead light and they gave me so much confidence.
After that I took to the Alps for a couple for weeks training, taking in some of the Tour de France cols, what an amazing place to be. Was feeling great on the bike, even with the '24' still in my legs so I was pleased about that. Also managed to fit in plenty of open water swimming, some via ferrata and a couple of runs, as well as the legendary Morzine mountain biking.
Last weekend as well as lots of unpacking, saw me line up for the Wensleydale Triathlon. 1800m of open water swimming, 40 miles of tough Dales climbing on the road bike, and a 12 mile fell race to finish. A strong bike leg saw me move through the field to climb off in about 9th place, and a solid if unspectacular run meant I picked up a few more places to finish in 5th, which I was really chuffed with. I wore my X-Talons which again were fantastic, I hardly notice i'm wearing them.
Last night saw me take on my first ever Time Trial on the bike. 12.5 miles on an undulating course, no idea of finishing position but I clocked 34:26 which I was really pleased with. Was full of serious looking folk on tri-bars, full disc wheels and space age helmets, give 'em more hills I say!
Now need to fine tune my running a bit ready for the Coast to Coast on the bank holiday weekend, lots to sort out but I can't wait for it.
Monday, 10 August 2009
Mtbo world champs
Lakeland 100
In 2008 I won the inaugural Lakeland 100 mile race and this year I was hoping to defend my title. I knew winning would be much harder with a lots of the top ultra runners taking part. However, with a wet night and cool weather forecast (my favourite) I was confident I could do well. I was interested to see how the ultra runners would cope with the wet rocky trails and tricky navigation and how I would cope with the flat trails and roads in the second half of the race. I spent the year training for the Lakes 24 hour fell record so have barely run on the flat all year.
The Lakeland 100 is a 103(!!) mile race around the Lake District starting and finishing at Coniston and generally going over the passes rather than the summits. There is about 6500m of ascent and descent and with a real mixture of terrain varying from fell, a lots of good tracks to roads (I think there is about 10 miles on roads).
At 7.30pm on 31st July about 120 competitors set off from Coniston. I tried to hold back to start with but by the time we reached Seathwaite I and Andy Rankin had a decent lead. We ran together for the next section but he got away just before Boot. I enjoyed the next two sections past Burnmoor tarn to Wasdale and then over Black Sail and Scarth Gap to Buttermere. I was going steadily but strongly and happy to be out in the rain and dark over proper Lake District fell. So when I reached Buttermere I was surprised that Andy was 7 minutes in front of me. I eventually managed to catch up with him over the next section so that we reached Braithwaite together. We ran together and chatted to the Blencathra Centre and could not see anyone in sight on this big loop so realised we must have at least a 40 minute lead.
The next section to Dockray goes very near to where I live so navigation was not a problem but I was beginning to suffer on the hard trails, everything was stiffening up in my quads and pelvic region. The last few miles to Dalemain were on roads and although I was running at a decent speed it was getting painful. Andy got ahead here, i took a bit longer changing my shoes and socks and getting my Nordic walking poles out. I hoped the poles would help and by using my arms/shoulders I was keeping a reasonable pace up but I was beginning to suffer badly. I eventually caught Andy descending to Haweswater, after I happened to find a good line through the bracken. We stayed together to Mardale and then to the top of the Gategarth pass. I was OK on the steep descent at the top but as the descent flattened off my legs refused to work anymore. My quads seemed to have locked solid. Suddenly it seemed I was no longer racing just fighting to get to the finish and with 6 hours or so to go I did not know how I was going to manage that. Mentally I did not know if I could do it and put myself through that sort of suffering for that length of time. I decided to focus on each section and to try and reach the next checkpoint. I got to Kentmere, then Ambleside and to Chapel Stile. But I was going slower and slower and putting loads of effort and still losing time to Andy. By Chapel Stile he had a 30 minute lead. I was trying to run the flats but it was barely faster than a walk (it was the classic Bob Graham round shuffle). 5 minutes after Chapel Stile I could take no more. Physically and mentally I had had enough. I put my waterproof on and sat on the grass for 10 minutes. I had decided to give up; the question was how did I get back to Coniston. The fastest route was the way I was going, just miss out the final climb. So I got up and started walking (very slowly) to Tilberthwaite. After an hour of walking I was bored and I was feeling a bit better so I started to jog. Eventually I stopped feeling sorry for myself, I was in second place and that would be a result worth having. As soon as I recovered mentally I felt better physically and I began moving OK. I actually enjoyed the final climb out of Tilberthwaite and decent back into Consiston. I had finally finished in just over 24 hours. This was 30 minutes slower than last year and well over an hour behind Andy.
After finishing my quads completely stiffened up and my right ankle, which I did descending to Haweswater, swelled badly. But after a weeks family holiday I feel better again and the swelling has gone.
A big thanks must go to Marc and all the marshalls. The service at each of the checkpoints was great and kept me going. This is a tough race, it is a long way and you need to be mentally and physically strong to do well. I am still a bit disappointed by my run, I am fitter than last year but I had a bad second half so ended up 30 minutes slower. Well done to Andy who had a great run and any of the other 40 or so people that completed the Lakeland 100, it is one tough race.
Wednesday, 5 August 2009
TEAM Inov8!!
