In July the Irish Senior
Squad held a weeklong training camp in Tampere, Finland, the location for
next year's World Orienteering Championships.
The training objectives were similar in many ways to those of the Senior Squad training held in Scotland a year ago. Our aim was to increase the pool of orienteers from which Irish teams will be selected in the future - as in Scotland the Finnish training camp was open to all and to gain specific knowledge of the WOC environment - the terrain, its maps, the planning typically employed, the cartographic style used by the WOC mappers, and the climate and food.
One objective differed though. Whereas in Scotland we wanted to sharpen up for the impending WOC one week later, in Tampere our aim was to log as many quality hours as possible in the physically and technically challenging terrain.
Nineteen participated - three females and 16 males (including manager and coach). We stayed in log cabins at a lakeside summer resort and hired cars to get about. The camp lasted seven days - three days of twice per day training and four days of relaxed competition. On the training days the first session was from 09:00- 11:00hrs, followed by a plunge in a lake and a hot lunch. The second training session took place between 14:00- 16:00hrs. We had as our liaison the Director of Training for WOC2001, Kari Jantunen. The training days were split by the "Pre-WOC" games, a 2-day Elite race designed to test the organisation and other systems for WOC next year (commentary, results, TV, GPS tracking of competitors, etc.). All members of the squad who wanted to compete in the event were facilitated. The week ended with two very low-key races leading into the FIN5 and World Cup events.
The training period was successful; our objectives had been met. A number of very keen younger orienteers participated. (We do need more women who are serious about high performance orienteering, though.) We trained on all the likely terrain types to be used for WOC2001 and we experienced the mapping and course-planning styles of the WOC mappers and planners.
Importantly we discovered some of our weaknesses - our limited ability (many of us) to run naturally in the spongy, bushy, low visibility terrain, our inability sometimes of being able to translate map information to Finnish terrain (and vice-versa) even when standing still! We also need to learn more about route-choice. One week of training has simply informed us of the huge task that still lies ahead in getting ready for WOC.
Next year we move our preparations up a gear! We know now that it will take many weeks of running in Tampere terrain before our orienteering becomes fluent there. We need to have learnt this fluency - the ability to run hard with little effort in terrain while mapreading - before WOC. The World Championships will provide its own unique challenges - the mental pressures associated with qualifying for finals, and then once qualified pulling out a big race. Our athletes will need to have found their rhythm in Finnish terrain before then. To meet that challenge a number of our squad have indicated that they intend to spend much of the summer next year training in Tampere. It is also likely that we will hold the trial for the WOC teams there. This measure is intended to encourage our orienteers to spend time in Finland preparing in relevant terrain and will also guarantee that those selected have demonstrated their aptitude for orienteering in Tampere.
How well is our team going to do in WOC? Last year we had two qualifiers, Marcus Pinker and Toni O'Donovan. Next year I believe that it will be a good result to reach four finals. (Remember that orienteers from the other nations are not standing still either). All this of course will require funding - subventions to our orienteers who will live and train in Finland next summer and grant-aid to those who will participate in the WOC trials.
So thanks to everyone who supported
Squad fund-raising events this year. It is very likely that we'll be calling
on your support again over the next 12 months!
Finland over and on we
travelled, this time to Hallsberg, Sweden. Disgruntled with Finland and
my absolutely terrible mistakes this was going to be my holiday! The lovely
white forests of Sweden, basking in the sun! IT RAINED!! We were camping
so didn't have the cushy accommodation of the two Clinics people, but I've
been there and done that so I shouldn't complain.
Since returning I have heard someone describe it as damp - now that has to be the understatement of the century. 14 of us camped although John Feehan bailed out early on in the week: he wasn't really prepared for camping, wet or dry. The rest of us battled through, with tents floating in water and climbing into wet O-kit before going out running. The campsite could easily be described as a swamp - we were quite lucky, we only had about an inch of water, whereas some were ankle deep in mud. However the group kept me amused. Night after night we had a display of affection from the four in the tent. The mandatory screaming about Marcus taking up too much space, someone smelling horrible, the ground being wet and far too much honesty made up for the fact that I could hear the rain pouring down on roof of the tent - a distraction, so to speak.
As for the orienteering, well the M21 battle raged on daily between Marcus Pinker, John Casey, Andy ?, Ian Lockington, Conor Barry, Shane Lynch and Andrew Quin. John and Marcus were close over the week except for one costly error from John (not quite on a par with my mistakes in Finland but close enough to deserve a mention). The others competed daily to see how it would all shake up with a mini Irish competition to see which of them would come out on top daily - Marcus and John didn't count in that competition - it was more of a development thing! Ian had a steady week and was always up there, Conor seemed a little disillusioned with the whole idea of orienteering (Sweden didn't live up to expectations), Shane probably had the most impressive split times (brilliance with some big errors), and Andrew started ok but by the end of the week he was really getting into it and had some good runs. The rest of us ran a mixture of courses so there wasn't the same competitive edge - none the less it was fun (if you enjoyed running through waist high bogs that would beat the best in the Black Lakes in the middle of winter).
With all my complaining I have to say that I quite enjoyed it. I had press accreditation for the week (to report for TIO) and it made life a little easier. We had a car and accordingly stuck our press pass on it and were allowed drive right up to the assembly field to park daily. When I finished each day there was also warm food waiting for me in the press tent and at intervals during the day the press officer changed and someone else had a feed. Food was high on the agenda for the week - eat all you can for 50SEK. We exploited this to the full. As the tents were rather wet we sat in the restaurant with all the other campers for hours every night and ate lots and lots. I think that virtually everyone must have put on a few pounds - not what you expect of an active holiday!
So that summarises my holiday
- luckily I have a trip to France to go where I hope the weather will be
slightly better for the World Universities (although not too hot for running
I hope).
Champions Week - Park World
Tour - Austria, August 2000
Mid winter. Darkness and Rain. Christmas has passed and already four months have been spent training in the dark. Fitness is coming on nicely but what to do with it this year? Waste it all away racing every Wednesday night or try in a vain hope to add my name to the Irish Hill Running trophy? Cross country has lost its shine and after the previous summer's disasters on the track options seem slim.
Spring. The hills winter league has gone well for me, the JK in Scotland revived happy memories of the same area from ten years before and Knockdhu is not far off. Still the question, what to do with this hard-gained fitness? The answer when it comes is from an unexpected source. Gerry Brady, an old hill running adversary - now orienteering squad manager, is looking for two men and two women to make up a team to go to the Champions Week Park Orienteering races in Austria, the Park World Tour organization having opened up their extremely elite competition to all the IOF nations in an attempt to aid the IOF Olympic project and further their own goal of an Official Park Orienteering World Championships.
Park Orienteering. Short courses, fast running and easy navigation, that just might fit. First thing to do is give it a try. Phoenix Park April 2nd and a fast 4.2 km course convinces me I can still orienteer to a point. Off I go in search of details. There's to be a trial race and some pretty handy guys are interested. This is not going to come easy.
The summer Park-O league starts and I'm fine-tuning, never flat out, just practising. Bad news, the trial is to be on Killiney Hill Park - the last place I hoped it would be. At the time I was sure I'd be the only runner never to have run there before but in the end it wasn't the case. So I trained a bit harder and ran a bit faster.
Being nervous before a race is not a big deal. Being nervous before orienteering can be disastrous and was I nervous that day at Killiney. Colm Rothery had been pre-selected, there was only one place left on this team. Each control came up when and where I expected it, the navigation proving straightforward so speed was the key. 16 mins 25 secs and I was on my way to Austria for a week of orienteering.
Now with six weeks to improve I did loads of great things. Firstly I sprained three toes on Lug, which stopped me running for ten days. Then I lost a toenail closely followed by another hospital visit for stitches to my calf muscle. Running can upset as much as uplift.
A long flight and even longer train journey brought us to the land of 1:5000 scale maps, Audi Quattro's and orienteering champions. Our first run proved to be deceptive. Following after the regular Park World Tour runners the course, in Maribor Slovenia, was straightforward. Parkland early, including a vicious climb then onto the streets of the town. Under no pressure I ran steadily making no mistakes. The following day after the runners briefing we trained locally on a map I could not figure out no matter what. The heat was intense but nothing compared to how I felt. I could not find anything first time in that dusty hilly forest.
Qualification Day. World, European and World Cup champions everywhere, no hiding place here just a chance to see what could be done against these guys. On the course the first problem: where's the start triangle on the map? I'm 200 m down the road before I can find the thing. Underway, running hard reading carefully things are going well for 10 controls then an overly long route choice leads to a problem two controls later. I've come out of the previous control a few degrees off and have run to the wrong gully. A big rootstock helps relocate but valuable time has been lost. Now into the village proper via the arbitrary control in a river. Major disaster. Full speed into the main square, hundreds of spectators and the TV cameras watch me run up a dead end. Choice language as steps are retraced, 30 seconds lost but the stupidity of it weighs heavily. Fortunately there's a big hill next where I caught back some lost ground. 5 controls left and I nail them. 23:43 for 3.1 km. It's not fast and sure enough my name slips down the large leader board coming to rest at 13th. A far too inconsistent run to be worthy of a finals race. Colm does better, securing a place in the B final with a 10th place.
Next day the relays in Graz and a map to raise a smile in the tiredest old orienteering hack. Essentially three walled gardens, one containing a flowerbed maze, another grass pyramids and the last planted areas. With 1.5 m contours and a scale of 1:2500 this area will stay in my mind as long as I live. With cameras covering all the controls the race was transmitted live to China and several Nordic countries. Again the triangle was away from the start over 60 mm at that scale. Two phrases sum up this event - "oxygen debt" and "high jumps". Being flat and only 2.7 km running speed was intense. So much so that just before wading across a mandatory pond I had a total brain shutdown and missed a control. The wall surrounding the third garden was 3.5 m high and leaping off it onto mats was obligatory. There were several sprained ankles and one poor unfortunate fractured vertebrae in her back and had to undergo surgery. All told this relay was the furthest removed from regular orienteering of all the days' races. At 1:15000 the area would have been fractionally larger then a matchbox, the whole thing was great fun.
Finals day and nothing to do but spectate. Colm had a good run after a shaky start finishing 14th in the B final. This represented a big improvement over his qualification performance. The course consisted of flat parkland followed by road running back into the centre of Leibnitz. Heavy rain kept the number of spectators down but there was still an air of excitement about the event. I stood near the last control and watched one competitor run straight past it into disqualification - mistakes at speed are never far away.
So next year and an IOF "sprint" World championships. What to do to improve? The main thing to be learned from the Champion's Week was that it is not possible to run around a lack of orienteering ability. Speed of leg does not cover for slowness of brain. Before the JK at Easter it had been three years since I last orienteered competitively and that showed through at qualification. I had all the drills, all the methods in my head but as I tired I stopped navigating properly and made costly mistakes. It may be in Parks and on streets but it's still orienteering, and no amount of athletic ability can make up for orienteering experience. Still running for four days on maps that were less then 2 weeks old was immense fun.
PWT B Final Leibnitz
1 113 Alexander Lubina GER 15:57,1
2 114 Miika Hernelahti FIN 16:34,3
3 120 Robert Banach POL 16:41,8
5 103 Allan Mogensen DEN 16:50,4
14 104 Colm Rothery IRL 17:20,1