New YOT Uniforms

The Yukon Orienteering Team is getting new uniforms. There will be tops and jackets available for any YOT member to purchase (yellow, orange, red, blue groups). The cost of the two items will be $160. With the Canadian Championships here this Summer, we want to show our team spirit. I STRONGLY encourage you to make an order.

On that note, there will be two times available for you to try on the samples to make sure you order the right size:

• Wednesday at 6:30 at Mt. Mac
• Thursday at 6:30 at Long Lake

If you want to order the top and jacket, you will have to pay first. Please make cheques payable to Darryl Bray. A special thanks goes out to Darryl and Lorna for arranging this.

JWOC Simulation

For the Red group/adult training I will be setting up courses of the same distance, and as close to similar terrain as I can find to JWOC 2011.
We will use premarked maps, and SI. I have not decided which maps yet, but will let you know as soon as I can. For Thursday May 26 – there will be two Middle courses:
women – 3.5 km
Men – 4.3 km
(the adults in the training group can choose; I just need to know)
For Monday May 30 – there will be two Long courses:
Women – 7.8 km Men – 11.1 km
(adults can do 7.8; BUT – I will try to design the course so there is a shorter cut off variation; will keep you posted)
These 2 races, plus the YOC Sprint race on the Wed (June 1) will give a bit of a simulation of a JWOC week – 3 races in 6 days. Naturally, I will need to know if people are coming or not.

Ross

Analysis of Wed Night Race

In order to get the most out of the racing experience, it is good to take stock and analyze how it went after the race is over. There are lots of different ways to do this but here are a couple of simple things you can do.

1. Draw your routes on your map.You’ve done this at some point before, I’m sure. It is a really good habit because by drawing your route you are forced to think about where you went and what you did. In effect, you are replaying or visualizing your race. You get two for the price of one. Here is my map with my routes drawn.
   

   Long Advanced

2. Write down things that went well (+) and things to be improved (-). It is easy to get bogged down in the negative so try to always have at least one more positive than negative thing written down. Here are mine:

+ took time to plan routes before leaving the control

+good focus at the end when I was tired

+calmed down and went carefully after mistakes

- didn’t have clear picture of control circle on several controls

- needed to read ahead more on trail running sections to be smoother in and out of controls

3. We had gone through your pre-race plan and this was a chance to practice it. Reflect on how your pre-race plan went and write down any changes to be made for next time. For example, I arrived with plenty of time.  I had a good warmup and some nice strides and felt really ready physically. When I went to the start though and was going to do some visualizing and focusing, Wendy was there with Stian and I ended up playing with him. I was so distracted that I forgot to clear and check and had to run back to do that when I was in the last call up line. It took me a while to get into the race.

4. Lastly, compare splits and see where you lost time. I have entered my splits for the long advanced course on Attackpoint. You can enter splits for the short advanced here.

Start Times – May 18

Below are the start times for tomorrow’s race. There will be a call up just like COC and JWOC so it is great practice for you to run through your pre-race plan.

Also, today is the International Day Against Homophobia so I have included a button in the sidebar with a link to Step Up! Speak Out! where you can sign on to show your support for inclusive sport.

Intermediate (4.0 km):

Caelan 6:45

Pia 6:47

 

Short Advanced (3.9 km):

Nesta 6:45

Tori 6:47

Kendra 6:49

Kerstin 6:51

Dahria 6:53

Jennifer 6:55

Katherine 6:57

 

Long Advanced (7.1 km):

Brent 6:46

Graham 6:48

Trevor 6:50

Colin 6:52

Lee 6:54

Pre-race Plan

A lot of orienteering is unknown. In part, that is what makes it exciting. If we want to be successful though, we need to eliminate as much of the unknown stuff as possible. One area that we can create a system or routine is what we do before the race begins. There are a couple of reasons for this: it gives us a sense of security and confidence when we are doing something familar, it will help us achieve the right activation level before our race and hopefully it will prevent us from forgetting something important, like our shoes

It isn’t necessary to write out your pre-race plan each time but be aware of how it will be different. My example below for a local meet will be different than what it would be for a WOC, where I have a warm-up map, and a longer distance to the event and perhaps a quarantine area before the start. Your basic routine should be completely natural though. However, since some of you may not have thought about this and since it is still relatively early in our season, writing it out can be a useful reminder.

Here is mine as a model:

• night before – pack my bag with my gear (jersey, pants, socks, shoes, compass, SI, description holder, etc)
• 3 hours before (3:30)- done eating meal
• 2 hours before (4:30) – review my race plan and my goals
• 1 hour before (5:30) – drive to race
• 45 mins before (5:45) – get dressed
• 35 mins before (5:55) – go to the bathroom
• 30 mins before (6:00) – register
• 20 mins before (6:05-6:10) – warmup jog
• 10 mins before (6:20) – 6 x strides
• 5 mins before (6:25) – at start area do some relaxation breathing
• 4 mins before  – clear and check
• 3 mins before -call up show SI
• 2 mins before – remind myself of my goals
• 1 min before – tell myself “It is the same every time: find the triangle, orient the map with compass, choose a safe route and start reading.

Write our your pre-race plan before Wednesday’s local race.

May 11 Test Run

Well done to those who came out to the test run on Wednesday night. I am really pleased with the positive attitudes despite the rotten weather. I was also so happy to see you all comparing splits and looking at routes together afterwards.

The purpose of the test run is to provide a benchmark for you to judge your progress. As I am sure you gathered from our discussion about race preparation, it is also extra practice at “racing” and orienteering with a little bit of pressure. We will run it again several times through the summer. It is normal that you will run it faster the second time even without improved fitness but after that you will have to work to get improvements. My hope is running the same course again also provides you with an idea of what it feels like to run fast in the forest. Here is my previous post about the Test Run.

The results on Wednesday were as follows:

1. Trevor Bray                       21:49
2. Lee Hawkings                  22:32
3. Graham Ereaux               22:44
4. Dahria Beatty                   22:53
5. Kendra Murray                26:40
6. Caelan McLean                27:30
7. Tori Owen                         27:57
8. Kirsten Burnett               29:47
9. Leif Blake                         30:58
10. Jennifer MacKeigan       33:02
11. Nesta Leduc                     61:54

Special mention to Trevor who now holds the junior record and Dahria who holds the female record.

Please enter your splits on Attackpoint. It doesn’t take very long and it is useful to analyze the splits a bit, because as to be expected on a first try, there were some mistakes made. I have created an event to record the splits here. It only takes a few minutes to type in your splits and then you can compare how you did with others, see the amount of lost time, and view a graph comparing all the runners. If you are not already, you will have to register on Attackpoint, which is a good idea anyway.

May 1 Takhini Hotsprings

Takhini Hotsprings has been one of my early season training locations for years. This year we had a lot of snow coupled with a cool spring. It is hard to believe that we have had to seek out open areas and south facing slopes this late. Despite the bit of snow that remained, it was a good session.

Below is just a reminder of what we talked about. For those of you who weren’t there, here’s a peak at what you missed. We focused on basics: thumbing, attack points, and handrails. It is really important to re-establish GOOD habits this time of year. These basics are the foundation on which to build the other skills.

The first section was a line-o with the following things to focus on:

• follow by thumb
• orient the map
• read ahead

The second section was a short course with the following goals

• attack points
• looking for distinct features
• features in combination
• extending the control
• plan entire leg before leaving the control

The third section was a corridor

• handrails
• careful going from one handrail to another

After the session,  on the deck of Bean North, we discussed each athlete’s theme(s), a goal that will be applied to each session, for this upcoming week. Try to remind yourself of this theme as the week progresses. We also filled out a pre-race plan for Wednesday’s local race at Yukon College. Here is a copy of the form.

Race Plan and Analysis

Finally, we did a bit of psychoanalysis. What do you see in my coffee froth? Not sure what Lee’s interpretation says about him…