Training Centre Presentation

I did a talk at the COF Conference on the National Summer Training Centre. Here is the NSTC presentation if you want to check it out.

Reach Goals at Westerns? Check.

Whitehorse Star Photo

This past weekend at Western Canadians the athletes did super well. The medals are really nice but it is important to keep in mind that they came about as a result of focusing on process. I love what Kerstin said in yesterday’s interview with the Whitehorse Star.

“For this weekend I’ve been focusing more on my races personally as opposed to the results. I’m not too worried about the results,…”

Kerstin knows that she can not control what her competitors do, so she was happy she was able to do the tasks that she set for herself as goals before each race. She did her best.

I hope this reinforces the value of filling out your race preparation forms and setting task-based goals before each race. You can start thinking about your races for COC next weekend.

Kendra Murray in Newspaper

A nice article about YOT member Kendra Murray in today’s Whitehorse Star.

Danish Team’s (not so) Secret Strategy

An update by Danish Juniors who are doing extremely well at JWOC at the moment said, “Nedsæt farten med 5% og løb kontrolleret.” I thought it was worth translating because it is exactly the thing we have been talking about lately.

Reduce speed by 5% and run controlled.

It goes on to say, “How hard can it be when your shape and self-confidence are high?”
We know it is actually really hard to be so disciplined. It gets harder when we run at bigger competitions because doubt can start to creep in. It can be easy to start comparing ourselves to our competitors.

We have to remember we are there to run OUR best race. We can’t control our competitors actions or performance, only our own. If we focus on our own tasks, then we perform well, which means better results. This in turn will increase our confidence. Then maybe running controlled isn’t so difficult after all.

Teamwork

I know “teamwork”  might seem like a foreign concept to an individual sport, particularly a small sport like orienteering, where we often train on our own far away from our competitors. I have to say that I have been impressed with the spirit of cooperation I have seen. You have been helping each other, working together and pushing each other. That means that everyone improves. You are recognizing the advantages, too.  Here are some quotes from the Whitehorse Star article:

“…here I got my teammates and we really push each other.” ~ Graeme

“It’s good having competition for six weeks before a big race, racing other fast people.” ~ Lee

Here is a post on teamwork  from Duff Gibson, Olympic gold medalist, on his Sport At Its Best blog. Part 2 is here.  It is worth a read.

As an immediate goal to working as a team, I encourage you all to enter your routes from the Yukon Champs Sprint and Middle in route gadget. By doing so, you will of course be performing a method of race analysis. You will also be giving your teammates a chance to better analyze their performances.

Goalsetting Tips from the Top

Tonight at the barbecue/meeting at the Burnett’s, we talked a bit about goalsetting and getting the most out of each session or race. Initially, that means thinking about the tasks you want to do well. As these tasks are practiced more and more, they become automatic and develop into a “feeling” or “flow”. Your goal is to recreate that feeling in your races.

Lee and Graham and I chatted for a bit after the sprint about expectations when you go to JWOC or WOC. Tonight we touched on some of the things you can expect to see there: cameras in the forest, announcers calling out your name, spectators, and other star athletes. While it is good to be aware of what to expect, none of these things matter and all of them are out of your control. Orienteering at JWOC is the same as what it is at practice in our little training group here in Whitehorse. There is you, a map, some forest and some flags to find. Period. What you have to do is the same. You cannot run “outside” yourself or concern yourself with the number next to your name at the end of the day. You are aiming for YOUR best race and that “feeling”. Don’t believe me? Take it from one of the best, speed skater, Kristina Groves:

“When I cross the line, I should know right away if that was a good race.”

Check out the interview with Kristina at Sport At Its Best. Make sure to watch the whole video. What she says at the end is really relevant to our conversation.

Tori’s post

Check out the post by National Summer Training Centre member, Tori Owen on the Canadian HPP blog.

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.