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…

Linear features training

On Tuesday, the training was designed to practice looking for linear features. Linear features allow you to simplify relatively easily because they are often quite obvious. There are two basic kinds of linear features: handrails and catching features. Handrails are basically something to run along that takes you easily in the direction of the control. Catching features cross your direction of travel and allow you to go roughly and quickly with the knowledge that you will hit the feature.  Once you hit the catching feature you will be able to move along it to find your location and/or know the exact distance travelled along the leg.

Here is the course. Which linear features did you use?

Here is the same course again with the key linear features marked on the map with a blue highlighter. Note that often it is necessary to use linear features in combination. As with most things, there is more than one correct way, so you may have chosen to use different features.

I have one final cautionary note. While the open areas on this map are excellent to use as handrails, it is important to use them with the contours. When something really stands out on a map (like the yellow on this map), there is a tendency to rely too much on that feature. Try to “see” the layers of information.

A New Season

The 2011 orienteering season is upon us. What an exciting season it promises to be here in the Yukon. The Yukon Orienteering Association is looking forward to hosting the rest of the country for the Westerns Canadian and Canadian Orienteering Championships in July.

The Yukon Orienteering Team is looking very strong. We currently have 7 athletes in the Canadian High Performance Program and two athletes selected to run at the Junior World Championships in Poland. These athletes are part of the Red Group for competitive 15-20 year old athletes. The Yukon Orienteering Team also consists of the Orange Group for 13-14 year olds and Yellow Group for 10-12 year olds. Check out the YOT page on the YOA site for information on each of the training groups.

In addition, the YOA is proud to be hosting a National Summer Training Centre pilot project of the Canadian Orienteering Federation’s High Performance Committee. Six HPP athletes from outside the territory will be here for between 2.5 weeks and 4 months to live and train.