Final WOC preparations

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After spending three weeks training camp in Finland, Lithuania and Latvia I returned home to the Lake District to carry out my final WOC preparations. You can read about my training camp in Latvia here.

 I undertook similar self organised training camps for my last two JWOC’s (2012 and 2013) but I haven’t carried out such a venture since then. So there was lots of learning old and new not only about the terrain in Latvia but about myself and training to be a top orienteer in general. The Swedish team very kindly allowed us to join in with some of their session. Their consistent high standards of training including sessions with control flags, race simulated starts, SI air and GPS tracking really helped give a WOC feel and add a bit of pressure.  

3 things I learnt

l Make your orienteering sessions high quality - with only 6 weeks until the World Champs there was no time to waste. The Latvian terrain was so thick and scrappy in places that it required quite a bit of aggression to get through it and get the most out of a session. As a result I didn’t feel bad about taking a bit of extra rest or doing some easy cross training to be able to run at a high intensity in the forest.
l Terrain running - after 3 weeks of orienteering most days I felt I had got much stronger in the terrain which was good. This made me aware of the importance of reqular terrain running in everyday training. Fairly obvious really but often it is all to easy to run on the path when you go for a run. To address this I have planned some suitably steep courses in the woods near my house.
l Rest sometimes needs to be mental as well as physical. - As someone who constantly likes to be doing things or thinking about things. This means I can sometimes end up exhausting myself through giving myself an endless to do list before I’ve even been orienteering. I have decided learning to knit is the answer - I am still achieving something whilst not doing very much at all.

At the World Orienteering Championships in Latvia I will be competing in the middle race on Tuesday 7th August.  During the final few weeks the main aims are to polish up a few things on my orienteering technique, do a few more race simulations and stay healthy and injury free. Sprint Scotland provided some excellent races at the weekend and this week I am lucky to be able to join the British Orienteering Talent Squad on their training camp in the Lake District. Having a clear plan during this time is really important for me as ticking off the sessions as I go along gives me a confidence boost that I have done everything and I am ready to go. 

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