Bushies to Czech

Wednesday, 5 June 2013

Its 2013 JWOC ahead and Bushflyer Junior elites Oliver Poland and Andrew Barnett are gearing up. Here's a bit of a story in the lead up. And stay tuned there'll be more to come.

With just one month to go before the start of the 2013 Junior Wolrd Orientering Championships in Czech Republic and its time for the Australian junior team to begin their final preparation and travel arrangements.

After selection races at Easter the team embarked on a week long training camp at Creswick Victoria. This camp brought the team together and many issues and techniques relevant for JWOC were raised. A talk from Warren Key addressed the importance of micro route choice and the ability to identify parts of the course where it would be possible to save 1 or 2 seconds by cutting a corner of a road or not. Warren stressed that experience is a major factor for good results. The team departed the camp with quality information to guide them on their final two months of training.

With the importance of experience in mind, each team member is departing Australia as soon as they possibly can. Many are juggling uni or school exams immediately before JWOC and will leave straight after their last exam. Most team members will be arriving in Czech for the commencement of the Australian Offical Training Camp in the week leading up to JWOC.

Middle Distance Terrain (right).

However a few lucky team members are able to depart earlier and will be doing so to gain more experience in the Czech terrain. ACT Busherflyer, Oliver Poland has already departed and Victorians Mary Fleming, Ian Lawford and Queenslander Heather Muir will be heading across to the northern hemisphere very soon.

Ian and Mary are arriving in time to compete at Jukola, Finland (the world largest orienteering relay) as part of a Aus/NZ team , while Olle will be teaming up with his Swedish team OK Nolaskogsarna for this relay on 15/16 June. If your are interested in keeping an eye on live results Czech out this site http://www.jukola.com/2013/en/ .

 Sprint Distance Terrain (left).

Following Jukola, the Aussies, Ian, Mary and Olle will be travelling to Czech Republic to begin a pre-pre JWOC training meet with Heather Muir and some NZ runners. The intention is to do some high speed and high intensity training in Czech terrain  - to really start to get the feel for the country/forests. This will provide a good understanding of what techniques are effective when orienteering at race pace. It will also allow for sufficient tapering for the athletes before JWOC.

The steepness of the Czech terrain will be a significant issue for runners so lots of hill training is currently happening.

Speed work is also very important at the moment and athletes have been working on this with high quality interval sessions twice a week. Regrettably the enthusiasm shown by Ian resulted in a bike mishap whilst training recently so he has had to have a few days to recover.

 Olle has been in Europe for the past month training with the Swedish and Danish national teams as well as training with the much missed NSW Josh Blatchford. It is hoped this all will prepare him well.

Some tips and information on similar relay terrain that have been shared with Olle are:

Relay training (Similar Danish Terrain)

Speed is very important as the terrain is quite flat

Strength in terrain is important to the able to tackle small areas of green

It is essential to understand what vegetation is reasonable to run through/avoid

Direction is very important to jump from corner of green to corner

it is important to be able to judge the slight difference between route choice as many choices are very similar

This week Olle will be training with the Finnish National team in Czech.

Here's what some of the team are thinking........

"With my training in the lead up to JWOC I'm trying to increase my running strength; trying to spend as much time in the bush as possible and incorporating hills into my session. I'm hoping to leave feeling happy with how I've orienteered personally. Overall I'm nervous but super excited for the experience of orienteering overseas, and with the company of such a great team! - Nicola

"My training has been going well, just finished up 3 hard tempo focused weeks training with Melbourne uni cross-country group. Ready for more speed sessions mixed in now. My impressions for Czech  - I am anticipating quite a diverse range of navigational skills to be tested, with especially difficult middle distance. looking forward to the Czechs putting on a good show." - Ian

"I think JWOC this year will be very special. the terrains vary so much and I think that will really benefit the Australian runners as there will be more of a level race for people from the south and north. I think the boys team is especially strong this year and we have great potential in both teams in the Relay" - Olle

 I'm so excited about JWOC. I'm training intensely but at the same time managing shin splints and those things that require constant care during this build up. I've just had a weekend in Canberra helping out organising an event for my club and taking the opportunity to run out in the fast but slippery (rain !) Kowen Forest. Its so good to get out of the city and into bush running." - Andrew