Winter Training in Ottawa

To be competitive during the orienteering season you need to get good base conditioning training throughout the winter. To perform my best in orienteering I have been ski training and racing with the local cross-country ski club Kanata Nordic, running on my own and with the Ottawa Orienteering Club’s running training, and training and racing ski-orienteering at the local races in Ottawa.

In the winter it is important to keep up your orienteering skills, ski orienteering is great for this. Although it is not always as technical as normal orienteering it can be very challenging navigating while traveling very fast on skis. Here are some examples from the races we have had in Ottawa this winter.

Our club’s running training is focusing on interval training to improve the running speed for the coming season. Often the interval training is done with a map in hand, even if it is only a simple street map. Using a map helps practice map reading and concentration, and distracts you from thinking about the pain and tiredness of the running. Although most of the running in the winter is done on streets, some of it is done on trails or even in deep snow to prepare for the forest running.

Here is an example of an interval session on streets with rest at each control. The session was done in two laps with different route choices between the controls.