Things We Learned in Strömstad

A portion of Team Canada held a training camp in Strömstad, Sweden. World Championships in 2016 will be held around this area so getting a chance to run around similar forests almost a year in advance is a great opportunity to get a leg-up on preparing for next year's races.

They were expecting us!

The team put in six solid training sessions over three days, including some regular training sessions, relocation exercises, relay training, and some simplification training. The terrain was physical, slow in places, fast in others, quite rocky, and often marshy.

Here's a list of things the team discovered over their days of training in the WOC2016 terrain:

• There are wide varieties of runnability. The tops of hills are usually faster than running in the valleys between them. If the hills are big, then usually the valleys are quite green and slow.

• There is plenty of bare rock and open, but it can be difficult to tell what is considered bare rock and what is considered only "open". Although its super fast to run on the rock, it can be very difficult to use as a navigational feature. 

• Visibility is usually quite good! On many of the flatter, vaguer areas, it is possible to see a long way through the forest and spot smaller features, such as single contour round hills.

• If you happen to be bonking, blueberries are an excellent source of fuel.

Also quality recovery food.

• Like in many Swedish terrains, the relatively vague flat areas can be very difficult to relocate on. So, its really important to have a great plan and strong features to navigate by on your route. Particularly strong features in this terrain seem to be: large cliff bands, round ridged hills, or hilltops.

• Strömstad is at just under 59 degrees north latitude, so.... bring a blindfold. The sunsets, however, were lovely.

Idyllic.

• Due to the fact that there were so many cliffs and rock features, clearly the mappers had to make some decisions on what would get mapped and what wouldn't. It can be difficult sometimes, then, because although some cliffs may not be marked on the map, you will still break yourself if you fell off of them. 

• In general, if your leg involves going up or down large cliff bands, it is often beneficial to go well around than attempt to work your way through them.

Relocation Exercise

• Pits are interesting. Rather than a typical "hole-in-the-ground" that one might expect, they appear more man-made. The sides are often square, since they are a result of mining granite blocks.

• Map bags are a good idea. 

This is the new M21 Ultimate Ultimate class.

JWOC Relay

Sadly, our JWOC spectating has come to an end. The athletes competed in the final race--the relay. Sweden won the women's race, finishing in 1:44:17. Finland won the men's race in 1:36:39.

Our women's team officially came in 21st, with a total time of 2:34:35. Unofficially, they were 33rd as these results include nations' second teams and mixed teams.

Our men's team officially came in 29th, with a total time of 2:22:49. They were 40th unofficially.

Trevor and Caelan were running on a mixed team with a Hungarian. They came in 49th unofficially, with a total time of 2:51:21.

You can find more information in the unofficial results and official results.

Congratulations to our team for their successful JWOC, and we can't wait to cheer them on again next year!

JWOC Long

Today was the last individual race of JWOC--the long. According to my sources, most of Team Canada was generally pleased with their long races. Michael Svoboda and Jan Erik Naess in particular had strong races coming in 81st and 91st respectively.  Emma Waddington was the first Canadian women coming in 94th. Results for all the Canadians are below. More details such as splits and maps can be found at http://www.jwoc2015.org/.

Place	Name	Time	Time Difference
81	Michael Svoboda	1:25:45	+18:45
91	Jan Erik Naess	1:28:33	+21:33
114	Alexander Bergstrom	1:34:55	+27:55
130	Trevor Bray	1:40:50	+33:50
142	Caelan Mclean	1:51:31	+44:31

Place	Name	Time	Time Difference
94	Emma Waddington	1:22:07	+30:01
108	Pia Blake	1:31:36	+39:30
112	Emma Sherwood	1:33:31	+41:25

The relay, which is the last race of JWOC, is tomorrow. Go Canada go! The teams will have the following running order:

Women: 1. Emma Waddington, 2. Pia Blake, 3., Emma Sherwood

Men Team 1: 1. Michael Svoboda, 2. Jan Erik Naess, 3. Alexander Bergstrom

They're trying to find a third runner from another country to run with Trevor Bray and Caelan Mclean on a second men's team. 

JWOC Middle Qualifier and Final Interview

Monday and Tuesday were the cold and rainy JWOC middle qualifier and middle final. Both races which challenges speed, technical ability, and focus in very detailed and tricky terrain. Canada had one athlete into the A final, the most competitive one; Alex Bergstrom.

How did you prepare for the middle, both physically and mentally?

“I did several trainings a week on technical maps, I ran up some ski hills and regular running intervals.”

How did you find the maps and the courses?

“The qualifier was on a slope with lots of marshes, rocks, and the visibility was low so you had to be really careful with the compass. The final was much more varied, it had sections with a slope, a hilltop, and some flat bits, all with varying degrees of visibility. I found the qualy quite easy, but the final was more challenging since many techniques were required, it was also much more physical.”

M20 B Middle qualifier

M20 A Middle final

How did you feel during and after the race?

“During most of the race I felt fine, but the big hill right after the spectator control in the final really got me."

What do you think you did well?

“I had a clean qualifier, which is arguably the most important thing, if you want to get into the final you want.”

What do you think you could improve upon?

“Be more aggressive in final. Running a clean race won’t do everything, you gotta push the speed. I should have also focused more in the second loop since I started to fade after the hill.”

What do you think made the difference between your results from last year (B final) and this year (A final)?

“The difference was running a clean qualifying race. I trained to focus more during my races and that’s what really made the difference.”

Do you have any advice for other orienteers?

“Just train.”

How to punch with Emit

Some of you may not have encountered the Emit punching system, as both Canada and the US use SportIdent as well as most of central Europe. The two countries you are likely to encounter this system are Norway and Finland. 

This system consists of an emit "brick" attached to your hand, and an emit station into which you must place the brick in a particular orientation. The reason for this specific orientation (and a notable difference between Emit and SI) is that the brick has a paper backup. A special piece of paper is slid into the brick that will get pricked by a pin in a particular spot for each station, and serve as a backup if no electronic punch is registered (Note: it is often best to tape down the edge of the backup paper so it does not fall out as easily). 

Emit "brick"

Emit brick in station

Emit Station

Many that first encounter this system (particularly after being familiar with SI) find it hard to get the brick in at the right orientation and therefore fumble around and punch slowly. So, here is an attempt to show how it can be used. I attach my brick to my thumb, which allows me to grasp it with my other fingers. Alternatively, Thomas attaches the brick to his ring finger, which allows him to grasp it with his fingers and thumb. Both of these allow you to use your dexterity to somewhat rotate the brick within your hand.

Emit brick attached to thumb
(note: backup paper facing out)

Emit brick attached to ring finger,
so facing the opposite way to previous picture

Then, as you approach the control you must look at the station to see its orientation and adjust your and/or the brick's orientation to punch. For instance, it may be best for you to to be on the right of the unit and reach across yourself for one orientation (assuming you are holding the brick in your right hand), or on the left of the unit and keep your hand on that side for the opposite orientation.  

Approaching from an easy orientation

Punching

Rotating the brick in hand

to punch more easily from a

slightly awkward position

Punching with arm across body

Approaching to punch

In addition to the physical punching systems, both Emit and SI have a touch free version. The touch free SI (touchless Air) looks like a normal SI stick, but does not have to be placed inside the unit to register a punch. The Emit touch free is an strap with a unit on it (usually worn on the wrist) that can be passed near the station. 

Light flashes in the unit when
a punch is registered

Light flashes in the tip when
a punch is registered 

At the recent World cup in Norway and Sweden the Emit touch free system was used in the sprint relay in Norway and the touchless SI was used in the sprint in Sweden. Unfortunately, a few of the units in the Sweden sprint were programmed in the wrong mode so many athletes experienced very slow punching at those controls. The results of the sprint were thrown out as some athletes had to go back after running past the controls, and others did not register punches at all. There has been more experience using the touch free emit as it has been used in ski-O for several years now.

JWOC Sprint Interview

An interview with Emma Waddington

Sunday morning was the first of five Junior World Orienteering Championship races in Rauland, Norway; the sprint, held in the small village of Åmot. It was a hot, sunny day as our athletes competed against 39 different nations for title of junior sprint champion. One Canadian who did particularly well was Emma Waddington, who placed 28^th out of 135 female athletes, only 2:08 behind the leader.

How did you prepare for the sprint, both physically and mentally?

“I did a lot of speed training, like intervals and tempo runs, and a lot of track & field. Mentally I spent a lot of time reviewing model maps, looking at Google street view of the town of Åmot, and playing a route choice game to practice making quick decisions.” Link to route choice game

How did you find the map and the course?

“It was different from many North American sprint maps, it wasn’t the typical flat city grid that I’m used to. The route choices were very deceiving, since all the roads were so winding and hilly, It was difficult to determine which was the quickest.”

W20 Sprint

How did you feel during and after the race?

“Like death. The heat and the climb really got to me by the spectator control, but when it was over I was really happy about my performance.”

What do you think you did well?

“I was always a step ahead in planning my routes and knowing my exits out of the controls. I took advantage of some longer legs to plan my next steps.”

What do you think you could improve upon?

“Reading my control descriptions to know exactly where in the circle the control was.”

What is your advice for aspiring orienteers?

“Run hard, be focused, but don’t psych yourself out.”

JWOC Middle Final

The JWOC middle final looked tricky today with several top runners making mistakes. The results for team Canada are below. Remember that the A final had the top 60 runners from the qualification, the B final had the next 60 runners, and the C final had the remaining runners. Word on the street is that Alex Bergstrom is happy with his run that brought him into 49th place. Way to go Alex! Pia Blake lead the Canadian women coming in 39th in the B final.

Final	Place	Name	Time	Time Difference
A	49	Alexander Bergstrom	35:07	9:54
B	31	Michael Svoboda	32:52	7:10
C	19	Jan Erik Naess	39:34	10:06
C	23	Trevor Bray	41:02	11:34
C	28	Caelan Mclean	43:57	14:29

Final	Place	Name	Time	Time Difference
B	39	Pia Blake	40:22	12:38
B	49	Emma Waddington	44:52	17:08
C	14	Emma Sherwood	1:01:54	20:14

Tomorrow is a well deserved rest day (both for the athletes and spectators from afar!). The long distance final is Thursday, July 9th with a large start window between 9:00-16:00.