Discussion: World Cup

Results, maps, route, splits are all available for today's race in Belgium. A good starting point for the whole series, then go to the Belgium page.

Repeat after me: must... do... track intervals...
must... do... many... track... intervals...

Not that we WOULD, but we COULD !!!

Everyone SHOULD. The terrain in Belgium was so pathetically simple, the races seemed to be decided mostly on the basis of running speed. And so it showed how much the Americans (and the Canadians) really suck.
Not that track intervals would be the best type of training for, say, Norwegian terrain. However, in order to be borderline competitive (read: hope to qualify for an A-final every once in a while), one MUST have a certain baseline level of speed. My estimate is at least sub-16:00 5K. Most elite runners I know (Australians, Holger H-J, etc.) have speeds well in excess of that.
To get to that baseline level, one must do interval work, track or similar. Once you're there, one can introduce whatever terrain training you like, to get that extra edge.

You need to be able to run fast -- very fast -- to really do well in races like the World Cups in Belgium. But, don't forgot to work on O' technique. There were a lot of booms by some very good map readers.

In the short qualifying race, Fredrick Lowegren made three mistakes and didn't make the final.

In the classic/long race, Vroni Konig-Salmi made a 5 minute boom on one control.

Janne Salmi made a 2:30 boom on the classic/long race.

Bjornar Valstad boomed a control in the short final -- almost 2 minutes.

Check out Jorgen Rostrup's boom at 14. Winsplits shows he lost about two minutes there.

There's a nice photo of Ken climbing a hill in a chute during the long distance event here. Looks like its pretty warm out there.

If you want to make better result - I think you have to train more in general. The top runners in Europe rarely trains less than 10h/week. And those hours are running/orienteering/skiing and other stuff that makes you a better orienteerer.
It is true though that you have to be a very good runner to make result in continental terrain - however it is still the runner who best can combine high speed with orienteering that wins. Look at www.sportident.se/winsplits and set the settings to 'non-mistake' and you'll see what I mean.

Check out Vroni and Janne's report from the world cup races in Switzerland. They've got a bunch of photos and a couple of maps.

Bjornar's winning routes for the mass start race are at:


http://staff-valstad.com/bilder/vc2002/sveits/h1.j...


http://staff-valstad.com/bilder/vc2002/sveits/h2.j...


http://staff-valstad.com/bilder/vc2002/sveits/h3.j...

We need to get the "fast" part down before working on the O-technique. Anyone can slowly walk a course without too many mistakes.
And, running 100 km every week at 6 min/km doesn't make anyone a significantly better runner or orienteer. It is spedwork that counts.

Vlad is right! Unless someone can have regular 100K week with 20-30% attributed to speed work - we will not see any NA athlete at the top 50. None, I repeat again - none of the NA oers is even close to that (some may be 1/2 close but that is not enough). Only regular training may give a hope. Results are so closely packed for the top runners at WCs and WOCs! I made about 2 minutes mistakes at qualifications but even saving on that would not bring me to A finals! You have to be 2 minutes from the winner. We just need to remember that for elite it is more running than orienteering. Unless we see athletes braking 32 for 10K and 16 for 5K - nothing would change at standings. Good luck in your regular training!

the speed work and o-technique has to come hand in hand. what's the point if you can run 5K sub-16 if you can't use that speed while orienteering? something the scandinavians do when they practice o-technique is that they always, almost, run fast. that kind of training makes them able to navigate while running fast. As Vlad wrote, kind of, running orienteering in a 10 min/km pace in practice is useless when you try to run 6 min/km at a race.
So sure - by all means - become running phantoms but don't forget to work on your orienteering as well. Otherwise you'll be surprised how many mistakes you will do running through the woods having a speed of a kenyan. Good Luck!

Point is, nobody around is anywhere close to a Kenyan. Or a Valstad. Or even a 30-th place qualifier. North American orienteers appear to be from a different planet in terms of running speed.
Sure, we also make errors. To make mistakes is human. To run slow and make mistakes is so North American.

Let's get real, top 100 orienteers in the world have
been very professional in terms of amount of effort spent getting ready for the races. Such conditions
, where you can do so, just do not exist in USA.
I have to give credit to anyone who find time and will
power to train, travel, and run as little races as we
get to run all over this huge country; and stop saying how slow we are, we have to work, study, etc. For most of best orienteers in the world it is a life time commitment to orienteering, starting at very early age, meaning if anyone in USA wants to join world elite, he or she will have to do it like best
Russians, Brits and many others. And do it not for a season or two, but year after year (I am talking about staing and running in Scandinavian countries).
As far as "elite" orienteering in USA go, it developes at it's own pace, much slower than the rest of the orienteering world, I think that Peter Gagarin, Eric Weiman and Mikell Platt has much better perspective on this than I do,
and can do a comparison from 70-th to present ime.

Also, it is my personal opinion that most of course designers in US are trying to slow us (runners) as much as possible (they call it challenging courses)
where you could see in World cup races in Belgium
that was not the case at all - most elite guys had pace 4:30-4:40 per km of that course. (I am an old fart and lasy, and my pace during speed workouts is close to that).

On a personal note, I think, Kenny, James, Eric, John Fredrikson, and I have to mention beautiful part of our orienteering community - Karen, Erin, Suzanne, Saeger girls -Sam and Hillary and some good folks I forgot here are doing good job of improving themselves as orienteers.

Greg

Hey Grag is right !!!
To become a "running machine" you have to train like one, and to become an elite orienteer you have to live like one. The only question that you have to ask yourself is: Are you ready to be the one?

All I'm trying to say is that it's a lot easier to be within 10% of the winners (which means qualifying in BEL) if you running speed is within 10% of their speed. And, I've seen real warm-blooded people hold 8-5 jobs and train well enough to be within those 10%, at least in terms of sheer running speed.
To be at the very top, and to be there consistently, one indeed has to live and breathe training and competition. The folks who are there are a different breed.

Hmmm... Never enough of the World Cup. Just look what we got here so far. We began with the "do more intervals," touched upon the results and the lifestyle, so what else is left to be said in this neverending discussion???