Discussion: Training levels(as per attack point)

As mentioned before in other threads everybody mark their training levels,at least said curiously,but this is not what I have in mind for discussion.From my previous experience of training hard for competitions in Europe and my today analysis in my training log and some mentions about Emil Zatopek's training theory(or method actualy for him and others that did not make it public) is that actualy have to eliminate the intermidate level of intensity and do a lot more high intensity level training,because what I have noticed,is that I am getting used to much torun at this level and then I can't run fast when I need to.The thing is that I get to level 5 intesity but my running speed is still somewhere just above level 3.So as of today I will apply the Zatopek method,as I was actualy doing years ago back in Europe,when I can't remeber of doing any training at level 3.Most of the training in the winter was high volume at levels 4:(85-90%) and level 5 the rest.In the competitional seson the percentage was reversed from winter and we had some level 2 :(warm up/down,special ex.).and all the training was specificaly planed for running orienteering races.And with this specific training for orienteering, I was running test runs on track at:33 min./10 km.,and 2:50 on 1 km.,6:05 on 2 km. and run a 30 km. on road at 1 h 46 min.

When I mentioned the level of int. in the comp. seson the volume was at 50% from the winter training and when I said reversed it meant that most of the training was at level 5 with some level 4 and some 2.

After building a base for long runs as you have, you should start thinking of gradually starting on a speed work by doing some cruise intervals for a while before doing any more intense runs such as repetitions and intervals. But don't forget about rest days ( at least 2 during the week and at least an easy week every month or so) because it is quite easy to overtrain or even worse to get injured.

That is another thing , I may be taking rest days or weeks now,but that is because of the circumstances(to much work and not enough time left for taining for example),but for almost 20 years when I was basicaly doing orienteering for a living me and my club mates ,we did not know what rest was ,on ocasion we may had a day off or the other time when we would have rest days was on some sunday when we did not have any races or when someone would get sick.We were actualy considered pro's by a lot of people and other orienteering clubs.And we did not have a issue with getting injured either or getting overtrained,because we were training in such a manner that we did not have to worry about those problems,in other words we were training for not to get injured or overtrained.In 20 years of training with my club buddies(5 of them,and they are all here in N.A.)we only had a 3 week recovery period at the end of the year and that only started in the 11 th. or 12 th. year ,but none of us we had a serious problem with injuriess and never with over training.I am still doing as well in that category, but I had lacked training a lot in the last 10 years ,but I am working on it right now and we will see what the outcome will be later in the year.GOOD LUCK to everybody with the training this year and so on.

I used to think that I was invincible too untill my knees knocked me out for 3 years of doing any running at all, so take it easy from there and learn on someone's else mistakes and not your own. Thanks for luck any way, we will certainly need it this season.

What I was actualy trying to point out,is that it was,not only me,it was the whole club team ,5-6 members that we grew up toghether and we trained for orienteering from age 12,and we went through a gradual proccess in training ,we had a trainer all the time and our bodies developed specific strenght over the first few years and when we got to the top we were ready to push it hard,because we knew we were strong.This specific strenght takes years and years to develop and then you are ready to push your body to almost any limits,if you did not went trough, that long proccess, and you just step it up to the highest level,skiping a few steps in giving ,your body enough time to develop properly, for the tasks, you are going to put it to,of course that you will have things go wrong ,more than somebody who did .I think that is the main reason for people getting injured in orienteering,this is a tough sport, if you are trying to compete and train,to get close to the top world level.As others pointed out training for orienteering is substantialy different than just training for runing and a lot of orienteers in U.S. come with some kind of runing background and dont grow up doing only orienteering and they have a tough time to change radically the ways they wre training and put their bodies to do some tasks ,taht they are not 100% ready for.It takes a lot of planing and commitment to get positive results,I know it,I used to do it for a living for manny years.

And one more thing ,you have to know you are invincible, not only think that you are,that's the only way it works.