Wintertraining in Progress

Wintertraining is going well for me. Collecting some good mileage and finally also some proper orienteering sessions in a training camp.

Usually going for a training camp in the south of Europe has mainly two reason: good training possibilities and warmer temperatures. The first thing was true, the second only partly as I left when it was 18 degrees at home and also came back to this sunny weather but backing up the past weeks a bit.

Since I started with ‘a delay’ into my winter-training I have found a good rhythm which enabled me to have a decent running load per month. I also finally managed to get more strength training into my training routine as I used to do that quite sloppy before, still enough space to improve there but will keep that open for the future, haha.

In January I was in Leipzig for the ‘Nationalteam Kickoff’, a lot of important discussions as well as some other good input about training and of course orienteering. Therefore not so much training itself but the right people and a new city to discover still make a nice weekend.

In February came the first physical training weekend with the Nationalteam, where orienteering itself isn’t in the main focus instead it is about improving the physical shape and performance as well as discussing relevant topics.

Starting on Thursday afternoon with the first outdoor run in shorts was for sure great but somehow my left knee wasn’t feeling normal after that run. The next day I was able to run the 3k testrun but was considering not running which meant a messed up warm-up. Running a 9:24 is therefore fully okay considering the added circumstances. I believe it´s definitely away from anything I could do “max-out” but that wasn’t the direct purpose anyway. Afterwards while doing my cool down I started to feel my knee quite badly, which meant skipping the next sessions till I got to Turkey.

Luckily after about 2 days not running, one of those days being a long travel day anyway, I was able to run the first camp session in the Antalya/Side region without any issues. The next two days I felt my knee slightly but then not anymore.

Overall the camp was really great. Good organization, different terrains, always at least control flags and three WRE competitions at the end. Training with so many orienteers in one camp was also super nice and fun. Making some new contacts and friends along the way and most importantly meeting some more members of my new club personally which meant great and funny company for the whole week.

Starting almost everyday with a BBA at the beach was certainly a nice start into the day, collecting some milage along the way. The camp though wasn´t about load then it was about orienteering – working on routine and improving technique. I was happy to see that I quickly found my way back into orienteering mode after weeks of few o-trainings. After everydays analysis and feedback it was nice to put those things into action the next day and feel the work in progress.

With the three competitions at the end of the camp (Long, Middle, Long) I am overall quite satisfied, at the same time there is still work that needs to be done before the season starts, but running my first Elite Long Distance and performing well gave me some good confidence for the future.

So now I am at home again and it is about finding my rhythm back into normal training, doing some further analysis and looking forward to the next competitions – German night-O and Danish Spring in March!