Marianne Andersons Training

Just found this link

Displays a brief breakdown of Marianne Andersons Training for the year...theres a lot of running...

Warning: Not all athletes no matter how slowly they build up their training regime would be able to handle such a regime....

Canterbury Champs & Quick Update on other stuff

Hey, finally got round to updating the squad performance sheet. This is now viewable on the web http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p3aloOS-Bz0-ITeA1sZULRw

Canterbury Champs sounded like fun, good race between Aaron and Carsten in the middle with Carsten not quite recovering from a big mistake at the first.

Have been trying to work out some training opportunities for the new year, struggling a bit for dates, particularly unsure of my own availability. Anyone near either Woodhill or Santoft who wants to pick a weekend and make something happen please get in touch

Not sure what those crazy south islanders are up to, I think they technical train any week when there isn't orienteering...and they now have some good maps to train on, woohoo!

Reform to the squad selection policy is proceeding, the next squad review will occur after SI Champs sometime. Also this athlete reporting thing is going to happen I think.

Train hard

Labour Weekend

Hey, wrote a quick report on Labour Weekend this morning, its currently on both maptalk news and sportzhub. I thought the weekend went really well. The races were well contested with Ross, Carsten, Lizzy and Rachel in particular keeping the standards high. The courses were well planned and the areas chosen well suited to the disciplines raced. I even enjoyed the final day classic with some real tough stuff (which I bombed on) and some well thought out route choice. The Italian dinner, pizza and pasta went down well and kudos to those who dressed up. Next time will give more warning and maybe an easier theme. I reckon its important we move away from the standard run and shit talk O weekend and get things more constructive and creative (I'm as guilty as anyone on the shit talk front, need a zipper on this mouth sometime). To those who didn't quite go as well as they have hoped (especially those who are training well) better luck next time and try and keep that training up. Get out there running in terrain and think about navigational habits you need to make the most of your increased fitness. I will probably begin my second ring around for the year soon. It will focus this time on your views on the athlete reporting spreadsheet (perhaps running through an example of what might be expected) your coaching situation and how we can build up some support networks, availability for Europe 08, whether WOC or Tour and other stuff I think of in the meantime. Don't forget that WOC nominations must be in by some date this year....check previous posting or announcement on NZOF site.

Extract from Oceania Coach/Managers Report

The team got on well and worked well together...which can be difficult when performances aren't good Lessons I learnt as manager....need to be organised, with directions to events :-), quick nightly meetings might be a good idea to ensure proper planning. need to keep athletes interested/avoid staleness on orienteering trip with much down time (ideas: laptops for music etc, stretching/meditation/conditioning sessions, focus on interesting healthy food/cooking, avoiding non hp related orienteering discussions/other times for that. Other amusements, games etc, stuff to keep people sparky...Need to decide beforehand how things will be paid for, particularly petrol, a single credit card would make things much easier. I would also like to see people paying for stuff before they go (eg entry fees/contribution to costs) it is much easier pyschologically. Lessons I learnt as coach....more and more I think that coaching has to be done in the forest one on one. You can talk all you like but if you can't get into the forest and see someone orienteering at race pace you can't mould their habits. You can only keep emphasising to them the need to have a plan, the need to make the most of their looks at the map, the need to run straight and hard, the need to slow down at the edge of the circle/read their descriptions....so much. These need to be habits that all individual athletes form. We need to improve the post race analysis, we need to calm it down, focus on positives...what did I do to get that control well, why did I make that small error. At what moment should I have made that decision to prevent that happening. We need more focus and thought on the subtleties of orienteering technique. Hopefully we can work on this over the next couple of years. I learnt a lot and hope to have the opportunity to put what I learnt into practice in the future.

Squad get together Labour Weekend (the Italian Job)

Hey just organising a couple of activities for the national squad and partners and associates to get together for this weekend, both Saturday based and under the general theme of "Italian" 1) Wine tasting/drinking, will be stopping off at a vineyard or two on the way home for Saturdays event. 2) Italian themed dinner, sift around including spa pool. Saturday night ......so bring some pasta, pizza etc and a bottle of wine (this can be NZ :-) Also special prizes to those who dress up as Italians and talk Italian or with an Italian accent. Have put some italian movie clip in squad blog for inspiration. I recommend the one with the bald guy for amusement! Location for dinner 27a Flanders Ave, Onekawa, Napier ....near Onekawa Aquatic Centre...doors open 6.30...close around 10ish. Location for wine tasting to be announced at event, will be somewhere out nearish the event.

Web address of draft athlete reporting spreadsheet

Here is the web address of the draft athlete reporting spreadsheet...feedback sought.

Bryn wins in tight sprint race

Check out these splits from the mens elite sprint race at the Akld Sprint Champs...top three within 1 second at around control 15 or something.

Bryn wins a battle of attrition with Thomas and Darren taking 2nd and 3rd. Simon also shows his improved mojo, holding the lead for significant parts of the race and finishing a close 4th.

Another Czech Map...from the WOC training camp..

here

Labour Weekend Info

Programme and start lists up.....see here

Required viewing for WOC aspirants

Middle map from Czech Training Week for Norwegian and other teams... man I wish I could walk out my back door and run on a forest similar to this

In Case you Hadn't heard.....

Selection announcement To be held in Olomouc, Czech Republic on July 10-20, 2008. Selection Trials for the 2008 WOC team will take place at the 2008 National Orienteering Championships Long, Middle and Sprint Distance events, to be held in the Wairarapa on March 21-24. All athletes interested in selection for the 2008 WOC team should notify the Convenor of Selectors, Jeff Greenwood, by November 30, and should plan to compete in all of the trial events. Overseas-based athletes who are unable to return to New Zealand for the trial events will be judged on their performance in 2-3 World Ranking Events held during the period (1/1/08-24/3/08). These events must be nominated to the Convenor of Selectors by December 31. The selection fight is shaping up to be a doozy, especially in the guys...may the best men win!!

And what Brents been up to....

Ozzie

Well struggling to get my mojo up to post in the wake of the Aussie trip...mainly cause I have spent a fair bit of time in the last two days sorting out the endurance sport articles. This photo sort of sums things up for a me a bit. Scott McDonald making sure of his bearing at the start of the schools relay....6 of 9 pinestars went on to make a hash of this control in the later public event. As elites we need to pull our heads in and take care of business. Watching someone like Julian Dent orienteer its so simple...straight and hard, picking up the relevant features...but we have to remember this is built off a solid base of physical conditioning, good compass work and disciplined focussed navigation.