What to do with the time that is given us...

Squad email...

Just a snippet this time cause its confidential to elites (read slightly boring). Although Carsten does give a plug to the O Squad Blog..... what do you want Carsten?

Hi There all you Cool Squad Stars!

Here's an overview of the content of this End of Feb Squad Email: - Deadlines - Anti Doping - INOV8 questionnaire from MapSport Shop - INOV8 deal - next order deadline is the 20th of March! - Lots of exciting stuff on the Squad Blog

Carsten in happier times

Retro 1990's Sex Symbol Makes Comeback

There was a sighting of a Lisa Eagle yesterday on Point Dorset

Ross In Spain

Its time to check out Ross's blog, upfront race reports, choice maps, fit looking photos of the little fella, what more could you want for your morning smoko break...

Continuing to sprint through the 5th control and and down to the 6th could've paid off but I knew in the back of my mind that whatever shit was left was also about to hit the fan.

Kaweka Records

Wow this is cool. I'm contemplating trying to get a late entry to the Kawkeka Challenge after our planned weekend fell through and was checking out the records. Orienteers from Africa.

Hows this for a list: Jon Duncan, Antonia Wood, Todd Oates, Piret Flade, Ross Morrison, Bryn Davies, Rachel Smith, Rebecca Smith, Amber Morrison, Thomas Reynolds - and then into the splits: Jason Markham, Neil Kerrison, Tineke Berthelson (those last two were downhillers), Tore Sandvik, Megan Kane, the list goes on.....

The "Most Important Race" Poll

Voting has closed with long, an absolute majority on 51% clearly maintaining its premier status and able to govern alone. Middle slipped in later voting finishing with 33% of the vote. Unfortunately historical data is unavailable because it would be interesting to compare this result to the situation 10 years ago, remembering that the middle distance was only introduced at World Champs level in 1991. I suspect that its trend is upwards (and I confess this is where I placed my vote).

Sprint, an even more recent introduction, garnered 13% of the vote and again the lack of sophistication in the voting system is to be deplored, because I am sure further data would prove that the bulk of this vote came from the younger "instant gratification" generation of orienteers, who because of a lifetime of sound bites, text messaging and sub woofers lack the mental application to succeed in the longer distances.

There was one random outlier vote in regards to the relay, which is both a sad reflection on this person and their ability to conform and a confirmation of the theory that it is easier to herd cats than orienteers because they are a loosely associated mob with deeply set introverted tendencies which typically lack the ability to critically self reflect and tend to value self over teams. It would be interesting to compare these results to a poll (if it existed in Sweden), where orienteers are more akin to sheep and many live for the relays.

All alternative interpretations of this data are welcome.

Haile

Great to get an email from squad alumini in Singapore, Andrew McCarthy, who thought this clip would be good for the blog. Haile Gebrselassie - impossible is nothing

Great to be getting a few more emails and comments. Keep it coming.

Fill the Unforgiving Minute

Opportunity to Train with the Second Best!

Warning following content may offend.

All orienteers now have the opportunity to train with the perennial bridesmaids of New Zealand orienteering: James Bradshaw and Brent Edwards. Bradshaw and Edwards will be organising a tune-up camp for Nationals on the 4th and 5th of April in Auckland. Here's the detailed plan from Brent...

Very vague plan is Waiti(sic - Weiti) on Saturday with exercises designed more for middle distance. Whites Line/Spaghetti on Sunday with long distance and relay in mind. Would be good to do some sprint training on Saturday also (perhaps Massey, seeing its out that way).

If you're serious about Nationals, you should seriously get in touch with these fellas and book your place. Small fee to cover map printing. Try pcbrent@gmail.com or skank1982@hotmail.com

Scary athletes or Silly ones?

JWOC Team Announced

Just read on the Sportzhub website that the JWOC team has been announced. And what a team! Congratulations to you all and have a blast over there in the Dolomites.

Heres the team: WOMEN: Rachel Goodwin (Hawkes Bay), Greta Knarston (Counties Manukau), Kate Morrison (Hawkes Bay), Nicola Peat (Counties Manukau), Angela Simpson (Rotorua), Georgia Whitla (Peninsula & Plains).

MEN: Jourdan Harvey (Counties Manukau), Simon Jager (Auckland), Scott McDonald (Hawkes Bay), Thomas Reynolds (North West), Toby Scott (Auckland), Andrew Peat (Counties Manukau)

Damn, that must be nearly 10 years since I went to JWOC. Hope you guys get the hang of elite quicker than me.

Ross in Alicante

I'm sure there will be a post on his blog before long, but here is the rocketman lining up in front of the cactii in Portugal - or is it Spain, lets just call it Iberia.

Thanks to Rachel Engeler for the pic.

Training the First Control

Great training post from O-Kansas

Secret Training Programme

Just another young Gisborne mother is snapped endangering the health of her child while indulging her irrational vices, in this case running.

Getting perfect abs...

Martial arts training blog here....

And while I'm in the celebrity photo grove....

Thats Claire and Kramov...

Vancouver Sprint Training Camp

Now this sounds lovely, Vancouver and sprint orienteering all mixed up into one, delicious.

Lots of maps and courses there for those armchair exercises!

Tane draws inspiration...

from the fact the Minna Kauppi is having a bad day as well. Thats one angry lady.

Minna Kauppi with our own Chris Forne...desperate for a photo...

Current Rankings Updated

following Waitangi....thanks Greg.

Thinking about Waitangi

Well, I can't get into Winsplits because of something to do with the cookie monster, so I am reduced to thinking about my own ridiculous performance. Read on there may be something of use...

The sprint went well. Tane kindly mucked around a bit and let me catch him, though it always helps to have a clean first half dozen. If you do so you both have a chance of getting led into some controls but those in front of you but more importantly you also give yourself a chance to do well. Sprint racing is orienteering on the edge and it demonstrates in micro what elite orienteering is all about, consistency at speed. I am always amazed how if I and others have had a good run the split difference between us are always very similar for each leg - a second say for each 10 seconds of the leg. Performance should not usually go up or down during a race it should be on a constant red line specific to the athlete. Variations are mistakes, or some sort of weakness being exposed. You will never do well at sprints until you learn to respect your red line.

The long was a joke, I hadn't intended to do it, but my bike ride to the event put me in such a good that I subjected myself to it. I lasted about half the course until I feel to bits, with the only real mistake been on no2, where I was not careful enough with my height or compass for the terrain and scale of the map. Something I have been thinking about a lot recently is quality over quantity. I have been racing elite for over a decade now and in that time have run a lot of crap classics. Incompetence creates only incompetence. I remember reading about Nouredine Morcelliand how he would cry after a poor training session, when he hadn't achieved whatever the sessions purpose was. I think now of all my completely purposeless training session and resolve to up the quality and be more specific. For me that is going to mean focussing on my speed and power which is what I am good at. My running sessions are going to be shorter, repetitions and tempo runs up to an hour total session time, maybe with the occasional longer, recreational run thrown in. I will build-up my longer endurance on the bikes, which don't expose my bio-mechanical inefficiencies quite so ruthlessly.That may mean that I run less classics, cause I'm going to be dammned if I am going to races that I don't train for just cause people expect me to. I encourage you all to think of ways you can improve the quality of your training for orienteering.

The middle was embarassing, firstly a race ending parallel error and poor recovery entering the gorge and then returning to discover a miss-clip, my second in two middle distance races. Middle distance is the race that I am most motivated for and like to do well in, so this is a bit of a downer. So here is my analysis.

1) the parallel error. I had a bloody good plan for this leg, stay high, open ground, distinct trees and get on the right spur before entering the bush. Easy. I know the danger of heading down the wrong ridge, I went to WOC in Japan for goodness sake. But the diagonal descent out of the control was soo much easier (at least for a start) ggggrrrr. Anger strikes deep. Stick to your plan you fool. 2) The miss-clip. I have lost the habit of checking my code and description, just before or at the attack point (I have always found that if I check it earlier in the leg I am prone to forgetting it). It is so important for precise navigation and smoothness in the circle, and for not dsqing. I must practice this at every control, thats my resolution for my next orienteering event. There is always something to learn. PS. Particularly impressed with some fit young athletes out there; Angela Simpson, Jourdan Harvey, Tim Robertson and so many more. Best of luck for all those JWOC triallists awaiting selection.

Hot Blonde Chicks

from James

An email from James, I'm also seeing emails flying around about a weekend training up that way a couple of weekends before Nationals, so keep an eye out for future announcements there...

Hello squaddies young and old,

I am planning the next d-squad camp immediately following nationals, starting monday 13th April - sunday 18th april. Obviously i would like the entire d-squad to attend, but would also like to open the invitation up to all national squad members that may want a good week long orienteering fix.

I will need some help with coaching (im envisiging about 5 coaches), so if you are able to help, it would be awesome to have you there.

The camp will be based in and around Auckland, and it is likely that we will be based at Kings College. At this stage i am planning on having one or two days down near Waiuku (as many of the squad have been there only a couple of times, or not at all), a few sessions focusing on sprint training around the city, and of course there will be a few days out in woodhill.

I am also going to invite about 8-10 up and coming juniors along to the camp as well, so it should be one big awesome camp with some kickass trianing and fun!

I am trying to get a clear idea on numbers etc..... so if you could please email me if you are keen to attend, or if you are likely to attend, but still a little unsure at the moment.

Sweet,

James

Mr McCarthy and the missus

these are chicken legs, not flea legs

Recent squaddie Andrew "flea legs" McCarthy is now residing in Singapore with his lovely fiancee Rachel, here is their blog for those that are interested...

http://mcthisty.blogspot.com/

Robbie

On the Squad PB topic, here's some an email sent through by one of my secret sources... "For Robbie I found:

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1086075/1/index.htm

but didn't see a time for him. Interesting to compare 1972s underfunding with todays funding/selection gripes.

John Robinson 2:15:03.6 Christchurch 01 Dec 1973 (National champ) and John Robinson 25 km 1:20:31 1979 (NZ record)

ps my source now confesses he is unsure of whether any of the above are in fact in reference to the real John Robbie

I'm thinking Japanese

Why are the funny photos all of Brent?

Why are all the ridiculous photos of Brent? (any ridiculous photos of any squad member accepted for publication!).

Squad Email from Carsten

Attached is the information document about this coming weekends combined JWOC trials and SuperSeries. There will still be a couple of additions to the start list in the SuperSeries which might change the startlists a bit. It will be a challenging and great fun weekend! See you there!

Well, that's not all for this email, there is a few other things!

-> Updated World Games Selection Notice (Only the middle and the sprint at Nationals counts towards World Games Selection - and because of that the deadline for making yourself available has been extended (the ones that has already made themselves available doesn't need to do it again)). The new Selection notice is also attached - have a look!

-> IOF Elite Events programme - survey

I would like to encourage those who have competed overseas in the last 5-10 years to complete the survey. This is mostly about the senior program and maybe not relevant for the juniors except if you have competed at World Cups type competitions and upwards.

Here are the words we have received from the IOF:

Please forward this message to your coaches, officials and athletes – anyone who might have interest.

The IOF is currently conducting a project in order to evaluate various aspects of the Elite Events programme in foot orienteering and in particular the World Orienteering Championships. As part of the project, we are seeking the opinions of different target groups in a number of questions relating to the EE programme. We are asking for your opinion, and would be grateful if you could give us a minute to complete the questionnaire and if you could spread this message to your orienteering colleagues.

For the investigation, we are using a web service hosted by SurveyMonkey. Please click the following link to take the survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=X5TyWnkzwbqQ_2fzywAjdKLg_3d_3d

Thanks for your cooperation; your view is important to us!

The EEE project group: Edmond Szechenyi, Emil Wingstedt, Konrad Becker, Björn Persson (coordinator)

The survey is very much centred around WOC and World Cup, but it also leaves room for commenting on other stuff like what effects the new elite program has had on your region/country! Please fill it out if you have been overseas competing at high level events - we want our views to be heard. NZOF together with Orienteering Australia has been working hard on getting World Champs back to every second year to be able to better support our athletes financially and make it easier for athletes to earn enough money to fill the gap between the funding and the real cost!

-> World Cup 2009 Bulletins available on IOF's homepage.... http://www.orienteering.org/i3/index.php?/iof2006/events/foot_orienteering/w orld_cup

And here is the selection notice:

Selection Announcement: WORLD CUP EVENTS – ROUNDS 1-4

June 9th and 10th 2009, Salo, Finland, June 26th and 27th 2009, Fossum, Norway

Interested athletes are invited to nominate themselves for selection to run in the first round of the 2009 World Cup Series. Nomination must be made to the Convenor of Selectors, Marquita Gelderman by February 28th 2009. Selection will be based on all known recent form and team announcement will be made by 31 March 2009. Marquita Gelderman, Convenor of Selectors. Yep this is all for this monster of an email!!

All the best with competing, training and everything!

See you out there!

Ross is Sick

...but not too badly it seems, he can still run a heinously long flat event on something resembling Leithfield Beach. Check out his blog. And (I click) the lucky bugger is going to that training camp in Spain mentioned in the last posting.

Keep on that compass boy!