O-week in Ottawa

My last preparation has included a week of Orienteering in Ottawa. The first day in Ottawa was really rainy, but as usual, it does not stop orienteers from racing.

My first race and gold medal was on Farsta race (Lac Beauchamp. Farsta means one-man relay. We had 3 loops with two kilometers courses on them. Ottawa terrain is well known for its rocks and marshes. After my first loop, I was 3d. I did not do mistakes, but choose more safe routes. In the middle of the second loop, I got Robbie Anderson. We ran all way to the end, but two CPs before finish, I checked legends and our CP was located on the bottom of the cliff. After Robbie went up, I went to the bottom and got a chance/advantage to punch it first and as a result, I finished first.

My second race was Classic Event. It took place on the same area as 1st Canadian Orienteering Championship (COC) in 1968. The map is quit old and vegetation is not reliable; so, I took it easy. I finished 4th and only few seconds behind second place, which was not as bad as I was thinking.
My third day was a Sass Peepre Junior Training Camp. I got an excellent opportunity to run some Orienteering with juniors, and provide them a feedback later. Training day included 4 trainings: Contour-O, Line-O, Sprint and Star-O. I would like to say that only my group of kids took all CPs in the forest. I was really surprised that present juniors are more Orienteering oriented and willing to spend their time to improve their skills and results.
Next day I got sick and did not feel well, but I wanted to run a Sprint Chase in Carleton University. Sprint Chase included prologue at 12pm and chase sprint at 3pm. My goal for 1st race was not to win, but to be not far away from the leader. I started 4th and 9 seconds behind the leader in the main sprint chase. The final race was really technical, fast and fun. With 15 runners in one minute on 2,5k course, it was a great challenge to run away physically. So, I tried to run away on different route choices, but they were to close. Finally, on CP#13 (I punched 2d) the leader of the pack made a route choice mistake and pack followed him, so I ran to the right into the tunnel and got around 15 sec advantage. It was my second gold in 3 races.

My 5th day and the last before COC10 was a Relay, which I ran with Andrew and Ethan Childs from US Junior Orienteering Team. I got really confused and upset because of the start procedure. I lost my concentration and did few mistakes, which is not very often these days. I finished 5th, but my teammate did a great job and we won it. It was my third gold in 4 races. It was a great lesson from me before COC. I realized that I should focus on my-self, map and pace. Only good news was that I felt better from my sickness.
Next post is about my main race of the year- Canadian Orienteering Championship 2010.

Last preparation before the trip to Ottawa

It was one week before Canadian Orienteering Championship (COC) in Ottawa. I was packing my stuff for the week of Orienteering, and making my last preparation before the main race. I did analyze my mistakes from North American Orienteering Championship and trained hard to fix them.


I had increased a number of trainings with map. A big part of my preparation for COC10 was training with Antonio Perez (on the photo - European Youth Orienteering Champion/16th in JWOC10) and another Spanish orienteer Oscar Vila. They showed me how hard I have to work to achieve my goals.

World Orienteering Championship was a great mental preparation. I spent lots of time watching Elite runners running on live TV and GPS, and of course, after race analysis. Thierry Gueorgiou did a great job and finished with two BRONZE medals at Middle and Long. Aleksandr Kratov, my Ukrainian teammate and friend, did very well and finished 5th at Middle.

It was very important for me not to think about COC10 before the race day- I did not want to “burn out”. So, the best way to forget about upcoming races was to go and do something different from Orienteering; something like Rogers Cup Tennis tournament. I went to watch Roger Federer (Ranked 3d), who did not play for 6 weeks and it was an important return match for him. He won, but with a small struggle. It was an inspirational lesson for me to fight till the end.

My last preparation part was in Ottawa, where I had few interesting races and trainings with Canadian Junior team before the final COC10 races. Orienteering week in Ottawa is my next post!

North American Orienteering Championship 2010

As I promised at the last post, I will write about my trip to NAOC in BC. So, after the hot weather in US, I travelled to +10C and rainy Cranbrook, BC! It was quite a change for me. First race at NAOC was Middle. I remember I get some hard time to navigate and understand the map, but in the end of the course I get really happy with my Orienteering style, which promised a good result on Long.

Long course was fast, simple and boring on some splits. I had really clean race till CP12, where after a well-done long leg, I lost 3 min in the CP area (I got few Elite runners there and lost my concentration). And the same mistake on CP16, which cost almost 5 min. I got caught by Rob Baker, who motivated me to run faster in the end. As he told me after the course, he thought that I caught him, so he tried to run away (he did, but only on the finish line). His result was third, and mine was 14th or 10th between North American orienteers. I was really close to my goal, which was overall top 5!!! Concentration is one of the major mistakes in Orienteering- it could be caused by different factors; so, it needs lots of training and attention!!!

The last race was Sprint! I would say right away- it was my cleanest race ever! I got everything clean and fast. I finished 9th overall or 5th North American orienteer. I lost 6 sec to 6th place (there were two runners) and 1 sec to Boris G (or 6 sec to 3d North American orienteer). I started one of the first people, so I had to push hard to break branches. I was 2d till the Red Group started. So, they knew the results and pushed a little bit harder on 200m track finish. I am satisfied by my results for the last week! I have very stable results on Sprint and almost stable on Long, which are my favorite disciplines.

I have few weeks to eliminate my weak sides and be prepared to COC 2010 in Ottawa.