Preparation WOC

only 3 more weeks before the first WOC-final race in Kiev. These races are the most important of the year in orienteering so every runner tries to prepare for this as good as possible. The last 3-4 weeks before a race you can not improve your condition with hard training anymore. The worse mistake now is to do some very hard trainings. Of course orienteering is not only running, reading the map at a high speed is something to focus on as well. So the best to do at this moment is to lower your mileage and increase the high speed orienteering training.

Another way to prepare the race is the mental preparation. To be confident at the start and during the race is very important. So just like a skier prepares all the curves before the start of a race an orienteer prepares all the techniques he will use during the race. This is the key to a successful race.

little quiz: Who is the skier?

Every country nowadays tries to predict how the course will be. When they know the start and finish area they can already predict the course setting in some way. This can give the runners a better feeling during the race. They will feel better what's next to come just because they prepared it in some way.

For the sprint races nowadays teams even try to duplicate the map. Google earth and some local pictures of the gardens can help you with it sometimes.

The most important thing about a sprintrace is knowing the unpassable walls and fences...
Let's wait and see who prepared the best for these races in only a few weeks.