The Ottawa Club had arranged for an exciting sprint arena with spectator controls, a long finish chute, and a block of elite runners starting at the end. We cheered loudly for hometown heroine, The Kempster!
And for World Champion, Tero.
Tero seems like a really nice guy. I think he and his French teammates are enjoying their vacation in North America.
I got to hang out with my good buddy, AdventureGirl! :-)
Tero did a presentation afterward. By the time we'd asked all our questions it was 8 p.m., and we hadn't had dinner yet! It was a long day, but well worth it. There are a lot of things that one could take away from Tero's talk, but there are two that I will try to work on:
1) Make your training more like your racing. That way, when you're racing, it will feel as if you've already done it lots of times. In addition to physical training, that could include map study of a particular type of terrain.
2) A lot of orienteers know where they were 30 seconds ago or where they are right now. It's better to be visualizing where you're going to be in 30-60 seconds.
Visibility plays a big part in Tero's planning. He thinks about what he's going to be able to see from where and uses that information to help plan his routes. He had to learn to simplify maps, and now he has a philosophy of running fast and making fewer mistakes by aiming for something near the control that will be visible. (He never used the word "attackpoint".) He runs fast toward it right from the start of the leg, even though he won't necessarily see it until later. Many people wait until they can see something before they start running quickly toward it, but if they had confidence, they could be running quickly much of the time. Good presentation and lots of food for thought, especially for some of the strong juniors in the room.