Occassional thoughts about orienteering
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| okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering |
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Tuesday, August 23, 2005 Tips for American Orienteers Living in SwedenBoris Granovskiy, who has run on the U.S. team at the last two WOCs, just moved to Sweden. Boris is not quite 25 years old. If I understand correctly, he is studying at the university in Uppsala.I was 24 when I moved to Sweden. I'd run on one WOC team. I was going to the university in Stockholm. So, Boris and I have something in common...of course, I'm 41 now; older...and wiser? As I ran tonight I thought about my experiences and what, if any, advice I'd have for an orienteer from the U.S. moving to Sweden. Here are five tips: 1. Work with the coach/trainer for the club. I got a lot out of working with a coach. We talked about goals, we set out a training plan, he reviewed my training, etc. I learned a lot and made a lot of progress. 2. Go to lots of club trainings. There were weeks where I'd train with the club on Tuesdays (a short jog and some indooor gympa), Wednesdays (night O' training races), Thursdays (running on the map around the club house followed by soup and sandwiches), Friday (playing innebandy), and Saturday or Sunday (a long O' training session). When I was training with the club the most was when I improved the most. 3. Use orienteering to learn Swedish. It is tough to learn Swedish. Nearly everyone in the country speaks English. It is easy to get by without learning the language. But, by learning with just a small vocabulary, you can begin to speak Swedish with orienteers. Once you can start to use the langauge, you can pick up more and more. Learn Swedish for "how did it go?" (Hur gick det?). Ask someone at the end of their race and listen carefully. Before long you'll pick up enough that when they ask you "Hur gick det?" You'll be able to answer. 4. But some essential gear. Get a headlamp and battery. You'll need it for night O' and running during the winter. My headlamp is, without doubt, the best investment I've ever made in orienteering gear. Neoprene socks make running in the winter a whole lot more comfortable. With neoprene socks you can run through a wet marsh in the snow without your toes going numb. I got a lot of use out of one of those backpack/chair combinations. A thermos was another good item to have at races. 5. Balancing different demands can be tricky. There will be nights when you might have options like: running a local night O' race; going to Stockholm with a bunch of foreign students; hanging out with some Swedish students; or working on that paper that is due tomorrow. I tried to keep a fairly even balance. If something suffered it was usually school (if was there to, as my advisor put it, write a masters thesis, not a masterpiece). It'll be fun to follow Boris' progress as he lives and trains in Sweden. posted by Michael | 6:52 PM 
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