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Occassional thoughts about orienteering


Sunday, September 18, 2005

Kim Fagerudd's training

 

I took a look at Kim Fagerudd's year of training. I used my standard set of questions to give some structure to my thinking. I've used this approach before, for example, H is for Hammer.

For those who don't recognize the name, Fagerudd is on the Finnish national team and ran his first WOC in Japan. If you can read Swedish, check out Fagerudd's web page. Even if you can't read Swedish, you can poke around and find some nice photos and maps.

easiest to answer questions

Training volume – even year round or lots of up-and-down? If the volume is uneven, is it because of periodization or something else?

Fagerudd did a lot of training in the winter, then increased the intensity as the season began. Beginning around mid-December and ending at the beginning of March, here are his weekly hours (rounded to the nearest hour) of training: 11, 12, 9, 12, 9, 15, 15, 18, 8, 15, 16, and 15. His average for the year (actually the last 47 weeks) is 9 hours/week.

The pattern in Fagerudd's training year looks like the normal Scandinavian pattern.

Cross training – does the orienteer use other sports in training? Do they compete in other sports?

Fagerudd does a fair amount of cross training -- skiing, cycling, working in a gym, playing innebandy, and even some ultimate frisbee. It looks to me like his cross training is mostly to give some strength training and to have a bit of a break from running.

He did some ski racing in the winter.

O' technique – Does the orienteer practice technique or do they get their technique through competitions?

Fagerudd does a lot of O' technique. He averaged finding 45 controls/week and a bit over 2 hours/week. I see a total of 8 weeks (of the 47) with no O' technique or races.

It looks to me like he does a lot of races, a lot of club training sessions, and a few training camps.

Injuries and illness – Does the orienteer have problems with injuries and illness?

I don't see any big injury problems. I see a few colds. He also wrote about having some breathing problems and visited an asthma doctor. Maybe he had some allergy/asthma problems that he got diagnosed (and fixed?) last fall.

possible to answer, but easy to get wrong

Does the orienteer have clear, known goals?

Fagerudd wrote his goals on his training log (and he wrote them in English!):

"My goal is to qualify for NOC in Norway and finish among the 5 best. Before that, my goal is to make the Finnish team for World Cup in England. And if the spring goes well, why not WOC!"

I think his main goal -- that is the competition he focused his training around -- was the Nordic Champs.

Does the orienteer work with a coach?

Fagerudd plans his training with Janne Salmi. He began working with Salmi about a year ago, before that he worked with Jan-Olof Nas.

I Googled Jan-Olof Nas and it looks to me like he's been a cross-country ski trainer.

Fagerudd lives in Abo (aka Turku), where he is a student. There is some sort of Sports Academy that gives good orienteers who study in Abo the chance to get some organized training. Apparently they have three organized training session per week. And, I think Salmi is part of the academy.

Does the orienteer's approach seem to be scientific and detail-oriented or more intuitive?

Detail oriented but not obsessive.

hardest to answer, probably wrong

Does an "attitude" come through? Does the orienteer come across as having a positive approach? Do they whine a lot?

Fagerudd seems positive, active, forward looking, etc. He doesn't whine.

I read his page a couple of times a week. As I was looking back over the whole year, I scanned through the last 47 training weeks. As I was reading them, a bunch struck me as negative sounding. I was surprised because I'd never noticed that before. Then around December (about 8 weeks in the 47), the tone changed.

The negative tone was understandable. Fagerudd was struggling with some illness (and his asthma problem) and must have been getting frustrated with it.

Does the orienteer seem to be experimenting or following a template?

It looks to me like he follows a fairly standard Scandinavian approach, but I'm sure he's doing some experimenting (and probably doing some things this season that he'd never done before?).

He spent three weeks in South Africa in February. Most of the training in South Africa was running, but he also did a bit of orienteering. I think he was living at altitude.

What sort of background does the orienteer have? Do they make maps? Have the competed at a high level in another sport? Did they start at a young age? Have they lived in Europe?

He started orienteering at about 15 years old (which might be a bit old for a top-level Scandinavian orienteer). He's done some ski racing. No idea if he's done any mapping.

Does anything seem striking or unusual?

Even though his goals for the year mention the WOC, I don't get the impression that he really believed he'd make the team. I think he saw it as a possibility, but not a probability. But, I could be wrong.

It looks to me like Fagerudd does a lot of short/high intensity O' technique training (O' intervals). He might run 2 or 3 1.5 km O' courses during a training session.

posted by Michael | 3:18 PM

1 comments


Comments:
Hey was just rolling thru wanted to let ya know ya got a cool blog here Nice Job.
 
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