National sprint training camp Vancouver
February 26, 2008 by Thomas Nipen
Over the past three years, the Greater Vancouver Orienteering Club has organised a national sprint training camp in February. The concept is simple – run as many sprints as possible within 48 hours. Each camp has featured 10 sprint training sessions in different parks throughout the Vancouver area. The time of year works well with many Canadian orienteers as Vancouver is one of the few cities in Canada that remains mostly snow free in the winter. Although the city is snow free, the surrounding mountains usually receive many metres of snow.
The 2008 camp started off with two sprints on Friday evening, before darkness set in. The first was a warm up sprint at the University of British Columbia, a large university with around 50 000 students. Following was a race at Acadia Residences, an intricate student housing area next to the university. In the evening we discussed route choices using a projector and RouteGadget.
> View full-size route
Saturday was the long training day with 5 training sessions. The journey started in the west and gradually moved eastward along the mountains that make up Vancouver’s North Shore. We started with a forked mass start event in classic west coast terrain at Whytecliff Park. The terrain was a mixture of a forested area with many big cliffs and a section with bare rock and small bushes.
Next was a partner exercise at Cypress Falls Park. Runner A had all the even numbered controls on their map and runner B had all the odd numbered controls. The pair alternated leading the way to the controls. The exercise forced you to read the map at all times because you had to know where you were when it was your turn to lead. The terrain contained a nice mix of open forest with tall trees as well as sections of slow undergrowth called salal. The many hills, cliffs, and rocks made for interesting navigation.
We continued on to Capilano College where the next two training sessions were held. The first was another partner exercise aimed at navigating at high speeds by running orienteering intervals. The exercise consisted of a warm up to the first control, followed by a four control interval to control 5. Then a recovery jog to control 6 followed by an interval to control 10. Each of the two runners had a different interval course, but they always met up at the end of the interval. At control 20, the partners switched maps and ran the other intervals back to the start.
After a lunch break we had a masstart “dogbones” race, starting from the same location. The participants were given a map with 9 pairs of controls linked by a line (a dogbone). The dogbones could be taken in any order, however, if you started on a bone you had to go to the other control on the bone before you could continue to the next bone. Most started with 1A,1B,2A,2B but the group was split up after that. There were many different routes and there was no consensus on which route was optimal. This was an exercise to practise reading ahead, since you needed to select your route.
The last session on Saturday was the race at Cates Park, a coastal park 30 m east of where we started in the morning. By now most camp participants ere quite tired and therefore appreciated a course mainly on trails and grass.
> View full-size route
Before the communal pasta dinner everyone gathered in the hot tub of a nearby swimming pool to relax and regain strength for the next day’s big race.
Sunday traditionally features a two part race in the morning. The first acts as a setup for the following chase start event. This year’s race took place in Deep Cove, a small town located in a scenic area right on the coast of the Indian Arm fjord. The setup was won by Henrik Löfås , a Swedish elite orienteer running for Stora Tuna IK visiting Vancouver for half a year.
The chase start event was exciting as there were many groups of nearby competitors. Everyone had the same controls until the 11th control, which was the hub of two butterfly loops. Half had the west loop first and the other half had the southern loop first. Löfås won Sunday’s race with a comfortable margin of 2:43 minutes, thereby winning all four official races of this year’s training camp.
The camp concluded with a cool down session at Ambleside park, a park situated right on the coast overlooking the downtown core of Vancouver.
The camp drew participants from Yukon and Alberta, as well as Washington, Oregon, and California. We hope orienteers from overseas will take the opportunity to visit Vancouver and take part in our sprint training camp next year. Vancouver is a beautiful city in scenic surroundings and also the host of the 2010 Winter Olympics. The camp is tentatively scheduled for February 13-15, 2009. For more up to date information check our sprint website.
> Photos of the Greater Vancouver Orienteering Club national sprint training camp
