WOC Long 2019

Earlier this month I raced my 4th long distance at WOC. After being very sick for this race in 2016 and 2018, and discovering over training in 2017, I was aiming for revenge, but fell well short of the mark. In this post I’ll dive into the course, but to discover the success and failures of my build for WOC, here is an adjoining post focusing on the training and my health.

I started the race with a shaky process, but got some rhythm going half way towards the first control. I was strong on my direction, knew where key features would be in advance and was really happy with my lines up to 3.

4 was the first big route choice and I chose what was generally the best choice, and of course the best choice for me, being relatively faster on the roads and trails when compared to in the terrain. I could have shaved 20-30 seconds off though, by getting to the road a little more directly. Here is an animation of the route choices on this leg created by World of O.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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See how Kasper Fosser 🇳🇴 runs away from everybody on the first long leg at #woc2019 Long – 3:13 min/km for 2.3 km on the road! Fosser wins the leg with 29 seconds ahead of Daniel Hubmann 🇨🇭. #orienteering #gpsanimation

A post shared by World of O (@worldof_o) on Aug 15, 2019 at 5:46am PDT

5 was a genuine mistake for me. I was focused, but I think I must have not allowed my compass time to settle because my exit bearing from 4 was well off. I made the contours fit, but knew something was wrong quite quickly. I relocated incorrectly off one of the nearby streams, thinking it was another, before making the contours click into place and resolving my issue. This control was a common one for errors.

I was feeling confident on all the controls up to 10, reading well in advance and having success with my direction. I simplified well and found I had really high confidence.

I got the next route choice correct again, and capitalised on my running speed on the flatter areas. A small mistake in the circle of control 11 cost me 20 seconds. My approach was pretty relaxed, but the re-entrant was less visible than expected on the green hillside and I stood nearby before I saw my target.

13 was a bit of a mess for me, I got stuck focusing on running out of 12 and my direction was terrible. I then lost contact for almost the whole leg, but was highly concentrated keeping my direction with the compass with the plan to relocate on the track before 12. Somehow, my disciplined compass use delivered me a straight line, but at a significant angle. I’m pretty dumbfounded about this. I was paying a lot of attention here and don’t know what caused me to move through the terrain at such an angle.

I was confident again through some shorter legs, used the track to 16, but straight to 20. I was a little wobbly in the final hard controls, as I struggled to move smoothly through the heavy terrain with tired, cramping legs. But I prioritised maintaining confidence over high speed and managed to hold it together. I was happier on the grass for the final kilometre since I did not have to lift my legs as high and the cramping was no longer a problem.

I was an early starter and held 1st place at the finish for an hour, before Toby Scott held it for another hour with me in 2nd. My race put me in 34th place at the end of the day with Toby in 30th. These are New Zealand’s best long distance results in some years, beating my 37th from Estonia 2 years ago. I had a good race that day, but was chronically over-trained, feeling not too dissimilar to this year actually. In 2017 I was clearly under-sleeping and over-training, but perhaps the underlying issue that predisposes me to this fatigue thing was present then too.

To see how the top guys did it, here is a comprehensive analysis: http://news.worldofo.com/2019/08/15/woc-2019-long-men-big-gps-analysis

I think my technical performance was fair for my preparation, and on par with other races in the past few years. This is definitely not the best physical performance from me, and I’ve been in better shape most of the past 2 years. I won’t be at WOC next year, but I’d like to have another crack at the long distance in 2021.

Thanks to everyone who helped me prepare for this race, especially the rest of the NZ team, Sports Lab for all their help keeping me running, Icebug for hooking me up with my favourite orienteering shoes (I raced in Icebug Spirits as usual), Awaken for my favourite post-run food and Trailblazer Nutrition for the advice. It’s great to work with people and products I believe in.