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Mark Gregson, president of the Foothills Wanderers Club, practicing at the University of Calgary. Xtreme Orienteering By Nicki Rehn Photography by Nicki Rehn Tired of interval training? Take up -O instead.

magine at maximum manicured parks, city forest, a and into the city. With many top speed through an amuse- horse- track, and through orienteers from around the world ment park while navigating an amusement park,” recalls and the International Orienteering your way to a specific park MacNaughton. The chance to take Federation advocating for its addi- Ibench located among the rides. your speed training away from the tion to the list of future Olympic Your heart pounds at anaerobic track and out to such fascinating , sprint orienteering’s rising threshold as you leap over garden settings is what draws many run- exposure and popularity excite beds, power up steps, weave ners into the . MacNaughton competitors like MacNaughton. around fences, and make decisions is currently training for the inau- Adrian Zissos, an elite orienteer that might give you a split-second gural GORE-TEX™ TransRockies with the Foothills Wanderers advantage over a competitor. This Run in September, a six-day stage Orienteering Club in Calgary, was Charlotte MacNaughton’s ex- race in Colorado. Her fifteen years takes advantage of the fact that perience at the recent World Sprint of experience in orienteering will symbols are internationally Orienteering Championships in help her running strength as she standardized to travel the world . A two-time Canadian negotiates the high-altitude trails. in search of exhilarating places to National Orienteering team mem- Sprint orienteering is a relatively sprint. He has raced in Instanbul’s ber, MacNaughton has journeyed new form of orienteering. It was Grand Bazaar, or Kapali Carsi, the across the globe and navigated developed in the mid-1990s as streets and alleys of , and and sprinted her way through the the “Park World Tour,” a means to the old walled of Obidos in world’s most thrilling urban and promote orienteering around the . Zissos, who has been forest terrain. For MacNaughton, world. Traditionally, orienteering is orienteering for twenty years, sprint orienteering offered a staged in forests or natural areas, describes sprint orienteering as fantastic way to improve her run- where spectator and media involve- the “intelligent sport,” combining ning speed because she was able to ment in limited. Competitors use athleticism with intense concentra- run in some incredibly interesting a detailed map and to tion. “It is imperative to use every places. find points, or controls, on the second to its full so that you can “The championship race in . Sprint orienteering brings prepare for what is coming. You Denmark was staged across the sport out of the wildness must always know what you are

34 IMPACT Magazine July/August 2007 going to do next so that you can do it without stopping to plan. This requires constant mental activity so that you can maintain a consis- tent top running speed.” Hesitation may cost you the race, a strategy that Zissos put into practice when he won the sprint orienteering event at the 2006 Croatia Open with just five seconds to spare over the competitive European field. Marion Owen, an active member of Calgary’s ski racing community, uses sprint orienteering to improve running speed and prefers it to Sprint orienteering events last only twelve to fifteen minutes. interval training in the off-season. She comments that “sprint orienteering is a high-inten- ten-kilometre finishes, uses sprint ing. Intense mental concentration sity workout that provides more orienteering to add variety to her does a profound job of masking interest than running around a training regime. “Sprint orienteer- the pain. When you consider that track. Because your mind is fully ing is a terrific way to work on most ‘sprint-Os’ include a practice occupied, you are less aware of the agility, plyometrics, hills, and or warm-up course, the race itself, pain and can often push harder as speed in a tight compact package and a cool-down, a sprint event you try to beat your competitors or without having to worry about makes for a quality forty-five-min- your own best time.” Orienteering repeats.” Silverthorn believes that ute session. Over the last eighteen has also taken Owen to Europe. speed work has paid dividends for months, I have attained signifi- Last year, Owen placed second her long-distance running too. “I’m cantly faster personal best times in out of one hundred competitors a fan of interval work, but as an my , half-marathon, and in her age group at the Swiss ultra-marathon runner, I dislike ten-kilometre races, with sprint Orienteering Week sprint in the the track. Sprint orienteering is a orienteering taking the place of village of Zermatt. quick, fun way to work on speed most of my interval and fartlek Sprint orienteering draws people with a low risk of injury and little workouts. from diverse athletic backgrounds, time outlay.” Silverthorn recently All major cities in Canada, and Jen Silverthorn is no excep- won the Mitsubishi City Chase including Calgary, Edmonton, and tion. Silverthorn, a successful in Edmonton and will be off to Vancouver have orienteering clubs ultra-marathoner with a long list the Nationals in September. Her offering regular events, clinics, of podium finishes and equally capacity for short bursts of speed training camps and coaching. impressive half-marathon and aided her win. “In any running Calgary alone has six sprint ven- race, there are times when you ues, and two more will be added in GET STARTED need to elevate your speed for a the Canmore area before the end of slight moment, in order to move the year. Charlotte MacNaughton For more information and links to the past a competitor or to sprint for enjoys racing locally because re- Web sites of local clubs, contact: the finish. In sprint orienteering, sults at most events count toward you are often forced to add a burst the American sprint series, of speed to your already one-hun- an annual competition allowing dred-per-cent effort as you try to runners to compete against their beat a competitor to a control. This counterparts throughout Canada trains your body to know it can put and the . a little extra juice in the tank, even Sprint orienteering provides a when it feels like you can’t.” new and exciting way to train your As a long-time marathoner and run. It is an enjoyable alternative triathlete, I can attest to the ben- to those painful intervals, which efits that sprint orienteering bring is a claim worth investigating by to running speed. Traditional inter- even the most dedicated lactic Alberta Orienteering Association val training, although important, acid-lovers. www.albertaorienteering.ca is often agonizing. In contrast, Nicki Rehn is a Calgary teacher and British Columbia Orienteering it’s fun and easy to show up at a member of the Foothills Wanderers Association local park for a Wednesday night Orienteering Club. Rehn was the 2006 www.orienteeringbc.ca sprint orienteering event and reap the benefits of twelve to fifteen Alberta sprint orienteering champion and will represent Canada at the ITU World Canadian Orienteering Federation minutes of anaerobic running. For Long Distance Championships in Lorient, www.orienteering.ca this reason, sprint orienteering has become a regular part of my train- , in July 2007.

36 IMPACT Magazine July/August 2007