New Year - New look!

You may notice a slightly new look to the senior squad blog. Hopefully It may be easier now to navigate to other blogs and sources of international orienteering information.

The table of links will include links to amongst other things the 2011 World champs blog which will be updated regularly to provide squad members with important selection race and training info. It will also give the general public a feel for what goes on behind the scenes in international orienteering.

If you have any suggestions regards this blog or useful websites we could link with then let us know by sending an email to elites@orienteering.ir and remember any squad member can sign up to be an author on this blog. The more chat we have the better!


Some new ideas in the pipeline for 2011:

A long O series of races in the spring.
To prepare the Irish seniors and older juniors for international classic distance competitions a series of 3 or 4 long distance races are being planned. The events will have 2 courses with the longest being around 16km and will use 1:15000 maps.

A bi-annual time trial for all squad members.
Irish squad members are spread near and far, this time trial will bring us all together twice a year in a 3000m face-off! you will be able to compare your speed, fitness against each other no matter where you are.

We are also hoping to enlist the help of a number of volunteer advisers with specific talents (fitness, physio, training, diet etc) who will aim to guide squad members through their O year.
Squad members and advisers will be able to interact through the medium of a members/technical advisers blog.

So, keep an eye on this blog to see how things develop.


Squad fitness levels

The festivities are over for another year and now its time to start thinking about that spring training regime with summer competitions in mind.

I ask all senior squad members to make an extra effort this year in increasing overall fitness levels. If you are serious about wanting to compete at the highest levels you must put in the hard hours of training (no pain -no gain!) I urge all squad members to seek fitness help from specialists - the best thing to do is join your local athletics club and benefit from the expertise club coaches provide.

Of course being fit is of no use if you are injured, so injury prevention is vitally important also.
With all this in mind it is important that we as a squad have our own training guide for further help with squad fitness levels. If you know of anyone who would be up for the challenge of looking after this and joining our group of squad technical advisers, then send them to me: elites@orienteering.ie

Don't forget also to log your training with the Team Ireland attackpoint group. Its important to be focused on your training plan, with attackpoint you can keep an eye on your training plan is progressing.

Ivan Millar
(High performance director)