22/3/05: Japan Training Camp
We have just returned from the first GB Team training camp to Japan. We spent
one week in Aichi, near Nagoya, training in the WOC training forests and then
moved East to the slopes of Mt Fuji to take part in the Japan Championships.
It was great to be back in Japan again and we're starting to feel quite at home
there.
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We
started the week off with some light jet-lag friendly training, but we soon
found that it is hard to take it easy in the Aichi terrain! One session each
day was high intensity race training with emit controls, often together with
the Australian team. This gave us the chance for plenty of post-training analysis
and lots of people to compare ourselves against.
By
the time we arrived at Fuji most of us could feel the hills in our legs, so
it was good to be racing in some flatter terrain. The Swiss team and Thierry
arrived for these races so there was plenty of tough competition. The weekend
kicked off with a sprint race held in Children's World theme park, with the
most spectacular backdrop of the volcano. The area is custom-made for sprint
orienteering with undulating areas of buildings, underpasses, lakes and forest.
Thierry blew away all the men with a margin of over 1 minute, while Simone was
dominant as ever in the sprint. Jamie and Sarah were the top Brits in 4th.
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Sunday's long distance was held on a tough sloping forest with soft volcanic
soil and areas of old lava flows. It was very well organised with a spectator
control, indoor areas for changing, a stage and scoreboard and commentary. It
all promises great things for WOC. It was a race of three thirds with the first
part consisting of shorter legs in a technical and bushy area of terrain,
followed by a spectator control and run through into an open ceder plantation
with steep ridges and gullys and long uphill route choice legs. The last legs
took us steeply down through some detailed, rocky lava fields. Once again Thierry
reigned supreme, but this time he was only 1 minute ahead of Jamie who ran well
to take 2nd. I ran a good race to finish 5th, 5 minutes behind.
Heather
ran well to finish 2nd, just 2 minutes down on Simone and Jenny finished 11th.
The Japanese competitors showed that their preparations are paying off, with
the winners
running strongly in both classes - this year will be a great chance for them
to make orienteering history!
We finished off the week with a cultural experience in a Karaoke bar in downtown
Nagoya - a very memorable and unusual way to spend the evening...Today I am
very tired from the travelling and with only 3 days to go before the JK and
first selection races of the year, this week will involve a lot of resting and
sleeping!
Arigato gozai mas to the coaches and other athletes for such a great week of
training! See our Japan WOC page for more maps and
pictures.