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Analysis Stage 1 & 2 by Thierry Gueorgiou

First stages strategy

As the terrains in O-Ringen 2012 will be quite versatile, it is good to remember that we are now talking about the terrain of the two first stages. I have always thought that a multi-days competition was a little bit different that just running a single race in term of its mental approach. If you want to succeed in this kind of competition, you need to stay in good mood the whole week and accumulate consistent performances. So, when I’ll head out in the forest the first day, I’ll try to remember it. When I’ll have to choose between two nearly equivalent route-choices, I will always opt for the safe one! Thereafter, later one during the week, if I feel confident with the terrain I will, may be, seek for some more aggressive route choice to gain decisive seconds. But definitively not on the first stages, I just want to get a solid performance.

Climbing

Then, even if I believe that the terrain offer a good runnability with old spruce to nice beech forests, I will pay attention of the climbing. This is one of my tips when we talk about route-choice: whatever the terrain, I always try to make the toughest climb on paths and not straight on the terrain even if it makes a longer detour. I don’t want to break my running rhythm too much and I have always felt difficult to find back the pace after a walk in a steep slope.

Longer legs

When I was younger, I had many difficulties to solve in a nice way the longer legs. One reason of my success those last years in the long distance is that I changed my method for those kinds of legs. In just a second, I have a rough idea where I want to run while avoiding the unrunnable parts and using the tracks and faster parts of the forests. But thereafter, I split the legs in smaller pieces (usually between two obvious tracks I’ll use for sure) and reevaluate my choice. I focus on running those ”micro-route choices” as well as I can. It also help me to stay awake the whole race and have a goal for every moments.

Starting field

Finally, I will also check my start times and try to be aware of how many runners has been out in the forest before me. With an early start, I’ll use more the paths and open areas. If I am starting later on during the day, I’ll know that there might be some tracks made by the previous runners in the greener or undergrowth areas. It might sounds as a small details, but I believe that you need get the best picture of the terrain and be able to read ”between the lines” if you want to be an O-Ringen winner!

Thierry Gueorgiou

UPCOMING YEARS »

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