So What is Orienteering? 

Heather Thomson

Physiotherapist at Framework clinics

Generally, orienteering takes place in fabulous countryside locations which has taken me around Scotland, Great Britain & now also abroad visiting areas that I would not have seen otherwise, alongside the array of wildlife these areas contain. However, orienteering events now frequently take place within towns & cities in local parks as well as around the streets which makes it very accessible for anyone wanting to come & have a go!

At it's simplest level, a planner creates a course and the participants use a map to make their way round choosing their own route from the start to each "control" site in the correct order to the finish. Some may remember having to punch their map with a pin punch if they had the opportunity to have a go at school.

Nowadays, technology has brought in electronic "punching" where a small "dibber" is carried on a finger & used to "punch" an electronic box at each control. The essential rule of orienteering is to always report to the finish - with the dibber, this allows a download of the controls you visited & printed record of your course that day, as well as a double check for the organisers that everyone who started has safely returned.


Ah, so it is for walkers with a map then?

Yes & no!

At an introductory level, Clubs hold local "Come and Try It" events & frequently families attend if we are in their local park & enjoy a walk round, even with push chairs if the area is not too hilly. Children can also try the easiest course first & then try a slightly longer or more challenging course if they have the energy to try again.

At the other end of the spectrum, elite athletes compete on a world stage with the recent Junior World Orienteering Championships being held in Switzerland and last year the World Orienteering Championships were held here in Scotland. These are athletes at the top of their game with regular training sessions every week to reach peak fitness both physically & technically for the complex terrain they run at speed through.


Who can take part?

One of the fantastic aspects of this sport is that anyone can take part at any level of ability - in a recent year my Club had active participants from 8 weeks old (okay, they did have help from dad!) through to 80 years old. The youngest begin with a fun string course to follow to help them become familiar with map colours and
symbols. Beyond this level courses are colour-coded from White through to Black with the lighter colours being the easiest where courses mainly follow paths within the event area.

Although age classes are used for some competitions, anyone can choose to participate at whichever distance or difficulty of course that they prefer to do from the colour coded maps available at an event. One note of caution though - the distance given for the course is the straight line distance around the course. In reality, participants will cover a longer distance than this as they may choose to use a path round a hill rather than a straight line over the top which can be more tiring. Regular runners have been caught out by this when they try orienteering for the first time - better to start with a course shorter than the distance you would normally run as the navigation aspect takes practice!

As people progress through the levels, the courses become longer & require them to make more complex decisions which involve travelling across terrain rather than following a path network. As a result we have the great pleasure of visiting some fantastic areas all over Scotland and beyond - how many other people will have had the opportunity to be off the paths within the forests of Balmoral Castle?

Training for a marathon… in winter in Scotland

Training for a marathon… in winter in Scotland

By Andrew Patterson

One of the problems with the London marathon is that it takes place in April which means that all your training has to take place in the winter. Living in Scotland this presents some additional challenges, not least the weather. Time during the week is very limited so the only time I have to do the long run is at the weekend. I watch the weather forecast avidly and hope that some sunshine symbols appear on it but alas the reality is rain from Friday night to Monday morning. The other day I sat in the car with the rain battering the roof and thinking that I wouldn’t walk a dog in this weather, and the thought of three hours of running in it didn’t appeal to me at all. I was just about to give up and go home when a lady ran past on her morning run. That was inspiration enough and I set off. Alas the rain turned to sleet and the sleet turned into snow exactly at the half way point. I finished a 20 mile run with a numb face and I was wet through. My clothing probably weighed a couple of kilograms more than when I set off, but given that you need a fair amount of determination to run a marathon, if I can cope with this weather and still run then this will help the mental challenge.

Another interesting challenge is running on snow and ice. They both have different levels of grip and this varies according to temperature. Frozen compacted snow has very good grip, lumpy ice is just uncomfortable to run on and black ice is treacherous. The key to running on ice is to relax and soften the knees and the hips and to plan ahead to avoid sudden deceleration or direction changes. Actually, concentrating on relaxing helps your running form immensely.

With rain comes puddles and given that I really dislike running with wet feet I will do everything that I can to avoid running through puddles. Modern running shoes have mesh uppers that allow moisture and heat to escape; they are also rather good at letting water in. I have had to keep my head up to spot the puddles in advance and find a running line around them. Now in the latter stages of a race one inevitably has to overtake slower runners and I realise that I have had the perfect training for having to run around people and all that puddle avoidance will pay dividends on the day.

There is nowhere flat to run where I live and finding a long route that doesn’t involve lots of ascent and descent is not easy. The flattest routes tend to involve roads and country roads don’t have pavements so this also means cars. The good thing is that I can hear them long before they see me so I can take avoiding action but I turned a corner recently and I met a peloton of about 30 cyclists coming towards me. I realised that the first cyclists had seen me and would probably go round me but then I would be hit by all the bikes behind them. The safest thing to do was cross to the other side of the road. They were grateful. Thankfully there will be no cars or cyclists on the marathon but I am prepared for them if there are.

I don’t run with music playing in my ears. I like to hear the birdsong and listen out for traffic. I also couldn’t cope with the beat of the tune being in a different time to my running pace. Running gives time and space to think and I know that many people have running play lists that may be upbeat and motivational and this helps them get through the run. As I was running in the rain I started making up my own play list, and here are a few thoughts:

Raindrops keep falling’ on my head – BJ Thomas

Walking in the rain – Grace Jones

Singin’ in the rain – Mint Royale version

Madness – Muse

Heaven knows I’m miserable now – The Smiths

So, with all this training if April 24^th in London is 5 degrees and raining I will be perfectly prepared.

Running training where less is more

Running training where less is more

Written by Andrew Patterson, Osteopath

In April 2016 I will run my first marathon. I have been running for over 10 years and my usual distance has been 10k with a few half marathons. A marathon is a big deal. Imagine running a 10k four times non-stop and then running another 2k. I have a big respect for people who have run a marathon.

Running 26.2 miles takes the human body into a whole new dimension of challenge to overcome. The physical effect of training for endurance running puts a strain on muscles, joints and many other body systems and there are a lot of miles to cover whilst training.

My first goal for this race is to get to the start line without injury and to have prepared my body for the task. About 70% all runners will get an injury in any given year, and many people run races whilst injured. This makes me think that there is a problem with how we train and most of us probably overdo it.

When I started thinking about how I was going to train for a marathon I needed a training plan that I could fit into my working week and one that I could cope with physically without breaking in the process. In my research I came upon a method of training called polarised training (if you want to look it up on the internet then use the US spelling of ‘polarized’). This involves running 80 – 90% of your weekly mileage at ‘easy’ pace, and the remaining 10 – 20% is speed and strength training. The first thing I needed to know was what ‘easy pace’ meant, and after some more research I found that it was 60 to 65% of my 5k pace, or more simply, 65% of my maximum heart rate. An easy measure of training at this pace is that you should be able to speak in full sentences whilst running.

The benefits of training in this way are that we grow more blood vessels, and this helps get good fresh blood to the muscles more efficiently; we make lots more mitochondria which are the units in our cells that convert fuel to energy; our metabolism burns fat the most effectively at this pace; and there is less impact load on the body so there is less likelihood of injury and recovery time is much quicker. All good.

We all have a running pace that we are comfortable at, and the challenge is to run more slowly than this. For my weekly long runs I use a map where I have marked where all the miles are and I record my split times at each mile. I use this to make sure that I am running slowly enough, not to see how fast I can run them. This takes some getting used to.

The speed sessions are varied and may involve hills, intervals that may be short or long, and I am spending some time on building strength and core stability, balance and control and working on my running form.

The problem for most runners, indeed most endurance athletes, is that they train too hard, but with little gain in performance and this often results in injury.

For me, so far, everything is working well, and I should get to the start line in one piece. This system works for runners at any endurance distance, cyclists, swimmers and skiers. So if you are considering doing anything that involves endurance then the way to train is slowly. Less really is more.

'It'll be fine!'

‘It’ll be fine’

What do you do if something hurts? We all get aches and pains from day to day, sometimes due to our posture, or from doing too much of something that we are not used to. Usually these strains fade away over a couple of days on their own and sometimes they don’t. What to do?

Well, you could ignore it and hope that it goes away, which it may indeed do, and it may never come back. However, it may return when you next perform the same activity.

You could take painkillers or anti-inflammatory drugs. This may help in the short term to help the tissues recover and to restore your normal movement. However, it may be masking the problem and doesn’t address the reason why the pain occurred in the first place, or why it keeps coming back.

Rest completely and let the discomfort subside naturally and you may be fine, or it may return.

You could visit your GP, who will often suggest a combination of rest and painkillers.

You could carry on training or being active and push through the pain. This may work for some things but not others. This may make the situation worse and cause some damage.

This dilemma of options is something that we all face occasionally, but pain is there for a reason. Pain is not always a sign of damage, but it is there to give us a warning that something is not working properly and we really should listen to that warning. The right thing to do is not always obvious and the first thing you try may not give the successful outcome that you want.

This is where the professional guidance of one of our physiotherapists or osteopaths is invaluable, especially in situations where your discomfort is interfering with normal daily activities or more active ones. The first challenge for us is finding out which tissues are causing the problem – it may be muscles, tendons, or ligaments. The second is knowing what is the best approach to treating it, and the most interesting part is knowing why it is being caused and what to do about it. The cause may be that something is weak and needs strengthening, or too tight and needs loosening, or it may be that you can modify your technique for all your muscles and joints to work together more harmoniously.

So, if something hurts and the simple things don’t work, then call your physiotherapist or osteopath and get an experienced opinion on the cause and the solution.