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| Training |
1976-1996
My parents were not sports interested and we played very little sports, although we did do a lot of outdoor activities (hiking, scouts, etc). I was mainly a bookworm (read: nerd). I did Judo for a couple years. My first foray into organised sports was playing ice hockey at McGill. I played intramural hockey for 4 years, and in my senior year I was a reserve for the varsity team. I was on the ice about 8 hours a week in the hockey season. This was my first experience with regular training.
My family did orienteering from about 1991. The rest of the family were very keen from the start, but I was a pretty hard sell. In the beginning I sat in the car while everyone else was in the woods. I did some local races and usually travelled to a couple larger races per year with my family. I never trained a step. I think I won F19-20 one year.
Summer 1996
I make a trip that is to change my life. My plans for saving the world by volunteering on a medical project in Cambodia fall through, and I end up accompanying some orienteering friends on a trip to S?rlandsgaloppen and Oringen. Over the course of the summer I discover that orienteering can actually be fun and cool, when the maps are good, all the controls are in the right place and more than 10 people show up for a meet. I also meet my future husband. It's basically a done deal.
1996-2000
Back in Canada, I begin medical school. Newly interested in orienteering, I join the cross-country team to try to learn how to run. I predictably spend the first season hanging off the back of the pack, but I'm bitten by the running bug. By the second season my times start to be respectable, closing in on 20 minute- 5km. In the third season I hit low-19min for 5km and sub-40 for 10 km. In my fourth season (fall 1999) I set a PB of 18:51 on a hilly course. At this point I am training about 200 hours per year. I have already run 2 WOCs, qualified for one final, won COC's and NAOC's, and I still do not know how to orienteer.
2000
Move to Norway in October. For the first time I train o-technique. Holger throws away my base plate compass. I start to learn how to orienteer from scratch. My new motto is "t?lmodighet" (patience).
2001
Living in Oslo. Struggling with the Norwegian medical system. Starting to train regularly but orienteering is still not my first priority.
2002-2003
Turnustjeneste (internship) in Northern Norway. We live in Bod? (67?20' North) and S?mna Kommune (65?20' North, population 2000). There isn't much orienteering here. It is dark and the most common form of weather is horizontal rain and +3?C. I'm also working my buns off in the hospital (40-80 hours per week) and not sleeping much. But thanks to the isolation, there isn't much else to do with our free time than train.
2003-2005
I get my dream job in orthopaedic surgery in Kristiansand. My work weeks increase to 60-100 hours. I sleep even less and somehow train even more, but the combination is killing me. Meanwhile my golden opportunity is passing me by. Kristiansand is one of the best cities in the world for orienteering, but I am in the hospital 24/7. Oh, the irony. By February 2005 I finally figure out that I can't do both. Orthopedic surgery will wait. I quit my dream job and start on a Selective in Physical Medicine, 50% job. I am officially a "semi-professional" orienteer. In 2005, despite losing a lot of training time to a lung infection in the spring (3 months of illness), my training will reach over 500 hours. There is still lots of room for improvement both physically and technically, and I am ready for the next adventure.
If you want to take a look at my training volume, you can download this excel-document:
Sandy_2005_summary.xls |
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