How to get involved in orienteering

If you want to have a go at orienteering then local clubs always welcome new members and will give you all the help, advice and training you need.

Below are some tips on how to get involved…

Ask for details about local orienteering clubs and events at your local outdoor retailers.

Look on the web for orienteering clubs
There are many websites dedicated to orienteering where you can access calendars of forthcoming events and clubs advertising for people to join.

Train for orienteering
Training is the key to succeeding in orienteering… the more time you commit to training then the easier you will find events and the more successful you will be.

The amount of time you can commit to training will depend on you but here are some guidelines…

• Do some running training three times a week – keep your training interesting by varying what you do such as hill running, interval training, time trials and long stamina building runs as well as short speed building runs.

• Practice your navigation! In orienteering it doesn’t matter how fast you can run if you don’t know where you are going! Focus on your map reading in training and you will increase your chances of succeeding in a race.

• Run or cycle to work if you can – cycling or running to work is an excellent way to get race fit and also means you start each day at work feeling more alive too!

• Don’t overtrain! Your body needs time to rest and recover and many athletes do more harm than good by over training. Plan a sensible training schedule allowing at least one full rest day per week and when starting out increase the duration and level of your training gradually as your fitness increases.

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