Galina Vinogradova's stadium Sprint test: 4000 m with punching and map reading - 14:03

Yesterday Galina Vinogradova made 'Sprint physical capacity test' - she ran 4000 m at stadium with 20 times SI-punchings and Sprint map reading.

The weather was tough - rain and snow were falling together, +2C air temperature. Galina started to feel really frozen after 2 kilometers of running!

Also there were a lot of pools on the stadium surface. Slippery surface gave some extra challenge during punching:

Two days ago I used shovel to clean some space at stadium. During test the first lane track was clean from snow all the way, but it was slippery.

Schedule was:
1. 3:28
2. 3:32 (2 km - 7:01)
3. 3:37 (3 km - 10:37)
4. 3:26 (4 km - 14:03)

Average cadence was 98. Average pace was 3:30.8 min/km. HR was not so high this time (average is 181).

If you want to perform same test, please, write in comments your times.

Why is such Sprint physical capacity test more suitable then 3000 m or 5000 m only running? For sure you can run faster without punching and map reading - Galinas PBs are  9:31.65 (3000 m) and 16:18.58 (5000 m). But during Orienteering you can not just push, you have to keep contact with map, safely navigate and you have to stop for punching (as long as tough-free systems are not adopted for all IOF competitions). Main purpose of this 4000 m-test is to show you: what is your capacity to run at maximal speed, when you are still able to make good decisions and punch stations.

Special analysis gave information about time loss during punching. Yesterday Galina lost in average 2 seconds for every SI-station punching (with good surface usually it is under the 2 seconds). This includes slow-down, punching and accelerating. If you compare flat running time without punching and several same length pieces with punching you can find time losses.

20 punching in total costs ~40 seconds. Result at 4000 m with  map reading and without punching would be then about 13:23 (with pace ~3:20.8 min/km).

For sure best ever Sprint test is international Sprint competitions with good maps, strong competitors and interesting route choices.

But what should you do without possibility to run at such competitions at particular time period? And sometimes you can not run even normal high-intensity Sprint (may be there are no good Sprint map in your town or terrain is still covered by snow). Then you can use such test to make monitoring of your shape!

Also check quality of route choices after the test.

P.S. When I was a main coach in Halden SK (2011 and 2012) I used similar tests (so called Terrengløp test) to compare runners: http://vinogradovcoach.blogspot.ru/2011/12/terrenglp-test.html

9.3 km with mashes, stones, falling trees, slopes, some thickets (and Emit-punching!) gave a perfect opportunity to test runners. I used it on the regular base. But now looks like HSK has abounded that idea. They use every second month 3000 m test (and seldom test running in Fredriksten fortress).

P.P.S. During the test Galina had a task to read the map:

Every 'leg' (200 m between SI-stations) Galina had to analyse 1 leg from map and make best route choice. There are 13 legs with route choice on the map. She made 12 best route choices and 1 slightly worse.

Analysis of this nice course you can find here and here (thanks to Niklas Profors for links).

P.P.P.S. It is always interesting to compare male and female performance. It is obviously that men are faster then women. Let say there are only 10-15 girls in Orienteering with 3000 m faster then 10:30. But this is children level result among men.

Take a look at Sprint competitions in 2013 and 2014:

Differences between speed of winners in women and men class:
WC Final 2014   131,2%
WC 2013, NZL 127,0%
World Games 2013 121,4%
WC Final 2013         120,7%
WC13, NOR         114,4%
WC 14 FIN         114,3%
WC13, SWE         114,2%
WOC 2013         113,5%
WC AUS 2015 111,9%
WC 2013, FIN 109,7%
WOC 2014         108,0%
EOC 2014         104,4%

I can find just one regularity - when Sprint becomes more "runable" then difference increases (World Games Sprint was just running with punching). More tricky labyrinths Sprint races (EOC 2014, WOC 2014) reduces difference between men and women speed. WOC-2013 was also quite tricky but I dont have a good explanation about such difference (I remember that Simone made one bad route choice, not sure that it was enough to create this gap).

Also it is not so easy to explain 127% difference between men and women speed at World Cup event in New Zealand. There were a lot of tricky legs, may be big climb is the reason.

It is possible to compare women and men with different tools and methods. One tool is IAAF score tables. According to IAAF tables male equivalent of Galinas result (14:03) is a time 11:40 (2:55 min/km). But other methods can give other equivalents.