An Investigation into the Race Strategies of Elite and Non-Elite Orienteers

PURPOSE: To quantify uphill running capacity in a laboratory treadmill test with Swiss elite and junior orienteers, and to evaluate the differences between flat and uphill running capacity. METHODS: 32 elite orienteers (M=18, F= 14) aged 21.8 ± 4.1yr were tested twice to voluntary exhaustion, first in the standard Swiss Olympic lactate threshold test, and second in a graded uphill test at 22% incline. 3-4 hours rest were given between tests. To achieve similar workloads, uphill treadmill speeds were reduced to 40% of the flat test. Stages continued 3 minutes, and increased 0,7 km/h per stage. Heart rate, lactate, and Borg were collected. To enable comparison, maximal uphill speed (Vmaxuphill) was converted to an “equivalent flat speed”. RESULTS: Mean Vmaxuphill was faster than Vmaxflat in both men (+7.2% p <0.001; elite men n= 9: 22.5 km/h ±0.84 uphill vs.20.7 km/h ±0.45 flat; junior men n=9: 20.7 km/h ± 0.60 uphill vs.19.5 km/h ±0.62 flat) and women (+3.6% p <0.05; elite women n= 7: 18.3 km/h ±1.5 uphill vs. 17.7 km/h ±0.77 flat; junior women n= 7: 16.8 km/h ±1.1 uphill vs. 16.1 km/h ±0.84). The positive difference ranged from 0.5% to 12.7% in men, and from -6.4% to 15% in women, 5/14 women were slower uphill than flat; no men were slower. Maximal Borg tended to be higher in Vmaxuphill vs. Vmaxflat (19.4±0.9 vs. 19.2±1.0 n.s.), but maximal heart rate and end lactate were unexpectedly lower (188.4bpm ±9.1 vs. 192.1bmp ±8.3 p<0.001 and 8.8 mmol/L ±2.0 vs.9.2 mmol/L ±1.9 n.s.) Vmaxuphill vs. Vmaxflat did not exactly correspond to each other: the better the athlete (i.e. the higher Vmaxuphill), the greater was the positive difference between Vmaxuphill and Vmaxflat CONCLUSION: Elite orienteers seem to have greater running capacity uphill than flat. Vmaxflat may be limited by a neuromuscular fatigue before a true cardiovascular fatigue is achieved, explaining why flat and uphill performances do not exactly correspond. This test gives an alternative in performance testing that is more specific to orienteering performance.