On 8 touko, 10:48, Terje Mathisen
wrote:


I.e. world class orienteers maintain a higher percentage of their max
heart rate than marathon runners, and xc skiers would seem to be
similar. (The main difference being that xc skiers do get some rest
periods on the downhills, where orienteers stay close to max heart load
all the time.)

It takes from 1.40 to just under 2.00 hrs for a world class orinteer
to finish a long event, i.e. the duration is 15-25 min shorter than in
the marathon, but that isn't probably a big enough difference to make
the comparison pointless.

What would a comparison between orienteers in shorter events and
runners in shorter races show? Would cross country runners (in races
of the same duration) fall somewhere between the two?

FWIW I can easily accept (and, I think, comprehend) that xc skiers use
more major muscle groups than track or road runners do, but it would
instinctively seem to me that what orienteers do is, despite the often
enormous difference in terrain, nothing more than running, i.e. they
don't use their arms to push themselves or locomote themselves in any
non-running way. OTOH life itself has taught me not to trust my
instincts when it comes to the natural sciences, so I'm asking what
is(are) the major muscle group(s) that runners don't use but
orienteers do?

BTW I have anecdotal evidence that it can be possible to maintain a
higher HRavg for a certain duration by doing a few very short pauses -
although, of course, a certain distance will be covered faster without
anyt such pauses - and I wonder if this could be the case generally
and world class orienteers especially, assuming the very short periods
of "active rests" due to moments of map reading or chip-marking?


Anders