#61 – Why Sprint Orienteering Will Ruin Your Life

Episode 67 arrives with peak winter energy: low motivation, high confusion, and plenty of unnecessary opinions. Rep counts are getting out of hand, Magnus has downloaded yet another pointless app, Ralph is still recovering from the abuse he took last episode while Tim struggles with old man injuries and heavy leaves..We catch up on the chaos, question our own training choices, give interior design tips, and pretend we know what we’re doing as the dark months settle in.

The boys gang up on Ralph for running a ridiculous number of reps — 18 this time — of his favourite session. Somehow it’s totally fine for Tim to have 35 seconds of recovery though, because that’s “normal”. Magnus escapes any training-based abuse after (once again) deleting Strava right after maybe winning the October mileage challenge.We get nostalgic for old-school orienteering: where are the results boards and hand-drawn courses? Has the march of technology destroyed the sacred art of comparing splits with your mates?Meanwhile, Tim smashed a trail race (though not quite as much as Eef van Dongen), Ralph’s been getting rained on in the UK and training with the national team, and we finally read some words from Silvan Ullmann — the course setter behind the Swiss World Cup Knock-Out sprint.

Closing out the international orienteering year with an episode filled with just pure yappage.Tim has been at 25manna, but can't remember which teams got disqualified. Magnus has made a comeback on Strava topping the leaderboards. Where has this sudden burst of motivation come from and will Garmin vs Strava cause problems? Ralph brings old man energy as usual as he complains about even more things.Also in the episode, the usual apology section, Ralph presents the UK, JEC results, and we clear up some points from last episode.

World Cup Final in Uster — the last big showdown of the season. Ralph pulls off a 360 but fails the 90, Tim somehow beats us both, and Magnus keeps searching for that elusive breakthrough. We dig into the chaos of KO indoor sprints, from barrier controversies to whhether the format is even a good idea.

In this episode, the boys are preparing for the final round of the World Cup in Uster, Switzerland. Tim is on a romantic training camp in Italy — but what long object did Wife Emma pull out of his body? Magnus has been forest orienteering with an added challenge, and Ralph is spoiling for a fight with the Swiss team.

This episode is all about debriefing the Sprint European Championships in Belgium. From the chaos of a 50% disqualification rate in the sprint relay to the all-important question of who could actually beat Natalia Gemperle in an arm wrestle, we’ve got it covered.We also dive into our own EOC experiences: Tim didn’t even make it to all the start lines, Magnus collected more “thanks for coming” treatment in the qualifiers, and Ralph… well, Ralph couldn’t stop ranting about perceived injustices.

The boys are back with a deep dive into the one discipline that ruins friendships and makes grown men cry: sprint orienteering. With EOC 2025 in Belgium fast approaching, we bravely attempt to sound like we know what we’re talking about when it comes to sprint technique. Naturally, it all goes downhill into a full-blown apology section (again).

This is a different episode from the usual because of the tragic events at the World Games where the Italian athlete Mattia Debertolis lost his life

Two weeks ago, all three of us were in the same room in Denmark, talking O-Ringen, the World Games, and the end of sprint camp. We recorded gold. Pure, unfiltered podcast magic.Then we… didn’t release it.Now Tim’s missing, Magnus and Ralph are winging it with a half-baked recap of Belgium’s EOC test races before awkwardly tacking on that “lost” episode at the end.Think of it as time-travel podcasting — if time-travel also involved bad editing and questionable life choices.

The boys are back for a (late) post-WOC debrief and other shenanigans. Crashing Magnus´ parents house and recording together in person for the first time went just as well as you’d expect, with Magnus deleting 2 hours of recording. More apologies are made before diving into all the drama from the WOC middle, long, and relay.We discuss the promotion/relegation, and Tim celebrates his forest PB. Statman Ralph fires off some WOC facts. Plus, a quick look at EYOC – who shined in the long, sprint, and relay?