Build a season around the demands of your races, the athlete in front of you and the work that needs time to develop.
Put the main race on the calendar. Now look at the terrain: perhaps steep slopes, soft ground and difficult control approaches. The preparation problem is already more specific than “get fitter by July”.
An athlete may need stronger uphill running, more confidence reading unfamiliar contours and practice making decisions while breathing hard. Another athlete targeting the same race may already handle those demands well but struggle to recover between demanding sessions. Their calendars can share a competition date without sharing the same plan.
Periodization gives that preparation a direction over time. It connects what we train now with what we want the athlete to be able to do later.
Start with the race and work backwards
I would begin with four questions:
- What will the competition demand physically, technically and mentally?
- Which of those demands already suit the athlete?
- Which gaps need sustained work, and which need specific exposure?
- What can the athlete realistically support alongside work, study, travel and recovery?
For orienteers, terrain access is part of the answer. The ideal technical session has little value in a plan if the athlete cannot reach a relevant forest. A camp can provide exposure, but the work between camps must help turn that exposure into preparation.
Study the race demands and use early terrain exposure to identify gaps.
Build the capacities and routines that need consistent practice.
Combine them on relevant courses and test them at race intensity.
Reduce unnecessary fatigue while keeping the task familiar.
These are overlapping priorities, not sealed compartments. An athlete can retain some speed in a foundation block and continue easy technical practice near competition.
Separate three decisions that are often confused
Periodization concerns how priorities and load change over weeks and months. Intensity distribution describes how training is divided between effort levels. Session design concerns the specific work and recovery within a workout.
Linear, undulating and block approaches organise time in different ways. Polarised and pyramidal distributions describe intensity patterns. Double-threshold training is a way of arranging particular sessions. Putting all of them into one list of interchangeable “methods” hides those distinctions.
Seiler and Tønnessen’s review is useful background on the relationship between intensity and duration in endurance training. It does not establish one universal season plan for orienteers.
An example of a useful progression
Imagine an athlete preparing for a demanding forest middle distance. The main problem is that direction and contour interpretation deteriorate after steep climbs.
| Preparation stage | Main purpose | Evidence to look for |
|---|---|---|
| Early exposure | Understand the ground, mapping and common technical traps | The athlete can explain why particular approaches are reliable |
| Development at home | Improve relevant running capacity and rehearse the weak technical routine | The routine appears without repeated reminders |
| Specific preparation | Combine climbs, descents and precise approaches at increasing intensity | The athlete maintains the process on fresh legs and unfamiliar sections |
| Final preparation | Arrive rested, familiar with the task and clear about the race plan | Confidence comes from relevant practice, without a late search for fitness |
The duration depends on the athlete and the calendar. An early camp several months before a target can reveal what to prepare. A later camp can test that preparation at speed. The final model sessions should refine understanding, rather than become another overload block.
Give a training block one main question
A block should be easy to explain: “Can you maintain direction after a hard climb?” is more useful than “This is the specific phase”.
Keep supporting work, but avoid trying to improve everything aggressively at once. A block dominated by terrain volume may need a different strength dose from a block with fast running and races. A week away at a camp also carries travel, unfamiliar routines and extra time on your feet.
Use intensity models with context
Intensity distributions can help describe a programme. Their meaning depends on the zone system and how training is counted. Time in heart-rate zones and the number of sessions classified by purpose will not necessarily produce the same percentages.
Double-threshold training also needs context. It is a demanding organisational choice that depends on training history, intensity control, recovery and the rest of the programme. It should earn its place by addressing a need, rather than by resembling an elite athlete’s diary.
Let the athlete’s response modify the plan
A plan is a working hypothesis. If the athlete is absorbing the work and moving towards the target, continue. If performance, motivation or recovery deteriorate repeatedly, investigate before adding load.
Halson’s review explains why monitoring needs several sources of information. In practice, I combine what was completed with the athlete’s comments, perceived effort and the quality of key sessions. A single score cannot explain every difficult day.
Keep enough consistency to judge the work and enough flexibility to respond to what happens. A good season plan makes the next decision clearer.
Sources and further reading
- Seiler, S., & Tønnessen, E. (2009). Intervals, Thresholds, and Long Slow Distance: the Role of Intensity and Duration in Endurance Training. Sportscience, 13, 32–53.
- Halson, S. L. (2014). Monitoring Training Load to Understand Fatigue in Athletes. Sports Medicine.
The preparation progression is a coaching example for orienteering, not a claim that one periodization model has been proven superior for every athlete.
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