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The Australasian Rogaining Championships campaign


Tristania's picture

By Tristania - Posted on 30 September 2014

What's this?!?!? A post not about MTB!?!? Am I spamming the site?

I hope not. I hope to give some insight on something else I get up to and share my passion for it with others who love outdoor adventure sports and show how it complements my cycling.

I have entered the Australasian Rogaining Championships which are set to take place in Castlemaine on Oct 11-12, despite my heavy workload and wanting to focus on my cycling for the Highland Fling.

What is rogaining?

Some of you have heard of it, others haven't. It's the sport of cross country navigation on foot where competitors in a team of 2-5 have a time period to navigate with map and compass to a series of checkpoints worth between 10-100, which is generally based on how difficult it is to find. The objective is to plan a route that collects the highest number of points in the time period.

Most events are 6 or 12 hours in length, but championship courses such as this one are 24h long. This means that by the end one will be sleep deprived and exhausted if they don't sleep, however to some teams it can be beneficial to have some shut eye to make them not feel as wasted!

How do you do a rogaine well?

The obvious thing for anything involving 24 hours of movement is physical fitness and endurance - one must be physically capable of being out for a very long time, covering a multitude of terrains that could involve clambering, climbing, crawling and even swimming.
One also must be proficient with navigational efficiency - to be able to look at a map and know where they are at all times, shoot a bearing and follow features on the map to lead them to a flag in the middle of nowhere, all of which can go horribly wrong if one doesn't know how to navigate well.
As one must plan their own route, once must know what makes an optimum choice of course. This means comparing types of terrain, the elevation, density of the bush and distance of different possible choices. As one doesn't know what could go wrong, they should plan a base route, but also have a short way back and an extended route depending if they are out of time or have some extra.
Also, mental stamina. If your mind doesn't function at 2am, it won't bode well for you.
Teamwork - All people will have their low points, and one key part is to take over others when they struggle.

How am I training for it?

Well, despite this being an Aust/NZ wide event, I am not doing a huge amount of specific training compared to something such as, say the 'Fling. In fact, I am still mostly cycling as my physical activity, even now, as I have found that at my level of fitness, I can translate this into walking and jogging quite well. However, I'll try to make more of an effort to jog daily in the bush, both at day and night to familiarize myself with what I'll be doing. Having done many of these events before, that gives me the navigation training. And I will be tomorrow doing the Sydney Summer Series, a 45 minute rogaine style event at a much faster pace, which helps me practice quick decision making, just the way XC races are great practice for MTB marathons

Why would I do it?

Why do I do anything? Why do I ride 100km as fast as I can? For a challenge, I guess, and for something that gets my mind off everything else - work, uni, frustrations, etc. But it's something that has in general made me a tougher person and one who has a much better appreciation for nature and fitness and there's a special bond you share with people who you go through 24 hours of pain with, as with any draining activity.

How does it link to my MTB?

I think the most prominent reason why I do rogaining as well as MTB is variety. As much as I love the bike, I think it's good to experience something else every now and then. I find it less painful than all-out trail running as having the navigational component makes it interesting. It's also good cross training for the bike, for the sort of clambering one does in a rogaine really helps build my leg muscles, as well as my arms to a lesser extent.
What I think is the most striking is the mentality I can build in remaining determined to keep going and do as well as possible. It's a lot easier to quit in a rogaine as you can just pull out early and still have some points recorded rather than a DNF, and as you have no idea how anyone else is going since everyone has (hopefully) done something different, you don't have the drive to keep moving the way you would when everyone is going the same route, so it certainly forces me to have more self-determination.

And last but not least, a 24h enduro is on the cards to this year (what am I going on about?), and having 24 hours out with no sleep, still moving will be invaluable to see how the body responds to that type of abuse!

Anyway, just thought I'd post it for anyone interested. Follow my journey and read my event report in

obmal's picture

Its all about getting out anyways.

Indeed life is good when your out on a hike on a picture perfect blue sky day in the hills half way up a mountain scrambling up/down some sketchy pass, trying to decide should you use a rope or not and about your only worry in the world at that present time is that your missing out on an awesome day for a bike ride..

There used to be 12/24hr adventure races that involved a fair bit of mountain biking.. pretty much the perfect day out in my books.

sly_artichoke's picture

...for those of us who had pleasure in competing in Huw Kingston's Polaris events of the early to mid-noughties. Rogaining on a mountain bike, sort of. Like a combination of bike packing, navigation and XC racing. Great fun.
All the best for the comp Tristan.
Simon

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