Recently, training data of Norwegian elite orienteering
athletes were published. Tønnessen et al. [20] reported the
annual training periodization of eight Norwegian world
champions in orienteering. During their most successful
seasons, leading to a win at the World Orienteering Championship,
the athletes recorded 9-10 training sessions and
10.6–14.9 hours of training duration per week. A significant
reduction in training duration from general preparation to
specific preparation and competition phase was observed.
This was primarily due to a reduction of training sessions
of low-to-moderate intensities, whereas the high-intensity
interval training (HIIT) duration was increased [20]. An
older study with female elite orienteers reported 3–7 training
sessions per week, with 63% of squad members training
between 5.0 and 8.9 hours per week [11]. More research is
available for elite track and marathon runners, reported to
train 10–13 training sessions per week and running an average
of 126–186 km per week [21, 22].