TC Czech Republic

Monday, 24. March 2008, 18:39:47

Did you know that....

.... in CZE you should drive with lights and if you aren't, you can be stopped by an italian speaking police man?
.... you should buy the ticket for the high-way in the beginning of your ride, or else you might be driving some very long extra turns?
.... it normally doesn't snow in Moravia end of March? So who did not eat up their food the last days???
.... the small village Suchy has 400 inhabitants during winter - and 10 000 during summer?
.... there are MANY boars in the Czech Republic?
.... the Czech men have a very strange tradition on Easter Monday - hitting the girls butts with a stick, getting chocolate in return??

Together with Klaus Schgaguler, I went to the Czech Republic for a 4-day easter training-camp. Our goal was to get some good trainings in areas relevant for the WOC, and I think we reached that goal pretty well. What we didn't plan well enough was the weather... Crossing the boarder AUT-CZE everything was still fine, but the closer we came to Suchy, the more it snowed. In the end we got a lot of this white stuff.. Actually in the end we could have gone for ski-orienteering..

Friday we did just one training, partly line orienteering, partly normal course. It was technically demanding, due to the snow it was hard to pick out the yellow/open areas and the small hills weren't much easier. First part of the training did not go very well, I had some real problems figuring out the different vegetations in the flat areas, but with the time it got better and better. In the beginning I also felt a bit lonely in the big, white forrest, but then the house-dog from the pension found that he should be looking after me and I had company for some time. Then he discovered that it was more fun to run with Klaus and left me. So much for the loyality of dogs;) The middle part of the training was in a steeper area, here I had my technique under control. In the end it got flat and difficult again, but now I was prepared, so I picked the "controls" without problems. The evening was spent with billiard and "wuzzeln" and I must admit, Klaus was better. Revenge will come!

Some days before we went, we discovered that we would not be the only ones training in this area, a Czech club did their easter-tc there too. Fortunately we could do some training together with them, so a big thanks to David Heppen and the club TJ Slavia Hradec Krá for making this possible.

Saturday morning we did a middle distance together with the Czech club, with controls and SI-stations, perfect. This area was almost free of snow and the terrain really tricky. Lots of very deep re-entrances in green areas. Mostly it was no problem running throught the green areas, only the sight was a bit depressed. The bigger problem was to recognize what was drawn as a dry groove and what as a deep/sharp re-entrance or cleft. I did two smaller mistakes, but for the rest the orienteering was ok. Since I know that this kind of terrain is one of my deficits, I slowed down the speed enough to orienteer properly. My legs felt a bit strange and I think, that it will be a good idea for the next training camp to bring some own food with me. White bread in the morning is not what I am used to, so I think I got a bit out of fuel.
After having some lunch in our apaprtment, you couldn't hear a sound from us for 2 hours, we both fell asleep even before we had cleand up the table. Talking about beeing tired..
Much more awake and with good motivation, we went back to the same map for a second training in the afternoon, this time alone. We ran a normal course, this time less in the green areas and with more climbing. Now my legs were fine again and the orienteering went very well. I did one mistake, drifting too much to the left on a short leg, but for the rest it was very okay. In the tricky, very detailed areas I was happy to see that I did not need to slow down that much to be in control this time.
Back in the pension we had dinner and then the third sessions started. Night orienteering, in snow. The Czech club had made a course and hung out reflectors and after some course-adaptions by Klaus I went for my first night training alone ever. Well, Klaus and two other guys were also in the forrest, but not with me and I am a real baby when it comes to beeing alone in a forrest when it's dark.. But, in the end I liked it. I chicked out a bit and did not go for the two controls very far away, but the rest went very ok, so in the end I was really proud! The beer afterwards was deserved and delicious:)

Sunday's first training was again a combination of line-orienteering and normal course, this time on a new map. This area was a bit different, more hilly, more open forrest, much better sight, a lots of very small stones. The beginning was okay, except for passing the first control 5 m too far to the left, not seeing the hole. It was annoying, but I learned to lift my head a bit more. After the the second control Klaus had drawn me a nice line, leading me into a cattle of +/- 50 boars.. I did a really sharp turn and my speed to the next control was worth a WOC sprint a-final;) Getting the pulse a bit down again I went on for the rest of the course and technically it was okay, but I did not feel very comfortable. I was just waiting for some wild pig to come and eat me...
It was pretty much snow in this area, but the sun was shining, so we had our lunch out in the sun. Sometimes life can be relly nice, even if your freezing your toes off, only because the sun is shining! After lunch we had a made a short cut to Boscovice, but after 5 minutes we decided, that sightseeing is something you should do in summer, not in March, so off we went. Back to our more or less warm appartment.
Second session of the day we did together with the Czech club, long leg training. Unfortunately it had started to snow again and the ground was covered in some 10 cm snow, so it was no real route choice training. Without snow I would have ran much more straight but under these conditions, it was just faster to stay on paths and roads. The area itself can be tricky, very many small paths and hills and lots of details in the green areas. I hope we will be running in areas like this when we're in CZE with the national team in April.
The evening we spent getting to know some of the Czech runners, playing billiard games (me again loosing..) and hoping for the snow to get away by some sort of miracle.
This morning we woke up, just to see that the snow was not gone and it had got a bit colder. But, the Czech club had prepared a nice "catch-me-if-you-can"-training starting directly at the pension, so of course we couldn't miss out on that one. I ran together with Martina and Zuzana, the first one starting 20" ahead of the second, which again was starting 10" ahead of the last one. We had 5 loops to run and even if it was not very hard technically due to the many tracks, we had a great physical training and some good fun. I made one small mistake at the 4th loop and of course Martina (starting 10" behind me) overtook me. In this kind of training you really see how fast you can loose 10-20".. Running in the snow was demanding, but fun!
Pretty soon after the training we left for home and except for some really good gnocchi in Mikulov, we drove straight to Vienna. Tomorrow it is back to work and all ready on Friday I will be travelling again, this time to Denmark and Spring Cup.

Not everything makes funSpring Cup