Back in the track towards EOC

My training for EOC was going very well. I was feeling really strong and pumped with energy for the first round of Czech selections for EOC in the beginning of April. But then, just 2 days before the sprint selections in Teplice nad Bečvou, I fell ill and it took me more than a week to get back to full training. It is not a tragedy and who knows, maybe it is better to get down now so the top shape comes in the end of May and not too early. But now, let's get back to February and let's go quickly through my last 3 months of preparation towards EOC.

February: Basic training in Brno, chilling in the Alps and Rumpál in Jizerské hory

The beginning of February was in the form of basic training in Brno and cross-country skiing back in my home village. Some snow finally came also to Czech so I could enjoy skiing for the first time this winter (probably the first time in my life when I was not skiing in January).

After I passing all exams in my Uni I could reward myself and make some tough programme full of great events, travelling and fun. First I went with my dear classmates to the Alps for 4 days. We were chilling in a freaking awesome Boarding house with all cool fellas, shreddin’ The Gnar during the day and breathing Weed from our neighbours during nights, yeaaah bro! Now seriously - we enjoyed 3 wonderful days snowboarding/skiing in Schladming area (Zauchensee, Flachau, Planai) and I also visited the Austrian Mekka of cross-country skiing, Ramsau am Dachstein, for one sunny day and destroyed my weak chicken arms during nice 50k skiing.

Right from Ramsau I went to another weekend training camp with Czech team, this time in rocky terrains around Doksy. You can check all maps and tracking here. Although I was pretty tired after tough programme in Austria I managed to make a good training camp.

The following week I went to Jizerské hory to enjoy my last cross-country skiing of the season before my school starts again. The event is called Rumpál! 4 days of cross-country skiing, pancakes, onion, butter, singing, playing and drinking. I was happy to survive it without illness and I also made another proper training week with 14hours/160km of x-skiing and 4 hours/40km running.

Then my Uni started again so I got back to basic training in Brno. I also had to start working on setting courses for Czech Cup middle distance which is organized by my home club in the end of April. Another new thing in my life - I started working in a law firm Zrůstek, Lůdl and partners. I agreed to work just one day a week until the end of summer. Then I will see if it is possible to combine school, work in the law firm and running. So far so good, two main lawyers are also Orienteers so they are very sympathetic when I need to change my plans because of training. My work consists of preparing legal analysis for the lawyers, drafting basic documents for clients and (most of time) sorting mail and files :D

A long weekend in Paris

In the mid-March I took a few days off at school/work and went to Paris with my beloved one. The weather was great, we met most of my french Erasmus friends from Helsinki, visited all sights in Paris and I also made some nice speed trainings along Seine. And fell in love with french boulangeries and brasseries.

Czech Spring cup 2016

After coming back from Paris there was a first competition of the season, traditional Spring Cup organized by my club. I was putting out the controls on Friday Night-O and competing on Saturday relay and Sunday long. Especially the long is worth mentioning because it was probably the fastest orientteering race I've ever run. It was a mass start but after the first control we split into 2 long loops and I realized that all runners I wanted to run with had the different forking. I pushed hard in the flat and easy terrain thinking all the time if the guys in the second group had a better pace or not. I avoided any mistakes and on the refresment control just after the merging of the loops I got an information that the leading group was just 50 seconds ahead of me. There were last 5km till the finish so I pushed hard and after 3km I managed to catch the leading couple Miloš Nykodým and Ondrej Semík. We ran together till the end and luckily I was the fastest in the final sprint beating Milos and Ondrej by one second. The interesting thing came when I looked at my watch and found out we managed to run 19km in 81 minutes.

Easter: Training camp in Poustky

7 Very demanding training sessions in one of the most beautiful terrains of the Czech republic. Very easy to run but very challenging technically. Big stones, many contour details, some dense areas and shining green moss everywhere around. Czech Scandinavia!

Recovery from illness and Czech night champs (KOK 2 : KR 0)

Unfortunatelly, after coming home from Easter training camp I fell ill. Of course I was unhappy but I managed it without antibiotics and now I feel alright, so it shouldn't be a problem to get back to good shape soon. One week after getting back to training there was a night-o champs in Doksy. I didn't feel very strong and also I made 2 stupid mistakes. Jan Šedivý made a good race but I could have fought for the second place at least. Miloš Nykodým was the fastest in the end and took silver. I had a tight fight against Daniel Hajek and Jan Procházka but they were a few seconds faster in the finish so I took 5th place. Let's hope it was the last time this season when Kalevan Rasti guys were beaten by KOKs ;) Tracking, Results

EOC selections coming on the weekend!

Now we are coming to the important part of the season. On Friday the Czech team EOC selections start with 3km track test in Šumperk, followed by long on Saturday and middle on Sunday.