Perfect + Good + Average = Selected for EOC

Czech selections for EOC 2016 were held last weekend in Sumperk and surroundings. The battle for places in the team started on Friday with 3k track test in Sumperk. On Saturday there was a long distance on the map Skřítek (last year Czech long dist champs) and on Sunday the programme ended up with middle distance on Bradlo.

Track test

My PB on 3km had been 8:50 from 2013. Last years were not ideal, 8:52 early in the spring 2014, in 2015 after long injury I made just 9:03. On Tuesday I made the last track training 4x 1km (3:05, 3:00, 2:55, 2:53) in very strong wind so I had a good self confidence I can run under 8:50 without a problem. A little problem came during jogging before the race when I found out that no one is really interested in running fast/co-operating. Fortunatelly there is Jan Procházka in the team so after all we made a deal to co-operate in the pace 2:55/km. Vojta Král was ill before the selections but he agreed to run the first kilometer with us.

Start! As agreed we took turns in the lead. First km 2:56, feeling really relaxed until 1800m, then it started hurt a little bit. The second km 2:55. The last km was a big fight but Jan Prochazka helped me a lot to speed up in the end so we made the last km 2:52. Final time 8:43 is my new PB, Jan Procházka was one second behind me.

Results: Petržela 8:43, Procházka 8:44, Nykodým 8:53, Šedivý 8:55, Král 8:57, Kubelka 8:57, Hubáček J. 8:58, Chloupek 9:10, Hájek 9:12, Minář 9:16, Kubát 9:21, Semík 9:32

EOC on home ground is a big motivation. So big you can hit the ground if you don't pay attention in the tough battle :D

Long distance - Skřítek

Map+tracking: http://3drerun.worldofo.com/2d/?lidstr=20160423h

A long distance full of difficult routechoices, especially the first part is a really good material towards EOC long distance. I took most of them right but I failed completely on the leg 7-8 where I lost almost 3 minutes. Quite good physically, but the big routechoice mistake and some stupid mistakes in the control circle knocked me down to third position behind Miloš Nykodým and Jan Šedivý. Results here.

There are the most interesting routechoices with some comments:

Leg 1-2: Running around the hill means at least +30 seconds. Good start for me.

Long traverse looks the fastest. Running up the hill and on the road is 30 sec slower. Running down to the road and then climbing up to the control is more than a minute slower (Kubat). I made a good routechoice but I missed the control in the end. The ride was very hard to see and there was another one behind the control where I was looking for the control. 45 sec mistake.

Leg 2-3: Long traverse looks the fastest. Running up the hill and on the road is 30 sec slower. Running down to the road and then climbing up to the control is more than a minute slower (Kubat). I made a good routechoice but I missed the control in the end. The ride was very hard to see and there was another one behind the control where I was looking for the control. 45 sec mistake.

Leg 4-5: Traverse again the fastest one. There were some animal paths you could use. I got back to the lead after this leg.

Leg 7-8: The decisive leg for me. I took a traverse again and I lost a lot, especially in the beginning of the leg where I was afraid to lose elevation. The fastest seems to be running down first, then traverse and climbing up to the control (Nykodým) or running all the way down to the road and then climbing all the way up again (Šedivý). Runing all around is also not very bad (Kubelka +1:11)

Middle Bradlo

The last race of the weekend - very rocky and stony middle distance on the Bradlo hill. It was important to keep the right direction, to be agressive and accurate in executing the legs.

You can see the map with tracking here: http://3drerun.worldofo.com/2d/?lidstr=20160424h

I was neither agressive nor accurate so I lost some time in the control circles and also I got stuck in some fallen areas a few times. After all I ended 8th, 1:40 behind Miloš Nykodým who seems to be in very good shape. You can see the result here.

Selected!

There were Jan Sedivy, Jan Prochazka and Vojtech Král pre-selected so we were fighting for 2 direct nominations. After all it was Milos Nykodym with 17 points and me with 10 points who got the place in the team for forest disciplines. So far it seems I will run long, middle and relay. The team will be completed by the coach's decision in a few days.

The next weeks will be full of training and competing. There is the first World Cup round in Poland on the next weekend. It is just 1:20 from my hometown so I will go there just for middle distance. Then there will be a training camp in Jeseníky and Czech mixed relay. Then a short trip to Sweden to run 10mila and on the 23rd May the EOC starts for me with long distance qualification.