Near to the end of this summer I attended a 10 day training camp hosted by JROS in Czechia. 22 Orienteers from the M/W16 category (born in 2008) had been selected from all across the UK and I was lucky enough to be one of the last selected for the camp.
The trip started with a very late night due to an hour delay with flights and then straight into the terrain in the morning. Our training was split between the 2 types of forest which are most commonly found in Czech. Sandstone forests which were very runnable and included valleys with high sandstone pillars and cliffs. And a less rocky more gradual terrain which had complex boulder fields.
The first few days of training involved morning sessions on the boulder field terrain and then a more relaxed activity in the afternoon. This training style allowed me to enjoy the terrain while also doing good training without a risk of getting too tired. After a few days we swapped over to the sandstone terrain which was a lot more physical as the courses contained a lot more climbing. This area was more interesting though, as the big sandstone features created more route choice.
After a rest day spent swimming and relaxing we did a morning training activity which consisted of a 2by2 relay and then set off to the first day of a 3 day event called The Pekne Prazdniny. The first day was a middle distance course in Sandstone terrain(probably the best area of the week) and consisted of many complex legs in and out of a “rock city” area with many different passages. I made a few mistakes inside the harder areas but overall had a decent race for my first ever event on non British terrain.
After the middle distance we headed back to the house had a debreif on the event and relaxed.
The next day(day 2 of the event) was a long distance on the same terrain as the first day, with an extra area added. The longer legs(such as 9-10) provided a new challenge of route choice aswell as navigation through the difficult rocky terrain. For this leg in particular there was 2 main choices: To run on the path west of the line(grey) or run on the paths East. I took the first option which was thought to be slower after the debreif. I felt my navigation was good in this event though with only a few small mistakes. Then on the final day we had another middle distance in a more “British” terrain over the other side of the hill. This area was less interesting but still provided good orienteering training.
After this we packed up and got in the cars for the long drive to Prague where we walked around the city exploring some of its attractions. After this we headed back to our accommodation on public transport and headed to bed.
The next day we woke up early and made the final journey to the airport before everyone went their separate ways. In all the camp was a great experience. I learnt a lot and saw some amazing places, balancing difficult training with relaxing and enjoying the country of Czechia with an amazing group of people.
Finally I would like to thank both my orienteering club: Aire and The Jack Bloor Fund for providing funds to help me go on this camp and providing me with this amazing opportunity.
Links to the Livelox of the event can be found here: day 1, day 2, day 3.
Jack Bloor Race & Fund 