Lagganlia Training Camp 31^st July to The 7^th of August 2010

This summer I spent a week doing technical and physical training in Scotland. The training camp was situated at the Lagganlia outdoor centre in the Cairngorms. I was part of a group of twenty four juniors who had been selected.

Saturday

I arrived on Saturday afternoon and when all the juniors had arrived and eaten, Tony (Tour Manager) gave us a talk about the week’s proceedings. I also found out that I was going to be sharing a room with, Harry Butt from the South West and Will Parkinson from the East Midlands, I had not met either before but we were soon getting along fine. I was also with Nick Jarvis whom I already knew.

Sunday

The first training was at Uath Lochan. We focused on using a compass and looked at different techniques of orienteering with a compass. I completed three courses one of which I did with one of my set coaches for the week Anne Edwards (GB Athlete) we talked though the course afterwards. In the afternoon we moved to Achlean where we learnt how to pace. We were given a one hundred meter stretch of track to use to work out how many double paces we needed to cover that distance. I then did three more activities in which I used my pacing.

Monday

Monday’s training was located at Moor of Alvie. We spent the morning working in the complex wooded area. Later that afternoon we did two timed runs. One kilometre on a forest track then the same distance through terrain. My two times were 4.11 and 6.00. Using our two times we could compare and see which athletes were stronger on terrain or on a track. That evening we had a talk from Anne Edwards about working with a personal coach.

Tuesday

On Tuesday we spent the whole day on Culbin, an extremely technical area of forested sand dunes. I completed various exercises and at the end of the day we did an odds and evens relay, a score event where we were given two maps between three people, and only one control could be collected before the map was brought back and given to the waiting team member.  We finished the day with an ice cream from Tesco’s!

Wednesday

Wednesday was the day of the Sprint. The Qualifier was held at Avielochan a small wooded area. I had a good race coming second by only three seconds, this meant that I was in the A final and was starting second to last in the chasing start. The final was around the grounds of Lagganlia where we were staying. The fast open grass and a few buildings reminded me of an urban park race. I had another good run and won by 20 seconds this was enough to give me the overall win!  We didn’t have any training that afternoon and went swimming in Loch Morlich, shopping in Aviemore and had a BBQ.

Thursday

We were training again on Thursday and spent the day at Anagach. After looking at a map of the area we drew our own simplified versions and attempted to do a course using only our own maps. Art is not one of my strongest subjects and as you might expect I got horribly lost, luckily I stumbled across one of my controls (not the one I was looking for) and was able to relocate. Later that day I completed a “Talk O” where in pairs one of you guides the other to a control using just their voice, (no hand gestures or other forms of communication). For example,” head North West up the spur until you reach a hill top”. It was great fun and a real test of my orienteering skill.

Friday

Friday was the day of the Classic Race which was to be held in Inshriach Forest. The boy’s race was 5.8 km. It was one of the hardest areas I have ever run in, especially because the few forest rides intersecting the complex contours were totally unreliable. The course was both a physical and mental challenge but I really enjoyed it. I made a few mistakes but was fast to relocate and found out when I returned that I had won. That afternoon we had a fun relay, I was really tired and spent most of my time running in circles but it was a good laugh. That evening we had a special dinner followed by a quiz and prize giving. The next day we said our goodbyes and left.

I had a great week and would like to thank all off the coaches especially Tony and Nev for all their hard work and effort that they put into the week. I learnt a lot and would love to get selected for other tours over the next few years.

Joe Woodley

(All photos Wendy Carlyle collection Lagganlia 2010)

Water sports trip in France                                                                                                      By Beth Woodley

My trip started on July 29^th with a 24 hr journey to France via coach and ferry. We arrived at the PGL centre in Mimosa on the Mediterranean in time for breakfast. We were greeted by our lively and enthusiastic leaders and they took us straight to the beach. We started with some ice-breaker activities in the water which was really fun! Unfortunately, it was too windy in the afternoon to do our planned sailing activity, however instead we got to go on the climbing and abseiling tower which I enjoyed. After dinner we had ‘wacky races’ on the beach and my team won!

The following day we went to the beach again and went on the ‘ocean rider’ a banana shaped inflatable pulled along by a speed boat. It was great fun, although we ended up spending most of our time climbing back on the ‘ocean rider’ after being thrown off! In the afternoon we were introduced to sailing on fun boats. I found it really good because I was able to steer the boat using the rudder and control the sail. Our evening entertainment was bowling which I wasn’t very good at but enjoyed nevertheless.

On Sunday we travelled to another nearby beach called Black Sands. We eagerly donned wetsuits, masks and snorkels and jumped into the sea to go snorkelling. Before we went deeper we were taught the best way to breathe using the snorkel and how to do a surface dive without getting a mouthful of sea water. After lunch we went sea kayaking which was one of my favourite activities. The water was quite choppy and I liked the feeling of bobbing about in the waves. We had races and placed catch in the kayaks. Later on we went sailing on a catamaran. I had never been on one before so it was fantastic when we got about 2 miles out and turned the sail, it filled with air and we went whipping back to the shore.

The next day was my birthday and I had a wonderful time at Aqualand theme park. There were steep, scary slides and gentle, winding rivers plus a pool with a wave machine. We were sad when it was time to go, but that was short lived as we boarded the coach ready for the next part of our adventure. We drove three hours to a further inland PGL centre called Segries. In the evening we played fun, silly games and I got a birthday cake!

On August 3^rd we had a river talk about what to expect on the descent of the Ardeche with our river team instructors. It also involved splashing us with water which didn’t go down too well with some people as it was 7.30 am: it certainly woke us up! After that we set off to the river. We spent the morning mastering some basic paddling stroked in order to steer the two man canoes. We stopped at a beach to have lunch then carried on, tackling rapids and river jumps along the way.

The next two days were also spent going down the river which was quite hard work but great fun. We went swimming, did more river jumping and negotiated our way down some big, rocky rapids. On Thursday, we had dinner, packed up and piled onto the coach for the long journey home. Everyone was upset to leave France and hoped we’d be able to return one day to relive the amazing week. I had a fantastic time on the trip, had great experiences and learnt new skills. None of this would have been possible without the generous grant from the Jack Bloor fund so thank you very, very much.

Badaguish 2010

This summer I was selected for the BOF Talent Camp in the Cairngorms (basically the new tour for 15-20 year olds), which was held at the Badaguish outdoor centre near Aviemore. It was a fantastic week of training, with the main focus of the week being on how to plan your own training. The tour made use of the many different areas available such as Alvie (woodland) and Culbin (sanddunes) and finished off with a sprint race around Lagganlia, which was a great opportunity to put everything we had learned into practise. Throughout the week we were taught how to plan structured training sessions such as intervals and how to periodise training. The week was really informative and interesting with talks from some of the coaches about things such as personal coaches and race analysis. I thought the week was really fantastic and with the new mixed ages, I made some great new friends.

Many thanks to the Jack Bloor fund for the contribution, it was much appreciated!

 

Photo: Wendy Carlyle