Today we ran in some legit middle distance terrain, its really awesome doing downhill orienteering. We had 180 metres of climb to the start.

Salome and the youth team have arrived and settled in. The weather was pretty kak today, and with Salome arriving a bit later than expected, so our planned sprint session was binned. We all just went for a bit of a run around Hradec, close to our hotel. 

Only 6 days till the Long!

Relay race at Biricka. Raced Brad and Tim around 3 two km loops.

First loop started fast. We traded first place for the first 3 controls. Brad managed to pull ahead after tim ran to far left and i ran within a metre of the control before running on. He disappeared into the bush after I got confused by a clearing just off the map and Tim tried to re-locate. Lost Tim after the next control and pulled off a second. Felt positive about my first loop besides slowing down on my way to control four.

Second loop started off with a fast control just off the path. Gauged the distance well and hit the control well. Feeling good heading off to two. It was in the middle of a low visibility and slow running forest. Overshot the control but managed to hit it spot on after re-locating. Had a great course from there on hitting the controls spot on. Brad followed me into my number four, not noticing that the control he was meant to punch was 100m further in a similar area of forest (hopefully none of us do this in the relay and get disqualified). Finished the course in first.

Third loop wasn't great. After a solid first control I headed way to far left to two giving Tim a massive lead. Was slow for the rest of the course but maintained contact with the map. Couldn't find a stake at one off the controls and wasted about three minutes checking I was in the right
place. Was sure I was in the right place and brad confirmed, I'm so used to thinking i'm in the right place and not being that i continued looking for that long.

Pulled out of the last loop as I felt a blister starting on my heel. Tim was the only one to do it so he won it quite convincingly.

Having to sit in the passage to get wifi

Brad cutting his hair so he can run faster

Morning session was relay training at Lesni Hrbitov. We decided to start with the relay because Salome won't be running the relay in an SA team and we didn't want her to miss out any of the long or middle distance maps. She arrives on Tuesday.

Before starting the course we checked out the various terrains to see how runnable the area was. It seemed more runnable than I was expecting. The visibility through green areas was better than we are used to in South Africa.

Brad and I had courses with 16 controls while Tim got a 20 control course which had an extra loop. All the courses were slightly different. I ran the course backwards. Brad and Tim did theirs the right way round. 

I decided to run straight from 16 to 15, running along the edge of the clearing. I wanted to get a feel of the vegetation and see if it may be a viable route choice. It turns out the green was thick and hard to navigate through. Although i messed the control up quite badly I'm still glad I chose that route as I can gauge the runnability of green areas better now.

Lesni Hrbitov

Struggled to find the stakes at many of the controls so need to focus more on the finer detail in the circle. Was expecting to find the control as I ran into the area. Stopped to early from 13 to 12 and wasted minutes matching up features to the map. 12 to 11 I ran straight to the road and relocated. Was feeling a bit insecure with my navigating. 

Hit the rest of the controls pretty nicely barring 5 which i over ran and 2 which i was hesitant about. I was confused by a ditch that wasn't on the map. 

Finished the loop in 43 minutes, 5 minutes behind tim and brad. We then took turns to navigate to a control on the extra loop of Tim's course. I managed to trip twice running to one of those controls. Tim, Brad and a bunch of Australian orienteers who saw it thought it was hilarious. 

I thought the map was top quality and I really enjoyed the training. I definitely need to soak up as much knowledge and skills as possible if I'm going to have a fast run at JWOC.

Roark and our Czech guide Vojta on Charles bridge

Czech us out bru!

Manager and I are nearly in Czech, currently utilising some free interweb in the charles de gaulle airport!

Tim and Roark should hopefully be in Czech Republic by now, and will probably have explored Prague quite a bit.

Salome writes her last exam on Monday and then Flies to Czech later on. I'm sure we're all really amped to get into terrain ASAP and smash some quality trainings.

We'll hopefully keep our number one supporters (all you SAffers!) updated on this blog and also with @SAorienteers. (Roark and Tim, as newbies, are in charge of the blogging, so any hate mail should be directed to them ;)

Also check out our attackpoint logs. Sweet!