GB training in Latvia for EOC

On Thursday I flew to Riga for a short training camp with the British team. We based about 30km east of Riga in some cabins really close to some fantastic sand dune terrain (see some map samples below). We also did a session with a couple of the Norwegian team which was good.
So what did we learn about Latvia (or at least the terrain near Riga)?
Fast, vague in places, but the dunes can also be large and obvious. Where it is sandy it can be really sapping, and it will be very easy at high pace to lose contact, especially on the longer legs.

I can't wait for EOC!


Getting into the eastern european groove


Some training maps

Sprint KM and back into good training

So I was feeling much better after Tiomila, and started to train hard again. On Tuesday was the club sprint champs. I got the fastest time, but I can't claim victory really as I made the map about a month ago...



Here are some other cool trainings from last week, a large scale sprint and a really technical forest north of Stockholm.

Tiomila map

This weekend I ran leg 9 for IFK Lidingö at Tiomila. The club ran well through the night and I started in 8th place. I had been sick the previous week, but I knew I was in good shape, and my cold was feeling OK. I caught up 7th place by the first control, but Simonas Krepsta started just behind me and he caught us as well. I ran quite a lot of the race with him, although we had slightly different gaffles. I made a small mistake at 13, when I misread the contours slightly. Simonas got a small gap there (maybe 30 seconds), and although I ran well after that I didn't see him. We passed the TuMe team on the way to the 8th control, so I changed over in 7th place.

My team finished 13th, which is a little disappointing as we had very high hopes, but it is still a massive PB for me at tio.

Results here

Selections and sick

Yesterday Lidingö's Tiomila team was picked, and as expected I have a nice day leg (but not last). Our team is really good, but a couple of guys didn't make it due to sickness and injury which is a real shame - hopefully they will be back for Jukola. Follow / watch online here.

Today selections came out for the British team for a few things, I was selected for everything I wanted - EOC, EOC training camp and World Cups.

Downside this last week - on Wednesday I picked up some stomach bug. Tried to do a race in the evening, felt terrible, ended up walking quite a lot, got a bit cold and tired. Then after the race I felt awful and basically got sick. Spent the last 5 days in bed, missing British Long champs in Scotland (gutted). Started to feel a lot better now though, should be fine for the weekend.

Czech training camp

Last week the British team had a training camp in Czech, in preparation for the World Championships. We stayed in the Pension Athena, about 20 minutes east of Prostejov where the sprint qualifier will be. We had a hard training week, training with some of the Russian and Estonian teams, and at the end of the week we took part in the Moravian Championships. The terrain and competitions were very relevant and there were many national and club teams taking part from across Europe. I ran very well in the two sprint competitions, placing 5th and 4th against some strong runners. I was too tired to run the classic, and I was still tired for first leg of the relay, in some really hilly terrain. Event website here. I am back in Stockholm now, but on Thursday I will fly to Scotland for the British long championships. Unfortunately I cannot run the relay championships as I intend to run the Swedish champs later in the year.