GB Talent Camp 2015 (Cairngorm)

Apologies for the tardiness of this entry but I've had a busy time since coming home from Scotland. End of July, I attended the GB Talent Camp in Cairngorm, aimed at honing both technical and physical skills, whilst also beginning to think about training for next year. Having traveled on the Sunday, waiting a couple of hours for Ali, Jack and Callum in Inverness, we had an introductory meeting and a bit of a chill on that evening before beginning the camp proper on Monday.

Badaguish aka Home

The first order of business was an assessment of our physical condition, through the use of a time trial along the tracks and terrain close to the centre. After a chatty 4.5k to the start of the track trial, I was feeling pretty good in truth, and so was surprised at what happened next. I was happy enough with my flat time, mixing in with the other guys (bar ali and alex), but then got destroyed on the climb. Before, I'd kept jack to the 30 odd second gap we started with and saw him at the top of the first bit of the ascent, so I thought it was going ok. As it turned out, I can't climb up hills, or at least couldn't then. I walked maybe half, with the odd hesitant rest and very slow jog to come in well down on the time. I thought I'd try and push on with the flat at the top but was demoralised not to even see jack at the far end. Still tried to run hard but I was fairly average. Following this, I felt pretty bad on the

#teamGG

descent, my still nagging problem of being afraid of injuries and so not pushing myself hard enough or letting go. As it turned out, I was still ahead of a lot of guys, but wasn't where I should be so I was pretty down before the terrain. Long story short, I tried to push again, but couldn't, didn't really have much in me to be honest. Average time again, but still would have wanted to have been higher.
Moved over to Moor of Alvie for the forest test. Orienteered well to the first one but then following that, my contact and lack of speed meant I just trundled and picked them off. Bad as a test but really wasn't with it then. I'm not sure what was up with me then, but I just couldn't get motivated to do what I knew I could. In reality, I'm not as unfit as the tests suggest, evident with my 10k the other week, but I think psychologically I wasn't in the right place for it, perhaps a bit nervous.
On to the Tuesday, at Uath Lochan, for some compass work in the morning, after some serious drill work. It went really well, in a star format for an out and back exercise. All of them went swimmingly, and the one at the end I tried at race pace was equally good. Perhaps if I try and navigate when I'm racing rather than just running I might do better. The we used the green(ish) area for a compass line course, which also went well bar a couple of small circle slips and felt I was moving better than the day before, having ensured my nutrition was more carefully monitored. Genuinely really liked the area, bit rough and ready but great for orienteering. Afternoon I just took really chilled, couple of loops. Seemed like everyone else was racing, but there was no point, it was training after all. the last one with Ali was really fun, just chatting and alternating navigating and just running. A nice day and

Winding down with a bit of Jeremy Kyle

feeling a hell of a lot better.
Wednesday was great fun. We'd got the map and course the night before to plan the course out (without drawing obviously) and then ran it at Craig Leach. Probably my best run all week to be honest, as odd as it sounds, I pretty much switched off and just got round one slip on 9 and the last control, but just really chilled, good fun. Again not racing, but much more steady. Got to Little Mill in the afternoon and I decided to be sensible, after feeling tired on the first couple of controls. Orienteering was good, but cut it off at 11 and just jogged back with Jack, very wet and cold and again wasn't feeling great, not much else to say, bit rough as an area but nice enough, also the Swedish team training for the World Champs being there was odd.

The original creator of the instacatch (Ali Masson)

The last day was a bit easier but much better. Headed to Loch Va for some trains, which was great fun and featured the infamous instacatch. Moving slowly and terrible navigation but a really fun
training with the guys. Reran the forest test in Moor of Alvie after this, which was a much better run and didn't have any thorns in my toes for this, which was a real treat. Navigation smooth, running much better but still cautious on hills.
Overall the camp was real fun, good training in awesome areas with a great bunch of people so it was a real pleasure. Also, I thought it'd set me up well for the 6 days, being if nothing else much more confident with my navigation and really looking forward to it. Onwards and upwards...or so I thought.
(6 days to follow shortly)