Ski-O National Team Camp in Orlické Hory

Overaverage temperatures, overaverage ammount of workout miles and overaverage social time. That was a next national team camp summed up in ten words. If those are not enough for you, keep reading.

We were supposed to come to the camp in a good shape. Failed. Two weeks of sickness does not really go ruku v ruce with it. My plan was to survive whole camp and keep training only in a low pulse zones. Failed.

It was less than 15degrees in Finland last weeks. I came to Czech a day before the camp. The temperature difference was markable. My body didn’t want to adapt to Czech hot weather first days. It afffected my pulse which was higher than wanted. Surpisingly, I woke up the third day and felt really fit. It was time for anaerobic zone intervals and I decided to test my body. It came to a big surprise my body responded really well! My pulse was back in normal and I felt pretty good physically for the first time after the sickness.

I was really looking forward to Wednesday as it was time for a long run. My fav! This time we upgraded it to the three hours thriatlon including running, orienteering and roller skiing. We were supposed to take easy and put effort in the orienteering part. I was really satisfied with my no-mistake performance as well as with the result.

On the afternoon, we had a rest from training. Despite it was the only rest noon during the camp, we decided to do a bit of cultural sightseeing. In Neratov, there is a unique castle with glass roof. It was really stunning and beatiful with so much light inside.

In Neratov, there is also a unique café. The service is provided by people with a light mental handicap. They had sooo delicious cakes, coffee and ice—cream there which makes me to recommend this café to anyone! Prices are only slightly higher than in any other café, but you are supporting a very pro-social way – intergration of less-skilled people.

There was one special thing about the camp – no phone signal and no wifi. It was truly freeing to be without any communication device for a wee. We took an advantage of it and socialized with eachother more than usually. Playing cards might be oldschool for someone, but we did have fun! Despite this, spending some time on wifi and phone signal back in café civilization was something none of us could resist.

In the evening, the social peak of the camp was about to come. You need to celebrate every succes. In winter, we had one of the most successfull season ever so there was a lot to celebrate. We organized barbecue with our ski-o chef Ivoš who came all the way from Nové Město just to cook for us and join us this evening. Furthermore, Kinynka came to join the celebration. I think fotky mluví za vśe. What a great evening! Fully motivated for good results in next season in order to repeat this evening.

But Ivoš was not the only chef to prepare some super delicious meal. Each of us was supposed to cook three meals during the week. If you think we cooked something simple such as pasta with cheese and ketchup, to se sakra pleteš. Some of the meals were really extraordinary!

After a great day, we kept on making us better and stronger. We did everything from endurance trainings, speed intervals, skiing technic analyzing, swimming, mobilization exercises to streng training.

At the end of the camp, we had an uphill roller ski test from Orlické záhoří to Šerlich. I was loosing energy from day to day but so everyone did. It was a mental fight for me to make it to the top. I was really happy to have the best time from girls (but it desn’t mean much as Lenka had slower roller skis and Peťa had faster rollerskis but did only double polling all the way up).

I am really satisfied with my effort during whole week. I am super happy I managed all the trainings even if being sick in previous weeks. I can honestly say, this was one of the coolest and most effective training I have ever been at with our ski-o team. Big thanks to our coach Richo, physio Janća and my team mates for making it so awesome!