On Monday I came back from a training camp in Alicante.
According to Thierry it is one of the best places to spend winter as an
orienteer, so at the last minute I signed up to Linné’s training camp in
Guardamar. I have been there on training camp twice before in the late 90’s,
although back then in Torrevieja, but all I can remember (in addition to some
funny incident in a local restaurant) is a burning rash and itching. This time,
the thing that I most likely won’t forget any time soon, is a burning rash and
itching. I still have red dots all over my body and skin is just starting to
smoothen after being like a burning potato field.
Apart from the larvae and burning skin, the training camp
was terrific and just what I needed. A week filled with technical training in
otherwise perfect conditions and relaxation in good company. I feel like my
shape is getting better and better after just a few months of training but my
orienteering is still far behind. It can be irritating when your legs go faster
than your brain but mostly I just enjoyed it. It’s definitively better that
way. It took me some days to find a good pace and rhythm to my orienteering but
it was great to see day-to-day improvement.
Albin had planned us a full schedule with three trainings a
day and with fair amount of high-speed quality sessions included. I skipped
most of the night sessions but still got 18 orienteering trainings in eight
days, half of them in full speed (or at least high-intensity). I call it a good
week. It was also a good mixture of dune terrains, sprints, and hill terrains, to
get some variety into your training. It was a great week and without the larvae
I would love to go there again. Maybe worth mentioning is that only a few of us
got serious problems with the rash and just one of us needed a hospital visit
due to anaphylactic reaction. Most of us didn’t get anything or just a mild rash.
So it’s probably fine to go there but take some antihistamines and
hydrocortisone with you.
On the way back I picked up a flu probably due to massive
sleep deprivation (impossible to sleep when you’re itching all over) so I have
spent most of the time at home sleeping and recovering before my next visit to Spain.
This time I will head further to south, to larva-free zones. Adios!
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| Sprinting on the streets of Caravaca de la Cruz |
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| Early birdie training on the dunes |
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| Breakfast in the sunshine |
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| Tricky sprint around Atalaya castle in Villena |
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| Morning runs on the beach |
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| Typical training terrain, Guardamar Sur |
