I just came
home from lovely Los Canos de Meca, a small seaside village and orienteering
paradise in Andalusia. A few dozen Team FIN orienteers have kept a base camp
there from the beginning of February (and staying until mid-April) so I thought
of doing a one-week visit there too. For me it was a DIY training camp again,
this time with my half-Spanish friend & club mate Ellu (well, actually she's
100% Finnish but currently living in Spain) who spoke the language, knew the
places and made life thus a whole lot easier. She was wonderful company and got
me introduced to Spanish culture, lifestyle and habits.
Training
camp didn't go quite exactly as planned (speaking of myself) but was still
pretty good and we had a good time. I had planned to do a high-intensity
training block with 3 races and 3-4 threshold sessions but ended up doing only
aerobic exercise the first four days due to running (or blocked) nose and head
full of slime (I hadn't totally recovered from a recent flu yet). But the last two days were really good
and I could push hard again in hill-O-intervals, contour-O-intervals, hill
intervals and sprint-O training. So overall it was still pretty good and I got
to orienteer a lot, which was really the main purpose of travelling there.
Sprint
trainings were excellent even at slightly slower pace. Super-narrow streets,
stairs and passages made it anyway challenging enough. I feel that I got decent
technical training despite the fact that I was physically down. And training
there in such great conditions gave me a huge mental boost too. Soft sandy
ground, steep climbs, contour details and good runnability made the terrain
ideal for orienteering training and close proximity to all ready trainings made
the place a real training paradise. I really loved it and wish I could have
stayed there longer.
Also it was
good to meet so many friends and team mates at the same place, take part to a tapas
night by the pool, do a circuit training with my dear club mates, walk barefoot
in the beach and treat your hurting legs in cooling sea after trainings. My
plantar fasciitis is still troublesome but less painful than a month ago. I can
already see clear progression!
Some of my
favourite trainings:
 |
| Sprint Vejer de la Frontera |
 |
| "Steep climbs" hill-O-intervals |
 |
| Contour training |
 |
| "Super-narrow streets" |
I just came
home from lovely Los Canos de Meca, a small seaside village and orienteering
paradise in Andalusia. A few dozen Team FIN orienteers have kept a base camp
there from the beginning of February (and staying until mid-April) so I thought
of doing a one-week visit there too. For me it was a DIY training camp again,
this time with my half-Spanish friend & club mate Ellu (well, actually she's
100% Finnish but currently living in Spain) who spoke the language, knew the
places and made life thus a whole lot easier. She was wonderful company and got
me introduced to Spanish culture, lifestyle and habits.
Training
camp didn't go quite exactly as planned (speaking of myself) but was still
pretty good and we had a good time. I had planned to do a high-intensity
training block with 3 races and 3-4 threshold sessions but ended up doing only
aerobic exercise the first four days due to running (or blocked) nose and head
full of slime (I hadn't totally recovered from a recent flu yet). But the last two days were really good
and I could push hard again in hill-O-intervals, contour-O-intervals, hill
intervals and sprint-O training. So overall it was still pretty good and I got
to orienteer a lot, which was really the main purpose of travelling there. 
Sprint
trainings were excellent even at slightly slower pace. Super-narrow streets,
stairs and passages made it anyway challenging enough. I feel that I got decent
technical training despite the fact that I was physically down. And training
there in such great conditions gave me a huge mental boost too. Soft sandy
ground, steep climbs, contour details and good runnability made the terrain
ideal for orienteering training and close proximity to all ready trainings made
the place a real training paradise. I really loved it and wish I could have
stayed there longer.
