Club:  South Yorkshire Orienteers
Athlete Profile

Cat Taylor's Training Diary 

Cat Taylor, says: 

"This week I’m in Ticino, the southern corner of Switzerland, preparing for the European Championships in four weeks’ time. Although we have no organised British team camp, I felt it was important to train here ahead of the competition week and I’m one of several team members who has taken this opportunity in recent months.

The forests in Ticino offer very different challenges to home. If I had to describe them in one word: steep. Steep up, steep down, contouring across steep ground, trying to gain or lose the right amount of height. The main challenges, especially in the Long distance, will come from picking the best route and line in the terrain to negotiate these hillsides. When is it okay to climb, and when should you go round? Maybe the answer is different for each runner.

So my training has focused on getting used to these hills technically, physically and not least mentally, because many Legs look daunting on the map and feel tough to run. Without the right confidence and grit, the race could beat you before you even run it. Half way through, I’m pleased to be feeling like I’m finding my hill skills again. As part of this I took in the Swiss team test races last weekend, along with British teammates Chris Smithard (who ran the Sprint test) and Hector Haines (who ran the Middle, like me). It was my first ”hard” session in these forests and I learnt a lot, including how much quicker I can launch myself down hills in race mode, and (from being overtaken by a couple of the top men on these downhills) how much better I can still be!"

You can read more about the upcoming European Championships at eoc2018.ch 

Read more about the European Orienteering Championships 2018 Selection Announcement here.

British Orienteering would like to take this opportunity to wish Cat Taylor and all the GB elite athletes selected to compete at this International competition all the very best with their final preparations and training ahead of the 2018 European Championships.