Day 1: 
Monday 26 August 2019

Pre-JWOC 2020 Training Camp
25 - 29 August 2019
Kocaeli, Turkey 

08:00

Wake up and a quick spin in the hotel gym for my injured self before a hearty breakfast.

09:00

We depart for our first training at Cumakoy, where it’s the first chance for everyone to get our heads around the challenges and similarities of the forested and hilly Turkish terrain, not to mention the considerable heat competitors will have to cope with. To do this we do a Middle distance style course.

13:00

After a quick lunch and rest in the shade most athletes head back out into the terrain to re-do certain controls or parts of the course they found interesting or struggled with, whilst others go out to explore bits of the terrain they didn’t visit, to get a feel for the mapping style here.

15:00

Back to the hotel for some relaxing in the spa!

19:00

Team dinner before a technical meeting, in which we discuss how we found the terrain and how we dealt with the challenges it posed. What did we learn?  Everything that will not only be useful for the rest of the camp but also for the championships next summer?

22:30

Bedtime – once you’ve worked out how to operate the air conditioning!

Day 2:
Tuesday 27 August  2019
 

9:30

After breakfast, we head out to our second training session, this time just outside the city (Izmit) where we are staying, to a forest called Durhasan.

10:00

Having navigated some ‘interesting’ Turkish roadworks we arrive and set off on a Middle course in the terrain. This terrain is extremely rough and tough going underfoot with little visibility, adding an extra challenge to the session. In this case, we were preparing for a ‘worst-case scenario’ and how we would react to this when racing.

16:00

After lunch and a relax at the hotel we go to Bahcecik, a small hillside town outside Izmit, for a Sprint training session. This race is a stark contrast from the flat campuses and estates we have here, and we learn more about how we will have to approach the sprint race in terms of route choice and running speed, in order to not tire too soon on the never-ending hills.

18:00

Having successfully negotiated the spectating children, crowds heading to the mosque, directions from pedestrians and even a stand offish cow, we return to the hotel for dinner and a team meeting where we focus on how the Sprint is different to what we have back home and therefore how we will prepare best for it.

Day 3:
Wednesday 28 August 2019

9:30

After an earlier start, we head back to Cumakoy, this time to a different part of the area which is very relevant in particular for the Middle Final. It is very technical with some extremely bouldery sections of the forest that require some very careful navigation – a mistake here would be severely punished!

13:00

Back to the hotel for lunch and a rest before this evening’s Sprint training in Gebze Bati, on the outskirts of Istanbul.

16:00

We do another Sprint course on what is decided by the team to be the steepest Sprint area ever, with many of the roads having a gradient steeper than 50%. This gives us plenty 'food for thought' to add to our ideas from the previous Sprint.

19:00

Back home to the hotel to rest our wrecked quads and enjoy a well-earned meal after a long day of training in the Mediterranean heat.

Day 4:
Thursday 29 August 2019

9:00

It’s a long drive after breakfast to our final training in the forest of Kaynasli-Duzce, which is relevant for the Long-distance at JWOC.

11:00

We spend the whole day in the area, working in small groups of 3 with a coach to compare and pick different route choices on the Legs of the Long course, with the steep and sizeable slopes posing a serious challenge in deciding the best route and then executing it, which often involved some technical navigation with complex contours.

16:00

Having completed our final training session we head back to the hotel for a final team meeting where we not only go over how we are going to tackle the Long-distance, but also look back at the camp as a whole and what are our general thoughts on orienteering in Turkey, most of which I’m pleased to say were pretty positive!

20:00

A final relax in the Turkish baths in the spa, the perfect way to end a fantastic and insightful week of training.

Day 5:
Friday 30 August 2019

06:00

A very early start for a quick breakfast before heading to Istanbul for various different flights home, feeling more prepared and excited for next year’s competition than ever!