Successful start into the army

The first 5 weeks of the sports army in Magglingen are already over, and with it the basic military training. From now on, we will not be seen in Magglingen very often, as we will be travelling to many training camps to get the most out of this time in the army. Within Switzerland, we will travel to St. Moritz, Andermatt, Arosa and Ticino, but also to the Czech Republic and Sweden for a few weeks.

The infrastructure in Magglingen is perfect, of course. For example, I could already make use of the physiotherapy to work on my weaknesses, and I was able to have a check in the medical centre to make sure that my Covid infection has not left any damage. The infection is also why the last few weeks I was not quite able to perform as well as I had hoped. In particular, I unfortunately did not make the selection for the European Championships. However, I was aware that I had a certain training deficit due to the break caused by the infection, and that this goal was very ambitious anyway.

There will be many more opportunities in the future and now I will concentrate on making as much progress as possible during these 18 weeks and, above all, to benefit from it in the long run.

Full gas into 2021

A week ago, I started the winter training. Today, I was again selected for the national team. A great winter is ahead of me.

I’m looking back on a pretty unspectacular season 2020. In February and March, I spent time in training camps in Spain and Portugal, preparing for the races ahead and I was looking forward to them. But as you know, things turned out differently. Lockdown No. 1 arrived and spring was literally over. Instead of racing the first competitions in April, I was training more than ever. In June, I spent 3 weeks in St. Moritz with some friends in a high-altitude training camp. It was fun to train in smaller groups again and especially in a different place, and not always from my own front door. In summer, we actually had two competition weekends, but exclusively for the elite, and a training camp with the squad in Gstaad.

The anticipation of a more competitive autumn was big. At the only test races of the year I got qualified for the only international event of the year, the Euromeeting in Czech Republic. But the Swiss Championships in the sprint, middle and long distance remained the highest of the feelings. Lockdown No. 2 unfortunately ended the season early.

Nevertheless, my first season in the elite class was a success. I was able to increase the amount of training considerably, deliver some solid results and trying to blend in the team.

Preperation for an autumn full of competitions

I finally managed to edit a review video of the altitude training camp in Engadine. It gives you a little insight into the daily training during three weeks in June. Some numbers: 44h of training, 350km / 11'000m of running, 260km / 2'600m of cycling, thousands of calories burned and countless beautiful views enjoyed.

In July, I trained at home most of the time and tried to avoid the hottest hours. The training alone is a lot of fun, but I'm really looking forward to the autumn season to begin. Now there are 2,5 weeks left until the test races for the Euromeeting in Czech Republic. Next week, I will work on my orienteering technique with the swiss team in the region of Gstaad. Afterwards, I will concentrate on recovery to get the maximum out of myself at the test races.

More training, new website!

After good basic training in winter and two intensive training camps in Spain and Portugal, I was ready for the start of the season in March. Now, as of today, the first important competitions of this year will take place in August instead of April.

Fortunately, the training during the lockdown as an orienteer, was not very limited. During this time, I was literally an "individual athlete" and trained alone from home every day. From time to time, my training motivation decreased a little bit. The lack of competitions makes it difficult to remind yourself why you train at all.

But after all, I do not only have goals for this season, but also long-term goals. That's why I saw this situation as an opportunity to develop a better basis with good, constant training, and to reduce the gap to the best in the national team.

In April, I set a new personal record with 473km and 12'200hm running training. It seems that I was pushing myself to the limit and I had to fight with known shin problems. But by reacting quickly and doing a little less running but more cycling training, I got rid of it quite fast.

The lockdown also gave me enough time to set up a new website. Here I will upload news regularly, as soon as there is a little more to tell. ;)