Proper Preparations

We've been in Tacen, Slovenia for 5 days in our final training stint before the World Championships, which begin in just over a week.

So far, it's been a mixed bag. The weather has been hot, sunny, cloudy, drizzly, stormy and a bit cool. This has affected the river levels in the Sava considerably. When we first arrived, the course was running at a very low level. The swirls were strong, but manageable. Since then, the levels have risen to the point that the course managers haven't deflated the bag that acts as a sluice gate at the top of the course. This means that you can't run the top drop, but that all the water runs around it, over a side weir and into the course.

Some of you may remember that this was how the course was running for the World Ranking race we did here early in the season. At this river level, the course varies between tough and proper mental! We've been training as much as we feel necessary, to cover the bases in case the race is like this, but not too much, because the power of the water is such that it is like wrestling with a wriggly but super strong squid (or some other sort of slippery animal with lots of wriggly bits).

We're hoping that the level will drop, business will resume on all parts of the course and we can get some final tapering training sessions in. Even then, when the sun is shining, we can't complain too much!

Bye for now, we'll update you when we find more information about the race.

Etienne

(Posted on the 30th Aug 2010)