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Soča Elite Team |
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| Planica |
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From Monday to Saturday i will be staying in Planica for some more xc-skiing. I will be training here with Jernej Korenjak and Gerhard Schmidt (from Austria downriver team). We are living at the Planica olympic center, just under the biggest ski jumping hill in the world (watch the world record being broken in Planica). The snow is here, the courses are all set nicely, the hotel crew treats us marvelouslly as always and the Tamar valley is there too....stoic, silent and astonishing, frozen in ice and time! This is me while travelling to Planica on early Monday morning. I am standing on the new bridge above Log pod Mangartom, just before the Predel mountain pass: 
Posted by Jernej on
Tuesday 19 January 2010 - 10:58:27
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| A paddle with Michele Z |
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Yesterday i finally managed to visit my friend Michele Zerial from the italian town of Trieste. He only lives 20 minutes away from my town and it was really sad we naver managed to train together on our bay before (also training in the same bay are strong canoeists like: Stjepan Janić, Luca Piemonte, Mauro Pra Floriani, Luca Malusa, Marco Lipizer (marathon), Anna Alberti and Špela Ponomarenko along with past and present day olympic medallists Andrea Facchin (bronze in 2008), Bruno Dreossi (silver in 1992) and Daniele Scarpa (gold and silver in 1996). Not bad for a north Adriatic bay;-) Together we did a good paddle from the Piazza del'Unita (the biggest square with a view on the sea in Europe) in the center of Trieste to the Miramare castle and back. Brisk air on a sunny day made the view along the Barcolana pretty astonishing (Barcolana is the site of the famous Barcolana regatta, traditionally held in october). I used his Nelo Vanquish 3 XXL (the boat he used to finishe 5th on 2009 World Champs), wich is a size bigger than my boat. Liked the additional space in the hip area and the smooth running and decided i will too use this model for the 2010 campaign. The same day i already talked to Nelo and within hours they already agreed to produce the boat according to my specs and deliver it to me by mid February. Amazing as allways! Can't say Thanks enough to them! On the foto it is Michele and me standing by his car. It is the famous FIAT 500, not the new one, but the oldtimer one (it must be a bit pimped judging by the roar it makes). It is a petit car only 3 meters long and Michele realy is a big guy so seeing him driving it or squeezing himself out of it is a must see spectacle (almost beats seeing Imre Pulai driving a mini morris in Budapest once)! 
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| Back from the snow |
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Back on our lake from the xc-ski camp! It was a hard six days with 30 hours of training and i am happy how i managed to stand the torture and only started feeling the tank empty on the last day. It was so nice to be back on the snow after i skipped this camp last winter. And i enjoyed every single session on the snow, even the long steady ones i sometimes had to do alone and finish them in the dark. The hardest session was an interval training where we did 24 times (in 3 sets of 8) a course around 1:10 minutes long, it was only allowed to use hands and it was a bit uphill. We pushed it to absolute oblivion and i think only those who ever tried this game will understand how hard this can become if you play it all out. I had two more very intense ski sessions in these six days while the rest of skiing was long slow distance. During the week we also climbed Mt.Viševnik (2050m). Tired from the morning skiing and gym sessions and in half a meter of snow it was not exactly an afternoon walk, but definitelly worth the trouble. Stane Klemenc (steped on the highest peak of all the continents except Asia and first Slovenian to reach alone the South Pole) was our guide so we all felt pretty safe. I am staying home now for a week and will use my rollskies instead. In a week time i will be back on snow for some more hard pounding on the white crystals. Check the picture gallery here. 
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| XC -skiing training camp 1 |
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I am now already on my next training camp. We came to Pokljuka for a week of dryland training. Between christmas and beggining of February i will focus a lot on this kind of unspecific training. The main focus will be strenght in the gym and endurance in running, swimming, xc-skiing and rollskating. This week is 1 of 2 weeks i will spend cross-county skiing. We are staying at the new and posh Sports center Pokljuka and spending endless hours on the skies along with big loads of gym training. This is a very difficult combination, as the skiing allows you big volumes of hard work and gym trainings are notoriously difficult per se. But being part of such a big team (here there are almost all slalom, downriver and flatwater guys) makes everything also good fun. It is going to be a hell of a week!!! And this is me waxing my skies after dinner: 
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| Back from Sabaudia |
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Just back from a very hard training camp in the Italian town of Sabaudia. Sabaudia lays between Rome and Naples, wich is already quite on the south of Italy and makes its climate pretty nice for winter training (also a big Polish canoe team and the Slovak K4 were there ). It was built in 1934 by Mussolini in the Modernist arhitectural style that is strongly reffering to neoclassicism and looks very different from most Italian towns. Besides the town's architecture the main atractions in the surroundings are the national park 'Il Circeo' with its flora and fauna, the 4 lakes (Sabaudia, Caprolace, Fogliano and dei Monaci) and the 22 km long sandy dunes on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. We were paddling on the lake Sabaudia and keeping our boats at the training center for canoeing and rowing of the Italian Police. At the same spot in Sabaudia there are 4 training centers for canoeing and rowing – the ones belonging to the Police (Polizia dello Stato), Finanzial police (Guardia di Finanza), Marines (Marina Militare) and Forrest guard (Guardia Forrestale). Quite cool to know noone will dare to steal your boat over the night. It was also very interesting to see how top paddlers in Italy can use these facilities over the whole year and basically can paddle all year round with not more than a few cold days per year. With our German coach our training was extremely extensive. While with our large, new, young and eager team our training never stopped to be competitive or slow. I am still adapting to the new team dynamics, but at the same time i am inmensely enjoying the luxury of being put out of the comfort zone on every session – by athelets of my own team. Exciting stuff! Check some fotos in the picture gallery here. 
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| No news is good news |
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Not much important news to report and that might be a good thing. But the past 3 weeks were still pretty intense so i like to keep my fellow readers informed ;-) Latelly i was pretty buisy with a heavy training load and recovering from it. And i am very pleased of how i managed these weeks. There were lots of changes and new things we introduced with the coach for the winter training and i am very pleased to see already some exellent results. Definitelly feeling we are progressing with technique, endurance and even strenght. And that's the best and only motivation i need! But now i feel really beaten and tired as i think we really pushed the volume to the present November limits. Besides that i was keeping my head quite focused also on the work with Intact. I had a lecture about heart rate monitoring on a coaching seminar last weekend and am now working on some new materials, contents and cool slides for some more lectures i hope of having in the next months. So sometimes days are running so fast that i just wish i had more time for myself. Thats why i am really looking forward to the coming download week. I am excited to have some serious time for some unserious stuff in the next few days! Me and Jošt Zakrajšek on the Čepovan plain after a Wednesday skike session: 
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| The 101 places i have visited with a kayak |
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Between September 1991 and September 2009 there is 18 years. For me that's 18 marvelous years spent in the boat. Here is my attempt to list most of the places i have visited by boat in these years. You really end up travelling a lot in the sport of paddling, or at least i had. And for me travelling equals meeting new people and discovering new places. You can stay in contact with people and continue your friendships even once you leave or you perhaps meet again. With places it is different, the special ones have to stay in your memory even though you never manage to return there again. And i find lists are cool because they are like an atempt to put order to infinite things. And places i paddled at are so many...this is the list of those, wich i can still vividly inmagine: Canada 1. Lake Banook - in Dartomouth, Nova Scotia (August 2009, World Championships) USA 2. Lake Lanier – in Gainsville, Georgia (August 2003, World championships) Brazil 3. Curitiba lake – racing course (April 2000, World cup) New Zealand 4. Waikato river – between Taupo and the Huka falls, Huka falls excluded ofcourse, multisport boat (April 2008) 5. Whanganui river – in Taumarunui, multisport boat (April 2008) 6. Lake Pupuke – clock wise and anti-clockwise mostly at dawn ; North Shore Canoe Club, Auckland (March and April 2008) 7. Takapuna Beach – in North Shore, Auckland; raced 2 of the 2008 Takapuna Summer Beach Series, surf ski boat (March 2008) China 8. Beijing - Shunyi Rowing&Canoeing park, the Olympic course for 2008 OG (August 2007 and 2008) Morocco 9. Ouarzazate – artificial lake on the Draa river at the edge of the Sahara desert, training camp with the French national team (February 2008) Portugal 10. Guadiana river – in Mertola, training camp (February 2007) 11. Sandoming lake – close to Mertola, training camp (February 2007) 12. Douro river – in Cinfães, traing camp with the Danish national team (March 2006) 13. Villa do Conde – Nelo's Boat fabric, testing the boat for 2008 (December 2007) Spain 14. Guadalquivir river – in Seville, Andalusia, 'Centro Especializado de Alto Rendimiento de Remo y Piragüismo La Cartuja (February 2001 training camp, August 2002 World Championships) 15. Almeria – artificial lake (June 2005, Mediterranean Games) 16. Pontevedra – (?)artificial lake (July 2007, European Championships) France 17. Boulogne sur Mer - city channel (July 2000, U23 European Championships) 18. Saint Laurent Blagny – international race 19. Gerardmer – racing course on the lake (June 2007, World cup) Italy 20. Bari – race course in the marina (September 2002, Student World Championships) 21. Bari - race course at the 'lungomare' (July 1997, Mediterranean Games) 22. Lake La Bomba – next to the village La Bomba, Pescara (July 2009, Mediterranean games) 23. Idroscalo – racing course (first time August 1999, World Championships) 24. Savona – the port, international race (first time September 1993) 25. Auronzo – racing course on the lake, international race (first time June 1995 or 1996) 26. Rovigo – the channel, international race and regional regattas (first time April 1992 or 1993) 27. Monfalcone – racing in the channel by the Canottieri Timavo, regional regatta FVG (1992) 28. Monfalcone – racing on the sea, regional regatta FVG (1993) 29. Grado – paddling in the lagoon 30. Grado - regional regatta FVG 31. Sistiana – paddling between Miramare and Duino (November 2009) 32. Isonzo – turistic regatta from Solkan in Slovenia to Piedimonte (Podgora) in Italy, plastic boat (September 2009) 33. Sangiorgio di Nogaro – regional regatta FVG; many,many times (first time 1992) 34. Rio Corno – turistic descent (probably 1993 or 1994) 35. Stella – turistic descent (probably 1993) 36. Padova – regional regatta 37. Barcolana – in Trieste, regional regatta FVG, my first flatwater race ever (May 1992) 38. Muggia - regional regatta FVG 39. Port of Trieste - regional regatta FVG (probably 1994) Greece 40. Shinias – Marathon field, olympic course 2004 OG (August 2004) 41. Mikrolimani – Pireaus, Athens, training at the NAS (2002 – 2005) 42. Passalimani - Pireaus, Athens, training at the NAS (2002 – 2005) 43. Kifissos - Pireaus, Athens, training at the NAS (2002 – 2005) 44. Evia – local greek race (September 2007) 45. Halkida south port – Evia island (2002-2008) 46. Halkida north port – Evia island (2002-2008) 47. Halkida –Evripos straight, nothing more funny than battling the famous current in the Evripos straight-you might not allways win though (2002-2008) (last 3 are a bit stretched..but is my list and i love paddling in Halkida, so it counts for 3 locations - not negotiable) Croatia 48. Sava river- turistic descent across the border from Slovenia to Croatia 49. Jarun – racing course in Zagreb (first time 1992, 2005 World Championships) 50. Rab island – local regatta 51. Sisak – local regatta 52. Neretva river – between Metković and the sea, one and only training camp (February 2004) 53. Sea in front of Novigrad – some of best ever winter sessions on almost home water (first time 1996) 54. Mirna river – training camps (since February 1996) 55. Murter island – paddle around the island, training camp (February 1997) 56. Tisno – training camp (February 1997) 57. Military base Lora – in Split, Adriatic sea, training camp (perhaps 1998) Slovenia 58. Bled lake – training very often, national team selection race in 1997 59. Ljubljanica river – training during university years (september 1998 – june 2004) 60. Bohinj lake – training, local races, Bohinj triathlon relay 61. Sava river – at Tacen, national downriver sprint selection race (probably in 2006) 62. Soča river – lake at Most na Soči 63. Soča river – from Serpenica to Kreda, fun paddle, slalom boat (January 1st, 2009) 64. Soča river – Solkan's artificial lake (first time 2005) 65. Soča river - Solkan slalom course, plastic boat (September 2009) 66. Ptuj lake – artificial lake, training camp and a few National Championships 67. Krka river – fun paddle, plastic boat 68. Sečovlje salt ponds – training 69. Drava river – training camp (October 2009) 70. Rižana river – training 71. Badaševica creek – it's just suez water but i've done a fair share of kilometers in there, so it does deserve to be listed (since 1991) 72. Slovenian coast – training and racing (The Christmass marathon), paddled every piece of it between the borders with Croatia and Italy (since 1991) 73. Idrijca river – training (from January 2009) Austria 74. 'Oberösterreich leistungszentrum Ottensheim' – racing course, training camps and international races (first time in 1993 or 1994) Hungary 75. 'Maty ér evezos es kajak-kenu palya' – racing course in Szeged (many training camps and many world cups, August 2006 World Championships) 76. Tisza river – in Szeged, training camp (first time March 1999) 77. Maros river - in Szeged, training camp (first time March 1999) 78. Flooded streets of Szeged – Tisza river floods, training camp (March 1999) 79. Velence lake – international regata and a few training camps (1998 and 1999, maybe also 2000) 80. Nagykanizsa lake – local race (1994 or 1995) 81. Tolna – a long distance race (1995 or 1996) 82. Győr - just a paddle before watching the hungarian marathon selection 83. Danube river – in Budapest, in front of the parliament house, majestic 84. Danube river – in Budapest, around Margarit island, training with Gyula Fekete, cool (probably 2001) 85. Danube river – in Budapest, Ujpesti öböl, training at the MTK club, historic (probably 2000 or 2001) 86. Csepel island – Little Danube, Budapest, training camp with national teams from South Africa, Australia and USA (June 2007) 87. Dunavarsany – training camp (probably 2003 and 2005) 88. Deseda lake – in Kaposvar, training camp with Zsombor Borhi 89. Szolnok – the channel, training camp with national team of Australia (July 2008) Germany 90. Duisburg – racing course in 'Sportpark Wedau', many world cups (August 2007, World Championships) 91. Havel river– racing course in Brandemburg (June 2009, European Championships) Poland 92. Malta lake – in Poznan (first time in July 1996, Junior European Championships; 2004&2006 European n Championships; 2001 world Championships) 93. Raduń lake – in Wałcz, Olympic Training Facility, training with national team of Argentina (May 2006) Sweden 94. 'Nyköpings Kanot Stadion' – racing course in Nyköping, met L., Baltic sea (July 1998, Junior European Championships) Finland 95. Joutjärvi lake – racing course in Lahti (July 1997, Junior World Championships) Czech Republic 96. Sports center Račice – racing course in Račice, artificial lake (June 2004 World Cup, July 2006 European Championships) Slovakia 97. Zlate pieski lake - in Bratislava, international regata (May 1997 and 1998) 98. Váh river – in Komárno, training with The Slovak K4 (June and July 2005) 99. Nitra creek - in Komárno, training with The Slovak K4-that's where they get the power (June and July 2005) 100. Danube river - in Komárno, training with The Slovak K4 (July 2005) 101. Šamorin – local race After my first ever surfski race (Takapuna beach, Auckland): 
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| A small after-lunch adventure |
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Sunday after lunch i joined our club's kids coach Uroš for a hike. In order to motivate the kids to do more and to not only learn about paddling he comes up with this Sunday afternoon ideas, he calls them 'the champions walk'. As there are many great hills and mountains around Most,it's normally either short hikes to one of these peaks or skiing in the winter perhaps. Once i joined him and some kids on Mt.Klobuk (1114m) and today our peak of choice was Mt.Kobilja glava(1575m). It was a cold and foggy day so only Žan Zakrajšek and Jakob Jeklin showed up. But thats ok, not everyone can be a champion (fastforward it to 0:45) and i guess the others were probably eating marshmellows at home;-) The wind up there was quite strong and cutting to the bones and because of the fog we lost our orientation on our way down and got lost for a while. That's how we got our nice little adventure for the Sunday afternoon. You never find out what're you missing if you stay home! 
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| Wandering around |
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This week was meant to be a carefull getting back into normal training after the sickness of last week has beaten me quite well. I am not that good at taking training easy so normally when i feel i really shouldn't go so hard on it, i try to find some nice distractions. So i decided to change a bit my usual training venue on Most na Soči and try to paddle and enjoy some other places too. Neverthereless i managed i quite solid week volume with 13 hours of sitting in the boat, 6 hours of moving iron and 3 hours of running and skiking. Last Sunday while driving from Most na Soči to my home town Koper i stoped in Sesljan (or Sistiana in Italian). Sesljan is an old little town on the italian coast (for the 120km trip i was doing from place A and B in Slovenia, the shortest way is to cut over Italy, LOL). It was a long time i wanted to paddle there as the beauty and the energy of that place is amazing. The cliffs rising out of the Adriatic sea are monumental and they protect you almost totally from the cold north winds. Besides that, all this region of Italy used to be slovenian territory and still today all the little towns and villages around here are largely populated by Slovenians. No wonder when i parked by the sea i noticed i was standing just in front of a slovenian yacht club called Čupa. I did a short excursion by the coast to the left (almost paddling to the Miramre castle) and then a short paddle by the shore to the right up to the Duino castle. Great scenery and if the weather was just a little bit more clear you could see all the way untill Venice and notice the white cupola of the San Marco cathedral. After that i paddled on the home sea in Koper for three days and returned to Most on Wednesday evening. On Thursday i wondred that it might be the last possible moment to paddle comfortably on lake Bled before the hard winter comes and off i was with my boat on the roof. At 8 o'clock i was already on the top of Sorica mountain pass where my Nelo met snow for the first time in its life (there was at least a meter of it). The view down into the Bohinj valley on the other side of the pass was breathtaking (the valley covered in fog, but the Alps already sticking out and bathing in the morning sun). And at 9 o'clock i was already sitting in my boat at the Bled rowing club (wich is the craddle of all Sloveninan rowing olympic medallists). After the session i took time to paddle around the little island on the lake, thing i always love to do. Great training on the lake followed by 3 laps around the lake on my skikes. Sun, brisk air, autumn colored forrests around the lake and snowy peaks everywhere on the horizon. No use in further trying to describe the scenery ,rather check the foto gallery of my visit to Seslajn and Bled here. Spent the last 2 training days of the week on the Soča river, which is where i train normally. 7 days, 4 different water surfaces paddled and 10 amazing water trainings...who says November is a boring month?? 
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| Nejc Žnidarčič and Jošt Zakrajšek respective winners of the overall wild water World Cup 2009 |
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Nejc Žnidarčič(K1) and Jošt Zakrajšek(C1) have just secured their respective overall wins in this year's world cup. Nejc was the only paddler in the whole caravan to be on the podium of all the six races (3 golds, 1 silver, 2 bronze) and was unexpectedly fast also on the classic races. Jošt (3 golds, 2 silver, 1 fourth) was just as impressive as he has won in a row the last 3 races of the series. 6 races in a span of 14 days must heve been a huge load but i am sure the 2 guys were able to have also some good times in Tasmania! Big thumbs up for them! Sprint team awaits for them at home as both guys are officially switching to sprint this winter. And that will sure make some good waves in flatwater paddling too! Results to be found on the official page here. Video reports from races: Sprint race 1 – Mersey rapid Classic race 1 - Mersey Classic race 2 – Mersey Sprint race 2 - Brady Classic race 3 - Ouse Sprint race 3 – Cataract gorge  
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Curi Muri Company SKTD Salara : Jermej Zupancic Regent Home Page : Powered by e107 |
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