Talent North Basics Weekend

Written by Richard Tiley, Talent North Program Manager

Last weekend from 2–3 December was a repeat of that held a year ago, being based at Great Tower scout camp on the side of Windemere, training there and on the adjacent woodland at Blakeholme.

Unfortunately there was also a repeat of the snow that we suffered last year with it beginning to fall mid-morning Saturday and not stopping for around 18hours. The forecast had been for some sleet and possible light snow showers for a couple of hours Saturday afternoon.

Saturday morning was in Blakeholme on a range of testing exercises designed by Pete Tryner.  

After lunch, where we said goodbye to some visiting coaches (who escaped whilst the snow was only 2 or 3 inches deep), the juniors did some further exercises around Great Tower.

Our evening meal was being driven in, but a road closure meant the delivery had to be abandoned. We were well supported by the staff at the centre and managed to scavenge pasta & sauce & sausages from their central kitchen to keep the wolf from the door.

Once the snow finally stopped in the early hours of Sunday morning, having delivered around 12inches, our training turned to Strength & Conditioning as we spent 3 or 4 hours digging & shovelling snow to get the 4 cars out of the site. We were fortunate that a snowplough cleared the access road from the site entrance down to the bottom road and by 2pm all the juniors & coaches (Pete, Richard, Simon Hunter, Nick Lightfoot & Alastair Pedley) had departed.

Thanks as always for the support from parents & coaches in testing conditions.

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You can learn more about which athletes were selected to represent Talent North this coming year via the Meet the Athletes page.