#14 - The Czech Machine

Episode 69 somehow became exactly what it was always destined to be: long, rambling, and only loosely about orienteering. Magnus is finally back online after disappearing to altitude camp in Uganda, where “easy runs” apparently mean getting dropped by half-marathon world record holders and learning life lessons over chai, chapati and Ludo. Tim is busy limping between the sofa, the treadmill and the X-ray department, while insisting everything is totally fine. Ralph mostly tries to keep the conversation on track and fails.We cover Park World Tour races in China, not the orienteering but whether Yannick Michels could beat 500 schoolchildren in a fight or a relay. We hype up the annual 3x3km Christmas Challenge, will any of the boys even start the session? There’s also European XC chat, questionable footwear choices, altitude bragging, Strava chaos and no guests.

This episode goes fully off-script. Magnus rage baits Ralph by appearing in Uganda with no warning, Ralph insists his rep counting was correct (it wasn’t), and Tim posts a respectable 10K and pretends it’s no big deal. Somewhere between Squadrats, gold-labelled races, wolves, lap-button etiquette and arguing about numbers, we completely lose control of the episode.

Episode 67 arrives with peak winter energy: low motivation, high confusion, and plenty of unnecessary opinions. Rep counts are getting out of hand, Magnus has downloaded yet another pointless app, Ralph is still recovering from the abuse he took last episode while Tim struggles with old man injuries and heavy leaves..We catch up on the chaos, question our own training choices, give interior design tips, and pretend we know what we’re doing as the dark months settle in.

The boys gang up on Ralph for running a ridiculous number of reps — 18 this time — of his favourite session. Somehow it’s totally fine for Tim to have 35 seconds of recovery though, because that’s “normal”. Magnus escapes any training-based abuse after (once again) deleting Strava right after maybe winning the October mileage challenge.We get nostalgic for old-school orienteering: where are the results boards and hand-drawn courses? Has the march of technology destroyed the sacred art of comparing splits with your mates?Meanwhile, Tim smashed a trail race (though not quite as much as Eef van Dongen), Ralph’s been getting rained on in the UK and training with the national team, and we finally read some words from Silvan Ullmann — the course setter behind the Swiss World Cup Knock-Out sprint.

Closing out the international orienteering year with an episode filled with just pure yappage.Tim has been at 25manna, but can't remember which teams got disqualified. Magnus has made a comeback on Strava topping the leaderboards. Where has this sudden burst of motivation come from and will Garmin vs Strava cause problems? Ralph brings old man energy as usual as he complains about even more things.Also in the episode, the usual apology section, Ralph presents the UK, JEC results, and we clear up some points from last episode.

World Cup Final in Uster — the last big showdown of the season. Ralph pulls off a 360 but fails the 90, Tim somehow beats us both, and Magnus keeps searching for that elusive breakthrough. We dig into the chaos of KO indoor sprints, from barrier controversies to whhether the format is even a good idea.

In this episode, the boys are preparing for the final round of the World Cup in Uster, Switzerland. Tim is on a romantic training camp in Italy — but what long object did Wife Emma pull out of his body? Magnus has been forest orienteering with an added challenge, and Ralph is spoiling for a fight with the Swiss team.

This episode is all about debriefing the Sprint European Championships in Belgium. From the chaos of a 50% disqualification rate in the sprint relay to the all-important question of who could actually beat Natalia Gemperle in an arm wrestle, we’ve got it covered.We also dive into our own EOC experiences: Tim didn’t even make it to all the start lines, Magnus collected more “thanks for coming” treatment in the qualifiers, and Ralph… well, Ralph couldn’t stop ranting about perceived injustices.

The boys are back with a deep dive into the one discipline that ruins friendships and makes grown men cry: sprint orienteering. With EOC 2025 in Belgium fast approaching, we bravely attempt to sound like we know what we’re talking about when it comes to sprint technique. Naturally, it all goes downhill into a full-blown apology section (again).

This is a different episode from the usual because of the tragic events at the World Games where the Italian athlete Mattia Debertolis lost his life