Virtual Easter Champs & Strava Art

WORDS & PHOTOS JIM RUSSELL & BRODIE NANKERVIS

The conception:

It was Easter 2020 and Australia (and the world) was in the midst of our first lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This was a brand new and frankly quite scary experience for us all and we had the added disappointment of Easter 2020 being cancelled. After Jim Russell (OA head coach) saw a social media post of a friend in NZ doing a beep test challenge with his wife and daughters, he decided to join forces with Brodie to brainstorm 4 challenges to do over the Easter Weekend, and hence the OA Easter Challenge was born.

The Stages:

Challenge 1, Beep Test. Shuttle run between 2 markers over a 20 m course. A short, or Sprint one to start with, most athletes would do this in 1

0 mins or there abouts.There was a clear winner for both the Boys and Girls from Qld, until they remeasured their backyard to find it was a metre short. Not to worry, another Qld’er came through with a 16.2, with our ‘local’ NZ’er doing a 14.1 was best of the Girls

Challenge 2, Mona Fartlek. This was Marathon runners, Steve Moneghetti bread and butter. Against the clock, aim is to cover as much distance as you can in 20 mins, starting with 90 secs reps, and f

inishing with 15 sec ones.Some close competition in the boys saw 4 athletes do better than 5.84 km, but no one able to get to 6km. There was only 100m separating the top 3 girls, with the best being a 5.04 km.

Challenge 3, Strava Art. After having 2 days of intense exercise, this session allowed athletes to take it a little easier, and d

o it riding or running.There was no doubt about the winner today, with the visiting Frenchman Frederic Tranchard and his flatmate going ‘Around the world’ in 28 km.

Challenge 4, Hill Climb. How much climb (elevation) can you do in 40mins? We kept the

hardest one till last. The hills in SA must be measured ‘short’ as the best results of 627m and 569 m climb were recorded over there, with 527m coming in from that NZ’er on the other side of the Tasman.

The aftermath:

The overall winners of were Lizzie Ingham (NZL) and Dante Afnan (OSA) and they were awarded a “Training in Isolation Survival kit” curated by Brodie and Jim. The competition was thoroughly enjoyed by those who participated and there were even a number of ‘outsiders’ keenly waiting for the results to appear each day.

For Frederic Tranchard the OA Easter Challenge became the springboard for his Strava Art career. He was soon thinking up many wonderful and amazing strava art routes and nearly went pro because of it, with some individuals approaching to offer payment for the secret to a perfect “Strava Art”.

With no competition being allowed, following the ‘Easter Champs’ Strava Art became one of the ways to practice navigation – and it was not as easy as it may seem. Here are some Strava Art maps produced during this period.