Training Log Archive: camd

Event: Swiss-O-Week 2016
 

I'll right more about jwoc races later

;)

C • What were you doing at the ... 2

Unfortunately mentally I struggled to find motivation for this race which looking back was a mistake. A horrible mistake on the 2nd control saw me drop 12 places as I hadn't focused and made a plan into the control. From there I had some alright splits particularly towards the end where I did some excellent orienteering through the last loop ignoring the group that caught me. However I should have been able to win the B final of the previous days effort, oh well.

Just missed out on A-final. However this was probably my favourite race, it felt more like running in NZ and there were so many positives to take out from it. Unlike the long, mentally I was so much more focused and smashed it out of the starting box.

The first 5 controls felt like control picking and I totally nailed them, finding myself in 3rd at the 4th control, being super aggressive. I hesitated a little, got a little tired and lost places after the 5th control. Going into the last difficult part of the course, my aggression lifted again and I felt very in control.. no enough though as I blew just to the right past a control, lost ~2mins and the A final. I have no doubt in my mind however that without blowing that control I would have been right up there in about 10-12th which is very cool.

Looking back, there are a few important take outs from this race. I think I was a little daunted by the thought of my first forest JWOC event and mentally wasn't in the right place. This transmitted into hesitancy and me not pushing at all physically. I didn't have the desire - I think with JWOC you just have to have the mentally go for it hard out straight from the start and trust you have done the training to survive without mistakes.

Adjusting to conditions is also an important one - next year I will make sure to run a full long distance over in finland so at least I get a feel for things unlike here where I don't think I had a clear image of what it meant to run a JWOC long.

My first ever JWOC race, 63rd out of 155 finishes (167 athletes). Not bad for a first effort, was coming 50th halfway through but a mistake at the end and me dying in the last section lost me 13 places. Still feeling pretty happy with my result considering it's my first serious race in Europe and I'm well in the top half.

C • Congrats!! 2

Event: JWOC 2016 - Engadin, Switzerland