Training Log Archive: slauenstein

Letting my hamstring rest until Thursday while I am in Tenero for a work thing. Wouldn't have had much time for any sort running anyway.

Event: Swiss O championship long
 

Warm up for Long distance race, no cool down because my hamstring hurt too much to run another step.

C • How's the work thing in the... 1

Swiss Long distance champs

I can learn a lot from this race...

So, what happened is that I was in a lot of pain because of my hamstring. At the first route choice leg I didn't look at the right option, and ran the first route I saw. This was a good route, but I was disappointed with myself while running it because I had set a goal of looking at all options on a route choice. I caught the women who started 3 min ahead of me after this route choice but couldn't run away for the next few controls because I was in too much pain to run fast. Lots of negative thoughts, mostly because I couldn't run away from this women and felt like I should be able to. The next long route choice comes and I look at all the possible options (at least that!), see the best option right away, but I am in enough pain that I really don't want to take it. It was straight down a very steep hill side and up basically a wall, but this climb was on a trail. I should have done that, but I hoped that the route to the left, all the way around, would be equally good, and took that since I didn't have to go down or up anything steep (which is where I had the most pain). It turns out that this route was 10 minutes slower than the first thing I saw! I still can't believe it.

Anyway, I didn't know it at the time and kept running as best as I could, and really didn't make any mistakes along the way. A pretty good performance expect for this one route choice leg. However, I knew I wasn't doing great, since a girl who started 6 minute behind me caught me. At the control before the route choice I was 3 minutes faster than her (Ahhh!). I didn't know it was because I had lost so much time on the one route.

So I learned the following:

1. running a race in pain makes it hard to make good decisions.
2. negative thoughts can ruin a race.
3. if I haven't lost time to a mistake and am running consistently, then I am probably not doing bad and shouldn't allow negative thoughts to occur.

It's too bad really, since I exicuted all but that one control well. Still can't shake the disappointment.

Hamstring scared me during the race, 3 times I had stabbing pain that made me hold my breath for a moment. It was probably stupid to run. I wish I could go to my physio, but I have to leave early tomorrow for a work thing in Tessin until Wednesday morning. Ugg. :-(

Results are here: http://www.solv.ch/cgi-bin/abfrage?type=rang&year=...

C • Good job. 2

Event: 5. National Race
 

Warm up and cool down for Middle distance race. Cool down was broken up in 2 x 10 minutes.

Middle distance race (Bio-Farm Cup).

Very decent consistent race for me. Felt just absolutely thrilled afterwards to have run well again. None of my splits are amazing, but the are no big mistakes either (well, 50 seconds to the 1st control was certainly a big mistake relative to the rest).
9min 50 seconds behind the leader Simone, beat two girls on the Swiss team too. 41-42 minutes would have been possible, but totally happy with this performance.

My hamstring was very painful, uphill is the worst and this race was steep. Feel pretty worried about it, scared that it will become chronic inflammation at the origin. Kind of worried that tomorrow is a bad idea, but I have such a big drive to race right now that I can't not run.

Results are here: http://www.solv.ch/cgi-bin/abfrage?type=rang&year=...

Warming up on the warm up map and cooling down while going to and examining some tricky spots in the sprint with Sime, Sara and Fränä.

Swiss Sprint selection race for the World Cup Final in October. I had a very solid race and am happy with the time. Lost 2'51" to Sime, 1'51 to 3rd place. Lost the usual amount of time because of a lack of really great "sprint-technique" but also had a larger time lost at different 4 controls (total of about 35") but where no 'mistake' actually occurred. It's hard to say if I really spiked all 17 controls, since I lost time on some of them, but I never had to look for the control or feel like I did something wrong, so I put that I spiked all of them.

I was, for some odd reason, disappointed to not beat any Swiss team members (I guess my expectations and standards are a little too high). I did however get within 3 seconds to (as Peter would say) getting a scalp. Results are here: http://www.solv.ch/cgi-bin/abfrage?type=rang&year=...

C • expectations 3

C • Nice run! 2

C • Another solid run on Saturd... 2

Running up above the Roches d'Orvin cliffs after climbing with my dad and Marc. I managed to do one climb and then chicken out after that. I am just much happier with my feet on the ground. We had to hike about 25 minutes up to the climbing area from Orvin. Great views of Magglingen, the whole swiss middle-land and the alps. What a great day.

C • Say hello from me!!!! 3

Hiking to the climbing area.

Running felt good after a day in the office with very little O2. Hamstring hurt a little though, but is still much better.

core baby

Had to take yesterday off because of my hamstring, but the physio helped it A LOT!!! Today I hardly feel a thing. He said I could go running today, but took some extra precaution anyway. I think I will be find for the weekend. The pain I had on Sunday night was a pretty big scare.

Exercises that the physio made me do after inflicting a lot of pain by pushing around on my hamstring muscles (like yesterday) and making me contract the muscle at the same time. these were tough. about 50 minutes of pain, but I can tell it's helping a lot.

C • Physio 2