Training Log Archive: W

Sunday's race, the "final that no one cares about", like, F-final, or L-final, something like that. It was a funny course, there's a long lake in the middle of the map, so basically the course went straight along one side of the lake, and then straight back on the other. In both cases I had basically a string of 4 controls that were in a straight line.

Although I ran somewhat slowly, I didn't make any major mistakes until the end when my mind wandered off to some enchanted grove somewhere and I found myself without the slightest clue of where I was on a vague hillside (turns out I hadn't gone far enough). Much screwing around later I eventually found the control, but wasted an indeterminate amount of time and turned a fairly solid race into another disappointing one. Sometimes I took some risks that I wasn't wildly comfortable with, but I was able to see small features along the way and they turned out okay. So there is certainly some satisfaction to be had, having done things I probably wouldn't have done years ago. So, positive.

Well, its been a pretty lousy few days, so it was hard to keep my head in the game for the qualifier race for SM-Pitka matka (Finnish Champs Long). Although many controls when quite well, particularly number 1, which I feel like I nailed at high speed, at 12 I made a mistake, and then 13, and then 14, and at that point the discouragement hit real real hard and the mistake at 15 was a product of feeling sorry about myself and all other various things about my life just at that second, and I pretty much stopped doing anything. I think we can all agree we have that at some point, and personally since I knew I wasn't making the A-final and probably not enough the first B-final, it was more of a jog the last kilometer so in the hopes of not hurting myself.

And then I tripped and broke the magnifier on my compass. So, not only did I break my gear, I did it at the end of crappy race, so I can't even use it as an excuse! Most everything is definitely not coming up Milhouse.

Well, hard to believe its not been just over a full year in Finland. Its been full of plenty of high highs and some remarkably low lows (coincidentally, these last few days have been some solid lows), and although I have significantly less money than I once did, I'm sure I'm significantly richer in spirit. Though certainly not richer in work ethic, it would seem.

Technically, I only have about 9 months left of my Sport Psych program. I don't feel much like halfway to becoming something resembling someone who deserves a master's of sport psych, but maybe I will turn things around and start to get some ideas. Although I have collected my data for my thesis, it is not great, is taking a long time, and I'm not quite sure where its going. I also don't have a practicum yet, and I'm really not sure how I'm going to manage that. There's some opportunities to teach, but I don't want that to be the only thing I do for applied work.

But, in the bigger picture, I'm far more worried about what's going to happen after those months are over. I have some inklings of ideas of a topic if I really wanted to do a phD, but I couldn't do it here in Jyväskylä since it is not remotely close to a field of any of the psychology professors here. On one hand, I would like to stay in Finland. Not for an incredibly long time, at the very least another summer. But, at the moment, though, I have nothing to do here, and my Finnish is still appallingly bad. On the other hand, I have nowhere else to go. Bit of a concern there.

So, yeah. But! I've also already surpassed my total orienteering distance from last year by 10 kilometers, and we're only in September. Glass 1/8 full! (Finnish optimism)

A little 1:15 training down near Jamsa organized by Lasse. Three 2k intervals, which I wanted to run fast, but the terrain was awful difficult navigation and there was no flags so I just end up really being unsure of whether I'm even remotely close to the control circle. My head didn't seem to be in it since I could seem to spot big features or even see small ones along the way. Not a great training.

Its beginning to feel a hell of a lot like autumn out here! Cool breeze, smells like fall, leaves falling, I like fall. Still not necessary to wear 3/4s or windbriefs, but the gloves are starting to come out. That's a weird habit I've gotten into, its like, if its below 15, I find myself wearing gloves.

Ran around the lake and then made a quick visiting stop for probably a little too long before continuing on for the last 15 minutes. Just a bit too much stopping and all of a sudden my legs don't really feel like running anymore!