Training Log Archive: Anwen

Travellling back to Switzerland. Absolutely shattered but had such a good week :)

Really pleased with how the races went and they were better than I expected so really happy with that :) lots of positives but still some stuff to work on!

Great week :D

C • Definitely a great week! 2

warm up map, then some more jogging around and about between the toilets and spectator!

Relay, 3rd leg with hollie and bex

Went off on my own which suited me perfectly, safe and accurate to the first 7 and going really well :) then crossed the ravine to 8 too low down so ended up about 200 m away acorss another ravine, relocated quite quickly but had already lost 2-3min, no9 was a bit bingo'y so took it very slow and tbh i think i was lucky to find it.. found the other two gaffles of 10 before mine, was just running on a bearing and didn't really have much of the plan which cost me that.

At this point i caught a group of about 4 and was determined not to screw this up and finish behind them. I was ahead through spectator then there was a small tricky loop in some ravines, took these very very carefully, few little misses but very careful not to screw it up and let the others get ahead, then caught me up again on the penultimate control where we all got to a tree thinking it was ours and no control..

Carried on a little further up the re-entrant and found it, but then there were 4 of us and only about 200m left of the course, bearing to the last control, they started running a bit left, but i saw the portaloos and knew the last control was to the right of them (going to the toilet often helped me!!) so just legged it through the bushes and just got ahead at the last control, never run the run-in so hard in my life :)

Not the cleanest of races and some stupid mistakes, but it was good fun and a good end to the week :)

Day off woooo :) hit the outdoor pool with mairead and dave for a cheeky swim, it was so unbelieveably nice :)

The jog in the evening with bex and mairead, ready for the relay!

Feeling pretty achey this morning! Easy jogging round the warm up map and castle, started feeling more normal :) few drills and some strides. Really trying to keep calm and stop the nerves, more excited for this race, put on the jls album beforehand, put me in a great mood!!

WUOC sprint..

It was so full of steps!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ran out of the start, no1 looked impossible! Stopped dead, found a long route to it so just went for it, then couple of little legs around steps in narrow alleyways, then couple of longer legs where you could run hard and try to plan some of the other legs. But then back into the steps and narrow alleyways.

It was an amazing sprint race! It was so complicated and you had to slow right down to read where to go and what was going on. Absolutely loved it though, completely knakered by the end the steps were horrendous!!

Mostly clean :) some small hesitations which I think I needed and maybe missed a couple of route choices but had decided that once i found a route i would just go for it.

Lost a bit at the end, just overshooting alleyways but overall i think only 20s or so which is probably better than any sprint i've run this year :) yay! Rainy girly sprintervals has deffinitely paid off! (thanks guys hehe).

Finished 11th, massively chuffed, and Hollie in 7th was brilliant :)

Warm up map, then a bit more jogging and jumping about trying to stay as calm as possible..

WUOC long..

Very nervous in the pre-start, but once on the warm up map calmed down a little bit, had a race plan of easiest possible route to 1, no2 was likely to be a long leg so take extra time to plan it well, push a bit more in the middle if I was going well, possibly butterflies which i would have to slow down for as short legs aren't my favourite.. also thought there'd be a long leg near the end which I was taking the path route for no matter what the other choice was like cause i knew i'd be tired and the heat would be getting at me. Apart from the it was a case of plan every leg, keep calm and stay strong for the whole race..

Stuck to the plan, lost a minute in the butterfly by thinking i was looking for a ditch but it was a bush, then no14 my plan was sloppy and went over the wrong hill, got very stuck in crags and brambley stuff which was horrible so 2-3min gone there.. but then it was the last long leg, took the track route even though it was still a bit uphill, i was dying, it was hot and i was tired and in full sunlight but got the control fine, after that though lost a couple of minutes just from zig zag routes and being hot and tired.

Overall, very happy, no big mistakes and kept my head when i did make a mistake. Pushed hard all the way, totally dead at the end!! Once I was back I realised I really enjoyed it :) finished 20th so happy with that too :)

With bex in the evening as we'd been too tired for a warm down after the race and had the sprint tomorrow!

Event: WUOC 2012
 

Model event, then cheeky swim in the sea :)

Middle and relay relevant terrain