Training Log Archive: jed

Wu/d inc. drills for sprint.

York Uni. My worst sprint performance for a while. I've messed up a lot of JWOC selection races as a junior and today, even as a senior, was no different....My start was poorer than recently, my legs didn't feel as good as I wanted and I think I had that in my head. In hindsight a full week of training with 2 speed session maybe wasn't sensible as came into the weekend a lot less fresh than the other girls but wanted to get a good block in. I focused too much on getting the bridge right than I messed up straight after. I reacted poorly to the mistake and instead of saving it I compounded it. A few more errors and wrong route choices meant there was a lot for me to analyse. It really showed me how much confidence geeking gives me. During the race I focused too much on the negatives, I need to look at why my strategies didn't work today. However in the grand scheme of things this wasn't important and was just training and I will learn from it.

Wu/d inc. drills for QF.

Knock out sprint QF, York Uni - course choice. This was my first experience of this, I even felt a bit nervous having to pick a choice under pressure. I didn't really know which one was best and ended up picking A which no one else did. Mass start and I knew very quickly I was on my own course, I let myself think this was a huge disadvantage when I actually had I focused completely on the task I'd have come into the common section within a good chance. Even still was 4/5 and not too far behind but ran past 5 so was then playing catch up to even get back to 4th. Worked hard, stuck to my routes, managed to get ahead and stay there. Good fun but I need to stop beating myself up mid course.

Wu/d (for both SF and F as ran in succession) inc. drills.

SF, York - very busy. Think I made a better choice on the course choice this time (turns out there wasn't much difference but I picked one which suited me). Laura picked the same and we came into the common part in the lead but lost this advantage due to a locked gate. Alice caught us and pushed the pace. I hung on but wasn't in control on my map reading so a poor micro route choice meant I was dropped slightly and didn't manage to get across the busy road. Poor route choice on 11 which let Charlotte get back in touch so had a good battle to the end...where I managed to run past the finish...
This one was much better than this morning, a good start gives me more confidence resulting in a better overall performance.

Final (un-forked), York. Started off well enough, dropped a bit of time with wrong route to 4 so Alice got a gap. A bit rubbish through crowds to 5 so lost a bit of ground to Charlotte. Then a poor route choice to 6 allowing Laura to catch back up. Together through the next few but penalised by a slightly wrong route by getting stopped crossing a road so then was on my own. I really noticed how less agile I am at times. I can surge and keep up with smooth but lose time with twisty/busy. Really fun but the knock-out sprint is definitely a tough day (although these courses were planned for the men so slightly too long).