Training Log Archive: MCrone

16.55

Missed the important route choice to 1 and to 10 which cost me 50 seconds. Slightly fluffed a few other controls. Happy otherwise, speed was good. Should have been quite a bit higher up!

More to follow

Event: WOC 2017
 

On a side note. We had an interview with the WOC digital team. Two young women from Spain asked us some questions about our goals etc. One of the funniest things that they said was that I was the youngest there, before asking me my age and giving me a funny look when I answered... This was also followed up by them asking me "you say that you're from South Africa, how did you get here?" :)

C • Congratulations! 5

So there isn't very much to say... I was in a state of mind that I have never really encountered before. I didn't know where I was on the map in the bigger scheme of things, I just knew where I was going and how to get there. Picked the straight lines. Shoe choice was also very important in the end!

11:11. Finished 15th, a few hundreds of a second ahead of a very quick Norwegian... Strange how I always seem to beat them...


More to follow...

Also I think now suddenly my log will get a hell of a lot more attention... Glad that I won't be defined on a run that I had five years ago. Very happy!

It's now or never! We got the start lists at the meeting this evening and it is always intimidating to see who you are up against. It's something that is very new to me with the new 30 second start intervals. I'd rather remain completely oblivious until I finish the race!

Model map didn't inspire much confidence. Quite a bit was undermapped but I suppose it's just something to keep in mind. I also think that often the model map is left for the last minute and so they don't care as much.

So it's on to the sprint quali. Just have an interview this evening with the WOC digital team. Then I'll try and do some more prep and get my emitags in a comfortable position with my control description holder. The double tags make you feel like a bit of a Christmas tree. Something which we experienced at WOC in Italy (although it was worse there with two SI air cards, a timing chip on the ankle and the GPS).

Funny moment from the meeting. One of the managers asked if full leg cover was advised. The answer was "the bulletin said that there are no clothing restrictions, some people at jukola ran the night leg with shorts. It's therefore up to the athlete." It's always quite funny to hear the different jibes at the meeting. Keeps things slightly entertaining.

Thanks everyone for all the support. I know I can be pretty difficult at times :). I'm hoping that tomorrow will go really well. I've prepared as best I can so it's all about having a good race now!

Clear eyes, full heart, be cool and don't forget to have fun!

Quick jog to some of the controls after getting an idea of the area. Having looked at street view I think that the park section will be much less overgrown than it was today. But hopefully my middlish start time will also allow for some tracking.

Just a walk around the model to get an idea of what to expect. The slopes are quite steep so X Talons for tomorrow. A few vague features and some silly control descriptions, but whatever, it's going to be awesome :).

Just reflecting on all the amazing places that I have been over the past few years. From Aalborg to Aix-les-bains, from Lausanne to St Gallen, Appenzell and Cali. Venice, Trento, Conegliano, Vittorio Vento, Vatarro, London, Hillerød, Leiria and now Tartu.

I've climbed over fences to train on athletics tracks in France (with Jeremy Green). My next "naughty" thing definitely has to be running through a field of wheat in Estonia (the British people will get the joke)! I've prepared O maps of a university that I will be attending in September. That was an absolutely incredible day, when suddenly I believed that I could orienteer, that I wasn't at the World Champs by chance, that I deserved my spot on the start line. I've also had disappointments in Cali and Venice, in some of the most amazing places that I have ever run. And now I am here, in Estonia for my fourth World Champs. And all of this just makes me think back to how I got here.

I suppose that orienteering is often the perfect analogy for life. We're all trying to find the best path, but we make some mistakes along the way. Often ones that we can't correct, we can only minimise the damage, learn and the next time we have the same control we can attack the problem in a different way. We go as fast as we can, never pausing to stop and take in the view of the amazing places that we go, never reflecting on how awesome our life is. We treat it as a race and some of us are just better at not making mistakes than others. But just like in orienteering, we have to make our way to certain controls. We know what is coming next, but we have to do things in order no matter how frustrating and disappointing and heart wrenching it is at times. That's what I suppose I often struggle with. I know what I want to come next, but I'm still trying to find this stupid control in the green. I'm getting there, I'm just going a little slower than I'd like to, maybe because I broke my compass somewhere along the route or maybe because I'm using a stupid circular map without a compass ;)! And I can't help but feel that I've missed a control somewhere along the way that I have to go back and get, or maybe it was just the central control in a butterfly that I messed up on the first loop around. But I am going back. I'm not going to just give up on my home. No matter where I go my home is still South Africa. And I'd like my finish to be close to my start. It's where my heart is. And most importantly for Friday, our experiences shape us, but they shouldn't define us. I'm more than just a single race in Switzerland. That doesn't define me. I'd rather be judged on who I am rather than where circumstance and opportunity have taken me.

I'll end it off with something more orienteering related. We had our meeting this evening. Advice was that we use rubber dobs for the sprint because the weather is predicted to be terrible. I'm trying to pick the gap in the thunderstorm for my start time, but that's probably going to be very tricky. On Nic's advice I'm going with a middle start time to at least get some tracking on the hill, hopefully before the thunderstorm hits....

On a lighter note, a South African, a Serbian, a Moldovan and an Azerbaijani play foosball. No this is not the first line of a joke :).

C • Deeeeepppp! ;) 3

Middle relevant forest. Much better than the long forest! Visibility is a lot better mainly due to the pine trees. Also starting to get a hang of some of the marshes. A few mistakes here and there with the vague contours. 2.5 m contours don't suit me very well although I started to get the hang of them in Denmark.

Also very clear that the vegetation has grown a lot in the past few months. Paths were more difficult to distinguish here than in the long distance area. The scattered trees were also really horrible areas to cross. They are more like very young trees so runnability with the undergrowth is not great.

We had Gustav, William and Martin from the Swedish team talk to us last night. Glad to hear that I am not completely crazy and even they suggest to stick to the paths wherever possible on the long distance race. Also the best comment of the evening was from Martin with regard to the sprint. He just said... "Be cool". That's my new motto :).

Luckily I did the sprint training planned for today on Monday so the plan for the rest of the day is a lot of geeking and I might walk through the embargoed area along the designated allowed roads. Also planning a very short and sharp track session.

3x2x200m

200s on 30. Rest is 40 seconds and 3 minutes between reps.

Just another track that I've run on in another country. Adding to Lausanne, Schwyz, Cali, Zug, Aix-les-bains, Enschede, London, Johannesburg :).

WOC training area with permanent controls. Jaroslav planned courses and then sent us off. Cut a little bit off the one planned for me (get used to the forest, but I can't really train for it now...).

Estonia has some really terrible forest... Runnability is generally shocking in most places and visibility isn't much better. At least this seems to be for the terrain relevant to the long. It also just stops being fun in some places. Things to learn: marshes are not actually very visible other than the ground flattens out. There is also a lot of vegetation in the marshes which makes them quite different to the ones that I've seen in Denmark. Rides are also not very runnable and neither is the scattered open. Also have to be very careful with bearings because when you have to run through the "white" you quickly get thrown off of your line. This was actually something that Jaroslav had warned us about, but there were some places where I was still thrown because of it.

Local event. Decided not to do course 3 because all of features were just line features along roads, so it didn't make sense in terms of actually getting to terms with the forest. Did course 2 and just cut it shorter. Terrible green and "white" again. Also an area of scattered trees with undergrowth that I instantly regretted entering.

I think that I can officially add Estonia to my list of least favourite places to orienteer in the forest... I feel sorry for Estonian orienteers. If it was always like this I wouldn't be an orienteer for long...

Focus is on sprint prep now. With bulletin 4 released I think that I have a very good idea of what the sprint quali will be like. Time for some "geeking" as Paul would call it. Also have the courses that everyone has planned for me. It's on!

C • Geektastic 2

First run in Estonia. Sprint training just down the road from the hostel where I am staying. Can definitely see the Soviet influence here and everything seems to be under construction. It's rather weird.

Focus here was to try and get some flow. This area is very different to the old town that we will be running in on Friday so it was just an opportunity to see how different things were mapped. Loads of washing lines around which were at an awkward strangling height ;).

Not such a bad run, just need to start getting in the zone for the weekend. Staying with two eastern Europeans for the WOC clinic, so there hasn't been too much conversation :p.

Somehow I also can't let my work go... I can't do this holiday thing properly... Need to get things out of my head!