Training Log Archive: jfredrickson

Event: 28th Annual Billygoat Run
 

The 28th Annual Billygoat. I felt great, and led the way most of the way, only fighting with Boris Granovsky and Neil Dobbs, but just when I was finally able to lose them I skipped an easy control by mistake, and lost my focus. I then made a mistake on the next control which negated any small amount of time I had gained by skipping #21, and my morale just went into the pits. I got lucky on 23 even though I wasn't focused at all, but 24 was a disaster. I cut across the trail too early, realized what I had done, then instead of going back to the trail for a safe attackpoint, I decided to contour along the hillside. Unfortunately I was too high and went right by the control. By the time I relocated and came back into it Ross Smith and Vadim Masalkov were coming into it from the top. I tried taking a different route then them to the last control, but got stuck in a pricker bush and arrived at the control just late enough to have to wait for Vadim to punch while Ross ran off. Then I just didn't have the kick to catch them and ended up taking 5th as Neil and Boris had already been in for 5 minutes, apparently having passed me while I was blowing #24.

This was really a big bummer as I had finally felt in control the entire way and had actually had the strength to lose them as we neared the end. I guess I just got too overexcited and didn't notice #21 as I blasted down the hill from 20 to 22. When I realized what I had done, I got more demoralized than I should have. I tried convincing myself that I still had enough of a lead to win, but that inner fight took over my concentration and took away the great focus that I had had throughout the race.

I guess the lesson I learned today is that you can never dwell on any event in the past during a race. It doesn't matter how it affects your standing. The race is never over until you have crossed the finish line, and as soon as your mind is not focused solely on the terrain ahead, you don't have a chance to avoid mistakes.

I just hope I can take my disappointment from my poor results this weekend and turn it into positive focus for next weekend.

I had lots of adrenaline after the race, so I ended up running pretty hard for my cool down. I was pretty mad that I had blown my first chance at winning the Billygoat (especially since it was my last chance to do it as a Junior), so I took it out on myself on the cool down run.

Now I have to take this energy and put it into focus for next weekend...

- Splits

Event: Pre-Billygoat Sprints
 

First race of the Billygoat Sprints. I got off to a bad start, blowing the first 2 controls by 40 seconds and a minute, but after that I had a pretty solid race. It wasn't much of a sprint, rather just a really short advanced course. I would have much rather run a real sprint course with lots of controls and direction changes.

I had trouble getting used to the map at the beginning because the green was printed really dark and look really scary on the map, but it wasn't bad at all in the terrain. Still, my mistakes were mostly due to me not being in the right mindset at the start. I was late and didn't really have time to warm-up and get focused, and this definitely killed my race. I really have to make more of an effort to prepare bettere for all my races.

Anyway, I placed 4th behind Ross, Boris and Will Hawkins. Ross had a really nice run, with a time somewhere around 10:30. It's great to see Ross kicking ass in the sprints, and it's especially nice to have a bit of a rivalry. Ross pointed out that we have been taking turns beating each other in every other sprint that we race in recently. It's really great to have him as a goal to beat at every sprint race, I just wish he would post his splits on Attackpoint!

Oh, and it was great to see Boris again, finally. He doesn't seem to be too focused on this weekend, but it will still be fun to run against him in the Billygoat tomorrow.

The second race went much better, but I just didn't seem to have much energy to really push up the hills. I just get too bored on long legs, navigation-less legs, and in a sprint I get especially demotivated. It least it was a solid race without any mistakes.

Will Hawkins won it in 11:14, and Boris ran something like 11:24. I beat Ross by a mere 14 seconds, so I guess he is due to beat me tomorrow. We'll see if I can do anything about that :)

Picking up flags with Boris.

Sprint #1 (Yellow) - Splits

Sprint #2 (Green) - Splits

A very solid race, but I was fighting with a the call of nature for most of the race, and that definitely slowed me down. It didn't seem to affect my concentration though, so I may have ended up running a better race than I otherwise would have. Will ran 11:50 and Ross ran 12:34.

Warming up.