Training Log Archive: BrandNewMeIn the 7 days ending Feb 17, 2013:
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Sunday Feb 17, 2013 #
Orienteering - race 43:30 [3] 5.2 km (8:22 / km)
ahr:155 slept:11.0
Birsemore compass sport cup. Blue women
Nice forest, always going to be fun. Shane to just be running blue as I could have happily run here all day.
Aim was to enjoy it and see how my technique held up at speed. Start - 1 fine. 1-2 went straight and it was quicker. On paper I would say path might have been the better route, but in practice there was a pretty good trod going straight. 2-3 went straight as it looked more interesting (yup, not really in racing mode yet!). Ran up the hill then everything went a bit vague-ish, so hesitated a bit and saw the blokes control before sorting myself out. 3-4-5-6-7-8 fine. Hesitant into 9, stopping early as there were some stones early. 10 a bit right early in the leg but fine. 11 seemed weird to me. Hesitant going down. 12 in a big race I like to think I'd be able to make myself run the hill. 13 too far left early on. Corrected, and hesitated before spotting the control (they were hung high, weren't they!). 14 thought there were 2 boulders not 3 so wasted a few secs circling the middle one looking for the control. 15 could see it miles off, and long navigate to finish gave me a very very rare treat - a fastest run in split!
Enjoyed the course, pleased with the nav, but it could have been trickier.
Nice forest, always going to be fun. Shane to just be running blue as I could have happily run here all day.
Aim was to enjoy it and see how my technique held up at speed. Start - 1 fine. 1-2 went straight and it was quicker. On paper I would say path might have been the better route, but in practice there was a pretty good trod going straight. 2-3 went straight as it looked more interesting (yup, not really in racing mode yet!). Ran up the hill then everything went a bit vague-ish, so hesitated a bit and saw the blokes control before sorting myself out. 3-4-5-6-7-8 fine. Hesitant into 9, stopping early as there were some stones early. 10 a bit right early in the leg but fine. 11 seemed weird to me. Hesitant going down. 12 in a big race I like to think I'd be able to make myself run the hill. 13 too far left early on. Corrected, and hesitated before spotting the control (they were hung high, weren't they!). 14 thought there were 2 boulders not 3 so wasted a few secs circling the middle one looking for the control. 15 could see it miles off, and long navigate to finish gave me a very very rare treat - a fastest run in split!
Enjoyed the course, pleased with the nav, but it could have been trickier.
Saturday Feb 16, 2013 #
Note
Update
I haven't logged any training for ages. Its not that I haven't done any, just I have been logging it elsewhere. I am not going to start logging my training here either any time soon. It seems a good place to put some race reports though, which would probalby be of interest other competitors - I certainly read all yours. , so it seems fair enough that I let you know my thoughts. I'll put something down about Birsemore tomorrow. But in the meantime here is an update of what I have been up to of late.
It will seem strange to some people but 2012 was a bit of a nightmare year for me. The results look good, and they were, better than I could have dreamed of, but they came at a price - burn out and exhaustion. Looking back three factors probably caused this:
1) Almost every run in 2012 involved running through pain. A knee problem was followed immediately by sciatica. I can handle a fair amount of pain from when I got back to running after breaking my hip, in fact running in marshes is still excruciating from the damage done in 1998, even now, but I can usually block the pain out. As long as I am running I am happy.
2) I didn't get much sleep in 2012. My daughter is not the bast of sleepers as she has really bad excema, and when she wakes she always wants me.
3) My life is busy and stressful. I like it like that, but I don't get much downtime.
At the WOC selection races I had some bad runs. Usually I can shrug off bad runs, but these races proved harder to shrug off than most. Then at the post finance weekend I again had some not great runs, was very low on sleep, and found it difficult to shake off the disappointment. WMOC was really good fun, thanks Sarah - what a laugh we had, but WOC was a whole lot more serious. The races passed in a bit of a blur, and adrenaline took me around without thinking of the pain of sciatica or the tiredness of back to back racing. It was mentally and emotionally exhausting. I still maintain it is fine to do all races, i just should have recognised what it would take out of me, and factor in 2 weeks of doing something like lying in a cool dark room with no stimulation - not going back to being a working Mum after crossing the finishing line. I was wiped out by the end, and my mind was stuck on one thing and that was the disappointment of the WOC long final. I ran so badly. For months afterwards I was just constantly haunted by the feeling of complete panic and lack of control that gripped me on the last section of the course. It was the one thing that dominated my thoughts, and I just could not shake it off.
At NORT I performed how I expected to - I was so burnt out and depressed by that stage I just didn't care, wanting the races to be over. The one highlight was seeing the brilliant WOC 2013 forests, and knowing I wanted to come back. I did my duty at the SHI weekend, then shoved my compass in a box, shoved my maps in a cupboard and did other things with my weekends (DIY mainly - yawn). I drifted through October, ignoring orienteering, as I didn't want to think about the WOC long AGAIN. In November I tried to shift my sciatica injury by not running for two weeks. This didn't work, and left me, as any time off running does, more down than ever.
My problems were that I wanted to go to WOC 2013, and I was looking forward to it, just the thought all of the domestic races inbetween and my inability to handle bad runs were making me feel physically sick. I did not want to go orienteering because there was a chance that in doing so I would get lost again, and the horrible post-WOC long feelings would be back. The other problem was that I had had a good year on the most ridiculous of training. Nearly every training session was dominated by how bad the injuries were at any given time. How could I replicate it? Would it work if I tried to replicate it? I didn't (and still don't) understand how I got the results I got from the training I did. I was totally confused.
This is where I will skip to the present day, to save some gory details. Suffice to say I got a lot of help from a lot of people, for which I am grateful. I was delighted to see the end of 2012, and the start of 2013. 2013 is a fresh new year, and I am looking forward to the new adventures that it brings. October, November and December I did some training. Just not at all planned - whatever I felt like when I woke up which was quite a lot of road running (I like road running - I know, I am a freak), no races or intervals or other speed sessions at all. New years day the HBT handicap, when asked by the handicapper what I thought I could run for 10k, I said somewhere inbetween 38-45mins. It was nearer the lower end of that range I think, but it has been strangely liberating not knowing or caring what sort of form I am in for so long. I still have not done a 5k park run so don't know if I am faster or slower than last year. I'll find out at the scottish xc champs saturday. How much will Tess kick my ass by???
After pondering what training would be best for this year, I came to the conclusion that sod it, I will do the training that makes me happy, which is well planned training that is probably heavy on quality. I am recording my training elsewhere, mainly to spare the attackpoint-viewing public my miserable self indulgent moaning, though it has been more positive of late. Some people are watching my training though, to make sure I don't do anything too silly.
I started doing drills and different physio exercises in December (thanks Kim & Sarah H), and they are really making a difference. The sciatica is gone! Running pain free makes life so much less stressful. I get much more of a buzz out of it than I did before. What is really astonishing is how much more nimble and agile I feel in the forest. It was so odd to be skipping through the rocky birsemore terrain (tho as Kim says, its not odd, its just what she has been telling me and I have been ignoring for ages...). Its so different from last year. So much more fun. I really did miss out on feeling this strong in the terrain all last year, but didn't realise it.
I have been orienteering too. I went three times in October - December. Twice miserabley (painful leg, stressed etc etc), once ok. With help I have got a plan, which started in January, of training and racing that has one aim and one aim only - that I concentrate on enjoying orienteering! I am going to great forests, and letting myself fall in love with pottering about looking at pretty contours etc again. It is so nice to take the time to get totally absorbed in the map again all by myself, wichout it being a race or a training exercise. The big plan ends at the JK. Then its time for an evaluation. I don't know how I will do over the next few months, and care less about position than having a good. clean, fun run. I currently have no plans made post-JK, the calendar is blank (although Ray said we were doing BSBM, and he might have entered us...weird he's so keen...). I'm not thinking about results, the results I got last year, or the results I could get this year. 2012 is history, just maps shoved in a box. 2013 is a whole new adventure, with no comparisons with what went before, and I am having fun.
C x
I haven't logged any training for ages. Its not that I haven't done any, just I have been logging it elsewhere. I am not going to start logging my training here either any time soon. It seems a good place to put some race reports though, which would probalby be of interest other competitors - I certainly read all yours. , so it seems fair enough that I let you know my thoughts. I'll put something down about Birsemore tomorrow. But in the meantime here is an update of what I have been up to of late.
It will seem strange to some people but 2012 was a bit of a nightmare year for me. The results look good, and they were, better than I could have dreamed of, but they came at a price - burn out and exhaustion. Looking back three factors probably caused this:
1) Almost every run in 2012 involved running through pain. A knee problem was followed immediately by sciatica. I can handle a fair amount of pain from when I got back to running after breaking my hip, in fact running in marshes is still excruciating from the damage done in 1998, even now, but I can usually block the pain out. As long as I am running I am happy.
2) I didn't get much sleep in 2012. My daughter is not the bast of sleepers as she has really bad excema, and when she wakes she always wants me.
3) My life is busy and stressful. I like it like that, but I don't get much downtime.
At the WOC selection races I had some bad runs. Usually I can shrug off bad runs, but these races proved harder to shrug off than most. Then at the post finance weekend I again had some not great runs, was very low on sleep, and found it difficult to shake off the disappointment. WMOC was really good fun, thanks Sarah - what a laugh we had, but WOC was a whole lot more serious. The races passed in a bit of a blur, and adrenaline took me around without thinking of the pain of sciatica or the tiredness of back to back racing. It was mentally and emotionally exhausting. I still maintain it is fine to do all races, i just should have recognised what it would take out of me, and factor in 2 weeks of doing something like lying in a cool dark room with no stimulation - not going back to being a working Mum after crossing the finishing line. I was wiped out by the end, and my mind was stuck on one thing and that was the disappointment of the WOC long final. I ran so badly. For months afterwards I was just constantly haunted by the feeling of complete panic and lack of control that gripped me on the last section of the course. It was the one thing that dominated my thoughts, and I just could not shake it off.
At NORT I performed how I expected to - I was so burnt out and depressed by that stage I just didn't care, wanting the races to be over. The one highlight was seeing the brilliant WOC 2013 forests, and knowing I wanted to come back. I did my duty at the SHI weekend, then shoved my compass in a box, shoved my maps in a cupboard and did other things with my weekends (DIY mainly - yawn). I drifted through October, ignoring orienteering, as I didn't want to think about the WOC long AGAIN. In November I tried to shift my sciatica injury by not running for two weeks. This didn't work, and left me, as any time off running does, more down than ever.
My problems were that I wanted to go to WOC 2013, and I was looking forward to it, just the thought all of the domestic races inbetween and my inability to handle bad runs were making me feel physically sick. I did not want to go orienteering because there was a chance that in doing so I would get lost again, and the horrible post-WOC long feelings would be back. The other problem was that I had had a good year on the most ridiculous of training. Nearly every training session was dominated by how bad the injuries were at any given time. How could I replicate it? Would it work if I tried to replicate it? I didn't (and still don't) understand how I got the results I got from the training I did. I was totally confused.
This is where I will skip to the present day, to save some gory details. Suffice to say I got a lot of help from a lot of people, for which I am grateful. I was delighted to see the end of 2012, and the start of 2013. 2013 is a fresh new year, and I am looking forward to the new adventures that it brings. October, November and December I did some training. Just not at all planned - whatever I felt like when I woke up which was quite a lot of road running (I like road running - I know, I am a freak), no races or intervals or other speed sessions at all. New years day the HBT handicap, when asked by the handicapper what I thought I could run for 10k, I said somewhere inbetween 38-45mins. It was nearer the lower end of that range I think, but it has been strangely liberating not knowing or caring what sort of form I am in for so long. I still have not done a 5k park run so don't know if I am faster or slower than last year. I'll find out at the scottish xc champs saturday. How much will Tess kick my ass by???
After pondering what training would be best for this year, I came to the conclusion that sod it, I will do the training that makes me happy, which is well planned training that is probably heavy on quality. I am recording my training elsewhere, mainly to spare the attackpoint-viewing public my miserable self indulgent moaning, though it has been more positive of late. Some people are watching my training though, to make sure I don't do anything too silly.
I started doing drills and different physio exercises in December (thanks Kim & Sarah H), and they are really making a difference. The sciatica is gone! Running pain free makes life so much less stressful. I get much more of a buzz out of it than I did before. What is really astonishing is how much more nimble and agile I feel in the forest. It was so odd to be skipping through the rocky birsemore terrain (tho as Kim says, its not odd, its just what she has been telling me and I have been ignoring for ages...). Its so different from last year. So much more fun. I really did miss out on feeling this strong in the terrain all last year, but didn't realise it.
I have been orienteering too. I went three times in October - December. Twice miserabley (painful leg, stressed etc etc), once ok. With help I have got a plan, which started in January, of training and racing that has one aim and one aim only - that I concentrate on enjoying orienteering! I am going to great forests, and letting myself fall in love with pottering about looking at pretty contours etc again. It is so nice to take the time to get totally absorbed in the map again all by myself, wichout it being a race or a training exercise. The big plan ends at the JK. Then its time for an evaluation. I don't know how I will do over the next few months, and care less about position than having a good. clean, fun run. I currently have no plans made post-JK, the calendar is blank (although Ray said we were doing BSBM, and he might have entered us...weird he's so keen...). I'm not thinking about results, the results I got last year, or the results I could get this year. 2012 is history, just maps shoved in a box. 2013 is a whole new adventure, with no comparisons with what went before, and I am having fun.
C x