Training Log Archive: Nathan

Nice morning run up to the Chevin with daneo whilst Joe "slept in"....

Keeping the week easy and travelled to Joe's no gain from just jogging.

C • No gain 2

Warm up.

Bit of a killer session on my own in the park in Broughton. Back to El Classico pretty much: 1,1,2,3,4,5,5,4,3,2,1,1 (half recovery). First half felt pretty savage and wasn't sure I would finish it and then recovered better in the second half with the relatively bigger recoveries but was still grinding. Paces were still respectable with the wind and drags up but felt flat and like my speed had abandoned me a bit.

Absolute death crawl on the way home.

Feeling a bit drained, was going to run but with next week being fairly intense I don't see the point in tiring myself too much.

HRM going awol

Tough return to the track with the harriers at ratby school. Off the front solo on every rep and was a real mental challenge to keep working. Felt horrible, legs heavy, breathing right but still churning out some respectable times. Session was 4x200, 2x400, 800, 2x400, 4x200. Good fun but tough.

Probably a much needed rest day after jwoc and the lakes, been putting it off but think I'd be running myself in to the ground being stubborn today if not. May as well use the time to write up some thoughts on JWOC itself and the aftermath which I'll try and do below. I'll do it race by race and fair warning, it'll probably be unneccesarily long but hopefully should help with the processing.

Since injury last year and previous years frustrations with selections, I told myself last summer that I was going to go this year and I was going to do anything to do so. I think I have this year, no injuries or illnesses to speak of that have hampered training and a commitment to trying to address the problems I had in my orienteering in recent years, sacrificing running sessions and other things to tramp out to areas in miserable conditions to get just a little benefit, always telling myself it'd be worth it once I got there. In the aftermath of JWOC though I've questioned to some extent whether it actually was worth it, and whether I could have gotten to that position without the need to sacrifice a lot of what I have this year. Who knows but I think with the amount of work and commitment for this years JWOC I didn't do myself justice and it's left me frustrated and quite bitter towards orienteering at the minute because despite putting this work in, I still couldn't perform when I needed to.


Middle Quali:
Going in to this I genuinely wasn't nervous, I was just loving the atmosphere and was happy to have made it after the years training. I was going through my plans well and felt focused on what I had to do. Bit of a rush off the line but forced myself to settle and found a nice rhythm flowing around the first technical 2/3rds of the race. After the TV control and radio I maybe got a bit distracted and focused too much on running along the track, thinking that the rest of the course was easy. This led to a half cocked plan in to no10 resulting in the massive mistake which cost me a comfortable qualificaiton. I should have slowed and planned properly and even when I made the mistake I told myself to get out and reset to minimise time loss, but was unwilling to commit. This led to losing my head and ultimately the race. I could have lost 4mins and still qualified but I didn't, yet as it was earlier in the week I thought it would be a good incentive to run better. Despite the result, this was the most comfortable and enjoyable bit of orienteering I've had in years (until the mistake). i felt fit and in complete control and the splits and positioning shows that, being able to mix with the top guys at the big stage. However my naivety shone through and I crumbled after getting through the part of the course with the traps. I was angry and frustrated after this but also determined to better my performance in the sprint. Some great runs by the Brits though and shows we can be well up there.

Sprint:
The biggy for me. Despite having said all year that I was really training for all the disciplines, I think I always knew that most of what I was doing was being geared towards the sprint instead of the forest, which may have contributed to my more relaxed attitude in the middle Q. I did feel more nervous before this race but went through the same motions as the middle but on the jog to the start I got a bit more jumpy seeing that we were starting at the bottom and going in to the shoreside stuff which went against a lot of my planning. This didn't influence my run I don't think though because I was back to feeling calm by the -3 and visualised well what we'd be going in to. Again, probably rushed the start and only got snatches of the map on the dirty run out through the trees. This led to a bit of a rushed route to 1 which I sort of knew was a bit slower. 2 felt like a weird control, alongside a number of the others on this course but was getting the routes without any problems but always just seemed to miss the optimum, losing a couple of seconds over a number of controls. Through spectator was all fine and the great GB crowd was really motivating. However despite this I began to be increasingly aware that throughout the race I was feeling just a little off, a bit off pace and not being as aggressive as in other sprints which served me well at Warwick and the JK. Flowing nicely after spectator but never that confidently or aggressively, taking a lot of time to plan and not maximising the ample opportunities to open the legs. Disaster on 18, I just didn't see the control. Tricky RC to 17 meant I think I'd registered 18 as an easy control and so when I got to 17 just clocked it as done (this probably doesn't make sense) began navigation to 19 which was the harder leg. I think I just took it for granted. Was a bit suspicious when I caught Jan at the control as I thought he'd be quicker. Then just got round the rest but even at the end when running was the only thing to do I just felt a bit lethargic. Finished with the commentator saying 13th which I was delighted with but also couldn't quite believe after what was at best for me, an average run. Through download and they said about the control which initially I didn't believe but one look at the map confirmed it. They tried to get me to go to a desk and talk about it or protest but I just shrugged them off because there was no point. To me, just like that, a years work was undone by on stupid mistake which was easily avoidable. With the control I would have been maybe 25th~ which is ok but again, with the amount of effort put in to the sprint training this year it just seemed a waste and really did make me question why I'd bothered. Spent the rest of the day in the worst mood, could have happily flown home from the event there and then but once again I want to thank the team and the coaches who were awesome. Couldn't even put in to words how I felt, not even angry or frustrated, just kind of empty. Took a good day or more for it to turn to anger which I turned on to the long.

Long:
Not as much to say about this. Attacked well from the start but missed a bit of a route to 3. Hadorn caught me at the start of the butterfly and ran it with him, be lying if I said this didn't help but also made sure to keep good contact, taking different micro routes which is evidenced by his MP at the end when he 'got away' without going to 12. Spent a lot of the time to 13 planning the long leg on 14 but never even saw the route to the right, losing a lot of time in my opinion but as they saidd cultivated land was OOB and that whole side was, I didn't even look at it, bit sneaky from them really. Then just continued to lose time towards the end, the odd minute on a few controls which scuppered a good result. Should have top 30 probably if I cut out the mistakes at the end which were just me being a bit lazy but can't complain. Top 50 was alright and I'll take it, but again just feel like I could have done more.

Relay:
Knew since selections and seedings came out that we were going to have a good opportunity for a result. Alex has been a consistently strong 1st leg runner and I never had any doubt that he would come back in the top couple. And there was never any doubt that Sasha would smash it, especially in the form he was in that week. I'd been nervous for a while about it and tried my best to get on top of these which I thought I had even in the start box feeling weirdly calm. Started blisteringly fast with NOR2 down the track and knew I'd have to reel it in and run my own race. Did so and felt fairly comfrotable through to 4, despite a couple of teams going ahead because I knew that was likely to happen with a number of strong runners on last leg. Bit of a slip at 5 being dragged off my FRA to the wrong gaffle then a rushed exit out of 6 chasing SUI which led to a terrible route to the arena and making me feel a bit like I'd be playing catch up. Again, the support from the GB contingent was amazing and was a real boost coming through. Paul shouted that we were on the podium with a gap behind and this probably got in my head on 8 where it all fell apart. I should have killed the pace and planned the leg properly but I never did. I think I was just too caught up in the racing element of it and never slowed down. This is criminal in a relay and I want to apologise again, especially to the other guys who ran so well to put me in that position, I didn't do you guys justice and I'm sorry for that. I hit the track without really knowing where I came off and then thought I was in the right set of little hills before the control, continually dipping in and out of the green marsh but never finding the boulder which wasn't there. Tried to relocate south but just got more confused. Eventually hit the control, not really sure how, I probably just got lucky but by the I knew it was game over. This didn't stop me working though and I tried to put everything in to the last few controls, especially on the tracks but was never going to claw back that much time against that competition. Many congratulations to GB2 though, those guys smashed it and should get the recognition they deserve for that performance. Can't say how gutted I was afterwards, more for the other guys than myself.

So that was JWOC. Probably haven't got everything down that I could have but after a week of running away this seems to be the stuff that has stuck. It was basically a week of missed opportunities for myself. It was a great experience and I had a really good time with the team but I went to perform and I didn't. As I said, training had gone so well this year that I didn't have really and nerves or doubts about my abilities going in to the races and it was basically 1 element of each race that let it down. Still feel a bit disillusioned and not really sure what to do with myself at the moment but I guess training from today will resume as usual. 6 days coming up, euromeeting and SHI's so there is still things to work for but I feel as though the motivation I had leading up to jwoc has gone and now I'm going through the motions for want of anything else to do. I am looking forward to next week up in Scotland and hopefully the mojo will return once I'm there.