Training Log Archive: Mitch78

Warm-up before the WOC relay

WOC Relay

Was a little bit nervous when I heard that we had 600m running to the start point... but it went well and even if the speed was high, I could stay in the pack.

I had a very good race, with only some little hesitations at controls 1 and 11 + a bad route choice to 5. I total I lost not more than 90 seconds. Maybe I could have stayed with countries like Italy if I hadn't made the little mistake at 1 but still I'm very satisfied with my race and running speed, as I was most of the time alone or in the leading position of the group.

WOC is over now and time is come to make a first evaluation:
- from 3 races I had a good one (middle Q), a very very bad one (long Q) and a really good one (relay)
- technically I made a quite solid performance, and the very good training camp we had in june is certainly playing a big role in this. I really think I have the technical level for an A final
- physically I'm not fast enough to make it to an A final (with a perfect race in middle Q I maybe would have made it to 15th place) even if I trained 15% more than last year. I will take some time to analyse my training and will surely change some things in the next month. The global amount will not increase as I have to deal with work and family (number 2 is coming in early 2011 ;-) ), but I will try to increase the amount of quality and add some specific trainings (more short sessions at high speed, strength, steep uphills...).

This confirms also my opinion about the physical test run of the national team: if the goal is to reach an A final at WOC (which indeed is not, as it's only a minimal condition to participate to the selection races), it's even not hard enough.


Map with route

C • nice 2

Cool down after the relay... looking Tero making his unbelieveable mistake!

some pain at the right foot after I twisted my anke in the run in.

Easy run with Ken. Did 5*20'' accelerations at the end

Warm-up before WOC Tour - Stage 4

As I'll run the first leg of Sunday's relay I did some start exercices on todays WOC Tour open class: fast from start to 3, then very easy to 4, fast again from 4 to 8, very easy to 9 and fast from 9 - 11.

1'30'' mistakes, still some things to improve before sunday

Map with route

Recovery run with Fabi, Ken and Pieter

Recovery run with Fabi on the sprint final course. Tested a lot of route choices, fun.

Added maps.

Now heading to long distance qualification

Warm-up before the LD qualification

Long distance qualification... what a nightmare. I'm still a little bit shocked 2 days after this race. Maybe writting about it will make me feel better :-)

During the warm-up I had good feelings and was confident about my technique and my physical shape after my OK race of yesterday.

I wanted to run a bit more agressively but still - as I ever do - run very safe on the 3 first controls... which I all missed:
- lost 40'' at number 1 - running between the 2 hills while thinking I was running around the 2nd one
- lost 2' at number 2 - thought I was climbing the cliff close to the control, but it was the cliff much earlier. In those 2 first controls I always searched too early, maybe the difficulty to change from 1/10 000 to 1/15 000
- lost 3'20 at number 3 - made a parallel mistake because in the terrain there was a small reentrant which I interpreted as being the one just over the control. Still don't understand why I was searching in an open area while the control was just in the forest!

Afterwards it went technically better but I had no more power in the legs, the race was a real battle with myself and I didn't appreciate the great terrain at all. Made a last mistake at 7 where I attacked from the wrong marsh and a wrong route choice to 13 where it was much faster to run around the hill on the path.

All in all I lost about 10' technically and I don't know how much because of the bad shape. It was definitely not possible to make it to an A final today... and the disappointment was big at the finish. It's the first time since years that I perform really bad in an important competition, but what doesn't kill me makes me stronger!


Map with route

Warm-up before the WOC middle distance Q in Trondheim

WOC middle qualification.

I went well in the race, and had no problem on the 3 first tricky controls in the green area. Indeed until the 6 I made no real mistake.

To 7 I lost ~45'' with a bad route choice. My really big mistake came to 8, when I didn't go enough to the right and hit on big cliffs during the route choice. 2 times I tried to go down but it was definitely to steep. This costs me another 90 seconds. I made a last litte hesitation at 9 (15''). With a perfect race, maybe I could have done it to the final. Tomorrow I think I'll take more risks because it's the only way to make it to the final.

The Belgian team performed very well again today, with Greet and Fabi making it to the final. Congrats to both of you!



Map with route

Cooling down with Fabi and Peter