Training Log Archive: Swisscheese

Morning jog in Thun. Tried to buy some fresh bread and croissant for breakfast, but all bakeries where closed!?!

Swiss middle distance selection race for the WOC. Totally messed up. Read and ran from the 2nd to the 7th controls. Lost 4 minutes there. But other than that I was also doing lousy orienteering and felt physically lame.
A really disappointing race.
Finished 8.5minutes (!) behind Daniel Hubmann, 17th place, 2nd last...

Morning jog.

Warm up and cool down for the 2 sprints.

1st swiss sprint selection race for the WOC in Spiez.
Forest sprint. Raced ok. Made a 10sec mistake to #1,20sec going to the easiest control... the last one and a few seconds here and there going through too sick thorns.
Finished 7th, but lost about 1 minute on David Schneider.

2nd swiss sprint selection race for the WOC in the Town of Thun.
Missed a little to the first control and to the 2nd last (35secs), but other than that really good race. Ended 3rd, 15 secs behind Matthias Merz.
Looking at the graph I should focus on road races ;-)... it is good to know that my speed is now also ok... nothing should be in my way... maybe not, the next day I do a disastrous race.

Evening recovery jog with Bidi Hubmann and Sandra.

Warm up and cool down for the swiss trials for the WOC.

Swiss WOC selection race long distance.
Didn't manage during the warm up to get rid of the impression to perceive my body and the surrounding in a dull way. I have experienced this feeling already in previous races, but usually I quickly get into the fight mode once the race starts. At this race the killer instinct never awakened. I did several bigger (unnecessary) mistakes (between 50 sec and 2min) costing me 7 minutes... not including the small mistake that one always does. What a shame!

Why didn't I manage to clear up my mind? My head and back slightly hurt during the race. Running fast felt pretty slow and required a lot of mental energy. This is not the way I enjoy orienteering.
After a few hours, looking back at the race it feels like I was sitting in the wrong movie. Interestingly, it doesn't feel like everything was messed up, but just some fine adjustments, which can put the whole thing right or wrong. It just didn't want to click right.
What went wrong?!?
-Lack of preparation?
-Lack of motivation?
-Not enough self confidence in my physical shape after my troubles in May/June (iron deficiency)?
-Sandra being sick the last 5 days?
-Too much intensive work the last days?
-Worries about my baby nephew fighting again for life because of heart failure?

Looking at the splits, I see that at least the speed was right, eventhough I didn't have this feeling during the competition. That is certainly a positive point of this race... now I know I am in a good shape, also in continental terrain (so far, my good results this year were only in rough terrain).

In retrospective I should have tried to make myself more hungry for this race: Work less the two days before, maybe not compete over the weekend, do a morning jog... let the tiger get out before the race.

This was a hurtful experience. It is important now to turn it into a good (helpful) experience.

C • Sorry to hear that... 3

Late-ish easy training.

Morning jog... eheh, no need to hurry, I am not going to work today. It feels like a sunday.

The usual core strength exercises with focus on legs (10x10 one legged squads)

Evening jog in November weather... heavy rain, wind & fog. A lot of fun.

Hometrainer watching TV with Sandra...

C • How is she feeling? 2

C • mixed... 4