Petitions and the Importance of Goals

As many people know the USA 2012 WOC team was announced last weekend after the USA Individual Championships held in Georgia, which acted as the Team Trials. Some people may have noticed that my name didn't show up on any lists even though I had been saying I was going to petition to be on the team. And that was the plan... Up until the JK where afterwards I had to make a hard decision.

Although making it on to the Senior team this year being a first year W21 was a long shot in itself, I had always planned on putting in a petition anyway. I had thought "why not! at least to just to see where I might stand." After the British Sprint and Middle championships thought I noticed that I was lacking any clear goals (this was slightly apparent before but became pretty much "deer in the headlights" after). I had gone into the championships with the "I'll see where I fall and get an idea of the standard here" mind set. Which being my first major race in the UK as a senior was probably not a bad plan. Afterwards though I had a better idea of where I stood and I think started making unsaid goals without really realising it. Then came the JK and I wasn't anywhere near where I was hoping. I was upset with myself. I had no proper goals.

After the JK I spent quite a few days going in circles of why I wanted to compete at this level. I talked to many people to get there input on a few thoughts. Thought a lot about where I wanted to go with the sport, goals, and training. But it then came down to the night I had to put in my WOC petition. I was there until almost midnight frantically typing and gathering data for the petition. It was all ready to send in. I had one more conversation and than made the hardest decision I've had to in a while.

I decided I wasn't ready for WOC and that putting in a petition for the USA team even if it was just to "see where I stood" was not what I needed mentally at this moment in time. Being first year W21, I realize that I am not yet at my peak physically to challenge to make a WOC Final. So have decided I want to focus solely on WUOC and aim for WOC in the coming year. This gives me more time to make a plan, some goals and integrate/progress a long side those that partake in the elite performance center here in Edinburgh. I feel waiting a year before challenging for WOC will give me a chance to close the gap physically that currently exists between me and those that have already established themselves as World Class athletes, both here in the UK and across the rest of Europe where the standard is unforgiving.

I have been exposed to a whole new competition field here in the UK and have yet to find my way around, although figuring it out. There is much more depth here than in the states which I'm slowly getting used to. And then the JK attracted elites from other countries as well, many more than I was expecting. I am glad to have this exposure to a larger competition field on a more regular basis. It is nice to be able to see what is truly possible and have that reality check during events that are not World Championships. Also, after racing with EUOC more I have gotten a better idea of where I stand with the girls and it is nice to see that with some hard work I could be up with them as well. The key is going to be to have goals though and believe in them. I have been swimming around a bit with no clear direction in training. Being in Edinburgh has opened my eyes up to so many more possibilities and I think I have stopped settling for mediocre results just because "I'm from the states". Nope I can be as good as them! and I will be with some consistent, focused training.

So we wait now to see the results from the Intercollegiate Championships and the naming of the USA WUOC team. I hope I am given the chance to represent USA in Spain this July!

My First JK

So a bit late on posting about the JK, but better late than never right? And a visit from my Mum to keep me busy I believe is a good excuse!  The Jan Kjellstrom - or JK to most - is an event held annually over Easter weekend and is the premier UK event attracting top competitors from various countries. This year its base was around Perth, Scotland. The event is comprised of 4 days of racing with a Sprint (Friday), Middle (Saturday), Long (Sunday) and Relay (Monday). I raced in the W21e category which meant our Middle was a WRE (world ranking event). I had a few ideas on how well I was wanting to do this weekend, but I wouldn't say it was clear enough to be a goal. This might be where some of my issues were, but more on that later. The Sprint was in Livingston so comprised of mostly an urban race with a little bit in a more "forested" area. I had quite an early start and for some reason unknown to me that meant I arrived way early for my start. So jogged around and did a lot of stretching, but mostly tried to get my head in the game. Finally my start time rolled around and Beep, Beep, Beep,Beep... BEEP.... I was off on my first JK sprint. Poor route choice to one but went with it, fine to two, and boy was three a tricky one! there was a lot of talk about out of bounds leading up to the event and so I automatically went under the underpass and ruled out the main road knowing it was out of bounds. However quickly figured out that wasn't right and stood around scratching my head thinking "there is no legal way to this control!". Not what you want to do when your supposed to be "elite". finally worked out that I was allowed on what they were calling a Curb and got 3. After that had no real problems (other than 17 which i ran passed) other than a few bobbles and looking back not ideal routes but was starting to feel like an "elite". Came to the end of my course and I had caught up Olivia from NI and it was a sprint into the finish to try and beat her in. A sprint that I might add Colm never noticed as he didn't realise it was me with Olivia. I guess that serves my right for wearing a plan blue top!

Sprint Map

 

Olivia and I coming into the "GO" control

I didn't do as well in the Sprint as I would have liked which meant I really wasn't in a good and confident mind frame for the Middle on Dunalastair the next day. Running the warm up map on the way to the start also didn't help things. Nothing was fitting! I got to the starting line and managed to calm myself enough to be yawning, which I was taking as a good sign. Right from the start though the map was still not making sense. The green around control 1 I couldn't make heads nor tales of. Then control 3 I kept stopping short from the fact that there was a distinct vegetation change almost at it which wasn't on the map. By this time the Swede that started behind me had caught me and we both struggled to 4. It was nice to know at that point I wasn't the only one having troubles. After control 5 however things went pretty smoothly. I didn't even notice that I went past a "spectator" section near the water. I had found a zone, and it was nice to have the Swede there with us both pushing the pace. We both made a slight parallel mistake going to control 16 however I caught it quite quickly and took off determined to make up a bit of time on her, but made sure to keep making plans and sticking on the map.

Middle Course with Route

Day three brought us the long on one of the most difficult areas in Scotland I have been told - Craig a Barns. and if the journey to the start didn't give away that it was going to be physically challenging I don't know what would! It was a VERY steep climb the last bit, so it was the one day I was glad I got to the start super early so that I could fully recover! I was in a better mental state starting this course which I liked. However, control one didn't really help that. I managed to hit a rock wall at about 90degrees off from what I wanted. I'm proud though of the fact that I managed to instantly realise that! A major improvement from the USA team trails last year. So really it was a confidence boost in disguise once I worked it out. The next few controls went well apart from struggling around and over fallen trees which made up the green on the map in this area. Control 5 however I was lucky. I didn't really have a plan for this leg and decided to just run for the near trail and decide as I went. It worked out but not a good idea on my part! I knew I lost time as the very end of the leg I was caught by the same Swede. Again it was a battle round, flip flopping who was reading well. The green by 6-9 I found very hard to navigate in. I'm actually really glad Ruairi came along and lead me into 9 or I feel I could have been bashing around for a bit. Was getting a bit tired but pushed on. Was hitting things fairly well until 14- 16 in which i was glad there were quite a few people around. I felt like I was having such a hard time telling which bush was which and not wanting to lose too much height. Again it was a sprint into the finish against me and the Swede.

I wasn't about to let her beat me in!

 

 

 

Long map with route 

 

 

 

 

Last race - The relay at Newtyle. This was my first relay running for EUOC, and I was excited! I got to run the first leg of our 3rd team. The buzz at the starting line was exciting and a bit nerve wreaking. But once the whistle blew and we were off I felt good. Right up the hill for the first controls. Felt slow but the leaders weren't getting away as quickly as I first thought which was nice. Right to the top of the hill for 2-3. This whole course felt much easier navigation after the Long! A few bobbles in places but mostly just felt tired. However could see Kirstin who was on EUOC 2nd team ahead of me which pushed me on from wanting to be finishing close to her. I was with another girl from about 4 onwards and we were going to all the same controls until the last one. I had a wee panic, triple checked my control codes and kept going. The run in felt like it went on for ages! But handed off to Isla who was running 2nd leg in 14th place, only ~4mins behind the leaders and ~2 behind kirstin. Quite happy with this run which was the first time I had felt that all weekend.

Relay map with route

So although I didn't do as well as I wanted. And there were a few tears and a lot of doubt. Looking back it was a very good learning experience for me. And I didn't really race as badly as I thought. Full results for the whole event can be found here.

JK Training

We have just had a gorgeous week in Edinburgh. So who wanted to stay in doors when one could be enjoying the sunshine and preparing for the JK? I have to say not me!

Monday after the BOC event I took as a rest day. Had a lovely cycle into town to meet up with Lauren though and went for a walk around Blackford Hill in the nice weather!

Reminded me why I love Edinburgh so much!

 
Tuesday brought another nice day and it was down to the meadows for EUOC intervals. My legs were still feeling dead however and still wasn't feeling 100% better from my cold so had a steady run around Arthur's Seat with Lauren and Cat. It was so nice to be running with people again and it was nice to have a chat with them about training and recovering from races.

Wednesday I met up with Rona and Kirsten for some training at Bonaly. I cycled there and oh my was the hill up a killer! I felt like I could have run there quicker! But it was such a nice day out that I didn't really mind and the way I took back a long the Water of Leith was nice. So for training I ran the FwtN long course that I missed. However, I ran it only a few controls at a time. Every 3-4 controls I put my map down walked back and practiced restarting a course. I think it really helped. Also there were quite a few groups out and about having BBQs or mountain biking and having them watch me helped me remember I need to ignore others while out. I found the map a bit odd in a few places but was thoroughly enjoying be outside in the sun. I also learned from this my legs were still feeling dead and I should do a few more runs on the trails around there and get in some heather running. Hard work!

Map! skipped out 20 and 21 as running out of time.

Thursday was meant to be an easy lap of campus but decided I would bike out to Portabello bench to join EUOC for a BBQ there and that the ~35km ride would be enough for the day. It was a lovely day although a bit cooler than previous. We even went swimming in the sea! and the BBQ was great even with all the sand :)

Friday brought another lovely day and the start of Easter Holidays, which I started with a run around campus. And it is a "morning" run (ie 10am) that I actually enjoyed greatly! After that it was on the train to come stay with my Aunt, Uncle and cousin in Falkirk. Great to be around family and not stuck in empty halls. And it is really nice to be around family I haven't really gotten a chance to know all that well other than in the summers when I grew up.

Saturday was my cousins birthday so we had cake and played with the baby Thomas. I was feeling tired and legs just had no energy so the training for today was spending a bit of time looking at old maps. Need to be doing some more geeking in the coming week though.

Especially as Sunday brought an EUOC trip to Livingston to run the training courses for the JK. I ran both of the Urban sprints focusing on A) the start, so tried to replicate a race start as much as I could by putting the map down on the ground unfolded and such. I think that is really helping and I'm gaining more of a habit/routine out of it. and B) making sure I had a plan for the next control going into the previous. I was trying to have the whole plan and not just which way I was exiting as in the housing developments the route really does determine how you leave and was trying hard to practice looking for traps. After the two urban sprints I decided to run a few controls in Calder Woods. They didn't go as well. I was confused by the map. thankfully though I was quickly running out of time so bailed before my mental aditude from this training day turned bad. Was so glad to be out with EUOC people so much this week!

British Sprint and Middle Championships

March 24th and 25th brought the British Spring and Middle Championships in York. There was a bit of a panic over accommodation and transport to start with as EUOC was not going as a club. But that all got sorted...eventually.

After a long car ride down to york and a night sleeping in a tent, we woke up to it being quite foggy out as we made our way to the Bus for the sprint. The sprint was help at York University and consisted of heats in the morning and finals in the afternoon. I ran the Women's C heat in the morning. It was a course of 2.4km, 20m climb, 19 controls with 28 women racing, but only the top 6 would make it into the final.


I made such a muck up coming out of the start. I had not mentally gotten into the task at hand and just was worried about running fast and having a good run. Not the way you want to start your first British champs event! After punching the first control though I was able to sort of restart my thought process and really got into the map afterwards. Was feeling much better! Flow was back and a bit of speed and was planning pretty well. Over all I wanted to be happy about this race but knew I needed to change how i dealt with the start that afternoon. Here are the results W21-C, and as you can see there was a very strong field won by Linnea Gustafsson current World Champion.

Running into the GO control!

After some food and a pep talk from Colm it was time to race again. Racing in the B final took some pressure off me but was still nervous about the start. Got there in loads of time and just played through my head what i talked to Colm about. when I heard the long beep of my start I was ready to kick butt. I had a fairly clean race with only a few hesitations and it landed me in 12th in the final. Feeling thats not to bad considering I was sick all week. And it was my first WRE run!


The Sunday brought the Middle Championships at Strensall Common. It started off being a VERY foggy morning as we drove to the event, but just as we were turning into the park the sun came out and the fog burnt off giving us a lovely day! The warm up map to the start I think was key today! The map was flatter than I have ever seen, which was emphasized by the fact that the course climb was 0m, yes zero! never seen that before! However, the warm up map also showed that it was going to be tough underfoot with all the ground being fairly tuskety and full of pits. I was having a hard time putting things together on the warm up to the start. I tired my best to again run through my head what Colm had said yesterday and it worked for getting me to the first control, even if it was slow. I still wasn't feeling fully in the race though. I had hit the first two controls ok and my mind switched over to thinking about outcome and how I needed to race well today. What frustrated me the most was I knew when on the course I needed to switch my train of thought, that in order to do well I needed to have a clean process based run. I finally was able to switch over after control 7 and have a good run. I ended up placing 22nd in W21E



I think the thing I learned the most this weekend is that I have actually put in time to train and that I am actually at a higher standard than I first thought I was. I was a bit intimidated by running against the elite Brits. But that is gone and I'm looking forward to bringing my A game to the JK and being up there in the mix.

British Univeristy Champs (BUCS)

The weekend of may 17th and 18th I boarded the mini buses with EUOC for our road trip down to the lake district. Cambridge University Orienteering Club was holding BUCS and it was guaranteed to be a good weekend.

We stayed at a travellodge friday night, not fair from Saturdays event. The weather forecast for the day was promising snow and rain so we were bundled up for the worst. However when we arrived at ambelside the sun was shinning, however the muddy ground reminded us that could quickly change. The map we were running on was Loughrigg, which featured open moorland. It was fast and great visibility so key was to keep looking up. I ran the Women's A Course which was 4.9km with 12 controls.

I was expecting things to be a lot more technical and small mistakes to be punished quickly. However, I actually found this course to be quite easy and the slip up I had on control 9 was a mental block which I was able to easily find the root of after finishing and sort out since. I did have the luxury of starting 1 minute in front of Jessica Orr which meant the two of us were pushing each other around the course flip flopping who was leading. She got away when I slipped up on my compass coming out of 8, but I had a solid run afterwards as well which is nice to see that I can keep that pace even without someone around me. And I was able to finish just before the rain started!

The race wasn't over though! It was quickly off to the mini buses and winding our way through the country side on the hunt for showers and race to get dressed for the social that evening. The ceildh theme was "university city" and so in true EUOC style we topped every one showing up as Pandas in Kilts:


The Sunday was the relay. It took place at Bigland, open rolling fields with many rock walls and a quite technical section in the woods. Great for an exciting relay! Sadly because I was the only one from heriot-watt it was slightly less exciting but had a brilliant adhoc (no competitive) relay. I was tagged of by Laura Ramstein (she has run JWOC for Austria) into a lead of around 30seconds over the second Adhoc team. I had a generally clean run on the second leg:

Slight bobble going to control 2 just was too far left and had to come back at it. But once I got into the woods i was feeling on fire. Was just moving quite well, had a plan and was only hesitant in a few places. It was such a nice confidence booster to have a good run in a more technical area. And to come storming through the finish to tag off to peter G (old EUOC member who likes to think he is still a student :p). Peter G had a great run and like the EUOC girls we managed to beat the second Adhoc team by a few seconds. In the end EUOC girls swept the relay, the boys were 1st and 3rd (after a bit of drama over hoping uncrossable walls, KEY lesson: READ THE FINAL DETAILS!), and the adhoc team made it a clean sweep as really we were all EUOC.

It was a lovely weekend spent with EUOC and i'm not hungry for next year. And I already have another runner from heriot-watt!