Perfect regeneration after a disappointing WOC
Tuesday, 12. August 2008, 09:41:20
After the WOC I was very disappointed, since nearly everything ended differently from what I wanted and hoped for before the WOC. To do a short summary:
The sprint qualification was good, but not perfect. I ran past the control next to the see and had to go back 40 meters. Stuff like that cost time and in the end I missed out of the final by 17 seconds. Shit happens and the good thing is, that I get closer to the cut everytime I try.
The last year I have spent so many traininghours preparing for the long distance and up to the last night everything was just fine. In the night I slept badly, dreaming crazy stuff and waking up crying. But the morning preparations went okay, I was as nervous as usual, the only negative things were a bit heavy legs on the warming up. They did not get better during the race.. I still do not know what went wrong, but during the race my body did not feel like my normal body anymore. Really heavy legs, hard to breath, uncoordinated feet. Well, it was just shit. Combined with some mistakes it was clear that I would not make it to the final. Afterwards so many people have told me, it was a mental failure. But it just wasn't. I have spoiled so many competitions due to nervousity and this was different. It also took ages to recover physically, which scared me a bit. I have done some medical test now and everything is fine. I am still waiting for the result of the borreliosia-test, but probably it was just a bad day at work. After the competition I got to feel what a positive and nice team we have, with team leaders and other runners taking so sweet care of me. Thanks a lot! And a big, big thanks to Uschi for joining me for a calming jog, listening to me beeing sad and mad at myself at the same. That was great of you!!!!
The relay was okay, but nothing more. I ran the first leg. I really like running first leg, but in the days before I had my thoughts about not beeing fast enough, so the good feeling did not came before I started to warm up. I could feel that the legs were much better than the days before and then I started to look forward to the race. In my preparations I had imagined that they would give us a short leg in the beginning, but not that it would be that short.. It was a cool start! I did not do any mistakes at all, but falling and hitting my head on the way to the first control was probably not a very good idea.. I don't think I lost very much due to that, but it gave my a nice headache afterwards. I lost some time in the end since I ran around a green area, but for the rest it was okay. Anita and Michi didn't have perfect races either, so the placement can just get better next year.
After the most boring banquet ever I travelled from Prague to Oslo on Monday. Getting home Monday evening was a perfect thing. I immediately got spoiled with lots of strawberried and cakes, but unfortunately this nice treatment lasted only hours. Next day I went together with my family to Sälen, where I took part in the World Cup. The sprint was a big failure, making a mistake at the 5th control where I lost 2 minutes.. The long distance was a nightmare, beeing physically and mentally overtired. I could not even enjoy the nice area up on the top of the mountain. The middle distance on the third day was slightly better, I could at least enjoy it a bit, not only concentrating on surviving like the day before.. After the middle distance I went straight home, getting spoiled by the whole family for 3 more days. I was so happy to see them all again and so happy to do nothing at all. Just sleep, eat, read and talk. My only "training" was to walk the stairs and to once swim across the see and back
.
Back in Vienna I stuffed away everything that could remind me about orienteering and WOC and that was a good thing to do. I spent the time working (well, that is actually good regeneration too. Meeting people with real problems and beeing able to help them to a better situation makes your own failure so much more unimportant), meeting friends, eating a lot of ice-cream, trekking in the mountains around Vienna and then 2 days in Carinthia with my best friend. This year's holiday so to say
.
Tomorrow we head off to Miskolc for a WOC09-preparation. It is now 1 year to the next WOC and even if my mind still refuses to think too much about orienteering it will be nice to meet Miskolc like it will be next August. We have allready had two trainingcamps over there, but in the spring, so it will be a bit different vegetation now. Let's see if I still know how to use a map and a compass!
Here you can see some photo's from my more or less perfect regeneration-period!
Important regeneration-food: Norwegian strawberries
With milk, cream and sugar unresistable delicious
Go for a swim in a Norwegian see, 26 degrees C should be warm enough..
Rax - a nice trekking area!
If you can find the origin of a rainbow, your dreams will come through...
Some mental tickling must be, even for those not liking heights..
If things would flow like this all the time, life would probably be boring.
Mittagskogel. my favourite mountain, in evening sun.
Sometimes you need help to reach your goal..
Nice!
Many ways to reach the top!
On the top - first Mittagskogel-tour on my own
The sprint qualification was good, but not perfect. I ran past the control next to the see and had to go back 40 meters. Stuff like that cost time and in the end I missed out of the final by 17 seconds. Shit happens and the good thing is, that I get closer to the cut everytime I try.
The last year I have spent so many traininghours preparing for the long distance and up to the last night everything was just fine. In the night I slept badly, dreaming crazy stuff and waking up crying. But the morning preparations went okay, I was as nervous as usual, the only negative things were a bit heavy legs on the warming up. They did not get better during the race.. I still do not know what went wrong, but during the race my body did not feel like my normal body anymore. Really heavy legs, hard to breath, uncoordinated feet. Well, it was just shit. Combined with some mistakes it was clear that I would not make it to the final. Afterwards so many people have told me, it was a mental failure. But it just wasn't. I have spoiled so many competitions due to nervousity and this was different. It also took ages to recover physically, which scared me a bit. I have done some medical test now and everything is fine. I am still waiting for the result of the borreliosia-test, but probably it was just a bad day at work. After the competition I got to feel what a positive and nice team we have, with team leaders and other runners taking so sweet care of me. Thanks a lot! And a big, big thanks to Uschi for joining me for a calming jog, listening to me beeing sad and mad at myself at the same. That was great of you!!!!
The relay was okay, but nothing more. I ran the first leg. I really like running first leg, but in the days before I had my thoughts about not beeing fast enough, so the good feeling did not came before I started to warm up. I could feel that the legs were much better than the days before and then I started to look forward to the race. In my preparations I had imagined that they would give us a short leg in the beginning, but not that it would be that short.. It was a cool start! I did not do any mistakes at all, but falling and hitting my head on the way to the first control was probably not a very good idea.. I don't think I lost very much due to that, but it gave my a nice headache afterwards. I lost some time in the end since I ran around a green area, but for the rest it was okay. Anita and Michi didn't have perfect races either, so the placement can just get better next year.
After the most boring banquet ever I travelled from Prague to Oslo on Monday. Getting home Monday evening was a perfect thing. I immediately got spoiled with lots of strawberried and cakes, but unfortunately this nice treatment lasted only hours. Next day I went together with my family to Sälen, where I took part in the World Cup. The sprint was a big failure, making a mistake at the 5th control where I lost 2 minutes.. The long distance was a nightmare, beeing physically and mentally overtired. I could not even enjoy the nice area up on the top of the mountain. The middle distance on the third day was slightly better, I could at least enjoy it a bit, not only concentrating on surviving like the day before.. After the middle distance I went straight home, getting spoiled by the whole family for 3 more days. I was so happy to see them all again and so happy to do nothing at all. Just sleep, eat, read and talk. My only "training" was to walk the stairs and to once swim across the see and back
. Back in Vienna I stuffed away everything that could remind me about orienteering and WOC and that was a good thing to do. I spent the time working (well, that is actually good regeneration too. Meeting people with real problems and beeing able to help them to a better situation makes your own failure so much more unimportant), meeting friends, eating a lot of ice-cream, trekking in the mountains around Vienna and then 2 days in Carinthia with my best friend. This year's holiday so to say
.Tomorrow we head off to Miskolc for a WOC09-preparation. It is now 1 year to the next WOC and even if my mind still refuses to think too much about orienteering it will be nice to meet Miskolc like it will be next August. We have allready had two trainingcamps over there, but in the spring, so it will be a bit different vegetation now. Let's see if I still know how to use a map and a compass!
Here you can see some photo's from my more or less perfect regeneration-period!
Important regeneration-food: Norwegian strawberries
With milk, cream and sugar unresistable delicious
Go for a swim in a Norwegian see, 26 degrees C should be warm enough..
Rax - a nice trekking area!
If you can find the origin of a rainbow, your dreams will come through...
Some mental tickling must be, even for those not liking heights..
If things would flow like this all the time, life would probably be boring.
Mittagskogel. my favourite mountain, in evening sun.
Sometimes you need help to reach your goal..
Nice!
Many ways to reach the top!
On the top - first Mittagskogel-tour on my own
WIDGETIZE