Long-longer-longest
Friday, 1. May 2009, 09:43:49
Puh, 4,5 days have passed since the Austrian Ultra-long Championship and finally, finally I start feeling alive again. That was really a long one! Ok, 12k's isn't daunting, but when the given 680m climbing come out to be around 1000m it starts to get amusing... Ok, it is not the problem of the course setter that I (and as it looks the same happened to the others too 
) tired out after two third of the course, but still a winning time 30 minute longer than given winning time is hard... . But, thanks to a lot of work I haven't had any time this week for training anyway, so now my legs are slowly looking forward to training again!
A couple of people have asked, if they should congratulate with the silver medal or if they should be sorry for me that it wasn't to be a gold medal this time either. Well, I think I have never been more happy for a silver medal, even if the gold was reachable. Ok, if I would have had enough sense and power to go over the last hill instead of around it (and direct control 27-28, instead of 27-26-28....yes, I read to the wrong control after half of the leg, stupid), I would probably have managed to get the gold. But, I did not have the power and the sense, I was too tired. I love running uphill, but with only some short 3 weeks of training in the legs, there was only a limited capacity of power. And - with the knowledge of how the last months were and how far down my body was, I am really proud of being able to run a competition of 2h 16' length... This silver is a kind of gold to me - it is the sign, that I am still able to push, to run fast, to orienteer, the sign, that the season is not doomed to go down the drain. So, yes, I am really happy with this silver medal, more happy than the years before
.
In Austria it has been, as every year after the ultra-long champs, a discussion about the race itself and about the ultra-long champs as an institution. Well, opinions differ and lots of those - not running in the elite (the championship is only for W21E/M21E, for the rest it is a longer classic distance and no championship) - knows what is best for the elite runners. Some of the men (Markus Lang, Gernot Kerschbaumer has discussed the item on their home-pages, here some thoughts about it from a female point of view:
As always the starting field was pretty reduced, one reason was for sure that some girls were at the MTBO WRE in Hungary. But, as the other elite runners, I am sure that the field would be bigger and the competition it self more attractive if the champs would take place in the autumn. If you are running the competition at a full speed (which is the logical thing to do if you choose to run it, after all it is a championship) you need some weeks of regeneration afterwards. As for the runners wanting to qualify for the WOC, the selection competitions start at 17.5 (ok, THAT would really be worth a discussion, but not here and now) and 4 weeks aren't a long time to recover completely AND to get in shape for the selection races. Also, it would be a really cool ending of the season - taking out the last amounts of racing spirit without having to think about how the next weeks will be. Personally I love the long competitions, so I truly want this competition to stay, but I also think it would be a good idea to relaunch it a bit.
As for the competition last week - there were so many good things!! A perfect organization around it, perfect service when it comes to competition center, food, price giving etc. But, there were also some questionable items....
- when there are only 6 girls running the W21E - and only those 6 running this particular course - why is the start-interval 3 minutes? Why not 6 or 8 minutes?
- the course it-self wasn't bad, but it would have been so much better with 1-2 long legs. My longest split was 10 minutes - and that included a 2 minutes mistake.....It would absolutely be possible to make some longer legs cross over the map and I think that should be a hint for the course setter next year.
- the first drinking possibility was at the 17th control (out of 30) - after 90 minutes of running... Ok, there would have been one before, but we would have needed to take a time-costing, poor route choice to get there..
Ok, that was my contribution to the discussion, it will probably not change anything since the discussion has been the same as long as I have been in Austria, but knowingly, the hope never dies.
So, as already mentioned, I will take up training again from today on. This weekend I will go one or two times mountain biking and then do some hilly but slow running. My jaw and the nerves around it weren't very happy with such long running last weekend and not at all with the 90 minutes of volleyball yesterday (but it was still very funny, so worth it!!), so I'll take a bit care of them and use the bike. But hey, do not think I am going to mutate into a mountain bike orienteer! It is just emergency assistance for an insulted body!!
) tired out after two third of the course, but still a winning time 30 minute longer than given winning time is hard... . But, thanks to a lot of work I haven't had any time this week for training anyway, so now my legs are slowly looking forward to training again!A couple of people have asked, if they should congratulate with the silver medal or if they should be sorry for me that it wasn't to be a gold medal this time either. Well, I think I have never been more happy for a silver medal, even if the gold was reachable. Ok, if I would have had enough sense and power to go over the last hill instead of around it (and direct control 27-28, instead of 27-26-28....yes, I read to the wrong control after half of the leg, stupid), I would probably have managed to get the gold. But, I did not have the power and the sense, I was too tired. I love running uphill, but with only some short 3 weeks of training in the legs, there was only a limited capacity of power. And - with the knowledge of how the last months were and how far down my body was, I am really proud of being able to run a competition of 2h 16' length... This silver is a kind of gold to me - it is the sign, that I am still able to push, to run fast, to orienteer, the sign, that the season is not doomed to go down the drain. So, yes, I am really happy with this silver medal, more happy than the years before
.In Austria it has been, as every year after the ultra-long champs, a discussion about the race itself and about the ultra-long champs as an institution. Well, opinions differ and lots of those - not running in the elite (the championship is only for W21E/M21E, for the rest it is a longer classic distance and no championship) - knows what is best for the elite runners. Some of the men (Markus Lang, Gernot Kerschbaumer has discussed the item on their home-pages, here some thoughts about it from a female point of view:
As always the starting field was pretty reduced, one reason was for sure that some girls were at the MTBO WRE in Hungary. But, as the other elite runners, I am sure that the field would be bigger and the competition it self more attractive if the champs would take place in the autumn. If you are running the competition at a full speed (which is the logical thing to do if you choose to run it, after all it is a championship) you need some weeks of regeneration afterwards. As for the runners wanting to qualify for the WOC, the selection competitions start at 17.5 (ok, THAT would really be worth a discussion, but not here and now) and 4 weeks aren't a long time to recover completely AND to get in shape for the selection races. Also, it would be a really cool ending of the season - taking out the last amounts of racing spirit without having to think about how the next weeks will be. Personally I love the long competitions, so I truly want this competition to stay, but I also think it would be a good idea to relaunch it a bit.
As for the competition last week - there were so many good things!! A perfect organization around it, perfect service when it comes to competition center, food, price giving etc. But, there were also some questionable items....
- when there are only 6 girls running the W21E - and only those 6 running this particular course - why is the start-interval 3 minutes? Why not 6 or 8 minutes?
- the course it-self wasn't bad, but it would have been so much better with 1-2 long legs. My longest split was 10 minutes - and that included a 2 minutes mistake.....It would absolutely be possible to make some longer legs cross over the map and I think that should be a hint for the course setter next year.
- the first drinking possibility was at the 17th control (out of 30) - after 90 minutes of running... Ok, there would have been one before, but we would have needed to take a time-costing, poor route choice to get there..
Ok, that was my contribution to the discussion, it will probably not change anything since the discussion has been the same as long as I have been in Austria, but knowingly, the hope never dies
.So, as already mentioned, I will take up training again from today on. This weekend I will go one or two times mountain biking and then do some hilly but slow running. My jaw and the nerves around it weren't very happy with such long running last weekend and not at all with the 90 minutes of volleyball yesterday (but it was still very funny, so worth it!!), so I'll take a bit care of them and use the bike. But hey, do not think I am going to mutate into a mountain bike orienteer! It is just emergency assistance for an insulted body
!!
WIDGETIZE