Training is good

Four weeks of training and I feel good. I started my winter training by a strength block as I've done previously prior my best seasons. As usual my legs were aching after the first training sessions but I recovered quite quickly and opposite to last season I have now been able to complete all sessions without problems. In addition to training at gym I've tried to do some hill intervals now that I've found a couple of hills here. My weeks have included 2-3 strength sessions at gym and hill intervals of varying length. Best was the one of 90mins continuous hill running up and down several tops with devilish 666m elevation in total. The longest climb was 1,7km and 140m ascent. In other trainings the hills were only moderate. 

In the middle of this heavish strength period I entered myself to a 10km road race in Stratford to get some variation and to run faster for a change. My legs felt a bit heavy and tight from the strength before the race and running didn't feel very easy but I managed to go under 40mins, which was quite ok at this phase. I was second woman and 15th overall, yay! Results

I also ran an awesome o-event in Sheffield just a day ago in beautiful landscape of Burbage Moor with some really fun and tricky orienteering (see the maps below). Terrain was predominantly open moorland but contained areas of complex rock details that offered great technical challenge. There were two micro-o sections on a specific 1:2000 boulder map on the backside of the normal 1:10000 map and you had to turn the map four times during the race. I really fancied the detailed micro-o parts but I also liked the course as a whole as it offered a variety of challenges from details to long legs and you had to adapt your speed at the right level and change your techniques during the race. Results

Now that I've hopefully got some power in my legs, I'll be ready to do more miles during the coming months. In a few days I'll be on my way to Mexico for some warm and sunny runs before skiing in Finland :)

Mental training

Physical training is easy and technical training is fun but mental training is the hardest part. I mean to really do that. Of course every race you run is kind of mental training and the tougher the race, the better. You go through your routines, you give a few thoughts about what you're up to do when you get the map and you try to focus on your own race and ignore everything else. Yeah it works, but in order to do your best when it really matters requires great mental capacity. Some have it and others train it. Most top athletes actually put some hours to mental training and some even use mental coaches.  

I've always been kind of lazy with mental training and raise my hand as a sign of weakness when it comes to that. Maybe I've been a bit arrogant, maybe I've seen it as a waste of time, maybe I've been always to busy with work or maybe it's just pure laziness. Surely I've done some mental training, but seldom of my own initiative. There's always been a teacher, a coach or a psychologist who has advised me to do something. Then I've conscientiously accomplished whatever I've been asked to. Just what a good schoolgirl ought to do. But that's about it.

However, it is not said that everyone needs to do the same to gain the same objective. We're all individuals and we train physically different too. Principals may be similar but there's always some individual variation. So the mental preparation may vary a great deal from person to person as well. I believe this reflects our personality and therefore the variation between individuals is even greater than in physical training. Or this is just me seeking acceptance for my way of doing things. Might be the truth but anyway I just had a kind of important presentation for which I used two weeks to prepare and once taking that time and putting myself through that pressure I realized how the process was like preparing yourself to an important race. You try to assimilate all possible information there is before the actual event, you go through your own plan in your mind, and you try to imagine the situations you may face during your performance.

It is actually quite seldom that I feel that nervous and anxious before any race. Usually I have some butterflies in the stomach before big races but it is most often a positive and waiting feeling whereas the feeling before a major presentation is seldom that joyous. But what I realized was that putting yourself through any situation where you're under pressure and you need to perform well can be compared to mental training. I think there is a clear gain-gain situation there. Growing in a competitive milieu (learning to compete at any sport at early age) gives you mental strength that you can use in your "normal life" and, vice versa, the situations you face at your work can train you mentally for your goals at sport. That's what I believe.

O-training

I've had a strength block going on in my training but nevertheless I've tried to do some orienteering too every week. A few times I've been training in Cannock Chase, one of the best areas to orienteer around here. Training from Penkridge Bank was a new area and map for me, which made it all even more fun. I love to go to new places to orienteer, especially if it turns out to be as nice and beautiful as it did. I slightly missed the third control at the first glance as it was hiding below the brackens but otherwise it went quite smoothly as soon as I realized that the controls lay below the brackens and weren't visible from afar. Most of the terrain was however open and beautiful.

Another training was in Sherwood Woods in Nottingham on the map of Byron's Walk. I had hoped to get further into South but unfortunately the course just circulated around a somewhat limited area. You can't always win can you? Well it was at least nice weather and an easy way to do a longer training when I included some warm-up and cool-down jogging along the paths. And taking 25 controls forces you to do some map reading too. In addition I got some extra hill training without even noticing it. Some areas were nice but most of it was quite outgrown (observe also the very true notifications on the map: light green = slow run; intermediate green = walk; green lines = walk; dark green = fight) and therefore I used a lot of paths. I passed a couple of "walk areas" and one "fight area" where I really had to drop the pace to get through. As long as you kept yourself in the runnable areas it was okay.

On Sunday OD organized a color-coded event and WMOA Champs in Hay Wood, one of the nearest forests to us. I've been training there a couple of times but it's always better when someone else plans the course and you don't know what to expect. I chose to do the Brown, the longest course available. It was a fun course with a lot of turns and an excellent compass training, as you couldn't see much of the features due to overgrown brackens. I may have made a couple of stops and took number 14 on my way to 7 but otherwise it went nice and smoothly. White areas weren't as open as you would think (due to brackens) but it was somewhat runnable and a lot of fun anyway! 

XC season started!

Last winter I missed the whole cross country season but this time I took care to take part right from the beginning. It was the first race of Midland Women's Cross Country League and the event was held in Leamington. As it was my first cross country event I wasn't sure what to expect. When you run cross country in Finland it is mostly on sand roads, occasionally coated by sawdust but, based on the upfront information that I've got here, cross country in the UK means real off road running. So I was prepared to crawl deep in the mud but I luckily it wasn't that awful. It was just perfect for an orienteer and I loved it! The route went on grass, moorland, and slightly muddy paths. No road whatsoever. In other words very nice and gently surface to run with spikes for the first time in your life.

When we gathered to the start I still didn't know anything about my tactics and whether to stay in the frontline or farther back. I wasn't even sure about the distance (thought it was about 6km). We were a lot more (a few hundred or so) than I had expected and it felt a hundred times more exciting than in those regional cross country champs I've ran in Finland. I was waiting for the "on your marks" comment when the sudden shot surprised me. Without thinking I just automatically sprinted to take my place in the leading pack. First kilometer went to 3:35 (on muddy grass!) and the climb was ahead. "Too fast" I was thinking but unwilling to slow down. I remembered the warnings about the "killer hill" that was a steep 20m upwards and down again. So I slowed down a little thinking that running must feel easy on the first loop. Some of the girls were running really fast but I had to do my own race. I realized by then that I had underestimated the other runners. They were from university teams and clearly no amateurs. I just kept telling myself that I’d catch a few again in the muddiest and most challenging parts.

Running felt ok during the first loop but when I checked my split in about half way I had already ran 4km and realized that it had to be far more than 6km. There I had my psychological breakdown and my next two kilometers were really slow and heavy. When I came to the "killer hill" for the second time I was nearly half a minute slower than on the first loop and part of it was just mental tiredness. Realizing how much I had lost on those two kilometers I tried to find a bigger gear and the last mile I could run at decent pace again. The whole race was 7,53km and took me 30:47. Apart from the two slow kilometers from 5-6km my race was quite ok and a fabulous experience! What could be a better training for an orienteer during winter?! I also felt great to be part of a terrific team with excellent atmosphere and great cheering. Thanks Knowle & Dorridge!!

Sunday in Southampton

On Sunday we drove all the way to Southampton to run orienteering. It was one of the major senior events in England as it was one of the three selection races for Interland 2012, an international cup against Belgium, Netherlands, Germany and France. Therefore my expectations were slightly higher than for an average regional race. It turned out to be great and definitively worth driving. A classic distance with a 10,1km course and a 1:15000 map in beautiful terrain of New Forest with wild ponies galloping around did not let me down.

The course was very runnable and I enjoyed it a lot. For most parts it was quite open and beautiful, with only little slowing vegetation. There were some really wet and flooding marshes but they were small and crossable with a few long jumps. To the first control I followed the path quite far but noticed then that the white forest was good to run and after that I went mostly pretty straight. The first three controls I hit well but on the forth I didn't see the control right away although I came straight to the marsh. Fifth and sixth all right. To seventh I had my best split. It was great, just speeding downhill and checking the bearing. Then it went pretty straight and smoothly all the way to 12th but on my way there I may have lost some seconds in the ditches. 13th okay again but then I lost some time passing the river on the way to 14th and again when taking a gel on the control. It didn't go too well to open the zipper at the backside of my tights. I both fall down and accidently stopped my garmin there. I didn't notice that at that point and continued my race to the finish. The rest of the course went well too although I didn't enjoy the last four legs as much as the preceding part of the course. I was happy with my run but a bit disappointed that I only got part of my gps-route :/

Results

Searching for hills

After living and training here for almost a year now I finally start to know where to go to train. Simple things that I've taken for granted back in Tampere, such as O-training or hill intervals from your door, have caused me enormous trouble here. I'm used to have everything within 15 minutes from home but things are different here. I've learned now that it takes approximately an hour to get to forest and nearly the same to get to hills. I've been cycling and running around the neighborhood to find some hills without success. So I've learned the hard way that it really is flat here and the easiest way to train hills is by increasing the gradient on a treadmill. It would indeed be a bit strange if the canals were going up and down on hillsides.

But myths are to be broken and so was the myth of flatness. The hills didn't come to my front door one night, I had to go and find them myself. But still, a beautiful country park with mixture of woodland and heathland, steep slopes and high hills, and amazing view over the whole shire, just half an hour's way from us! The place is called Clent Hills. I went there for a nice and easy long run, climbed up to the highest point and got astonished by the magnificent panoramic view. I will certainly go back there again. The more often the better. It's a perfect place for tough and muddy hill intervals!