Finding everything a bit tough...

Being in the development squad for orienteering means that I get subsidised physiological testing at Manchester university. So on the 18th of September I had my 5th VO2 max test. I stayed overnight before the testing with Will and as ever had a pessimistic view on the whole thing. It's not that I didn't like them, I am perfectly happy doing the testing if only my body did what I was training it to do- show improvement. Although I know my training had been reduced after JWOC, I was still training more cross-training instead.

So anyway I got drawn on, measured and pinched, blood taken from my fingers before I finally started running on the treadmill. The test as per went pretty awful, starting the test at a lower pace than previous ones and finding it difficult and challenging even at paces I knew I could run comfortably in the forest. At the end of the test I was feeling pretty neutral knowing that it wasn't incredible but then I wasn't expecting it to be. Only after speaking with the coach did I begin to get really frustrated with the whole thing as everything had got worse. I'd put on weight, lactate threshold was very lower, I accumulated lots of lactic acid quickly, HR was sky high and my VO2 max had got worse.

Although being told not to compare with other people, I obviously did as I knew that the coaches would be doing it, deciding it hypocritical to tell me not to. Instead they said I should just compare it with myself. So I did. This was even worse as I fished out my previous results, comparing them and realising I had become worse at running than I had been 3 years ago? Not understanding my body, feeling fed up with training, especially after the disappointment of JWOC I seriously considering throwing in the towel as it was pretty clear in that instance I just wasn't enjoying it. The results weren't there, the explanations weren't there and I realised I wanted to live my life as a normal teenager at university instead of training and committing to something that I wasn't getting the rewards from.

For the following month, before I started back at university, my head was neither here nor there with orienteering. I was still training as it seemed I would get more depressed about not training but then I was confused about what I was training for. I was also getting obsessive with the fact I'd put on weight, never really being completely happy with my body and this just securing the fact that my body wasn't optimum. This messed with my head even more as I got my priorities of what was healthy mucked up, eating little and then binging and then feeling so bad and guilty and it was just feeding into a negative cycle.

My mum told me to get a new focus, away from orienteering...so I did some swimming and entered a triathlon! Although it was a super super short sprint one or something I was still excited for it, entering with my work buddy and old primary school friend, Emma Chambers. We had to get up really really early as it started at like 6 down in Boscombe! My brothers and dad came along to support which was so lovely, not expecting it at all! The swim, definitely my most hated part was a 300m swim in open water around some buoys and back to the shore. I felt stupid at the start, not having a proper wetsuit so using one that we used as kids when we went to Cornwall which had brightly coloured stripes and made me, quite frankly, look like a whale, we also had to wear bright orange swimming hats adding to the 'joke' look I had going on. So the swim...was horrifically traumatic, I got kicked in the face about 10 times, swallowed a gallon of water and couldn't for the life of me swim in a straight line as I could never lift my head high enough out of the waves to see where I was supposed to go! At one point, after finally getting into some sort of rhythm I lifted my head to realise I was swimming in a 90degree error to everyone else! Complete fail. Anyway, coming out of the water, I made a quick transition and was soon on my bike :) the bike and run ran smoothly and I pulled up loads of places. However I had shorts on, and after the water and the size of my thighs led to extreme chaffing and to this day I still have scars on my legs from it!

In conclusion, it was a pretty fun experience, only wishing the run and cycle was a bit longer but to get triathlons with that the swim also gets longer which I don't think I can handle!

I then headed back to Durham the following week where I had decided, after support from my parents to do whatever made me happy. As it was my last year junior, I knew it would make me happy to win (obviously) so I was decided to give it a go...give up (and yes it feels like that) another year of my life to get what I've wanted and been training for all this time. 

NORWAY - NightHawk

Not really too sure what I was expecting from this trip…first orienteering after JWOC and I still wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy it again/wanted to be doing it. Hahaha had a complete mare getting to the airport, waking up at 5 getting tom to give me a lift to Southampton train station cept we couldn’t find Southampton Airport Parkway…went to Southampton Central instead. Then we couldn’t get out of Southampton quick enough, so tried to chase the train down to Basingstoke but failed so Tom ended up taking me all the way to London Gatwick :S WHUPPSS…the rest of journey went smoothly and the plane to Oslo was A MASSIVE one!! With nine seats to a row and TV’s and everything!! Never ever been on one like that before J

Landed in Oslo and got the train to  Lillestrom where I was staying with Matt and Elin. That evening there was Lillomarka training in an area similar to that of NightHawk (Il Tyrving), so ran on that along with some other clubs J That was good fun, terrain pretty similar to some parts of the lakedistrict/scotland and by the second loop I’d got the hang of it J watched a bit of Sherlock that evening with Norwegian subtitles, helping me learn some more of the language before bed. The next day I had the house to myself as Matt and Elin both had work, went for a run on a local area (Skjettenkollen) which was ridiculous that there are areas so close!! Literally nothing like that here in England, and if we do the areas are a pile of crap and not worth going to! I came back from that and then moved into a different part of Oslo to stay with Ingvild and her family J In the evening we watched some TV series ;) and took their dog for a walk – again around a local area which was gorgeous!! And then before bed had oh my gosh BROWN CHEESE! Which I love…miss it so much :L The following day (Friday) was the first day of nighthawk but it wasn’t until the evening so I went for a little cycle ride around the area we walked around before and having been used to road bikes, was not used to a mountain bike and how hard it gets on the up hill :L Showered and chilled out in the day…also had compulsory ice cream to help with Ingvilds sore throat ;) In the evening we made pizzas…which I failed pretty badly at, couldn’t make the base work. It just stuck to everything!! Stupid thing! They turned out pretty yummy and then Ingvild worked her magic on my hair..doing some crazy ass braiding before Siri picked me up for the race that evening.

PIZZAAA :D

Hair braidingg..

It was the first Nighthawk Event and I was running in both the night and day in a 5 man relay with a twist. The night part was a massive mass start with three runners from each team all starting together with their times added up…giving an overall time which then set apart the teams for the chasing start the next day.

The race itself was 4.7km in the dark – so I had a headtorch and the area was SO WET and muddy! I fell over loads and in the Lillomarka relay white suit it didn’t go down well! At one point I was wading around in this river trying to find the edge again without getting stuck in mud and marsh! It went well, really enjoyed it, especially in the parts where you could pick up the pace a bit instead of battling the green and crawling around on the floor. As a team we had done pretty well and headed off home after the race, looking and probably smelling like a drowned rat :P The next day I was the middle leg runner and we were racing on the same area as the day before. Siri had done well pulling up a couple of places which I basically lost again as soon as I left :P it was at control 3. I was basically there and then had a sudden lack in confidence convincing myself I was completely lost and had run in the wrong direction so then ran 90degress wrong before realising I was a fool and running back to the control. 

Event Area

The rest of the course was pretty solid except I was so so tired from the race the night before as well. After Linn had run and finished we ended up 4^th which I thought was pretty good :D and we won a waterbottle woooohhh, which I think they were handing out for free afterwards anyway -_-. The winners got running shoes!!! I was very jealous :P That evening I went to Nightflash where we ate the winners pig :P and there were challenges for groups to do, while everyone was drinking :L pretty amusing but I was knackered and happy when I got to bed!

Andrine and Vidar picked me up the next morning and we travelled to Rauland where there was a camp for juniors in areas similar to JWOC 2015 (which I will be too old for but decided it would be good quality training to do anyway!).

JWOC 2013!!!

Right, this is my epic blog for JWOC, missed loads out but I could probably write a book if I included it all :P Just a for warning, I was pretty disappointed with the majority of my performances so it’s not going to be the most optimistic thing you ever read but the general week was great with a brilliant GBR team and GBR supporters :)

 Zoe, Me, Charlotte and Jonny flew out early (the Tuesday before the racing – which started on the following Monday), originally also accompanied by Will, though he’d washed his passport, claiming it was his Mum’s fault so was joining us later. The travel across Czech was relatively easy and INCREDIBLY cheap, about £6 for a four hour journey!! The bus station was really close to Hotel Cernigov, the event centre and main accommodation for JWOC. We arrived, went for a slow run (I only managed 2km…felt pretty tired and my ankle was still sore from Jukola :().

We then had Wednesday, Thursday and Friday training and resting before the rest of the team arrived on Friday. We joined in with some training that the Australian and New Zealand team were doing so we got lifts with the Kiwi’s, who had some quality tunes on their buses ;) On Friday, we chilled out a bit and went to an AMAZING pool with three slides, and this one that was like a ski jump! The rest of the team joined us in the evening, including my Dad who was a coach. Unfortunately he brought some bad news from home that my Grandma had died earlier that afternoon. I spent most that evening on the phone to my Mum, who was going to come and spectate but after this news, had a difficult decision of whether to stay and home, support granddad or come out and support me. I obviously wanted to be selfish and have her over here but knew Granddad probably needed her more! In the end, it worked out okay and she decided to fly over for the first half and fly home on the Thursday (the Rest day) so she was home for the funeral which was organised very quickly for the Friday (and Sprint Race Day) so me, my dad and harry all missed it :(.

The Saturday was spent at the model areas, with the maps and terrain holding no surprises. Sunday people were chilling/stretching, just easy stuff before the race on Monday. I did some drills and strides where I felt rapidddd :D and lots of geeking, from the Bulletin 4, we predicted the start and from that the general course, going through some route choice! My start time on Monday was pretty late so I was in no rush in the morning, unlike some others in the team who had to wake up really early!! So it was the usual, bus to the pre-start, quarantine, warm up maps etc etc and I did my usual warm up where I string it out over about an hour, coming back to the GBR base to hydrate and adjust clothes/shoes/ankle tape :) Before my start I was perfect, joking around and feeling happy. Started the course well with a couple of errors to 1 and 2 but nothing huge. 3 was a route choice leg which I’d done before so took no time to decide, I was going left. FO SHO. From then on I was getting tired, not really feeling very sharp and motivation was lacking…I was running the Junior World Orienteering Championships and my motivational was lacking…WHAT THE HELL?? 4-5 was STRAIGHT UP HILL, lost so much time to the fastest on that leg as I couldn’t move. It felt slow and was slow! Annyywaayy, got there eventually, 6 was a distraction mistake but 7 I completely bossed – some DOWNHILL!! Finalllyy :D The rest of the course was pretty solid, nothing too bad just tiredness! Towards the end, at the 2^nd to last control the winner caught me up! Complete speed machine, couldn’t keep up at all!! I was so happy to finish and was placed in 18^th overall. Peter had DONE AMAZING, coming 17^th and Charlotte was the best GBR girl with 12^th place! Three top 20’s on the first day was a great start for GB but personally I wanted more :(

Women's long race.

AND THEN I GOT IT IN THE MIDDLE QUALIFIER HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. After the long, I immediately put the race behind me, not going through splits etc (plenty of time for that at home where it won’t impact on the other races!) and so I had a little look at middle maps etc. At the start for the quali, I was focusing hard on ORIENTEERING, not worried about speed but wanting to find the controls perfectly. It pretty much happened! I loved starting with two other people and having the excitement of seeing people out in the forest as I find it makes me concentrate more :) Out in the course I wasn’t feeling especially fast, walking up most hills but on the finish run in I was called out in 1^st on my heat :D WINNING YESS!! Everyone came in and that was overall place :D woop woop, really happy but knew it was only the qualifier and had the pressure of starting last in the final!! In the rest of the team there was quite a lot of disappointment with only 1 boy (Jonny) qualifying and 3 girls (Me, Charlotte and Zoe).

Middle Final...

For the final, we did a little geeking and I roughly worked out where the course would go and I was feeling happy for the final. However I really didn’t prepare for how much tougher it was going to be. Starting last mean’t there wasn’t as many people as I would have liked at the pre-start and out in the forest and similarly to the long I felt like I had no energy, SO MANY FALLEN TREES AND BLOODY BOULDERS. I remember going to 3, seeing some cameras in the forest, shitting myself and running into a pile of rocks hoping the control would just appear! I ended up circling around every rock, each time praying it would be just round the corner! I would have been quicker if I’d walked to some controls I reckon! Finished in 19^th place so again another top 20. This was the last day before my mum went home so I travelled back to the accommodation with her and was sad to see her go :( That evening me and Katie went to Tesco and brought some water pistols ;) we started a fight outside with the GB boys who obviously lost as they had no guns…but when we came back inside the whole hotel had gone crazyyy with water fights happening between all countries!! The GBR team had dinner that night at a local pizza place, courtesy of my dad :D and the pizzas were MASSIVE!

The huaagee pizzas :D

Time for a waterfight ;)

Rest day, team photo.

Rest day next, team visited the sprint and relay model areas and we had the spectators over for a picnic (where a flash mob happened which we of course joined in with :P). I also had the decision of running in the sprint the next day or not, this year had been the first year the management had mentioned not running all the races and a few of the team didn’t run in the middle final. I didn’t really know what do, feeling people expected me to run all races but I really didn’t want to run in the sprint. I ended up decided the morning before when I went for a run and felt like death, knowing my legs wouldn’t feel fast, which is what a sprint should be! I spent the day with Zoe, spectating the racing, again a mixed day with some great results in the boys, and a few disappointed athletes :( Jonny managed to hold 7^th place J (the best result of the week for the GBR team wooooh!) and Tim (one of the Kiwi’s we’d been hanging with) won a bronze medal which I was so happy about!!!

Waiting for Zoe..

The final day, the relay day was interesting with everyone being held in quarantine to stop cheating as there were cameras and gps tracking. Charlotte was my first leg runner (Zoe 2^nd and me last), who unfortunately didn’t have a great run, coming back around 6 minutes down on the leader making it tough for me and Zoe to get motivated and pull up places. The whole team were pretty disappointed but with that being sport we all knew that it could have happened to any of us! At the finish I was gutted, but went to see my brother who was a cutie and gave me a big hug <3. With all the racing over there was the coach’s race (me and Katie had bought millions of water bombs which we filled up ready to chuck on my dad and Dave (the physio!)) The weather was also completely beaut which helped the team stay happy J  In the evening there was the Banquet, which was a little messy ;) and the usual scandal went down :P 

The GB team (plus a few extras)

The whole week was organised so so so well, so a massive thanks to the JWOC2013 organisers, GBR team management, the rest of the team and supporters. Although the results were disappointing, I’ve definitely learn’t the most from this JWOC and will take it forward to next year, where I’ll hopefully be selected for my last JWOC in Bulgaria :D. Bring it on. ;)

Jukollaaa!!!

1500 teams, one mass start but only 3 teams that really matter. Lillomarka OK team 1, 2 and 3 in our sexyyy sexyyy white running ‘suits’ :P. SO I was super excited for this trip and it definitely didn’t disappoint! I arrived at Helsinki and waited around for the rest of the team to fly in before being introduced to everyone (forgot their names almost instantly…specially as I couldn’t pronounce anything in Norwegian without sounding stupid!).

They were all lovely and very welcoming though and soon we were off to the cabins that we would stay in the next couple of nights!! We spent the day before the race doing a little bit of training but mainly chilling out for the race! I was running 1^st leg on the second team with originally Ingvild, Ingvild and Ingvild…easy to remember right but then one of the Ingvilds had to drop out because of an Achilles problem :( although all of use seemed to have weak/problematic Achilles issues!! What a team :P Soon I was getting used to everyone’s names and decided I am definitely going to learn Norwegian over the summer!! Although they all spoke excellent English but I felt a bit ignorant expecting everyone to speak English!

Most of the team got 10 hours sleep the night before the race so we were well rested and excited!! Ingvild braided my hair before the race as well which was awesomeeee (always wanted to be able to do my hair in braids but don’t have the patience to learn)! I got changed into the white kit which everyone seems to hate…and yeh it might look hilarious but I LOVE IT, not amazingly flattering but you do stand out :P we had special socks designed for it as well…the ‘magic socks’ which we were optimistic would get us around the course if all else failed :P

So the start. OH MY GOD. Awesomeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!! I started like five rows back, which in a crowd of 1,500, was pretty daymmm cool. At the beginning I was waaay too caught up with the adrenaline rush to orienteer just deciding to pace it for as far as I could get away with it!! Andrine (the first leg runner on the first team) pulled the BEST banter start ever, racing off after the gun, pulling a lead of about 30metres and getting to the first control first!! OUT OF EVERYONE! And got on Finnish TV ;) what a legend…though after she said she was absolutely knackered for the rest of the 8km course :P The course went well for me…I just trundled round and enjoyed it, it didn’t feel especially fast and I twisted my ankle fairly early on BUT came prepared and bandaged it up as soon as I finished! I think I came back around 65^th, a minute down from Andrine :). We then waited for all our team mates to return…the three teams finishing in: 43rd, 151st and 379th. Generally pretty strong but I had the feeling we all wanted to pull it out the bag and do something incredible!! NEXT YEAR GUYS! :D

We went back to the cabins, had food before leaving again to watch the guys start at 11pm (although it was still light…so although impressive not as good as it could have been in the dark with just the headlamps to see!) I didn’t stay too long – well until two am –  saw the first legs come back in (and Jonny Crickmore, running for Ravinen - on the team for JWOC this year - too did amazing coming in 32nd…someone’s going to do boss it at JWOC ;)). In the morning I found out the boys first team came 25^th!! TWENTY FIFTH!! Out of 1631 teams!  So they got to go to the prize giving and got a small medal :) Jealoussss! We met the boys at the airport before everyone flew off home :D Such a good weekend and I’m so glad I joined Lillomarka…definitely the best foreign club out there with the nicest people!

CZECH- JWOC training

Our pension in Petrikovice

I had been ill before flying out to the Czech Republic (since my last fell race on the 29^th of June) and it was being stubborn and sticking around. However during my trip away I got better – Orienteering’s obviously just so good for you it made me better :P  So I met Charlotte at Newcastle and we flew to Prague, unfortunately there had been lots of rain and Pragues metro had become flooded meaning our journey across Prague (to Cerny Most, where we could get the bus to our accommodation in Petrikovice) was difficult. We ended up getting a taxi to make it in time for the last bus (only just!!) and had to walk about a km at the other end with our bags in the pitch black!! A little scary but the owner of the accommodation was lovely, waiting for us with his daughter (who could translate!).

Getting excited for Orienteering ;)

Luckily there was Wi-Fi at the pension so we organised our travelling for the next couple of days on the JWOC areas. Most I’d already been to but it was really good to blast around the areas, making the final adjustments to my orienteering. On the second day there we managed to get a lift and entry organised for an event in similar terrain to the JWOC long. We wouldn’t have got there without the help of Jan Petrzela and his club who were wonderful and helped us out massively, so lots and lots of thanks to them, we really appreciate it! The race was a little longer than the JWOC distance but proved very tough and highlighted the importance of a really really good route choice. We both did really well and won some random goodies (I won a bag and calendar, Charlotte winning a gorgeous rain coat which I told her she had to have a photo in :P).

Another training day we went to Ostas, an area with MASSIVE rocks on the far part of the map. They were awesome reaching high into the sky with little passages between them! We decided you could hold an awesome ultra-sprint there!! This area was a little way to travel to get to with a hefty walk at the end…we managed to get lost on the walk home (too much chatting!!) but luckily made it to get the bus! The travelling around wasn’t ideal, to be honest, but we just about managed it, had some difficulties finding bus stops and getting off at the correct stations but somehow it all come together!

The lake on the relay area...

Towards the end of our training camp we moved to the official accommodation for JWOC and spent two nights there fitting in some relay training. It was pretty sunny this day and we were by a lake so went for a cheeky swim! The training was so good here…LOVED IT SO MUCH!! Although it took me 50 minutes to find the start in the morning (trekking around this forest for 5km!).

With a few more maps, notes and feeling positive and excited about JWOC (now in two weeks) we left Hradec Kralove and traveled to Prague before flying separately to Finland for JUKOLA…

FIRST FELL RACE

The Course..

Exams have started :( Had my first exam today, have six in total so to ‘celebrate’ getting through my first exam Peter, Pippa Archer and I traveled to the North York Moors for my FIRST EVER FELL RACE. It was an Esk Valley Fell Race: The Carlton Challenge. I was told it was quite a nice course and the weather cleared up for when we started running making it really pleasant. It was a little chilly but not thermal weather (had to tell peter to man up and not wear his :P) Had no idea how it would go, little nervous but excited and tried to suss out the people I wanted to beat on the start line from what they were wearing :P The first 4km was pretty much all downhill and after some heavy rainfall it was a bit slippy in places (had opted not for my Orocs as I was told the 4km back up the hill was flagstones :(). 

STILL LOVED IT…felt rapid!!  Roughly half way along the course turned back on itself and the ascent began. For the first part I was pretty slow and some people (mostly old people!!) overtook me…however after about 5km onwards I was feeling better again and even though it was still uphill I could pick up the pace :D There was a woman slightly ahead of me who I was slowly catching and the last part of the race was a pretty steep drop down to the finish from the trig point. As soon as the short descent through terrain started I’d cut the distance between us by half and (although a tiny bit conscious about my ankles) decided not to hold back and caught the woman up, beating her to the finish…felt sooo uncontrolled and like I was going to face plant at any moment. Also took a guy at the finish who I don’t think was best pleased. HAH. 

It was 5miles (so on my Garmin got 8km) in 43.29…not tooo shabby. There was a little wait before the prize giving (Peter had won!!! And I’d won U23 and came 2^nd in the Women) which was definitely worth the wait!! THREE BOTTLES OF WINE! YEAAHHH BUDDYY!! Entry was only £6 so £2 a bottle is a bargain! Definitely going to be doing a few more of these…planning on doing another Esk Valley race on the 30^th of May :D Absolutely loved the race and think I am beginning to overcome my mental hatred for hills :D

Wineeeee!! :D

Results can be found here: http://www.eskvalleyfellclub.org/results/fell/nehra/Carlton%20Cha llenge%2015-May-2013.pdf

British Orienteering Championships 2013

Originally I wasn’t going to go to this weekend as it was a trek away from Durham and was asked to go to Tiomila by my NEW INTERNATIONAL CLUB – LILLOMARKA!! Aaaaaaah yeaahhh…so excited for when I can finally run for them! Joined them pretty recently after some persuading from Helen Palmer and Matt Speake… I am going to run at Jukola for them later in June which I cannot wait for! Never ran in one of the big relays before!!

So anyway on the Friday before the competition I travelled down with Peter and Pippa Archer…falling asleep in the car! And then after arriving at peter’s house we were given some lush food <3 Fairly early bed time before the individual, especially as me and Peter went for a early (VERY EASY) run before breakfast!! Never done it before…just to loosen off the legs – never thought they would work as I’d just get tired but I actually think it may have helped!! The event assembly had an arena start for the elites again and had us starting on hay bails…when it was my time to start I was loving life. Couldn’t get enough of the attention ;) hahahaa.

The race went REALLY WELL! Started off fast…slowed up in the middle bit before powering it at the end, feeling like I had a bit too much energy at the end! It was a little hilly but I was feeling good on the hills and have been doing LOTS of hill work for JWOC this year (480m of climb in 6.9km :O). Half way round I had an energy gel (MY NEW FAVOURITE THINGS!) it was sooooo yummy…planned when I was going to take it and it was like having a mid-race snack! Loved it! The area was rapid and you could get a proper pace up! It was also good that the W21E had the first part of their course being the same as the whole W18/20E’s course so we could compare times etc even though they did still have another 5km of something :P

Even though lots of people in my age category weren’t actually there (at Tiomila/too far to come) the competition was still good with both Zoe and Tamsin attended, both are on the JWOC team. HOWEVER I WON..ahahahaha AND DID PETER!! So we had two Durham kids on the podium!! AKA everyone now come to Durham University…we will get you good ;) After prize giving I went home and got to see my fam which was lovely <3 missed them all loads even though it had only been like two weeks :L Stuffed my face full of fish and chips and ate tonnes of ice cream and chocolates to last me for a week!

The Sunday was the Relay and another early morning which probably should have been earlier as it was a bit of a rush at the event, especially as my club were making some last minute changes to the teams so I could run in a boys team (extremely grateful for this) with my little brother and Ben Chesters. I ran first leg which for the first part, flewwww round with all the guys but found the terrain harder and harder to run through as the race went on. I came back around 8^th I think and handed to Harry who destroyed it coming back third (much respect especially as he had 12km or something insane the day before!!). Overall we came 2^nd so I got to go on the podium with all da boiiiisss (/men) haaa. 

Also brought some new shoes (Oroc280’s) from Ian at Ultrasport! Absolutely love that man…always makes time to actually chat to you :D and some food…Harry even brought me an ice cream <3 what a babe. There was then the long journey home where I did revision in the back with Peter…although he couldn’t hack it as well as me and fell asleep <3 BLESSSS!! Again another great weekend and I’m thankful to all the people who helped me out and drove me to the events etc!! :D