World Cup

On the plane from Manchester to Oslo I finally found myself relaxing after a term or revision and exams at university. The Tuesday early in the week I finished my last exam and although most people found themselves drinking and relaxing I seemed to be busy still, packing for the World Cup and the whole stress of my messed up orienteering head had come crashing back - had completely put it off since Tiomila to focus on my exams! I also slept a lot and the flight over was no exception!

Met Robbie, Helen and Annette before travelling out to Kongsberg; I slept in the car course :) arrived at the hotel which was lush. Even though I could have stayed with other British athletes, I chose to stay with Lillomarka, who make my life so much easier and I literally love them all! Best western - the hotel we stayed at- was awesome! Breakfast was the best!! We had like smoothie in this little wine glass! And waffles, chocolate spread in like a toothpaste tube - very cute! Fruit, cereal, cooked breakfast, BROWN CHEESE! Beet root (made myself the best sandwich in the world!!) like everythingggg!!

Friday training was alright...but I had the same kinda meh, neutral feeling I'd seemed to be getting all the time. That evening I sat on my bed and decided to sort it out....really fed up of what wasn't really clicking.

I had an epiphany haha (maybe – probably not but for me it was)...basically I have just been turning up to events and not thinking about what I'm doing. I used to have to concentrate on map reading as I couldn't get away with not doing it but then as the map reading turned into habit, I lost focus to do it and recently have just been floating around the courses, expecting my previous abilities that I've built up to take me around the course. And then when this hasn't worked I haven't really had a reason why, I mean I felt like I was trying and my orienteering wasn't shit it just wasn't quite there. Speaking with Vidar over the weekend and he described this as just, 'losing the grip' on orienteering. I was being sloppy, lazy and needed to refocus my brain as I was getting a bit out of sync.

So to do this I needed to really concentrate and I always remember thinking about how easy orienteering is...you have the map, control descriptions. They tell you exactly where to go so I needed to just refresh myself that they are there to be used; this means reading the map, not just looking at it before running off and having to relocate every 100meters!! I related this to a saying my dad always use to say before I went into exams. "Lucy, just remember RTFQ...Read The Fucking Question". Haha and it correlates to orienteering, I approached it similarly. I mean you wouldn't do all the revision for exams walk into the examination room, sit down and as soon as they say the exam has begun open the booklet and start scribbling everything you know!? You have to read the question to make sure you answer it correctly, using the appropriate things that you've revised!

And this is how I looked at orienteering. Previously I had been doing all this work (aka training hard, gym etc etc) but then as soon as my start time went I was rushing off, eager to use my fitness but without answering the question correctly (without reading the map and planning the leg before executing it) therefore losing time and coming back knowing I had tried hard but hadn't tailored my technical and physical skills to the area.

So for Saturday I wanted to RTFM (Read The Fucking Map) instead of just floating around the course. Reading the map, planning the leg before running off. Although I had limited success with this and in some places it didn't quite work but for the first time since February I enjoyed orienteering!!! And recognised the enjoyment from before - the technical game with the tough physical demand. I got back and yes results wise I was at the bottom but it was incredible how suddenly the focus on position seemed irrelevant. I just wanted to get back out in the terrain and try to get it perfect!!! Results here: WORLD CUP MIDDLE

Crazy how a little shift in my mental attitude seemed to make everything click. My head seemed back in sync and even though the terrain was super tough I didn't mind it at all!

That evening we went to Peppes pizza for the third night in a row....the same waitress was working which was interesting to watch. She seemed to have had enough! Anyway it was a nice opportunity to chat with Ingvild and Helen, enjoyed our tea and then cheekily got a desert (me and Helen managed to try some Oreo dream as well, using our stealth ;)).

OH MY GOSH...also met Matt and Elin’s baby - Aurora! Bloody hell she's adorable, so cute!!!!! Like tinyyy feet and ears and hands! Chubby cheeks but that just made her more adorable ;) And she was sooo good, hardly cried at all!

Anyyyyway Sunday morning I was not running in the World Cup - ran with the juniors in the Norwegian cup although I was starting super early so got a lift with the Brekke family :) started well, really happy!! My RTFM was working like a dream, again where it didn't work (I was being lazy or near the end I got tired and couldn't focus well) I had to relocate and re-adjust my plan a few times. After the long leg I think I fried my body a little and I found it hard to move in a straight line without falling over haha but I finished again really happy! As I was one of the first starters I was in the lead for ages wooohhoo :) but even when the better Norwegians came in I could accept them beating me a lot better than I would have ever expected. I ended in 18th and when I came in, in 68minutes I thought the winning time would be under 60 which it was :) Results: NORWEGIAN CUP LONG DISTANCE RESULTS

Great weekend, lots learnt, even some suntan (maybe possibly burn) and then a long trip home. BUT before went to Vidar’s house for tea, which was beaut! Salmon!! Haven't had fish in ageess- student diet and all that! Had a good natter with Vidar to the airport and then flew to Edinburgh , stayed with an old orienteering friend which was SO GOOD to catch up before getting a train the next day to duzza :) 

Exams, Tiomila, Bla Bla Bla

So I've been useless with my blog...had Tiomila, my first one which was awesome experience. Actually was it...I always just write this and then might not actually mean it. Okay correction it was a difficult experience. I obviously enjoyed being with people in LOL, the atmosphere in it is awesome but felt pretty stuck/trapped in my orienteering habits which were too vague and not disciplined enough to do as well as I wanted. I was also too focused on racing, not the actually race. Stressing about my fitness, exams, and previous orienteering performances - trying to find confidence and pulling at straws. Anyway I spoke to my parents about it afterwards and also Heather (who came up with a method to help J), I did write down everything in my head but don't want that to be on here...hahaha it is emotionally irrational and the definition of "chimp speak". Which is from this new book my dad sent me recently over the exam period. He decided to send this to me after a 'heated discussion' about my training and the amount I should be doing, especially with exams that affect me mentally! I haven't got far through it but it theorises you have the human thoughts which are rational and appropriate and then the chimps thoughts which sometime slip through and are emotionally driven!

My housemate always picks up on my chimp and how it comes out when I'm tired saying I have “no filter when I get tired...just blurt any old rubbish out without a second thought”! Which to be honest I don't think is all bad as then people know where they stand with me right? Instead of being a closed book I am easy to read :) ha.

Anyway exams went well, I did a lot of work for them and felt superrr clever! So would have been pissed if they hadn't gone well. I don't get overly stressed about them although I was a little stressed this year trying to train well and although I forgot about Tiomila and my orienteering issues they were all still there waiting for my head to sort through them.

My nails suffered badly and now keep breaking and I can't stop biting them even though exams are over! #girlsprobz

With exams now over I can spend more time updating this ha, learning Norwegian and being a social butterfly AHAHAHAHAHA and training...and geeking and all that. It's all about balance kids :P ALTHOUGH slight beef coming, no JWOC PARTY?? WTF?

Very tempted to email the organisers and tell them I am English, where the drinking tradition is high. And I have GIVEN IT UP. 107 days now guys btw...completely clean, and JWOC party was my chance to drink again. Obviously I think I will need like a shot now to get drunk but still. I was banking on the JWOC party making up for the others that I have missed. But not anymore pffft. I'm going to make my own party. Which I think others will do and it will probably turn out more of a mess than if they had an organised one. Grrrrr.

European Orienteering Championships

EOC

Interesting week with mixed feelings about the races and in some cases not really feeling anything at all about the races which is not normally what happens…

Flying as group from Heathrow someone was bound to do something retarded and that came in the form of Will Gardner - sending me a text about 20minutes before we were boarding asking when we were getting to the airport. I thought this was cutting it fine and rang him hoping he was already in the airport somewhere. Nope. Still on his train. Retard right. So willy got confused between the departure time and the check in time...had to re-book into another flight later on in the evening!!

PORTGUAL WAS HOT. But with my base tan from Lanzarote I turned into a bronzed goddess hahaha. We stayed in this estate in apartments - no idea how Liz found it but it was incredible! We had our own pool, use of mountain bikes and kilometres of forest to run round - I saw a fox on one of my runs!! Although it was awesome, introvert Helen picked up on how the extrovert within me possibly needed some more excitement where at junior events like JWOC I was used to having teams stay together, feeding off the atmosphere, at the senior competitions, the teams keep themselves to themselves making this a fair bit harder for me!

Feeling like a little troll...

Arriving on Tuesday with my races in Thursday and Monday meant we could go training in between- the middle model which we went to Wednesday was literally fine. Just fine. Didn't have any feelings...just kinda trogged round it, not expecting anything just orienteering...slowly. Wasn't really inspiring terrain, and I went into the middle with no feelings - which I now know is not great for me. I need to be excited, nervous and I need pressure of which I didn't have any, I knew I wanted to get to the A-final but didn't feel that determination or grittiness that I would turn myself inside out to get it. So there was no real surprised when I bumbled around the qualifier that it wasn't good enough - technically it got sloppy towards the end when I got tired but my legs felt like lead from the start. Oh and the last loop by spectator control was horrible. I felt like AN OGRE! Trying to run but feeling like my body was made to do anything but run. Anyhow I had my parents at the end to rage at which it turned out I had more to get off my chest than I thought!!

With people asking me how I did, I never really knew how to answer...it went fine really?? Was I just being a weakling and needed to man up? and it was annoying me that I didn't know how to answer...I didn't want to make excuses and say  it was travelling that tired me out or the long call up or crappy nights sleep. It was just the best I could do on the day, with mistakes or ogre legs I'd raced and something hadn't worked.

My support team <3

So anyway this was all in my head and speaking with people wasn't really helping, instead just confusing myself more on what I should be saying and to be honest making me feel shit that I understood so little about how I orienteer. HOWEVER the following day I had the best day away from the squad and all these mental issues on the beach, in a jacuzzi and sauna, going for a walk, playing 'Push, Pull, Marry' with my mum ;) and eating ice cream with my parents!! Me and Mum also ran out the car to go pick some oranges on this tree…they tasted VILE though L Not only did i have my parents for support, fellow friend FLorence, was a BABE and convinced me in was not a chunky monkey, showing me what i would look like if i was one <3 She is a complete hero!

A true chunky monkey...

Chatting with my dad about it all deciding I was just a bit mentally exhausted and needed to ignore this and just remember that I orienteer and for me it really is as simple as that - no strategies or processes, just me running and deciding WHERE to run not HOW I'm going to run or HOW I'm going to get there. Easssaaaayyyyyy.

The day before the middle qualification I went to watch the sprint final which was great, there was excitement and team GB felt united whilst we supported our athletes perform...it was the first day I felt the buzz of being part of GB at a major competition! The following day I had some more feelings-felt nervous before which was excellent news. I started at a decent pace, trying to ignore the previous races ogre feeling and kept this up and orienteering smoothly :) I finished and was happy with the race but a little frustrated with the result, but enjoying the fact I didn't feel like I needed to find time to see where in the results I could have come - I also liked how close the juniors - me, Zoe and Charlotte (to me your still a junior Charlotte) were close to some of the seniors. I ALSO WAS RAPID ON THE RUN IN!!

The following day was awesome - although promising myself I was going to work, I spent half the day making paper chains and cake to celebrate the HEROIC performance of cats 3rd place in the long distance (who me and Charlotte have put down to our great boy chat the evening before ;))! Although excellent news, the travel back from the prize giving was interesting with BOTH the minibus and car breaking down! Complete nightmare!!

Also I would like to note the organization was historically awfull...four controls having problems/being in the wrong place in the qualification so after a series of protest and complaints lasting until Sunday everyone was bumped into the A final with the qualification race being voided.

In the sprint, a control was wrong - but it's okay...only by five metres which totally doesn't matter right in a senior world class championships ;)

Before the long the maps with the courses were released onto the official website...meaning new maps and courses had to be made

We were told at our team meetings that this had not been it, with more organizing flaws brushed under the carpet. Our final team meeting was the best with Dave giving an incredible performance of a particular official ;)

Anyway back to the racing...relay day last which was a bummer as it is the most exciting and I had been the most excited I had all week!! I missed out on getting into the GB women's relay teams but was kindly offered a place in the Canadians with Louisa and Emily Kemp :) I was last leg, meaning the most climb and distance - WOOOPPIIEEE but tbh for the first part of the course I felt decent...again half way round noticing the ogre legs creeping in but the terrain at the end stayed fast so I didn't have to test my toughness. I really enjoyed this race, so glad I got a run and yes even though not the fastest or cleanest I ENJOYED ORIENTEERING!

We had a quick turn around to get to the airport even though we arrived with plenty of time (which meant I left 'half my wardrobe' at the accommodation...getting a text after I left from Charlotte) giving me and Peter time for some great chat...and he apparently claims he doesn't objectify women. Complete joke - Katie Reynolds, want to comment on this ;) all in all great weekend, learnt a lot about how I need an atmosphere and to feel something to perform! Also I learnt that Charlotte has the most hilarious face when she brushes her teeth - honestly if you have a chance check it out...she moves her head more than her arm and her eyebrows do something funky ;) and Peter has an unfortunate eating face but then we just realised no one looks good when they eat...

Danish Spring

Again another lillomarka trip which did not fail to disappoint. More Norwegian language learning, Ingvild’s hairdressing skills (definitely getting her to sort my hair for my wedding-planning well in advance I KNOW), chats with Helen, lots of food, sunshine and orienteering.

With the flight to Copenhagen being early Friday morning I stayed with Jackie Newton - the GB talent coach who lives about 10mins from Manchester airport! The previous week of university had been the last before Easter hols so I was going a little mental with essay deadlines and lab reports but It was good to get it all done before the Danish spring.

The sprint was Friday afternoon so Friday morning I went jogging around a training area. The sprint was awesome, I FELT SO FAST!! No-idea where the feeling came from...didn't do anything special but was running round loving it! Really happy with my result and I'd enjoyed the racing too...ticks all round!! Although I hate running without my Garmin -means my training isn't logged accurately...#athleteproblems

All the girls cooked together and after the initial shock to them that I'd given up chocolate AND cake AND biscuits for lent they bought me sweets to enjoy when they all tucked into chocolate cake :P

Team meetings were in English...feeling very selfish making everyone have to speak English but my Norwegian is still shit! Andrine mentioned how my accent was that of a five year olds...GREAT-just what I'm going for :P after one team meeting, everyone went for a run except me and Kristin (she was injured-I had no excuse just being lazy ;)) and we had to leave the door locked but couldn't work out how to lock it from the outside so we had to lock it on the inside and climb out a window...complete ninjas!

The middle, similar to the sprint, was awesome and I felt so fast! I started like a rocket, clocking up some seconds of mistakes for the first two but then getting down to business. I remember at one point thinking, 'I am about 60% certain I'm going in the right direction but dont want to stop running fast to look at my map' so I kept running...turned out I was right ;) winning. I obvs died later round the course but enjoyed it while it las test and It was fun going over speed to see how long I could for!!

I slept that afternoon, and was feeling a tad under the weather which wasn't great with a 12km long race the next day where I really did die. Didn't not have the endurance to go fast for that long, at one point, again being too lazy to look at my map ran in the general direction, realised things weren't how I wanted them to look but I was waaay too tired to relocate...instead I carried on running around till I found my control 15 to relocate off- I was trying to find control 25 :/

Ha just remembered eating LOADS of cinnamon buns after deciding I'd deserved them - they were incredible and I decided they didn't count as cake so I could actually eat them :p AND ALSO I was fastest on the run-in (with a three second handicap because I was a girl) joint with Matthias so we got free pizza at the pizza place that we went to!

I flew back to Oslo to stay at Helens as the next day I was going to CLUB LA SANTA!!!!!

Orienteering Hype

The fitness hype carried on as whilst I was home I went to Wiltshire Councils Sports Award Evening (Link to Wiltshire Page), which I was invited to as I received a grant for a grand from Wiltshire, which I had applied to on the spur of the moment, just thinking, they can only say no! It was a great evening, with a SEVEN COURSE MEAL ahaha, black tie (took my little brother with me as my guest) and radio interviews and shit loads of photos!! I LOVED IT! I managed to cram my face with food -never turning down the appetizers whilst getting to know the people on my table, who worked at M.J.Church an Event Waste Management company donating funding for the grants! The next day I was listening to the radio for about two hours waiting for my interview to come on (on BBC Wiltshire)...which yes I recorded. The event also got into the local newspaper and for an evening in my life I actually felt like orienteering was getting the respect I wanted it to have!

When I got back to university after this I attended my college sports presentation evening. I was sat on the women's football table which was awesome - we were very loud, asked to be quiet a few times ;) but we won the team of the year award!!! Only conceiving three goals in the whole season! And also I won a surprise award of the colleges Highest Achiever which was so unexpected but I was thrilled :D

I was also emailed in this week, congratulating me that I'd been awarded TeamDurhams Athlete of the Week!! And was asked to go into the sports union for a TV interview which can be viewed here :LINK TO ATHLETE OF THE WEEK INTERVIEW. Absolutely over the moon! Was feeling pretty famous then ;) hahaha

The last awesome thing to happen over march as that I was asked to be the motivational speaker at Durham High School for Girls Sports Presentation Evening. The previous day I ran up to the school to meet the head of PE who was a complete sweetheart and organising the evening the next day! It reminded me of when I was back at school, an although a little nervous before delivered a 15 minute speech about school sports, balancing orienteering and work and the troubles trying to be a sportswomen at school when being a sweaty, dirty mess wasn't exactly a trend setter. Afterwards I got to award the prizes and many teachers and parents congratulated me saying my speech, 'Came from the heart'. It was a great experience speaking in front of over 300 people and actually being able to make them laugh with my witty humour ;) 

SECOND VO2MAX!

See, you can just tell by the title that this one went better ;). Haaa, so this testing was the follow up from the testing before in September to see whether my trainings been good and paid off. Again I was not optimistic going into it but I was happier and more secure that even if I didn't have it down on paper, shown in a nice graph that I wasn't built to run or hadn't 'improved' I could still be fit and good enough at orienteering to be the best.

Again my weight had gone up....coaches can think what they like and put it down to fat, but I was stronger and to me it felt like muscle mass. My dad always says if you lose too much weight you begin getting weak, ill and injured which is true and over the winter I hadn't been ill of injured once! HAAAA. So I am chunky and strong but if that means I am better than the thin, model looking weaklings I don't think I'm going to complain when their bodies break and mine don't. ANYWAY enough bitterness, the testing went okay, don't really know, didn't really care that much!!

Afterwards I didn't dwell on it, was far too busy with university work and sorting out my life that I didn't think twice about it until the results came through a few weeks later.

By that time I had already been home and run in a 5km road race that I used to do when I was still at home every month. Since I'd started doing these my life goal was to get sub-20 and although on this particular time my legs were sore from squatting the day before I actually got this!! The course was 50m too short which is soooo frustrating working out from the pace I was running I still would have managed sub-20!! My best before this was 20.19 so I had taken a massive chunk off.

This was literally just what I needed and secured in my head that my training was going well, I was good and on track even if I had out on weight and I couldn't do vO2 max tests :P

BUCS 2014

BUCS 2014

Saturday morning, after finding the Durham minibus and dumping my bag with dirty kit from Portugal I had some hours to cover everyone in purple colours for Durham and get ready for my race. I was feeling incredible unenthused after my week of quality training, just wishing to be back in Portugal with Lillomarka.

Florence, who has a slow recovering stress fracture in her foot came to support with her crutches seeing as she lives practically on the area.

As expected I was really tired from my previous weeks training but I persevered even though the start was aalllll up-hill! After flying past control two and having to double back I quickly got in the flow of things and felt good until the last loop which took us back up the hill...at the top of the moor the last stretch was back down wooooh!! Which I absolutely loved! bombed it down and came back in first waiting for Charlotte who started 4minutes after me. She came in pretty close to four minutes after and got the splits back found she’d taken the lead by two seconds.

Aine, also in Durham did extremely well meaning the girls managed to collate a fair amount of points, in the boys we did not do as well with our best man: Peter coming in 8 minutes down. The head of sport at Durham also came to watch the race, or came to support as you can't really watch it adding a bit of pressure! It was a bit frustrating then that we hadn't done a bit better but we put the races behind us and looked forward to the social and relay the following day.

We stayed on the floor of a sports hall and the social was a typical mess with people still wandering in from the clubs after three. Therefore the night sleep wasn't at all the best preparation but everyone was in the same boat. The boys, started first, which always annoys me as the girls then have less people to cheer them on -_-. After probably the worst warm up ever (at least I attempted one!) we got ready to race with myself, Kirstin and Lucy Haines (Florence's little sister who is absolutely rapid!!) took the lead.

I came back in second place, (the relay courses were pretty gaffled) I had the medium distance one, handing over to Aine and then Katherine Bett. We finished in fourth, just outside the podium but I absolutely loved the race. It was so much fun and so so fast which I loved! Overall Durham came fifth which I was pretty disappointed with as we had come 3rd the year before...but we will just have train harder and boss it next year.