Event 2 - Danish middle

Part 1

Part of my training plan for EOC involved today being a 'restitution' day, with HR no higher than 175. Most of the course would therefore be in zone 3, with the occasional jump into z4 on the hills and harder paths.

Part 2

It's difficult to not race when in a race environment. The competitive instinct kicks in each time someone rides past, and the impulse to chase and overtake is hard to ignore. But with my watch bleeping every few minutes notifying my my HR was above 170, it was a welcome reminder to slow the pace.

But with a slower pace, comes increased brain space. And increased brain space brings more thought of route choices, racing thoughts, songs, future and past conversations, and thoughts about competitors. I think it's ok to have 'down' days with orienteering (as long as they are decided before and not spontaneously during the race) . Being on top of your game and focussing 100% all the time just leads to mental fatigue and ultimately less motivation (some months down the line).

Part 3

The goal was to focus on considering all route choices, and economical riding/map reading. So while that side of the event was successful, in places the actual execution left something to be desired! As I was considering all route choices and thus, the fastest one, in a 3 places I turned the wrong way out of junctions before immediately remembering 'I didn't want to go this way, I decided left was better'. Fortunately not much time was lost here, and they are mistakes that I don't make when in the zone.

There were two main errors to the race. The first and worst, was a mis-relocation error - in hindsight (oh, such a wonderful thing) I should have known I was on the fast path, not the slow one and turned right instead. After a minute of not finding the railway crossing, I turned and went 20m past my original point to find the tunnel I needed.

The second was stupid and not following my own advice I wrote down last year - STICK TO YOUR PLAN!

Nina Hoffman caught me during the aforementioned mistake, and after that I was seeing her regularly. On the way to no.12 I saw she was riding the asphalt road to no.13, and once I punched 12, decided her route was better - NOT. After hitting the road I realised my error, and stupidity of not following my own plan. -90 seconds and an embarrassing mistake to make.

But the issue here isn't really anything to do with my lack of skill, but too much brain space. By being able to think so much more about all the options available, I actually spent too much time thinking, and not enough time deciding the important things.

Near the end of the course, the area became more technical. More thought was required to stay on the ball and not miss a control or path. Here I found some flow and had a fastest split to no.18 (my only one of the day) and was much closer in time to the Danes.

I finished 4th, 6 mins behind Camilla Søgaard. Considering my speed was 3kmph+ less than yesterday, a 6 min deficit isn't so bad. It could easily have been more had the Danes not been making mistakes too.   My HR was fluctuating between z2 and z4 with the majority of the course in z3. The difference in speed is really noticeable from moderate intensity to max!

I'm looking forward to tomorrows long distance, and being able to push hard again. I love feeling focussed on races and using all my brain power for the course, not thinking about it so hard and everything else too. While the long distance isn't my favourite discipline, I feel ready to bring some pace into the race and get my game face on. A repeat of yesterday's performance will be welcome



!