Getting back into it! :)

Sup! Things have been a bit up and down for me since WOC last year, both with training and just life in general. Now things are starting to look really positive again J. I had quite a long break after WOC last year, a few months with only really light training just to stave off obesity. I didn’t have so much motivation to train after the unfortunate appendicitis ruined my world champs, but after sprint the bay and being beaten by the stars (Julian and Øystein) I decided I didn’t want to feel slow anymore! So a little ass-kicking was all the motivation I needed to get back into training. I decided to do a bit of track racing with what was left of my summer, and managed to beat my 1500m PR several times, getting it down to 4.01. Now I’ll have to try again next year to break that 4min!

It didn’t take me as long as I had expected to get back to my form before WOC. So I am quite confident that I will be faster than ever this year! My biggest obstacle will be finding the time to get out to the forest for technical training more often. With Uni 4 days a week and work on the other 3 there’s not much daylight! That’s why I’ve invested in a decent headlamp, which I’ve already put to good use twice in the last 3 days!

See the map from my night training with NZ junior Matt Ogden.

50 controls with over 15km, I can’t think of a better way to spend a Monday night!

Controls 10 to 27 were really fun, and it felt so good to focus so hard again! I have to say though; night training in Woodhill forest without controls or refl

ectors is quite difficult! You can see there’s a few missed controls there on the long warm up and warm down parts!

We’ve had the first Auckland OY competition of the year. See the results here, and route-gadget here. The course was very physically demanding and the map was questionable in parts, but all in all it was a good preparation for NZ champs in Hawkes Bay next week. The middle distance will be 3.8km with 475m climb, so quite steep!

Speaking of NZ champs, this year will again be unable to take the illusive sprint title as I am the mapper and course planner. It’s my first time setting a WRE, so I’m quite nervous to see how it will go! (More so than my own individual performances in the middle, long relay…). The area is of Woodford house and Iona College, two adjacent private girls’ schools in Havelock North. The terrain is beautiful for sprint orienteering, with intricate building detail, hills, park and forested areas making for interesting courses with plenty of route choice. We are planning to use this map for Sprint the Bay in 2013 straight after the world cup in NZ. Unfortunately I can’t upload any pictures or map snippets of the area until my next post!

Last night was another night training with my little brother on one of the maps we made for Sprint the bay (Maison de Sante).Even after doing fieldwork and ocad there, night still made it difficult! There were no big mistakes, and it was a nice hill tempo and a chance to wear in my new inov-8's.

At the moment it’s likely that I will be buying a one-way ticket to Europe this year. I plan to move to Finland after WOC. At the moment I’m trying to sort out a sporting visa and making sure I can continue my studies in computer science. It will be an exciting move for me, to live somewhere with such cool terrain, and of course to help prepare for WOC 2013! I’m also excited about the winter, I’ve never lived somewhere with so much snow, so it will be fun to learn how to ski and give my body the break from running that it desperately needs!

My main focus for WOC this year will be for the sprint. My running is improving a lot at the moment, and with proper sprint training and preparation I believe I can do really well. I also plan to run the middle and the relay (the long still won’t be possible because of my problems with cramps). I have also been having problems recently with my ankle (that I hurt at WOC in Ukraine), so I will have to do a lot of work on it before France! J

Well, that’s it for now I guess! I plan to start blogging again a bit more often, that way I won’t have to write so much!!