13 June 2009

The only orienteer in Stockholm

At least that is what it feels like this weekend. While the orienteering world descends on Finland for Jukola, I am sat at home trying to get over the virus that has been affecting me for almost a month now. After a 2 week illness, I tried to prepare for the Nordic Championships, but it was too much too soon - I managed to run ok in the relay, but I was a little off the pace, but in the middle my body did not respond at all. Running on the flat felt bearable, but as soon as there was a climb, my heart rate rocketed, my breathing got worse and I just could not get enough oxygen into my body or brain. I don't remember feeling so bad as I did in the last kilometers of the Nordics middle distance - running up out of the spectator control I had big problems, and at the top of the hill I had no idea where I was or what I was doing. Before I knew what I was up to, I had come off the hill in completely the wrong direction, and my body refused to run any more. I didn't want to quit, so I walked and jogged the rest of the course.

After the race I had a headache and felt pretty rough mentally and physically, and I made the decision to skip the sprint, go home and forget about Jukola. Now I am just concentrating on letting my body recover, just doing some easy training, not thinking about fast running for a week or two. My next goal is the WOC test races in 3 weeks, but if my body is not ready, well, we will see....

Really disappointing after some really positive performances in the last months, I obviously picked up something pretty serious after the British champs around the time of the Hungary camp.

02 June 2009

Change of plan




After a fantastic training camp in Hungary after the British Champs, where the forests were beautiful and the weather sunny, I have now been sick for the last two weeks, including 6 days in bed with really bad flu. I have finally started to recover, and I did my first fast training last night at a club sprint race. With the Nordics and other championships fast approaching, it is not the ideal time to get sick, but it could be worse. I have therefore decided to not run the long at NOC on Saturday, and will focus my energies on the relay, middle and sprint, and then on Jukola after where my club has a really strong chance of a great result.

There is a real new look to the British team for NOC, with no Jamie Stevenson or Jon Duncan to lead the line. We still have a strong team though, with good competition for places in the relay teams. I will probably be running the second leg in the first team on Sunday.

At the weekend I took a boat cruise out into the Stockholm archipelago.