Ready for competing again

After struggling since March with consistent and proper training, first because of a reoccurring cold, then because of a knee injury which took a while to get over and an even longer time finding back a training rhythm and motivation, I am happy to say I am back in full training. It clearly took longer then I hoped but that´s the way things go sometimes, either way I would now argue that I am in some kind of shape again and therefore feel finally confident again to go to a starting line and actually compete for real.

Competing is also something which I did very less in comparison to the last years, of course not every year is the same and being in the elite is one of the reason but mainly the reason for this is that most competitions were just at the same time with training camps or international races, plus the knee injury played it´s part. 

Worth noting, though, might be the fact that I actually prefer training over competing. Don´t get me wrong I love running races and would always call me a competitive athlete (person) but I don´t like to do so many races, for two reasons basically: one is that a race usually requires more work (read: travelling, etc..) in contrast to the freedom I have in training plus the fact that a training can be very specific to the current need. Still of course, no argument about the fact that race experience (etc.) comes from actual racing. Second reason is that I try to focus on my main goals and therefore main competitions meaning that I have a high mental focus on races and the preparations for those races which in return also means that a lot of races means a lot to mentally process and recover from. Afterall training, in terms of quality and quantity, is what motivates me but most importantly what gives me the confidence to compete. 

Either way the next race coming up is the German middle championship on the 7.9, what also will be my first race in Germany this year which just sounds wrong being a national team orienteer for Germany and living there also…nevertheless, I am really looking forward to that weekend after all that training in August and to get some feedback on how good my shape for orienteering actually is right now.  

After that I will focus my training on the main last goal for this year which for me will be the WorldCup races in Switzerland in end of September. As the races there will be a middle distance, knock-out sprints, and a sprint-race, my focus in training towards them will therefore obviously also be on getting into a sprint competitive shape.

And yes the last goal this year will be WC in Switzerland and also 25manna as I won´t go to WC in China in October, it´s been a tough decision but sometimes those need to be made too. Either way the focus will be on WOC next year in Danmark and this way I will at least be able to start wintertraining in the beginning of November instead of December…