A busy season is soon ending for me. A bit of looking back and a bit of looking forward.
This year I basically ran every big race I could. I ran 10Mila and Jukola for Ankkuri, and WC, WOC, WorldGames and latest EOC for the nationalteam. I think Aston Key from Australia is one of the few who did run more big races this year. Next week I will even race again. This time in Switzerland with World University Champs, bringing back some good JWOC vibes to mind due to the number of other runners who I met and competed against over the years as a junior. Especially mentioning Erik and Ole here who I will compete against but also will race together with in the relay at the end of the competition week. Even Veit will be there – 98ers reunited!
As much as I enjoyed all the travelling, competitions, racing and everything around, I haven´t had this kind of excitement in a while for such a competition week. One part is probably that the main season is over for me and WUOC is the last serious but also fun races for me this season, as I will end this year´s season after it. Meaning that the WC in Switzerland in autumn is not much of my focus as a race but will use the public races and the training camp afterwards with the national team as preparation for next year´s WOC.
This season was packed with so many races and to the end even quite close after one another. I don´t want to look back and analyze too much yet but can say that I have mixed feelings about it. A sickness in the beginning of May came at a quite unfortunate timing but still I managed to be in shape at WOC. There I showed two good qualification races but couldn´t perform on a similar level in the finals. As a last-minute reserve, I wasn´t too prepared for WorldGames and therefore further not that prepared for EOC, although not to say that I wasn’t ready to compete and in shape. I simply prefer to be more prepared for big races.
At the same time, I started writing my bachelors work in May which adds a bit of constant mental stress as I want to train and race well but also need to study leading to a constant trade-off between both. I expected I could manage it better but somehow all the races and other uni stuff didn´t make it as smooth as I hoped and planned for. The other problem from the studying in summer/the O-season is that when I am not racing I am studying and therefore have in a way not much time to really relax and rest my mind as well. I definitely am not trying to deny the privileged life I am living, and I enjoy it but having had a similar busy summer last year I am missing a bit the actual holidays where neither training nor uni is the main focus or in focus at all. So yeah, I am really looking forward to WUOC, hopefully ending the season on a small high note (pun intended) but I am also looking forward to not care about racing and training the weeks after.
Beyond this season I can say that I have some ideas to change things up a bit in way that enable me to train (even) a bit more professional and improve as an athlete further.
More on that when I turned ideas into specific plans – but if you want to support me on my journey then contact either the Förderverein or me directly and if you already supported me so far thanks a lot, I hope I can count on you further!
Title photo: Keil Sonnichsen, WOC 2022
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