Injury, a lovely organization, a seminar that changed my mindset, a fun run, a race that made me down, up and all the way down again..

Day 170

Ok. It's probably time to write a bit about what happened, before i start to forgot about all of them.. :)

Let's start with the upsetting part; while everything was going in the way i planned (for a week or so.. :/) a little too much ambition brought me in the middle of the road. I had done a 15k and and an interval training, then some strength exercises, and my groin muscle decided that enough is enough. Which resulted in an groin strain (1st degree, nothing too serious but enough to back me of from training for almost 1.5 week). I was pushed to not to race in Salomon X Runs. Which means I watched the race from the sidelines.. :( The decision was for me to not to race in Ist5days also. (Which is like 4-5 days ahead) But of course I wasn't that much resistant. I've walked for 3 days, run-walk for WRE, and jogged on a super sprint. :) It was fine, other then the mess that my decision caused between me and my trainer. He wasn't really happy with my decision to go out on the course. But we figured it out.

More about Ist5days.. :)

It was our 10th year. So everything was pretty charming. Organization was almost flawless. When everything work out the way you planned, it's kind of fun to organize a race. :)
As of race; all the courses was quite fun for me. Since I wasn't fully able to run, I'm not really in the position to talk about success or failure, but I know that at least being able to see the courses before the season actually starts, was the right think to do, apart of the risk of having a bigger injury. :/
Also thanks to Emine Sezgünsay, the race was even more an educational experience for me. Especially in terms of mental.

After a race like Ist5days, any runner would feel like working harder then ever. :) But I wasn't allowed to, because of the longer recovery time with my groin strain. :( So I did a pretty easy week, almost without any hard training. But the thing that makes this week amazing is the seminar.

During Ist5days, Elif Abla told me that, they're looking for a narrator for the seminar of Eve Jurenikova. I'm not sure if anyone knows that but I'm a really big follower of her. I was always amazed with her capability of being so involved in everything and being also successful. So at the end, it was an opportunity for me that I wouldn't miss in life.

On Saturday morning, we went to the Ankara county race as a team. It wasn't a particularly good one for me, but it wasn't that bad either. But I had other concerns. :) After the race, we left the arena and go to the place, where the seminer would be held. After that moment everything was like a dream for me. 4-5 hours of seminar with full of information with Eve Jurenikova, a dinner with Eva, Emine Abla and Alen Abi, and some fun afterwards. :) (I won't share the part where we got lost, with a google map in our hands.. :) )

There was 2 week time until the race. I was fully recovered from the injury, and pretty eager to train after the seminar. :) Now when I look back, I can clearly see that I could have train harder that week. But the point that, I was afraid to get injured again. So maybe it was the right thing to do. In the weekend, I went to Istanbul for Istanbul Marathon. But I didn't do the marathon of course, just a 10k. :) We ran all the race with Barış Abi. It was quite fun actually. Next year, we may do the 15k together. :)

Then an easy last week prior to the race. No hard training. Just recovery.

1st race of the year. I was a bit nervous for all the week. Every thing that came into my mind was about me making failures. And not to anyone's surprise, it turned out that way, the first day. I did a mistake almost every control point. I was distracted the whole time. You can see my route above.

1. Day

Second day, I've started the course with only thinking to do my best, but no expectations what so ever. It turned out pretty well until the 13th control. I was fluent most of the time. Running well, getting the control points without any mistakes. But at the 12th control point, I distracted a bit, choose the wrong way up the hill, saw a open area, didn't checked out because of too much unnecessary self confidence, and there was the mistake. About 10 minutes. I'm not sure if anyone can understand the frustration that surrounded me at that moment. You can see that map above also.

2. Day

Lucky for me that, I have lovely teammates. :) Nobody bothered me about the mistake after the race. Now, I'm fully recovered from the race as physical, but not mentally yet. I'm still making the same mistake in my dreams every night. But I'm eager to train more, both physically and in terms of orienteering. I've been training pretty well for now, hoping to go on like that. :)

I will write down how many days left until WOC 2016 at the end of the post starting from this one. :) I don't know why, but thinking that gives me some kind of passion to work harder. 

995 Days Left