Preparing for Polish Champs part V

Another run on a typical sprint distance terrain was held in Duszniki Zdrój, during Lower Silesia Cup. This time it was extended sprint distance. The run of City Race are interesting form of the competition, which will be held more and more frequently in the Polish Competition. – I think. It was my second sprint race in M21E in this year with all the best competitors. My loss to the best Polish seniors, counting per kilometer, was very similar to the one in the first run. This run was just an average one. But lets go as follows.

When it comes to the sprint run, in my opinion, the result is made up of four major factors:

1)Quality of the chosen options.

2)Speed of choosing options.

3)Lack in hesitations, when approaching the points

4)Physical shape

I know, that all the four elements will have to interact if I want to gain a gold medal in June. For now, I have a lot of lacks, but I still have a great deal of time to work on it. Regarding physical shape, this day I was really tired with my preparations for the World Champs. It was supposed to be like that, so I didn’t much worried about it. Unfortunately some hesitations cropped up, when approaching the two points. I couldn’t notice the second point, and on the 23^rd one I ran down, without reading a map. About 5’’ and 25’’ mistakes. Too much, as for a sprint.

The speed of choosing options, especially, at the beginning of the race was a wishful one. The first three points I ran very insecurely a bit as at Polish Champs in Warsaw. I must work on this element, but I know it’s going to get better of time.

The key element of the sprint distance, especially during June competition is quality of choosing options. On the 1^st point I ran in the right direction. Left option-270 meters, and right one had 310 meters. About 8’’ mistake. On the fourth point left road was simply shorter. About 5’’ mistake. I chose two more wrong options on point 5 (left was 25 meters shorter) and I made a bad decision on point 7 (left was little shorter, and much faster). I made a mistake on point 10, because I chose a bad option, which I didn’t realize it anyway. On this three points I could have lost about 30 seconds. The last mistake I made on the point 28^th. About 8’’ mistake. Additionally, it is still difficult to decide which option was better on point 21 and point 23.

This day I made about 1’30’’ mistake. What’s more my shape was low, and my loss to Pawlak got bigger.

1.B.Pawlak         36.57

2. M.Olejnik       +1.20

3. W.Kowalski   +1.54

…

6. M. Garbacik    +5.03

Competitors from M20

1.M.Dzioba     41.28

2.M.Garbacik  +0.32

3.P.Ostój         +2.35

In conclusion I can’t be satisfied with this race, but it wasn’t a very bad one either. Now, after World Champs and Polish Champs in the long distance (if my studies let me), I want to focus on sprint distance, and I hope to go for more stages, preparing for Polish Champs!