In order to get the most out of the racing experience, it is good to take stock and analyze how it went after the race is over. There are lots of different ways to do this but here are a couple of simple things you can do.
- Draw your routes on your map.You’ve done this at some point before, I’m sure. It is a really good habit because by drawing your route you are forced to think about where you went and what you did. In effect, you are replaying or visualizing your race. You get two for the price of one. Here is my map with my routes drawn.
Long Advanced
- Write down things that went well (+) and things to be improved (-). It is easy to get bogged down in the negative so try to always have at least one more positive than negative thing written down. Here are mine:
+ took time to plan routes before leaving the control
+good focus at the end when I was tired
+calmed down and went carefully after mistakes
- didn’t have clear picture of control circle on several controls
- needed to read ahead more on trail running sections to be smoother in and out of controls
3. We had gone through your pre-race plan and this was a chance to practice it. Reflect on how your pre-race plan went and write down any changes to be made for next time. For example, I arrived with plenty of time. I had a good warmup and some nice strides and felt really ready physically. When I went to the start though and was going to do some visualizing and focusing, Wendy was there with Stian and I ended up playing with him. I was so distracted that I forgot to clear and check and had to run back to do that when I was in the last call up line. It took me a while to get into the race.
4. Lastly, compare splits and see where you lost time. I have entered my splits for the long advanced course on Attackpoint. You can enter splits for the short advanced here.
