The first month of training is done - and things have worked out smooth so far. It makes so much fun to train hard when it pays off!

Of course I miss orienteering -  as I love the sport it self - but I'm sure I would never have made so much physical progress if I had gone on with orienteering in the national team. A system which forces you to peak your form way too often (qualification races over maybe 3-4 weekends, in addition to the real important races like EOC and WOC) does not gives you the possibility to train steady and consistent. And for my part, that's one of the keys to get better. It has taken me a year out of the old system to get better, but now it pays of big way:)! And that is really cool!

Sunday we took part in a nice advent race, just outside Vienna. I knew the course from some years back and it has always been one of my favorites among street races. Actually I don't know exactly why, since the course is actually nothing special, just 4 rounds in the city. But the atmosphere is always very good and crossing the finish-line on the Christmas market is something you don't get to do too often, so I guess that's the reason.

I had no idea what time I would be able to run - so my goal was to run hard but smooth for the first two rounds and as hard as possible for the two last- The first round went very good, I passed the finish area as 3. woman. In the middle of the second round I slept a bit so Anita could easily overtake me (goal for the next race: stay focused through-out the whole race;)) and even if I fought the best I could on the two last rounds she was some seconds ahead of me in the finish. But, at least it is better to be beaten by one of your dearest friends than by some one else:).

The time was really good, 42'30'' for 10,5km (av. 4:03/km), considering a heavy training period in the legs and about 10 90°-turns per round (I just realize that we did 40 of those turns....!). The legs were fine, the pump was good, the mental attitude worked out - all in all satisfying! And the best thing of it all was that it felt just normal to run this speed. Nothing were I need a really good day or a brilliant form to manage it. Just a ordinary day in a ordinary training week. How cool is that!

Rounding the day off with some great food in our favorite Italian restaurant didn't exactly made the day worse:). Chilling the rest of the evening and a late begin at work Monday morning helped for regeneration. Which was good, since yesterdays track training was a hard one. 3x3x400 doesn't sound bad but it was an hard apple to bite. Thank heaven for Klaus and Thomas who force me to run a steady, nice 74''-pace even if my legs feel like logs. And it was worth the agony, afterwards I just felt happy, satisfied and tired in a really good way.

Now 2 more days of quality training and then a bit of rest and easy training. After all you should also enjoy the advent with all it's temptations;).