Tracking my wanderlust need to get out of town once a month

Track my O progress here

SUNDAY 19 May
Day Two at DVOA

I wanted to do well on day two. I was nervous at the start, hoping I would be able to repeat Saturday's success. Instead, I screwed up right away. I lost about 4 minutes on the first leg; I couldn't make sense of the map, and made silly route choices. I had a hard time relocating. Once I found the first control, I managed to move alright for a while, but my confidence was shot. I later boomed two other controls. I was tired from the day before, and blamed that for my poor performance (77 minutes for 4.6 K).

But my performance was worst than I thought. When I downloaded my e-punch, I was told that I had mispuncehd. I always check the codes carefully, so I was surprised. But I didn't punch a wrong control; it turns out that I skipped a control. I had never, ever done that before. I was pretty disgusted with myself.

I thought I was physically tired on day two, and that's why I made mistakes. But when I look at the splits in my category, I see that I did very well on many legs. Unfortunately, I lost about 15 minutes total on my three booms. My lost time was due to mental fatigue, not physical.

This experience highlights a big problem of mine: consistency. In the last year and half, I have only had one two-day meet with two good runs (last year's US Champs in NY). All other meets had a least one bad day. Sometimes it's day one (usually) and sometimes it is day two. I need to figure out why I have problems putting together two good days in a row. I need to feel comfortable, rested, confident and focused two days in a row. How do I do that? Any advice?

MT = 476
posted by Mary 8:15 PM [edit]