By the results of hardest ever Russian championships, held in Saint-Petersburg region, was determined elite team to represent Russia on the 1st stage of World Cup in Helsinki, Finland.
I was selected on a last, 9th place and it was a big success for me! I am only 19 and have 2 more years in juniors class, but the earlier you start to compete with elite, the better you understand the level of competition and start to train on another level. So I went there far not for the 1st places, but to show my best and see my level among other strongest girls from the whole planet.
I ran 2 forest disciplines: middle distance and long pursuit. On both of them I almost didn't have mistakes, so was glad with my performance. However, seeing myself so low in the results was of course unusual for me, and it makes me as never motivated to train more, because I see how much I have to work actually. It makes you see all those 10 seconds mistakes, which turn out to be 20 to 30 seconds and actually have a logic reason, which you shall eliminate. It makes you analyse so much more, compare your routes to others to choose the best one. It makes you grow!
For example, 3rd control point from the middle distance. I had a mistake for 30-40 seconds coming to the red circle already, because 1st) I didn't check the direction when leaving the road, 2nd) didn't have a proper attack point, planned just to continue from the road and slightly turn to the right, when I should have told myself to go on the right of 2 cliffs through the stones and that would be an ideal attack point. All together it means that I didn't use my time, while I had been running along the hill, when it was actually an easy place to look at the map. So I make a conclusion to force myself to look at the map and plan ahead, when it's convenient, and also understand beforehand, where will be these convenient parts to run and look a bit more at the map. And with this conclusion I can work and train it on my technique sessions!