WOC selection races

[EddieH]

Brilliant all, but particularly Rhodri. I remember you virtually in nappies

[DJM]

Brilliant all, but particularly Rhodri. I remember you virtually in nappies

Eddie, I echo this 100% although Rhodri was just out of nappies when I met him first (in Tasmania, as the (second) youngest Brit at the 1992 VWC).

Is Rhodri the first ever Welsh WOC team member?

[gg]

Well Helen Palmer and BJ spring immediately to mind...

[Becks]

Has anyone put any maps online yet?

Congrats to everyone on their selections - from Splitbrowser it looks like one hell of a weekend!

[Tatty]

Congratulaions to all those selected! Especial to Rhodri, being slected for the Long

[EddieH]

With the WOC long being such a gruelling event does it make sense to have selection races probably over 20% shorter than will be expected in Hungary?

[gg]

With the WOC long being such a gruelling event does it make sense to have selection races as long as will be expected in Hungary?

[mharky]

GG FTW

[DIDSCO]

Well the lads team I got almost perfectly, except for tipping Rob B just ahead of Scott for the sprint. The girls I was well out of touch.

Oli deserved to get selected despite poor selection races. His nordic long race proves that, +previous domestic form, + he's a solid reserve for the relay.
Great that Rhodri got selected. Met him last year in Gothenburg and he really impressed me, bags of potential that guy.
Rob B could have got Scotts place in the sprint, would have been well deserved for many years of dedication...but it's tough at the top and maybe he just needed to pull out that little bit more.
I'd have put Jo Stevensson on 1st leg for the girls, good big relay experience, perhaps a risk but maybe one worth taking? + she's got the right name when it comes to GB medals

[EddieH]

Well obviously GG I know far less about these things than you do, but one and a half months before the event I would have thought there would be no recovery problem. On the other hand if people never run the equivalent (and you don't seem to at JK and BOC or World Cup noeadays) how can they know how they will respond to that extra 20%?

[gg]

Can be argued either way. BOC this year was close to 100 minutes. 1 1/2 months is a long time, but a 100-110 minute race can take a week to recover from fully, which is a lot to come out of training at a critical time. If you are in the top at 80 minutes, there is a fair chance you will be in the top at 100, and especially when it is possible to look at splits and see who is running strongest towards the end of the race.

On balance, with 3 races in a weekend, 80 minutes is a good option in my opinion

[mharky]

Think of it like a marathon, because it can knacker your body in the same way. You don't do the full distance until the day itself. 30-35km is the longest all but the exceptional do in their training. And extra 15-20 minutes wouldn't make any difference to the WOC team.

[rocky]

Aye, but if you want to run a quick half marathon then you would run further than 21.1km in training. Argument null and void!

[EddieH]

When I used to be a peripheral elite badge events were planned to an 81 minute winning time and with all the over and under planning that we had , that often meant more. The British was 90 - 100 minutes with the JK 2 days not far behind. The 4 regional Championships were supposed to be the same.

Therefore we were all well used to competing far longer than is almost ever available in Britain today. Yet when the British was overplanned by considerably less than 20% (Achilty 86) Kitch and maybe a couple of others were the only ones that held it together for the full distance - I was more shattered than at any other event I have ever been to.

I have no doubt that elite standards are far higher today, but one often hears that training cannot replicate racing in tuning performance.

As I say I am no expert, but it does seem to me that our domestic program ensures that we are unlikely to produce a long WOC champion through it.

Anyway Jamie ran away from Novikov in the relay last year immediately after running the gruelling long - majorly impressive, but clearly not impossible.

[Mrs H]

I thought the selection races were a very high quality this year, with great maps, courses and well organised. Shame they are always such distant, select affairs, when they could be more open to the 'public', which would be more fun. I guess the reason being is that this way the selectors can do just what they want on the terrain they want and not have to cater for anyone else.

As a token member of the public over the weekend I wasn't quite sure whether I was intruding. It would be interesting to know what the organisers wanted in terms of public attendance and whether they got it. the entry was expensive but still worth while in my opinion. i thought there was a lack of atmosphere (but then I wasn't around when the top people came in )

I am guessing that they want enough people to defray the costs but not so many as to make it organisationally harder work - in which case they probably got it about right.

I was surprised how few people came from neighbouring clubs