Always good advice, I suppose. But how often do you give yourself this advice? Does it help to do so?

It's odd, I was thinking back to a race in Tasmania, when I approached a very technical control, and I remember saying this to myself. I managed to spike the control. It was the only time I've ever said this during a race. I wonder why I picked that control to do so. I wonder if it would be helpful to do this on every control -- sort of to get your mind in the right frame of mind, or would it be a distraction or cause you to be tentative and lose rhythm?

Short race this weekend in CT. I'm expecting technical controls, and will probably boom some of them. I do lousy in short races and am already looking at it as training. I'm thinking of trying to remind myself to say this on the approach of each control and seeing how it feels.

In other news, plans are finalized to hit my first Jukola. I'm looking forward to this. My plans didn't work out particularly well, meaning I will probably be tired, jetlag'd, and out of sync. Not what you want -- it would be more fun to get there a week early, but I don't know how much longer Vlad will be graciously organizing the entries and there will be a full team or two of runners from the US. I don't want to be really old and look back and never have done a Jukola. For some reason, I think it is important to be exposed to the "European culture" of O as much as possible, and see Jukola as a part of that. I'm really into tradition and all that stuff.

I wonder how many times the US has fielded a full team? I think I hope we get enough people so I am pushed to team 2. Team 1 seems like a mistake being my first one, and arriving a bit out of sync, but I'm happy to be anywhere (except at night). The one negative I see is that I will feel alot of pressure. I orienteer well under pressure, actually, but this could be a whole new ball game, with so many people, and what looks to be potentially challenging terrain.