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The longest off season

2020-09-12 Gustav Bergman
42 163 Comments
Meny

284 days without racing, 293 without orienteering competitions.

That is the longest I have gone without racing since I started doing it, when I was younger than 8 years old. So you can easily say that this year has been special! Sweden has had a little bit different approach to handling the pandemic than most countries, with societity staying mostly open (but with big travel restrictions, restrictions on gatherings, and people working from home), which made club training still possible. I am most thankful for that. My club OK Ravinen really made the break from racing enjoyable, with fantastic trainings and training races the whole spring.

This year has also been a great opportunity to take a step back and reflect and learn a bit about yourself. Topically, I have thought a lot about motivation and what fuels my elite career, and while others have been struggling with their motivation with all this uncertainty and lack of racing, I have found that it has affected me very little. I am very much driven by self-development, and very litte by the big competitions. So despite it being a tough year for so many, it has been quite nice for me personally. I have had lot of time to spend at home with my family, and I have continued to train really well.

During the summer the travel restrictions eased a bit, and it became possible to go on training camps again, which was really nice. I did enjoy being home a lot during the spring, but I also missed traveling and doing orienteering in new places, so the summer became very enjoyable as well.

 

I have even started to do some racing, which was long overdue. I have missed the excitement and challenges, the feeling of not knowing what to expect. And now it is soon time for the first important races of the year, with Swedish Championships in middle and long distance coming up next weekend. Really looking forward to that!

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