Summer competition - Bergen 21-23 June 2013

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. - Winston Churchill

 

Finally it's summer vacation for Team Speedfreaks! The summer competition in Bergen was our last competition  now until the autumn madness starts, but before this happens we will travel to Finland for a weeks training camp :) Looking forward to that :D

 

 

But we can come back to that after a while. Let's look at this weekend;

 

I started travelling to Bergen on friday morning and arrived in Os where I was staying with the lovelly Dorte, Simon & Helle :) We had a quick training session where Leija was on key 100 % and with a speed not many can match, atleast not in that size class...

 

I had a great time during friday, having fun with Simon and Dortes daughter, laughing and doing teaching her all sorts of mischief I hope my boys never will learn... (As if !!)

 

Unfortunately I had Leija awake longer than normal, and both myself and Elisabeth believe that is why she wasn't performing as "normal" on saturday.

 

Saturday;

We started the weekend with fun jumping course in class 1. Unfortunately I went away from my normal routine the day before, and kept Leija awake until 01.30, while I was reading. *Mental note; Don't change routines the day before a competition*..

 

As you can see from her speed, or rather the lack off, that something was not as it should be. If it was because of our growing calmness or just pure dumb luck, but atleast we got through the course clean and with no time fault, giving us our last clean run needed for Class 2.

 

 

 

After a nice little rest, (where I was hoping that Leija had regained some of her speed), we had our agility 2 run. Even though she had her fair share of "quiet" time, I had to struggle with her through the course, with Leija not giving 50% even... The entire run ended with us getting one fault in the weaves and 6.03 seconds in time fault!!!!! I haven't been able to get the movie to Youtube yet, but check out my channel when it's there.

 

 

We also tried to test our luck during the team competitions, but here Leija shows me very clearly what she thought about that:

 

 

Sunday;

It was a day where I woke even more tired than the day before. Maybe it was because of the stress of the day before, or maybe the late night with good company. Anyway I started the day the same way as I normally do during competitions, and luckily our debut in Jumping 2 ended with a great BANG!

 

 

 

It was a great run with alot of potential, and even though the speed was 4,69 m/s, it could've been even faster. If I shorten the turns, improve the weaves and tighten my own handling, I think it might have been 4,8-5,0 m/s.. Atleast I know what I can do, and what I can not do :)

 

 

During the break between Jumping and Agility, Simon asked me if I wanted to go for a walk with the dogs... Sure, I thought.. Little did I know that it was his little devilish plan to remove the competition before the agility run and making my dog tired again (Yes Simon, it's all your fault ;) *wink, wink*!!).

 

 

We had a good start, but after a mistake (or two) in the weaves, I decided to DQ Leija and me and focus just on having fun in the course. I hope that Leija took it that way, but we are coming in to the summer break with one goal: Work on both our stamina and endurance, because it needs working with. Hopefully we will come home from summer "camp" with a rejuvinated spirit and with our goals easily reachable and without much remorse.

 

 

The teams competition on sunday was cancelled due to severe a rain and thunderstorm. After some consideration, I think this was a good thing for Leija and me, as she was tired and slept through the entire storm and drive home.

 

Now there is a few days rest for Leija and myself, before we start the preparations for a hard week in Finland under the tough eye of Seppo Savikko and loads of training. Hopefully we will come out of it stronger and even more prepared for the winter madness :)

 

So, stay tuned, keep reading and keep following... Comment if you like it, comment if you disagree with anything or if you see something in my movies you want to tell me :)

 

Tommy & Leija