Sunday, May 29, 2011

How to screw up a sprint distance?

I had known this gate perfectly before the competition - thanks to JWOC 2011 trainings. I had even talked with Olej several times, whether the map would be corrected or the gate would be closed during the competition.

None of them. (You silly boy, it's Poland...)

During the race it was very hard to see on the map, if this gate was crossable. What's more, the 10th control was situated just some 3m behind it and I was sure (judging from the map) it was placed exactly in this passage. I was wrong. I should have checked control descriptions first, but it doesn't really matter.

After the race I decided to go to the judges and admit my disqualification. I don't want to win like this. It's no fun at all. I only regret losing important points for my club. I am really sorry.

You say I should have been disqualified.
Of course, you are right. I ran through a forbidden area - I reply. And add - why was the map wrong in this area?
You say the map was right, the gate should have been closed and not crossable.
I answer - Why was the gate actually opened in the terrain? Judging from the map it should have been closed...
And what do you say right now?

That's how a wonderful sprint in a really demanding terrain was screwed up.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

One second mistake is still not good enough!

Last weekend I took part in JWOC 2011 qualification races in Rumia.

On Saturday a very fast middle distance race waited for us. We had all expected the course to include a lot of controls in green areas. How wrong we had been! The course was really fast and the forest offered great visibility and runnability. Just after the race I was very satisfied and thought that the maximum time loss to the winner could equal 1 minute. However, Olej's shape was just unbelievable and I lost as much as 1:28! Having analysed the whole race deeply, I realized it was not such a brilliant performance (1'07 of mistake), but a really good one.

On Sunday we ran long distance race on the same map. I had a really good flow throughout the whole course. I understood the terrain perfectly and chose wise route choices (apart from control no. 3, where I lost as much as 40 seconds!). I could have run faster by 2'20 (summing all my mistakes) and the time lost to Olej was 2'40. The lead was out of reach that day, too...

Is my shape not good enough?
Is it possible for me to improve so much?
We'll see.

All in all, I am very satisfied with my performance at the weekend. My O-technique in this terrain is close to perfect, which is a great prediction for July!

I can't wait to compete in the coming Polish Club Championships;)

Sunday, May 8, 2011

5000m

To get the opportunity to qualify for JWOC 2011 I had to run 5000m under 16:30.

Today - at 11:30 - I started my heat with Olej and Pasza (who was one of our great pacemakers). We followed him during the odd kilometres. The other one was Gadu, who was the leader of the 2nd and 4th km.

My km splits were: 3:18, 3:15, 3:21, 3:12, 3:04 (the last 400m in 1:07). Altogether they made quite a nice time of 16:10 (exactly 3:14/km). My heart rate - 181/187.

After my race I also helped Witek during his last kilometer and he managed to beat Jan Limit's time by 14 seconds:)

I am very satisfied with the whole morning spent on the track!

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Miserable April

April was not a good month for me. I had an awful illness (with huge fever), which forced me to take 6 days off and made my body enormously weak. That's why my physical shape was poor, which led to some mental problems like the lack of motivation and enthusiasm. This had a great influence on my physical shape, which got worse and worse. This caused some bigger mental problems. This ...

As far as my sports life is concerned, I spent some days in Szklarska Poręba, where I started my trainings after the afore-mentioned sickness. The whole camp ended with Beaver Valley's Cup, where my forest performance was very miserable. Surprisingly, I was fast enough in a flat terrain to win the demanding sprint in Bolesławiec!

At the end of April I spent 9 days in Rumia improving my technical skills for the coming JWOC 2011. My technique was quite good. However, fast uphill running was out of reach...

I decided to do something with my running career. There are still 2 months left. Now I am starting from zero.
To hero?