Jeg suger kuk.

That's one of the most important Norwegian expressions and it means 'I have been to the shower'. ;)

There were some highlights of the preseason after coming home from Portugal. Let me write something about them.

'The fat wixxxa, Agata and Witek's sweet 18th' - got a bit cold afterwards and had problems with my Achilles tendon. 2 in 1 is always better than 1 in 1 :)

Short camp with Raumar in Dresden (Germany) - 4 trainings and 2 competitions in just 3 days. 63km altogether, quite exhausting, must admit... I managed to take the 2nd place in unofficial German Night Champs (not really championships, but the most important night competition in Germany throughout a year). However, the O-performance was quite poor during the race.

Mixed long course in Barkowice - a very nice and fast technical training. Well... technical might be a too big word. Physical, let's say :)

Mecsek Kupa in Hungary - a two-day competition with WRE long distance as the second stage. 14,8km and 710m of climb. Not yet prepared for that kind of challenge!

Polish University Cross-Country Championships - didn't feel well before the race (some stomach problems), but tried to do my best and had a very steady and solid race. 32nd place (4 places up comparing to the last year's result). The course was the same, but the weather was much worse, awful!

TIOcamp in Sweden with Raumar - great chance to develop technically (it was my main focus). I am really satisfied with the technical shape in Sweden. I am not sure if the terrain was easier than the ones I had tried orienteering in Sweden earlier or I've just become a better orienteer in this type of Scandinavian terrain? Hope it's the second version.

How to do it?

NIGHT


                                                                                         DAY

How to mess it up?

Unfortunately, I got a bit ill due to freezing weather and icy marshes there in Sweden. I took 3 days off and on Friday I had my first easy jog. On Sunday I competed in the 10k street race. Nice topic for another post;-) Afterwards I headed for Szklarska Poręba for a short physical camp with Dominik and in just some days the first nice 3-day competition in Poland is about to begin. Really looking forward to it!

International end of 2010 O-season

On 25th October I began quite a nice period of the so-called cooling down.

However, I could not stop competing at all, because I was chosen to run the 3rd leg for my Swedish club - Nybro OK - at Smålandskavlen in Tranås.

Interesting thing about this competition is the fact that the first 2 legs are night ones and there is NO mass start. There's interval start, I mean.
The rest of the competition (legs 3-5) is held during the following day and the 3rd leg is the one with chasing start.

My leg was the shortest one (6,85km) and I had a miserable race...

I made 2 awful mistakes:

127 - I wanted to be more cunning than my companions and ran mindlessly forward, 2'10 lost;

143 - I ran up the hill and suddenly my compass needle turned around and I completely didn't know what to do, 1'00 lost.

1 considerable mistake:

33 - poor 'in' (attacking this control) and poor 'out' (leaving the previous control), 0'25 lost.

And 7 minor mistakes:

88, 49, 48, 42, 135, 128, 144 - 1'20 lost in total.

It was not possible for me to be satisfied with my performance (50th leg time and only 1 place up at the changeover). However, I was really happy that I got the opportunity to be the member of Polish relay (Mały, Olej, me, Lupek, Włodar) in Swedish club. Finally, we reached the 44th spot (118 teams took part).

29 days out of home!

It's been by far the longest journey in my life. It began on 19th July...

Day 1
Train to Gdynia. Waiting for Olej. Shopping in Tesco. Pizza in DaGrasso. Sleeping at AP's house.

Day 2

Ferry to Karlskrona. Michael (from Nybro OK) takes us to their clubhouse. Wow! We've already been there (Baltic Junior Cup 2008).

Day 3

The best O-training in my life! Normal course, Swiss game, in and out, contours and corridor. Just see how close to the control (a piece of toilet paper) I was during the 'Swiss game' part of the map! Then, sauna in the evening;)

Day 4

In the morning a middle distance course. I was very satisfied with my orienteering. In the afternoon we decided to check if the BJC 2008 mixed relay terrain was really so difficult and we made sure it was NOT. It means that we were poor some 22 months ago...

Day 5

Finally reaching Örebro for O-Ringen! Unfortunately, no tehcnical training, because the map was miserable and it cost 50 SEK. Exaggeration!

Day 6

Short physical training with Photo Orienteering as a part of it. Really nice to look for some small features in the city centre;)

Day 7

1st stage of O-Ringen. 10,7km. 92:34. Started quite good, but lost concentration after some stick stuck in my shoe near the 4th control. What's more, the map near the 8th control seemed just impossible to read for me... Afterwards wrong direction and not using the path on the long leg to the 12th one.

Day 8

2nd stage. 4,2km. 44:10. Great time, wasn't it? I spent so much time walking in the green area just before the 7th control that my only dream was to finish the course since that moment. Obviously, I didn't manage to avoid making mistakes later on...

Day 9

3rd stage. 11,4km. 99:07. Technically, the first half of the course went relatively well. Then, Gustav Bergman caught me at the 8th control and I took advantage of him towards the 12th control. I could have followed him till the end, but I decided to make my own race and let him go. Suddenly, I started to feel dizzy and terribly exhausted. I had problems walking on my own legs during the last part of the course...

Day 10

At last a day off! Generally, we did nothing. We only tried a combination of badminton and tennis - called speedminton.

Day 11

4th stage. 11,3km. 77:23. Certainly, it was my best performance at this year's O-Ringen. 36th place....... Matthias Kyburz caught me at the end of the long leg to the 15th control and showed me how to orienteer in this type of terrain. He is fucking fast, I must say! However, he lost some time to the 18th control and I kept my 'lead' till the finish line. Half a loaf is better than no bread;)

Day 12

5th stage. Handicap. 11,4km. 106:55. There was no transport to the arena because we were told it was within walking distance from the camping. Yeah... more than half an hour to the event centre, 2,5km to the start, almost 2 hours in the forest and more than 30 minutes of coming back. I had enough! My race? From the very beginning my only wish was to reach the finish line.

In the afternoon to Karlskrona by car and then a night ferry to Gdynia. At last!

Day 13

Waiting some long hours in McDonald's for the beginning of the official JWOC 2011 training camp.

And the first technical training. It seemed to be nothing special, but for me it was like salvation. I regained my lost motivation and power in my legs - brilliant!

Day 14

Morning: quite a long course on a map with scale 1:15000. The course included nice butterflies.

Afternoon: map with contours only. Unfortunately, there was no control flags in the forest - ridiculous... And the funny thing, I was sure I found controls no. 42, 38 and 37, but realized I had not after I got completely lost on my way towards the 43rd control. The biggest and most long-lasting parallel mistake in my life!

Day 15

M: a classic race. Our goal was to run the even controls fast and to rest at the odd ones. Very nice, but horribly exhausting training session!

A: some short and boring course in a flat terrain.

Day 16

M: middle distance with lots of butterflies. I could not understand the terrain properly. Fortunately, there is still much time to learn before JWOC 2011;)

A: just some stretching with all the people and taking rest before tomorrow's looong.

Day 17

M: 13,6km. I took this training very seriously, as a competition. I felt really well during the whole course and my technique was close to perfect. I only regret misinterpreting the map at the end of the longest leg and losing some time at controls no. 4 and 15 due to some new fences in the terrain.

A: a very interesting lecture with dr Jeremi Ściepurko. Really worth listening to!

Day 18

M&A: 2 technical training sessions in flat terrains. I started understanding this kind of terrain much better and feel more self-confident right now;)

Day 19

M: middle distance on a map with no tracks. We were bound to run with a competition pace. Unfortunately, I had problems understanding the map in some places and lost far too much time. Nevertheless, my running speed was promising;)

A: sprint in Rumia. I know this map well, cause I took part in some competition there in April this year. So it was only about the fast legs and Papuś was faster by 6 seconds that day.

Day 20

M: I wanted to run the long distance course that day. However, I was forced to make it shorter, because I had a really bad day and was not able to focus on map reading.

A: sprint in Wejherowo. The map quality is ridiculous... Furthermore, we had some closed gates and had to run around or climb up the fences. Moreover, I found a new gate in the terrain (while going to the 2nd control), by sheer coincidence. After all, the sprint was very nice and I had a really good race despite all the adversities.

Day 21

First legs training. Unfortunately, the controls situated in the forest weren't proper to set an interesting and FAIR course. I was far behind Olej already after the first double forking, but didn't give up. However, after losing plenty of time near the 106th control (where the map was just awful!) I decided to jog...

Afterwards the whole team left us and it was only me, Nati and Olej who decided to spend 2 more days in the JWOC 2011 terrain.

Day 22

M: I had a nice freestyle technical training with Olej. I was in my element while running in this forest.

A: We had a short course on a 1:15000 map 'Rogulewo' drawn by AP for us. I couldn't find the appropriate rhythm during this training session.

Day 23

In the morning Nati set controls in the forest for me and Olej. Thanks to her we had an opportunity to take part in a nice memory training. 2 times 3 courses with 2 controls on each of them.

Just after it we picked Hewi from Gdańsk and started our journey to Baniocha, because... Jolanta was organising a party there. It was a fancy dress ball and I decided to be an unemployed;) The party was outstanding!

Day 24

You should know what people tend to do after parties;-)

Day 25

We made our way to Przeworsk in order to take part in this year's GP Polonia.

On the very same day we competed in the 1st Unofficial World Orienteering Championships of Tied Couples. My partner was Nati and we became vicechampions! Incredible success:)

Day 26

1st stage of GPP. I made an enormous mistake (just the same as last year) and lost chances of winning the competition. However, I decided not to give up and finished 2nd in men's elite. Funny;)

In the late afternoon there was a sprint qualification race. I agreed to run in my 'unemployed' shoes (from Jolanta's party) and proved that shoes do not run, because I achieved the 3rd place only some 6 seconds behind the leader, Hewi.

Day 27

2nd stage of GPP. I just loved that forest! It was flat, only with some small hills and the runnability was brilliant. I made an average performance, losing only 1'35 to Włodar - nice!

In the evening the time came for the sprint final. The course was very tricky and interesting. Because of that I took wrong route choices 2 times and lost more than 40 seconds. I should have been angry at myself, but I wasn't, because my speed was awesome that day (winning 5 out of 10 splits) and I lost only 22 seconds to the unbeatable winner, Włodar.

Day 28

Last stage of GPP - sprint. Men's elite class was the last one to start that day, so we had a great opportunity to have a good laugh waiting some 2 hours for our start. The course was really demanding and I made an awful mistake while running to the 7th control, because I didn't see the black wall and had to turn back. Moreover, number '7' is situated in a wrong place on a map, because I thought that a gate under this number would be open... Nevertheless, my time loss to the leader was huge (14 mins) and my time advantage over the 3rd place was big (6mins), so my only goal was to finish the course not being disqualified. Somehow I managed;)
Then, I was ready for the bus journey to Łódź. That night I slept at grandma's.

Day 29
Finally, back at home!!!

outstanding Sweden

Firstly, I would like to say that I updated the previous note about Tiomila - I added my map and a short text;) And now let's go on to describe shortly the second last competition race during our camp in Sweden - i.e. Elitserien Sprint.

It was held just one day before 10Mila, at April 17th in the afternoon. Obviously, we were not permitted to start in the first final and competed in a class called 'H21 E2'. The course parameters were pretty frightening - 3,1km and 93 meters of climb! Fortunately, I avoided getting lost in the first tricky area and didn't make any huge mistakes throughout the whole course. However, my legs did not want to cooperate with me at all. Surprisingly, I achieved the 2nd time of Polish Junior Team runners, behind Stefan, but it was still sooo far from the leaders and something I could have called 'a satisfying performance'...

Below I present all the maps from technical trainings with some words of description on each of them.

As you can see, the terrains were really sophisticated and we had a great opportunity to improve our technical skills in almost every aspect of orienteering.

All in all, spending 12 days in the south of Sweden meant almost 147km in legs, 6 competition races, 12 technical trainings, 18 new maps and a great fun with Polish Junior Team!

Amazing Tiomila!

I've just come back to our school in Perstorp after running the 3rd leg in this year's 10Mila. I started at the 77th place and finished at 68th, so this means I improved our position by 9 places! I had the 53rd time of my leg (7km - 46:39). I made mistakes at three and a half controls, that cost me some 3 minutes or so... However, I am really surprised and satisfied with my legs' shape, which were really flying tonight! Now I am going to follow the online results as this particular night happens only once a year! ;-)


We managed to achieve the 70th place at Tiomila 2009! It means an improvement of 73 positions comparing to our last year's result. What's more, a time of about 30 minutes shorter was easily reachable for our team... and that would have been a place in TOP 50 ;-) Maybe in 2010?

H21 ELIT 4 - getting better?

Today I started in the Men's Elite 4th (last) final of the Elitserien event. I wanted to run faster than yesterday and I did manage. However, it was really far from something I could call 'a good shape'.
The only thing that consoles me is the fact that I could easily read the details on the map and had a technically good race. The only exception was control no. 6, where I completely misunderstood the contours and lost 4 minutes wandering around! Nevertheless, the rest of the course went quite OK and my legs were working a bit better than on previous days.
I hope I'm gonna get out of this down-breaking crisis as soon as possible and start having fun while orienteering...

Elitserien Middle Qualification - result known already before the start :[

I was to start at 10:43. I made my way to the start (where I hoped to collect my number) about half an hour before. I was jogging easily when I saw Pałka and Dyzia running at full speed back to the event centre. I realised immediately what was going on! We had some 15 minutes left to start and had to hurry to get our number bibs, which were compulsory.
I managed to arrive at the start again about 90 seconds before my starting time. Thanks to Pepe and Kaszub, who helped me attach my number bibs to the front and back of my T-shirt, I was able to start at the right time. Nevertheless, I was so upset and my legs were so tired that I already knew it was not possible for me to perform well today.
Tomorrow I am going to compete in the 4th elite final as most of our team...

Hässleholms Long - greater result than effort...

Today my first individual competition in Sweden this year took place. I was incredibly happy that it was going to be held during the day. I wanted to take pains to perform as well as possible. However, my legs' opinion was much different... I felt as if their weight was about 15kg more than usually. Moreover, I didn't manage to pursue the main goal for this race - keeping a constant touch with my map - already at the very beginning of the first long leg. Nevertheless, I succeeded in regaining my concentration and had a technically 'not-so-bad' race.
The course was 6,5km and my time was 45:10. I must admit there were fairly high mountains in the forest. I achieved the third place, over 3 minutes behind the winner and exactly 2 minutes behind Olej. That speaks for a very poor level in our class...

7-manna - great performance of Polish Junior Team ;-)

We are in Sweden for 3 days now and yesterday our first competition took place. For my team it was a 7-person relay. The first 3 legs (me, Olej, Jacek) were held at night while the other 4 (Jasina, Hewi, Stefan, Rino) - during the day.
Our night trio made a really good start for our team, especially the very first leg. Already before the mass start I felt I was not going to compete well that day. I had been trying to get these thoughts out of my mind but I did not manage...
We started really fast and I did my best to keep up with the leaders. Unfortunately, I only succeeded in doing it to the first control, which was ridiculously easy. Then, at the second control a huge forking came and I lost contact with the map and leading group completely. I had found 2 or 3 other controls before actually finding mine. Having punched this control, I knew I would have to run the rest of the course alone and felt a bit confused and discouraged.
However, I had nothing else to do than run forward and reach the next controls as quickly as possible.
The 5th control was a really long leg and I felt a bit afraid of it whereas I am not good enough at choosing long route choices in Sweden. What's more, it was a night orienteering course! My pace was very miserable, although I managed to find this control after facing some minor difficulties.
On my way to the 10th control I already knew it would be very hard not to make any mistake... and I was pretty right. I pushed my pace a bit hoping to get out of this tricky area as fast as possible. While looking for this control I saw a whole pack or runners behind me including some 'M65s' and a black man. I felt so ashamed and wanted to finish my course right now! I lost about 4 minutes there...
At the 11th control I decided to take my revenge and be the man to follow towards it, but it was a poor consolation.
To the next control I made another mistake of some 3 minutes. I don't really want to describe it precisely, but I could not understand the map just before the control because there were so many rocks in the terrain!
To fulfil my yesterday's nightmare I made a 'M10'-mistake having enormous problems to find the control no. 100.
To sum it all up, I made an awful race losing almost 25 minutes to the winner, achieving the 60th position (of 73 competitors). Luckily, Olej wasn't much better and my mood got a bit better after his race. Eventually, we finished at 45th place.......

And now a special bonus for all of you!
Although I had a bad day at yesterday's competition, Kaszub made a race of his life at his today's 6th leg. I really wish he had run for my relay as he made only 11 minutes of mistakes and reach the time of 47:04 on the 5,4km course. We are very proud of him and hope he's gonna smash his opponents' asses at tomorrow long distance in Hassleholm. Keep your fingers crossed for him at 10:18! :-)

Another 3 days in Sweden this year

There were lots of discussions about the participation of Polish EYOC competitors in Baltic Junior Cup 2008 in Kalmar and Nybro as the very long and tiring journey followed it. However, it was not that bad. The Swedish terrain is the one I really enjoy! It was a nice opportunity to take delight in forests with a very good runnability before the coming Swiss blackberries and other difficulties which make every runner wanna cry.

Our journey began on Friday with a short flight from Warsaw. Unfortunately, there appeared some unexpected problems while landing. My tooth hurt so much that I was very close to bursting into tears.
Then we attended the model event course in Nybro. Pasza offered to run with me and see if my technique is satisfying enough. In spite of the fact that the map was really easy and quite poor in details, I didn't manage to avoid some silly mistakes. However, I was looking forward to run the following day.



On Saturday the long distance came. It was quite weird and surprising that all the starters on 14:00 were Poles: Wels, me and Jacek. I had a horrible race with over 10-minute mistakes. On the course I didn't think it was that disastrously! When I arrived at the finish, I got to know I lost almost 13 minutes to the leader. I was certain it was because of my weak legs after the long-lasting illness. In fact, terrible mistakes + not the best shape meant the third place... counting from the end!

In the evening the annual orienteering party during BJC was held. Each country was asked to prepare a short performance or game for the other countries. We organised an O-quiz consisting of 5 questions. Two of them sounded: 'Which control did Emil Wingstedt not punch during this year's World Orienteering Championships sprint distance race?' and 'How many spikes are there in one Integrator shoe?'. I wonder if you'd know... Personally, I took part in an egg-throwing competition with Drągu.

The next day we were to run the mixed relay [the rules for this kind of relay are fairly complicated; if you want to know how it is organised, visit BJC 2008 website] and especially the first leg runners (including me) were forced to get up very early, about 6 a.m. Each country was allowed to complete 5 relays. Our trainers decided to build one very strong team to fight for the victory and 4 equal teams with more or less the same possibilities. I was in the first of those 4 teams as my Saturday's performance was too bad to enter the best one. To the other first leg runners from Poland belonged Slavko, Patela, Hewi and Duduś. It was a really interesting race in a quite demanding and wonderful terrain. In the middle part of the course I was running with Slavko, who finished third. Unfortunately, I lost some time on the forking in the detailed stony area and didn't manage to catch up with him again. What's more, on the way to the very last control I jumped over the knoll and wasn't able to change my 'flying direction' and my tibia hit a sharp stone. I've become the lucky owner of 5mm deep wound!