It doesn't really matter.

Today's race was to be the one of my good performance. It was to be...

During the week everything went really OK. Tuesday's training was wonderful. There was a lot of strength on Wednesday and sore muscles afterwards. On Thursday the track intervals were pretty nice and actually not tiring. The last 2 days were spent just on resting and jogging. Today everything should have been great.

I started calmly in the intended pace of 3:30/km. My HR went up very early. I felt that something was wrong. I almost managed to keep this pace until the end (5km in 17:38), but losing more than 10 seconds to our young star Witek in a 'face to face' fight is far too much...

However, I am not gonna give up. My motivation is even higher than before. There seems to be no better motivator than a defeat.

Exhausted.

find Wally;)

Yesterday I took part in the Polish University Championships in cross-country. I decided to run the longer course of about 9,36km (consisting of 3 loops with one uphill on each of them). I was really excited and was looking forward for this competition since the whole group of Polish orienteers (including Jacek, Jancia, Drągu, Hewi, Charubcia, Chrupek, Kamil) were present.



Uphill...

I did appropriate warm-up and stood on the start line. We were told that there were about 4 minutes left to the start. Much time, I thought... but suddenly - after some time - we heard the pistol and the dogs were let out! My only wish regarding the start was not to fall down in the crowd of about 120 runners and I somehow managed to avoid it;)

The very first metres were expected to be quite fast and they actually were. However, not that fast. Fortunately, I succeeded in keeping my own pace at the beginning. The 1st three kilometres were as follows: 3:19, 3:26, 3:30, so the 1st loop was really promising.

Struggling!

At the beginning of the 2nd one I was the 2nd orienteer in the race, but quite easily managed to catch Drągu and get away from him. The pace was stable: 3:30, 3:32, 3:31.

The last loop began quite unluckily for me because I gained some advantage over the chasing group, but was too far away from the next one... and simply had to run alone. You probably know, it's not that nice and easy... That's why my speed got a bit lower - 3:39. Unfortunately, Drągu (ahead of his group) managed to catch me and even run past me. The last metres were extremely tiring. Nevertheless, my pace got a bit better: 3:33, 3:33. I had no power left for the last sprint and finished about 35th place (some 15secs behind Drągu).

Give me some proteins!

All in all, I am very satisfied with this performance. I managed to achieve the great pace of 3:30/km and placed 2nd among the orienteers. It's a really good prediction for the future!

Distinguish yourself in the forest;-)

Sinusoid. It's all in your head.

Fortunately, my good health let me execute all the plans presented in the last note.

My last winter training camp in Szklarska Poręba in the middle of February was expected to be quite tough. And it really was. I managed to do 21 trainings during 9 days (3 of which were technical sessions).

At the end of February my club made his way to Żelazko in order to spend some time with a map in our hands. At the weekend I got the opportunity to run 4 technical trainings (using even 5 maps, in fact). I had a really good flow and my orienteering technique was quite promising.

Then, the highlight of this training period - Portugal!

After arrival in Crato we spent 2 days training on the model event maps for Portugal 'O' Meeting 2011.

The competition itself was a great success for me. I managed to win both middle distance races and place 3rd and 2nd in long ones. In the overall classification I gained the 1st place ahead of Jan Petrzela (CZE) and Olej. It was unbelievably satisfying and boosting to defeat the previous European Youth Orienteering Champion. I felt that everything is on the right way!

Afterwards, we trained for some 3 days in a bit different terrains and prepared for the coming competition - International Meeting of Arraiolos.

Despite making some silly mistakes, I managed to win the middle distance again. Nevertheless, I had no mental power for the last day - long distance of 13,7km. At the first 4 controls I lost a total of 11 minutes! 5 of them already at the 1st one... And the rest of the course I jogged. At the end I remembered about my bet with Olej concerning the finish. Although it was very muddy, I decided to run the last 300m as fast as possible and... won this split with the advantage of 5 seconds over the next competitor (not only in my class, but in all competition classes). Funny;)

One week later I took part in the popular cross-test in Ruda Pabianicka. I achieved the time of 28:58 on the course of 8,08km (3:35/km). Looking at my last year's result, it was 51 seconds better! However, Olej was really fast that day and beat me by 27 seconds - congratulations and recover!

Last weekend I took part in the Danish competition, which is considered as the opening of the orienteering season - Spring Cup. The night relay on Friday was a real fun for me and I enjoyed the mass start very much. Nonetheless, the most important race for me was Saturday's classic. Generally, I made an awful performance and lost as many as 6mins due to my mistakes! It wouldn't have been that bad, if I hadn't lost more than 10 minutes to the winner - Eskil Kinneberg from Norway. In my opinion, he is the best junior right now, but losing so much time is not acceptable! I must have had a really bad day...
This painful failure made me lose my motivation, self-confidence and belief completely. That's why I had no fun running the 1st leg of Sunday's relay and came 7 minutes behind the leading group (making no more than 1min of mistakes!).

My mental state during the last days was so poor that I wasn't able to find any motivation for running and my life was so dull... I don't mean that I avoided trainings. I did them, but with no commitment and willingness. On Wednesday I was close to tears when I finished almost all the intervalls behind the runners who are actually not faster than me. At the same day I had a long talk with Łukasz and it must have helped me really a lot, because - although the beginning of my Thursday's training wasn't good - I managed to overcome my problems and ran with a huge smile on my face!

THANK YOU, ŁUKASZ.

Long time no see!

I was so much into my duties that I couldn't find any time to publish some post here. What's more, there were no interesting competitions and my life was all about tough training and studying. Fortunately, all my exams are over right now and I am able to enjoy my 4th training camp this winter - this time in Szklarska Poręba.

My last post was published 30th Nowember. Since then a lot of important things happened in my sports life, including:

• 1st training camp in Szklarska Poręba (4-12 XII) - for me it was some kind of a preration for the coming demanding winter training sessions. I had some problems with challenging trainings served by Kołczu, because my legs didn't work so well then due to being quite tired just after the beginning of my winter workouts...
• 2nd training camp in Ochotnica Dolna (26 XII - 2 I) - at the beginning of this camp I had to struggle against horrible stomach flu, because I fell ill exactly on Christmas Eve. 4 days of my trainings were completely lost and another 2 spent on some useless jogging. Fortunately, I got over it and could enjoy the last 4 laborious days of this camp. Thanks to it, I came back feeling well and ready for the action!
• the so-called Popular Orienteering Championships (8 I) - I took it as an easy technical training and used the map with no tracks. Moreover, I forgot to take my compass with me and had to come back to the start just after the first control, funny;)
• GP of Łódź in cross-country running (9 I) - it was the 2nd edition of the competition described in the last note. The course length was about 5,13km and my time was 18:20. Unfortunately, the conditions were just awful, since the whole surface was covered with slippery ice. Furthermore, I had sore muscles and felt extremely tired after the hard week of strentgh trainings - a good performance was simply out of reach.
• 3rd training camp in Istebna (15-23 I) - I am incredibly satisfied with this particular training camp! Finally, I got the opportunity to spend some time with my clubmates and managed to do all the training sessions as I had wished to - massive satisfaction!
• technical training in Rydzyny with Azymut Pabianice (29 I) - I succeeded in setting 4 controls in the forest. As soon as I started running the course (in a form of Swiss game), I spotted that my compass was broken (there appeared some little air-cell inside it). I was so frustrated that I wasn't able to focus on the map. That's why my route choices looked like these...
• GP of Łódź in cross-country running (30 I) - this time I felt much, much better than 3 weeks ago. The conditions were really good as well. Thanks to it, I managed to fight for the 3rd place with a much more satisfying time of 17:42 (only some 15 seconds behind the winner). However, I dare for more, much more;-)
• technical training in Modrzew (5 I) - it was just a little part of a much longer running session. I didn't do my best to find all the controls, such as stones of about 30cm... I decided to concentrate on map reading, finding the right flow and choosing the best route choices. It was not that bad, but I just can't wait to face great orienteering challenges in Portugal at the beginning of March!

Now I am lying in my bed in Szklarska Poręba and I am taking some rest between my training sessions. It's really nice to have the opportunity to be completely focused on my running. I am sure these are the camps, which help me make enormous progress most!

My plans for the coming weeks:

- tough winter trainings in Szklarska until 20th February;

- the weekend of technical trainings in Żelazko (26-27 II);

- two weekends of orienteering competitions and some technical trainings between them, Portugal (3-13 III);

- cross-country competition in Ruda Pabianicka (20 III);

- Spring Cup in Denmark (25-27 III).

And then... we'll see;)

Why do all good things come to an end?

...because the better ones are going to replace them;)

Last weekend was the official end of 2010 O-season! To be more precise, Saturday was its end, whereas Sunday was the beginning of the next training period - 2011.

On Saturday we had a nice club technical training, which was in the form of a corridor and Swiss game. I managed to avoid making mistakes and I was really satisfied about it. However, I just can't put up with running in this forest any more...

On Sunday we took part in the first stage (out of 6) of Grand Prix of Łódź in Cross-Country Running. The course length was about 5,13km (due to my Garmin; my friends' Garmins stated that: 5,14, 5,15 or even 5,19). My running time was 17:30, which makes an average pace of 3:24/km (5km in 17:00). The conditions were pretty difficult, because the ground was very slippery and hard. What's more, the route included two 180-degree returns. That's why I am really happy about my performance. To sum it up, I managed to get the 4th spot, exactly 1 minute behind the winner:)


And now it's high time for me to write a short summary of the last season.

weeks - 52   (5 of them - cooling down period)
km in total - 3802,92   (73,13 per week)
km (orienteering) - 1235,6   (32,49%)
running hours in total - 360:51   (6:56 per week)
orienteering hours - 127:50   (35,43%)
hours of different exercises (like strength, streching etc.) - 116:48
hours of other sports (like swimming, cycling, sauna etc.) - 77:18
training hours in total - 554:57   (10:40 per week).

It all makes a really nice day average of 10,45km and 1:31 hours of training.


I must admit that it was a really good and solid O-season. I managed to pursue a lot of my goals. Furthermore, what's even more important, I didn't get injured and had almost no problems with my health;)

Below I present my results from the most important races of 2010:

JWOC, Denmark
long - 26th
middle qual - 8th
middle final - 14th
relay - 5th

BJC, Lithuania

long - 5th

mixed relay - 5th

WRE during IOOL in Germany

long - 3rd

Polish Championships

sprint - 2nd

middle - 2nd

relay - 5th

night - 1st

long - 2nd

superlong - 2nd

Polish Club Championships

relay - 2nd

long - 4th

sprint - dsq

sprint - 1st

middle - 10th

club relay - 3rd.

I am satisfied with the last season, but feel that some of the things went wrong. Luckily, my last year as a junior has only just begun!

Saturday's orienteering and Sunday's halfmarathon

It was a wonderful weekend! Lots of running - that's what I actually love;)

On Saturday I took part in UKS's Tournament. Middle in the morning - close to the Lublinek Airport - and sprint in the afternoon - in my park called 'Zdrowie'.

The middle distance race was very fast and pleasant - except for the western side of the map! It was not a marsh... it was a pond! Terrible...

As for my technical performance, I made 2 considerable mistakes: wrong route choice to the 14th control (I had enough of cold water and thought it would be faster), 0'20 lost; huge problems while looking for the 15th one in the green area, 0'35. My legs worked quite well, but 'no fireworks'.
I managed to win my class (M21) easily. However, my time was 0:41 worse than the winner of M18 class - Olej.

I felt really self-confident before the second race of the day - sprint distance. Why? Because I did numerous training sessions in this park during the past 3 years.
This time my physical shape was perfect. Nevertheless, I made an enormous mistake to the 14th control! As many as 40 seconds! I trivialized this control and lost my concentration completely...
Due to this fact, I lost my clear victory and took the 2nd spot - 16 seconds behind Chrupek.

On Sunday some orienteers decided to do a demanding training before the coming Polish Championships in Superlong. I mean - Olej, Chrupek, Pasza, Dzidek, my father (not an orienteer actually) and me. All of us competed in the 1st Szakal's Halfmarathon Around the Łagiewnicki Forest. My goal was clear - not to run as fast as possible, but ~4:00/km.

The first 8 kilometres were very easy (4:02, 3:51, 3:56, 3:54, 3:54, 3:58, 3:47, 3:58) and I felt just wonderful. Then, some climbs began and it was quite difficult to keep the constant pace (4:15, 3:44, 4:22, 4:00, 3:43, 4:08, 3:54, 4:04). The last part of the race was rather flat and we had no trouble increasing our speed (3:49, 3:58, 3:40, 3:41, 3:42, 0:13).

Throughout the whole course my companion was Olej and we crossed the finish line hand in hand with exactly the same time of 1:22:41. It makes a nice average of 3:55/km. Surprisingly, we managed to gain the 3rd place!
Heart rate - 166/177.

P.S. Today's weight - 67,9kg!

Let's keep it that way!

The last two weeks of my training went just superb for me;) I managed to do everything I wanted and had this wonderful feeling that my shape was improving all the time.

As soon as I came back from Denmark, I started working on my speed. After two really tough trainings on Wednesday and Thursday and a rest day on Friday I was ready to take part in Polish Academic Championships in cross-country running on 10th April. This race was organised in the 3rd May Park (the one where I train every Tuesday and Thursday). According to my Garmin, the course - which consisted of 2 loops - was 5,9km long. The aim that I wanted to achieve was the pace of 3:30/km and after crossing the finish line it turned out that I pursued this goal perfectly. My time was 20:40, whereas my place about 109th. Several young orienteers competed in this race as well and the only one who beat me was Hewi (winning by 10secs). I must admit I was really happy and... surprised at my performance.

A few hours later I was already sitting on the train heading for Jelenia Góra, where we were supposed to take part in an orienteering competition. Obviously, it was cancelled. Fortunately, we got clean maps and could do a really nice technical training. Olej set a 9,4km course for me and I could enjoy 70mins of easy running in a quite interesting terrain. The very same day, on Sunday, we travelled by Pasza's car to Szklarska Poręba in order to take part in a 5-day camp.

Of course, I am not going to describe each training session, but I would love to present two of them which took place on track. The former was carried out on Tuesday. 4x1km. My times were 3:10, 3:06, 3:06, 3:04. Three days later came the latter. It consisted of much shorter sections (200m-300m-200m-300m-400m-200m). When I heard it, I thought 'It will be much easier than the previous one'. How wrong I was! I must admit it was probably the most exhausting training session in my career! Nevertheless, I was extremely satisfied:) As for my times: 26,2-42,1-26,7-42,8-59,0-26,6. During the under-one-minute 400m run I managed to get my maximal heart rate ever - 199!

On Saturday Kołczu organised a nice technical training in Grotniki (there were no tracks and paths on the map), which I took very easily to take some rest after this tiring camp.
2 days ago I did a lovely speed training - 8x3mins (break of 3 mins). My worst pace was 3:19/km, whereas the best one - 3:13/km. Very intensely and evenly - that's how it should work!
Today we could enjoy something new during a strength training. We were to run and do some exercises with a partner behind us, who held stretchy lines so as to make it tougher.

Now I have just come back from a nice one hour's visit to sauna and feel incredibly relaxed;) and what's even more important - ready for the next journey, which is going to begin as soon as tomorrow! This weekend in Gdańsk and the whole next week in Sweden, at the end of which we are going to compete in two important competitions: Elitserien sprint (our debut in a new club Nybro OK) and 10mila. I really can't wait for tomorrow to begin!;-)

First of the minigoals executed:)

Last Friday we travelled to Podlesice so as to take part in a well-known cross.

Although I suffered from a little cold some days ago, I felt that I was pretty well prepared for this competition. I thought we were going to run the same loop as last year. I even analysed the split times and prepared myself mentally. However, it turned out that it's not possible to run using these tracks. That's why it was decided to move this race to Złoty Potok (the very same straight as 2, 3, 4... years ago).

I don't have so much time to describe my race very precisely as I realised that my A level exams are coming in a month's time. I just want to say that looking back on this competition I am pretty satisfied with my performance. Nevertheless, I didn't feel extremely strong physically that day and I must admit I would prefer this cross to have been carried out at a much faster loop...

All in all, comparing this result to the one from the year 2008, when I competed with the same people in my class, I made a considerable progress and am looking forward to improving my place in the forest!

Afterwards we had two technical trainings. I decided to take my headlamp for the first one because I wanted to practise some night orienteering (it got dark when I spotted the 11th control). It's unbelievable how I managed to find the 15th control among these bushes and enormous rocks... Moreover, I made a large mistake to the 16th control due to the lack of attention and laziness to focus on map reading and keeping the direction. On Sunday there was a middle distance course. I took it very easily. However, I must admit that sometimes I had a great willingness to speed up and feel the spirit of a real O-competition. I made one major mistake to the 11th control - I saw one or two more re-entrants in the terrain there... But who bothers?

Now I am leaving for a middle pace training in a nearby park (warm-up + 12,6km). Tomorrow a physical training combined with orienteering with my clubmates. Friday, 5:30 a.m. - we are heading for Denmark! Spring Cup, orienteering wake up;)

P.S. Łukasz, you are my real hero! Good luck on track! :)

Justyna, I know how you felt!

This title may sound a bit exaggerated but I am sure I realised at least in 1/5 how exhausted she felt while struggling for the Olympic gold with the Norwegian star.

On Saturday I started in a special cross-test in Ruda Pabianicka. My watch estimated the distance to equal 8,16km. It included 4 loops of 2,04km. The climb is believed to be about 200m. The weather conditions were surprisingly good. Although it was a bit cold, the sun was shining and there was no rain/snow falling from the sky. The ground was covered with a small amount of snow, which meant that it was worse than last year but judging from the previous days I actually hadn't expected it to be that nice!

I was extremely motivated to beat the time of 30:05, which I managed to achieve one year ago. I dreamt of having a magical 2 in the front. It was exactly the same goal that Pasza wanted to pursue. I was sure it wouldn't be easy to defeat him. What's more, I was uncertain of mysterious Łukasz's abilities because his shape has been magnificent lately. However, I decided to do my utmost, do a really tough training out of this race and simply enjoy every meter of the course!

My starting position was unbelievably promising because I started one minute behind Chrupek, 2mins behind Zielu and 9mins behind Łukasz - it meant a great possibility of catching them all and I took advantage of it. But first things first...

I did a long, appropriate warm-up with lots of speed-ups to prepare my legs for the coming intensive effort. I began my race at 11:11. I didn't want to start too fast but obviously I couldn't prevent my legs from flying on the very first straight. That's why I finished the first loop with the time of 7:15 and began to feel that my legs are a bit too tired in such an early part of the race. However, there was no other way now than to clench my teeth and carry on...

I succeeded in finishing the second loop, during which I managed to pass Chrupek, with a quite satisfying time - 7:29. Nonetheless, somewhere in the middle of the course I had thoughts of ending my race at that moment. Fortunately, I am just too ambitious and strong-willed to do so! I only needed to think of these terrible pricks of conscience I would have.

Seeing Łukasz and Cilu some 100m ahead of me made the next loop much easier for me since the only thing I wanted to achieve then was to catch them! Although I was even able to run past them, my split time (7:36) wasn't delightful...

Fortunately, I managed to find enough power in my legs and mind(!) - what turned out to be much more important, I think - to run the last loop faster than the previous one (7:29). On the final straight I felt as if someone tried to stick nails in my forehead from the inside. I wasn't capable of straightening my legs while finishing. The only thing I was sure of was the fact that I beat the magical time of 30 minutes. Once I had punched the 'Finish' control, I fell down and breathed deeply. Immediately I heard that I won with Pasza with the advantage of about 8 seconds, which made me unbelievably happy and satisfied! I could easily start my compulsory jog after such a tough competition;-)

Split times

Now I would like to present a short comparison with the last year's competition.

Times (and splits) + HR:

2009 - 30:05 (7:42, 7:32, 7:28, 7:23) + 185/192

2010 - 29:49 (7:15, 7:29, 7:36, 7:29) + 185/191.

As you can see, this year I made one considerable mistake - I just started a bit too fast! However, I still managed to achieve better time than one year ago. Furthermore, snowy ground made it even tougher. That's why I am sure my shape is much better than last year - what makes me unbelievably happy and self-assured. There is one little thing I would like to add: certainly I am not going to make the same mistakes as one year ago just before the more important cross-test in Podlesice. I hope to be dangerous there;-)

P.S. Today's middle pace training:

12,72km

48:44

3:49/km

HR 161/169

any questions? ;)

Good to be back!

It's been almost two months since I published the last post on my website. I must admit it's a shame! However, I promise I'll do my best not to make you wait so long again:)

Part of the national team travelled to Spain today. I feel so envious of that! Nevertheless, I know that staying in Poland is the best alternative for me since we are still working on my physical strength. What's more, I am heading for Denmark in 6 days in order to start my technical preparations for the coming JWOC in Aalborg.

But let me tell you what I have been doing since 8th January...

9 I 2010

All the people who train under the Pasza's strong-arm government were forced to take part in the so-called cross-test. Although its length was just about 2,64km, the times we achieved were horrible due to a dramatic amount of snow under our feet. Fortunately, I managed to secure my 1st position at the training plans' list.

23 I & 6 II 2010

Two times I decided to travel to Warsaw in order to compete in a cross-country race called Winter Mountain Run in Falenica. The course consists of 3 loops of about 3,2km and the climb is said to come to 255m. The weather conditions were really hard and my times of 43:16 (4th place) and 45:16 (3rd place) were quite satisfying. However, what's most important for me is the fact that I had a great opportunity to do a really tough training, strengthen my legs and boost my will power.

13 II 2010

That day I took part in a Valentine's Day O-competition organized by my club. It consisted of a 2-leg relay and a short scorelauf with a mass start. In the former I started with Ania F., both of us made one mistake (me mispunching the 16th control). Therefore we only managed to take the 4th place and won a 30-minute bus or tram trip in Łódź;) I succeeded in winning the second competition after a close fight with Cilu and Jasina. Exactly the same day we travelled to Szklarska Poręba for a winter camp.

14-24 II 2010

We spent 11 lovely days in the beautiful Polish mountains. As you all know, I just love the figures: more than 256km, more than 31 hours of training (about 26,5h of pure running). I am sure I worked really hard throughout this period of time and I hope it will pay back in the future.

On 19th February we competed in the Polish Championships in Ski Orienteering (2-person relay). My partner was Charubcia and... we had very much fun out there in the forest;) It was just not the matter of the results but the great enjoyment and the ability to laugh at one's self because our skiing skills were (I would even say: still are) far from perfect.

today

I am having a running-free day because tomorrow I am to take part in a special provincial cross-test in Ruda Pabianicka. Yesterday I made a really strong training to wake my legs up a bit - 2km + 7x3/3mins (with the average pace of 3:23/km) + 2km. Unfortunately, it's been snowing today and it is bound to be quite cold on Saturday but I'll do my best to come as close as possible to the course best time of 30:05...

16 minutes of extremely fast running!

I think that I can say that this Saturday I began preparing for the coming season 2010. There was a special competition called II Łódzki Dwubój Biegowy organized by our club. It consisted of two parts: a cross-country race of 2,64km and an orienteering sprint distance race (the course was said to be about 1,9km but my watch states that I did 1,63km!).

In this 1st part we were told to run at 110% by our coach Pasza. So I tried to fulfil his expectations and was his 'hare' throughout the whole course. At the very end he took great lengths to speed up and won with the advantage of 1 second over me. I reached the time of about 8:45 (3:19/km). I am very satisfied with my performance:)


The second race was a short sprint. I managed to win all the split times in my class (apart from losing 1'' at the finish:P). What's more, my max HR was 194, so I think I can easily take 195 as my maximum heart rate right now. This way I succeeded in winning the whole competition and getting a big cup and some delicious sweets;)

Tomorrow is the official date when we are going to start training. Yesterday I went to the last party with something more than just soft drinks because I am going to lead a healthy life in order to pursue my great goals! I have lots of dreams, expectations and incredible motivation to be one of the best in the world. Yes, in the world, not only in Poland! I know I've got a long way to go but 'Everything is possible when you believe!'.

I am not sure if all of you noticed that on the right side I put logo and link to the best O-Stuff in the world;-)

I think I'm gonna do some changes to my blog in the nearest future but we'll see...
Now I only pray to God to save me from illnesses and serious injuries. Jesus, I trust in You.

Weekend in Arturówek with Garmin Forerunner 405!

Last Thursday I bought Garmin Forerunner 405 and I must admit it's a perfect watch! Running with it is much more pleasant and makes me even more motivated and determined to train hard. The thing I love about this watch is the fact that it shows my current pace and distance, which is really helpful. It has lots of different advantages but it's not the time and place to describe them all. I am just going to enjoy training and orienteering with my new friend;)

On Saturday there was my first race with my new device. This competition was called Championships of Łódź in Night Orienteering. I started in M18 class and took the 2nd place because of making one terrible mistake of over 3 minutes! And two smaller ones of about 90 seconds altogether. What's more, I lost some time in the area of the 13th control, where I met a whole pack of boars. Ok but let's forget about the results...

I would like to say something about the Polish maps... In a special programme to view tracks from my new watch called QuickRoute states: 'Click on a point on the route and drag it to the corresponding location on the map. At least two points along the route, preferably well interspaced, need to be adjusted.' I followed the instructions and adjusted two points... and what did I see? That I didn't visit all the other controls at all!
On the map below I decided to draw how my route choices would look like if I hadn't used my Garmin watch. Thanks to it, I am able to draw one important conclusion. Obviously, none of the GPS watches is able to show the tracks perfectly. However, I see that they have a really high degree of accuracy but what causes all the deviations is the fact that maps are not made precisely enough. That's a pity...
I can't wait to check how my watch works in Scandinavia. I recommend reading Alek's note (search for the post from 2009-10-16) comparing navigating in Poland and Sweden:)


Yesterday my father and I took part in the 6th World Day of Running. It was a cross-country race consisting of two loops of about 4,8km. My watch measured a distance of 9,63km, time of 35:38, average pace of 3:42/km, average HR - 183 and max HR - 188, which let me achieve a satisfying 5th place in the open category:) I started a bit too fast with the leading group (3:31, 3:28, 3:41, 3:28) and then a real crisis came (3:53, 3:58). Afterwards it got a bit better (3:47, 3:54, 3:42) but I had to struggle really hard till the very end of the race. I missed the podium only by about a minute. It is much but is not THAT much as well... So I am pretty determined to train hard and took the podium place in this kind of competition some day:)

An expected resounding defeat

It was the voivodeship final of the school cross-country 10-man relay. I ran on an experimental 5th leg. Judging from my time (2:46) the course was a little less than 1km long. My school took the 12th place. Let's call it the 12th, not the last;P

A round 100! :-)

I was really curious when my 100th post on this blog would be published and I am proud to say that you are reading it right now!

Last Friday my school took part in a cross-country 10-man relay competition. Each leg was about 1020m. I was the last one from my team to fight. I started 2nd much time behind the leader and with a considerable advantage over the bronze medalist. I just couldn't lose this position and decided to struggle for the best running time. I achieved 3:01, which makes a nice pace of 2:57/km on this muddy course. I was really satisfied with our result!

Thanks to this title of vice-champions of Łódź we are able to enter the tomorrow's Voivodeship Championships. See you there! ...but at first some football in the open air at 7:10 with my classmates;)

An active day!

Yesterday the Championships of the 26th High School in cross-country running took place. I did a proper, really long and solid warm up and was ready for the start. I stood in the first line as one of the biggest favourites. I let one other guy (who got silver eventually) lead the race till 1:55 on my watch. Then, I got bored with the pace and pushed much harder just before a little mountain. Thanks to it, I gained a considerable advantage and was able to become the school champion easily:) I measured the course length and it was a bit over 1200m (but let's take these 1200m). My 'official' time was 3:44 but I'd rather trust the time on my own watch - 3:48. This makes quite a good pace of 3:10/km. The second runner came to the finish 10 seconds behind me.

In the evening I visited Arturówek to take part in the last night training before the Polish Champs. It would have been really hard for me to run slower than I did. I just focused on avoiding mistakes and analysing the appropriate pace in each moment of the race. The results presented below;)

My race at the Polish Champs in night orienteering is going to begin only in some 30 hours! I am highly motivated to win the gold and I think that the best recipe for pursuing this goal is here:

This is the how very true sentence said by Jasina Junior.

Great training week and brilliant performance:)

My good performance at Spring Cup in Denmark gave me a lot of needed motivation to train as hard as possible. What's more, my injured right foot started getting better and better and piercing pain went off slowly. I felt so fresh and determined during last week's trainings! It was not only my own feeling as it turned out on Saturday. But let's begin with Wednesday's School Provincial Champs in 10-person Cross-Country Relay...

Obviously, we were not among the favourites and I took this race as a part of my speed training. The distance was said to be 1200m in an almost totally flat terrain. I was chosen to run the last leg of course. Unfortunately, when I started - being in the second last position - I could not even see the runners ahead of me! Although I had known it would be immensely difficult to reach them, I decided to push hard to skip one place up at least. However, the gap turned out to be too large and we missed the 11th place by some 100m. My time was 3:40, which makes an average of 3:03 per km. I was pretty satisfied, but very tired after spending half a day in hot sun beams...

And now I would like to pass on to the aforementioned Saturday. Yeah... 2 days ago we had our own 'spring cup' in Łódź. It was called 'Welcoming the spring', indeed. Much earlier I had decided to compete in elite class in order to have a longer course and more fun! I made a brilliant race and have beaten my own trainer for the very first time in an official Polish ranking competition. Moreover, I'll hopefully get some delicious ice-cream from Zielu since he bet on me winning with Pasza and Amelka is bound to buy some ice-cream for him at one of the coming competitions. I would also like to add that the most prestigious classes were won by Gwoździu, Nati, Zielu and me. Funny, isn't it? :)


Uff... now I have clear conscience and can easily head for Sweden tomorrow. I recommend you to take a look at Jacek Morawski's website to check all the competition races we are going to take part in. As far as the night relays (7-manna and 10mila) are concerned, I am going to run the first legs in both of them. I got to know the plan of technical trainings as well and judging from it we are going to face 17 O-challenges with a map - it sounds really wonderful!

CU back on 20th!

I've run out of motivation completely!

Last weekend the first important competition of the year was held. Although it was not an orienteering course, I tried to do my best to perform well. I was quite unsure about my shape, but still hoped to take the first place in my class. However, Olej made a superb race that day and beat me by over 40 seconds! I had nothing else to do but congratulate him and analyse this cross thoroughly to find the reasons for my weak performance.

Here's what came to my mind:
- illness (with taking antibiotics) just one week before the start, which made me stay at home for 3 days losing 3 training sessions; what's more, it was not finished when I began to train again and I felt really weakened...
- right foot injury having its climax two days before the race and not allowing me to finish my Thursday's training; nevertheless, I must admit it had no impact on my running on Saturday because the pain went off at the very beginning of the course...
- two parties (especially the second one was a real excess!) at the weekend before and huge problems with sleeping lasting 3 nights...
- having stuffy nose because of piercing cold at night in our cosy room, which caused great problems with breathing during the race (especially at the last lap)...
- running the whole 2nd lap behind Patela, who had just started, was fresh and exaggerated with his pace a bit and slowed down at the beginning of the third one of mine, which I only noticed having run 500m about 13sec slower than before...

On no account do these factors justify my performance, but it is a way to improve my lame mood ;-)

Results and splits.

I've also prepared some charts showing the importance of starting calmly and slowly. Note that Olej was 7th at the first control, easily sped up and eventually succeeded in taking a clear lead.

After such a wise analysis the time came for a special bonus... I hope the main hero of this chart will like it! :-)

Afterwards we had some nice technical trainings in the surrounding forests. I did not take them too seriously because of my injury and just tried to enjoy map reading (and help my clubmates a bit!). I present all the maps below...