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.

Great O-weekend!

On Saturday I had a really nice technical training. It was a really looong corridor in 3 different terrain types and at the end my legs got really tired. What's more, it was very hard to concentrate on the last loop... However, it was a magnificent session. More than 2,5h spent with the map in my hand!

In orienteering not only your technical skills are needed, but also your ability to run fast in the forest. That's why on Sunday I did a physical training on a special cross-loop (~1,2km almost only in the forest and a lot of it in a green forest...). I did 7 such loops with various intensity.

All in all, I feel that I made a great step forward in pursuing my goal on the right side of my blog.

Plans for the coming week:

Monday - jogging

Tuesday - moderate pace

Wednesday - strength training

Thursday - track intervals

Friday - free

Saturday - jog

Sunday - 5km race and probably a post here (?) :)

Winter preparations - 1st part

It all began on 14th November. Well, began, but only on the paper...

Week no. 1
Illness and only 1 running session (8km).

Week no. 2
Almost no training, but two starts: Warsaw at Night (3rd place) and Grand Prix of Łódź (5km - 18:53). Disastrous feeling...

Week no. 3

The first week of REAL training, running every day. Started on Saturday in Christmas O-competition (middle distance) and took 2nd place.

Week no. 4

Everything went fine and we had a superb technical training session on Sunday.

Week no. 5

A tough training session on Monday (4x500m) and a test on Thursday (1500m - 4:19,4). On Friday to Zakopane.

Week no. 6

Training camp in Zakopane (more than 138km in 14,5h). On Friday back to Łódź to celebrate Christmas with my family.

Week no. 7

The whole week in Jagniątków on a sports camp with my club and friends from Poland. Although I did more than 148km in almost 16h, I am not completely satisfied with my training during that camp.

Week no. 8

It's right now. Fighting against a small illness and taking rest after the camps, but doing all the training sessions.

I hope everything's gonna start on the coming Monday!

Wind of change

As promised, I updated the top and the right side of my blog yesterday.
There is some new interesting information there:

• new motto
• link to the website of my new Norwegian club - RAUMAR
• updated section 'get to know me!'
• new way to show my achievements
• my Personal Bests from track, street and not only
• the globe to see my O-journey
• all Polish bloggers gathered in one place
• 'Follow me!' section - just do it!
• statistics of total pageviews

And that's all for now, I think:)

Recently I've found an interesting article (in Polish) on the Internet. It is about Ronnie O'Sullivan - one of the best snooker players in the world...

O'Sullivan nie miał łatwego dzieciństwa. Jego ojciec - Ronnie senior - został skazany na 18 lat pozbawienia wolności za zabójstwo czarnoskórego ochroniarza. Po tym zdarzeniu nastoletni O'Sullivan popadł w depresję. Wówczas zaczęły się jego problemy z alkoholem i narkotykami. Ronnie senior jeszcze przed rozpoczęciem kary więzienia poprosił Ray'a Reardona, by ten poprowadził dalej dobrze zapowiadającą się karierę syna. W młodości Ronnie junior nie przykładał się do nauki. Na pytanie, co było jego ulubionym przedmiotem w szkole, odpowiedział, iż nigdy nie koncentrował się na nauce i od zawsze wiedział, że jego sposobem na życie będzie snooker. W końcu zerwał ze szkołą i całymi dniami przesiadywał w klubach snookerowych.
W 1994 roku w więzieniu znalazła się jego matka Maria (za malwersacje finansowe). Wówczas O'Sullivan musiał się zająć swoją młodszą siostrą Danielle i doglądać rodzinnych biznesów. Z początku nie udało mu się temu podołać - popadł w coraz większe uzależnienia spowodowane nasilającą się depresją. Ostatecznie jednak udało mu się wybrnąć z kłopotów i rozpocząć karierę snookerzysty.
Od tego czasu został trzykrotnie Mistrzem Świata, był pięciokrotnie pierwszy na Światowej Liście Rankingowej, zdobył najszybszego breaka maksymalnego podczas Mistrzostw Świata, został jedynym zdobywcą 3 breaków maksymalnych podczas Mistrzostw Świata. Ponadto wygrał 24 turnieje rankingowe i 28 turniejów nierankingowych.

21. You are never really playing an opponent. You are playing yourself, your own highest standards, and when you reach your limits, that is real joy.

Winter training and new Norwegian club

Now I am staying in Zakopane on a winter training camp. It's already the 4th day of the camp and there are still 3 days left. Today we are having a rest day - just a morning jog, aquapark in a couple of minutes and then easy running, some speed-ups and strength exercises in the afternoon. I am coming back on 23th December in the late evening and on 26th December in the morning I am leaving for another sports camp - in Jagniątków.

One more news: I am happy to be a member of a Norwegian club - RAUMAR Orienteering. I joined this club together with Agata, Natalia and Witek. I hope the cooperation will develop great in the future!

P.S. I promise to update my blog during the Christmas time, so watch out;)