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 (?) :)

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!

Deserved and desired rest at home

The last weekend I spent at home before the long one in November (11-14) was 11-12th September. That's why I really wanted to sleep in my own bed during Saturday's night. And it happened at the afore-mentioned weekend. At last!

Since then I took part in some technical trainings in the most boring and the least challenging forest in the world (in my subjective opinion!). I think it's really NOT worth losing time to describe them. But one map (out of 3) will do;)

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!

Night fever!

Yesterday, in the evening, I had my last technical training before tomorrow's Polish Championships in Night Orienteering. My performance was quite satisfying and I drew a lot of useful conclusions. Nothing more to say. Right now;)

Cross-country instead of orienteering...

Yesterday I took part in an 'orienteering' competition called PoZnO. I regret to have to put this word in quotation marks... However, it really was a cross-country race. I am getting bored with the same map, the same terrain, the same place and even the same, terribly easy controls!


I am looking forward to Thursday. That's the day when we are leaving for a one-week keep-fit camp in Szklarska Poręba. It just has to be funny:)

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.

My first PoZnO this autumn;)

I am very satisfied with my today's performance! Although, my legs weren't working well and I felt as if they had been made of steel, I managed to avoid making mistakes and won the competition with the advantage of more than 4 minutes over my personal trainer Pasza:)

The course length given by the organizers was 7,0km but I measured it in Ocad (7,395km) and my watch shows 7,265km. So it must have been a bit longer;) my running time was 37:28 with the effective pace of 5:09/km and the real pace of 4:29/km (I did 8,342km). My HR was 183/191!

However, what is the most important thing for me is the fact that my watched worked really well today and the tracks it shows are very similar to the ones I would draw on my own. Below I present 2 maps: 1st - with no amendments to the tracks and 2nd - with some little amendments.


I think that my watch has a little tendency to understate the distance. But I'll check it some day...

Flawless night training

I wish I had such a race at Polish Champs on 2nd October!
I made only some minor mistakes, so considering it was night orienteering, I can easily call my performance flawless:)
2. - ditch bend first, then the hole (5'')

3. - some time lost in green (10'')
11. - big problems with keeping the right direction (15'')
13. - didn't really know where the control was going to be situated (8'')
15. - forgot about the scale after leaving the path and didn't change the direction a bit (15'').

All in all, I made only 53 seconds of mistakes on a 4,98km long course and achieved a great time of 27:42, which makes an average of 5:34 per km!
I'm terribly satisfied with my performance and do NOT hesitate to dare for more;-)

Club technical trainings in Łódź

I think it's the only whole week I spent in Łódź during these summer holidays. Tomorrow I am going to Chomiąża to visit someone special. Come back on Friday. On Saturday we're heading for Denmark for the first training camp before JWOC 2010. Come back on August 2nd. On 3rd August I am going with my club to compete in Czech Republic (Bohemia 2009).

Why just run? Orienteering's more fun!

Have fun!

Spirit of orienteering:)

CU guys;-)

Fantastic weekend in Łódź!

It was the last weekend of April when I took part in two nice competitions. The first one was an orienteering course on Saturday and the second on Sunday - a street race. I present a short description of each of them below.

XXVIII School Championships of Łódź Province
I had an obvious desire to run as fast as possible after mincing and feeling not so well physically during our camp in Sweden. I started like a dog let out from a lead and had a terribly uncertain beginning. Although the very end of the course went just superb, I was sure I could not have won this competition. I was really surprised when Olej came to the finish losing over 3 minutes to me...

VII Piotrkowska Street Race

I decided not to take part in the open race (about 4km), but chose a two times shorter distance as I thought I would get some chance of achieving a good place in the secondary schools' class. I dreamt of being in the TOP 6...
Some time before the race Pasza told me that it was possible to win this competition. I thought 'He must be joking!'. However, it was really nice to hear such belief in my abilities:)
We discussed the strategy. I had some points to follow:
- do not lead the race
- run about 3rd-5th place
- do not speed up in the middle part
- attack on the final straight.
Nevertheless, it turned out not to be that easy! Everything went just the other way about, cause the start of the race was incredibly slow and I ran in the first line. I had to stop my legs in order not to take the lead. Suddenly, two daredevils decided to run faster, but I was sure they would not be able to keep their pace... and I was right. After some time I joined the couple and ran almost the whole course with one of these guys.
Just before the final straight I looked into his eyes and got to know I was going to win the race. I made a short speed-up, so did he. And some 150m before the finish line I decided to carry out the final attack. I looked behind and saw he was too tired to chase me. I could not still believe I had just won this street race. It seemed so unbelievable several minutes before, I was so happy!!!
Apart from gaining a great deal of satisfaction, I got wonderful awards as well - a printer, a sports bag, lots of cosmetics and a cup sponsored by the President of Łódź.

As far as the very sports aspects are concerned, the length of the race was about 1,8km (possible in my opinion, although it was said to be 2km long by the organizers) and my running time was 5:43. My heart rate was 178/188, but does it really matter? ;-)

My foot leaves much to be desired...

Below I present the maps from our weekend's trainings.

I think there's nothing to add - they are simply too boring and... out-of-date to comment!

Tomorrow we are going to Podlesice to attend the annual meeting of junior orienteers from the whole country. The climax of this meeting is the famous cross on Saturday morning. I would think I am prepared really well for it if it wasn't for my injured right foot... which led to an unexpected interruption of today's training:(

Fortunately, I have one day off more and hopefully it will get better. Wait and see...

The winter Saturdays...

On Saturdays it is arranged a technical training in my plan. It is one of those days I enjoy most! Now I would like to describe my last (today's) and second last (a week ago) TT a bit. Let's begin with the earlier one...

How to make a course with nearly 400m climb in Łódź?

The answer is here:


The course parameters were as follows:
a bit over 14,7km with 395m climb
and lots of controls ;-)

I needed 100 minutes and some seconds to finish this course, so my effective pace was about 6:48/km. I think it's really good as for the training.
The aim of this particular training session was to reach as many hills as possible and I think I did manage very well! Obviously, I did NOT find all the controls, especially hollows under a huge layer of snow. :)

The first competition in 2009!

I may have exaggerated calling the morning's race a competition... However, I achieved a funny diploma for gaining the first victory in 2009. :-) I hope it's a brilliant prognostic for the future!

As far as the course is concerned, I must admit it was really interesting and enjoyable! I even visited two places (controls no. 67 & 44) I had never been to so far! Congratulations, Piotruś ;)
Finally, I want to emphasize that mine and Olej's route choice were of exactly the same length - 6,915km. Olej took 34-36-37-39-32 at the beginning. Funny, isn't it? :)

Control no. 43 lost forever...

Everything would have been perfect, if it hadn't been for the mysterious control no. 43. Unfortunately, no-one managed to find all the controls on the longest course because of the disappearance of this unlucky control. That's a pity!



Here are the results...

NORMAL

1. Marzena Kaźmierczak 34:10
2. Karolina Kordala 36:10
3. Zuzia Lech 37:15
4. Małgosia Kordala 39:10
5. Ola Filipowska 40:11
6. Kuba Pietek & Marcin Lufniak 45:15

SHORT

1. Szymon Pałka 58:55
2. Dawid Gąsiorek 64:52
3. Natalia Ścieszko 68:20
4. Jakub Mączyński (didn't he lose his card?!) 69:00
5. Karolina Hanuszkiewicz 70:19
6. Aneta Kaźmierczak 72:39
7. Ola Banaś 74:26
8. Agata Stankiewicz 75:57
9. Agnieszka Banaś 79:19
10. Natalia Bartczak 82:03
11. Agata Lech 85:05
12. Łukasz Rzeźnicki (8 controls missing) 51:30

LONG

1. Łukasz Charuba (4 controls missing) 66:55
2. Sebastian Markowiak (4) 75:52
3. Michał Kordala (4) 81:57
4. Paweł Byczuk (6) 41:04
5. Witek Jasiński (6) 47:20
6. Dominik Chudzik (6) 51:45
7. Kamil Student (6) 56:20
8. Bartłomiej Kubiak (6) 71:34
9. Jakub Michalik (6) 83:11
10. Maciej Michalik (6) 89:10

...sorry for the problems

Christmas mess

First of all, I would like to begin with the tomorrow's technical training I organize together with Zielu. It's going to be a memory training from one control to another. We've prepared 2 such courses: long (5,87km, 12 controls) and short (4,04km, 9 controls). Don't think we have forgotten about younger and inexperienced orienteers - they are going to run a normal orienteering race of 2,85km and 7 controls. The place where we met is obviously our favourite 'Bar under the Larch'. The 00-minute is at 10 o'clock - be PUNCTUAL!
Here are the startlists...

LONG

01 - Maciej Michalik
04 - Amelia Ewiak
07 - Jakub Michalik
10 - Mateusz Połomski
13 - Michał Kordala
16 - Kamil Student
19 - Sebastian Markowiak
22 - Dominik Chudzik
25 - Witek Jasiński
28 - Łukasz Charuba
31 - Paweł Byczuk
34 - Jakub Chrustowicz

SHORT
00 - Ola Banaś
03 - Jakub Mączyński
06 - Natalia Ścieszko
09 - Dawid Gąsiorek
12 - Natalia Ewiak
15 - Szymon Pałka
18 - Agata Lech
21 - Natalia Bartosik
24 - Agnieszka Banaś
27 - Mateusz Miętus
30 - Beata Winczewska
33 - Karolina Hanuszkiewicz
36 - Aneta Kaźmierczak
39 - Kasia Winczewska
42 - Agata Stankiewicz

NORMAL
02 - Małgosia Kordala
05 - Karolina Kordala
08 - Ola Filipowska
11 - Zuzia Lech
14 - Marzenka Kaźmierczak
17 - two boys :-P

Hope 2 C U 2morrow! ;-)

Secondly, I'd love to mention our club Christmas Eve party on Friday. It was really wonderful to celebrate the greatest festival of the year with nearly all the members of our O-club. What's more, it's magnificent to have the brilliant SILVA compass again! The newest solo album of Rychu Peja is worth listening to as well.

Furthermore, I have a funny map riddle for you. On the map presented below there are 10 circles. In 5 of them there is a mistake. Find out the numbers of wrong circles and say what's actually wrong? E.g. a pasturage...



Finally, I would like to show you my yesterday's technical training. Unfortunately, only partly done with Zielu. The course wasn't different, it was created just to have a goal to reach while running.



Today I set my personal record in the number of kilometers run in an individual training week. It was almost 104km! I'm lovin' it :)

Something more fascinating than running?

Yeah! But only today... Why? Between 3 and 5 p.m. my first practical driving lesson took place. It was really amazing to take the wheel and visit e.g. Konstantynów. That's a pity that a next session is coming not until next Saturday.

In the morning we had PoZnO competition and had a good time in Łagiewnicki forest. There were no tracks on the map and sometimes it was even plain. Unfortunately, as usual some problems occured due to the mistake on the NEW map! Nevertheless, it's no good crying over spilt milk - it was just a funny training :-)



Tonight the Gran Derbi of Europe! Barca against Real Madrid at Camp Nou! You canNOT miss it! Who's gonna win?

Unexpected competition on Santa's Day

It was called 'I Łódzki Dwubój Biegowy' (the English translation for 'dwubój' is 'biathlon' - funny, isn't it?) and consisted of 2 races. The first one was an orienteering sprint distance race.

My aim was to gain as much advantage as possible since the second stage was going to be a cross-country race for about 2,5km with a handicapped start.



And I pretty managed! I started 15 seconds ahead of Zielu, which enabled me to win the whole competition and get a huge chocolate Santa Claus. ;-)
Then we made a short cross with a map and came back home to relax a bit - I slept really soundly after such a draining day and hardly managed to wake up to watch the football match from Premiership broadcast on Canal+!

For my trainings, last week was very demanding, I trained every day and ran over 100km. I am sure it's the only and right way to achieve what I really want and look for. Today's training session's gonna be 13th in a row and tomorrow the deserved break is expected to get ready for the coming 12 days!

Finally, there's one more thing I would like to add. Namely the prize won by our friend Ruda in the poll organised by World of O and Ultimate Orienteering. Congratulations:) You see, it was really worth voting!