I've finally found the right rhythm!

It all began almost 2 weeks ago when I left Łódź for a long sport camp.

After taking part in short medical tests in the north of Poland we made our way towards Germany to compete in International Ostsee OL 2010. It was the last chance for me to show something before announcing the list of runners to represent Poland at the coming JWOC in Denmark. However, I felt no pressure at all, because I had completely changed my attitude after a real disaster at PCC one week earlier... and it was the best thing I could have done at that moment!

On Friday we took part in a model event so as to get used to this kind of terrain.

The competition itself started on Saturday with the middle distance race. That day I felt quite well physically, but I wasn't able to feel the map. I had problems understanding the contours, estimating the distance and keeping the direction. That's why I made more than 5mins of mistakes and got a miserable place on the result list.

Next day there was a WRE race - 15,7km and 450m of climb. I had been looking forward to taking part in it for a really long time. My performance was very close to perfect! I took a round route choice to the 5th control (which turned out to be pretty good). It involved extremely fast running using tracks. Probably that's why I got a bit tired afterwards and lost about 2mins to the next control... However, I decided not to give up, because I still felt a grat chance of achieving a brilliant result. The rest of the course went pretty well (despite some hesitations near controls: 12, 23 and 25). I only thought that my pace at the end of the race was too slow. Nevertheless, it turned out that everyone got tired then and my pace was one of the best ones (comparing to other Polish runners). Eventually, I managed to gain a podium place (3rd) and the best time among the Poles (18secs faster than Rino and 5mins ahead of Hewi). I really needed this magnificent performance, because it made me believe it is possible to win with them - a positive signal before the Polish Champs:) What's more, I think this race showed me and everyone else that I am the appropriate person to run JWOC 2010.

The same day in the evening we took part in a nice city sprint in Heringsdorf. We felt really tired and decided to take it easy, just for fun. Only Hewi decided to run a bit faster and won the elite class;) Seeing the control descriptions before the race we organized a small competition for us all. The aim was to achieve the best time possible on the leg 10-11. The winner was Rino (who took the left route choice) with the time of 1:06. Slavko and I took the 2nd place (following the red line) - 1:08.

On Monday there was a hunting start. The course was quite long again - 11,2km. Although I didn't manage to catch Rino during the race, I was very satisfied with my performance, because I achieved the best time among the Poles once again (over 1 minute ahead or Rino and Hewi). The course was physically demanding, but as for the technical aspects - it was much too easy...

All in all, the only thing I can regret is the poor performance at the 1st stage, because of which I missed the podium (4th place in general classification). However, I am incredibly happy about this stay in Germany, because it just must have been a real breakthrough in my career during this season!

Afterwards Rino and I waited for Pałka and Dyzia to come from Baltic Cup in Poland and we all travelled to Denmark for a short technical camp before JWOC 2010 then.

My goal was to familiarize myself with the challenging terrain, especially running (or even walking) and orienteering through the green areas (they are awfully green, I must say!), reading the dunes precisely and keeping the right direction.

I had 8 technical trainings there, 2 of which were fast ones. Comparing my technical performance to the one from the last year (on the same maps) I got to know that I made an enormous progress and I am so happy about it! ;-)

On 29th June we travelled to Szklarska Poręba by car (more than 1000km!) to spend some days working on our physical abilities. I must admit this camp wasn't so exhausting as the previous one about a month ago. However, we did some demanding training sessions - we even had a technical training in pairs once;) Unfortunately, the weather was awful almost all the time...

On Friday evening we moved to Czech Republic with the Polish Junior Team and competed in two races of Gigasport Cesky pohar 2010. Most of us decided to run at full speed only during the middle distance course on Saturday. That day the terrain was just too challenging for us all and the results we achieved were miserable. It's been my first time in the rocks this year, so nothing to be surprised at.

I took the tough long distance race on Sunday very easily. My pace was really close to the so-called 'holiday' one - I only tried to avoid making unnecessary mistakes and I somehow managed. I succeeded in gaining the 14th spot (exactly the same as in the middle) - weird... To tell you everything, this time the weather was just brilliant, even a bit too brilliant;)

After all these amazing adventures I could finally reach my home on Sunday evening and take a wonderful rest! Now I am just ahead of an interval training before Polish Championships in Gdańsk this weekend.

Can't wait to fight for the medals there!

95 controls punched and 1 mispunched...

Yesterday we came back from Novy Bor, where we took part in a 5-day competition - Bohemia Orienteering 2009. The whole stay in Czech Republic was really wonderful; we all gathered lots of experience, had the opportunity to run in very well-mapped and interesting terrains and compare with the best Czech runners.

We got 2 training maps to run at.

Below I present maps from the 5 stages with a deep analysis on each of them.

Before the last day (handicap) my places were: 5th, 3rd (5 seconds to the winner!), 3rd and 4th. That's why I was 3rd in the overall standings, nearly 6mins behind the 2nd and 3:25 ahead of the 4th. I made a solid and fast (especially at the beginning) performance and came 3rd into the finish. However, I realised I had punched the wrong control! For the very first time in my life... That's a shame, but I am really satisfied with my races in Czech Republic as I got to know I am quite self-confident in the forest and my O-technique is at a high level:) I only need to work more strength in my legs for the second part of the season.

On Sunday, after all the competitions, we organized a club beer relay race in our gym. We had lots of fun and were ready to go back home the following day...

O-fun and the second half of Orienteering Festival 2008

Great fun at supersprint on the outskirts of Olomouc!

This additional competition was completely free for all the competitors of OF 2008 and was organised by Gigasport (large sports company) after the 3rd day of struggle in WOC Public Race. The course was very, very short and running lasted only about 8 minutes but it was a great pleasure to find easy controls situated on the area including huge supermarket and extensive parking place. I must admit that it was a brilliant change after looking for much more difficult controls in Czech forests.




OF 2008 - fourth day (middle distance)

Even before arrival in Czech Republic I checked my minutes on all 6 stages and situation around me. There was no day I was 'in danger', apart from today! Rino was to start 3 minutes behind me and we even talked about it during our warm-up exercises. I felt quite secure because 3' is a vast amount of time, I think. Despite some significant mistakes at 2nd & 4th control and the fact that I (unnecessarily!) started looking behind me, I met Rino only on my way back from SI-card reading point.
Remember! There's no need to look at the others, you just need to focus on your own race.




OF 2008 - fifth day (middle distance)

Just look at the parameters: 4,8km and 260m climbing. It was bound to be a tough, hilly race. I planned to run less than 40' and expected that this time would allow me to reach the top 10. How wrong I was! The 'Łódź beginning' (really flat) let the runners reach high speed and save a lot of time. There were only two very steep slopes to climb (controls number 9 and 11) and it forced us to slow down incredibly. It was rather walking than running towards these controls. But it didn't prevent the winner from achieving the time of half an hour! And mine wasn't much worse... ;-)




OF 2008 - sixth and last day (middle distance)

As it was the last opportunity to run in Czech forest for now, I was very determined to do my best and gain my best result at OF 2008. Just after the race and tiring long finish, while staying in a really long queue to read my SI-card, I was very disappointed because I knew I had made two large mistakes. But when I got my split times, these two mistakes turned out not to be that large and I ended on the 6th position less than 2 minutes behind the leader.
Furthermore, it was really impressing to run the same finish and search for controls in partly the same terrain as the WOC 2008 long distance final participants did!

WOC 2008 & Public Race for ordinary people in Czech Republic

I called us ordinary people as we were only the background for the whole pack of stars like Thierry, Dani or Minna. However, we were having a really good time there and I wasn't looking forward to come back home.

Our so-called 'Orientuś superelite' who visited Olomouc consisted of 10 people: Gwoździk, Gosiaczek, Amelka, Ewuś, Ala, Zielu, Piotrek, Kamiliusz (Swedish runner), head coach Pasza and me.

As far as our results are concerned, Piotrek and Kamil managed to reach the podium (2nd and 3rd in M21B). Congratulations!

Now it's time to tell you something about my races in Orienteering Festival 2008. My main goal for this competition was to take a little rest after hard 3 weeks of trainings and JWOC 2008 in Norway and Sweden. So my running speed wasn't supposed to be at its best but my technique should have been at the highest level possible and I must admit that day by day it was getting better and better - that's why I am so satisfied with this 6 days O-competition.

I would also like to add that my stay in Czech was not only the relief for my legs but also for my brain because reading the map in continental terrain is not as difficult as in Nordic countries.

But now to the point...

OF 2008 - first day (long distance)

I had been looking forward to this first start in Czech Republic since my comeback from Sweden. I started my race pretty well. After 5th and 6th control I was leading. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to avoid a really huge mistake at control number 12 and landed almost 0,5km away from the point. Nevertheless, the biggest problem which appeared almost every day during OF was the difference in size of rocks, rocky walls and mounds that were unbelievably smaller than their 'friends' in Sweden. The winner of the race was Pole - Rino!

By clicking on the 3 items above you can see my route choices, comments & my own mark of the race and split times as well.

OF 2008 - second day (long distance)

The course parameters looked quite encouraging for me as it was quite a lot of running but the course was supposed to be fairly smooth. The only thing that didn't suit me was the fact that I was the second one to enter the forest and it meant slower speed in bushy and grassy areas. The terrain and course planner turned out to be really demanding and there were some controls hidden in green areas. Furthermore, the end of the course was quite tricky as there was a huge bushy area near the finish which included a lot of tiny clearings. Moreover, the scale 1:15000 made it even more difficult! It was definitely my worst performance at OF 2008.

OF 2008 - third day (middle distance)

Middle distances in Sweden were a great technical challenge and they almost ruled out the possibility of fast running. But after two days spent on Czech maps I realised it won't be the same and I was right. I don't think the course was much more difficult and my pace was even better than before. That day my category showed how important every second is. I lost 3:13 to the winner and was only 13th. If I had lost the same amount of time in middle distance at Polish Championship, I would have been the owner of bronze medal...