Wild satisfaction!

Sometimes I think I do sports to feel this incredible satisfaction of achieving something that might have seemed so unattainable before. For sure, this is the case this time!

First things first. While staying on a technical camp in Czech Republic, taking part in a magnificent O-competition called Brada, having a really great time with a very precise map of the 2nd stage and approaching the 7th control, I twisted my right ankle. I was not able to jog and could hardly walk. It was the 18th August. At the very moment it happened, I knew it was something serious... As soon as possible I began my rehabilitation process (physiotherapy and so on). Thanks to it - after 10 days of break - I could start running on the 29th August (little more than 3 weeks before Polish Champs).

All these factors made me think if I should have run the Polish Championships in night and long. Immediately, I decided to skip the long distance. Going to Kwidzyn to run the mixed relay only might have sounded surreal, so I took the night challenge (after days of hesitation). Interesting - my last night forest race/training took place 96 days before PC.

Getting the 3rd place in the sprint distance during Polish Club Champs made me feel it should have been easier for me to win a medal in the afore-mentioned mixed relay with Nati. I really thought so... But now I can see how wrong I was! I lacked the necessary speed and strength to be able to fight against such a freak like Papuś on such short and a bit hilly sprint courses. Fortunately, already the day before I could celebrate my first M21E Polish Champs medal!

How did it happen? I simply believed. Frankly speaking, I really believed, but did not expect it.

Before the start I didn't feel well, I got a headache at the end of our trip to Kwidzyn and suffered a bit. I was bound to start at 22:07 - only 4mins before Kowal. I am not going to hide that I intended to have a smooth beginning and then take the advantage of him. I went to the event centre to check the startlists and got to know that the minutes had changed in my class. Better late than never... It turned out that I was going to start more than half an hour earlier, so I did a proper warm-up and grabbed the map.

At the moment I was taking the map, I forgot about all the problems, all the distracting thoughts in my head. There was only me, myself and I. And the next control. I did a really solid race, having full control almost all the time. However, I made 3 crucial mistakes in close-to-control areas (1'00 + 2'30 + 1'10 = 4'40). Moreover, I had loads of power in my legs throughout the whole course (even managed to win a 6-minute leg!). While crossing the finish line, I felt that I had done my best and could only wait for the others to come.

After quite a long jogging I came to the resultlist and saw Wojtek Dwojak leading, 3:10 ahead of me. Then, a little hope for the medal appeared in my head, knowing that his technical skills are awesome and 3 minutes is not much, taking into account the running time of more than 100'. Nevertheless, quite soon Alek Bernaciak came to the finish beating me by... 4 seconds. My medal dreams went away as fast as they appeared, since there were still 3 very strong runners in the forest: Jacek, Kowal and Mały. So - not willing to see someone putting me out of the podium - I went back to our bus to get dressed. Once I got off the bus, I saw Pasza going to me. I thought: 'Everything must be clear now'. He said: 'Congratulations, you've got the bronze medal. Their time to come is over'. I squatted down and couldn't believe it. However, then it didn't really matter, because I did believe before the race and it seemed to be enough the key.

P.S. Girls, you are amazing! Thank you for the whole joy of that unforgettable night!

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!

head > legs

I have always felt really well prepared for the Polish Championships in Night Orienteering.

Two years ago I was very self-confident after having a great race only some 2 weeks before PC and it turned out that... I was too (!) self-confident and my running speed was so high that I wasn't able to read the map properly. 8th place and more than 16 minutes of mistakes - a total disaster!

Last year just after crossing the finish line I felt quite happy about my performance, because I was certain it would be enough for a medal. At least the bronze (I thought only Olej and Papuś were able to beat me). Unfortunately, I had to experience the bitter taste of defeat and be satisfied (impossible, isn't it?) with the 4th spot.

And this year...

I BECAME POLISH CHAMPION IN NIGHT-O!

Preparations

My main goal was to be fully prepared mentally and technically. That's why I decided to analyse all the maps from my night trainings and races. What's more, instead of drawing my own route choices on the map from Wednesday's training, I analysed thoroughly how it all SHOULD look like. Furthermore, I made some pre-race assumptions:

- have great respect for the course

- do not rush towards the 1st control

- take the most obvious and easiest routes.

Despite making a small mistake to the 1st control, I managed to fulfil the second goal perfectly. The first 5 controls of the course went as it had been planned. I ran past the 6th control and had to go back. It was only a minor time loss, but I started feeling nervous and lost as much as 1 minute to the 7th one! During the small loop in the white forest I performed quite well (apart from control no. 10, where I lost some time close to the control). That enabled me to catch Łukasz (10') and Rino (5'). It really boosted my morale! Rino and I split on the long leg to the 13th control. He chose the right one, whereas I decided to go more or less straight. Unfortunately, I got stuck in the green area some 400m before the control because of very high and thick blackberries (in my opinion, this kind of bushes should be marked on the map with green lines - it would be much easier to estimate if it's worth going through). Although Rino punched the 13th control one minute ahead of me, I succeeded in cathing him already at the following one. I took risky, straight route choice to the 15th one and got a bit lost close to control. Luckily, Rino came from the right and helped me a lot - thank you! The rest of the course passed really quickly and I reached the finish line some 8 seconds before Rino. I got to know that I took the lead and had to wait 5 minutes for Hewi to come (preferably NOT to come). I must admit it's a really long time...;)

On Saturday the organizers prepared a great fun for us all - 2 people, 6 legs, sprint and relay. Obviously, I competed in MIX relays with Nati. I finished the last leg as the 4th runner. However, Papuś mispunched and we could be happy about the podium place behind Kocona&Dwojadżer and Ala&Pasza.

My technique was flawless that day, but my legs were very heavy and didn't work as I would have wished them to.

Congratulations to the organizers!

On Sunday we were to take part in the most prestigious distance in orienteering - long. Already during the warm-up I felt that my physical shape fell short of my expectations. However, I was pretty sure that my head might give me a medal and it didn't let me down;)

I don't feel like describing the whole race, but I would like to mention some interesting facts.

I made only about 2'30 of mistakes, 1'30 of which while going to the junction control (16/19/22). I really could not understand the map there...

Rino won with the advantage of 2:08 over me and I am really happy that it was him who won the race, because he really deserved it!

There is one amazing thing about this race. During the course I met as many as 8 runners from my class! Patela, Rysiu Piekarski, Slavko, Hewi, Rino, Drągu, Mościu and Charubcia. Unusual...

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;)

You win some, you lose some...

The 2nd round of Polish Club Championships is over and we eventually managed to secure our 2nd place in Poland! Good job all!

On Friday, just after a long bus journey, we were to compete in sprint. I was very eager for winning this race and I actually did so;) I made my biggest mistake (about 0'15) while running to the 14th control - I had no plan for this control, so I ran to the field; then, jogged hesitantly towards the control and found it luckily. Moreover, I made some minor mistakes of about 2-3 seconds to controls no. 7, 11, 13, 15 and 19. All in all, it was a really good and solid performance I was very satisfied with! Not only did I manage to win my class, but also to achieve the 3rd best time in the elite class;)

The next day 2 races waited for me: middle and club relay. Let's begin with the former. I felt too self-confident at the start. My legs were too fast for my brain. I think that's enough. I made a technically awful race! I lost as much as 8 minutes in the forest! Massacre to the 2nd control - 3'30! Disaster to the 6th one - 1'30! Tragedies to the 1st, 11th and 12th - 3x~0'45! Mistakes to the 9th, 10th and 14th - 3x~0'10.

While approaching the finish I thought I would take some 5th or 6th place. However, I must have underestimated my rivals, because I landed on the 10th spot! After all, I am happy that I was easily able to laugh at myself and didn't cry over spilt milk;)

In the evening I got the opportunity to run the 1st (night) leg in the so-called generations' relay. We (the people under 20) made an enormous mistake to the 1st control and lost about 1'40 to the elite runners (Dwojadżer, Jacek, Mały, Grabek). I knew I had the same butterfly as Olej, so my aim was to catch up with him (since he punched the 1st control some seconds ahead of me). Nevertheless, it wasn't that easy, because he ran incredibly fast and made almost no mistakes! On the track towards the 11th control I decided to stake everything on one card and caught them (Olej and Wojtek P.)! Then, at the micro-butterflies we saw the elite runners and succeeded in catching them - unbelievable! I was really happy about it, but felt that I may not be able to keep their speed (as my legs were very tired at that moment) and reached the finish line exactly 40 seconds behind the winner - Wojtek Dwojak from Śląsk Wrocław.

who let the dogs out?!

On Sunday my clubmates made 6 good races - oh, maybe 5;) - and we gained the 3rd place after an exciting finish!

Unfortunately, I came back home with a little cold, but it's getting better and better right now:) The most important thing - I didn't miss any training session! Freak...

It is all about the psyche!

Just after coming back home from Bieszkowice I decided to take 2 days off. I didn't run anything. I only visited sauna on Monday, went cycling and did some stretching on Tuesday.

The first 2 physical trainings done with passion and great motivation came on the next two days. Unfortunately, I caught a little cold after the latter...

The very same day (having a high fever) I travelled to my uncle's house in Gdańsk with my parents. Fortunately, on Friday I could sleep well and very looong, so I started feeling much better. There was no training session planned for that day, therefore I didn't miss anything.

1km before the finish

On Saturday my father and I were to start in the 48th Westerplatte Street Race. The course was approved for exactly 10km. I decided to take part in it, although I didn't feel perfectly well. I didn't know whether to fight for the best time possible or simply enjoy the race running much more slowly. However, I decided to do my best and see what happens. I started quite calmly and after some time saw Hewi and Grabek some 200m ahead of me. Throughout the whole race my main goal was to catch them. Nevertheless, I had to struggle with an enormous crisis just before the half of the course. Fortunately, the other runners surrounding me helped me get back into the game. The second part of the race was only about the will power! I managed to catch Hewi only some 150m before the finish line. As soon as he had spotted me, he started an impressive finish and I was not able to keep up with him. Eventually, I finished 39th overall with the time of 35:43 (3:34/km). Due to the poor results system I also managed to get the prize for the 5th place in 16-19 men's class. I actually achieved the 7th place (out of the podium). There was one more disadvantage of this race: the 'km' sings were located in wrong places. Just take a look at my splits: 3:54, 3:34, 3:49, 3:39, 7:32 (2km), 3:48, 2:30, 3:36, 3:22. All in all, each competitor got a brilliant medal and I am sure it was a very important start as for my mental state and physical shape before the 2 part of the O-season;)

I would also like to add that my father achieved his PB - 46:54 (4:41/km) - and started training 4 times a week (instead of 3)! Running is strongly addictive, isn't it?

On Sunday I attended a short training session with my father and we returned home the next day. On Monday afternoon I did 12x1' intervals and was sure that my shape is constantly rising - my favourite feeling, I must admit!

On Tuesday late in the evening I took part in a night O-training prepared by Pasza. I took it very seriously and wanted to perform as well as possible. Unfortunately, I didn't succeed in avoiding making two considerable mistakes: 1st control (really difficult one, I should have used the bigger path much longer...) and 13th (I am not sure if it was situated in the right place, in my opinion - too much to the right). I also made a mistake of about 25'' while approaching the 6th control (I lost direction). Moreover, I hesitated a bit in the areas close to the controls: 3rd, 11th and 14th. Course length - 5,47km, time - 32:53, pace - 6:01/km, mistakes - 4'20. To sum it up, despite making the aforementioned mistakes, I am quite satisfied with my performance, because I was really self-confident in the forest and managed to find a good flow even at night.

Later on, I had very good physical trainings on Wednesday and Thursday and a wonderful rest day on Friday, which ended with Bany's 18th birthday party in Huta Dłutowska.

At the weekend the time came for the ŁOZBnO Championships consisting of 3 races: middle and relay on Saturday and sprint on Sunday.

Just after the great party Byku drove us to Grotniki for the first competition - middle distance. I felt quite well physically, because I managed to behave sensibly at night (and I am very proud of it!). That's why I knew I had a huge advantage over my rivals. Technically, my race went quite ok as well. I missed the 3rd control, where I lost about 30 seconds, and couldn't find the hole in a flat area (6th one - 25''). Furthermore, I hesitated too much while running to the 1st one (5''), completely lost concentration on my way to the 7th one (15'') and lost direction in the green area to the 11th control (10''). All things considered, it was a really good performance and I managed to win the competition with the advantage of 2:44 over Olej.

In the afternoon the relay race waited for us. I decided to run with Kubiaczek and Witek (who has a new sport blog address!). Obviously, I wanted to take part in the mass start to fight with Olej, Chrupek, Tomek and so on. There were only 2 forkings during the course (3rd and 9th one). I punched the first two controls first and found a really good rhythm. Unfortunately, I got a much longer forking on the 3rd one and had to chase Olej. There were some new fences on the big field close to the 4th control, which made me lose another 10 seconds (I punched it 34 seconds behind Olej). Unfortunately, I got too furious while following him and made an enormous mistakes at the 5th control, losing almost 2 minutes... The rest of the course went pretty well (I only lost some 5 seconds on the way to the 14th one - a bit too much to the right and a small hesitation), because I managed to catch Tomek and Chrupek and gained the 2nd place for our team in the finish, less than 2 minutes behind Olej.
Unfortunately, Kubiaczek looked for the 2nd control somewhere amongst the letters: PZOS: 10-31-1597/ŁDZ and lost sooo much time there. Witek had a really good race, but there was no possiblity of reaching the podium. Oh, actually there was! We achieved the 3rd place, because of Józef Kłos missing the 10th control. Orienteering - I love this game;)

On Sunday we competed in the sprint distance in Julianowski Park. Everyone had a good night's sleep and we were ready to rumble! I did a proper warm-up and started my race. The first 4 controls went flawlessly. To the 5th one I used my memory (I ran a technical training some 2 months ago there) and didn't manage to spot the left (smaller) bridge early enough. That's why I chose a longer route choice and lost about 8 seconds (6'' - route choice and 2'' - I should have run more straight to the bridge). Then, an easier part of the course, just running across the river. I took my time to find the best route choice to the 10th control, but it turned out that mine was much worse... I lost as much as 7 seconds there! Strange... (see the paragraph below to get to know why). To the 12th control it was better to take the right route choice, not the straight one as I did - I lost 4 seconds there. I had to struggle against a little physical crisis towards the controls no. 16 and 19. What's more, I completely didn't check where the 18th control was situated and lost some 2 seconds there. To the 19th one I should have gone more straight at the beginning to avoid muddy ground under my feet (2''). I finished the course with the feeling that it was a very solid performance and had to wait about 3 minutes for Olej to come. Exactly 3:00 in fact! And we achieved the 1st place ex aequo:) With the time of 14:37 - 4:59/km.

WORTH A READ! The course was full of different route choice options. That's why I decided to check, which ones were shorter. I used Ocad 8 to carry out my research.

1. - 380m (left) < 400m (right) - quite obvious

3. - 340m (right) < 380m (left) - as much as 12''!

5. - 230m (left) < 250m (right) - about 6 seconds

10. - 270m (LEFT!) < 290m (right) - I lost 7'' taking the shorter one!

12. - 200m (straight) < 210m (right) - I lost 4'' taking the straight one.

Controls no. 10 and 12 are both quite bizarre. I must agree that the straight way to the 12th control included a lot of curves and it might have slowed down my running speed. But I just can't understand why - choosing a 20m shorter route choice to the 10th control - I lost as much as 7 seconds! There must be something wrong with the map there. What? No idea...

This week I am getting ready for the coming Polish Club Championships in Białka. My plan for the 2nd part of the season looks quite impressive:

17-19.09. - PCC in Białka (sprint, middle, club relay - 1st leg at night)

24-26.09. - PC in Lidzbark Welski (night and classic)

2.10. - some regional competition (middle and sprint)

3.10. - halfmarathon in Łagiewnicki Forest
9-10.10. - Bóbr Valley's Cup in Bolesławiec (middle, sprint and classic)

17.10. - PC in Sulejów (long)

22-24.10. - BJC in Lithuania (classic and mixed relay)

30-31.10. - Smålandskavlen in Sweden (night/day 5-leg relay)

6-7.11. - Fast Brain 2010 in Warsaw organized by Slavko and Jacek!

I am totally ready to enjoy it!:)

Completely fed up with camps and technical trainings...

HD quality, isn't it?

Fortunately, the title of this note is out-of-date right now, but I write posts in chronological order and had a little delay;)

The last 10 days of the 'normal' holidays I spent with our provincial team in Bieszkowice, where we had a technical camp, which ended with a 3-day competition called Grand Prix Pomorza 2010.

We had a wide variety of technical trainings there, like loops, memory training, classic races, maps with no tracks, night trainings, following the line and so on.

I felt that I had had enough of everything and found no pleasure in orienteering at that time. That's why I don't feel like describing all these courses.

I would only like to mention 3 things, which I would call O-FUN:

- sprint in the lake (organized by Tom and Mary; our aim was to punch controls - situated in the lake - in the right order presented on a small sheet of paper)

mispunched at 23rd

- microsprint (organized by Łukasz; he prepared the map on his own! a lot of controls everywhere and a very tricky course, I must say!)

- playing Chinese wispers (again Tom and Mary - thanks! we were divided into groups of 4 people and had to draw the same line on a clean map as the one presented on another one, only by using... check the meaning of this idiom and you'll understand everything!).

At the end of our camp we took part in GP Pomorza. My only goal for this competition was to finish the elite courses. The terrains were quite interesting and very demanding physically. The courses weren't too difficult (probably due to my snail speed). The controls were situated almost always in right places. The control descriptions were almost always the right ones. The tracks were almost always visible on the map.

So happy I came back home on 29th August in the late evening!

Quick catching up before JWOC!

I haven't written for a very long time, but now it's high time I fixed it;)


Polish Champs in Gdańsk

The sprint distance went pretty well for me. I managed to keep a really good speed throughout the race and gained the 2nd place (5secs behind Hewi). Analysing my route choices and splits, it turned out that I lost gold because of being too hesitant just after the 3rd control. However, I was very satisfied with my performance.

The middle distance wasn't as technical as it should be. Despite that fact, I didn't succeed in avoiding making mistakes. The worst one came while running to the 3rd control. I saw Drągu, who started 2mins ahead of me, got this weird feeling and misunderstood the contours completely. Eventually, I achieved the silver medal... 7secs behind... Hewi. I felt a little bit disappointed, but still very happy about my stable shape.

The most wonderful thing is the fact that on both days the podium looked the same: Hewi, me and Rino. Nevertheless, not only the people were the same, but also the time difference between the winner and bronze medalist - 21secs!

In relay we knew that it would be very difficult for us to reach the podium, but we never gave up! I ran the last leg in my team and started to the forest as the 6th runner. During the race I managed to catch Włodar (2'34) and Jacek Kowalczyk (5'16). Running with Włodar was a real pleasure, because the pace was very high and everything happened so quickly. At the very end I had a shorter forking and had the opportunity to gain some advantage over him. I managed, but he was incredibly fast before the finish and I lost the 4th by some 5 seconds. Respect!

Technical camp in Białogóra

The first two days were full of slow, easy running, because we were taking rest after the demanding PC weekend.

On Wednesday we ran a very interesting sprint in Gdynia (the map from EYOC 2002). The start interval was 15secs, what made this race much faster, I think. I took stupid route choice to the 7th control (too much climb) and lost some time close to the control, as well. Apart from that, I ran really well and lost 15secs to the winner - Rino.

On Thursday we had a really tiring long distance (12,65km). It consisted of 3 loops. The first 2 of them went pretty well, but the last one was a real disaster - due to my tiredness, all the scrapes on my feet and bent north lines on the map... Unfortunately, 2 controls were set in wrong places and I didn't find them. However, I lost some time while running around and looking for them everywhere. After all, my performance was quite satisfying;)

Kytäjä-Jukola 2010

On the ferry between Stockholm and Helsinki something really amazing happened. We took part in an orienteering competition!!! Just see the map and regret not having been there:)

On Saturday afternoon Olej and I decided to run a short technical training session to familiarize ourselves with the terrain and get to know what was waiting for us in the nearest future. Since that moment we had known that we were going to run in the most challenging terrain in our lives!

I wanted to run the 1st leg and I got the chance! The start was at 22:55 (Finnish time - sunset). Unfortunately, it was raining (what made the terrain even more difficult), but I felt really hot and excited inside. I stood in the 3rd row among 1534 other runners! The music at the start was really thrilling, I remember. And it all began...

The decisive moment was the forking before the long leg, where I lost touch with my group and had to run the very long leg with a much slower and technically worse tram. While heading to the finish, I thought I would take the 500th place. To my surprise, I was 102nd (a little less than 12mins behind the leaders). All things considered, it was an average performance, but the experience was unbelievable!


Vestjysk 2-dages in Denmark

Only some time after a long plane (2 times) and car journey we were to run the sprint. The course was really long - 4km (my watch states that I ran 6,37km!). The terrain was very demanding physically because of numerous meters of climb. The map was a little bit imprecise. There was quite an interesting route choice to the 15th one. What would you choose? I lost more than a minute to the 17th control due to the fact that the map was not made in accordance with ISSOM.

The next day we competed in a very challenging long distance race - 10,4km. I made some mistakes (especially to the 22nd one...), but I must admit that the terrain was very tricky - full of green areas and winding contours. I was very happy about my result, since I managed to achieved the 3rd spot (behind some elite runners and ahead of my peers, with whom I'll fight in one week's time at JWOC).
Note: the map was made by the Poles: Lech Trzpil and Piotr Sierzputowski.

3 days ago we decided for a middle distance. That day I felt completely out of tune, probably due to my enormous headache the previous evening. That's why my only dream was to finish the course and take some rest. Fortunately, we got the opportunity to run in the dunes. The last part of the course was very greeeeen and running was almost impossible. To sum it up, that stay in Denmark was very useful before the coming JWOC competitions and my performance during the long distance made me believe in my abilities;-)


Now

Yesterday I decided to make some blood tests and got to know that my results are better than ever! What's more, I changed my hairstyle and am much lighter now;) Moreover, I passed my A-level exams even better than I had expected. It's not a place to boast about it, but I just can't help telling you that I got 99% in written Polish (basic level, of course) - I still can't believe it, haha! Furthermore, I did 2 great physical training sessions yesterday and today, during which my legs were close to flying;)
It's all a very positive signal for the nearest future and in the future comes...


JWOC 2010 in Denmark

I am leaving at 22:10 to Świnoujście tonight and then, probably on Saturday, to Aalborg. I am going to run the long distance (6th July), middle distance qualification (8th July), hopefully middle A-final (9th July) and relay (10th July). I promise to do my best and fulfil my expectations!
All the appropriate information here.

KEEP YOUR FINGERS CROSSED FOR OUR WHOLE TEAM!

Challenging terrains in Norrkoping and Finspang!

On Friday we competed in Elitserien sprint E2 in Norrkoping.

The sprint itself was just wonderful! First of all, the organization was brilliant. We went into the competition office on the 3rd floor, where we were told to wait and change clothes on the 5th floor. Then, we had to go down, to the garage on the 2nd floor, where we could leave our things and go to the warm up map. Sounds amazing? Yeah, it really WAS amazing! We weren't able to enter the pre-start area until our starting minute was called. Then, we followed colourful stripes to the start and had about 2mins left to the beginning of our race.

One woman and one man started simultaneously from a special wooden platform. I grabbed my map abruptly and saw that the 1st control was very close to the start. The course setter was unbelievably tricky and put the so-called lamp on our way to the first control. I mean another control, obviously. Unfortunately, I fell into this trap and lost 5 precious seconds. The 2nd control went with no problems, although judging from the split times I was just too slow on this leg. And then a real disaster came... I made 5(!) mistakes going to the 3rd control!

- I started running to the 7th control instead of the 3rd one, though I had checked it earlier and knew exactly where I should have gone - lack of concentration?

- I turned left much too early and had to turn back, though I didn't even plan to run there, because I noticed it was impossible to do so - hurry?

- I didn't manage to see that there was no gate between the 2 buildings and entered the so-called dead end - blindness?

- I checked if there was no way to the control on its left side, of course there wasn't, because the control was situated some metres below the place I was standing in at the moment - helplessness?
- Finally, I succeeded in finding my way to the control (still not the best one!), but it wasn't the end of my troubles, since I had to stop for a while because I hadn't expected to attack the control from that side and wasn't sure where it was bound to be - consequence of all the afore-mentioned?

How much time did I lose? About 1 minute, the sprint was over for me!

Till the end of this race I avoided making any huge mistakes. I just could have taken another route choices to the following controls:

*4th - the right one?
*8th - the right one turned out to be faster
*15th - I should have run close to the red line at the beginning
*16th - the left one might have been a bit faster
*17th - I think it was better to use the main alley and then go down using the yellow field.

All in all, I was surprisingly quite satisfied just after the race. But don't think it was due to my performance! It was because of the great opportunity of running in such a marvellous terrain I got! What a pity, we do not have such chances in Poland.......

On Saturday Hewi, Olej and I decided to pay 30SEK for a Tiomila training map and we just can't regret it! The 5km long middle distance course in a tricky Swedish forest - should we want more?;) I was really surprised how easily I could find controls in this difficult area. I must have been having a very good day, which was a really good sign before the coming 10mila at night!

In 10mila I was chosen to run the 2nd leg in Polish Junior Team relay. Pasza started at 22:00. The mass start was really amazing, as the spectators were able to see the runners for about 3 minutes due to an open steep slope at the very beginning. Pasza lost some time already at the 1st control and came 88th to the finish. It was quite a good starting position to fight for a better place.
My course was 12,2km long. I got into a group with a really good pace and followed them for some time. However, they started to split - the forking at the 1st control was obvious. I took a look at my map and compared it with the terrain and decided to run my own way. I passed the marsh, ran up the hill and saw the control no. 112 - yeah, it was mine! It boosted my self-confidence and made me so determined to catch the next group which was already on their way to the 2nd control. I just noticed that it was a really long leg, ran onto the track and chased them. I got really afraid every time this path turned, because I lost eye-contact with them. This forced me to run even faster and I eventually succeeded in catching them. I didn't control the map precisely enough on this leg, but fortunately I managed to guess my location due to the marsh in the green area I was passing (very close to my control).
3rd control was very easy to find and I expected there wouldn't be any forking. Nevertheless, my route choice to the 4th one was horrible. I behaved like a child in M14 and ran an S-shaped leg. I had small hesitations approaching the 5th control, because I saw many headlamps in different places. I controlled my own map and decided to turn right a bit. I was right once again! The short loop consisting of controls 6-10 meant only very fast running and passing the slower runners.
Then, quite a long leg to the 11th one. However, most of it on the track with the pace of about 3:20/km. Some 100m before the 12th control I was curious why the whole group decided not to run following the red line. Obviously, I was not brave enough to go there alone;) Afterwards the 'spectator' part of the course. Checking the results it turned out that I was 24th punching the 16th control. 64 places better than the starting position!

Unfortunately, I got really exhausted in this last loop of the race and made some wrong decisions losing lots of time. Firstly, the 17th control - I can't remember crossing that winding path before the another forking. Then, I didn't know about a new clearing in the area of my 17th one and got pretty confused while approaching it. I lost about 35-40 seconds there. 18th control - just a formality. To the 19th one I decided to go using this path up the hill and followed one group. Unfortunately, they completely missed it, I was sure something went wrong but didn't dare to change the direction and followed them till the control. We found it with no problems at the end. However, we lost almost 2 minutes because of running far too much to the right and sinking in the marshes and mud...

The 20th one was very close. Then, the last forking came. I was really tired and followed the same group. Controlling the map wasn't so easy as at the beginning or in the middle part of the course. I found another control and had to decide alone where to go. I was sure I had to run some more meters to find mine. I looked at the map calmly and went straight to the control. I was really angry due to losing about 1'30 to this control, but looking back on this race I am proud of myself, since I was able to behave appropriately in such a difficult situation.

The last legs required just fast running and fighting for the best plase at the finish. I managed to cross the finish line as the first runner in my group some 30 seconds behind the better group. While crossing it, I saw '48' over me - it meant that I was the 49th runner to finish the 2nd leg! I succeeded in going up by 39 places;-)

I achieved the 40th time on my leg losing 5:16 to the winner. If it hadn't been for my tiredness and consequently mistakes of about 4mins at the end, I would have had the 5th time of my leg. That's why I am incredibly satisfied with my stable performance in this year's Tiomila.

What's even more important for me is the fact that I got to know that my O-technique is much better than last year. I am much more self-confident in the forest, even at night, so I am ready and can't wait to take another challenges!

A bit closer to proffesionalism...

After a 12-hour night voyage by ferry we reached Sweden on Monday morning. I decided to do a short training just after reaching our destination. Thanks to Monika Depta, I was able to run a short course with a map.

In the afternoon the time came for the first 'real' technical training. It was a 5,2km middle distance race, which went flawlessly for me. I avoided making mistakes and enjoyed every moment of it.

In the late evening we decided to make a night mass start. Only 4 of us dared to compete: Łukasz, Jacek, Pasza and me. The pace wasn't the highest possible but it was quite impressing as for the training. Unfortunately, I got completely lost at both forkings and came last to the finish. I just learnt my lesson before Tiomila;)

On Tuesday we were supposed to run a middle distance race at full speed. I took it really seriously and wanted to do my best. However, I made 2 quite big mistakes and ended on the 2nd place 1:23 behind Olej. After all, I was quite satisfied with my performance.

In the afternoon our head coach prepared a mix of score, line training and long route choices. It would have been much more fun, if it hadn't been for the bushes which made running almost impossible in some areas...

The next day we ran a long distance training on a well-known map Furuboda. Pasza told me to run fast that day too, so I fulfilled his expectations, although it was really tough due to lots of sand in the open areas. Unfortunately, it certainly wasn't my day. I had difficulty finding the controls - I even didn't manage to spot the 15th one in spite of the fact that I was there (Garmin). Nevertheless, I am incredibly satisfied with one thing - the long legs (especially 8th and 21st). Keeping the direction towards the 8th one went just superb!

Then, we had a funny memory training. At the start we saw just the part of the map with the 1st control, had to remember it and reach the 1st control with no map in our hand and so on and so on and so on... Some runners spent more than 2 hours in the forest on a 5,6km long course;-) I managed to finish in a little bit less than 50 minutes. However, I didn't find one control, but who cares?:)

On Thursday we didn't have so much time, since we had to drive about 450km to compete in Elitserien sprint and 10mila the next days. That's why we only had a short contour training. I got terribly frustrated when I got the same course as 3 days ago! Finally, I decided to run it from the end, but I still had a horrible feeling that this training was wasted... I hope it is never going to happen again! (Mam nadzieję, że to się nigdy więcej nie powtórzy!).

Having had lunch and packed our things, we started our journey to the place where the terrains were much more challenging and interesting.

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:)