If you wait for perfect conditions, you'll never get things done.

Last Sunday there was the 2nd edition of Łódź Maraton Dbam o Zdrowie. I am planning to run my first marathon this year in autumn (probably not in Poland) and my favourite street race distance is actually 10k, that's why I decided to take part in Adidas 10k RUN.

As I had already written in the last post, I caught a cold at the end of the Swedish Easter camp and had to take 3 days off (Tuesday-Thursday), spending them mostly in my bed. On Friday and Saturday I made some tough trainings (jogging for about 25-30mins). As you can see, my physical preparation wasn't good (just 15km of training during the last 6 days before the competition, no fast workouts at all). What's more, my mental state sucked (do no ask me why) and I had huge difficulties sleeping at night. Although I didn't feel well and healthy on Sunday morning, I decided to compete.

Since the start line was just about 2km from the place where I live, Witek visited me in the morning and we started our warm-up together at about 8:20. Close to the start we met our coach and had a short talk with him. The goal for this race was clear - open the race with 3:30/km and then see what happens. The start was supposed to be at 9, but there was a little delay of about 10mins. Thanks to it, we had a bit longer warm-up. [Do you remember the race in 1975, when the race was delayed for more than 1 hour and blah blah blah...]

Just before the race my coach asked Pasza about his aim for this race. He answered '32mins'. Then, I realised I had no chances fighting against him. At 9:10 the mayor of Łódź city Hanna Zdanowska gave the signal to start the competition. The interesting thing is that there was the same start place and start time for the marathon runners. I had a great chance to start just behind the extremely thin and (as well extremely) black African runners.

The first metres of the race I ran just behind Pasza, but after some time I saw on my watch that the pace should have been a bit faster and speeded up. From that moment I didn't see him until the end of the race. It's incredibly important not to overspeed at the beginning of this kind of race and I managed to fulfil my assumption and ran the 1st km in 3:27. During the 2nd km (split time - 3:27) a funny thing happened, when I joined some group of runners. Young, blond girl asked me which pace I would have liked to achieve. As soon as I answered 'About 3:20 + something', she slowed down significantly without saying anything.

During the 3rd km we formed a nice group of 4 runners (including me, Leszek Marcinkiewicz and 2 other guys). We ran about 2km together (3:23, 3:27) and then one of them decided to attack (you'll read about him later on in the post as well). None of us had enough power to join him and we stayed in the group of 3.

Since that moment I had to be the leader, 5th km in 3:30. The 6th km was the most difficult one because I had to struggle with awful weather conditions (little rain and strong, freezing wind). This was the worst split of the whole race - 3:32. At the next km Leszek decided to go in the front and I had time to take some rest. However, on one of the curves he ran quite strange (not going as short as possible) and I was in the lead again. 7th km in 3:30.

During the 8th km (3:28) I suddenly heard a really loud voice of my coach. I took a look at both sides of the streets, but surprisingly I couldn't see him. I felt a bit confused, but after some hundreds of metres the riddle was solved! It turned out that he was standing there with a big megaphone shouting at me - amazing! Surely, it gave me some extra power for the very last kms of the race.

I ran the 9th km in 3:27 just ahead of Leszek and the other runner. Due to the fact that there was a very long and straight street, I could see the runner who left us somewhere close to the '4km' sign. Just after the 9th km there was a place where the courses for marathon and 10k runners split. I was shocked, when I saw that he chose the left 'marathon' gateway...

Going past the '9km' sign, I decided to attack (not willing to have a sprint finish at the end). I used this tactics in Uniejów some months ago (fighting against Pasza) and it worked really well. However, this time Leszek managed to keep my pace (the other one had problems, so the struggle was just between me and Leszek right now). Some 700m before the finish line the roles changed and it was him who tried to run really fast. At first I was not able to keep his pace and thought that the fight is over... Fortunately, I succeeded in avoiding these destroying thoughts and didn't give up. Nevertheless, I was still some metres behind... Suddenly, an unbelievable thing happened and Leszek seemed to have no power left. That's why I managed to outrun him just in front of the entrance to Atlas Arena, where an amazing finish was organized (red carpet, lots of people and so on). Some metres before the finish line I looked behind and was sure I was going to win against him. As soon as I had crossed the finish line, I fell down (I felt extremely exhausted as during the last 2kms I felt like vomitting...). My fall must have looked quite dangerous, since I suddenly got help from the medical assistance. They caught my arms and made me stand up, gave me some isotonic drink... and asked a really funny question: 'Is this your first run?'. ;)

It turned out that I ran the last km in 3:10 and reached the time of 34:21 (only 1sec slower than in Uniejów). I placed 3rd in the overall classification (out of 936 competitors) and took the... 2nd spot in Men's class, because the race was won by Karolina Jarzyńska (woman preparing for the London Olympic Games). Unfortunately, I was not able to wait for the prize giving ceremony, since I was leaving to Szklarska Poręba at 11:31. I heard that the prizes I got are quite precious - cup, T-shirt and Timex watch. Great!

P.S. Tadziu 32167, is this post long and good enough? :)

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!

Asphalt fever!

Last two weekends I took part in 3 street races. I love this kind of competition and it's really nice that I found some time for it this autumn.

Uniejów, 10km
It was my second 10km street race (first one: more than a year ago in Gdańsk, running with fever, just after a training break, finishing with the time of 35:43). I had two goals to pursue: beat the time of 35mins and beat Pasza.
As soon as I reached the competition centre, I heard that there would be some pacemakers on the course - the fastest one to run 10km in 35:00. It was just wonderful news for me, because I felt almost sure that I would have no problems reaching my first aim then.
During the first 6 kilometres I felt like if it was just jogging (3:36, 3:32, 3:26, 3:24, 3:37, 3:30). Then, Pasza decided to leave the pacemaker, so did I. We ran together the next 3 kilometres (3:27, 3:28, 3:20). I had known I might have had problems winning the race with him on the last metres, so I decided to start my finish right now - I succeeded in keeping great pace on the last km (under 3:00) and finished with the time of 34:20 (some 9 seconds ahead of Pasza).
After the race I realised that I could have run the first 9 kilometres much faster, because my heart rate was pretty low - 174/186 and I pushed really hard only on the last kilometre. All in all, I was extremely satisfied with that performance!;)

Poznań, 10km
The course consisted of 2 loops of about 5,4km. That's why the distance was not exactly 10km - it was 10,85km. Firstly, my goal was to finish the race as fast as possible, but my goal changed during the course, but first things first...
I managed to start calmly and thought that the pace of the two girls (leading the women competition at that moment) would be OK for me. The first 3km in 3:28, 3:30, 3:28 was a good start, but then I felt it was too slow for me. I jumped to the next group of about 5-7 men, but it turned out to be too slow as well! Unfortunately, I had to run the next whole 7 kilometres alone...
After km no. 9 (3:24, 3:23, 3:25, 3:23, 3:22, 3:24) my goal changed - I wanted to beat 34mins for 10km. I managed to run the last kilometre in 3:11 and my time was 33:58. Mission accomplished;)
During the last 850 metres of the race I just jogged in the pace of 3:33/km (it may sound strange, but it really felt like jogging after sprinting for the last metres of 'my own 10km race').
This race was much harder for me than the one in Uniejów due to two reasons:
- a more difficult course (steep uphills on the 1st and 6th km);
- the fact that I had no pacemaker (not even a single runner to run with) for the last 7 kilometres.
My maximum HR was pretty surprising for me - 183. Interesting...
To sum it up, great day and new personal best!

Poznań, (half)marathon
On Sunday my dad ran the 12. Poznań Marathon. The course included 2 loops, so I decided to help him on the last one. Before the start I advised him to run with the pacemakers for 3:45 (his previous PB was 3:54). The weather was just perfect and I was sure he could do it.
I waited for him on the 20th km. I was really happy when I saw his funny POLSKA cap just behind the pacemakers. It was a really good sign. There were so many people there that I had difficulty in joining him! After each 5km there was a refreshment point and I grabbed a lot of cups with water and Powerade for him. It made the run much easier for him. Just after crossing the '38km' sign he wanted me to push the tempo. So now it was me who was his own pacemaker. Thanks to this long finish we managed to gain almost 2mins over his previous pacemakers and he reached the finish line with the time of 3:43:16 (3:41:58 netto)!
Personally, I ran more than 22km in 1:55 (5:13/km) and I must admit that it surely was my 'fastest' run for 22km in my life. By 'fastest' I mean that the time passed so quickly during the race that it was just amazing! There were 9 music bands on the course, a lot of spectators shouting and whistling, clapping their hands, a lot of people running with us - the atmosphere that I will never forget:)
Congratulations, Daddy!

In three days the last race of the season is going to take place - Polish Championships in superlong. I have never felt so well before this competition. The last preparations went just wonderful. I feel that I am ready, fresh and hungry. The only thing that interests me is to reach the gold medal. It's my last championship race as a junior, so I will do my best to end my junior career in the best possible way. Hope the competition's going to be tight! ;-)

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!:)

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? ;-)