A very pleasant night-O course:)

Yesterday I visited 'Bar under the Larch' to have some fun and gain lots of useful experience needed for night orienteering competitions. When I heard that we were going to run on a map called 'Arturówek', I got a little surprised since I was almost certain the training would take place on a boring and well-known side of the forest. It was my first race since last weekend, so I decided to take pains to perform well - actually to improve my self-esteem a bit:P ...and I did manage! I made a really good race and enjoyed every minute of it:)
I hope it's gonna be similar on Friday's night relay in Denmark. Yeah, today in the evening at 9:15 p.m. we are leaving for Hillerod! Keep your fingers crossed for our whole team and my right foot;-) Actually, there is one main challenge I'll have to face at Spring Cup relay race - to give the correct map to Duduś:-D Remember last year? Who does - is now laughing, who doesn't - should start right now;)
That's all for now, I hope I'll come back in a mood good enough to write my next note as soon as possible!

I've run out of motivation completely!

Last weekend the first important competition of the year was held. Although it was not an orienteering course, I tried to do my best to perform well. I was quite unsure about my shape, but still hoped to take the first place in my class. However, Olej made a superb race that day and beat me by over 40 seconds! I had nothing else to do but congratulate him and analyse this cross thoroughly to find the reasons for my weak performance.

Here's what came to my mind:
- illness (with taking antibiotics) just one week before the start, which made me stay at home for 3 days losing 3 training sessions; what's more, it was not finished when I began to train again and I felt really weakened...
- right foot injury having its climax two days before the race and not allowing me to finish my Thursday's training; nevertheless, I must admit it had no impact on my running on Saturday because the pain went off at the very beginning of the course...
- two parties (especially the second one was a real excess!) at the weekend before and huge problems with sleeping lasting 3 nights...
- having stuffy nose because of piercing cold at night in our cosy room, which caused great problems with breathing during the race (especially at the last lap)...
- running the whole 2nd lap behind Patela, who had just started, was fresh and exaggerated with his pace a bit and slowed down at the beginning of the third one of mine, which I only noticed having run 500m about 13sec slower than before...

On no account do these factors justify my performance, but it is a way to improve my lame mood ;-)

Results and splits.

I've also prepared some charts showing the importance of starting calmly and slowly. Note that Olej was 7th at the first control, easily sped up and eventually succeeded in taking a clear lead.

After such a wise analysis the time came for a special bonus... I hope the main hero of this chart will like it! :-)

Afterwards we had some nice technical trainings in the surrounding forests. I did not take them too seriously because of my injury and just tried to enjoy map reading (and help my clubmates a bit!). I present all the maps below...

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...

Ups and downs...

Last Saturday, just a few days after coming back home from Portugal, I was to compete in a so-called cross-test named 'Sprawdź się sam' in Ruda Pabianicka. I didn't feel well that day and wasn't sure if I would manage to perform at a really good and satisfying level.
The length of the longest race was 8,08km with 200m climb. It consisted of 4 loops of 2,02km and 8 controls to punch every 1,01km. A result with '29' at the beginning was my goal I tried to pursue. Unfortunately, performing an excellent race I achieved the time of 30:05. Although I missed my aim by 6 seconds, I felt incredibly satisfied!

Now I would like to compare it to my last year's race at the same course and with very similar weather conditions...

No. 2008 2009 difference
1. 3:33 3:47 +0:14
2. 3:53 3:55 +0:02
3. 4:02 3:45 -0:17
4. 4:06 3:47 -0:19
5. 4:12 3:39 -0:33
6. 4:12 3:49 -0:23
7. 4:09 3:41 -0:28
8. 4:03 3:42 -0:21
T 32:10 30:05 -2:05!

My pace during this year's competition was 3:43/km (2008 - 3:59/km). My HR was almost the same - 185/192 (2008 - 184/192). However, the difference between best and worst lap was relatively small - 16sec (2008 - 39sec!).
It is also worth noticing the importance of starting calmly. Speeding at the beginning was the main reason of my last year's poor performance.
To sum it all up, I think I made a considerable progress thanks to hard and respectable trainings. I hope it will continue in the future!
Here are the results and splits.

Yeah... it was clearly an UP. Nevertheless, the title sounds 'Ups and DOWNS...'. Now I am ill sitting in from of my computer at home. It all began soon after my come back from hot Portugal. I tried to train with no breaks and hoped everything would be alright. Unfortunately, after Monday's training with Zielu I started feeling worse and worse... and realised I was overwhelmed by an illness:(
On Tuesday I missed my first training session since 24th November. After 106 days of fabulous training I had to give up and stay at home. However, I have no right to groan and moan as I had over 15 weeks of magnificent health. Now I really hunger for running and am looking forward to competing in Saturday's PoZnO. I hope.......

XI Meeting Orientacao Centro

28 II 2009

Dia 1 - middle WRE
I made quite a good race that day. Although I made some minor mistakes, I managed to avoid a mistake of more than half a minute. Unfortunately, the weather got a bit worse and it wasn't as sunny as it used to. It got colder and it rained a bit...:(

Urban Night Sprint in Alcobaca

The map looked pretty interesting and it was a really fascinating sprint distance course. Especially the surroundings of the 14th and 15th controls! There were ruined walls in a complete darkness at night. It looked amazing, so I decided to stay there 1 minute more than I should have;)

1 III 2009

Dia 2 - long
In comparison to the last week's long distance, it is like comparing heaven to hell. I was easily able to break a magic border of 100 minutes. My time was almost 30min better than at POM! I am particularly happy with my performance at the longest leg and the very end of the course.

Just after the prize giving ceremony we returned to our bungalows and started getting ready for the following day's journey back home. All good things come to an end... don't they?

SHORT SUMMARY
10 days in Portugal
187,73km run
9 competition races
7 technical trainings

1 physical training
19 new maps
193 - highest heart rate
56 conclusions drawn