Miguel Reis e Silva

Turbo implantation - check

2012-01-30T18:54:00.014Z

So, I finally had surgery on tuesday, 24th Jan and I've been recovering at home. How did it start?

When I was a child I had a tough asthma. Then it disappeared in my teen years, during my 4 years of competitive swimming, training 3h a day.

Then, 2 years ago, it started to worsen, refractile to medication. My performances were better and worse as the state of my lungs on the race day (worse in Arronches WRE with audible breathing during the footage in the post before).

Then, my immunoalergologist suggested that it was worth to check my nostrils, once it can be a cause of asthma exacerbation and... I don't breathe from my nose. Why? Because I have huge turbinates that are hypertrophied by the chronic rhinitis (pic below, huge "balls" occupying my WHOLE nose) plus a deviated septum. Why didn't I notice it? Because I got used to it along time.
Last tuesday, I entered the surgery room of otorhinolaryngology to make a turbinectomy+septoplasty. Until Saturday, it was painful (I won't go further on this). Now it's getting better, day by day. My first inhalation was heaven and I wasn't allowed to make full inspirations for a few days to prevent syncopes by overstimulation of the vagus nerve (stimulating nostrils areas that weren't used before). I still look like Shrek but I'm recovering well.
2 Weeks of training were lost in an important part of the season but I face it as an investment for the future. Will it give me a better life quality and better results? Life quality, for sure. About results, I would only knew if I tried. We'll see...

(by the way, I had Hb 16.5 and Htcrt 48.1 - considering my forced "altitude training" and lack of high training loads so far.)

Saturday's long sessions

2012-01-26T12:35:00.006Z

This is why I love this far away western bankrupt country. Just 10min away from Lisbon is our usual Saturday 20k interval playground (last weekend we made this short movie). Furthermore, in the end of January, it's still possible to go for a bath in the end: perfect! - Even better with the lunch by the river celebrating Paulo Franco's birthday with a fresh beer.

(my small pc doesn't allow a bigger resolution at sony vegas)

Arronches WRE

2012-01-25T11:42:00.004Z

My asthma didn't allow me a good performance 2 weeks ago. Always the same: my nose blocks, my throat aches and my lungs don't like it. Here I post the video of saturday's middle distance (wasn't able to use rgmapvideo on this one).

More news to come, maybe today, once I have a lot of free time in the next week.

First test with RGmapvideo

2012-01-13T17:02:00.005Z

What a wonderful tool.

I'm now posting last weekend's movies even if I didn't have time to analyze them yet.
After many months without touching a map it was great to experience it again. My lack of shape can be checked in the heart rate area of the screen. =)

Now that I'm at home, it's so anoying to watch me wandering around the controls: "it's over there, asshole!". So much to improve this season. (Captured with 1080pFullHD (125º) - Check Youtube's max of 720pHD for more quality).

Relay - pace and map not exactly fitted.

Middle distance - (check my fall and twisted ankle to the 1st control, crossing the small stream).

In 2 hours I'm departing to Arronches International meeting, where Gueorgiou will also compete. I hope that my bronchitis and sore peroneal tendon will allow me to do a decent performance... we'll see...

along Thailand

2011-12-23T10:11:00.008Z

So, the big exam was done. After 11 boring months I moved to Dubai/Thailand for 3 weeks with Rafaela. I really wanted to keep training but it was impossible.

Or the place was too hot...

Or too small...

Or too polluted... (ending with red eyes, and a sense in the mouth like if I'd been licking car engines for 1h)

During 3 weeks we did 3500km by public transport, 150km of which by boat...

... and was part of the medical team of the Ironman Asia Pacific and got really enthusiastic with Triathlon.

Overall, it ended being a really nice trip... The touristic places were really nice. The untouristed places made me, once more, remember the value of our European way of living.

In the second last day, and after 3 weeks eating in the street food stalls, I got a gastroenteritis at a McDonalds (!). Altogether, I lost 6kg, from which I'm still recovering (today's breakfast=5 waffles).

Now I have a loong way to recover the shape. Yesterday was the day zero! Let's go!

Contour Roam first test

2011-11-08T08:39:00.010Z

I received it and I had to try it! The goal is to start analyzing my navigation in some months from now, but I concluded that it's also a nice camera to have some fun.

I made a short movie with footages from my usual Sunday long training session (20k) from my home, through Monsanto park (my

everyday playground), along the river and back
home.

Some notes about it:
- Trying to discover the best way to use the headband. In the 170º mode is difficult to hide my big head;
- Used 720p; 30fps; 170º. Haven't tried the full HD mode with more resolution;
- Didn't stabilize the image; my small PC wasn't able to do the job without loosing quality. I'll try VirtualDub later;
- Easy portable camera anywhere with a short "wow-start recording" time.

CONTOUR ROAM first test from migueorienteering on Vimeo.

And now, back to my boring life... A few weeks to go.

Accidental orienteering song?

2011-10-07T20:23:00.003+01:00

I've stepped into this one that I had to share:

You're taken by the woods even though you're aware
of the slippery cliffs and the big black bears
and the salal snares taller than yourself
Ferns growing as thick as the trees
You're looking for a flag at the top of the hill
It's a race against the light
And one false step could mean staying the night
That's why you should never travel alone
You should never travel alone
and you know that one false step
and you might not make it home
And so you watch for loose rocks under your feet
Stepping onto wet stones, crossing over creeks
Climbing up cliffs and over dead trees
You watch your step, you get your footing right
A broken compass could mean staying the night
and you should always know where you're going
Even if you've got a map
you should always know where you're going
And you know that even if you've got a map
you might not make it home

You take your time just to breathe the air
and appreciate having never met a bear
You capture the flag at the top of the hill
With daylight to spare
Orienteering comes naturally
You read the map right
One wrong turn could mean staying the night
and though you carry your phone
You should never travel alone
And you know that
because one false step
and you might not make it home and

Even if you've got a map
and you know where you're going
You're still a long way from your home
And even if you've got a map
you should never travel alone
And you know that
But you're not dead yet
and you might just make it home

End of 2011 season

2011-10-06T00:05:00.007+01:00

I've participated in the portuguese training camp to WOC 2012 27Sept-2Oct in Switzerland to close the season. The last race with a forest map had been 3 months before so I wasn't expecting too much. However I got better day by day and enjoyed the Swiss terrains. I liked the World Cup race but was disappointed by some avoidable losses of time.

TICKS, TICKS, TICKS...

In the last day in Swiss terrains I extracted a tick from my hand (had been there less than 2h). 2 days after I got swollen and painful axillary lymph nodes and I was advised to do antibiotic profilaxy to Lyme disease. Probably this is a recurrent thing among orienteerers once ticks are spread all over Europe, but in Portugal (and Iberic peninsula) it isn't a problem. Even if the rate of infected ticks with TBE (tick born encephalitis) is between 0.5% and 3%, I'm considering being vaccinated to TBE once I like to be on the safe side.

All over Switzerland 5-30% (up to 50%) of ticks are infected with the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi. An estimated 3’000 people yearly contract the so-called Lyme disease caused by this bacterium. Lyme disease can be treated with antibiotics.

In Switzerland, in 2005 the cases of TBE (tick born encephalitis) drastically increased with 200 cases, compared to an average of 100 per year during the preceding 5 years. Certain patients can experience paralysis of arms, legs or facial nerves, which can lead to permanent disabilities. There is a well-tolerated and efficient vaccination against tick-borne encephalitis.

+ info about ticks at here, here and here (last one by british orienteering).

WHAT'S NEXT...

Now, a 15 day deserved physical rest. Can't wait for next season. It'll be the first one as a doctor, rather than a student. Without exam seasons, that means 52 WHOLE free weekends per year to train as an animal. I've signed for Maratona Clube de Portugal, a club with world class athletes and I'm confident that I'll be able to improve my physical capabilities.

Monsanto moutain race

2011-08-28T22:02:00.009+01:00

It was a 11.750m mountain race (Salomon calendar) in my everyday training place so I had to be there. The best guys from the north of the country made a long trip to be here. This time I was only 1' behind the best guy which is a considerable improvement compared to my last mountain races. Now I'm able to follow the pace while going uphill and in the flat parts but I loose a HUGE amount of time when going downhill (I think that my engine doesn't have that gear). I think that it's because of a lack of strength in the quadriceps once I don't consider that I'm afraid of the descend. Anyway I have promised myself that I won't run moutain races again in slick shoes.

I've spent the last days studying at home/faculty and it'll be like that until November; some days better, some days worse. I've kept doing intervals and training well just because I like it and can't live without it; I also face them as work done to the next season (even if, in the meanwhile, I'm going to rest for some weeks).

WOC Sprint - great day

2011-08-17T18:29:00.012+01:00

It was my first WOC, and it was great.
Due to the lack of free time, I arrived in Aix-les-bains, 12h before the start of the Sprint qual. In the last weeks I beted on my homework, "doing" almost all the sprint maps from omaps.worldofo and using Visual motor behaviour rehearsal (VMBH), a nice athlete-related focus technique that I've read in a great psychology book a few months ago.

Sprint Qual. (times related to Heat winner) - It was the first international race where I was calm before the race (did it really work?). I always anticipated 2 controls in advance (maybe too much) and did a safe qualification to the final.
Sprint Final (times related to leg fastest time) - It was one of the greatest races of my life, not because of the result, but because of the athmosphere. I lost lots of time because of a lack of attitude once I don't have a straight idea of the competition speeds. I'm also too slow while I'm reading the map. These splits times will value a lot to check what I need to develop to get better results. I was physically fresh in the end and did good splits in the last part of the race. I ended in 39th, a result that I think that I'm able to improve.

(some photos from here and WorldofO and from Joao Dias and Filipe Dias)

Video coverage at here.
GPS at here.

Now, I'm back to Lisbon to go on with the studying routines.

About the future... I'm going to spend a lot of time studying until November. I'll keep training physically hard but it'll be difficult to get some free time to compete with a map in my hands. It'll work as some time apart, to come back with full focus and will to get better results.

WHAT a crazy weekend!

2011-07-19T12:32:00.008+01:00

Saturday

10:00 Sprint selection races to WOC in Folgosinho, 2.0km, (80m), 12'46. This year, due to the amount of study that I have to cope with, I'm only fighting for a place in the Sprint in this year's WOC. I won with a 1'20 advantage to the 2nd. 10th control wasn't in the right place, so I lost 20'' there.

18:00 Bitten by a snake. Transported by ambulance to Guarda hospital (30min, with horn included) and a venous line in my arm, just in case. Did some blood tests, everything was alright, not a poisonous one. Back to Gouveia at 23:00. There is more info about iberian poisonous snakes (click the first link - in portuguese) here. I freaked out when I noticed it; however, their poison isn't deathly so there isn't much to worry about... I like to know what I face so you won't see me competing again without gaiters during the hot months.

Sunday

07:00 Woke up. Long journey by public transport back to Lisbon.

15:00 Arrived at Lisbon without having had lunch.

18:30 5000m race (Lisbon's regional champs). I wasn't in the mood to compete but my coach insisted. This day wasn't an exception to the last windy days as the following graph shows (at the track there was something between 4 and 5m/s):
The best guys did 14'45 (they usually do around 14'00). I caught a group that was too slow, didn't want to leave it because of the wind, misunderstood the "last lap signal" once we were passing slower runners and did 15'25 without suffering. This was my last chance this season to go under 15'. I love the feelings that track give. I wanted more when it ended... I want more for next season.

( are you sure that it has ended?)

Warm night races...

2011-07-11T19:08:00.009+01:00

This weekend I went to "X Legua nocturna de Odivelas", a popular 5000m race near Lisbon with a great atmosphere. You may check the WHOLE race in the following video here. There was a freaking fast start with some attacks (all the 1st 3k under 3'00/km). After the 3rd km (when the climb started) I was alone, doing a calm last 2km. Final time 15'45.

After it, there was the "end of the season" dinner in front of Carcavelos beach. The coach made a nice speech about "the true things in life that give pleasure and unite us" and the "overestimated power of money nowadays".A special note to the European mountain running championships in Turkey - results here. The portuguese team got the 3rd place and 3rd individual position. All the 4 guys were top-20 which shows a strong equal team. Orienteerers David Schneider and Ionut Zinca were 10th and 12th. Next season I'll try my best to be there, already with some experience in the pocket.

The medical course finally ended and the master thesis presented. It was about cardiovascular risk factors and exercise. The professors from the Preventive Medicine Institute liked it and there are some new projects in sight. After the final Gala, I immersed in books. Until November it'll all be about studying to the big exam.

15'17 at 5k

2011-07-03T18:52:00.007+01:00

Nice race yesterday in Lisbon. It was too windy with none of the sprint races approved because of a 3.5m/s wind. I wanted to go below 15' and I started well with 1k 2'58; 2k 5'56; 3k 8'55. After it, I was alone and didn't even notice how much I slowed down in the last 2k. I kind of liked it and didn't suffer much in the first 3k ending in 3rd. I really have to repeat it this season and now I'm sure that it's an achievable goal. My passion for the track is growing from day to day..

National Universitary Champs.

2011-06-26T18:31:00.005+01:00

11.740m (240m), 40controls, 75'21 - A nice mass start with 3 loops. It was a fast map with a detailed eastern area and I felt tired from "Escalada do Mendro" and a rough friday session.
Huge mistake to 19th and 24th, those kind of forbidden ones(my map had the 2 second loops by the opposite order, but it doesn't matter). Stupid option to 34th, big loss of time to 35th once my control description was covered, and too much path to 30th. With some luck, I was able to become Portuguese universitary orienteering champion with a performance that didn't satisfy me.

Escalada do Mendro

2011-06-24T00:03:00.009+01:00

Yesterday, we were at the track without any will to do the intervals.. so we organized a 5athlete team (Sergio Silva, Marco Povoa, Paulo Franco, Manuel Horta and me) in 5min to participate in today's race. It was an interesting one with a mix of road race (2k+2k) vs. moutain race (7k). The prize money was interesting so all the moutain race and road race guys appeared in a far village 2h away from Lisbon (Vidigueira).
In this interesting duel, the moutain guys dominated the races (1º, 4º, 5º, 8º) even with some 1h03-half-marathon guys from road races. I considered it impressive, knowing that they have opposite methods of training. You may find the first page of results:
About my performance, I was just too slow in the flat parts - probably related to my breathing difficulties in the last days due to my chronic asthma. However I behave well in the "moutain part" and caught many guys from athletics that passed me when the course turned flat again. To end in glory, the last 2k were really painful once, for the first time in my life, I've experienced this entity that affects, at least once, 40% of athletes: "the evil runner's trots".

Our last-minute team (Mendro Team) was 2nd overall and it ended being a well-spent morning.

Portuguese Middle and Sprint champs.

2011-06-20T22:11:00.011+01:00

Middle, 30c, 5.4k (230m) - I was portuguese middle distance champion with a regular race. I gave priority to navigation rather than running with slow first controls, giving no chance to luck. 13th- hesitation, 15th- misunderstood the high as low, 16th- big deviation, 20th- ~1'30 stuck in the greens (V1) once I was too careless in the approach of the white tunnel, 22nd- ran too far and I was once careless in the approach to the 25th.
Sprint, 16c, 2.4k (35m) - Easy map where the best part (the fort) wasn't availed. In a sprint the "slow start" approach doesn't work that well. Bad option to the 2nd and the worst possible option to the 9th without correct anticipation. I had a lack of attitude in the final flat part and settled in an average pace. In the end I was 2nd, ex-aequo with Diogo Miguel and 6'' from the winner. It was a tight race with the first 7 athletes in a 23'' gap.
Beside the nice events, it was an enjoyable weekend in the portuguese surf capital with nice weather and friends.

My Orienteering heart

2011-06-16T16:35:00.010+01:00

So, in this part of the year some students start to somatize what they read in the books (I know a guy that ended in the ER with a pseudo-heart attack). I started to think that I had Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the main cause of sudden death in athletes... so I did a check-up with Echocardiogram and 24h Holter. (Causes of sudden death in athletes)

Echocardiogram, which was the most important, was perfectly normal...oh yeah! no hypertrophy (LV diameter<13mm, no Septum/ventricle assymetries) and also not too dilated. I found some articles to compare with athlete values here (even with healthy orienteerers - in a study about the 1990's orienteerer's deaths in Sweden; apart from this, any orienteerer should read this article that gives a new insight on "running with covered body" - here).

When I started to read the Holter I just taught... "I'm done.." During the day, it's all normal. However, during the night:
A- My HR reaches 29bpm,
B- I have 105pauses>2sec
C- I have a Mobitz I AV block and AV dissociation
Then I started to search the medical databases and got relieved, once these are all benign variations in athletes (being present in normal athletes B-37.1% C-22.9% and 20% - table here). My coach also laughed at my worries once he had pauses of 5sec in his glorious days.

After all, it's all normal in athletes and it even has a better prognosis (I never taught that there would be so dramatic athlete variants). You may find an excellent review here and the article that concludes the following here.
In conclusion, endurance older athletes seem to have:

profound bradyarrhythmias, with episodes of heart rate below 40 beats/min,sinus pauses, and Wenckenback phenomena (Mobitz I);
a higher number of atrial or junction escaping than healthy elderly controls;
higher vagal activity during the night, lower adrenergic activity during the day, and higher tolerance to effort than healthy elderly controls;
retardation of the age-related decrease in heart rate variability, which has a positive prognostic value and may decrease the risk of life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias.

Now I may feel safer of these bullets...
...even if my heart seems a folk song at night:

Portuguese mountain running champs.

2011-06-05T00:29:00.010+01:00

Ouch! 8.850m with 1.000 vertical meters and a total time of 52'58.
Now I understand why the track and field athletes don't even appear in these races. It's a completely different sport from athletics.. and I suffered a lot! (and paradoxically enjoyed it).

The race was in the deep Portugal, that I didn't know at all. Only some groups of houses and loong narrow roads where only passes 1 car at a time. It's a really beautiful area and a good place to have a physical training camp in the base of Serra da Estrela moutains.

About the race, I had high expectations. I wanted to qualify for the European champs (the 1st 4 would qualify) and I had the 4th guy in sight all the way.. until the last 2k where the slope bent to 25%, he went away, and I was picked and passed by the following group. In the end, I was 9th and 1'46 away from my goal... Results here.

... maybe next year if:
1. I'll be able to run downhill muuch faster
2. I'll discover a course around Lisbon with at least 600m elevation
3. I'll get stronger

Portuguese Long and Relay champs

2011-06-01T19:49:00.008+01:00

Long distance, 15.3k (245m), 1h35m27s - What can I say? It was an easy map but I was able to loose much time in the control areas (some of them passing by before punching, like 6th and 23rd) and a stupid choice in the long leg (15-16th) once the big road was hard ground instead of unstable sand. To end in glory, I vomited to the 28th because of a smelly nearby paper factory with some disgusted witnesses. I ended in 4th place.
Relay, 6.2k (120m), 36'47 - I was the last element and when I started the competition was already decided so I took it easy. Also some unnecessary mistakes.

My quickroute graphs seem like a "tour de france" stage with so many spikes. Still in the search for the flow.

I took the last 3 days easy because of some pain in the left peroneals; in this part of the season is easy to sink in tiredness so I took some easy days.

(in the meanwhile, the portuguese doping agency allowed the basic asthma medication to everyone in terapeutic doses. Before so much evidence of no effects in non-asthmatic athletes and so much bureaucracy every year, finally a wise decision.)

(my new summer look - not so pretty but really pratical to hot weather)

National team training camp

2011-05-19T16:38:00.006+01:00

After the mess in the portuguese o'federation, things got better and last weekend's training camp was a success.

The camp started with a 5k track test where I did 15'35. I was not sure about how I would feel. I went with the pack the first 3k to 3'10/km average and did the last 2k in 3'05 and 2'59 without too much pain.
I really want to get a 5k PB this season (last season I did around 15'25) and going under 15' is a tough achievable goal.
I'm waiting for proper 5k track races around Lisbon and now that the 30ºC's days are here it's easy to find last-minute races in the end of the working days with some under 15' guys.

Then I went to Lisbon to a "kind of" graduation ceremony.. I don't care too much with this kind of stuff but my family would literally kill me if I missed it. Anyway it was a really well-spent afternoon.

I returned to Marinha Grande forests in the same day and did a Long distance train on sunday morning. It was my 1st train with a map this season (!). I had some difficulty in understanding the terrain in some parts at 1:15000 scale with many hesitations and some mistakes. In the end I was minimally satisfied with my performance.

In the beginning of the season I made my bet on studying for the specialty exam rather than on training with a map (that costs a lot of precious time). It was a matter of priorities and it was a tough decision.

However, next season I'll be able to compensate my weak navigation with a lot of map training now that the portuguese federation has some great houses in the middle of Marinha Grande forests and we have a proper national team program.

In the meanwhile, I'll have plenty of opportunities to punish my body in the next orienteering and athletic's races... can't wait for it!

Moutain running is tougher than what I expected

2011-04-17T22:32:00.004+01:00

That's what I thought in the end of today's race.
A 12.200m course with a considerable elevation where I made the unofficial time of 50'48.
I suffered much more than in a flat athletics/road race but I kind of enjoyed it..
I was 5th overall; maybe, an experience to repeat.

Some of the best portuguese terrains...

2011-04-11T22:28:00.008+01:00

A portuguese/spanish national competition in the north of the country.

Middle distance, 6.0k (300m), 45'05 - Even if it was a great continental terrain, personally, I didn't enjoy the race that much once:
1.I did lots of mistakes;
2.about the map, there were some doubtful green areas, controls in the wrong places (1st and 4th) and gross contour errors (the hollow of the 1st doesn't exist) which made some athletes to complain in the end.
Long distance, 11.4k (470m), 1h38m14 - Bad route choices, mistakes.. there was a mix of everything. What more can I say?

I was disappointed with my performance in the end. The lack of free time to train with a map doesn't allow me good performances in orienteering... at least this season.

When I look at the portuguese o'calendar, there are only 2 more national races until August. Probably the goals of this season will be switched to athletics.

There is still no portuguese national team this year: no training camps nor international races. Portugal is now considered "junk" by the economic rating agencies and is part of the PIGS group (Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain) - "junk" and "pig" mustn't be good =). Furthemore, the International Monetary Fund is now here.

Anyway..
..I've been training at the track with great weather (bare trunk and great fellows)
..I've enjoyed the 1st until-sunset-surfing-session of the season
..and I've been enjoying my medical rotations so..
..the way we feel about different situations, just depends on the perspective.

49'20 at 15k

2011-04-03T14:29:00.004+01:00

It's one of the most famous portuguese road races. 15k (?) in the streets of Mafra.
I beat some guys who I would never expect to beat, I did a regular time but, most of all, I felt good all the way. It was a really good experience to test the shape and I felt fullfilled in the end.

(blue- pace; green- elevation (garmin elevation isn't that accurate); times- per /km /5km)

Orienteering choking

2011-03-26T19:19:00.005Z

After having read this New Yorker's article I got interested about choking.
Orienteering is a sport where every step that we make should be towards the next control. In high level races I have this tendency to alter my navigation routines ending in worse-than-expected performances. Understanding it, may help me avoiding it.

Choking in sport is considered to be a sub-optimal performance under stressful conditions (Lewis & Linder, 1997) and has been defined as ‘‘the occurrence of inferior performance despite striving and incentives for superior performance’’ (Baumeister & Showers, 1986, p. 361). Many examples may be found here. Further information here.

There are 2 theories for it:
- distraction theories (Carver & Scheier, 1981), which maintain that under stressful conditions, the athlete’s attentional capacity will be overloaded by task-irrelevant stimuli such as worry and self-doubt, resulting in performance decrements (I'm one of the victims...).

- self-focus theories (Baumeister, 1984), which include the conscious processing hypothesis (Masters, 1992), and are collectively termed ‘‘explicit monitoring’’(Beilock & Carr, 2001). They state that performance deteriorates as a consequence of the athlete reinvesting explicit technical information and consciously monitoring and/or controlling a skill that normally would be performed automatically.

I found it curious that:
- Jones et al. (2007)- found that those who excel under pressure are able to maintain a balanced sport/life perspective, despite being intensely committed to their sport;

- Fletcher et al. (2006)- established that a lack of mental toughness will encourage an athlete to perceive the situational demands as beyond their capability a process reflected within choking.

- mental toughness consists of several attributes, including an unshakeable belief, an ability to remain fully focused, and a capacity to switch sport focus on and off (Jones et al.,2002, 2007)

- ‘‘these people who have perspective and say... I don’t really care, [can] shrug off things really well. I think this is a characteristic of mental toughness... and I think it’s a big thing [missing] in choking’’.

- [the choke] is extremely difficult to deal with and hence, nine times out of ten, performance will stay bad and they will be annihilated... they won’t regain performance... however, I think there are some individual differences and mental toughness issues going on, when some people can regain their performance.

- (in the photo, the greatest all-the-time choke by Novotna's wimbledon final loss after a 4-1 40-30, described here).

Apart from choking, even if I've been only training once a day this season, today I did one of the best long intervals of my life at 6x1000+600+600. Good times without suffering is a great feeling. Can't wait for competing again after this training period.

Great Orienteering footage...

2011-03-17T16:55:00.002Z

...about the I Orienteering Meeting of Gouveia. Credits by RTP (national TV) - uncheck "HD" if you have problems watching:

1º Meeting de Orientação de Gouveia from WEDDO DOIS on Vimeo.

Arraiolos International Meeting (WRE)

2011-03-15T20:41:00.005Z

And so the most important portuguese orienteering week has ended by the best way. Gafanhori has provided all the present orienteerers with a great stage.
My performance there was conditioned by the open wound on my knee, made at the POM.

Middle distance, 7.2k (290m), 34'23 - I was happy once, after a disappoiting POM, I was able to do a regular race. The knee hurted in the 1st part but it was ok in the 2nd part where there wasn't vegetation.

Long distance, 18.3k (525m), mp - The greens of the 1st controls hurted me too much. After passing the river to the 3rd it got worse and I decided to just finish the race at a slower pace. By the 17th, my right buttock also started to hurt because of the compensated stride and I decided to go directly to the finish area. It was a great course and I was really sad for not having been able to do it properly. I hope that someday I'll be able to try this course again.

A different afternoon

2011-03-10T20:50:00.014Z

As an athlete you've probably heard lots of empiric theories about performance.
This afternoon, sick of studying, I've spent the afternoon discussing this theme with a thriathlete friend at the Faculty's library. Note that we both don't have education in the area (so our opinions are limited). We're just curious about it and so I share some thoughts:

I've always heard that training in a fasted state would improve your lipolysis capabilities. It's an empiric idea among portuguese long distance runners. Actually, we've found here that:
- exercise-induced intramyocellular lipid breakdown was enhanced in type I fibers (P<0.05)
- increased the exercise intensity corresponding to the maximal rate of fat oxidation (+21%) more than did CHO (+6%) (P<0.05)
- prevented the development of exercise-induced drop in blood glucose concentration (P<0.05)

About supplements, we had 2 opposite opinions. By what I've seen, heard and read, I think that we don't need any:
- protein supplement - it's pure math. if an athlete needs 1.4-2 g/kg/day, this goal is easily reachable by 2 beefs (90gr of protein each) or 1cup of beans (177gr).. and we eat much more than that. About the timing, it isn't that odd to eat normal food (non-powder food, i mean) right after the training sessions.
- electrolyte supplements - well explained here

About heart rate training .
I'm trained by personal Rate of perceived exertion (RPE); he trains by heart rate (HR).
About HR, considering that:
- dehydration can increase heart rate by up to 7.5%;
- heat and humidity can increase heart rate by around 10 beats/min;
- altitude can increase heart rate by 10-20%, even with acclimatisation
- the HR varies along a training session and it's peak is delayed during intervals.
- the time between two consecutive beats can vary considerably in normal athletes.

... is it still as precise as claimed? I used to train by HR with my last coach and I felt limited once I like to vary the pace during a training session by my will.

About RPE (I don't have any scale, it's subjective)...
...it's applications in the antecipatory model may be geniously found here...

... it's accurate

... may prevent overtraining
... and the preferred associative vs. the dissociative model fits in (the "brain training" theories).

After all, I think that the human will to manipulate our million-year tuned engine had no significant results. Rather than manipulating it, we should focus on understanding it.

To my page/day statistics it was a lost afternoon; to me, it was an enjoyable afternoon.

Portugal O'Meeting 2011

2011-03-09T16:27:00.007Z

Nice organization by GD4C. For me, it's an honor to have all the best athletes and friends in Portugal, enjoying these days.

DAY1, Long distance, 14.6k (665m), 1'13'37 - I've noticed that when I'm excited with a race I have this massive tendency to start running without looking at the map (I'm getting better at controling this feeling but I'm far from where I want to be).
This map was easy and it worked for a while, until the 4th where I did a huge mistake. I was progressively caught by T.Aires and by then I started focusing on my navigation (nothing changed, just the fact of having someone catching up made my navigation better - and this made me think about it at the end of the race).

DAY2, Middle distance, 6.5k (285m), 42'27 - One of the worst performances I can recall. If careless orienteering would work in some parts of the day before, it ended with a mess in this day. Furthermore I fell and hurted my knee badly.

DAY3, Middle distance, 6.1k (220m), 39'42 - I was conditioned by my knee. Hurted at the beginning but I was soon able to forget about it. The navigation was better but my running was conditioned.

DAY4, Long distance, 15.1k (340m), 1'20'32 - I really liked this race. Some controls were too easy, indeed. I was happy with my navigation (after 3 days, it was enough!) but, once more, I was also physically conditioned.

LESSONS:
- I'm feeling physically better than what I was expecting. The lack of athletic competitions lately doesn't give me an exact measure but I'll be able to check it in the next weeks.
- I did some top splits... so I have an idea of what a top performance is by recalling those moments. I have to focus more on the navigation and avoid this big mistakes.

...more to come, right this weekend in Arraiolos!

Warming up the engine

2011-02-27T21:23:00.007Z

Nice organization there by Ori-estarreja. I felt that I went back in time to 2 seasons ago when I used to carelessly navigate. I did huge losses in the control areas due to a lack of anticipation.

Middle distance, 6.6k (150m), 37'57 - I thought that I would feel physically worse. I didn't loose time in the running part to the winner but did huge mistakes, summing a total of 5'30 (outch!). I may explain some mistakes in the final part by not having been able to focus because of some Achilles pain, but the mistakes in the beginning were pure distraction.

6-man night relay, 7.1k, 48'55 - It was a nice race. Good warm up, no Achilles pain. Once again, huge losses of time because of careless navigation. What more can I say? The trak speaks for itself! (however, my team won the race, thanks to the rest of the elements).
Next weekend, POM. Right now, I'm too far from the performances that I want. I'll do my best next weekend, more focused on the map.

Unlucky times...

2011-02-19T12:59:00.008Z

After an unlucky January with 2 weeks off due to common flu (now I must have all the stickers in my collection), I started February with some pain near my Achilles. I just rolled this week and yesterday, when I got fine, I started a foot's infection for which I'll have to take antibiotics for the next week. The lesson is: don't be careless (as I was) about feet open lesions that can be an entry port to everything.

With all this events, I think that my coach suspects that I'm giving excuses not to train. =) For this, he has sent me some inspirational phrases from Prof. Moniz Pereira, (the old-school 90-year-old athletic's coach that was responsible for the portuguese old glories) that I share with you:
- Old are the guys that have their life full of years. I have my years full of life.
- In athletics, you can pass from 1st to 7th in 1second.
- Even when it rained a lot, I was always with my athletes at the track and never at the countertop stage.
- In my club, under any atmospheric condition, including earthquakes, everyday there is a training session.
- Give me better conditions and we'll obtain equal results.
- Living is training and training is almost winning.
- Luck requires a lot of work.

Thanks to Silva that has provided me a Alpha6 headlamp for the next season. It's an amazing headlamp that values its cost: light, easily portable and same power as much more expensive headlamps.

Just to end, Contador was exonerated. With this precedent, will it ever be possible to condemn any athlete? more at Here

I OMG - Results, pictures and "Follow Tero"

2011-02-07T19:42:00.006Z

This weekend, there was the National event organized by my club. Here in Portugal the clubs can take their own organizations pretty seriously, no athlete from the club participates in the race and everyone stays fully focused on pleasing the guests.

You're able to find photos at:
Gonçalo Cruz here
Gildo Silva here

... Jan Kobach's report of Saturday's event here
... and the results here (Splitsbrowser in the orienteering symbol).

With Thierry's permission, we've captured some movies (without much resolution).. You are able to follow them with the maps.

The portuguese Federation is going through a tough process. I had to go to this weekend's assembly as a representant of the Elite male class (it's usually represented by the ranking winner). I just talked with the athletes, gathered the info and voted according to the will of the majority of the athletes. It was a pretty boring session with laws that are too complex for me to understand and too much lack of respect from many sides. I really don't care about all this bureaucracy; I'm just an athlete, give me a map and I'm happy! =)

Last weekend's sickness spoiled me a week of training. January stats are: 2 weeks training, 2 weeks sick - not good. I'm now back to business, let's roll...

1st O'race of the season - Ultra-long

2011-01-23T22:26:00.008Z

My first race of the season was an ultra-long distance in Alentejo (which, by international standards, was a long distance).

Long distance, 19.900m (440m), 1h43m04s - I was afraid of blowing up so I started too slow and loosing (too much!) time in the initial controls.
Major mistakes:
4th - the best option was in front by the small path. I saw the greens and didn't checked the small path.-1m30
15th - I was careless when I left the small path. Didn't look enough time to the map. -2m40
22nd - I skirted the hill by the wrong side and attacked the wrong rock. Lack of confidence. -1m00

When I realised that the course was ending and that I was still feeling well I pushed harder with good splits in the second half of the course. There was a bad management of effort. Only now I know that I'm able to push harder in these distances. Physically, I thought that I was worse (this season there won't be twice-a-day trainings). Technically, I navigated well compared with what I was expecting, once I haven't trained regularly with a map since June2010.

Before I went to Wien, I left a fat coach in Portugal and when I returned, I found a thin coach that runs as much as I'm running. Now he's also my training partner and we split the effort of the intervals, which is nice. The bad part, is the psychological pressure of the "old fellow" that is always trying to pass me. (Graph of yesterday's long intervals at the track).

About the experience in Austria, in the 2nd largest hospital in the world, it was great! Medically, we learned a lot and had nice evaluations. About friends, we did lots of good friends and met really nice people. Orienteeringly, I learned new methods of training and developed my running in the forest. About the social differences, it's something like the video below (switch italians by portuguese):

Now I'm making an Internal medicine rotation. For the 1st time in my life, I'm being given my own patients (supervised in the end of the morning). It can be stressful at times but I'm loving it! The bad part are the late lunchs, only at 15h, that are responsible for my morning hypoglicemias (those guys don't eat anything!).

My weeks have been evaluated in km's and pages. We'll see...

The longest cold of my life

2011-01-09T12:39:00.010Z

After a legendary New Year in the heart of the Tirol with amazing friends (thanks to Martin&Uschi, the organizers) and an incredible athmosphere I got a classic cold with chills, low fevers and anergy.

Monday I wanted to fight against it with a session at the gym (stupid!) and got worse in the next days. I've been spending the mornings in the O.R. with some sacrifice and the afternoons at bed drinking hot tea. Friday I went for a run with David (who also had the same) and also got worst after. So now, I've been waiting for my body to recover for a week and I hope that it decides to get better quickly!. It seems that everybody is sick in Vienna with lots of coughs and red noses on the streets and hospital. In Portugal, the O'season has started this weekend and I can't wait to joint it.

In the meanwhile, the "I Meeting de Orientação de Gouveia" is going above expectations. Thierry Gueorgiou, Olav Lundanes, Philippe Adamski, Frederic Tranchard, Vincent Coupat, Gernot Kerschbaumer and Ionut Zinca are some of the stars that already made their entries in this event.

This blog has reached the mark of 50.000 visitors. This project started as a way of forcing myself to analyze my performances and as a diary of my ups and downs across these years. It seems that got some more people interested on it (beside me!) and I'm glad about it. Thank you all! =)

I Orienteering Meeting of Gouveia - advertisement

2010-12-16T19:32:00.007Z

After having organized the Portugal O'Meeting 2009, which was a recognized success, CPOC (my portuguese orienteering club) is now organizing the I Orienteering Meeting of Gouveia that will take place on the 5th and 6th of February 2010 in the highest portuguese mountains, "Serra da Estrela".

The competition will be constituted by a Long Distance in a rocky maze...

(sample of the Long Distance map)

...and a Mixed Distance event (middle with transition to sprint - NOC2010 style) in a fast forest map and a tricky village map (plus a Open race on Saturday evening).

(sample of the Mixed Distance event maps)

You may find the English version of the Buletin nº1 by clicking here.

CPOC has already received participation intentions by World-class Orienteerers such as Olav Lundanes, Ionut Zinca or the Austrian National Team so we now think that we have all the ingredients to a memorable event.

Official "I Orienteering Meeting of Gouveia" website here.
Official "I Orienteering Meeting of Gouveia" Facebook page here.

So, see you in Portugal, soon...

My 1st Kolsassberg run

2010-12-13T20:03:00.012Z

After 4 days hiking, skiing and discovering the best of Tirol, last Sunday I've participated in Kolsassberg run, a mythic 5km race with a 500m climb, in Innsbruck.

Unfortunately, I forgot my asthma medication in Vienna and felt the consequences.
Started in the 1st group but after the 1st km I started to feel the shortened breath and aching lungs. The rest of the race was literally "suffering until the end" and I ended in 9th. However, I don't regreat the experience: it was an awesome race with an amazing view over the valley! Next time it'll be better...

Today, I did a 1k test run and more 2x1k intervals at the indoor track. It usually takes me 2 or 3 days to my lungs to recover from these traumatic experiences, but they could be worse right now. After the train, there was also place for an animated Christmas-training-group dinner.

It's still more 3 weeks in Vienna, and I'm already missing this place... I'll definitely have to come back! =)

WLV Crosslaufmeisterschaften

2010-11-28T20:18:00.007Z

And then the winter came: the orienteering trainings stopped and the cold weather and the snow arrived in Wien.

Today I've participated in a Wienese 9k Cross-country race, the coldest one of my life! I was expecting a little better and David Schneider (who won) ended kicking my ass again pretty badly. I ran the first 5k with a cool guy, Albert from LCC, but then my lungs started to ache a little bit and I ended the race in 4th.

The last trains have been cool. All at night (it gets dark at 4h) and some in the forest, off-road. I'm such a Sissy running in the muddy forest and the average is 1 or 2 falls per train... but I'm getting better.

I've been enjoying my life at the surgery rotation (not that much the part of having to be in the operation room at 6h55!). I've been with some cool doctors and I've signed my first surgery sheets as a 1st assistant. I haven't worked at my master thesis as much as I wanted to but the time that I've been spending here has been worth it! In the next days, more trains, trip to Innsbruck and then the Christmas in Portugal. We'll see...

Miscelaneous

2010-11-05T20:24:00.010Z

After a strength training and a 1h run I decided at the midnight of 23th Oct to do my first half-marathon in the next day.

I hadn't any idea of the time I was worthing. I just went there with the intention to suffer as much as i was able to and to gaign some rythm. I ran in the front all the time with 2 nice athletes. It was a freaking cold and at the 16th km I did my first stop to vomit. I caught them again and at the 19th km, I took my time to vomit for the 2nd time, ending in 3rd. So, I've learned my lesson: with cold weather, nothing in the stomach in the 4h before. My time was nothing special: 1h14m49s, but not bad for the beginning of the season.

In the day after I had a slight pain in the Achilles. I don't like to play with this sensitive area so I decided to stop for some time: 1-1/2week doing 5km at a really slow pace +1h gym everyday.

Yesterday my Achilles behave well and I was able to get my ass kicked by D.Schneider at night grass intervals. Today I'm with some fever due to the Flu vaccine that I took today so I had some free time to do a post.

About work, it has been awesome. I'm in a nice and competent Pediatrics team. I really like the medical teams attitude: doctors aren't vain and inaccessible like in Portugal and treat you as an equal so, I've been learning a lot.

I've been training without method; just enjoying meeting new people, going for some runs and competing in special events... and it has been working fine with me doing a good mileage/week! Next week I'll also join an austrian athletics team with Olympic aspirations, Team 2012. We'll see...

Tower running and 1st trains in the cold

2010-10-18T21:40:00.014+01:00

This was the craziest race of my life. Last friday I did a tower running race in Vienna. 700 stairs, 35 floors. I was expecting a soft climb up to the top. I started fast and when I thought "i'm pretty tired, how many floors to the end?" I was passing by the sign of the 16th floor. The rest was just a mix of suffering to the top and ended the race so, so dizzy! (as you may see in the photo below that was taken in the downstairs screen). In the last meters I could barely walk and my lungs ached so much during the next minutes. I did 3'34 and was 9th. There were some professional guys (yes, there are professional guys in this tower running scene!) and I was satisfied with my result. You may find the results here (forget the Dr.; it was a joke of who made the entry). Maybe someday I'll repeat the experience with an improved know-how on the subject. =)

Then I went to Linz to the Austrian Night Champs. I ran Open class as this is the last race of the season. During the race, a spike bent forward and I ended the race in some pain. It's even a bit sore right now and I hope that I won't feel anything in the next days.

It has been a great experience here in Austria. Cool training partners, really friendly orienteerers and, at least, 2 trains a week with a map on my hands (which is what I really need right now!). My training loads are a bit lower but much more orienteering directed.

Bye Annecy, Welcome to Wien

2010-10-10T19:58:00.017+01:00

Last weekend's WC was disastrous to me.
Orient'Show - It was a funny race. Did it to the semi-finals where a mispunch spoiled it all. Results and maps from Orient'Show here.
Sprint - Even if I felt that the 1st control wasn't that tricky I lost lots of time inside the garden. Some more mistakes (a 40'' one to 10th) and a lack of shape did the rest.
Long - It was the toughest of my life. Started well. However I lost time in the loops and did the biggest mistake of the last seasons. I decided to quit but then re-localized myself and wanted to do the rest of the race. The hypoglicemia due to a lack of trains for this distance did the rest of the mistakes. The map wasn't that difficult; the problem was that the map contact that I had during the race wasn't not even close of what is needed.

Then we had 3 great days of trainings in Woc2011 relevant terrain. At the beginning I had some difficulty in knowing what is/isn't represented in the map once the terrain is (even) more detailed than it seems to be in the map. I felt confident in the last trains and I really want to come back to keep developing in those terrains. In fact, I'm just a Sissy running in those terrains.

Welcome to Wien.
Then I did the night train to Wien where I had an interesting talk with a pakistanese businessman and a Sri-Lanka emmigrant.
In the last 3 days I've done a 4 loops night train near Wien, nice forest running sessions with Tobias Killmann (today, a total of 28km running), explored all the corners of the city...

... and was 2nd in today's International Wien Kahlenberglauf (the mountain race, almost 9k, 400m climb) after David Schneider, the Swiss orienteerer, with whom I'll do some trains in the next weeks.

Tomorrow I'll start at the AKH. It looks more like a shopping center (with lots of space and a Starbucks inside) rather than a Hospital. We'll see...

Iberian Championships

2010-09-29T01:04:00.007+01:00

Great organization in this competition that took place in the center of the country.

Middle distance, 6,3k (200m), 30c - I started carefully because I wasn't sure about my navigation after the summer rest. Lost time to the 7th, 10th, 11th and an huge amount of time from 25th to the finish line. Caught some athletes, oversimplified and ended loosing time. I was vice-champion, 15'' after Tiago Aires.

Sprint distance, 3,1k (90m), 25c - I definitely underestimated the map. I tought that it would be too easy and it was the worst sprint race I can remember. I fell at all the traps. To the 7th a too bad option and to the 8th, the end of the race where I passed the passage of the tunnel.

Long distance, 12,5k (400m), 30c - In this kind of terrains I've to start making straighter routes. Big deviation to the 1st. Lots and lots of smaller mistakes. Huge one to the 21st (4'!). In the final part of the race, there were no miracles and my lack of shape didn't allow me to push harder.
As I was talking with Ionut in the end, for me it's easier to technically loose 3min in a race than winning 3min by running harder. I've to take it easier and rely more on the map. After re-fueling my energies I still had the strength to spend a great afternoon surfing at Supertubos with 25ºC.

Now I'm packing all the stuff to the next week's WC in Annecy and to the next 3 months in Vienna. We'll see...

The orienteering flow

2010-09-16T12:51:00.010+01:00

As an orienteerer you've probably have experienced a race where everything seems to fit in. Where everything seems easy and you just float between the controls. I have had that feeling, but only too seldom.

Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi, a Hungarian psychology professor that spent a great part of his life studying this phenomenon in many areas, identifies the following 10 factors as accompanying an experience of flow:
1. Clear goals (expectations and rules are discernible and goals are attainable and align appropriately with one's skill set and abilities). Moreover, the challenge level and skill level should both be high.
2. Concentrating, a high degree of concentration on a limited field of attention (a person engaged in the activity will have the opportunity to focus and to delve deeply into it).
3. A loss of the feeling of self-consciousness, the merging of action and awareness.
4. Distorted sense of time, one's subjective experience of time is altered.
5. Direct and immediate feedback (successes and failures in the course of the activity are apparent, so that behavior can be adjusted as needed).
6. Balance between ability level and challenge (the activity is neither too easy nor too difficult).
7. A sense of personal control over the situation or activity.
8. The activity is intrinsically rewarding, so there is an effortlessness of action.
9. A lack of awareness of bodily needs (to the extent that one can reach a point of great hunger or fatigue without realizing it)
10. People become absorbed in their activity, and focus of awareness is narrowed down to the activity itself, action awareness merging.

And there are 3 conditions that are necessary to achieve the flow state:
1. One must be involved in an activity with a clear set of goals. This adds direction and structure to the task.
2. One must have a good balance between the perceived challenges of the task at hand and his or her own perceived skills. One must have confidence that he or she is capable to do the task at hand.
3. The task at hand must have clear and immediate feedback. This helps the person negotiate any changing demands and allows him or her to adjust his or her performance to maintain the flow state.

And I take a shot suggesting that this so called Flow may be a remaining capability of our "persistence hunter" ancestors that made our vulnerable specie to survive in a hostile world for so many years, transforming us in the Runner's specie. It's a theme that is physiologically and anthropologically so fashion nowadays and that may amaze you in the following video... isn't that guy in "the flow"??

Difficult to breathe while training? Could it be EIB?

2010-09-15T11:59:00.007+01:00

Yes, I'm an asthmatic guy since I was born. In my childhood I've had some pretty bad moments but with a 3h train everyday in the competitive class at the swimming pool, my asthma almost disappeared during my teenage years.

2 years ago (the 1st moment I can recall is the National Long Distance Championships in 2009) I started to have a strange feeling while running at high intensity. I had the distressing and anxious feeling that the air couldn't reach my lungs, something completely different from the asthma that I could recall.

Since January 2010 it got pretty intensive. I've talked with my Immunoalergologist and she told me that "it wasn't anything special" (after all, I could run anyway and she had tougher cases to solve than me). Moreover, my lungs started to burn after track sessions... and in the second half of the season, even if I did 13 training sessions a week, I worsened (a lot) all my track and race times. I was desperate!

Last friday it was supposed to be my 1st track session of the season: 4x1000. I started well but, suddenly, after the 1st serie I had to quit and rest in a bench and it got really difficult to breathe. I thought that this couldn't be normal and immersed myself in abstracts and books...

... and found this:

Exercise-induced bronchospasm (EIB) is an often-undiagnosed but common problem affecting both recreational and elite athletes. Although Exercise can trigger exacerbation of chronic asthma, EIB should not be confused with the chronic inflammatory disease. While in the past, athletes were forced out of competition because of exercise-induced bronchospasm, today they can frequently get back in the stride with their peers.

EIB is defined as the transient constriction of the airways as a consequence of vigorous exertion. It occurs in about 12% to 15% of the US general population. Of patients with chronic asthma, 70% to 90% have an exercise component to their disease. As many as 40% of patients with allergic rhinitis also have EIB. However, between 5% and 10% of patients with EIB have no concomitant respiratory or allergic disease.

Olympians have been studied to quantify the incidence of EIB among elite athletes. About 11% of US Olympians who participated in the 1984 Olympic Summer Games met the criteria for EIB.These athletes won 41 medals, a testament to EIB's prevalent but controllable nature. Of the US Olympians who participated in the 1998 Olympic Winter Games, 17% admitted the need for medication for their exercise-induced symptoms.The incidence of EIB in a recent study involving US Army recruits6 was about 7%, but it had no effect on physical performance during basic training.

Clinical Symptoms
EIB presents in various ways, and patients report both obvious and vague complaints.
Symptoms during or following exercise include the following:
Chest tightness or pain
Cough
Shortness of breath
Wheezing
Underperformance or poor performance on the field of play
Fatigue
Prolonged recovery time

Symptom onset usually occurs 5 to 10 minutes after the start of exercise but may take longer in a conditioned athlete. Chest pain rarely indicates cardiac disease in children. In a study by Wiens and colleagues,16 up to 72% of children with chest pain met the criteria for EIB. Adults present with wheezing and dyspnea more often than do children. A patient's inability to keep up with his or her peers is an important detail in history taking in pediatric and adolescent athletes. (...)

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Yesterday I've started a new anti-inflammatory medication (not doping) and I can't remember ever breathing so well. I'm really enthusiastic with this and can't wait for testing myself again (and check if it was a placebo).

...and can't understand why Salbutamol (the classic asthmatic inhaler) is still prohibited by WADA:

There appears to be no justification to prohibit inhaled beta(2)-agonists from the point of view of the ergogenic effects.
Do inhaled beta(2)-agonists have an ergogenic potential in non-asthmatic competitive athletes?
Kindermann W. Institute of Sports and Preventive Medicine, University of Saarland, Saarbrücken, Germany

We concluded that no ergogenic effects were attributable to salbutamol, which should therefore remain a legitimate drug for the management of athletes with asthma participating in international sporting events.
Is Salbutamol Ergogenic?: the Effects of Salbutamol on Physical Performance in High-Performance Nonasthmatic Athletes

Inhaled salbutamol, even in a high dose, did not have a significant effect on endurance performance in non-asthmatic athletes
Effects of inhaled salbutamol in exercising non-asthmatic athletes.
Goubault C, Perault MC, Leleu E, Bouquet S, Legros P, Vandel B, Denjean A.

In conclusion, inhaled formoterol did not improve endurance performance compared to placebo.
Can asthma treatment in sports be doping? The effect of the rapid onset, long-acting inhaled beta2-agonist formoterol upon endurance performance in healthy well-trained athletes.
Carlsen KH, Hem E, Stensrud T, Held T, Herland K, Mowinckel P.

1st race after Summer

2010-09-14T15:09:00.011+01:00

It was in the north of the country in an orienteering area that isn't properly explored.

1 - Middle distance, 7,4k (345m), 66'35 (8,59min/km) - I wasn't exepceting anything special. 2 months without a map is too much and I just wanted to return to the competition rythm. I did some mistakes:
- a huge one to 10th; wrong hill!
- to 11th, I was too afraid of the greens
- to 15th, couldn't find the right path through the greens
- and to 17th, an erratic navigation (and got stuck in the greens near the control). My rythm wasn't anything special but it could be worse for the part of the season.

2 - Sprint distance, 2,4k (120m), 15'42 (6,32min/km) - My pace isn't at its best. Moreover, I did some bad options:
- 5th, ran by the right (straight is better, of course)
- 13th, ran by the small river (had the impression that the straigth option would climb too much).
I have spent an impressive 24% of the race above 6min/km. I need to be more aggressive and avoid unnecessary slowdowns.

...and I'll leave you with Norway's both-WOC's song:

Well, what are we doing in the kingdom of the moose
There's twigs inside our trousers
there's mud inside our shoes
The temperature is rising
We pant and sweat as I sing a tune

Something really really strange is happening this year
In Grimstad, that is Norway on the south side, if you care
The woods are overflowing
with people to-and-fro-ing, my oh my!
And that's all we'll do this season,
I'll tell you all the reason why

We are bushmen
All we wanna do
is sweat our way through the woods
we are bushmen, now isn't it good,
the famous Norwegian wood

Well some might say we're crazy, 'cause we're always on the run
while everybody else is lazing in the summer sun
but we are only happy with smelly clothes and maps in our hands
And if you think that it stinks
Then you ain't got the instincts
and you'll never understand!

Holidays...

2010-09-10T00:16:00.016+01:00

I didn't start my holidays by the best way. Unfortunately, my dear grandfather died and I felt lucky to had been with him in his last days.

During my mourning period I ran a lot in the highest portuguese mountains with every sessions in the hills between 1h30 and 2h00. I've also read amazing books and found some controversial stuff as:
- DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) is not a consequence of lactate but a consequence of muscle micro-ruptures and inflamation (Lactate levels return to normal 30min after the session and the soreness only appears 1 or 2 days later). Then, should we stretch after tough sessions?
- VMBR (visual motor behaviour rehearsal) - Amazing! I think that I'll use it a lot in the future in orienteering. Is this what Tero calls "feel like running in your backyard?". I'll try to train it in the first competitions of the season.
- Sport beverages are a hoax (and the money that we spend on them) - Our blood Natremia is 140mM. Do the 18mM from sport beverages really make any difference? By forcing to drink it we're only doing the opposite: diluting the blood.
- Cramps are not related at all with electrolyte depletion. But they seem to be a consequence of an inhibition of the muscle inhibitors called Golgi organs.
- Tiredness is more related with body temperature (hypothalamus) and neural functions rather than all the stuff that we're used to think about (and that we learn at medical schools).

Then I went to Marrakesh with some friends. Did some legendary morning runs in the narrow streets. My tourist map was so bad that I often got lost in the 2m-wide streets and had to ask some policeman for "Jemna el Fna" (the main plaza). I moved then to Taghazout, the surfer's paradise and:
- danced in a wedding at McDonalds
- experienced what 55ºC is
- surfed for hours without wetsuit in warm sea water (until my belly skin got irritated by the surfboard). Some nice waves but too small for the season.
- grudged with the streets salesmen (those guys are tougher than the chineses)

Then I went to Chamonix with the best possible company. Spend some amazing days trekking in the mountains between 2200m and 3800m. Chamonix is a paradise on earth and the locals are really friendly. I'll be back with proper equipment to climb those Glaciers. I've also spent some days in Switzerland and Geneva as a tourist.

The last time that I ran with a map was in June. Now it's time to start all over again and it'll be this Saturday in the north of the country.

Physically, I've been "feel running" since the beginning of August and I've re-discovered the beauty of it. I feel that I've improved my stride by forefooting and I'm feeling pretty well right now. Today I've officialy started my "serious" training plan.

Oh and, by the way, this week I've received the new that I've already won the Portuguese Ranking Cup of 2009/2010 with 4 races to go. This was something tottaly unexpected for me that I usually don't fight for once I always have to miss some competitions during the year... but it's always a nice new to receive.

The last days...

2010-07-31T09:17:00.003+01:00

Finnaly I've finished the last exam season of my life. It was tough, with many 12h studying days (it was definitely a Long distance race) but it's done.

In the last days I've been feeling really distressed. I miss navigating with a map a lot (sigh)! Even if we supposedly are in the peak of the season of the new portuguese calendar there aren't any competitions and the big one's outside Portugal have already taken place.

I didn't stop running at all (I kept a 30min/day basis). Now I'm returning to the 1h again. It's a bit difficult to cope with all this hot days (42ºC!!) - last Sunday I almost died with a 5h MTB train with Nelson where I drank 4,5L of water! I've been doing a lot of strenght training and proprioception exercises. I've also been training with my lightweigth shoes. At the beginning, my calf muscles were always completely sore but now I've been enjoying it a lot.

Now, apart from studying german and working on my master thesis, I've been reading about my other interests (my book list that I've formed during the year). Some of them have really nice applications to Orienteering:
- Brain training for runners
- Mental training for peak performance
- The Runners Body
- Lance Amstrong - My journey back to life

Can't wait for start competing again. I haven't planned the next season properly yet but I hope that it'll be a legendary one. We'll see...

Boring...

2010-06-29T22:45:00.008+01:00

Since the EOC, my life had a 180º turn. Portugal isn't participating in this year's WOC so the season (before August) is over.

In the meanwhile, last saturday, I've participated in an Orienteering mass start in Leiria. I wasn't happy with my performance. I did 2 major mistakes, to 11th and 25th and I ended 2nd overall. It was a great way to break the routine and spend one morning with the folks.
I've been doing some work for the future in the last days. According to coache's orders, I've been only running 50min per day and doing lots of short intervals at track in order to develop speed. I've also been spending entire days at the library studying for the last exam season of my life.

I would like to compete in one or another athletics event in the coming days but I think that I won't have enough library-free time to participate in any. So now it's just training for myself without stress and I've been enjoying it a lot.

Hopefully it'll all be over by the end of July and I'll start preparing the Iberian/Latin countries Championships and the French World Cup in October. Then I'll move my bags to Vienna where I'll spend 3 months in a Surgical rotation (and hopefully also training a lot).

And yes, we're eliminated by our neighbours in the South Africa's championships. The nice part of it is that I won't have to hear the annoying Vuvuzelas again in the coming days... =)

EOC 2010

2010-06-08T00:15:00.015+01:00

I've just came from Bulgaria and I really have to write about the last days which were fantastic.
This was my first international competition as a senior. I've traveled to Primorsko with the portuguese team 1week before the competition in order to get used to the kind of terrain. It was a really productive week with twice a day training sessions. This was the first time that anything like this was done in the portuguese team and I think it helped a lot.

My personal goal for this competition was to get to the Final A in as many races as I could.

In the Sprint Qualification I did some mistakes (approximately the amount of time that would put me in a Final A - 36sec). However I wasn't also fast enough and I ended the same day running the Final B in a training pace in order to recover to the next day's qualification.

In the Long Qualification I ran completely headless. I changed all my navigation routines and I only thought about running fast. It was a really bad race where I wasn't able to cope with the stress.

In the Middle qualification I wasn't fast enough. I did 2 big mistakes, to the 7th and 11th. I wasn't satisfied at all with my race.

Then it came the Relay. Due to my not so good results I started in the first position of the portuguese 2nd team. It was an awesome experience. I ran in the 1st group until the 4th where I made a mistake. Then I ran the rest of my race alone until the spectator control where I caught Russia1. I made some mistakes in the end and ended the race with Austria1 and Germany1. I really enjoyed the race and it was a good experience in order to learn from the paces at the front.

Then it was the Middle Final (B). I was much more relaxed, I had already messed it up! And ended in 12th with a regular race. I liked my pace in the controls after the spectator control.

Finnaly, it was the Long Final (B) (the following maps is from the Final A, a course with some differences). I wasn't calm enough and I did too many deviations that costed me a lot of time in a map where the best route choice was most of the times under the red line.

It's tough to get ready to this kind of terrains when we have completely different terrains in Portugal. We aren't used to this amount of climb and to this closed forest and I think that I'll have to change some of my physical training methods.

I learned a lot from this experience. Now I know the performance needed to a Final A and I must say that it isn't anything special. I must say that we, portuguese, need to compete more often in the international environment in order to develop and I'll catch all the opportunities that I have.

Today it costed me a lot to get back to the routine at the Hospital. The next month will be tough and I'll cut in my training loads in order to prepare myself for the last exam season of my life (yes!).

Absolute National Championships

2010-06-08T00:07:00.003+01:00

Recently it was the National Absolute Championships. The maps were near Lisbon, with lots of paths and some greens.

In the qualification, I managed my effort, did an easy race and was selected to the Final A. I won't probably do this type of management again once I wasn't able to benefit from some of the packs that were formed in the last group of athletes during the Final.

In the Final A race, I wasn't fast enough and I did mistakes. The map was really easy and I wasn't able to fully focus on it.

Portuguese selection teams to EOC

2010-05-11T21:34:00.006+01:00

Last weekend were the National team selection races to 2010 competitions. I was the 2nd selected of our 6 athlete male team to EOC, right after Tiago Aires. I was given the oportunity to participate in this year's WOC at own expenses once there won't be any portuguese team there this year.The final results may be found here.

Long distance, 13.1km, (355m), 85'00 (with map exchange) - I really have to be able to cope with stress. I wasn't able to have a clear thinking and I could have messed it all in the first controls. I ran completely headless! In the end I tought that I had no chance but it seemed that it was difficult for everyone. I was 2nd.

Middle distance, 6.6km, (150m), 36'25 - I had a clear margin and I was much more relaxed. I did a regular race with a safe navigation. My option to the 17th was a bit pathetic.

Cross country course, 3km, almost flat with a hard ground - As the last training sessions at track, I wasn't able to develop a good rythm. It was tough to keep the 3'34min/km rythm and I was 3rd, 5sec after the winner.

The last month's trainings have been atypical. I am able to jog fast, 1h at 4'10 with no problem. But I can't run faster at races and track sessions. My averages in the last track sessions have been worse than what I used to do 2 years ago (3sec slower at 400m, 4sec slower at 300m!!).
I'm almost sure that it's because of the asthma and Spring polens once I have some difficulty in recovering the breathing in the intervals (almost like altitude training =) ). I'll start a new medication tomorrow (by the way, it's not considered doping!=) )and hope that I'll be in shape soon.

Barefoot running?

2010-04-26T22:38:00.014+01:00

There is an ultimate running trend about barefoot running that has arised my curiosity.

This theory, that was first addressed in a Nature magazine paper, is resumed in a magnificent Harvard's Skeletal Biology Lab review that you may find here.

This is based in a few assumptions:
- We land our foot on the heel because our overprotective cushioned shoes allow that.
- Our shoe's heel are too high and that fact predisposes to Achilles tendon injuries (that are so comon!).
- If we run barefoot we will start landing on the forefoot (landing on the heel is painful when you're barefoot) and our running will become more economic. Furthermore, we will prevent some lesions once there won't be a peak of impact on our knees, hips and spine.

I don't have any training in this area but I've always been curious about the way Kenyan's run. They appear to have springs under their soles... and that's the way forefoot running works - landing on the forefoot gives you back some of the impulse that you projected on the ground.

There is even a funny curiosity about it. The guys that try it for the first times usually feel some headaches in the end, due to the overflow of sensory information that comes from our nervous endings at the feet (that are usually numb inside the shoe).

So, wether it really works or not, I'm feeling really tempted to buy some Vibram's Five fingers to give it a try (30min run a week).

Here are some runners that were famous for running barefoot:
Abebe Bikila - former Olympic marathon world-record holder
Bruce Tulloh - former European 5k record-holder
Tegla Loroupe - former Olympic marathon world-record holder

Last weekend I went to another road race. This time, a 11.500m one. It was a tough one with a great amount of climbing and my performance wasn't good (I was tired and I was with the usual Spring polen asthma problem). However I was 2nd, after a 2h12 marathon portuguese guy.

5th SLB 10k race

2010-04-20T21:06:00.005+01:00

Last weekend, I did another 10km (plus 200m) race. This time, to 33'06. I did almost all the race with Bruno Pais, one of the best portuguese triathletes. One of the most demanding kilometers was the 3rd, inside the parking of the stadium with sharp turns and short steep slopes.

I ended being really slow in the last km's (thinking I was fast) and the final time was worse than expected. The race was won by Ernest Kebenei, a kenyan, followed by Licinio Pimental, National Road Racing Champion.

I'm not in my best shape but I'll keep working on that in the next weeks. I hope that, in some months, I'll be able to do a race like this with times per km similar to the firsts of this race. We'll see...

Portuguese Sprint Champion

2010-04-12T23:11:00.008+01:00

This weekend were the National Sprint and Middle Distance Championships in the north of the country (Vinhais).

The Sprint was fine. I was able to do a regular race and avoid mistakes. Splitsbrowser here (HE).

The middle was a disaster. I wasn't fast enough, I did mistakes in the area of so many controls. The worsts were 13, 16 and 23 (even with so many mistakes I lost the possibility of a not-so-bad result in the 23th... the map was a bit criticized by the athletes and that border green in the 23th area isn't real at all). Splitsbrowser here.

Rather than running I iddeally should now focus in the map technique and in the navigation routines in order to avoid silly navigation and get better results in Orienteering. In Lisbon it's impossible to do that (nor in an 1h driving range), so I'll have to keep my running routines and simply enjoy all the opportunities that I can get to train with a map in my hands...

Spanish National Champs+Clermont Ferrand

2010-04-12T22:53:00.010+01:00

Last weekend I've participated in the Spanish National Champs in Moralzarzal, in the north of Madrid.
In 3 days there was a Long, Middle, Sprint and Relay events and the terrain and maps were great!
In the long and middle I didn't like my performance that much. I did some major mistakes and I've noticed that I have a great difficulty in running in stony and irregular terrains (mainly downhill!). I may be faster in flat and regular grounds but I can be pretty slow in the forest. It's difficult to jog in irregular grounds in Lisbon but I'm trying to find a way to improve this.
In the relay I was the 3rd element. I started some 15sec after Ionut. Gave my best to reach him to the 1st control but then did a stupid mistake in an area full of controls. The results of the whole competition may be found here.
Then I moved to Clermont Ferrand for one week and trained there. Unfortunately I hurt my knee in a night train in the 2nd day and did the rest of the trains of the week marching. I really enjoyed the area and the great maps! It was a pleasure to navigate there and I really have to come back!

11 training sessions in 2+1/2 days

2010-03-31T09:10:00.009+01:00

Last weekend it was the National Team weekend's training camp Alter-do-Chão, lead by Bruno Nazario.

The routine was to run 30min at 7h30, map training at 10h30, map training at 15h, and map training at maximum speed in the night training sessions.

I'm not happy with my navigation right now. I keep doing some recurrent mistakes in the trains but I'm sure that with time they I'll be able to avoid them. (I'll post the great corridor train as soon as I get the trak)
Direction - Mistake at the beginning, as usual.

Night One man relay with mass start

Night one man relay with mass start nº2 (2 controls out of place and 1 huge mistake)

Double relay

Simplification - Mistakes at the beginning. Accidentaly turned off the GPS while jumping a fence.

A short sprint.

Hope that I'll be able to improve my technique in the next week at Clermont Ferrand.

Weekend's training camp

2010-03-21T22:40:00.010Z

This time the weekend's club training camp was organized by COC in the POM 2010 area.
1 Multitechnique
A relay (forgot to turn the GPS on). It found difficult to distinguish the ups and downs in the area before the 2nd control.
A middle distance where I took, by mistake, the short course map (the course is different with some more controls). Anyway, huge mistake to 1st, and many hesitations.
A 2-man relay in Leiria city center.
I felt a bit tired after the Friday's long intervals but it ended being a productive weekend. My priority now should be to focus in my O'technique. I just keep doing too many (big) mistakes, too many hesitations and I feel that my navigation is not as secure as it should be.

15'28 at 5k national team trials

2010-03-18T00:41:00.011Z

After not doing the trials due to sickness a few weeks ago, today I was given another chance. The National team leader and Norman came to the Lisbon's Universitary Stadium to give me a chance.

I ran the first 3k to the required time (15'45) and just gave it all in the last 2k, ending with 15'28. Felt well and didn't suffer what I was expecting.

After it I returned the favor to Jorge doing 40' fast minutes. Now I just want to ruun...

Thanks a lot to all these guys, REAL FRIENDS, that came to help me doing the time and to Rafaela who kindly took the camera with her. Without them I wouldn't have done it.

The guy in yellow cycled 90km in the morning, did all the 5k with me and ran 1h at a fast pace after... And that's why he's now one of the best portuguese athletes... A role model for me that I try to follow.

Ups and Downs...

2010-03-14T20:07:00.010Z

There are times when you feel unbeatable. There are others when everything seems to go wrong (like now). After almost 2 months of half training I got sick for 2 weeks with some kind of virus.

I've missed the last weekend's 5k trials to national team due to sickness. Even if I passed at a flat 5k with 15'34 in a 10k race last December, I have many doubts that I'll be able to do the required 5k - 15'45 next Wednesday. (In the photos cutting the wind for the guys in the first 2000m).
Yesterday I've participated in the National Short Cross-Country Championships. Rui Silva (European 1500m champion) won the race with 12'37. I was 73rd in a disappointing race (2 years ago I was 10 places before). I did 14'19 in the 4500m race. But my University male team won the National University Championships! Full results here.(In the photo, Rui Silva leading the race)
Now it's time to work hard and try to compensate the lost time. And the next months I'll invest in more map training than ever... We'll see... (below is the map from the 1st part of the race of the 1st day of this weekend's great race organized near Lisbon by my club, CPOC)

Last news...

2010-03-04T18:01:00.006Z

So, exams are over (only a small oral next Wednesday). I may safely say that in 5 years, this was the toughest exam season ever! I was studying hard for almost 2 months and keeping a basal training load, maintaining the main sessions of the week. It appears that it was too much and in the last days I had fever, sore throat and chills at night. Since yesterday I've been sleeping 12 hours a night plus a 3h30 (!) "siesta" yesterday. My throat still aches a lot and I hope it won't get my lungs. Next Saturday's National Team 5k trial (to a 15'45 limit) will be a total surprise for me.
I have a new sponsor to this season, EAFIT. They have been supporting me with their awesome products for the last months, but now it's official. I particularly like the wide range of products that they have separated in ecto/meso/endomorph athletes. If anyone is interested in having some of these products just tell me. To check the catalog, click here.
If you want to know why athletic doctors are better, click here. =)
And, at last, if you're a Winter Olympics fan, check the SO tiny differences that may separate glory from disgrace in the snow sports here.

POM 2010 - All the stars in Portugal

2010-02-17T21:46:00.006Z

POM 2010 was the biggest orienteering event in Portugal after the WMOC 2008. All the big guys came to Portugal and for me it's a great opportunity to learn from them (not as much as I wanted...). If you want to know all the latest news and check the interviews with the best athletes click here.

Middle Distance, 7,1k, (165m), 30c, 36'16 - Started really slowly. The last time I had navigated with a map had been 1 month earlier and I was afraid of spoiling it all in the firsts controls. Big deviation to the 13th. And lots of time lost in "little" stops (in red). The "time comparison with Thierry" in the map below is an huge help to realize how much time I usually loose with "slowing downs" (and maybe physically too!). Long legs are my current weakness. I really have to work on them.

Long Distance, 15,1k, (320m), 29c, 86'37 - I have always some difficulties with 1:15000 (I don't train with this scale as often as I should). Once again started too slow. Once again the long legs! I have a tendency to turn off the brain while I'm running in long legs! Physically I felt great, no great tiredness (my Gel stayed in the pocket). A blister in my Achilles slowed me a bit from on the 16th.

Surgery II, Ortopaedics, Otorhinolaryngology and Urology are over. Still PediatricsII and Gynecology to finish this endless exam season. Now I just can only think in the great training sessions after exams (most of them are already planned).

1st long session at track / O'follow or not?

2010-02-06T12:27:00.007Z

Today it was the 1st long train at track (bye bye, sandy intervals at beach, I'll miss you a lot!!)
3x3000m P=5'
9'53 (afraid of blowing up)
9'28
9'22
I have to take in consideration that I've reduced my training loads a lot in exam season (even if I jogg faster, at 4'20 average, I make no twice a day trainings) and that I'm fresher.. but I think this is a good basis to work at on the next months... Can't wait for March to start pushing hard again...

About the debate about starts in orienteering I've also my own opinion. I know many people that think that following athletes is part of the game and that it is impossible to prevent it from happening. While it is possible to follow stronger athletes and to cooperate and while it is socially accepted, everyone (including me) will end doing it at some part of a race.
I've always thought: why not to do as in cycling time trials where the guy that is caught can't follow the wheel of the passing guy? Yes, I know it's a bit different but I think that the new Swedish rule (here) is the route to follow.

The 3 minute interval in Long distance is nice. Adding the swedish rule (with some adaptations...) I think that less athletes would be impaired compared to the actual rules. And with the new technologies the possibilites are endless!(what about a special SIbox in the spectator control that would block for some seconds with specified rules?) Well, but that's just me wandering around before the next 8h of study in the afternoon... =)

Arraiolos International Meeting WRE

2010-01-12T23:25:00.012Z

International Meeting of Arraiolos, a 5 star event in the Gafanhoris area.

Long distance, 14.4K (570m), 30c, 90'22 - Started loosing 1min to 1st control with hesitations all the way (should I go straight?). To the 3rd, lost my focus with some pigs =) and did the path all the way. 6th, wanted to pass by the left of the lake but the last rains increased the size of it. Then some losses in the control areas (10th, 11th, 16th) and deviation to 12th. Biggest mistake of all to 24th due to the enthusiasm of the spectator control. I was satisfied with my result. I notice that I do better races when I think "go slow" rather than "go fast".

1 Tero Fohr [3524] Vehkalahden Veikot 1:28:25
2 Aapo Summanen [3520] Vaajakosken Tera 1:29:36
3 Miguel Silva [094] CPOC 1:30:22
4 Per Harald Johansen [3592] Lillomarka OL 1:34:30

Full results and Split times and Photos.

Middle distance WRE, 7.6K (195m), 28c, 39'53 - What a fantastic map! One of my portuguese favourites! Too much to the left in the 5th. Caught the 1st runner in the 11th and in the 17th we were a group of 4! I just have to work on my focus capabilities with other runners on the play. It's really tough for me, but I've been getting better in this lately. To the 22nd, wasn't able to cross the river in that area (stopped with the water by the chest).

1 Tero Fohr Vehkalahden Veikot 37:19
2 Jonne Lehto Vehkalahden Veikot 37:54
3 Miguel Silva CPOC 39:53
4 Per Harald Johansen Lillomarka OL 41:41

Split times and Full results and Photos.

Serious Orienteering again? Only in March! Now I'll take a 1 month interval where I'll mainly focus in the exam season at faculty. In the meantime I'll do some road races, the POM WRE and maybe one more O'race. I'll keep my training loads and will slow down 2 weeks in order to be back in March full of motivation to fight for top places until August.

I leave you with this photo taken in the last sandy intervals at the beach with the guys that brighten my training sessions.

Benfica TV interview

2010-01-04T22:56:00.002Z

Interview, in portuguese, to my athletics club private TV, BenficaTV. A piece that was transmitted during October.

Christmas training camp and S.Silvester

2010-01-01T22:29:00.008Z

From 26th to 29th we're training in Gafanhoeira, kindly hosted by Tiago Aires and Gafanhoris. 4 days, 7 training sessions in a terrain where the progression was really difficult due to the amount of water on the ground. The normal was being stuck by the ankle.
I felt that my navigation got better during these days. Afterall, the last time I had done orienteering had been almost 1 month earlier.

1 - A nice fast terrain as a warm up to the next weekend's WRE.
2 - We started and ended in the 10th control. A really heavy terrain with a much bigger lake.
3 - A nice mass start in the heaviest terrain.

In the last day of 2009 I went to Amadora's S.Silvester. It had a fantastic atmosphere with lots of people in the streets shouting "Benfica" as I passed by (my athletics club is one of the best portuguese soccer clubs). It's a competition to repeat, just by its spirit! The course was really tough! With such a big prize money (1st - 2500€) all the big guys were there. The race was won by Joseph Ebuya, one of the best Kenyan athletes (PB 5000m - 12'51) with a time of 28'39.

I started well but not fast enough to go with the guys that I wanted. Did all the race with a crazy Master. In the final descent I had a sharp bilateral abdominal pain and ended slowing down a lot (red square). I could have easily done less 25sec if I had gone with Ginja. I was 27th overall with a time of 33'15. It was a nice competition to gaign some rythm but I think that I can do better than that. You can find all the results here.

(Photos by Paulo Fernandes)
Tomorrow some sandy long intervals with the coach in Caparica beach. The tough studying times are coming. We'll see...

Merry Christmas

2009-12-24T01:09:00.006Z

I'm sick of just running. I am in need of some competitions after 3 whole weeks of pure training (and increasing...yesterday it was 24x300m). Even if my Finnish O'guest, Aapo Summanen tells me that is warm and nice weather here, it isn't so nice to run with 5ºC. I already miss the nice spring 20ºC's. After Christmas I'll spend 4 days O'training in Gafanhoeira and on the 31st, a S.Silvester 10k race. Can't wait for start competing again!

In Holidays I usually spend some time doing things that I usually don't have time to do during the school time. Just came across this 2 awesome sport movies that I loved and had to share:
Prefontaine - A movie about Steve Prefontaine's life. Coached by Bill Bowerman, one of Nike's founders, he had an unbeatable charisma. A runner's must-see. It was tough to get this old movie and here are just some scenes from it.

Spirit of Marathon - the name says it all!

... and in this part of the season, I wish you all a Holy Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Christmas GP - 30'24 (9700m)

2009-12-13T16:20:00.008Z

Today it was Lisbon's Christmas Grand Prix. A really fast race with a descending end that allows fast times. All the big guys usually compete in this race and so I chose this one as the 1st athletics race of the season.

Started fast with the pack. I didn't attack with the 2nd group at the right time (3rd km) and ended running all the race by myself. I would have easily done less 30sec. I also think that I should have pushed harder once I didn't end with the tiredness that I should had (I tought that I wouldn't be able to cope with the fast paces of the beginning).
(The paces have some variations due to the 4 tunnel slopes that don't appear in the altimetry)

As the 1st race of the season I was mildly satisfied. Sad for not having been able to go with them, happy with the way I felt all the way. My rythm was to 31'15 at 10km. As the coach told me in the end, the evolution is a continuum. In this part of the season I don't have a competitive rythm yet and I'm not able to make many rythm variations. We'll start working on that, as usual, from January.

The results are as follows:
1.º Valerijs Zolnerovics (Latvia) 28:04
2.º Manuel Ferraz (Benfica) 28:24
3.º Túlio Gomes (Sporting) 28:27
4.º António Travassos (Sporting) 28:27
5.º Carlos Silva (Sporting) 28:31
(...)
25º Miguel Reis e Silva (Benfica) 30:24

Next athletics race will probably be Amadora's S.Silvester on the 31st of December. It's an amazing 10k night race with lots of people cheering up all the way (maybe too many!). It usually has the best portuguese athletes plus 3 or 4 kenyans (that usually win). Until then, I'll continue making my schedule.

And, if you want to know why Runners are different, check this (awesome!!).

4th National competition - The bad result to analyze performance

2009-12-04T22:56:00.006Z

Middle, 6,7k, (370m), 30c, 35'33 - A fast terrain. Big mistake to 12th. Caught the runner before me and ran without looking at the map at an easy zone. A 1'30 mistake! To the 22nd, a 25'' mistake at the control area. I ended the race 31'' after the winner. I was happy because of the fast pace that I was able to get in some parts of the race but disappointed with such stupid mistakes.

Long, 14,9k, (450m), 26c, 81'12 - Another fast map. And started by the worst way. A 4' mistake to the 1st. Attacked the greens by the small hill but miscalculated the distance to the hill (forgot the 1:15000 scale). Then found a small elevation (like the control) and stayed there.. it had to be there! (but it wasn't)... It was the 2nd time that I've done a mistake like this.. and it can't happen again! I was caught there by the runner after. Tried to let him behind but ended making mistakes to the 6th (1'30) and in the long leg to the 12th (1'30?).

Overall... I was betrayed by the thoughts that I was physically feeling good. I get better results if I don't think "physical". And, most of all, what I need most, is this. When I force myself to look at the map, my results get better (the 1st time I consciously tried it, I was National Middle Champion).

Now we're getting nice loads (the 140km/week goal). Lots of repetitions, almost no recovery, like this 24x200 session (with a 100m jogging interval 40sec) after a 30' morning session and a 30' afternoon session.

Now with the Heart rate band there's no room to laziness: I got "a talk" with the coach once the first 16 repetitions were, according to him, "warm up"... According to the "lucrative pause" theory, the base HR should had been like the last 8: higher and slowly rising. Next session I'll push harder!

Nordic maps vs. Portuguese maps

2009-11-21T19:33:00.003Z

In Portugal the cartographers care more about detail: every single rock has to be on the map. The Nordics just put the essential on the map. In order to understand this differences, Antti Harju and Janne Weckman have spent some days in Portugal making some maps in the center of the country. Today was the first competition in one of these maps.

Middle, 8,8k, (145m), 27c, 42'40 - A really fast map allowed a 4'45min/km average. However, I had some troubles in the south-east rocky hill. I've missed almost all the controls there. We did a 6km course after in order to understand the limit between what is/isn't represented in the map. It was a big help to the January International Meeting that will be held in maps like these.

Physically I've been feeling a bit tired. The Thursday's 10x strength+200m intervals always take me some days to recover from. I've reached this week my coach's 140km/week goal. 13th of December will be my first Athletics race of the season, the Lisbon's Christmas GP. I have no idea of how much I'm running right now. But I'll find out that in the next weeks...

Saturday's club training (with mirror train)

2009-11-15T15:55:00.007Z

Yesterday I went to Peniche area to train with the Elite groups from my club, COC and ATV (Don't have the GPS software in this PC).

Morning, Middle distance 8k, 20c, 46'07 - A nice session. Mistake to 9th (lost map control and slowed down a lot) and big one to 18th (continued following the wrong valley). Wanted to test the greens to the finish.

Afternoon, multi-technique Middle distance, 5,6k, 22c, 34'22 - Mistake to the 2nd, (missed the depression), deviations in the azimuth area and big mistake to 19th (misunderstood the yellow long top as a low area and ended in the wrong depression).

Night, Mirror training - I had never done anything like this! It was a city mass start and they had only told us "be careful!". We started and everyone stopped 5m ahead. The map was inverted, like in a mirror. So you had to turn left if the map showed you right. At each control you would see guys running in every different directions. It was really fun! I admit that I had some difficulty in understanding the concept and followed the guys while trying to fit the map to the terrain in a great part of the course. Only in the end I was able to fully understand it, punched the last one in the lead and ended in the front in a tight sprint. (1 - The map that was given; 2- The real map)

Today I'm spending a day at my hometown (the 1st day in a month) and I've done a 1h45, 20km session in a hilly terrain where I've totally hit the wall.

National team weekend

2009-11-08T23:40:00.008Z

This season, we have some weekends with intense training camps with the National team. This was the first weekend, with 6 sessions. My legs were (still!) sore from the Thursdays training session (a new one to me: 10x skipping, squating, jumps + 200m run at track). I wasn't able to get great speeds but I also did lots of deviations and control missings (due to less contact time with the map). These kind of weekends are really productive. I just post the major trainings (the greens can be difficult to pass):

Mass start at 2 times (loss of GPS signal in the 2nd)

Under the line training with controls in the line

Corridor session

Chasing start

Tomorrow, is the return to routine. Oh, and this blog was invited to be the blog of the month of the Ezine magazine, an online urban sports magazine. You may find the article here (November edition, pag 36)

Iberian Championships

2009-11-02T22:51:00.008Z

Toledo, a beautiful Spanish city, hosted this year's Iberian Championships.

Middle Distance, 5,9K (120m), 41'39 - The greens were tricky. I started slowly with a big mistake to the 2nd (45sec). Bad option to the 5th, big hesitation to 11th with a mistake to 12th. Bad option to 19th. I didn't like my performance. This course was pauted by lots of hesitations and many meters at a slow pace. I was 3rd overall.

Sprint Distance, 3,2K (140m), 19'41 - It was an amazing race, in a nice city map with a big crowd cheering us up during all the way. I started with an hesitation (I tought that the stairs by the right weren't passable). I had some slow downs during the race due to inconsistent navigation. From the 5th I took my biggest lesson: The stairs were closed and I stopped and blocked there, loosing 20sec. I have to be able to cope with these unpredictable situations during a race! I also felt that I wasn't able to find my rythm during the race. I won it, but I was lucky this time.

Long Distance, 12,4K (475m), CANCELLED - This race was cancelled due to a control swap at the 16th control. I lost some seconds in the first controls. I managed well the long legs. Messed it up at the 16th were I found another control in the place of my control. I wasn't self-confident enough to leave the control when I attacked it and kept looking for my control. The most stupid thing were all the mistakes that I did after. I was doubting if I hadn't made a mp and did (a lot!) of silly mistakes. This can't happen again and, once again, I wasn't able to cope with unpredictable situations. In the end, the race committee decided to cancel the race.

You may find all the results and split times here. I returned home with an Iberian title and a 3rd place in the middle. And, afterall, I really enjoyed my weekend at beautiful Toledo.

Hate to be sick...

2009-10-28T15:34:00.002Z

From times to times comes a round of virus between my colleagues at faculty. This time I was one of the victims. Last friday I got a Viral Tonsillitis...

...and after a weekend at bed, missed Sunday's "Nike race against Tajo river" that I really wanted to run. Even if I'm able to run now (and have done intervaleds yesterday) I still have some chills and asthma in the evening...

Hope I'll be 100% recovered next weekend at the Iberian Championships.

Tough weekend

2009-10-19T21:48:00.007+01:00

4x700m Loops, a 3,6K chasing start, a 7,4K race and a night 4K relay was my Saturday training. Sunday, a 11K multi-technique course with a demanding final with Micro-O where I ran out of fuel.

I just post the main trains

3,6K Chasing start - It was a great session with Orienteering under pressure. Like Tiago has told me in the end, there is too much to improve.

7,4K race - A nice organization in Coruche. Some interesting options, particularly the 13th control (better by the right). I just did too many deviations, too many sharp turns.

11K multi-technique with this Micro-O ending - I just ran out of fuel and did these last controls with a dizzy head. I didn't want to quit once these situations sometimes happen in a race and we still have to be able to cope with them. It was a fantastic train and, slowly and with some deviations, I checked all the right controls.

Thanks to Tiago and Gafanhoris, thanks to COC and Ori-Estarreja with whom I spent a fantastic training weekend.

I'm slowly returning to the training routine. Last Thursday I did my first fast 10x climbing intervaled session with Marco Povoa and today I jogged fast with the guys.

Fatigue: Mental vs. Physiological

2009-10-16T22:38:00.006+01:00

I've came across this interesting article from "The Science of Sport" (you may find it here). Is fatigue a result of our conscious "Anticipatory regulation" or a result of muscle impairment?

It analyses some interesting questions like:
- If it was all physiological why do the best 10k races have the fastest last lap when the athletes have the biggest glycogen depletion and the biggest amount of lactate in the muscles? Why don't they speed up before?

- What cues, what signals, what experiences, what training, and what physiology are responsible for enabling the athlete to consciously slow down in the middle, and then speeding up at the end of a race and still optimize performance?

These guys, exercise physiologists have found their scheme between mental and physiological that just seems perfect to me and it ended being published at the British Journal of Sport Medicine.

If you're curious about it, you have a whole series of texts about this theme that will fill a great amount of hours of your spare time(you may find them here)

I've just a few time to write this post. Tomorrow I'll participate in a great training camp in Alentejo and I still have some hours of sleep to recover from.

2nd National Competition of the season.

2009-10-06T23:44:00.012+01:00

This weekend was the 2nd National competition of this season in Alijó, in the north of the country.

Saturday, Middle, 4,5K (185), 31'40 - I was satisfied with my performance. I did just a few mistakes on hesitations. Physically I felt well for a beginning of a season. Loss of time to 15th where I prefered to go around the rocks and attack the control with safety. To the 22nd, I think that the best option would be by the right of the big hill.

Sunday, Sprint, 3,8k, 14'32 (GPS ran out of battery)- With Marco Póvoa back to the game there can't be any mistakes in Sprint distances. I did a few and he kicked my ass in 40sec. Some of the options weren't the best, loss of time punching another control to the 5th, and a not so good physical performance formed my final result.

Monday, Long, 9,6K (260), 74'27 - This map has really tough greens that should be avoided at any cost. This race was far from perfection. Many losses of time in the control area. I felt that physically I didn't push hard enough once I ended the race with fresh legs. I haven't found my pace in Long distances once I'm always afraid of breaking down... and I really have to improve my running technique in rocky terrains!
After all, I won the weekend. My orienteering performance is better this season, but I still have too much to improve!!

Weeks at Home...

2009-10-06T00:01:00.007+01:00

Last weeks I was (finally) at Home with my parents. No school, no study, no worries, just relax. I need some weeks like these a year in order to get the needed balance.

I've discovered that I have many good maps around, in a 30min drive range...

I've enjoyed by MTB bike (a lot!) in my hometown terrains with an (almost) everyday 25K course with some climbing... combined with an afternoon 1h run.

and I've been with my longtime friends...

Good times are ending. The 1st athletics race of the season will be on the 25th Oct, the Nike race against Tajo river where 10.000 athletes are expected. I've only done 2 specific trains this pre-season apart from jogging. I'm curious about my shape at the moment (I hope I'll do better than last year's 33'24). School is starting again next week. The turbulence is coming, and I'm already missing it!

Great weekend in Alentejo

2009-09-21T11:36:00.012+01:00

This weekend I went to a competition organized by the growing club, "Gafanhoris".

Saturday, Long, 8,4k (330m), 51'51 - Tricky first part.
Mistake to the 5th - passed the green, felt that it was there but didn't enter the greens to find the control. Instead I did a 1'15 loop to punch the control then.
6th - Should have attacked the control by the small path that crosses the river. Lost time crossing the river.
14th - Without any doubt, the best option was to go by the left, around the big hill - Easier to run with less climb.
21th - I knew that those greens were a tricky area so I decided to climb a bit more and attack the control from above with confidence.

Saturday, Sprint/OriShow, 2,9k (15m), 13'04 - The first part of the race was in a simple urban area. The second part, in a different scale, was in a park. I hesitated too much in the last controls. My friends who were watching, have told me that I slow down too much when I look at the map. Maybe one thing to improve.

Sunday, Middle, 4,9k (205m), 40'38 - This wasn't my day. After a decent start,
11th - Lost 1'50 there. I left the path too early and entered the greens. Then lost time looking for the control, in my single opinion, in the right 2m rock. I didn't center the GPS trak in that area and it shows that the control was slightly to the south in a smaller rock. I was unlucky to attack the control by the greens.
12th - Lack of focus after having lost time in the previous control. Lost 1'00.
21st - A 3'00 loss here. I attacked the control from the post and wasn't able to find it. Then I climbed to the electric lines to relocalize and went down again. I can't center the GPS trak here. If I center where I punched the control to the center of the circle, my loop goes above the electric lines and I know that I didn't pass them to above. It's possible that the electric lines have interfered with the trak but I went to the terrain after the race and had some doubts. In the afternoon I did a 5k train in one of the many quality maps of Gafanhoris with some of my friends.
Thanks a lot to Tiago Aires e Raquel Costa who provided us such a great weekend. They've been doing a great job with those kids.
This season I have a new athletics club. Last Thursday I signed for Sport Lisboa e Benfica, a great club with some of the best national athletes including Nelson Évora, actual Olympic gold medallist in long jump and Vanessa Fernandes, actual Olympic medallist in Thriatlon. I'll compete in the main Sub-23 team so I'll have an extra motivation to prepare myself to the 5000m and/or maybe 1500m. My athletic goals for this season will be to have marks to the National Athletic Champs in 5K (usually 14'something) and to be selected to the European Universitary Cross-country Champs. It'll be tough but, we'll see...

Training to EYOC10 with the Portuguese youth

2009-09-14T14:28:00.010+01:00

Last week I went to Soria (Spain) to help in the training camp of the portuguese youth to EYOC 2010. My function was to put the controls on the terrain but I was able to do the trains after, resulting in some nice trains in fantastic terrains.

Downhill (Navaleno) - 4 real downhills that I enjoyed a lot
Long options (Navaleno) - Tiago Aires and Norman Jones did a nice job working at this long legs. I did the train at slow pace, looking at the train of the youngers. 3rd, 4th and 5th were my favourite.
3rd - without any doubt, the best option is straight;
4th - I wanted to try this option and I was the only one. Left, by the path, proved the be better;
5th - That was the controverse control. Even if many claimed that left is better, I maintain my option by the path on the right. I lost time in the area because there's an huge open area there.
Mass start (Navalcan)- We did this train with the youngers and it was nice. I was impressed by the physical level of some of them. The 1st control of the last course wasn't in the right place (not my fault =) ).

Saturday I was scared by the sharp pain on my back after an ugly fall while water-skying. It's better now and today I was back to normal trains. School is starting but, until then, I'm enjoying my last minutes of freedom with some Orienteering.

POS - The WRE and final

2009-08-30T22:36:00.007+01:00

WRE, 14,4k, (220m), 29c - 90'13 - The map was less technical and more physical. I'm in the pre-season trainings so I was afraid of how I would feel in such a tough race on dune terrain. I started slow and speeded up in the end, after the spectator control. I did a regular race with mistakes to 15th and 23rd. I felt physically well and won a race with a sparse international participation.

Middle Distance, 6,2k, (140m), 26c - 39'02 - This is one of the most technical portuguese areas. The micro-contour areas can be really tricky. Loss of time to the 8th, finding the control in the greens, hesitation in the greens to the 11th, to the 14th distraction with another control in the area, to the 16th mess with the paths, to the 17th just navigation without control followed by a regular end of race with a deviation to the second last control due to distraction with some other controls in the area. I won with a regular race, but only due to big mistakes of other athletes in singular controls. Can't be distracted by other runners or another controls! Too childish!

You can find all the results here

Since I've returned from Sweden, my navigation is more confident. I've concluded that in previous seasons I've just ran "blind" at O'races with such a poor contact with the map. Now I'm anticipating more, slowing when it's needed, starting at a really slow pace (maybe too slow, one thing to improve) and making exacter control attacks. Still to much to improve, but now in a better direction. We'll see...

photo by Joaquim Margarido

Portugal O'summer - first 3 days

2009-08-28T19:29:00.005+01:00

In the last days I've been at Portugal O'Summer. 3 races have already taken place in Cantanhede. Tomorrow is the Long Distance, a WRE.

Tue, Middle Distance - Big mistake to 4th, misunderstood the vegetation limits in the area. It was a more less 1'30 mistake. Then some hesitations and big mistake to the 29th. In this kind of maps, 1 mistake is the end, once they're really fast maps.

Wed, Sprint Distance - It wasn't a technical map. Even if I won, I'm physically too far away from shape - just beginning the season.

Frid, Middle Distance - In one of the most technical portuguese areas, Palheirão. Mistake in the area of the 1st and 11th. Big mistake to 13th where I spoiled the race. I have to avoid this time losses in the control area. In this kind of map, wins who does less mistakes.

Tomorrow, a 14k long distance. We'll see...

11day Training Camp in Denmark/Sweden

2009-08-27T22:32:00.010+01:00

From 13th to 24th of August I was in Denmark and Sweden training with my club, CPOC.

It was a great experience and I think that I've developed a lot my O'technique with 11 exhausting days training twice a day.

In Denmark we were in Hillerod and Tisvilde where we did the SpringCup09 maps. The dune terrains are quite similar to the portuguese ones.

In Sweden we stayed with Goteborg Majorna OK and did the majority of the trains in a tough terrain that we're not used to. We did all the JWOC maps and joined Goteborg Majorna OK in some interesting trains.

For the first time I was able to navigate and run decently in nordic terrains.

I just leave a few maps, the most revelant ones:

The club competition where I was able to navigate properly. Interesting routechoice from 6th to 7th.

Intervaled training with GMOK. Hat train- one leaves the hat, the other recovers it. Nice and easy to repeat in Portugal more often.

The last train. The stupid 1st control mistake and a leak of strength in my legs after such a week.

Thanks a lot to Mats Jodal who organized the camp for us and to Anders Axeborg, the GMOK athlete that introduced us to Goteborg terrains with a nice powerpoint evening. I'll probably return to Goteborg in the next months to train with GMOK.

I'm now at Portugal O'Summer, a nice 6 day competition in Portugal. You can find all the info here. I'll post the maps as soon as possible.

I'm using my holiday time to develop technically. I'll start to train physically hard again in the 15th of September.

Studies on Orienteering

2009-07-30T17:47:00.007+01:00

While studying and in need of Orienteering I searched "Orienteering" at Pubmed, the medical searchtool and found some interest studies that I post. I didn't check its validity, just copy-pasted some paragraphs from the abstracts that I found.

The other major findings were that prior to competition, superior orienteers reported use of higher self-efficacy, more positive outcome expectations and more task demand orientation than their less successful counterparts. Top orienteers coped more successfully with pre-competition anxiety by lowering their anxiety to a more moderate level prior to the actual performance. here

High aerobic power in orienteers (up to 63 and 76 ml/kg/min in women and men, respectively) is coupled with lower anaerobic performance. While leg strength is generally not high when compared with other athletic specialties, female orienteers have relatively good leg flexion strength. The energy cost of running is greatly increased in rough terrain. Oxygen cost was 26% higher while running in a forest when compared with road running. Biomechanical differences in stride pattern contribute towards this increased demand. Despite the high energy demands during competition, orienteers pace themselves such that their mean heart rate remains within the range of 167 to 172 beats/min, despite large fluctuations. The rough terrain encountered in orienteering results not only in a high energy cost but also in a higher incidence of sport-specific injuries, particularly to the ankle. here

Orienteers, as compared to nonathletes, showed a faster reaction speed and a complex pattern of attentional differences depending on the time constraints of the attentional task, the demands on endogenous attentional control, and the presence or absence of a concomitant effortful motor task. Results suggest that older expert orienteers have developed attentional skills that outweigh, at least at rest, the age-related deficits of visual attentional focusing. here

More experienced orienteers attended to the map markedly more while moving and spent less time stationary than less experienced orienteers. The participants' performance was significantly related to the ability to attend to the map while moving. The strategic control of attention is proposed to explain this ability. It is proposed that attentional training might enhance performance in sports characterized by multiple and dynamically varying elements. here

Correlation analyses showed a relationship between a high anaerobic threshold and few orienteering mistakes here

We conclude that daily orienteering competitions per se do not seem to create risks for developing a state of hormonal imbalance or significant decrease in glycogen when the carbohydrate supply is appropriate. here

The magnitudes of the age-related slowing of orienteering speed and of the difference in orienteering speed between males and females aged 45 years and over were greater than those reported for the other endurance running events. This may reflect the physical demands of running in orienteering terrain, tactical and cognitive aspects of the sport, or sociocultural aspects of the participating population. here

Inspired by the Tour de France I've been off-road cycling a lot, mainly uphill. I'm feeling physically well and in the 1st of August I'll start running more seriously again. I'm really missing navigating with a map!

End of the season...

2009-07-14T21:31:00.018+01:00

And so this season ends for me (the last season with Portuguese calendar; next season we'll fit to the international calendar).

Some feet pains and tough study hours to exams anticipated my Summer recovering period from 1-15Aug to 15-31Jul. I won't completely stop; I'll mantain a 30min/6km run per day (I've already been doing it for a week). The next season will officially start for me in the 1st August.

The madness of the last days has been compensated: 18/20 in Medicine I (the Big One of the course). Now with only Pediatrics left I can only think on Holidays!

The August plan for now is:
1st week- Family holiday in Algarve- The first long trains... (Bike and Run everyday)
2nd week- Possible surftrip to Morocco with friends
3rd week- Training camp in Sweden with CPOC(Start of the O'season)
4th week- Portugal O'Summer - A WRE event not to miss!

...and reeeeeelax!

The 08/09 season was pauted by my physical improvement on which I have the basis to continue working. I've had some encouraging results in Orienteering. However I still have too much to improve technically once I haven't found my perfect run/navigation balance in the more technical maps.

I'll start the next season with defined goals (this year some of them pass by Athletics) and with the intention to train physically harder and to be technically better. There are some gaps that really need to be filled. Next season I'll take it to my boundaries.

To do better, I've a new sponsor for next season: Mund socks. My feet now seem to run on the clouds. I've tried them in some trains and they're simply awesome. Worth to have a try!

Nice development indicator...

2009-07-05T19:50:00.021+01:00

Saturday I went to 8ª Légua Nocturna de Odivelas, a 5K (5,450m) race near Lisbon.

I wasn't in the mood to run, after a whole day studying. I just wanted to do a fast train. When I arrived there, saw a Moroccan ex-national team athlete, the SLB athlete Tiago (who was an orienteerer in the past and now is a 3000m steeplechase athlete) and some other good athletes. My goal was to try to go with the pack.

However in the 1st km, that seemed to go slow, my watch showed me 3'02. I felt motivated and stayed with them. The Moroccan did some tries to run away but the pack stayed together in the 1st 3K. In the big climb, I was feeling well and went to the front to push harder (I felt confident and that attitude was almost impossible to me some months ago). Only the Moroccan and the SLB guy stayed with me. In the final descend I pushed a bit harder and surprisingly crossed the finish line alone in the 1st place. My final time was 16'54.

I've noticed that I don't suffer half than what I used to suffer in athletic races some months ago. My coach told me that is my body getting used to effort and Lactic Acid.

In the last 10 days I've only jogged with just 1 fartleck train. I haven't been able to train hard when my head is exploding and sick of studying in the end of the day. I'm full of motivation to start training hard again with map next season. After my summer break I've decided to start jogging offroad more often in order to be faster in Orienteering.

(In the photo with my coach who also ran the race)
Despite being well, today I didn't train. My anoying Fascitiis pain is back again. Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to jog aggain.

My coach has told me that probably I'm worthing now less than 15' at 5K. I think it's tough... But we'll see...

Below are some newspaper cuts from the local newspapers about the last weekends race.

And some other cuts from this month's National Athletics magazine with an interview by Joaquim Margarido.

Local road race

2009-06-28T16:09:00.006+01:00

Today I went to a small local road race. It was raining a lot and I simply wasn't in the mood to run. One of the most important exams of my course, Medicine I will be next Thursday and I can't stop thinking about it.

It was a 4800m race (2laps).

I didn't go with the guys from the front (I did the 1st km to 3'05, they did around 2'55) and that was my main mistake. Consequently, I ended alone in the middle of the race. I was only able to catch some of the guys from the front in the last km.

I am always afraid to suffer in the last kms but that hasn't happened lately. I am more used to 10k races but I definitely have to find my pace in these shorter races once I intend to do some 1500m and 5000m at track next season. To know my limits in these shorter races I have to give everything that I have since the beginning in order to keep motivated with the pack: that was today's lesson.

The race was won by Manuel Silva, the 00/04 3000m Olympic athlete from SLB. I was the 3rd senior and 5th overall. I did a time of 15'15 and ended concluding that I could have done much better. At least it was a good 4,8k test to track and a nice train.

In the photo, Armando Aldegalega, SCP former Olympic Marathoner, giving the prizes. Paulo Franco, my training mate was 5th with a time around the 16'05.

Regional Road Race Champion

2009-06-21T15:47:00.012+01:00

Today was the regional road race championships, a race of 9K (3x 3K laps) under 34ºC.

The race wasn't flat with a 3x50m climb. There were some good athletes, with the Moroccan Hamid Hakin and my old teammate, the athlete from JOMA Nelson Silva (who recently has done less than 15' at 5K ).

The pace started strong with an expected team attack of the guys from Benavente (CUAB). I just ran with the pack the 1st lap. In the 2nd lap the 2 guys from Benavente pushed harder and I was left alone 15m behind. In the beginning of the last lap I knew that I would go to the podium, but the guys kept pushing hard in the front.

However they started slowing down in the 1st climb and in that moment I accelerated and caught them in the beginning of the descend. I was 2m behind them and had 2 options: 1- going with them and decide the title in the final sprint, which would be dangerous once they're track guys, faster than me; 2- passing them fullspeed and see what happens.

I did the 2nd option and they came with me. In the end of the descend I felt that the 2nd was under effort, 2m behind me and the decision of the race was in that climb. I gave everything that I had and in the final 300m I was with a confortable lead. The guys from my club did the party once they had never expected seing me coming 1st after being 15m behind in the beginning of the last lap. It had a special meaning being regional champ in my hometown in one of the oldest portuguese competitions (it was the XXXII edition).

The final results were as follows. My unofficial final time as 29'20. The measurement of the 9K was not official but it should be more less the 9K ( plus or less 100m).

1. Miguel RS - UDRZA
2. Joel Martins - CUAB
3. Hamid Hakim - CUAB
4. Luis Brito - CUAB
5. Nelson Silva - JOMA

My new non-WOC calendar is already made. I'll compete every weekend in athletics races until the beginning of August. Probably I'll do some races of the National Salomon Mountain racing circuit too. I'll slow down the 1st 15 days of August and will start the next season with a training camp in Sweden (15-23August).

Disappointing selection races to WOC

2009-06-14T23:46:00.007+01:00

This weekend were the Portuguese selection races to WOC in the north of the country (Gerês).

Saturday morning, Sprint, 2,5K (95m), 18c - I wasn't expecting a map of this kind. I tought that the white areas were much more open than they were in fact. I did lots and lots of mistakes and was never able to start anticipating. A total lack of focus that I am still not able to explain.

Saturday afternoon, Middle, 4K (190m), 17c - The 1st control was my final cross. I leave the path, pass about 2m from the control and attack another big cliff (it was bigger than the other) that was not represented in the map. I looked at the map and that was the only cliff in the area, near the water, down to the upper rock, so it had to be there! But it wasn't... It was a matter of luck. I had spoiled it all in this stupid mistake. Even with the huge mistake to the 15 (where even near the road I wasn't able to understand certain elements) I would have done a competitive race.

Sunday, Long, 8,7K (295m), 21c (with map change)- Really nice and tough terrain with nice options. There were variations. To the 3rd a lack of focus. The 9th was not well placed in the terrain. I attacked the right rock but the control wasn't there. It was upper in the terrain, as the gps shows. Even with some minor mistakes I liked the race but we still don't know how the results of this race will end.

I was really disappointed in the end. It's a big frustration to see the hard work of a whole season ending like this. I know that I was a crazy head in the sprint, but that cliff in the middle and the long distance will take me some time to digest.

Now it's time to stop being a crying Sissy and look up again. The programme to the Summer will probably change with competitive Orienteering taking part of my life again only in September. Until then, a tough Exam season and will test what I am physically worthing now at the next track races. We'll see...

Time to analyse

2009-06-09T22:47:00.006+01:00

As promised, I just post some maps and pictures of last week in a few minutes.

Here is the NOC public race, long distance (11,630m). I was going well to the 1st but then huge mistake due to a lack of focus. Then tought that the water canal in which I was, was the one in the left with the greens (and there were some similarities in the terrain: tragedy!). Then locked into training mode to the rest of the race and didn't check the control numbers and stupidily punched a wrong control in the 16th. In the afternoon we did another 5k training in the model event area. Unfortunately, I wasn't really tired during these days (couldn't keep high paces in these terrains) and ended making many km a day.

I have analyzed my mistakes during this 1st training camp in nordic terrains and concluded that I have developed my navigation since the first training. However I still have too much to learn and I'll try to train and compete in these terrains everytime I'll be able to. I have to be able to compete in these kind of maps, at least, as I compete in Western European countries.

The O'season in Portugal has already ended (next year the calendar will be changed to fit the International calendar, ending in December). The next weekend selection races to WOC will define if I'll just train to the track season until August and relax in the summer or if I'll continue training Orienteering until September. I'm unusually relaxed. Both hypothesis seem appealing for different reasons. We'll see...

Just leave you with this movie. When we were coming back to Portugal, we needed to fill the tanks of the rental cars. We were late and our plane was leaving in 1h30. In this petrol station you could only pre-pay your gasoline. Repeated this process in a hurry 2 or 3 times =)

Greatest training camp ever

2009-06-08T08:47:00.002+01:00

I've just a few minutes to write something before coming back to Portugal, to the boring Exam season at Faculty. The last days have been fantastic.

Yesterday the long distance didn't go as expected. A huge mistake in the long leg to the 1st control and then locked into the training mode. If this was not enough, I punched a wrong control when there were only 3 controls to the finish line. In the afternoon we did a short training in the model event maps and found there our friend Ionut Zinca.

If you have some time, it's really worth a look the GPS tracking of the last days (here). (If you don't have time, just don't click on the link, once you won't be able to stop watching it).

I'll post the maps and photos of last week as soon as possible.
It's impossible to become a better Orienteerer if we don't train on these maps. It was my first training camp abroad and I learned a lot. Hopefully I'll come back soon.

1st NOC public race

2009-06-06T21:26:00.004+01:00

Today was the 1st NOC public race.

Middle, 5.710m, 45'46 - Comparing to the trainings in beginning of the week, I was satisfied with my development. However I still have too much things to work at. The mistake to the 1st could have been avoided with precise navigation. The mistake to the 11th was just too bad. I really need to run more on rocky and irregular terrains as these. I lost too much time on the long legs. I believe that with some more days training in Nordic terrains I'll be able to start making better results.

The results can be found here.

In the afternoon we did another training in a 1:15000 scale, as the Long distance tomorrow.

Learning a whole new sport...

2009-06-05T21:19:00.009+01:00

This week I've been in a training camp with my club, CPOC, in the Helsinki region.

We've been training twice a day, in the morning with permanent controls organized by my great friend Juuso Metsala and his brother Tuomas and in the afternoon, in the trainings of the Finnish teams with controls and Emit (it´s fantastic to have this kind of trainings during the week with more than 100 athletes).

This has been the best training camp ever! In the beginning I had disappointing results. It was really difficult to get used to this kind of terrain, so much different from the Portuguese fast kind. It has been great to me, once my biggest difficulty is to maintain contact with the map. Here, loosing contact is missing a control. I've found that re-localization is an essential skill in which I have still too much to learn.

This was today's training, the test race for NOC. I didn't go fullspeed but was happy with the developments that I have made since the beginning of the week. (The permanent controls are short strings attached to the trees that are difficult to find, so the navigation needs to be really precise)

This was my first training (yesterday) where I was able to navigate decently. It was a mass start in a really closed terrain where the progression was difficult. (controls with strings).

Now I'm in the Salo area and will participate tomorrow in the NOC public races. We did a test race today and the maps seem easier and more open than the ones from Helsinkii. We'll see...

Portuguese Absolute Vice-Champion

2009-05-31T22:05:00.010+01:00

This weekend was really hot! There was the National Absolute Championships in Alentejo and temperatures were around 35ºC!

Saturday (Qualifications) 6,1k, (145m), 32'53 - I qualified in 3rd to the A Final. Temperatures were around 36ºC. A mistake to the 1st control, as I ever do... The last controls were really painful in such a desert. I did some unecessary mistakes in the 1st part of the course and just controlled the time in the 2nd part of it. I felt dizzy in the end with such a weather.

Sunday (A Final), 11,1k, (325m), 65'07 - This day was much fresher than the day before (34ºC). This time I started well. To the 3rd, there were some heavy greens that are marked in the map as white area. To the 13th, stupid mistake. And the last controls the lack of stamina made me loose some time. I really have to reformulate some of my trainings (I train almost as a road runner, maybe I need some longer off-road sessions) once I always break down too much in the end of Long distances.

Tomorrow I'll fly with my club to Finland in order to train there for a week. I'm really thankful to Juuso Metsala, my old friend who organized there some trainings for us. Can't wait to get away from all this sun!

National Universitary Championships

2009-05-23T14:39:00.009+01:00

Today I went to Gâmbia, near Lisbon, to the National Universitary Champs in a really fast map in an open area.

Middle distance, 8,4K, (100m), 28c, 42'04 - This time I messed up. I didn't start focused and two big mistakes in the beginning. To the 1st control I deviated to the right and then thought that the special trees line was the white area. In the 2nd control I was loosing more than 1min to the 1st. To the 18th huge mistake again. I lost my focus when crossing the small path that, in fact, was a big path in the terrain. I was 3rd overall and found many errors that will have to be corrected to the next weekend. I have realized that my mistakes are in chain: if i missed a control, I'll miss the next 2 controls too. I have to Stop and refresh after a mistake! And I also realized that I have to boost my self-confidence. Physically, even if I didn't took off the load to this weekend I felt really well running.

This week I'll have to give my best studying. Next weekend, National Absolute Champs. We'll see...

Everyday pains..

2009-05-19T00:06:00.008+01:00

Almost everybody have their own everyday pains and problems during the trainings... Today I just wanted to share my crosses and wanted to know if there is any other way to heal these things.

Fasciitis Plantaris

It seems that there are many orienteerers with the same problem. My feet are a bit "cavus" (the middle part of them is higher) so sometimes (when training more on pavement) I have that anoying pain. Sometime ago I did custom made orthoses with an arch support in a shop that supplies the portuguese guys from athletics that really reliefs the pain. I avoid using them everyday because i don't want my foot tendons to get lazy (and me ending dependent on them) but they are an huge help. The other thing I do is rolling my feet over a Golf ball when my tendons ache. It's an excruciating pain, but I'm ready to train in the next day.

Meniscal pain
Yes, about 1-1/2 year ago I did a small meniscal fracture that prevented me from training about 4months (I wanted to avoid surgery). Sometimes I have those minor pains to which seem to have no treatment (except surgery). There is not a great scientific support to this, but with an increased hydration and with a supplement of Glucosamine (one of the constituents of the cartilage) my aches seem to get better. Even if I've talked with some doctors that tell me that Glucosamine is only for old fellows with arthrosis, there are some studies that support it:
...glucosamine supplementation can provide some degree of pain relief and improved function in persons who experience regular knee pain...The trends in the results also suggest that, at a dosage of 2000 mg 'milligrams per day, the majority of improvements are present after six weeks."
In British J. of Sports Med., vol. 37, 2003.

Muscle aches

My muscle aches have been relieved (and the lesions disappeared) since I've tried ICE. It's amazing! We sometimes do an ice bath after the intervaled trainings (there's a place to do it in the track) and I'm just a new guy in the day after. In the other hand there are some friends of mine that can't even handle 30sec in the tub because they're too sensible(so the 12min are impossible for them). Once again there is some controversy about it, but it seems to have some effect:
...intense exercise actually causes microtrauma, or tiny tears in muscle fibers. This muscle damage not only stimulates muscle cell activity and helps repair the damage and strengthen the muscles ( muscle hypertrophy), but it is also linked with delayed onset muscle pain and soreness (DOMS) , which occurs between 24 and 72 hours after exercise.
The ice bath is thought to:
- Constrict blood vessels (which should be bad)
- Decrease metabolic activity and slow down physiological processes
- Reduce swelling and tissue breakdown
But then, with rewarming, the increased blood flow speeds circulation, and in turn, improves the healing process.

And that's it! Fortunately, no more pains!

The next weeks will be tough... I'm already preparing some exams while training well.

This weekend National Universitary O-Champs. Next weekend National Absolute Champs. Then travelling to Finland to a 1week O-Camp. Can't wait for it!

Portuguese Sprint Champion

2009-05-11T19:10:00.012+01:00

Last weekend was also the National Sprint Champs in Santarém, a fast map without many relevant details.

1st race, 3k, (90m), 12'00 - I started slowly. I just had to slow down when leaving the 5th because of a car that was closing the street. I won by a short advantage of 3 seconds to Marco Póvoa. You may find the results here

2nd race, 3k (60m), 11'33 - (my watch ran out of battery)I managed well the stress of starting in the lead. Anticipated well and had the 9th leg course in my mind when punching the 7th. Anticipation really resulted with me in this Champs. I've trained it with Bruno Nazário in the last training camps and it ended being really useful (as well as relying less in the compass and reading more the terrain in the middle).
You may find the results here

The overall results are here

Now it's time to manage the study to the next exam season and starting the preparation to the National Absolute Champs, NOC and selection races to WOC. We'll see...

Portuguese Middle Distance Champion

2009-05-10T23:58:00.008+01:00

This weekend were the National Sprint and Middle Distance Championships in Santarém/Almeirim. I was able to win my first 2 national champs as a senior.

Sunday, Middle Distance, 6,8k, 28c (410m) 43'49 - I was glad to win, but I wasn't satisfied with my race. There were 3 controls in a row where I lost the control. To the 9th I lost time, once I should have gone by the path from the beginning, to the 10th I attacked the reentrance to the right, to the 11th, that deviation to the left of the path and to the 12th a bad option (the terrain was tough to run, the best option should be the path). I tought that I had lost too much time and that the race was spoiled there. Fortunately I was able to recover the brains and I did the last controls with self-confidence, winning the race only in the last controls by more less 30''.

Curiously, my everyday training mates were also 3rd (Paulo Franco) and 4th (Jorge Fortunato). I really have to thank them (we push each others everyday), to Bruno Nazário who is always there to support us and to our coach José Santos.

You may find the results of the weekend here and photos here

I'll post the sprint maps, courses, photos and results as soons as I get the maps...

We had to repeat it...

2009-05-06T21:35:00.005+01:00

We liked yesterday training so much that today we did the same. 5 of us went to Quinta das Conchas, a park in the middle of Lisbon. The same method as yesterday: many starts, mass starts, different courses, except the last one that was the same to everybody. We particularly enjoyed the downhill course with 7 controls in the closed area (so much that we repeated it with different courses).

Downtown training in Lisbon

2009-05-05T23:25:00.007+01:00

Today, in spite of the normal tuesday's intervaled training, me and other 4 orienteerers went to the downtown of Lisbon in order to train to the next Saturday's National Sprint Champs. I didn't know this map, but it's really amazing... The right part of it, around the Castle with lots of stairs is really challenging.
We quickly drawn many starts/finish. Then each of us drawn different courses. We switched the maps among us and started each course in mass start and waited ones for anothers in the next start. Between the traffic, the surprised tourists and under a 30ºC athmosphere, it was a cool training.

My menisci have been warning me lately, but nothing serious by now...