POM 2009

This weekend was the Portugal O'meeting 09. I only participated in 2 days of competitions. (If you participated just check in the next days the O'Galleries section in the blog where the portuguese photographers will soon start to publish their photos).

DAY1, 7,4k (155m) - A fast kind of terrain. A major mistake to the 5th control made me loose at least 2min. The rest of the race was ok but could have pushed harder in some parts of it. (I'll post the map later)

DAY2, 16,4k (605m) - Really though! Unfortunately, we aren't used to this kind of distances in the Portuguese cup. I did a mistake to the 5th, misunderstood the map in that area, didn't adapt well to the scale. The rest of the mistakes were because of tiredness and mainly in the last quarter of the race. In the last controls I could hardly run and did a major mistake to the 28th. There were 35 Elite men who quited the race or did mp.

I will try to run more long sessions in trainings once it's one of my defects. Even if I ate 2 power gel's, in a total of 200kcal I felt really dizzy in the end. As my coach told me, with his 2h15 marathoner experience, I need to train my lipid metabolism with long sessions. (Thanks to Danny Portal by the map, once my scanner is broken... )

Yesterday, tuesday, I got sick: a little fever. I hope I'll get better soon in order to be able to compete in another 16k WRE the next weekend (Everything is happening to me lately...).

Next week will be my final exam of this exam season. I have (almost) gone mad and I'm sick of the Faculty's library, where I've spent most of my time since 10th of January.

I've already lots of competitions programmed after the 7th of March, to the respective month.

- Regional cross-country competition - 8th March

- Lisbon's Universitary Athletics Championship - 10th March

- 1 regional O'competition - 14th March

- Universitary and National Short Cross-Country Championship in Figueira da Foz (the Long one, one week earlier is a possibility) - 21th March

- National Long and Relay O'Champs - 28/29th March

- 1 or 2 training camps

Between them, a lot of training sessions await me to recover the shape. We'll see...

(Photos by Jorge Correia Dias)

Recovering the shape...

This week I entered the rythm again with some muscle soreness. Tuesday 12x400 I=1' to an average of 68''. Today, Saturday, 3x2000, 6'26/6'24/6'22, alone. I know that, physically, I'm not at my best due to the previous imposed stop. Technically, I haven't competed with map for 3 weeks. Next weekend I'll only participate in the first 2 days of Portugal O'Meeting because of school. After the 7th of March, I'll start to train harder as I was previously doing. It'll be a lot of sunny months training hard, until July. More news just after the POM...

Back to the game...

Today it was the 1st intervaled training since I've slowed down. 2 weeks half-running and last week I did an average of 1h05 per day at an average of 4'40, without specific training. Today it was 6x1000 , 3'interval with many athletes, including Sergio Silva, duathlon world champion. I did the first 4 to an average of 3'02. In the 5th I vomited when I was at the 600m. In the 6th, 2'55. I was expecting worse, after this pause.

Once again I vomited during an intervaled training. I've found a cause-effect association: sport beverages! My stomach can't digest them during an intense training. My coach told me that when he was an athlete he had the same problem with some kind of sport beverages. Before next competitions, only water!

Yesterday I went to a new massagist, in Jamor. He is really though! I screamed a lot but he was able to heal the rest of stiffness that my ischiotibial muscles had. I'll try to go there once a week.

Now I have no lesions and I am full of motivation to this second part of the season. I'll just train until the 15th of March, the date when my exam season at faculty will end. I'll just participate in 2 days of competitions of Portugal O'meeting and maybe in the 2 days of the WRE in the weekend after once I'll have an important Neurology exam next to it. After that, I'll try to compete in almost every weekend. Today I spoke with my coach again and the physical objective to this season is to go under 15' at 5k. Technically, I'll train in every opportunity that I have. We'll see...

How Olympic finals were won and lost

I have recently found this interesting article by BBC Sport that is worth a look. It analyses the tactics that were used by the last Olympic finalists in each 100m. You may find it here.

I haven't been training well lately. Before NAOM, the hamstring stiffness prevented me from training well 1 week. Sunday after the race I was streching at home and felt a needle in the Achilles tendon. Fortunately it was nothing serious. This week I was able to do 30min per day and I hope that tomorrow I will be able to be back to the game with specific trainings again.

Fortunately this 15 day pause ended to be nice. The portuguese selection races were withheld to a period closer to WOC.

Norte Alentejano O'meeting

This weekend was the Norte Alentejano O'meeting. Between the portuguese runners there was Michael Smola, Darius Sadeckas and Zsolt Lenkei. I was afraid of how my legs would feel, after 1week and a half jogging. Fortunately, after warming up, they did well. You may find the results and Splitsbrowser of the 3 races here.

DAY1- 5,4km (310m - 22c) - The beggining was fast and in the middle of the race we entered the rocky area that was more technical. I did well until the 16th control were I did a 1'20 mistake. In the 17th another 30''mistake. Despite being a bit tired during the last part of the race, I did well.

Day 1, night - 3,5km (35m - 21c) - A race by night. The first part in 1:5000. In the 11th control we had to flip the map over and did the rest of the course in 1:1000. I did it fast but didn't do my best once it was an extra course and I was afraid of how my legs would feel. I enjoyed it a lot, mainly the second map where only a few steps led us to the controls.

Day 2 - 12,5km (300m - 29c) I should have learnt some time ago that I am a thin guy with only a few reserves of fuel so I easily enter an hypoglicemic state (last time was in the long distance of the WUOC in Estonia). This race, it happened again. To the 12th control (the blue circle) I started to feel weird. To the 20th I started to feel really bad. I was able to painfully end the race even if I had to walk in some parts. Our brains only "eat" pure glucose so it's the first organ to suffer the consequences: I started to feel dizzy and it was really hard to focus in the map. This was a painful and easy avoidable situation that I hope won't be repeated. Before this happens, I was doing a more less good race without any major mistake.

To learn to the next time:
- The middle distance, I should focus more in the map in the lat quarter of the races. Even if I'm tired I should focus on it! I have to put this in my mind! No space to luck!
- The night sprint, even if I wasn't pushing me to the limits, I did some bad options and errors. I should try to antecipate the long legs in the previous ones. No stupid running without reading the map!

- From the long distance, I have to eat more in the previous days. My stomach isn't that big so I have to eat less in more times.
- Power gel!! I won't start any more long distance race without a glucose gel in the pocket.

Sick of the cold weather? POM 2009!

This year my O'club is organizing the biggest portuguese O'event of the year, the Portugal O'meeting 2009, on 21-24th February 2009. With 4 days of competition, 1 WRE, lots of training camps around, one O'night and an OriShow with prizes money, it will be an event to mark in the calendar (for more information click here). One month before, the entries list is already huge with teams like Kalevan Rasti and the Swiss OTeam making their entries (you may check it here). So if you don't want to miss it, the second entry deadline is on the 6th of February. See you in Portugal this year!

Hamstring stiffness - overuse signal

Yesterday I went to a regional O'competition near my hometown. It was really cool to run in the maps where I learned to Orienteering during my childhood.

However I've not been training well since Thursday. The posterior muscles of my both legs became really stiff and hurt when I run. It doesn't prevent me from training but shortens my training sessions. I went to the National sport medicine center and they told me that is minor and easily recoverable overtraining signal. They also told me that I needed to have massage more frequently and to stretch more... I have shortened my training sessions from Thursday till now and I hope that tomorrow I'll be able to train normally. I've been having some massage, hot immersion baths, recovering gels, magnesium... everything I have to get it better! And it's much better now! Today I was supposed to go with my O'friends to a 10k race but I thought it was better to rest. I even woke up at 7h, did a small test run around my house and returned home to sleep. =)

So if you ever experience this:

• Tenderness and swelling over the bit where the tendon inserts onto the bone (tendonitis).
• Pain when you try to bend the knee against resistance.
• Stiffness after exercise.

I've learned it by the though way, slow down...

Ori-Alentejo (map and course)

Today I went to Coruche to a regional competition. It was a good 10,5km training. The race took place in a fast and open terrain where I was able to run under 5min/km. I did some minor mistakes and a major one to the 23rd control. I passed close to the control but thought it was in the greens in the south. You may find the results here.

We have a new training plan now with intervaled uphills at Thursday, instead of the weekly 5k course. We first did it this Thursday and it was really exhausting (I almost vomited during it to what my coach answered "If you didn't vomit, you didn't push hard enough" =) ).

It has been really cold to the portuguese weather last days. We're not used to 0/-1ºC which difficults the breathing while training. However we have still managed to make 120km/week in the last weeks. Now that the exam season at faculty is starting I'll have to slower the rythm. Next weekend a 10km athletics race and maybe a short regional O'competition. We'll see...

Mondego Trophy (maps and courses)

Today, me and Paulo went to Figueira da Foz to participate in the second day of competitions of the Mondego Trophy. I would have done a good race, if in the 4th control I hadn't made a major mistake.There is a path that leads to the area of the control. However in the terrain there was another path to the right of the map one, made by a vehicle. I thought that I was in the left path and did a bad attack to the control that was in a really closed area. When I realized that I wasn't in the right place I returned to the path and realized where I was. That error costed me about 4'30 (You may find the results here). In the end of the race, me and Paulo took the map of the previous day of competitions and did another 7,5km course. The total was around a 20km train with map in a terrain where the progression is really difficult. (You may zoom the maps in the little upper right button on the web album).

Some photos of the training camp...

Here I leave some photos of the training camp. The album was made by Rafael and Gildo and you may find it here. Tomorrow I'll probably travel to Figueira da Foz with some friends in order to participate in a regional O'competition.