National Long Distance and Relay Championships

DAY1, Long distance, 11,5k, (535m) - Even if I took all my asthma medication properly, there was something in the air that didn't let me breathe well. I started loosing time to my rivals since the beginning. It was painful to run the race and in the end it took some time to recover my normal breathing. I was really disappointed in the end with all my previous months of trainings being unnefective due to this situation. 2 years ago, a similar thing happened to me: I ended a race with my knees like handball balls due to an allergic reaction. Another big mistake to the 18th and a doubtful option in the long leg (the uphill greens are more closed that what is in the map).



You may draw your option in the long leg below...

Powered by WebRoute - WorldofO.com

DAY 2, Relay, 5,1k, (210m) - The combinatioon of my first controls were different than the other best athletes. I stayed behind the pack and did the first 5 controls alone. Surprisingly I realized in the path to the 6th that I was in the lead and that the pack had done some mistakes in the previous controls. More different combinations than the pack and some lack of self-confidence and in the long path to the 12th I saw the pack 400m ahead. I tried to run fast and punched the 12th with the pack. I punched the spectator control with Joaquim Sousa, in the lead. In the last controls there were many controls in the area that made me loose some time. I ended 2nd, just a few seconds after Marco Póvoa. My teammates did a regular race and we ended 3rd overall.
(the map below is from Jorge and my controls are drawn with red circles)



Below there are some photos of the weekend. With this national champs we earned some portuguese high quality maps to train. You may find more photos at the O'galleries section.

You know you're an orienteerer when...

Found this in a Facebook group. I don't know who is the author but is simply genial!

YOU KNOW YOU'RE AN ORIENTEERER WHEN...

(1) Your compass is one of your most prized possessions

(2) You optimize your route choices to and from the supermarket

(3) You orient a street map of your town to the magnetic north, even
if it means all the street names are upside down

(4) You think there's nothing wrong with wearing clothes made up of 6 different colours

(5) You always have at least one O-map in the toilet

(6) You are always obliged to explain to your friend what orienteering is

(7) You consider taping the shoelaces on your dress shoes

(8) You hang a control point up to your driving mirror

(9) You are the first to go to sleep during a party because you must be awakened sunday early in the morning

(10) You can recite your Sport Ident/E-card number from memory, but often have trouble remembering your phone number

(11) You contemplate moving to Sweden

(12) All of your white socks are no longer white or you buy grey or black socks so the dirt doesn’t show

(13) OCAD is the only software graphics package you know how to use, so you do everything with it

(14) If you’re a Mac’user, you've kept that old Windows PC, but only for running all the orienteering software that only runs on Windows (eg OCAD, Catching Features)

(15) You think nothing of driving for 16 hours in order to
run around in a strange place for 90 minutes.

(16) When your friends no longer think you're insane, and you have even managed to convince one or two to go hiking out back and swim in the muddy swamp with you

(17) You spend a lot of your time surfing random orienteering websites

(18) When your kids think it's normal to find Xmas presents by using OCAD maps of the interior of your house

(19) Your child can read the IOF symbols before they can read the "beginner" clue sheets

(20) There is a bag on the floor you have yet to fully unpack from your most recent orienteering trip

(21) While driving, you never actually get lost, you just make "x min mistakes".

(22) When you get lost on the way to someone's house, they tease you about it for being an orienteer, and you protest that you didn't have a map

(23) You are amazed to think that someone might NOT enjoy running around alone off-trail in the woods, possibly in the dark

(24) You complain about people who park their huge mobile homes between two trees and announce they are "camping."

(25) You read all of the above and find it funny, not disturbing

(26) You are able to speak 2 hours about route choices of a 1 hour race.

(27) You get so pissed off about a race you did you swear never to orienteer again, and then turn around and do another O race the next weekend, loving every minute of it!!

(28) You look at the countryside around you and analyze whether it would make a good orienteering map.

(29) My 2 year old drew triangles on tiles in the bathroom.

(30) You constantly have to tell people you haven´t been in knife fight, got scratched by a cat or had wild sex last weekend.... you were orienteering.

(31) You use the word re-entrant instead of valley, and everybody gives you a funny look.

(32) You think nothing of dropping 400 bucks on a new headlamp.

(33) You own more than one compass.

(34) You teach Orienteering as part of your phys ed curriculum and your students think you're insane.

and João Valente from my club added

35) When somebody asks you your age and you answer M-35...

Weekend's training camp

This weekend I participated in the COC/Ori-Estarreja training camp in S.Pedro do sul/Gafanhas, in order to train in similar terrains to the next weekend's National championships.

Saturday morning, 6xshort loops - I did some hesitations in the first loops that costed me some time. I usually do this kind of mistakes in the 1st controls of 1st competition days.

Saturday afternoon, 5k course - In a rocky terrain where the progression was really difficult. It was a chasing start. There was Macro-o (I missed the 16th) and loops. In the 11th control we had to flip the map over. I was expecting worst, once I have some difficulty in these maps (I'm not able to run fast in this rocky terrains and I have to develop my "rocky O'technique"). I usually train on the road or track. I really need more off-road trainings in hilly or rocky terrains in order to develop this kind of running technique.


Saturday evening - We trained anticipation in a sprint course. While running to a control we had to memorize the next one.

Sunday morning 7x ~=1,5k loops - Really nice training. We did each loop with a mass start (2 or 3 at a time) with forking and different controls. In the end, 12,5k in a fast pace. I analysed the pace graphs and the goal for the next weeks is to minimize the red bar, tryingto go at a slower pace without those hesitations (I'm not referring to the next graph where the red bar is control punching).


I'm really thankful to Bruno Nazário who organized this weekend trainings and also who invited me and to Ana Oliveira's family with whom I stayed with.

Conclusion of the rocky terrains - Start slow and navigate precisely (it isn't possible to run really fast). Don't attack a control without knowing the element of the control and without a consistent route attack.

Ori-Alentejo Trophy

Today I went to Arraiolos to participate in the 3rd OriAlentejo Trophy and to train the rest of the day there.

Competition, 5,9k (195m) 48'08 - I did a good start in the fast area. I entered well the closed area. It was really difficult to run in the greens and the visibility was reduced. After the 2nd spectator control (11th to 12th) I caught another athlete, didn't attack the control to the left and ended in the greens. To the 18th, huge mistake! It's unforgivable. I was with the athlete that I had caught previously and ran faster than I should in the open area and passed next to it. Even if I won the race I was disappointed with my course.

Afternoon, 3,4k, 23'59 - We went to Sabugueiro to train in a mixed map. We went in a normal pace because of some tiredness. There were still some controls in the terrain. Even in a slower pace I ended doing some mistakes.

After it we went to Évora to do this 6,4k (210m) course. It's the "electric course" once its fences are electrized because of the cows. If you touch them you'll feel them hard! =) There were some controls in the terrain too. We did a mass start once there were different combinations (this is Jorge's map so there are some controls that don't match). We went together in some controls. The greens have lots of paths that aren't marked.

I really need to develop my O'technique fast. I still do some unforgivable mistakes and some unecessary distractions. I've already fixed my errorsat start. No running without map! (once again I did an huge mistake because of it). This week I'll start the 2nd semester at University. Next weekend, training camp again. We'll see..

Some days off...

This week was University-free! Just training and skiing all day in Spain. I was really needing this days off. I've made there some nice running sessions with huge accumulated elevations. In the end of the days I was totally broken.

Last week I also had a meeting with Lurdes Silva, the portuguese sales manager of the brand Silva. I'm now sponsored by Silva and will be using its headlamps in the next seasons.


Last week I also bought a Garmin 405. What a training tool! With this km pacer, the problem is being able to run slow... The other sensational characteristic is that it writes my training diary automatically - I only need to be in a 5m range of my PC. I've tried twice to do a proper training diary without success (I'm too lazy)... I hope that this time I'll be able to do a proper one... and I can't wait to start analyzing my O'courses with it!


This weekend, the Ori-Alentejo Trophy, 1 intervaled training and some O'trainings.

Regional cross-country vice-champion

Today I went to the Regional cross-country championships. 4km, 11'46. I was not really enthusiasted with this race. I was a bit disappointed with the last friday's 2x3000 intervaled training and my intention in this race was to develop rythm in a faster training.


Today, without exams in my mind I started with the pack. The 1st 1k lap was really, really fast with a team attack breaking the group. The 2nd 1,5k lap was slower and in the end of it, there were only 3 athletes (including me) in the pack. In the last 1,5k lap there were some minor attacks but we ended the race with an enthusiastic final sprint. In the beginning of the last 100m I was 3rd but was able to pass the 2nd one in the last 2 meters (photo below, there's only my shadow). I ended being 2nd overall and the best sub-23. I loved the race, didn't suffer much and was happy in the ending. Now I have a motivation boost to work in order to get better in the next months. Next week it'll be holiday with a lot of trainings and orienteering programmed.

Today's WRE in Portugal

Today was the COC's WRE in Pataias, Portugal.

WRE, 7,6k (150m) 43'27 - A really nice terrain with some loops. I was not able to concentrate properly and did many mistakes... To the 1st one, an unnecessary hesitation near the road... To the 4th another compass mistake... And in the last controls, a mess in the 23rd and 24th..
I'm not well once I've been having little fevers and my throat is inflamed since Wednesday. I tried to compete today and even now I think it was a good bet! =) Unfortunately, because of that, I won't participate tomorrow in the Long distance.. Next weeks I'll try to compensate... =)

The results will be soon here.

About the POM09, it was the most participated event in the portuguese O'history, after last year's WMOC. There are a lot of interesting interview's with the best athletes here (it's in portuguese but it's worth translating). I leave here the 1st day's map, where I did a good race. Unfortunately, I did a major mistake to the 5th that spoiled the race...

To learn to the next competitions...

• I can't keep crazy running when I don't find the control at first. Stop and think!
• Always anticipating... When reading the map where I am at the moment, slow down and start anticipating again... If I'm able to keep more the contact with the map, things will get better soon...
  

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...