Great weekend in Alentejo

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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...

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

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

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).