POM 2010 - All the stars in Portugal

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?

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

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

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

Christmas training camp and S.Silvester

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

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)

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

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

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)

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.