11 training sessions in 2+1/2 days

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

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

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...

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...

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

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...