Holidays...

I didn't start my holidays by the best way. Unfortunately, my dear grandfather died and I felt lucky to had been with him in his last days.

During my mourning period I ran a lot in the highest portuguese mountains with every sessions in the hills between 1h30 and 2h00. I've also read amazing books and found some controversial stuff as:
- DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) is not a consequence of lactate but a consequence of muscle micro-ruptures and inflamation (Lactate levels return to normal 30min after the session and the soreness only appears 1 or 2 days later). Then, should we stretch after tough sessions?
- VMBR (visual motor behaviour rehearsal) - Amazing! I think that I'll use it a lot in the future in orienteering. Is this what Tero calls "feel like running in your backyard?". I'll try to train it in the first competitions of the season.
- Sport beverages are a hoax (and the money that we spend on them) - Our blood Natremia is 140mM. Do the 18mM from sport beverages really make any difference? By forcing to drink it we're only doing the opposite: diluting the blood.
- Cramps are not related at all with electrolyte depletion. But they seem to be a consequence of an inhibition of the muscle inhibitors called Golgi organs.
- Tiredness is more related with body temperature (hypothalamus) and neural functions rather than all the stuff that we're used to think about (and that we learn at medical schools).

Then I went to Marrakesh with some friends. Did some legendary morning runs in the narrow streets. My tourist map was so bad that I often got lost in the 2m-wide streets and had to ask some policeman for "Jemna el Fna" (the main plaza). I moved then to Taghazout, the surfer's paradise and:
- danced in a wedding at McDonalds
- experienced what 55ºC is
- surfed for hours without wetsuit in warm sea water (until my belly skin got irritated by the surfboard). Some nice waves but too small for the season.
- grudged with the streets salesmen (those guys are tougher than the chineses)




Then I went to Chamonix with the best possible company. Spend some amazing days trekking in the mountains between 2200m and 3800m. Chamonix is a paradise on earth and the locals are really friendly. I'll be back with proper equipment to climb those Glaciers. I've also spent some days in Switzerland and Geneva as a tourist.




The last time that I ran with a map was in June. Now it's time to start all over again and it'll be this Saturday in the north of the country.

Physically, I've been "feel running" since the beginning of August and I've re-discovered the beauty of it. I feel that I've improved my stride by forefooting and I'm feeling pretty well right now. Today I've officialy started my "serious" training plan.

Oh and, by the way, this week I've received the new that I've already won the Portuguese Ranking Cup of 2009/2010 with 4 races to go. This was something tottaly unexpected for me that I usually don't fight for once I always have to miss some competitions during the year... but it's always a nice new to receive.

The last days...

Finnaly I've finished the last exam season of my life. It was tough, with many 12h studying days (it was definitely a Long distance race) but it's done.

In the last days I've been feeling really distressed. I miss navigating with a map a lot (sigh)! Even if we supposedly are in the peak of the season of the new portuguese calendar there aren't any competitions and the big one's outside Portugal have already taken place.

I didn't stop running at all (I kept a 30min/day basis). Now I'm returning to the 1h again. It's a bit difficult to cope with all this hot days (42ºC!!) - last Sunday I almost died with a 5h MTB train with Nelson where I drank 4,5L of water! I've been doing a lot of strenght training and proprioception exercises. I've also been training with my lightweigth shoes. At the beginning, my calf muscles were always completely sore but now I've been enjoying it a lot.

Now, apart from studying german and working on my master thesis, I've been reading about my other interests (my book list that I've formed during the year). Some of them have really nice applications to Orienteering:
- Brain training for runners
- Mental training for peak performance
- The Runners Body
- Lance Amstrong - My journey back to life

Can't wait for start competing again. I haven't planned the next season properly yet but I hope that it'll be a legendary one. We'll see...

Boring...

Since the EOC, my life had a 180º turn. Portugal isn't participating in this year's WOC so the season (before August) is over.

In the meanwhile, last saturday, I've participated in an Orienteering mass start in Leiria. I wasn't happy with my performance. I did 2 major mistakes, to 11th and 25th and I ended 2nd overall. It was a great way to break the routine and spend one morning with the folks.
I've been doing some work for the future in the last days. According to coache's orders, I've been only running 50min per day and doing lots of short intervals at track in order to develop speed. I've also been spending entire days at the library studying for the last exam season of my life.

I would like to compete in one or another athletics event in the coming days but I think that I won't have enough library-free time to participate in any. So now it's just training for myself without stress and I've been enjoying it a lot.

Hopefully it'll all be over by the end of July and I'll start preparing the Iberian/Latin countries Championships and the French World Cup in October. Then I'll move my bags to Vienna where I'll spend 3 months in a Surgical rotation (and hopefully also training a lot).

And yes, we're eliminated by our neighbours in the South Africa's championships. The nice part of it is that I won't have to hear the annoying Vuvuzelas again in the coming days... =)

EOC 2010

I've just came from Bulgaria and I really have to write about the last days which were fantastic.
This was my first international competition as a senior. I've traveled to Primorsko with the portuguese team 1week before the competition in order to get used to the kind of terrain. It was a really productive week with twice a day training sessions. This was the first time that anything like this was done in the portuguese team and I think it helped a lot.

My personal goal for this competition was to get to the Final A in as many races as I could.

In the Sprint Qualification I did some mistakes (approximately the amount of time that would put me in a Final A - 36sec). However I wasn't also fast enough and I ended the same day running the Final B in a training pace in order to recover to the next day's qualification.

In the Long Qualification I ran completely headless. I changed all my navigation routines and I only thought about running fast. It was a really bad race where I wasn't able to cope with the stress.

In the Middle qualification I wasn't fast enough. I did 2 big mistakes, to the 7th and 11th. I wasn't satisfied at all with my race.

Then it came the Relay. Due to my not so good results I started in the first position of the portuguese 2nd team. It was an awesome experience. I ran in the 1st group until the 4th where I made a mistake. Then I ran the rest of my race alone until the spectator control where I caught Russia1. I made some mistakes in the end and ended the race with Austria1 and Germany1. I really enjoyed the race and it was a good experience in order to learn from the paces at the front.




Then it was the Middle Final (B). I was much more relaxed, I had already messed it up! And ended in 12th with a regular race. I liked my pace in the controls after the spectator control.

Finnaly, it was the Long Final (B) (the following maps is from the Final A, a course with some differences). I wasn't calm enough and I did too many deviations that costed me a lot of time in a map where the best route choice was most of the times under the red line.


It's tough to get ready to this kind of terrains when we have completely different terrains in Portugal. We aren't used to this amount of climb and to this closed forest and I think that I'll have to change some of my physical training methods.

I learned a lot from this experience. Now I know the performance needed to a Final A and I must say that it isn't anything special. I must say that we, portuguese, need to compete more often in the international environment in order to develop and I'll catch all the opportunities that I have.

Today it costed me a lot to get back to the routine at the Hospital. The next month will be tough and I'll cut in my training loads in order to prepare myself for the last exam season of my life (yes!).

Absolute National Championships

Recently it was the National Absolute Championships. The maps were near Lisbon, with lots of paths and some greens.

In the qualification, I managed my effort, did an easy race and was selected to the Final A. I won't probably do this type of management again once I wasn't able to benefit from some of the packs that were formed in the last group of athletes during the Final.

In the Final A race, I wasn't fast enough and I did mistakes. The map was really easy and I wasn't able to fully focus on it.

Portuguese selection teams to EOC

Last weekend were the National team selection races to 2010 competitions. I was the 2nd selected of our 6 athlete male team to EOC, right after Tiago Aires. I was given the oportunity to participate in this year's WOC at own expenses once there won't be any portuguese team there this year.The final results may be found here.

Long distance, 13.1km, (355m), 85'00 (with map exchange) - I really have to be able to cope with stress. I wasn't able to have a clear thinking and I could have messed it all in the first controls. I ran completely headless! In the end I tought that I had no chance but it seemed that it was difficult for everyone. I was 2nd.

Middle distance, 6.6km, (150m), 36'25 - I had a clear margin and I was much more relaxed. I did a regular race with a safe navigation. My option to the 17th was a bit pathetic.

Cross country course, 3km, almost flat with a hard ground - As the last training sessions at track, I wasn't able to develop a good rythm. It was tough to keep the 3'34min/km rythm and I was 3rd, 5sec after the winner.

The last month's trainings have been atypical. I am able to jog fast, 1h at 4'10 with no problem. But I can't run faster at races and track sessions. My averages in the last track sessions have been worse than what I used to do 2 years ago (3sec slower at 400m, 4sec slower at 300m!!).
I'm almost sure that it's because of the asthma and Spring polens once I have some difficulty in recovering the breathing in the intervals (almost like altitude training =) ). I'll start a new medication tomorrow (by the way, it's not considered doping!=) )and hope that I'll be in shape soon.

Barefoot running?

There is an ultimate running trend about barefoot running that has arised my curiosity.

This theory, that was first addressed in a Nature magazine paper, is resumed in a magnificent Harvard's Skeletal Biology Lab review that you may find here.

This is based in a few assumptions:
- We land our foot on the heel because our overprotective cushioned shoes allow that.
- Our shoe's heel are too high and that fact predisposes to Achilles tendon injuries (that are so comon!).
- If we run barefoot we will start landing on the forefoot (landing on the heel is painful when you're barefoot) and our running will become more economic. Furthermore, we will prevent some lesions once there won't be a peak of impact on our knees, hips and spine.

I don't have any training in this area but I've always been curious about the way Kenyan's run. They appear to have springs under their soles... and that's the way forefoot running works - landing on the forefoot gives you back some of the impulse that you projected on the ground.

There is even a funny curiosity about it. The guys that try it for the first times usually feel some headaches in the end, due to the overflow of sensory information that comes from our nervous endings at the feet (that are usually numb inside the shoe).

So, wether it really works or not, I'm feeling really tempted to buy some Vibram's Five fingers to give it a try (30min run a week).


Here are some runners that were famous for running barefoot:
Abebe Bikila - former Olympic marathon world-record holder
Bruce Tulloh - former European 5k record-holder
Tegla Loroupe - former Olympic marathon world-record holder

Last weekend I went to another road race. This time, a 11.500m one. It was a tough one with a great amount of climbing and my performance wasn't good (I was tired and I was with the usual Spring polen asthma problem). However I was 2nd, after a 2h12 marathon portuguese guy.

5th SLB 10k race

Last weekend, I did another 10km (plus 200m) race. This time, to 33'06. I did almost all the race with Bruno Pais, one of the best portuguese triathletes. One of the most demanding kilometers was the 3rd, inside the parking of the stadium with sharp turns and short steep slopes.

I ended being really slow in the last km's (thinking I was fast) and the final time was worse than expected. The race was won by Ernest Kebenei, a kenyan, followed by Licinio Pimental, National Road Racing Champion.

I'm not in my best shape but I'll keep working on that in the next weeks. I hope that, in some months, I'll be able to do a race like this with times per km similar to the firsts of this race. We'll see...

Portuguese Sprint Champion

This weekend were the National Sprint and Middle Distance Championships in the north of the country (Vinhais).

The Sprint was fine. I was able to do a regular race and avoid mistakes. Splitsbrowser here (HE).


The middle was a disaster. I wasn't fast enough, I did mistakes in the area of so many controls. The worsts were 13, 16 and 23 (even with so many mistakes I lost the possibility of a not-so-bad result in the 23th... the map was a bit criticized by the athletes and that border green in the 23th area isn't real at all). Splitsbrowser here.

Rather than running I iddeally should now focus in the map technique and in the navigation routines in order to avoid silly navigation and get better results in Orienteering. In Lisbon it's impossible to do that (nor in an 1h driving range), so I'll have to keep my running routines and simply enjoy all the opportunities that I can get to train with a map in my hands...

Spanish National Champs+Clermont Ferrand

Last weekend I've participated in the Spanish National Champs in Moralzarzal, in the north of Madrid.
In 3 days there was a Long, Middle, Sprint and Relay events and the terrain and maps were great!
In the long and middle I didn't like my performance that much. I did some major mistakes and I've noticed that I have a great difficulty in running in stony and irregular terrains (mainly downhill!). I may be faster in flat and regular grounds but I can be pretty slow in the forest. It's difficult to jog in irregular grounds in Lisbon but I'm trying to find a way to improve this.
In the relay I was the 3rd element. I started some 15sec after Ionut. Gave my best to reach him to the 1st control but then did a stupid mistake in an area full of controls. The results of the whole competition may be found here.
Then I moved to Clermont Ferrand for one week and trained there. Unfortunately I hurt my knee in a night train in the 2nd day and did the rest of the trains of the week marching. I really enjoyed the area and the great maps! It was a pleasure to navigate there and I really have to come back!