1st O'race of the season - Ultra-long

My first race of the season was an ultra-long distance in Alentejo (which, by international standards, was a long distance).

Long distance, 19.900m (440m), 1h43m04s - I was afraid of blowing up so I started too slow and loosing (too much!) time in the initial controls.
Major mistakes:
4th - the best option was in front by the small path. I saw the greens and didn't checked the small path.-1m30
15th - I was careless when I left the small path. Didn't look enough time to the map. -2m40
22nd - I skirted the hill by the wrong side and attacked the wrong rock. Lack of confidence. -1m00

When I realised that the course was ending and that I was still feeling well I pushed harder with good splits in the second half of the course. There was a bad management of effort. Only now I know that I'm able to push harder in these distances. Physically, I thought that I was worse (this season there won't be twice-a-day trainings). Technically, I navigated well compared with what I was expecting, once I haven't trained regularly with a map since June2010.

Before I went to Wien, I left a fat coach in Portugal and when I returned, I found a thin coach that runs as much as I'm running. Now he's also my training partner and we split the effort of the intervals, which is nice. The bad part, is the psychological pressure of the "old fellow" that is always trying to pass me. (Graph of yesterday's long intervals at the track).


About the experience in Austria, in the 2nd largest hospital in the world, it was great! Medically, we learned a lot and had nice evaluations. About friends, we did lots of good friends and met really nice people. Orienteeringly, I learned new methods of training and developed my running in the forest. About the social differences, it's something like the video below (switch italians by portuguese):


Now I'm making an Internal medicine rotation. For the 1st time in my life, I'm being given my own patients (supervised in the end of the morning). It can be stressful at times but I'm loving it! The bad part are the late lunchs, only at 15h, that are responsible for my morning hypoglicemias (those guys don't eat anything!).

My weeks have been evaluated in km's and pages. We'll see...

The longest cold of my life

After a legendary New Year in the heart of the Tirol with amazing friends (thanks to Martin&Uschi, the organizers) and an incredible athmosphere I got a classic cold with chills, low fevers and anergy.

Monday I wanted to fight against it with a session at the gym (stupid!) and got worse in the next days. I've been spending the mornings in the O.R. with some sacrifice and the afternoons at bed drinking hot tea. Friday I went for a run with David (who also had the same) and also got worst after. So now, I've been waiting for my body to recover for a week and I hope that it decides to get better quickly!. It seems that everybody is sick in Vienna with lots of coughs and red noses on the streets and hospital. In Portugal, the O'season has started this weekend and I can't wait to joint it.



In the meanwhile, the "I Meeting de Orientação de Gouveia" is going above expectations. Thierry Gueorgiou, Olav Lundanes, Philippe Adamski, Frederic Tranchard, Vincent Coupat, Gernot Kerschbaumer and Ionut Zinca are some of the stars that already made their entries in this event.

This blog has reached the mark of 50.000 visitors. This project started as a way of forcing myself to analyze my performances and as a diary of my ups and downs across these years. It seems that got some more people interested on it (beside me!) and I'm glad about it. Thank you all! =)

I Orienteering Meeting of Gouveia - advertisement

After having organized the Portugal O'Meeting 2009, which was a recognized success, CPOC (my portuguese orienteering club) is now organizing the I Orienteering Meeting of Gouveia that will take place on the 5th and 6th of February 2010 in the highest portuguese mountains, "Serra da Estrela".

The competition will be constituted by a Long Distance in a rocky maze...

(sample of the Long Distance map)

...and a Mixed Distance event (middle with transition to sprint - NOC2010 style) in a fast forest map and a tricky village map (plus a Open race on Saturday evening).

(sample of the Mixed Distance event maps)

You may find the English version of the Buletin nº1 by clicking here.

CPOC has already received participation intentions by World-class Orienteerers such as Olav Lundanes, Ionut Zinca or the Austrian National Team so we now think that we have all the ingredients to a memorable event.

Official "I Orienteering Meeting of Gouveia" website here.
Official "I Orienteering Meeting of Gouveia" Facebook page here.

So, see you in Portugal, soon...

My 1st Kolsassberg run

After 4 days hiking, skiing and discovering the best of Tirol, last Sunday I've participated in Kolsassberg run, a mythic 5km race with a 500m climb, in Innsbruck.

Unfortunately, I forgot my asthma medication in Vienna and felt the consequences.
Started in the 1st group but after the 1st km I started to feel the shortened breath and aching lungs. The rest of the race was literally "suffering until the end" and I ended in 9th. However, I don't regreat the experience: it was an awesome race with an amazing view over the valley! Next time it'll be better...


Today, I did a 1k test run and more 2x1k intervals at the indoor track. It usually takes me 2 or 3 days to my lungs to recover from these traumatic experiences, but they could be worse right now. After the train, there was also place for an animated Christmas-training-group dinner.

It's still more 3 weeks in Vienna, and I'm already missing this place... I'll definitely have to come back! =)

WLV Crosslaufmeisterschaften

And then the winter came: the orienteering trainings stopped and the cold weather and the snow arrived in Wien.

Today I've participated in a Wienese 9k Cross-country race, the coldest one of my life! I was expecting a little better and David Schneider (who won) ended kicking my ass again pretty badly. I ran the first 5k with a cool guy, Albert from LCC, but then my lungs started to ache a little bit and I ended the race in 4th.

The last trains have been cool. All at night (it gets dark at 4h) and some in the forest, off-road. I'm such a Sissy running in the muddy forest and the average is 1 or 2 falls per train... but I'm getting better.

I've been enjoying my life at the surgery rotation (not that much the part of having to be in the operation room at 6h55!). I've been with some cool doctors and I've signed my first surgery sheets as a 1st assistant. I haven't worked at my master thesis as much as I wanted to but the time that I've been spending here has been worth it! In the next days, more trains, trip to Innsbruck and then the Christmas in Portugal. We'll see...

Miscelaneous

After a strength training and a 1h run I decided at the midnight of 23th Oct to do my first half-marathon in the next day.

I hadn't any idea of the time I was worthing. I just went there with the intention to suffer as much as i was able to and to gaign some rythm. I ran in the front all the time with 2 nice athletes. It was a freaking cold and at the 16th km I did my first stop to vomit. I caught them again and at the 19th km, I took my time to vomit for the 2nd time, ending in 3rd. So, I've learned my lesson: with cold weather, nothing in the stomach in the 4h before. My time was nothing special: 1h14m49s, but not bad for the beginning of the season.

In the day after I had a slight pain in the Achilles. I don't like to play with this sensitive area so I decided to stop for some time: 1-1/2week doing 5km at a really slow pace +1h gym everyday.

Yesterday my Achilles behave well and I was able to get my ass kicked by D.Schneider at night grass intervals. Today I'm with some fever due to the Flu vaccine that I took today so I had some free time to do a post.

About work, it has been awesome. I'm in a nice and competent Pediatrics team. I really like the medical teams attitude: doctors aren't vain and inaccessible like in Portugal and treat you as an equal so, I've been learning a lot.

I've been training without method; just enjoying meeting new people, going for some runs and competing in special events... and it has been working fine with me doing a good mileage/week! Next week I'll also join an austrian athletics team with Olympic aspirations, Team 2012. We'll see...

Tower running and 1st trains in the cold

This was the craziest race of my life. Last friday I did a tower running race in Vienna. 700 stairs, 35 floors. I was expecting a soft climb up to the top. I started fast and when I thought "i'm pretty tired, how many floors to the end?" I was passing by the sign of the 16th floor. The rest was just a mix of suffering to the top and ended the race so, so dizzy! (as you may see in the photo below that was taken in the downstairs screen). In the last meters I could barely walk and my lungs ached so much during the next minutes. I did 3'34 and was 9th. There were some professional guys (yes, there are professional guys in this tower running scene!) and I was satisfied with my result. You may find the results here (forget the Dr.; it was a joke of who made the entry). Maybe someday I'll repeat the experience with an improved know-how on the subject. =)


Then I went to Linz to the Austrian Night Champs. I ran Open class as this is the last race of the season. During the race, a spike bent forward and I ended the race in some pain. It's even a bit sore right now and I hope that I won't feel anything in the next days.

It has been a great experience here in Austria. Cool training partners, really friendly orienteerers and, at least, 2 trains a week with a map on my hands (which is what I really need right now!). My training loads are a bit lower but much more orienteering directed.

Bye Annecy, Welcome to Wien

Last weekend's WC was disastrous to me.
Orient'Show - It was a funny race. Did it to the semi-finals where a mispunch spoiled it all. Results and maps from Orient'Show here.
Sprint - Even if I felt that the 1st control wasn't that tricky I lost lots of time inside the garden. Some more mistakes (a 40'' one to 10th) and a lack of shape did the rest.
Long - It was the toughest of my life. Started well. However I lost time in the loops and did the biggest mistake of the last seasons. I decided to quit but then re-localized myself and wanted to do the rest of the race. The hypoglicemia due to a lack of trains for this distance did the rest of the mistakes. The map wasn't that difficult; the problem was that the map contact that I had during the race wasn't not even close of what is needed.

Then we had 3 great days of trainings in Woc2011 relevant terrain. At the beginning I had some difficulty in knowing what is/isn't represented in the map once the terrain is (even) more detailed than it seems to be in the map. I felt confident in the last trains and I really want to come back to keep developing in those terrains. In fact, I'm just a Sissy running in those terrains.



Welcome to Wien.
Then I did the night train to Wien where I had an interesting talk with a pakistanese businessman and a Sri-Lanka emmigrant.
In the last 3 days I've done a 4 loops night train near Wien, nice forest running sessions with Tobias Killmann (today, a total of 28km running), explored all the corners of the city...

... and was 2nd in today's International Wien Kahlenberglauf (the mountain race, almost 9k, 400m climb) after David Schneider, the Swiss orienteerer, with whom I'll do some trains in the next weeks.



Tomorrow I'll start at the AKH. It looks more like a shopping center (with lots of space and a Starbucks inside) rather than a Hospital. We'll see...

Iberian Championships

Great organization in this competition that took place in the center of the country.

Middle distance, 6,3k (200m), 30c - I started carefully because I wasn't sure about my navigation after the summer rest. Lost time to the 7th, 10th, 11th and an huge amount of time from 25th to the finish line. Caught some athletes, oversimplified and ended loosing time. I was vice-champion, 15'' after Tiago Aires.

Sprint distance, 3,1k (90m), 25c - I definitely underestimated the map. I tought that it would be too easy and it was the worst sprint race I can remember. I fell at all the traps. To the 7th a too bad option and to the 8th, the end of the race where I passed the passage of the tunnel.


Long distance, 12,5k (400m), 30c - In this kind of terrains I've to start making straighter routes. Big deviation to the 1st. Lots and lots of smaller mistakes. Huge one to the 21st (4'!). In the final part of the race, there were no miracles and my lack of shape didn't allow me to push harder.
As I was talking with Ionut in the end, for me it's easier to technically loose 3min in a race than winning 3min by running harder. I've to take it easier and rely more on the map. After re-fueling my energies I still had the strength to spend a great afternoon surfing at Supertubos with 25ºC.

Now I'm packing all the stuff to the next week's WC in Annecy and to the next 3 months in Vienna. We'll see...

The orienteering flow

As an orienteerer you've probably have experienced a race where everything seems to fit in. Where everything seems easy and you just float between the controls. I have had that feeling, but only too seldom.

Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi, a Hungarian psychology professor that spent a great part of his life studying this phenomenon in many areas, identifies the following 10 factors as accompanying an experience of flow:
1. Clear goals (expectations and rules are discernible and goals are attainable and align appropriately with one's skill set and abilities). Moreover, the challenge level and skill level should both be high.
2. Concentrating, a high degree of concentration on a limited field of attention (a person engaged in the activity will have the opportunity to focus and to delve deeply into it).
3. A loss of the feeling of self-consciousness, the merging of action and awareness.
4. Distorted sense of time, one's subjective experience of time is altered.
5. Direct and immediate feedback (successes and failures in the course of the activity are apparent, so that behavior can be adjusted as needed).
6. Balance between ability level and challenge (the activity is neither too easy nor too difficult).
7. A sense of personal control over the situation or activity.
8. The activity is intrinsically rewarding, so there is an effortlessness of action.
9. A lack of awareness of bodily needs (to the extent that one can reach a point of great hunger or fatigue without realizing it)
10. People become absorbed in their activity, and focus of awareness is narrowed down to the activity itself, action awareness merging.

And there are 3 conditions that are necessary to achieve the flow state:
1. One must be involved in an activity with a clear set of goals. This adds direction and structure to the task.
2. One must have a good balance between the perceived challenges of the task at hand and his or her own perceived skills. One must have confidence that he or she is capable to do the task at hand.
3. The task at hand must have clear and immediate feedback. This helps the person negotiate any changing demands and allows him or her to adjust his or her performance to maintain the flow state.

And I take a shot suggesting that this so called Flow may be a remaining capability of our "persistence hunter" ancestors that made our vulnerable specie to survive in a hostile world for so many years, transforming us in the Runner's specie. It's a theme that is physiologically and anthropologically so fashion nowadays and that may amaze you in the following video... isn't that guy in "the flow"??