POM + "XI Meeting de Orientação do Centro"

Last week it was time to take a deep and healthy breath and leave the heavy air of university and exams in Lisbon.
I was in the 4 days of Portugal O'meeting running in a very slow pace and not fighting for a good position.
The 16,4km WRE long distance on sunday have made some blisters in my feet and therefore i could not run very well.. Despite that, i enjoyed Monday's and tuesday's courses a lot (see bellow). The fast & rocky terrain was very interesting with some green areas making it more chalenging.

MAP TUESDAY:

After those 4 days i went to Diogo's house in Estarreja, my club hometown. We've done some interesting trainings in Tocha with the Czech team.

Saturday morning i took the bus to Pataias were i run the "XI meeting de orientação do centro". The 7,1 km middle distance was very fast again but interesting (Map bellow). I didn't enjoy the long distance as well and with 2 big blisters in my feet i couldn't run as i would like and i quit.

MAP MIDDLE (WRE):

Portugal O'Summer 09 - The Intervews

The hot days are coming and it is time to planify our vacations!
What would be better than orienteering, beach, sun and fun at the same time?
The Event Director, Nuno Leite, mellows our mouths in this little interview!

What can we expect about the event/organisation?

NL - The standard for Ori-Estarreja organisations is set long time ago, this means "High quality event"!
This is what we call a "Summer Event", so, more than for the competition we will work towards the vacation spirit.
But vacations end up on friday! The last two days are importante days (Portugal and Spanish Cup's and also WRE)
so this ones should be more demanding... competition for real!
And of course, you should count always with the smile of the organisation members!

JF - What are your expectations about the runners?

NL - The runners! Well, there are a lot of competition! I mean, lot of summer events, lot to choose from!
There is also the WOC in the previous week!
Anyway we expect to overcome our record from Portugal "O" Meeting 2007. About 1600 runners.

JF - What is your opinion about the terrain?

NL - I'm suspicious on that, but, in my opinion, it trully fits the kind of event that we want to build up!
Fast, smooth and challenging terrains!

JF - Do you think that the runners of WMOC08 are coming again to spend holidays in Portugal?

NL - I was at the organisation of WMOC and for what I could see/ear most of the runners will come again soon to Portugal.
Next summer? I hope so! :)

What would you say to convince someone to come to POS’09?

NL - It will be a summer event where the word "summer" is for real!
Sun, beach and orienteering on good maps in a very short range all week!
If you never came to Portugal... this is the right time!
If you have done it already, you know i'm talking true and it will be worth to come again!

O-Tv - Iberic Championships

Since NAOM i am not training as well as i should because of exams in university and i think that a good result in Portugal O'meeting is going to be almost impossible.
The good new is that the first one is done and i don't have to miss the competition.
Pharmacology, Physiology, Histology, Anatomy and Biochemistry are the names of the subjects that were on my exam!!! 8/

In the first part of this video you can find a review over the last Iberic championships and a little interview with the winners(in portuguese).

NAOM 09 - Alter do Chão

Last weekend i've participated in the "Norte Alentejano O'meeting" a competition that is getting popular year after year.
The terrains were a mixture of very fast areas and some very tricky rock details and almost all course in open areas.

Saturday we had a middle distance (5,4km). I've made a good race but with some time lost in small errors.
Saturday night we had a sprint in the village of Alter do Chão. Unfortunatelly on the way to the second control I've fallen in the middle of the road =/ My leg was not fine and i had to give up =/
After some treatments and ice, Sunday morning i've done a "test drive" to see if my leg could run the 12,5Km of the long distance and everything went ok!

MAP (LONG)


RESULTS (HE) Middle:
1 - Michal Smola 31:27
2 - Tiago Aires 34:11
3 - Darius Sadeckas 34:56

5 - Jorge Fortunato 35:27

RESULS (HE) Long:
1 - Michal Smola 1:05:57
2 - Darius Sadeckas 1:06:21
3 - Tiago Aires 1:08:10

8 - Jorge Fortunato 1:13:57

27th GP Camarnal

Last Sunday i went to a 10 km race near Lisbon with my friend Paulo. We had to run twice in a 5 Km course with a big climb in the beginning and an other in the middle and that means we had to climb twice too!
My time was 36'23'', not out of my expectations =)

Portugal O'Summer09 - The website

The Portugal O'Summer official website is open since the 1st day of 2009!

You may check it here:
POS'09 Website

Christmas Training Camp

As a continuation of our training project with Ori-Estarreja, this year we made an agreement with CPOC and COC clubs and invited a trainer from Czech Republic: Radek Novotny to prepare a nice training camp near the WMOC08 terrains.
We focused on performance and made some simulations of real competitions and some chasing starts were made so that we had the pressure to push hard and at the same time trying to be as much concentrated as possible.
I learned that this kind of simulations are very important because the biggest mistakes are made when we are running at full speed and the motto is, as Radek told us: "Just me, controls, map and the terrain" ;)

I had the opportunity to try two new types of training. In the 2 manna relay, one guy run to the control and go back to the next triangle and the other guy just jog directly to the triangle, where they meet and change positions. The Start loops consist of running just to one control and then to the finish simulating the start of a real competition where sometimes we lose precious seconds.
In the last day we had the long distance training where we had nice route choices to decide. I was already very tired and i think that conditioned my choices!!

2 Manna Relay:


Middle Final:


Chasing Start:


Long Distance: