February wouldn't be February without a training camp in
Portugal. This time I spent ten days there with my good friends Sofia and Heini
training and taking part to Portugal O Meeting in
Idanha a Nova and then Meeting de Orientacao do Centro in the coast. It was a good entity with plenty of orienteering in full speed
(well it's relative so I'd better say high or fairly high speed). I managed to
run altogether 6 races, a few hard trainings and a couple of easy sessions with
a map. I increased my weekly mileage hundredfold but my plantar fasciitis took
it fairly well and protested badly only a few times (when I tried to run twice or
more a day). I had good races and bad races, good days and bad days, and good
legs and bad legs. But as a whole it was definitively good and I can see
progression in many fronts even if I wasn't always satisfied with my orienteering.
I had two fairly good middle distance races (POM day 2 &
MOC day 2) where I was 6th and 9th, two average long distance races (POM day 1
& MOC day 1) and two quite poor races (POM days 3 & 4) where I did a
few bigger mistakes (over 3 min altogether) at the end of the course. Terrain
of POM days 3 and 4 in Cidral was technically fun but physically challenging for me for two reasons: 1) steep ascents and 2) steep (rocky) descents.
First of all I wasn't fit enough for the climbs (my brains just stopped working
at the top of the hills) and secondly my left foot couldn't handle the
descents. Everything in between was fine but there wasn't much of it.
Sand dunes in Quiaios and Osso-da-Baleia suited me (and my foot) much better and I just loved running there! Unfortunately I wasn't sharp enough
to stay focused all the way and was driven from the red line a couple of times.
But there was a lot of good in all my performances even if I wasn't fully satisfied.
I was 9th on both days of MOC and 8th overall. Same as in POM. So some
consistency in the results despite mistakes.
Best of all was nonetheless the fact that I could run all the races
and my plantar fasciitis didn't get much worse (a couple of sleepless nights doesn't
count). I could orienteer nearly as much as I had planned and skipped only a
couple of afternoon runs that Sofia & Heini did (and unfortunately all the
great sprints too). Instead I used that time for core & gymnastics. So I should be able to do a few more sit-ups than I used to do and hold myself longer in a side plank. A great training camp all in all and very well organized events once
again with great courses and good maps.
Highlights of the week:
-sprint in Monsanto (see Thomas Dlabajas video here)
-luxury staying in the middle of an olive plantation
-sleeping bag (had learned something from the last
year!)
-pumpkin walnut chutney (a lovely welcome greeting)
-map memory training with the British squad (ages since I've done something like that!)
-pink kinesiotape (as essential as an ice bag)
-petzl (couldn't have survived without it when able to use only
one electrical element at a time)
Big thanks to everyone involved helping with maps & trainings, especially Hannu, Philippe, Liz, GG and Luis!
Links to maps & results:
