First race in M20

The past weekend I went to Santiago do Cacém do join my first race ever as M20.

At saturday, since I was without pressure and a sore from the trainings of the week, I did a well-balanced race, with a constant and comfortable pace (no pushing) and trying not to miss since I did not want to put more distance in my legs nor did I want to race down a hill and then have to come up to punch the control.
Only BIG mistake was to control no13 where my brain shut down and I looked to the reentrant of the control and thought it wasn't there so I wandered around to make sure (lol stupid).

At sunday, my mind was just off. Did plenty of mistakes at control no4, 5, 8, 9... Some of them I'm not even sure if they are mistakes or pure stupidity:

I felt well in my first race at M20, I tend to do the courses from M20 next year. 

My goal is to achieve a good result at Long Distance of JWOC, however, I have to be much better and orienteer much faster in middle distance races. 

Best regards,
Filipe

2012 Iberian Championships: 2nd round

This past weekend I went to Figueira da Foz to run the 2nd round of the Iberian Championships.

Saturday I had to races, one in the morning, the middle distance with 4.0km in a sandy terrain, and another one in the afternoon, a very good sprint from my point of view with 2km.

In the middle distance I had with me my great companion and homie the whole race. This fellow was my abdominal pain/stomach pain/intestinal pain/whathefuckIdontknowwhatitisbutit'sallwaystherewhenIwanttorunseriouspain. So let's just say that I couldn't concentrate the whole race. I did it just mindless: forgetting which point I was coming from and which was I going for:

So, that abdominal pain that I had in the morning was so rough that it let my whole abdominal area sore. I was a bit afraid of that to happen again when I started. I had pinches of it the whole race and whenever I started to run faster there it was grabing me. No excuses for the mistakes and the lack of planning I made.

Sunday it was the long distance, more suited for me since I can put the same good and confortable pace from beginning to the end.

It was in a map that I already have been 2 years ago in the Selection races. I remember quite well that day. It was a rainy grey day and I did 115mins in a 7.3km race. It was so bad and I missed so much! I think I didn't know how to orienteer back then. It was so bad. Here is the map for your pleasure :)

Well, I can't say that this time it was better. To the first control I a huge mistake because the area was so green. The rest of the race went more or less but I can take many conclusions that will help me from now on to evolve :)

Greetings Orienteers.

Orienteering Break's Over :)

Hi guys,

I haven't been here since my days in Finland because I just needed some time off to think about the next season and what I will do to be successfull.

So in Portugal we had a little summer break from O-races and, at least for me, the break finished yesterday when we did a mass-start race in a map called Lamarosa, in Coruche. It was a very fast and easy map. I was very slow since I have only been training for 3 weeks and that's how it is going to be the beginning of my season: slow and hard. However I managed to do some stupid mistakes:

Next week comes a race that counts for the national cup and for the Iberian Championships. I've already blew my chances of being Iberian Champion with an missing point on the last race, so pressure is off. LOL. Let's see how will be my body's mood to do hard or soft races.

Hugs and kisses ;)

Trip to Finland, Day 8

The fatigue day.


Today was the day that me, Luis and Miguel, decided to go by bike to Kayravali, a map 18,5Km away from Anna's house. Here is the course we did on google maps:

After that me and Luis did together a Long distance training with 6,8Km:

And then came the hard part. Doing the other 18,5Km back home.

Tomorrow we go to Vuokatti to train in the terrains of WOC2013 :)

Trip to Finland, Day 7

Today we woke up very late so we decided just to go a little to the beach and then go to a training of Rajamaen Rykmentii. We were told at the begining that we would have to be cautious and that relocation was impossible. I came to know that when I went to control no9 (thinking that I already knew where it was because I had already been there) and everything looked the same. I searched the control for 20 mins. After that I gave up. It was just training, there was no need to have an headache about it:

Trip to Finland, Day 6

In the afternoon we went to a "famous" orienteering training that usually happens on Mondays in Finland. I was so amazed for seeing so much people to just train. Even more people than in the races in Portugal!

Here is the map we did today where people had the chance to choose a course from 2 - 9 km or get a blank map and draw the course. I decided to do the 7Km one where I did a very big mistake on control no8 where I was not focused:

Trip to Finland, Day 5

Today we decided to take a rest day and just go to the beach in Sääksjärvi. Here is the course we did by bike from Kyläjoentie to there:

photo of the view at the beach

Trip to Finland, Day 4

Today we all felt very tired so we decided to rest on the morning and just "train" on the afternoon.
We went again to map Alhonniittu but this time to the uper part. I think it was a great choice since this side of the map was the most interesting and fun map that I've ever been since I am here in Finland.
In these maps I'll always try to go straight even if it is VERY SLOW and stupid just to get a full experience of what these forests can give you.

Enjoy :)

Trip to Finland, Day 3

In the morning me and Miguel went by bike to a new map near Nurmijarvi. Near 8Km.

In the afternoon, we went to the other side of the map near Anna's house and after the "training" me and Miguel went to the lake.

Here are some photos of the day:

Me and Miguel in the morning

Me on the bike ahah

Me all sweet resting near the lake in the afternoon

Trip to Finland, Day2

In the morning, I asked Miguel for some help since at the day before I couldn't understand some features of the map and terrain. This was the course that we did together:

In the afternoon, we grabed the bikes and went to a map a little bit further. The terrain was very different from the above but a lot more fun!

After the "training" we went to a lake to take a bath (up corner right of the map) and on the way there, we decided to have some mud fight on the swamps! Ahah!

Mud Fight!

How to walk on "uncrossable" swamps!

Blueberries - Election food on any forest in Finland :b

Trip to Finland, Day 1

1st day in Finland was at 25th July, where me, Luis and Miguel arrived at Anna's house.

We are going to stay here untill 1 august or so.

To begin to know the terrains, in the morning we went to a map near Anna's house where we just ran and then, at the afternoon, I tried to do a course but couldn't make it well (not having the controls in the terrain doesn't help, but oh well)

Course day 1 - Vaaksinjarvi

EYOC2012 Conclusions: We are all made of STARDUST

Before going to EYOC I was complaining about not having too much speed on track since recently I did 2'17 on a 800m race. I was afraid my training was over-specializing me on Orienteering and, since I am only 16yo, I was beggining to get afraid that in the future I couldn't run fast when I felt like it.
 However, after EYOC I changed this thoughts. I don't need track nor speed if I want to be a great orienteer. My training didn't make me a good runner nor a good orienteer. If I want to be good in something I need to dig deep and focus on that thing and on what I need to do to achieve my goals.

My goal for next year is just the JWOC2013 that will take place in Czech Republic. I don't want just to go there just to say that I went there. I want to go there to make history. To make history I have to become a true orienteer. Forget about the speed and remember about the strength when I need to climb steep hills or need to break going downhill.

Making history... It's possible, even for a portuguese, just look at João "Mega" Figueiredo that achieved 7th place just yesterday in JWOC sprint. Or today Thor Norskov, first year Junior, achieved a 6th place on the long distance, IMPRESSIVE!

These great examples remind me that we are all capable to achieve the top, since we are all made of the same stuff: STARDUST

EYOC 2012 Journal, 1st July: RELAY - THE FACE OF DISAPPOINTMENT

7a.m. time to wake up, eat some things and go.

8.30 a.m. Portuguese team was the first to arriver to the parking lot.

10 a.m. There goes Luis, I hope he can reach with the leading group! Better start warming-up, he doesn't take more then 40minutes!

10.23 a.m. there's Luis! He's running well! Better finish my warm-up and go wait for him!
...
...
...
10.45 a.m. where's Luis? Almost everyone is here... Shit...

10.47 a.m. Is he coming?? Yes, it's him... Well, it's all lost, might aswell do my race...

Entered the woods: oh my god it was all so beautifull. I'm loving this forest! 1, 2, 3, 4 controlled without much problems. Going to control no 5, uops not mine... not my control again... ah now this is mine... Going to 6th and I'm can't find it. Oh wait... I'm in the green area, there's the control. Then, running like a mad man down-hill across the yellows... But... I didn't need to go here... Focus!
Control no7 ok. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 all okay. Spectator area and now I'm entering the more technical area. Control 15 is fine. Lost too much time looking for 16 and don't know why. Going to 17 and I catch many teams! Bulgaria, Spain, Ucrania... were there! Yes! 18, 19, 20 okay! Going to 22! Full speed!!! Wait........ Wasn't there a 21? GO BACK! 21. Now I'm tired. Must give another kick to finish. 22, 23 and going to the finish! There's Miguel waiting for me but I cannot sprint more! Go Miguel!!
Finished!
What's this on my splits paper? "pm"? Shit, Luis did m.p....
We waisted all our chances.
EYOC just for experience yeah, sure but I wanted a medal and we could do it.

EYOC 2012 Journal, 30th June: LONG

I woke up with my stomach much better then the last days. Yes! However, my legs aren't feeling 100%. I guess I lost too much water...

We arrived to the arena and we were given a warming-up map, which was very nice for me to focus. I started to warm-up at 9.50 a.m.

10:42 start time. It seems like have this map on my head! Great! I started with the thoughts that behind me were coming 3 good runners. 

Controlled no1 without any problems. To control no2 I was still entering the map and lost a bit of time, aswell to number 3. Looked over my shoulder: noone's coming. Now, to the path to control no4 and full speed. Oh look! There's the guy from Israel that started 2 minutes in front of me on the end of the path. I lost a bit of direction to go to the other path. Nothing too bad. Found controlled no4.

To control no5 I lost again my direction. Uoops, there is the swiss guy that started 2 minutes behind me... Let's go with him. To controll no 7 we went basically straight but we lost a bit of time on the control area. To control no8 we were caught by the russian guy that started 4mins behind me and 2mins behind the suiss. Damn he runs fast up the hill. I can't keep up the pace. The legs are feeling numb. Lost them to control no9... Now I'm by myself. I'll just try not to lose too much time on technical mistakes.

10, 11, 12, okay. 

I am on the area of control no 13... Where is it?? Map doesn't help. Lift my head, look left: Oh there it is... 

Wait... Who's coming? Oh shit, it's Eduardo Gil, 6minutes behind me... He's passing by me like I'm stopped! 

I'm beggining to have cramps on my legs!!! 

Struggled to control no14 and no15. Trying to run to the spectators control agaisnt my legs will. Run damn it, run! "Water, water!!!" I said to my teammates hoping that would help with my cramps. Nop, not much of a help, but feeling a little better from the rest of my body.

17, 18, 19, 20, the only problem was making my legs move.

21, 22 come ooooon finish finish, ah there it is!

Craaaaaaaaamps, help!!

Time: 69'40''. Wait... Wasn't the predicted winning time 50'-55'? Damn, how is that possible!? I think i couldn't drop the 60' even without technical mistakes!

Waited for Luis... He had the same problem as me! Oh well...

The afternoon was to rest, tomorrow is going to be the relay. I believe we have great chances, however I don't quite understand the order we were given... We work with what we have. And WE are BIG!

(That was what I believed...)

EYOC 2012 Journal, 29th June: SPRINT a.k.a. BAD-LUCK DAY

8a.m. time to wake up. Fortunately my stomach was better. Nevertheless I tried to eat something soft.


11a.m. time to start my warm-up. Feeling very tired. Oh well, gotta race and give it all.


12:03 start time.
Thoughts:
Atacked the first control with confidence. Yes! Leave the 1st control area, oh look a wall, better go round. *take a look at the map*. Uoops, it's crossable:
Stop, change direction, fall, get up. Bits of glass of the compass start to fall off. Shiiiit. Jump the wall, get to the next control, focus.
Bad route choice to the control no3. Nevermind, run! run!
Remind to check the control description for the numbers, don't miss!
6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 . All controlled without a compass.
Oh wait, the compass is starting to fall off. What shall I do!?
Control 12, now you already know how to go to 13 and 14 Filipe, just go.
Control no13, next is 14. But what should I do with my compass?? Should I keep the remaining pieces? Where?? Shit Filipe you are in a RACE!
Where's the street for no14!? Where's the street for no14!? Where's the street for no14!? Damn it, I was just worried about the compass and forgot that I was running and I don't even knew where to!
Shit, shit, shit, this can't be happening, I'm beggining to feel my stomach aching and I don't even know where I am. Keep running, keep running! (I'm desperating!) Keep running! Damn it, I know I'm out of the map, just turn right and you'll be on the map again! Keep running! I know where I am now! I'm on top of the map near control no12! Go! Go! Control no14 finnaly! Control no15. Shit, bad route choice to control no16 and the tape of the finish is in front of me, gotta go round! Oh well, the race was already lost... Finished. 19'08'' was the time. I lost 5minutes or more on control no14... And arrived at the end whithout a compass and feeling ill. 


Now time, to wait for Luis to start and see what he can do. I wish him the luck that I didn't have.


Luis arrived, "point missing", shit...


We have another chance tomorrow. "Go for gold" is the motto.

EYOC 2012 Journal, 28th June: MODEL EVENT

28th June was the day we arrived to the awesome "Hotel" in Viam, near the event centre. I was already with a huge stomach ache when we arrived.

When I woke up I was even worse. I was afraid this could be a gastroenteritis. After lunch I decided to take a nap and see if I could go to the Model Event.


Time for the Model Event: I was a feeling bad but I NEEDED to go to the Model Event to get some confidence.

Model Event: I couldn't run much and missed the two first controls that I was looking for. Then I tried to focus and don't miss.
In the end, like all this wasn't enough, I had to run almost 4Km to the vans...

NAOM2012

Boa tarde amigos,

Hoje escrevo em português pois talvez crie uma nova secção do blog dedicado ao Inglês caso arranje o tempo para isso.

No fim-de-semana passado fui correr a Marvão nos Campeonatos Nacionais de Distância Média e de Sprint.
No sábado decorreram os campeonatos de Sprint, constituídos por duas mangas: uma em floresta, caraterizada pelas rápidas mudanças de direção, densa informação e de longa distância relativamente a um sprint "normal", e outra urbana, no Castelo de Marvão, um típico sprint, intercalando pernadas que dava para ir full-speed com outras zonas mais complexas, passando por túneis e escadas até chegar ao ponto.
No domingo, decorreu o Campeonato de Média no mapa do Vale de Rodão, um mapa não só duro como técnico com zonas com aglomerados de mais de 5pontos aliado a uma parte mais rápida nos ultimos 5pontos.

1.ª Etapa de Sprint (Floresta)


Foi uma etapa que me correu mesmo muito mal! Não consegui meter ritmo rápido porque estava-me a ser bastante difícil simplificar e concentrar, talvez por não estar habituado a esta escala num mapa de floresta nem a sprints de floresta. Os pontos 5 e 13 foram os piores, tendo perdido no total, só nestes dois, 5'... No entanto o resto da prova não foi nada boa...

2.ª Etapa de Sprint ( Castelo)

Nesta etapa tentei concentrar-me mais e não perder assim tanto tempo só num ponto como tinha perdido de manhã. O que não consegui fazer... Só no ponto 5 perdi 4 minutos. Sabia que tinha perdido aí a prova e desmotivei um bocado mas a ir do ponto 10 para o ponto 11 deu-me um click e pensei que se não ficasse em 1.º ao menos tentaria ficar no pódio. A partir daí consegui antecipar, fazer orientação a full-speed e escolher as melhores opções a meu ver... Apesar do mp (saltei o ponto 20, esqueci-me completamente!) considero que a partir daí foi bastante positivo. Espero que no EYOC consiga impor um ritmo e antecipar assim.

Distância Média

No domingo de manhã foi a distância Média. Queria ganhar esta prova por isso sabia que teria de entrar no mapa com calma e controlar a prova toda, tentando não "pastar" em nenhum ponto.

Entrei com calma no mapa mas errei para o ponto 1 onde perdi cerca de um minuto. Isto deveu-se em parte por não conhecer o terreno e não percebi a diferença entre o verde claro e o branco. Depois até ao 5 sabia que ninguém iria ganhar a prova ali mas poderia perder, por isso, controlei e não errei, apesar de impor um ritmo lento. Para o 6 queria entrar no caminho de cima e não no de baixo, desconcentrei-me e perdi um minuto em hesitações e na opção ainda outro minuto... Queria atacá-lo por cima... Voltei a perder mais tempo para o 14: tentei ver todas as rochas mas foi impossível e desviei-me um bocado para a direita

Para o ponto 20 perdi bastante tempo, cerca de 1'30'', estava bastante cansado, devido as subidas nos 3 ultimos pontos. Tinha de descansar não só as pernas mas também a cabeça. 

Depois do ponto 20, fui tranquilo, pois vi que o resto não tinha nada que saber. Estava também confiante na prova que já tinha feito.

Acabei por ganhar esta prova e não fazer erros muito graves, o que era o objetivo. Agora só tenho de não cometer esses grandes erros a ritmos elevados.

Na próxima sexta-feira vou comparecer no estágio de seleção pré-EYOC na Marinha Grande mas não vou poder comparecer à próxima prova da taça em Arraiolos e Mora visto que vou ter o exame nacional de Física e Química na segunda-feira seguinte. Até ao EYOC serão umas semaninhas com orientação intercaladas com provas de pista para dar ritmo competitivo!

Cumprimentos,

Filipe

Long Distance and Relay Portugal National Championships

Hello,

Since the last time I've posted here, I already been to France, testing the terrain and preparing for EYOC 2012, that will happen in 56 days from today! EYOC is everyday on my head with the terrains. Everyday I need to visualize the terrains and myself running there. I may have not been good in the races that I did while I was in there, but that was the way for myself to learn. I needed to do mistakes so I could learn. In EYOC there isn't going to be any room for mistakes! I need to achieve my big goals for the season!
After that, I concluded that I needed more hills training and that's what I've been preparing for the past few weeks, mixed with a lot of strength and speed training. I'm feeling really good and fit and that gives me a great confidence for my future races.

So, on the last weekend I went to Gerês to compete in the National Long Distance and Relay Champs.
On saturday it was the Long Distance race, in which I became National Champion of Long Distance. I did a safe race, without risking too much or pushing too hard. It was enough to win, even though I lost around 6'30''. Here is the map:

On sunday, I raced in Cadetes with João Rato and Oleksandr Zaikin on the 3rd leg. I lost 3 minutes but even if I hadn't lost that much time, I could recover all the last time for the first team. So we finished 2nd...

In 2 weeks I'll have my last school sport national champs and in 1 month I'll have the Middle and Sprint Distances National Champs. I may compete in H20 in sprint. I think I'm more capable of great results in sprints!

Till next time,

Filipe 

Iberian Championships

I haven't posted on the blog on the last few weeks but I've been much active.

On the last few weeks, I done 2 track races of 1000m and tried to achieve my goal for this season since I will, hardly, have another chance of finding another one (official). On the first 1000m race I did 3'00'', a new personal best, but faaar away from my 2'45'' goal. On friday, just before the Iberian Championships, I did my second 1000m race and achieved 2'56'', another personal best but 11secs away from my goal. Since I may not have another chance of doing another race, my goal maintains to the next season :)

On friday afternoon we went to Spain, Córdoba, to compete in the Iberian Championships. However, my chance of being an Iberian Champion went down the drain when I did a mp on the Long distance race.

Here are the maps:

On middle I achieved the second place, 2'58'' away from the first place and EYOC champ Algirdas Bartkevicius. I lost around 4'.

1 754 Algirdas Bartkevicius LT United LT United 26:58

2 766 Filipe Augusto [090] ADFA 29:53

This, combined with the fact of not knowing what I was going for in the sprint race, made me lose more then 5'. I lost more in a sprint then I lost in the middle distance! I wasn't focused at all:

1 754 Algirdas Bartkevicius LT United LT United 16:04
2 788 Daniel Catarino [022] CLAC 18:58
3 851 Henrique Silva [094] CPOC 19:45
4 567 Manuel López Ruiz Cádiz O-SAN ROQUE 20:01
5 766 Filipe Augusto [090] ADFA 20:37

On the Long Distance, it happened the same thing. Lack of focus which made me do a mp (that I didn't know untill the very ending of the race). Nevertheless, I lost much time (just look at control no8):

Oh well... Tomorrow I'll go to a training camp in France to train and prepare for EYOC2012 and I'll be there one week.

So, see ya next week :)

XIII MOC

After POM, XIII MOC was the race to go. Felt very tired and all I could achieve as a 8th place (1st portuguese).

On the first day lost around 10'40'', a percentage of 18.4% of mistakes.

I'm having a little bit of problems uploading the second map. But the percentage of rate was even higher. Lost 6'45''. Oh well, need to improve this.

Farewell.