Training Log Archive: ndobbs

slow jog to start

felt like i was weak

less than 4hrs sleep before getting up v early to catch a metro to catch a bus to meet Jurek and some of his O-team to head down w czechach

breakfast was light and i didn't eat much during the morning... probably a bad plan.

Czech Gigasport CP or some such.
National ranking event so lots of elites were present.

Smola won it in 43.20. I lost at least 5mins on navigation, probably the same on being tired.

The orienteering was nice if not exceptional. Started off running up through white forest slope into a stony area with some big rocky outcroppings. One had to be careful to run to the correct side of the correct feature.

Then a couple of easier controls.... then I ran to 7 before 6 (trying to run to 6) on the trickiest bit of the course. It reminded me a little bit of a coouple of places I's orienteered in France, and I wasn't too scared, but then got lost locally. Was caught here by Karel R who started 2 mins behind, so I wasn't doing dreadfully just yet. I followed him to the 7th control, turned around to get the sixth, which he punched just after me. We flaked 8 and 9 which were somewhat downhill, and moderately technical. 10 we had to head back up the hill... I got stuck in a few rocks and branched and by the time i could see anythin karel was 200m away. 10 was on a vague slope and i fluked it completely. 11 easy, 12 nice, 13 mistake, from 10 on I was well-tired, and the ground was rough underfoot in this area...
can't remember what followed, was tired and suffered to the finish :)

The orienteering is good, at a technical level where there are no forced errors but it is possible to gain quite a bit of time knowing exactly where you are headed and where the control will be..
fitness is currently a big problem for me..........

ps on way to 6/7 i passed some gigantic rock formations... pretty cool place :)

about time for a rest day i does be tinkin

up before cockcrow tomorrow to head down to czech rep for two days of competition, skipping the local ones organised in Otwock.

Las Sobieskiego
western part of the forest I ran in the day before, but this time on (an older?) 1:15k map.
Training was organised by Przemek from rival club Gwardia for some of their juniors... we had 12 controls on the long course, one of which was untouchable due to rabid bees or some such...

Again fun orienteering, forest seemed a little greener than the easter part. With the light going I head-butted a few branches and took one in the eye, nothign serious.

Getting here wasn't an adventure. Headed out of the office, 20 m out onto plac konstytucji and see the bus that would have taken me the 20min ride to the forest go by. Bummer. Psyche myself up for another adventure.
Check timetables at the bus stop. Apparently only 5 mins till the next one. Five minutes later the bus arrives. Where's the fun in that?

Do you think we could bulldoze Dublin and get some communists to rebuild it?

along the trail to start/finish

gentle mornign jog in pole mokotowskie as punishment for missing the race last night

also going trainign in the evenging so took it v easy

stretched properly afterwards for the first time in a wee while

hanging controls for the local night training.

terrain is ultrafast, mostly flat, good fun

#controls is total for the day

there were two courses, i hung the longer, Jolka the shorter.
I then ran Jolka's course pretty fast. Hung around a bit at the first control to verify that it wasn't where it should have been.
Slowed down on the 4th and 5th which were in rather vafue terrain.

nice orienteering

Night orienteering,
Waited around for a couple of hours after hanging the controls until it got dark.
ran half the a course backwards (with two big mistakes, lost at least ten minutes on one control) and half the b course forwards...

only had a mini decathlon led lamp, my excuse :)

simple orienteering becomes technical here at night... fun training, even if I started suffering with tiredness.

Hung around for a good whil afterwards waiting for jurek's car to get a jumpstart.

very satisfied with today's training.

So, flaked off to srodmiesiscciecie train station and hopped on what i thought was the train to wlochy (i'm sure somebody told me all trains stop in wlochy - actually, that's nearly funny, wlochy means italy, and italy contains rome, oh nevermind...)

so i sit on the train... pass the first couple of stations i was supposed to pass... but no wlochy... so we arrive at a station without a sign saying what the stop was (i'm guessing now it was rakowiec) and i ask someone if it is wlochy. they tell me (shaking their head and pointing back the way we came, that i'm not where i want to be.
decide to go back, but there's no platform on the other side... hmmm
go up to the road above, no idea where i am, back down and up the stairs in the middle of the road to the tram stop, still no indication so i ask some guys how i go to wlochy (which is polish for italy, as i mentioned, but it's also an area in warsaw, but you never know when confusion can arise)
so the guys say it's complicated and they have no idea what i should do to get there. they suggest hopping on the tram with them to ursynow and then continuing on my way... i have no idea where i am nor where ursynow is, so i ask if it's reasonable to get a taxi. they say yes, maybe it's a good idea.

so i go back down the stairs and up the stairs to get to the roadside busstop and eventually flag down a taxi. I tell the driver I want to go to italy. he asks me what address. I have no idea, I want to go to some pond north of the train station... open his atlas, evenually find the page and show him. all set.
30 zloty and half an hour later i arrive in time to see the third place runner finish...

oh well. i say hello to people and look a bit stupid. ten minutes later after the speaker doesn't have much of interest left to say he says that it was nearly an international race but the irish guy turned up late. i get given a bar of chocolate on condition they can put me in the results list as absent. mmm chocolate. i ate some before going for a 40 minute jog with dodo.

getting home was much simpler, two buses and a metro.... although the metro was taking a break when i arrived and lots of people were standing around on the platform lookingconfused.

NB despite the impression i might be giving, warsaw public transport is fantastic :)

half of the run was along the Vistula. It's nice, Warsovians never had the cop on to build along the waterfront so it's ok for running. Could have gone further but thought this was far enough.... and now I know it's more or less possible t run to work this way if I move to Carlos' place.
The first and last ten minutes and some bits along the waterfront were on paved ground, otherwise grit, grass etc. Not wonderful but better than nothing.

By the way, there's a mini-sam saeger in my club... eyoc sprint champ monika. Quite amusing :)

very gently up and down a slope in the rather limited quarantine zone...

Sprint race
nacerjow or some such, 20km se from pulawy
part of the polish club championships.

1:5000

Started in some semi-technical spur gully forest, white, would have been very white but trees and branches fell in a storm two weeks before...
was v slow out of the blocks... sped up after ebing caught by the guy who started 1min after... he ran away at the start of the long leg on which i lost some time, didn't know where i was halfway through as the map was bollocks...
still, worked things out pretty swiftly, just meant my kline wasn't the best 30-45 seconds lost on nav'n.
then we were flaking around a nice park... not too technical. caught by the guy starting 3 mins after at the 13th, ran with him to the finish...

good fun, good orienteering, despite flagrant errors on the map.

C • Good stuff! Seems like there's... 2

things are looking up!

5 or 6km race on tuesday evening around a lake in warsaw... several times - the lake is small :)
wednesday hanging controls in the evening for night training (optional!) later on.
sat/sun orienteering in woc relevant terrain in czech rep.
weekend after, polish champs, also woc relevant, nice areas apparently.
then perhaps an easy weekend (or a trip to ireland?)
followed by training weekend with poles up north on terrain relevand for the european champs in latvia

happy days :)
only bemol is some of the local elite is moving to belgium...
and i'm not 100% healthy...

probably a bit longer... but who's counting