I am gonna do that!

Last weekend Kobra Bratislava organized traditional spring o-event CESOM (Central European Spring Orienteering Meeting). Fast pine forest and high-quality maps attract increasing number of runners from year to year. Interest in elite classes was supported by inclusion of first stage to the World ranking. I had big expectations to this stage as my first WRE on home ground and as my favorite distance - middle.
This winter, my preparation was different from previous years. I skipped typical winter long slow runs, because of pain around knees and Achilles tendon.I focused on shorter trainings in moderate speed, strength training and cross country skiing instead. In last month I added shorter intensive map trainings and intervals in mixed zone. Last week was easier, with 5x1 km at 3:30/km pace on Wednesday and model event with few fast controls on Friday.
Saturday was day D. Weather decided to make it tougher . Training map was covered by more undergrowth than we used in this kind of terrain. I started focused and in good rythm. Only thing that made me angry was low, but prickly undergrowth, hard to avoid in some places.

After 8th. control I had short physical crises in fastest area of course, but from control 12 my rythm was back again, because of area where pushing hard is not most important for success.

Short legs with directional changes in green areas are my favorite, so I enjoyed next part of the course.

From control 22, brainless running part started so I said to myself: Run as fast as you can, next competitions will be just training! My time was 36:29 and I was for a long time in the lead. Just four Czech national team runners from the end of start list moved me to the 5th place and shown me how slow am I...

Spurt in last part of course had sense, because closest runners were just 5 and 8 seconds behind me.

After race analysis I realized that I missed together 15 seconds (3x5) by not avoiding undergrowth in good way, so my race was nearly perfect. I just need to improve my competition speed. I lost over 20 second per kilometer to the fastest and it is too much. Whole map available here.
Afternoons sprint was really easy and fast, but 2 minutes gap to the fastest Czech Procházka was still surprise for me. It looks that he is in really good physical shape.
Sundays long distance was bad experience for me. Weather was really winter, with few short snow storms and strong wind during my race. Course was nice in first part (till 12th control), just some flags were visible from distance, what makes orienteering easier. After 12th control, terrain was really flat and boring and my speed probably unconsciously decreased. After using energy gel my speed increased, but just for short period, after which I felt quite slow and weak. It is nothing unexpected, if I look in my winter preparation. I also lost on a long leg, where in my opinion, cut area marked by purple lines was larger in reality than in map and its corner was closer to the line. It causes my mistake. Before 17th control I saw back of Dlabaja in green area, but his speed was for me unreachable, so I followed in my jogging mode. Lost of 16 minutes in finish was correct expression of my performance.

Summary: 3 races in 2 days, 32 kilometers, 147 minutes, 20 min lost to the winner, 50 seconds of mistakes and 1088 WRE points

Now it is time to recover from all pains, because from Thursday I will take part at training camp in Slovak Karst. There is a lot of work for me to improve my speed and navigation, to become world class middle distance orienteer...

This autumn, after disappointing WOC in August, I decided to use my training kilometers for not orienteering competition. My goal was Košice peace marathon, held on 2nd October. It is oldest European marathon, and also is organized in my second home town - Košice. Goal was time under 3 hours, what looks quite easy for good trained runner, but asphalt ground is not my typical training surface, so I was bit worried about my legs. I started my preparation on 25th August with easy 9 km training on asphalt road. Afterwards I pushed hard and ran some shorter (6x1 km) and longer (4x5 km) intervals and long tempo (10-15 km) trainings. Everything on asphalt. My legs were bit surprised by this change of surface, but I tried to give then more regeneration than normal. After some long trainings I felt weak pain in my achiles tendon, but I tried to massage my calf, to reduce pressure.
At first two weeks of september my orienteering shape went rapidly up and I won Slovak long and middle championships with nerly clear performances and good flow in terrain.

Two weeks before marathon me and my and few of my o-friends ran a road race called Sečovská desiatka (10 km).

Course was fast and at second half of course we ran together with my teammate Adam, who according results overspurted me at the end. Truth was, that we make a deal about similair cutting of finish line, but probably finish referee didnt like it

Our time was 35:33 and hopefully next time I will be able to run under 35 minutes. This time I was too slow, because it is enough for me to run over 4 min/km at marathon, so I skipped faster trainings.
After race we had a nice summer afternoon at Bukovec lake, where we enjoyed last summer sun (we thought) and sauna. All participants were satisfied

One week before marathon I participated at orienteering world cup in Liberec. My orienteering shape was great, but for good result running shape was more decisive, so I finished after two goo o-performances 56th at middle and 46th at mass start, where I gained many places in last 15 minutes of running.

It was curious, that my legs ran faster last uphill after 110 minutes on Sunday, than after 40 minutes on Saturday. But before marathon performance, it was pleasant fact.
After sundays race I eat a lot of healthy things, to refill my energy and lost minerals and vitamines. Last days before marathon were accompanied by nice weather and training went well: rest on Monday, Orienteering training on Tuesday and 6x1 km (4:08-4:10) on Wednesday. Then I took two rest days, what wasn't probably best choice, because I didn't killed all bacillus which attacked my body by running heat and on Friday morning felt that something is wrong with my throat. But I eat a lot of garlic and other natural medicament and on Sunday morning I was ready to run. My goal was time under 3 hours, what means 4:15 min/km average speed. I found in one book interesting table, about how fast can you run marathon, if you are able to run halfmarathon, 10 km and 5 km in some speed. From that table, my expected marathon speed was 4:08 min/km.
So I fixed in my brain, that speed under 4 min/km in first 35 km is dangerous and I will try to move between 4:00-4:15 min/km. As always most critical was first km, where everyone run aroun 3:30 km. At start I was few meters behind African runners, to not lost time by passing slow runners.
After start signal mass started to move and in first kilometers many runners passed me. My coach Jozef Pollák, who ran marathon in 1996 under 2:30 told me, that key to success is to have feeling of easy jogging after halfmarathon. I followed this plan and my half marathon time was 1:27:31. problematical were mainly parts, where we ran on north, because wind blew against us, so after 21st km I get to the good group and saved some energy. A eat nerly each 4 km energy gel and drank ion drink at refreshment station. After 26th km I ran out from my group and from that time I passed many runners, who started too fast. My speed was still around 4:08 min/km. After passing 34th km, wind started to blow agains me, so my pace bit fall down to 4:10-4:15, but passing of runners continued. Most critical were last 4 km and in last 2 km I counted each hundred meters to the finish line.
I felt real pain in whole my body, but my motto was: ,,pain is relative,, ,so I speed-up to 3:40 min/km pace in last kilometer and few meters before finish line passed another runner. My overal time was 2:55:21, so mission was accomplished and 40th place between 775 runners was success for me
After passing finish line I fell on the ground and felt really strange. I was lucky, tired ,felt real pain and I was close to cry. After few minutes, I moved to swimming pool, where changing rooms were located. My plan was easy jogging, but legs decided to not cooperate. After long and painful walk (0,5 km - around 15 minutes) I get there, sat into the shower and drank all energy drinks I had.
I told myself, that I will never run asphalt marathon again. We will see if it will be true, or I will change my mind sometimes.
I must say big THANK YOU to my girlfriend and orienteering friends who gave me energy gels at course, and to all my friends and unknown fans, who supported my around the course. Without them It would be much harder to complete the race.
My last week after marathon is bit boring, because I started to be serious sick on Monday and my legs were also in bad shape, mainly Achilles tendons, but now it is much better.
On Friday I worked first time in my new job and it was quite new for me to spend 7 hours in office. But life is a change.
In last days I don't have motivation to run again so my rest period started. We will see what will come later, but next goal is WUOC 2012, so I will try to prepare for that race as good as possible.

I recommend marathon race for everyone, who likes to reach a peaks , at least once in your life. It is big moment full of emotions and new experiences. Run hard and do it!!!
Here is link to short interview in local magazine about my orienteering and running experiences (in Slovak):
http://korzar.sme.sk/c/6085033/orientacny-bezec-krajcik-si-odskocil-z-lesa-na-mmm.html

While majority of top orienteers were in Finland, I found great training opportunity much closer - few kilometers from Slovak borders at Czech B-ranking event in Staré Hamry. If you check the map, it looks like typical Czech terrain, but it wasn't. Ground was more scandinavian with wet marshes, blueberries and fallen trees. First day was on program shortened long distance and I finished third, more than five minutes behind Michal Smola. Most interesting route choice was to the 4th control. I chose straight route, but right route was probably faster, because of bad runability in forest.

In some parts, it was visible, that map was made by eight different mapmakers...
Whole map: https://picasaweb.google.com/krajogarminroutes/OrienteeringCompetitions2011#5620003782097751698

On Sunday,my favorite discipline - middle distance was on program. Course was nice, but in some parts really tricky.I started in good speed and my flow continued till 13 th control. But then I totally lost my rythm.

Ground in green area was densily covered by fallen trees. 14th control looks difficult, but I found it just with small hesitation. My ,,dream route,, came to the 15th. Plan was to go straight, but vegetation was against me. I tried to avoid dark green, but in reality light green was same, so I get close to the 3rd control where I passed first stream that looked like dry gully few contours higher so I didnt count it. My plan was to cross four streams and then see light green area. After Passing three I searched for last one, but it wasn't there. I just saw control on unidentified object (marked by green dot in map). I started to be lost, so I continued to the path between 16th and 17th control. Green area above was so visible, so I thought I was higher, Then I went back to the green dot and desperately asked first runner for help. Luckily it was Juro Sokol, who shows me that f.....g dot. I knew that after so huge mistake (5 minutes) my race is over, but tried to push hard till the end. I remembered that we had a bet about best time from next to the last control to the finish and mentally prepared for wild spurt in the river (tunnel under the main road). It was the only race that I won today

Today's lesson was valuable and I took few key knowledge from it:
1. Never run ,,somewhere,, with faith of later relocation.
2. Trust more to contours than to vegetation.
3. Measure the distance in your unconscious.
4. Stay focused also in areas where its difficult to move continuously.
5. Always find good and reliable attack point.
6. Count streams correctly
7. Use contact lenses, if you are so blind like me, maybe you will see something helpful.
8. Never give up!!!
Take my lesson seriously, it is always better to learn from someone else mistakes, than from your own!

Whole map: https://picasaweb.google.com/krajogarminroutes/OrienteeringCompetitions2011#5620008808590806290

My blog is not death, I was just too busy to write here something in last months...
Year 2010 was funny and various (the end is bit boring, because I am sick at the moment...)
Here is my photo-summary:
JANUARY
Exams, skiing, winter training camp in Pavčina Lehota...

FEBRUARY
Winter training, studying and orienteering party at Ružiná

MARCH
Spring time, first o-training camps and events

APRIL
Trips with my ,more sunshine and Hungarian adventure

MAY
Month full of competitions

JUNE
Studying, TC in mountains, studying, bachelor exams and Happy Bc. end

JULY
Sweden and WUOC

AUGUST
Rest,travelling, friends and Karst cup

SEPTEMBER
Boreliose and relay champs

OCTOBER
France

NOVEMBER
Kristy's graduation ball, ATU season-ending party, new training year

DECEMBER
Snow, 3xA exams and soon Christmas and NEW YEAR 2011