Danish Spring - Sprint

בשעה טובה התחלתי ביום חמישי את ההכנות לקראת אליפות העולם באוגוסט, ההכנות התחילו כבר בחודש אוקטובר אבל בחו"ל הרבה יותר קל להתאמן הן מבחינת ניווט וכושר ובגלל זה- אני נמצא עכשיו באירופה.

התחרות הראשונה שנקבעה להיות ראשונה היא תחרות ה- Danish Spring, התחרות הינה שלושה ימים ספרינט, מידל ומסלול ארוך.

אתמול השתתפתי בתחרות הספרינט שמשלבת הרבה תחנות עם שינויי כיוון ומהירות מאוד גבוההת בדרך כלל 15-16 דקות לזמן מנצח. הניווט מאוד מהיר ואין זמן לטעויות, צריך לשים לב לכל המעברים שקשה לראות.

אחד הטכניקות החשובות בניווט ספרינט הם לנווט מהר, כלומר לא לעצור ולבחון אצת בחירות הציר, אלא אם אתה רואה את הבחירת ציר לבחור אותה ולדבוק בבחירה הזאת. בניווט ספרינט צריך לקחת החלטה כי ההבדלים בבחירות הציר הם בשניות ולכן צריך לבחור ולהחליט מהר.

בניווט אתמול החלטתי שאני לא מתמהמה ורגע שאני רואה את הדרך לתחנה הבאה אני לא מתלבט כמעט ומחליט מהר.
השיטה הזאת עבדה טוב עד לתחנה 14. כאשר רצתי מתחנה 13 לא ראיתי את המעבר בהמשך השביל ולכן חזרתי לכיוון תחנה 13. בנוסף לתחנה 15 לא ראיתי את האפשרות מימין כי היה קשה לראות את המעבר במפה ולכן הבחירת ציר היחידה מבחינתי הייתה משמאל. כמובן שהשתמשתי בטכניקה החלטה מהירה, ברגע שראיתי החלטתי לרוץ משם.

בתחנות האחרונות איבדתי די הרבה זמן. אחריי 8 דקות הייתי מקום 17 אבל אז איבדתי זמן בבחירות הציר ובשליש האחרון וסיימתי במקום 33. הפסדתי 2:15 דקות למנצח (שהוא גם אלוף העולם המכהן).

היום תחרות המרחק הבינוני למרחק של 7.1 קילומטרים עם זמן מנצח של 30 דקות!
מחר המרחק הארוך 18 קילומטרים עם זמן מנצח של 1:30.

Back to the track...slowly

One month ago passed since I got my injury and I was able to go back to run.
Of course slowly and combined with road bike exercise but it seems like the injury slowly disappeared.

This year I was in charge of planning the first day of Israel winter championship. The championship was held 3 weeks ago in a tough terrain.
I decided not to participate in the two days competition, I only participated in the second day which was also part of the Israeli orienteering league.

The second day of the winter championship was just a short drive from my home. I am familiar with the terrain from previous o-events. The terrain is very tough and stony and it is very hard to cross.

When I decided that I will run this competition I knew that my shape is bad so my focus moved on suffering the pain while running and in addition my HR was very high so I knew i can just hope for a good run and try to maintain the speed in the forest.

My start was good but than i made a 1:30 minute mistake on the 3rd control. I started running a little bit in the wrong direction from the top of the hill.
My second big mistake was on the 9th control. The control was placed by the organizers in the wrong place... I lost about 1:30 minutes and at the end I found the control when I started running away from the place where the control was supposed to be. It was about 40 meters away from the actual place. After that I lost my confidence and tried to push harder but still made some mistakes at almost every control. One reason for that was because the controls were hidden more then what is common (for example, hole - inside the hole) and one more reason was that I got some problems in the flat areas and my compass didn't work as it should have.

At the end I finished the course in second place, 26 seconds from 1st place.

What is coming next for me:

Hard training until my next Goal and first for this year, MCO o-event in Israel at the end of February which is also the Israeli championship of 2015.
Until than I will host some good friends from Europe and get a great company until the middle of the month of March.

And yes of course have a Happy New Year to all of you from the Dead sea!

Here we go again

The last few week went pretty well and i continued to earn hours and basic training with some fast speed. The feeling was very good and my body felt strong until last friday when I felt my leg hurt...  Surprisingly it was (again) the same injury as I had in 2009 and 2012. The day after on Saturday I ignored it and still did my training in the morning but I felt worse afterwards and the pain got stronger. Unfortunately I understood that this horrible injury is back. The inflamation was a result of the pronation inside of my leg and there was also some blood inside. This injury is called Shinsplit...

I tought that maybe it is some small problem but I felt the pain also when was resting, so I had no other option but to stop running since Sunday.
There is a long way to get my health back, but this time luckily I know that I cant go back to the track before i feel 100% better and no pain. I guess it will be between 14-30 days without running and maybe even more according to my feeling and I have no alternative but to be optimisic.
In the case that i can't run i will still continue my training with relevant excercise to stay in shape, maybe not to improve but to not loose everything. My training will be swimming, running in deep water, Ellipti and bike. It will be very boring to make these trainings in a closed room but shit happens. I am already really waiting to go out and run again as soon as possible, at least I will refule my passion for running and orienteering in this time...

Back to the base

During the last few weeks the weather in Israel became ideal for trainings, around 15-28 degrees, which made the training pleasurable to run.

At this time of the year there is almost only basic trainings and long runs around the forest near my house, 3km away. The forest is getting greener because of the hard rain last week and the ground is getting softer and i just enjoy it.

The last league competition went well, i did a good run with 2:30 minutes of mistakes which is quite good for me, of course i always look for a perfect race which didnt happen yet..

I felt good during the race physically and i was able to push hard in the flat forest but in the really steep side of the map i was a bit weak with the uphills, maybe i was saving too much power for the rest of the race.

The course was very demanding and had some intersting route choices. The weather was a bit cloudy and rainy and that gave a European feeling in the forest. Some parts of the forest were very stony in areas that were marked as a white forest and were hard to cross. 

Today i took part in the Junior o-championship. I decided to run and check the course before the start window for the childrens.

The course was quite nice and in a very challenging terrain which was very stony and had lots of bushes which were very hard to cross.

I had a good start and only once got into some trouble in a bushy area near the 5th control. On the 16th control i mad a big mistake and didnt manage to find the objects on the map in the terrain, maybe becuase there were much more holes than what was marked and i lost about one minute there.

In the next two weeks will focus on long and easy running, I must earn some hours and build my body for the main events of the season.

Long time not see..

Long time passed since i was writing a post, actually my passion to orienteering go deep deep down.

After a long period in europe last spring and summer i was very not satasfied with my preformence at Woc, after that i was just without energy during a crazy summer in Israel around 28-42 dagrees all the time-Israel Sauna.
some fresh news that i was changed my israeli club to a new club Emek Hefer O.C, after a long period in my previuse club i decided to change the enviroment and decide to take a part in a club who put the main goal to be proffesional like Scandinavian clubs, what we dont have in Israel yet.

all my summer thinking was about what is my next goals in my orienteering career becouse i am not satasfied about my results and know i can do much better, all summer i was thinking where i am going to, first option to quite and finnish to try push harder and secound option was to see whats the problem and solve them in helping from out of the box.

On september i booked a flight for short training camp to Latvia and visit some good friends, i was decide to find someone to open my mind how to improve myself and get fresh ivformation about how to make my goal.

my friend Davis which is become my new coach had a idea to meet Martins Sirmais and i was exciting about it and decide to open my box and Martins talks with me about the theory of all about the trainings, i got some basic information about all about trainings and how should i do it well and effective. 

After this meeting and talking with my new coach we were decide to start work together to do best is possible in winter trainings which is already start, so i bought a HeartRate polar watch and this time i will keep the HR very close to my attention, one of my biggest faoult in the last years trainings.

Winter trainings already started and the feeling a bit strange and not what i am usually training, very slow pace and watching all the time my HR, strange trainings, Phartlek trainings.

All the starting points are very hard and to change a routine is even more harder but this is really my last chance to get my goal in orienteering career, i dont know how it will goes but i am giving all myself for it.

Last monthes goes ok, just normal life which is not for me i prefer activity life with diffrent things everyday but until December i will study QA checking system.

In the coming month January, February and Mars i will get a nice company with good friends from Europe which is cancell my plane to make a winter training camp in Portugal.

Israel orienteering season already started two weeks ago, the main goal for the winter in February is MCO which is held in Israel, i am really motivated to compete for the first time in netionality competition on home grownd. this year i will focus on base trainings.

And now i will enjoy my best weather in winter in all Europe to train- in Israel- 15-28 dagrees.

The final countdown - WOC

Last Saturday i arrived in Israel after a very long period in europe, i got a warm weather welcome, but basically its not that hot, in August it will be even warmer.

After a long period that my body was used to be in a normal temperature i met the hot weather face to face and i was looking for a hard week and final preparation for WOC.

Luckily my body felt ok in that hard week of preparation with lots of training,unfortunately all the training was just running without orienteering training because the forest has very sticky bushes everywhere. Also, the timetable for training was totaly different.. morning training start at 6:00 and evening training at 18:30, it is too hot to train in the middle of the day.

Now i am sitting in the air conditioner and just spending some time with psychological preperition for WOC with some simulations for all the distances. one more sprint training for the final preperition on Tuesday and a good rest before the competition of the year starts.

I will run all the distances in WOC, but this time there is quite a good resting time between the races because we dont have a team for sprint relay and that means that i have 4 days to get ready for the Long distance and then one day off to recover for Middle.

My personal feeling is good for this main event of the year, my shape is much better then EOC in april and i am looking to see what i can do.
this year i was running a lot of competitions and training in Europe and i feel much more ready then in last years.

On Thursday morning we will start the journey to Italy and already on Saturday the first race will start. looking for a great experience.
Let's get it started!!!

Koupio Jukola

Last weekend i was running in Jukola, it was my third Jukola (2011,2013) and i was still very exciting. i was selected to run in the Finnish club Koovee in the second team in the last leg.

Two days before the competition i ran a model training near the Jukola map, i was a student of a club mate Topias, he showed me how to use the  compass, big thanks to him! i got fely very comfortable with the compass work afterwards.

A day before Jukola i ran the training near the arena, the terrain was very tough, similar to Tampere, and very challenging. i  got an impression that this Jukola will be extremely challenging and tricky.

I started my leg with a top 80 position together with the first Koovee team (they were disqualified) and some other runners. i was quite alone from the first control and tried to focus on not making mistakes and to run on the top of the hills where is it quite open and runnable.

On the 6th control i met the first team runner from Koovee and ran with him and with two more runners together until the 9th control.

On the 10th control i got a forking control and made a little mistake and "said goodbye" to the group and lost them.

Until the 16th control i was running alone and i lost some time in the green areas, i wasn't aggressive enough. i was just trying not to make any mistakes.

I was catching a few slow runners and ran away from them until the 17th control and then i ran very good until the end.

The terrain was extremely challenging, very demanding and very slippery, in the second half of the course i lost my pace and ran much slower.

After a long period in Finland i learned a lot and had a legendary time with my Finnish club Koovee, Tampere is definitely an orienteering capital in Finland.

After the competition i took a bus directly to Riga and after 16 hours i was in Riga.

Now some easy training in the next few days and on Wednesday and Thursday some orienteering trainings.

On Friday unfortunately i am leaving back to Israel after 78 days of many many many training and competitions, but hey not for a long time, 12 days of final preparation for WOC in Italy are looking for me in the Israeli mountains and i will be on the road again!

But now i am waiting for Friday, home sweet home! :D