Planning your winter season?

The mercury is falling, the days are shortening and becoming crisper, you've flung the flip-flops to the back of the cupboard for another year and dug out the scarf and gloves. It can only mean one thing - winter is on the way.

For the skier and snowboarder it's the most exciting time of the year, as thoughts turn towards a prized two weeks in the mountains.

Fortunately in Portugal the sun shines all winter and we prepare one of the best orienteering races: NAOM! Problably sounds familiar;) This year it will take part in Crato, a small village in Alentejo, on the south warm and sunny part of the country.

Soft terrain, rich of stony details and some tricky streets for sprint night race are waitting for you!

Take a look at http://www.gd4caminhos.com/naom/2010/

II Trofeo Sierra Norte - Madrid

Last weekend I flought to Spain to re-start on orienteering game. Pine and stony forest, tricky areas on middle distance, sounded really nice but I was still praying to don't have pain on my tendon...so I was decided to run carefully.
My teory of «slow speed, no mistake» didn't work very well. In fact, when I started my race, my legs were a bit confused about the speed. After swimming and riding bike, running on the forest was pretty different and it was hard to find the «correct» speed. I always felt running very slow, so I was all the time pushing harder. Luckily I survived quite well with all the training of the previous months;) I still made some mistakes but I was fast enough to get the first place. Truly speaking I was surprised! And happy :)

1. Maria Sá COC (Barcelona) : 1:05:46
2. Ona Rafols COC (Barcelona) : 1:07:02
3. Esther Arias Enero P.GUARA (Huesca) : 1:16:34
4.Anna Serrallonga Arques GRIONS-GIR (Girona) :1:17:39
5. Alicia Gil Sanchez COLIVENC (Alicante) : 1:20:20

After some nice evening in Madrid, I felt really tired to run middle distance. In the other hand, running a bit slower seemed nice to avoid mistakes... yes, I felt tired, but I had the nice feeling of fighting all the time, against mistakes that could appear with my tiredness. In the end I was second,one minute and a half behind Ona Rafols.

1. Ona Rafols COC (Barcelona) : 31:22
2. Maria Sá COC (Barcelona) : 32:44
3. Alicia Gil Sanchez COLIVENC (Alicante): 37:07
4. Anna Serrallonga Arques GRIONS- GIR (Girona): 37:16
5. Esther Arias Enero P.GUARA (Huesca): 42:32

Article of Catalunya newspaper ;)

Working on...

My imune system is working on producing a big army for influenza virus that can appear easily on coming winter. Last tuesday I was vacinated for normal flu but unfortunately i've been suffering of unpleasant side effects like mialgias and asthenia...Boring! Hopefully I'll be protected for all winter for this kind of virus...we'll see!

My musculoskeletal system is working on recovery of my tendon and it seems to be working pretty hard :) yesterday I was on phisioterapeut and aparentely I'm cured of this small stress injury! Thanks God! But of course re-start running has to be slowly and carefully with a lot of stretching in end of training. Nutritional care seems to be really important too!!

Next weekend I'm flying to Madrid (Spain) to run national competition on nice spanish terrain. By the way it will be my first race with the catalunya colours! Next season I'll be running on COC (club orientacion de catalunya) colours in some spanish orienteering races. Tipical spanish pine forest and some stony areas are waitting for me, but of course I'll be there running carefuly because of my tendon, so it will be a great opportunity to run without mistakes :) I'll try;)

And finally my brain is also working on my final teses of my study. I'll make a review about the impact of gymnastics training on growth and maturation, nutritional behaviour and bone density of child gymnasts.

Also I've already started to learn the huge book «Harrison - Internal Medicine»... I think in the next 365 days it will be the «person» which i'll spent more time with:) I have to learn quite hard because november 2010 i'll have examnation wich will decides a big part of the direction of my future life as a doctor... so start slowly, life begining of running season, and then closer to the «competition» work harder ;)

Riding and swimming

All season went perfect when we talk about injuries...Unfortunately now, just in the end of season, i've got some stress injury on my left quadricipete tendon. Two years ago I had the same problem (a bit more serious) and now it seems to be back :( Last week was spent on the crazy ambience of the pediatrics emergency room where all child are forbiden to have a normal flu...all of them are suspected to have swine flu and so...the caos! My time for refresh brains on training didn't exist and only a few hours on phisioterapeut make me feel «on training».
Last weekend I started to swim and ride bike and today i'll make the experience to re-start running...i'm crossing my fingers for nice feelings :)

Bronze girls :)

This is a team! We trained together for THIS! This is the real feeling of belonging to a "family". This was a REAL relay. I am REALLY HAPPY!! :):):)
HEY SLASK! HEY SLASK! HEY SLASK!

(photos by picasaweb.google.pl/lublin.bno)