Because of this

This is myself on the last 3 weeks...looks cute doesn't it?;)
Yeah, in fact it wasn't funny at all. Since beggining of this season I had a wart growing and growing on the top of my right foot finger. It was very painfull and even I started having pain on my left hip because during running I was trying to don't put so much weight on this side. So, after many treatments and without any change...I had a small surgery and 3 weeks without run.
We are so used to get some thigs from our daily life that sometimes forgot how really important they are...Running is one of them for me and I realize it on the worst way. It was so strange to be on the library till the time of closure and come back home without running. Going to the hospital, then to the library and coming back home, day after day, became my daily life and I also realize how's the life style of so many people that sorounds me on this hospital. It's crazy!

You can check my little wound on the picture :):)
All went fine during surgery and after it too. Now I'm back on business, but sinceraly first trainings after stop are so though(phisicically and mainly psicologically...) Step by step I'll get my shape and the most important now is that I can feel the wind on my face again!

The king and the little little

Last days have been very different than usual. Instead of going from classes to the library, and from the library to training and instead of learning from doctors during classes, and from my coach after training, these last days I performed on very different stage with a very different teacher. I spent 4 days from map to map, from training to training, on Mira area, training and learning with Thierry Georgiou.

I must say it was a mix of sensations training side to side with «the king of middle distance».It was fantastic opportunity to train, to analise, to learn ...and to realize how much and how hard the best orienteers in the world train, how often they run with map... and how far away I am from this reality...I'm little little little....

Do it with style ;)

Portuguese orienteering team got a fresh new style on the last world champs. Many orienteers realize about our new Trimtex O-suits and how beautifull it looks like on our national team.
Besides looking beautifull and stylish, it’s very important to run with high technology clothes on so very different kind of weather through all the season. As you know, sometimes lighter clothes or warmer clothes can help you a lot during your orienteering races ‘cause to take extra grams with you is absolutely useless. Luckily, this season I’ve got a sponsorship from this fantastic brand, Trimtex, which allows me to run with high quality clothes in the forest.

If you are a quality adicted too and if you would like to have your club suits on the best orienteering fabrics, with your own club colours and own club design, you have a great opportunity now! Trimtex will be represented in Portugal O’Meeting 2010 (POM) with special offers for the Portuguese market. Please feel free to talk with Isak Bergman – responsible for the portuguese market or with myself, and for sure you’ll find the best solution for your club!

And I'm doin'it

Life is still going on acording the timetables, the list of things to do today, training to run tomorrow and the chapters to read till the end of the week. It seems to be like a great formula to scheduale everything on such few 24h per day, but it's also kind of boring.
But something has been changing as I'm making a bigger effort to spend time with map :) Reading, runing and analysing maps.
Last weekend it was great to have 4 orienteering trainings with the national team in the south of Portugal- Coruche and Arraiolos.It was good time to pratice many things that I've been thinking about to improve.

Today it was time to say NO to the book and run towards the closest sand dunes map and enjoy the sun and the ocean.I ran quite nice o-training but mostly it was very nice because of breaking the rules of studying and get motivation for next week trainings.It was fantastic to run on such scenario!

Most interesting maps of last weekend trainings:

First steps...to analyse

Since the beginning of november I've been very focused on building a good basis of training and the main goal is to perform a good role on...traning. Not competing. However, it's been a very busy time for me (as all year seems to be like). I have been studying a lot for my end examination in november, working on my master teses, having classes, training...and eating and sleeping :) Basically, I've been like a machine rulled by timetables to all activities. So I think it's quite obvious that time for ORIENTEERING training is few: in december I only ran 16km of orienteering, which comparing to the 340km of running, is nothing.

1 +1 is 2...the same as orienteering races without orienteering training is...mistakes!

Two weeks ago I ran the International Meeting of Arraiolos and I proved myself that training without map for long periods make this happens:

long distance (2nd place):

sprint distance at night (1st place):

middle distance WRE (1st place):

After deep analysis of the disaster of such races, it's possible to find out some reasons: (1) lack of map training, (2) some related difficulty with concentration on my own orienteering and (3) different kind of cartography used on this maps.

This time the maps were drawn by finish cartographers that used very different criteria than those used before on this type of terrain. In my oppinion, it's very good kind of cartography and very helpfull for the orienteers as only the main features are on the map. Althought, I think it is very usefull on very detailed stony areas but not absolutly necessary on other areas with not so much stones... Personally I preferd the middle distance map, drawn my Tiago Aires and Raquel Costa, portuguese cartographers and elite runners too, besides using the same style of long distance map. I confess I love the way they draw maps and it was a pitty that they dind't draw the map of the long distance.

Now it's time to find a hole on the scheaduled life for some orienteering training and beginning to work on mental training too ;)

365 new pages

After reading a good book the feeling of missing these pages, these adventures, these characters we're getting used and loved always stays... The good thing is that we never know if the next book will be even better!
Like a good book, 2009 is ending. Tomorrow 365 new pages are starting...

Happy new year!

Buff Epic Run(ner)

epic - adj. - taking place over a long period of time and involving a lot of difficulties; very great and impressive

Soooo...what could I expect from the Buff Epic Run in Barcelona? :) Around 10km course with several obstacles to get through, including mud pools, straw walls, tube mountains, tyre barriers and rope mazes... "Que vols més Maria??" :):)

It was very funny and quite crazy race too... a lots of adrenaline running through my veins and a very happy ending! (surprising 2nd place - just a few seconds behind Laia Andreu, the 5th best runner on skyrunning world series)

If you really want to understand how crazy was this race check out here ;)

After crazy races and lovely days in Barcelona, it was time to come back home, work some extra hours in hospital and, finally, stand close from the fire place and also cook some delicious christmas dishes :)

Merry Christmas to all of you!