Feb 19, 2011

Winter Mountain Run - Piatra Mare 2011

Today me, Daniel Stroescu and Pasol Adrian left Bucharest early in the morning to get to Timisu de Jos, a place where we compete in a mountain running competition.All the way there, it rained a lot but when we got closer it started snowing. We knew from the start it will be difficult because during the last days the old snow melted forming ice (the bad part on the technical downhill). The fresh snow covered the ice but still, if you didn`t have spikes it was hard to push on the downhill part (I didn`t have spikes).
There we met with our friend Pepe Stupu and his wife Anca (thank you for the photos and for the snowman). After the start in the race, I was in the leading pack. After 1.5 km I took the lead and held it on the first part until the 7 Stairs Canyon.


After the big climb started I was also in the lead but it became more and more clear I won`t make it to Piatra Mare Cabin first.My lower back started hurting real bad and my feet were sliping on the fresh snow and after 1/4 of the climb some guys passed me. At the cabin I was 2 min behind the leading pack. I started pushing real hard on the downhill and caught a guy real fast. But for me it was horror to run on the downhill. My legs were tired and they just wouldn`t listen to me on some parts. I fell down a couple of times and my right knee started hurting a bit. I tried to push where the terrain would allow me to. On the last part i mistook the path and got caught up by Daniel and Adi. I was so mad thinking that i was in front of them all the time and because of a stupid mistake I would lose. I started pushing very hard and passed them quick and also some other runners. I finished 7th, with a time of 1h 35:00 min. The winner had the time of 1h 28:26 min. After I finished I started discovering my injuries. ( I felt down 4-5 times at full speed). So I hurt my left tibia, my right knee and on the right part of my shoulder. Nothing serious but still, it hurts.


The organizers told us that the course has 14km with 930 of climb. The information was correct for the climb but it was only 11km, at least that is what the GPS said. It was a nice run no mater the harsh conditions. Will also run there in the summer and I am curious to see how my time will be then


Daniel Stroescu finished close to me on the 9th position and Adi Pasol was 11th. Congrats to Pepe who finished 2nd, very close to the winner.








Alergare Montana - Piatra Mare 2011

Feb 17, 2011

Happy Training and Moutain Race coming up !

Today I was in the mood for having some fun while running. And considering the fact that I only wanted to do a easy run (9Km) I decided to take the camera with me into the forest and take some photos & videos of me, Daniel Stroescu and Pasol Adrian.


We wanted to share the "JOY of Running". So HERE are the photos and here are the videos (raw and uncensored) :






Me and the guys decided today to go Saturday for a Mountain Running Competition somewhere close to the place I have been for the winter training camp. It`s around 14km with somewhere around 900m (+/-) climb. It`s mostly for ski but you can also run on it. Hope it will be fun and a good training!

Feb 13, 2011

Map archive

After long and lasting fights with the Digital Orienteering Map Archive`s config.php and with my server, I finally managed to install the it and actually make it work. You can now find maps from my training and competitions HERE !
The link to the archive will be available also on the right side of this Blog.
http://www.matstroeng.se/doma/

Feb 7, 2011

First Orienteering Competition of 2011


Yesterday morning I went to Ploiesti for the first competition in orienteering this year (Cupa Sanatatea de Iarna). It was nice to run some orienteering after a long period of training without a map. I felt a bit tired, mostly on the uphill part and with some mistakes my time was 6 min from the winner (Stupu Petru). The course was 6.8 km with 160 uphill.


  

Feb 4, 2011

Next Stop: Portugal !

Today I finished my exams in college and I now have 2 weeks of holiday to spend. So this means that this 2 weeks will be used for hard training in order to be as ready as possible for Portugal where I will compete in my first competitions this year: Portugal O-Meeting 2011 and International Orienteering Meeting of Arraiolos.
Before Portugal O-Meeting my and my club mates will train in Portugal for a few days. Just hope the weather will be better than in Romania this days.
 


Today I also registered for EcoMarathon Moeciu 2011. There are not to many free spots for this Marathon so you should register fast if you want to run!

P.S. I also uploaded some more photos from Semi-Marathon Gerar 2011. HERE is the link.

Feb 1, 2011

Running Semi - Marathon Gerar 2011

This Sunday me and my team (Orienteering Team) ran the event called Semi-Marathon Gerar. 21km - 6x 3.5 km laps. We started with good speed and after 2 laps we were around 7th place.



Cosmin started not to feel good and we tried to stick with him but around 10th km it became clear that he can`t finish so me and Daniel decided to finish the race without him. We started speeding up and started catching a lot of teams that passed us while we were waiting for Cosmin.
Our finishing time was 103:12 (including the time we stopped to wait for Cosmin to recover and the time we spent to recharge with energy gel and water). We would have finished in 9th place even with this problems.


I think if Cosmin would have felt good our time would have been around 96 min and that would have placed us in Top 5. Anyway it was a nice experience and a very good training. The atmosphere was great and the organization the same. I can only wish for more and more competitions like this not only in Bucharest but in all Romania.
Congratulations to the winners and to all of those who finished with full team no matter their result.


OFFICIAL RESULTS 



Semi-Maraton Gerar 2011

P.S. More photos to come!