wojciechkowalski

Just ballast

2009-10-28T12:47:00.000-07:00

Natt-SM. I knew it will be a challenge: 90’ in detailed area, on scale 1:15000, but it was worse. I mean better:) Challenge grew up, when I saw this stony area. During the course I was thinking like amateur: find all controls and come alive. 28th place is not important, just alive.

Two days later THE LAST RACE of 2009 has come: Sista sträcka på Smalandskavlen. Won Kalevan Rasti. Orion take 9th place. Emil Wingstedt (Halden SK) on last leg did 67’34”- it’s real good. The rest is just ballast. You can see my GPS route here.

Polish Champs

2009-10-05T10:09:00.000-07:00

Last weekend were Polish Championships in night and relay. They were good, as for polish condition. For me the map was not enough detailed (especially green areas) and this dypoloms :)

DYPOLOM -should be dyplom

go-go (photo by picasaweb.google.pl/lublin.bno)

unexpected winner (photo by picasaweb.google.pl/lublin.bno)

when ladies are happy (photo by picasaweb.google.pl/lublin.bno)

hej Śląsk! (photo by kajo)

results

Eestii forest

2009-09-21T01:34:00.000-07:00

the highest Estonian point 318m

CISM is always fun. You go to some country as a soldier. You stay in a military unit and see strategical places, that normally are hidden. Estonia is a small country (1/40 of Polish population) but their military units doesn’t remember Soviet times, Polish still remember.

On long distance my brain wasn’t in the top shape. I made mistake on 1’20” on the 5^th control. There caught me Matthias Merz on 2’. Then I could use 75% of my brain and 100% of my legs. On the way to 24^th control we went straight (two hilly, two green), we should go around from the right and be 1’45” earlier on the finish. Matthias was bronze medalist (80’47”) in this race. I was 2’ after him on 10^th place. The BIG winner was Daniel Hubmann 76’19”. Francois Gonon got silver 80’02”.

one more time /photo by www.mil.ee/ Two days later on THE REAL middle distance my brain and legs were better co-ordinated. Running only by myself I reached 12^th position. Without mistakes (1’40”) I could be 4^th. Yes, I know: “could”, but this is step up for me. I CAN PLAY IN EXTRA LIGE sometimes :)

Banach heh /photo by www.mil.ee/ Relay were in the same terrain as middle. It wasn’t easy. Swiss, Russia, Finland were on the top. Poland took 7^th place. I had, one more time, very good race and a nice fight with Andrey Khramov at the end of a race.

all /photo by www.mill.ee/

Banquet : O my God! It was delicious. Greetings for all the crazy dancing team ;P

results

maps long, middle, relay

new PB

2009-09-07T11:06:00.000-07:00

I took part in street race ("Bieg Solidarności") in Wroclaw. I won with time 15'36 on 5,2km, so my best time on 5km is now 15'00". This mean that I'm in live shape. It's a nice feeling, to know all I have to care during o-race is technics.

It's 9 days to Military World Orienteering Championship.

Polska and WOC

2009-08-27T12:52:00.000-07:00

sprint team

Sprint was a great day for Polish Team. On qualification all our runners (three boys, one girl) got to the final. In final race I was 14^th, Dwojak 22th and our young girl Hania was 34^th. Those are real good results.

animal

Relay went unusual. Dwojak on the first leg had great race (came six), then Banach lost a little, but then I had good race and on the spectator control I heard we could be six. I counted on my fingers how many teams were before us and I counted around nine. After finish they told me we are six and explain why. First time I get a diploma on WOC (6^th place).

first time

Long Final was too long for me (29^th place). After control 22^nd I lost my power. The good thing is that to control 22 (3/4 of the course) I had alone race with great speed and technique. This gave me good feeling for future.

relay team

Through all WOC days we had wonderful fans from Poland. First time I felt, that someone real love us. It’s much easier to give 110% of power, if you hear Polska! Polska! Polska!

real fans

maps you can see here (by RouteGadget)

Death group

2009-08-18T02:54:00.000-07:00

Long Q went good. First 2/3 of the course I was running alone with good speed and technique. Then caught me Daniel Hubmann. I finished on 10th possition. In my group “men A” from a winner to the 15^th runner was 3’22” (men B 8'54"; men C 6'31"). I think it’s very tight. See you in the final day.

Results

Old times: JWOC 2001

2009-08-13T04:12:00.000-07:00

It was in Miskolc. We were very young (now we are just young:) I hope I’m still half crazy than I was 2001. It was good times.

peeper

all happy

naket lady

relay finish

podium

Three weeks on high

2009-08-02T11:35:00.000-07:00

We have finished high altitude sport camp in Switzerland. Like year ago, we went to Sankt Moritz and like year ago, it was extremely nice. Mostly we trained running, but we had couple of orienteering trainings and some competition. Thanks to Carolina, Ines, Matthias, Marc, Baptiste and Fabian that we could train with you, it was great lesson.

snow slope from superbysior on Vimeo.

Eating or tearing maps

2009-07-15T13:00:00.000-07:00

When my son was 8 months old, he has got first orienteering lesson. Now he is much older - 10 months, but still not interested about orienteering, except eating or tearing maps.

Wojciech Kowalski i jego lekcja orientacji from superbysior on Vimeo.

WC Oslo Middle +Long

2009-06-27T01:26:00.000-07:00

When we left Poland there was only rain. In Oslo all the time is sun. It’s too good weather for running, too hot. I expected extreme terrain. I was surprised. It wasn’t so bad. All the course I was running alone and I did only 1’25” mistakes. I’m really proud of me.

On long distance I had a lot of alone (group 2-3 runners) fun to 21th control. Than caught me a 10 person group and I changed sport from orienteering to cross country running.

After a mounth full of competition I'm exhausted. Now it's time for 5weeks of recharging batteries and restore power.

Polish Champs

2009-06-26T02:56:00.000-07:00

… were quite nice. On the SPRINT distance map and terrain were good, but the course planner didn’t remember about different rout choice, what is one of the main things on sprint.

MIDDLE distance was OK, sometimes too easy. The speed was decisive in the race. But I want other challenge: technique. So I go abroad to WC in Salo or to WC in Oslo. This are real orienteering lessons!

CLASSIC race was very interesting! Big congratulation for organizers. They didn’t afraid to do a course for 89’ (15,5km) for a winner. For me it’s normal, but for Polish reality not. You can see replay (.kmz open in Google Earth) from this race here now or will be there soon.

On first two races I had no mistake:) than on classic I did 2’. During whole weekend I was able to keep good speed. Good, mean enough for polish O-level. Generally I’m in a small physical hole. I know it’s good for me, because top will come on August/September.

One more time

2009-06-18T01:30:00.000-07:00

Good Lord!

The gpsseuranta.net from Jukola is great. During the race I didn’t know that so many things was happening around me. From the start to 9th control, I was thinking I ran alone, couple of seconds after William Lind. But now I see that there was mix of runners. I was enough to do some small mistake (me on 1,2 control) or run little bit shorter (keep more strait line – me on 3 control) and you could be with other runners.

I can’t believe in that. I have to see it one more time.

3 times kicked

2009-06-12T10:59:00.000-07:00

Word Cup (NOC middle and sprint). Finish terrain didn’t disappoint me on middle distance. I expected challenge and got it (66th place). On sprint qualification I was pushing very strong, I did only 5” mistake and I was missed the final by 14”. It’s not nice to be happy of your race and be out of final. Yesterday I took part in Forrsa Games and one more time my bottom kicked – 4’12” behind first. Great.

around Miskolc

2009-06-08T07:36:00.000-07:00

I spend with Polish Team six days around Miskolc. We did couple of interesting trainings (you can see it below). During two, hard days I did 46 km in the forest. Thanks to Czech Team for opportunity to take part in their WOC qualification race to classic distance. The course had 16,3km. In real I did 21,3km and I was missing a lot. Better now than during WOC. You can see Google Earth replay of the relay race. There are four runners from Polish Team. They’re running on different legs and teams: Maciek Grabowski/green dot, Wojtek Kowalski/red, Alek Bernaciak /blue, Mateusz Wensław/purple. You only need to click on H-relay.kmz and open it by Google Earth.

boring or exciting

2009-04-30T11:30:00.000-07:00

Lonely, fast running on the road is boring, but lonely, fast running in the park with o-map is exciting! (even if I know the area of the park). Full speed 8x3' (with 3' brake) was good for: exercise of speed up in short time after the start (I always have problem with this thing on the sprint competition) and changing speed during the race (reading the map-middle speed; only running-full speed).

In April I did 32hour of training . In this running 19h, orienteering 8h and other activities 5h.

Men with the gun can’t count!

2009-04-21T00:16:00.000-07:00

On Friday I took part in Elitserien sprint. I had a nice speed, but missed to much (30” on 5th point and 15” on 7th). In the 8th point caught me the winner Andrei Hramov (Hiisirasti).

foto from foton.springolle.se/10mila2009/

Than GREAT and BIG 10mila! I ran first leg (you can see in the left lower corner of picture, how I almost fell down). Runners were standing on the field in front of their maps, speaker sad "15 seconds to the start", and after 3 seconds, we can hear starting shot! Good I was keeping my map in hand, otherwise people from my back couldn’t give a chance to take it. I suppose some of runners had this kind of situation and they are very angry for a men with the gun. I finished 8th 50” after first Gernot Kerschbaumer (Helsingin Suunnist.). In OK Orion nine runners had a very good races, but one missed and we were 12th. Congratulations OK Kristiansand!

Who let the dogs out?

2009-04-13T09:51:00.000-07:00

Todays Elitserien final was like a dog race. In 3'20" to the forest went 40 runners (normally on middle distance should go 3,5 person). I was feeling great in it and finished on the 7th possition. Mikhail Mamleev was 4th, Olexandr Kratov 6th, so it was really good day for OK Orion.

40 from 237

2009-04-12T07:45:00.000-07:00

Elitserien: if we have 237 runners and 40 get to the final, it have to be tight. You lost 3'21" to the winner and you are out. Marcin Richert lost 3'20" and he is in (on 40th place:). I had a nice race (2'28" after winner) , but without William Lind it could be hard. Tommorow is a chasing start and I like it.

results

Swedish Lighthouses

2009-04-11T07:17:00.000-07:00

Today I ran Hassleholms classic. I took it with 3/4 of the power. I want to be really ready tommorow. All the runners had the same, rest idea, so I could be second. As a price I got a book about Swedish Lighthouses, great!?...

results soon

7-manna

2009-04-10T08:41:00.000-07:00

I came to Sweden for 11 days and 6 start. First was 7-manna. I took first leg and came 7th, 31" after first Fredrik Johansson (IFK Lidingös). Big suprise did Paweł Tadejewski (Polish Junior? Team 2) - he came 17" before me -congratulations! OK Orion went very good and after seven legs we finished on 3place:)

results

March

2009-04-06T11:22:00.000-07:00

First time in my live I’ve been in Norway for orienteering reason.

Polish Team -> Halden SK.

Then we went to Spring Cup and there luckily we didn’t see snow.

good for skiing

hot lake

white shit

narrow road

Halden

flow

In March I did 31hour of training . In this running 8h, orienteering 17h and other activities 6h. I was ill. Nine, long, sad days in bed.I lost 3kg.

The end of February I spent in Portugal with my new friends from Grupo Desportivo 4Caminhos. This orienteering club is like big family. I did there great work, far away from snow.

sun

GD4C

like in summer

forest

team

February

2009-03-15T12:36:00.001-07:00

In February I did 43 hour of training (40h: low intensity 29h, middle 7,6h, high 3,3h). In this running/skiing 28h, orienteering 11h and other activities 3,3h (swimming, gym).
Orienteering in snowy Poland … Eeee. Orienteering in sunny Portugal … Yes!

WOC'08 memories

2009-02-16T12:05:00.000-08:00

If you forgot how it was in Czech Republic, you can bring back memories,
thanks to Sławek Cygler.

full/empty feeling

2009-02-11T12:19:00.000-08:00

I like trainings that discharge my batteries. I go out full of energy, and I come back empty. Two days ago I did a cross training in the forest. 3’ in low, then 3’ in middle intensity and around like this through 90’ in a steep mountain terrain with snow. After 90 minutes my legs were empty of energy for uphill running. I like this feeling.
Here, some of my night trainings:

Flying lesson

2009-02-08T12:02:00.000-08:00

Do you want to see how to fly in a forest?

Przelotem from Wojtek Dwojak on Vimeo

/Runner: Wojciech Dwojak, Camera: Michal Dwojak/

Ps. We are working on new project. Soon you will see the result...