Photos by: Bar Zrihen
Prologue: During this autumn I've been facing a new situation every now and then - I should be able to deal with many important when it comes to my work, sports and studies, but there's not just enough time to do them all. Before going down to Israel, I had two weeks of really hard work and I had to be even selfish in many cases. That I wouldn't like to do ever, but in order to be good to other people, you need to be sometimes even selfish. Anyway, I could do most of the things "right" before the trip and today I can say that everything went good, as the trip was successful and splendid in every way.
1. "On vacation" 20.-23.12 (Modi'in& Tuval)
- 20.12: Training 1h 17min, orienteering- and running mileage 12km and climbing 260m.
- 21.12: 2h 31min, 25km and 655m
- 22.12: 2h 42min, 20km and 600m
- 23.12: 2h 24min, 26km and 425m
We arrived at Ben Gurion Airport, Tel Aviv, pretty tired but hopeful. What shall Israel offer as on the first day, how is with orienteering and how good is the food? Is Guy Sabo Bar totally crazy guy or just a gread dude who organizes great adventure in Israel for us? Nevertheless, while traveling down there, I finally eased up with my thoughts of working or studying there. During the first days, I already confirmed that for the first 2-3 days I am "on vacation" and then, the last two weeks, professional athlete.
At Guy's place (a 15min-drive from the airport) we got some nice service to recover from the flight and after that it was time for first o-training in Ben Shemen forest. I was totally tired and I couldn't really enjoy the 10 different forest types we were introduced in a single session at Gimzo. But, sometimes you are tired and compared to things I've been through, this is totally fractional and it's useless to complain about one day's tiredness...
On the second day we headed to north, close to Mt. Tabor, where we participated in local competition. It's something between regional races and "Iltarastit" in Finland. 500 orienteering friends gathering together to enjoy good maps and real controls in the forest. I don't know if I was competing or training, but I almost forgot one control. Decided to pick it up anyway, and probably I should do that also in my trainings, in which I sometimes realize that I haven't in right place and just continue the training...In the competition area I met quite a lot new friends, did a cool-down run with others and social approach was going up. I started to get excited...
In the afternoon I realized that sometimes our recovery times will be short. The day is shorter in Israel too at this time of the year. But the time between the trainings can be also fun (check the photo above). The second training was a hilly middle on Ilania-map and I already started my transtion from a holiday-guy to a professional. This is pretty typical for me: if I feel a bit stronger and see an opportunity to make a good training like this, I will change my plan. Very rarely I can run courses like this.
Our accommodation in north was in Tuval at Segal-family. Nice place & people, even if the maps weren't so close. On Sunday we visited "a technical map" in Ein Zeitim (photo above), where we had even some snow. I was again pretty much tired...But after and during a short break at gas-station, my back felt better for some strange reason (cold asphalt wasn't maybe the cure?). In Honi-training I had a job of a coach (planned to run after Guy, if I have the speed to do that), but after the downhill-section of the course I decided that now I will push hard the whole uphill back to the finish... Impulsive-Ikonen. In the cool-down I understood that now I am ready to do some good training.
On Monday we were in a school-o-happening in Migdal HaEmek. Little work combined to pleasure and training in Rabin Park. Our day was finally so long, that we couldn't go to our o-training, but did a basic running session instead.
2. Christmas in Shimshit 24.-26.12 (Akko& Shimshit)
- 24.12: Training 2h 58min, orienteering- and running mileage 30km and climbing 405m.
- 25.12: 3h 12min, 28km ja 685m.
- 26.12: 1h 16min, 13km ja 195m.
As we left Tuval, we got a chance to test Davidi's new sprint-map in the historical city of Akko. The sprint course was 2,8km, but running distance 5,8km ;-). It was so fun to run in the narrow market-streets and this is great area for sprint in general. My legs were really sore, but tha'ts the case when you run on asphalt in the middle of rough o-training-camp. In Akko we ate some great food again too! Small pleasures every day was the theme in this training-camp!
After this quick visit to the coast, we headed towards Shimshit where some good o-trainings were again waiting for us. Already in the afternoon we enjoyed the Tzippori-map, which will be used in MOC 2015. Really nice terrain, map and course!
The Christmas-day was filled with training this year. I did a long morning run towards Nazareth and at the noon very easy speed o-training close to the Yasur-family's place we were staying at. In the evening we did night-o with Miika. Thanks for organizing and cheering up: Guy, Yuval and Nitsan! And in the evening, we had a little pizza-party...
3. Hilly O-week in Central-Israel 27.-31.12 (Modi'in & Shoresh)
From Shimshit we travelled to Modi’in and Winter Cup. On way we did one session in a coastal terrain, but I felt tired and lazy and decided to make a really easy day before the races. That was wise, since the races were really demanding physically with some 500m of climbing in both (1st day's map). The second day was better for me (except those two controls, but that was not my fault..):
Especially this second day was really good training for the international races (like Turkey World Cup in two months already!?) After the race we even had some time for tourism and I saw Jerusalem!
On Sunday we had also a very good o-session in Neve Shalom. Instantly after the training, I came up with a idea, that you should organize World Cup here... My legs started to be out-of-order after the training. That was maybe a bit frightening situation, because some 200km of running was planned for the next week and we would be climbing even more in the oncoming o-sessions...
In the evening we moved to live in Shoresh (village on the top of hill between Tel Avivin and Jerusalem) and it meant also more climbing meters in the morning runs and other short runs.
The hard week started with two really tough days in the end of the year. They reflect pretty well my present training-ideology: rough basic training 3½-4h, 30-35km and 1000m climbing daily. Many times I had a feeling that there's no sense doing this kind of training, but I have now such understanding of training that you need to do this kind of heavy phase in order to meet our discipline's needs. It's of course important to do maximal interval-trainings, but that's current when peaking up the maximal capacity. At this time most important thing is to follow the discipline analysis and train "the whole of the performance". We'll see later how this approach works.
Mashua (map above) with some cactus was great, in Bet Gamal I lacked the idea a bit, Srigim was again superb (and exhausting with long warm-ups) and in the afternoon in Angel Forest we mainly enjoyed the nice forest with Miika.
4. Arad and the Dead Sea 1.-3.1 (Arad)
From Shoresh we travelled to the south, which meant one training near Gaza and living at Uri Kotzeri -family in Arad. In the forenoon session in Beeri I was trying to push hard, and I don't know how it was possible with those legs? We humans get probably used to almost anything?
On Thursday we checked out the Planted forest of Yatir. And again we were close to the West Bank, and strangely you couldn't imagine a place more peaceful! After Yatir's hilly session I was for the first time really happy, that I won't need to exhaustive training for 1½ days. It was nice to enjoy the trip to the Dead Sea and spa-visit there! Splendid time in Arad in general.
5. Win-Wingate 3.-6.1 (Wingate-institute)
After morning run in Arad we drove from the "southern District" to Wingate in less than two hours. We had beds in Wingate for the rest of my trip. It was nice to run on more flat routes and to get some sauna and swimming after the sessions.
After this one day of only mild training, I had my last competition. The race was great with good (LIDAR-based) map, course and organizing. Some stones on the ground and generally very hilly, but that didn't really bother me. Of course I started to feel pretty exhausted in the uphills, but that's no wonder. As a result the race was the best in Israel and my orienteering was mainly on the right track. Check out more photos here. I kept a lecture about orienteering technique and during that 1½h meeting I went through the race also. Great meeting, thanks to you:
Before the lecture I had still one training day to complete. In the mountains there are several great maps, and this one needed to be checked (Gilboa). Clearly worth of a visit and think about WOC in Italy at the same time...
After on more running in the evening with Guy I reached my goal of 200km with 207,5km. And when I cound everything together, the training summary tells nice numbers: Training 45h 52min, 454,5km running & orienteering and 10200m of climbing. Pretty much, but not too much... I was testing the Polar Training Load -feature with my HR-files and it resulted with funny curve:
Summa summarum: really GREAT trip, probably the best training-camp of my life, and despite of that Training Load -curve, I know I did right things and enough of them, for sure. I can recommend Israel for adventurers, those who love orienteering and good food and enjoy the social surroundings these great Israeli people can organize!