When the shape rises

I started the season 2012 with a series of quite good performances both in cross and road running competitions. However, both because I had to finish my master and because I took an internship in a bank, my running shape fell rapidly down in April. In the beginning of May I clearly remember that it was impossible for me to run 5K below 15 minutes, which is a sort of mental barrier to distinguish between a quite good runner and a (perhaps quite trained but) rather slow runner. Basically, I started to run again with constancy and more motivation in the beginning September, when my thesis issues were almost solved. It took to me a really long time before I could reach again a level comparable with the last year' one. Likewise after a long injury, you seem quite unmotivated, feeling your running movements like a sloth walk and not ready for any kind of effort. I started to feel well during my Swedish journey, where I had some good training sessions.
After two hard rainy days - when it couldn't almost be possible to run here in Primiero - today I tried to complete an hard session on the track. I'm glad I did it and I feel that it's surely one of those training that you will bring inside your pocket for a long time. Maybe I did better trainings in my past, but today I actually needed to finish it. Now I know I'm back on my way.

29. November 2012 (light rain)
AM: 20' warm up + 10x(500m @1'32'' + 1'20'' (300m) jogging) + 10x(1' jogging (200m) + 400m @1'11'') + 15' cool down

29. November 2012 - 10.30 a.m.

A tough Saturday

Bevilonga 2012: ER-Team from Vicenza

Perhaps, it's hard to understand what is the spirit of Bevilonga if you have never run such a race. The competition is one of the most traditional orienteering competitions in Italy and it usually held in the end of November, when the Italian orienteering season is over. Since I was 19, I haven't miss any edition of the race because I actually love it. It is a good combination between a party and a competition. Furthermore, you can meet some runners which have a totally different mood, if compared to the "normal" race's one. Bevilonga is tricky, competitive, complicated and sometimes impossible to understand. Anyway, this year's edition will be probably remembered as the "shitty" one, not because of the after-race (which was wonderful as usual), but because the largest part of the race was tracked in the middle of a meadow full of fresh shit! Even more; I personally finished my race inside a mountain of shit, where I stayed paralyzed for a few minutes, before I could realize that I was almost able to swim and to pull my body out of it. Bad luck, maybe next time the organizers will let the runners have the right to see where any shitty surprise stands on the map! Good or bad, the race's gone, and after a frozen shower everything was so clear to me that I could start to enjoy the after-race with my orienteering friends...
On Sunday morning I wasn't so fresh, but I decided to run a cross competition to test my legs after a tough week of running trainings. The competitors level was rather low, but the starting sprinters weren't missing and I did the bad choice to start quite slowly. It took to me almost 2km (the race length was 5km), and a lot of energies, before I could catch the first runners. In the last loop, I tried to increase my speed, but at the end I got the second position because I wasn't able to find more energies for the final sprint. Despite the result, I am quite satisfied, because I was really tired and I knew my tough week was over.
Now it's almost time to rest. Two weeks are left before the marathon of Reggio Emilia and I'm not allowed to run more Bevilongas at all. Apparently, this week I won't be as lucky as the past week with the weather conditions. Hopefully for the snow lovers, Winter is coming. The next weekend I'll take part with my friend and team mate Manuel Negrello to the second edition of Prosecco Run, a wonderful race of 25km in Vidor -TV-. Since I don't want to compromise the marathon, I won't run it as fast as the last year.

Something ridiculous is happening on the other side of the World

We are used to keep going by saying something like "we are not competitive enough" or "african runners are simply better than us". Maybe we aren't wrong (probably africans are actually physically stronger than us!). Anyway, what we can see is that on the other side of the World someone is working a lot better than us, and preparing "tons" of more proper runners.
This is the introduction anyone can write looking at the Ageo City Half Marathon results, where 290 runners from Japan ran below 1h10', which was won by the junior runner Kenta Murayama (1993) in 1h02'46''. Impressive. The comment of the race winner at the end of the half marathon follows: "The wind was really strong today, but even though we were running into a headwind a lot of the time I was able to deal with it and I think I ran pretty well. It would have been nice to lead the whole way, but I think I ran up to my current level and that that was pretty good. I ran 62 today but was shooting for 61, so on that point it was disappointing. I think I would have run a better time if I'd gone with 5 km to go, so I want to improve on that in my future races". More impressive. What is happening there???
Eventually, since we're going to have the FIDAL election very soon, I guess that a good point is just to to study what's happening there and the reason why it's happened, in order to work on a better Italian athletic federation, both from a runner's perspective point of view and for a better organization and co-operation between the different realities that are characterizing our Country...

5^ Maratonina di San Martino

Passo Rolle's JWOC 2009 Long

Last week I spent two days running orienteerig in Primiero with my friend Kvaal. My feelings on running in the forest with a map were actually quite rusty, but I really enjoyed the few trainings we did, even if the November weather makes you more tired and consequently less inclined to train.
We ran in Passo Rolle on the JWOC 2009 course, which is in my opinion one of the best long distance tracking of JWOC I have ever seen. We organizers weren't very lucky on that day; it was on July, my team was putting the controls and checking the course and what I perfectly remember is that, during the day of long distance, I was very closed to be frozen at the refreshment point for the whole race and, looking at the runner's faces, what I can believe is that it was a kind of tough day for them...
I was supposed to run MOV last Sunday but unfortunately, as on Saturday afternoon my orienteering club decided not to go there because of the scary weather forecast, I decided to run an half marathon in the town of Paese instead. Since I could have met some friends and good competitors there, I feel sorry about not to have been in Venice this year. I guess that I was ready to run well there.

Maratonina di San Martino (11. November 2012)

Concerning the half marathon, the weather conditions in Paese were almost the same I've found a few days ago in Venice (and -as Paese is closed to Venice- the same which where expected by the weather forecast in Venice). Definitely, November is not a good time to enjoy running here. At least, I was lucky with the temperature: there were about 14°C, which isn't cold at all for November.
Although the course -entirely tracked in a flat terrain- permits any runner to run his/her best, due to the weather conditions, on the starting line there were about 600 runners, not as many as in the last year' editions. I was firstly running with my Moroccan friend Abdoullah Bamoussa, not even trying to follow the crazy machine who was leading the race from the first meter (i.e. the Kenian runner D. K. Tum). We ran together for about 5km, then I couldn't stay with him, even if the speed wasn't so high, and I crossed the 10km line 1'30'' later than him. My feeling wasn't good during the first half of the race. Fortunately, in the second part, I started feel more fresh and I finished the race at the 3rd place in 1h10m21s, which allowed me to win also the regional half marathon tile.
The men's race results of the 5th San Martino Half Marathon follow.

1. David Kiplagat Tum (Ken/Avis Macerata) 1h05’55”
2. Abdoullah Bamoussa (Mar/Brugnera Friulintagli) 1h09’00”
3. Giancarlo Simion (Silca Ultralite) 1h10’21”
4. Gabriele Cossettini (Atl. Dolomiti) 1h12’05”
5. Francesco Duca (Violettaclub) 1h12’41”

Full results here.

Planning an alternative week, with a short break

After three weeks of training, in which I put part of the background for the next marathon and the next spring season inside my bag, I am planning to spend the upcoming 10 days making something different than usual. Yesterday, after a 18km medium running session, my legs were totally knocked out and I felt the Venice Marathon weariness really badly. Thus, I believe that now I need a short break in order to avoid any sort of injury (this is not the right time for them!). Actually, I am going to compete in Venice (again...) the next weekend and, since the norwegian orienteer Øystein Kvaal Østerbø will be my guest for a few days before MOV, I am planning some orienteering trainings, which should give me a kind of rest, at least mentally, in the middle of the marathon preparation period.
After MOV, I'm going to visit some friends in Tuscany for three days where I'll be firstly in Lucca and then in Siena. When I'll be back, I guess I'll have both the right mood and the right shape to spend the rest of November at home, hoping that it's not going to snow before the first week of December.

On the way to Reggio Emilia: Venice Marathon

After spending two weeks in Stockholm visiting my sister and training with IFK Lidingö orienteers, last Saturday I ran the 27th edition of Venice Marathon. 

Differently than my first experience in 2010, in which I got an unexpected bronze medal in the Italian Championships, this year my physical shape wasn't ready for running a marathon yet. Therefore, on the way to get ready for Reggio Emilia marathon (next 9. December), I ran a test in order to check my real shape, looking for a better self-confidence. Although Venice Marathon is in my opinion one of the most beautiful marathon in the World, the weather conditions didn't allow the 8,000 runners to enjoy the course and the supporters (it wasn't actually a good day to get out of your home..). Wind was strongly blowing all the time and it was raining too. Furthermore, Venice was flooded. 

At first my goal was to run the whole marathon in 2h26m-2h27m, but after the beginning of the race I realized that such time was impossible, because of the wind. From the start of the race I lost the men's top runners group, becoming the (unofficial) women race pacemaker. I ran ahead the first women for 25km, then I tried to slowly increase my speed, but the wind on the bridge from Mestre to Venice didn't allow me to have a negative split. I finished my race in 2h30m46s reaching an unbelievable 9th place, which could be almost impossible to get with a normal conditions race, since I cought many of the men's top runners (which were almost walking like zombies) in the second part of the marathon. 

After the Venice Marathon experience, I definitely feel on the right path to Reggio Emilia. Only few weeks are left and November is not the best month to enjoy the training sessions for a marathon, but I will try to stay focused on my goal for the whole time. The Venetian test gave a good feedback and the fear of failing the race is growing day by day. But this is the game (or at least part of it!).

1. KISANG PHILEMON KIPCHUMBA (KENIA) - 02:17:00
2. MASAI TITUS KWEMOI (KENIA) - 02:18:21
3. KARANJA ELIJA (KENIA) - 02:19:41
4. RICATTI DOMENICO (C.S. AERONAUTICA MILITARE) - 02:19:43
5. AWASH HABTAMU FIKADU (ETIOPIA) - 02:21:00
6. KORIR PATRICK KIPTANUI (KENIA) - 02:24:58
7. BOUDALIA SAID (ATL.BIOTEKNA MARCON) - 02:27:50
8. ROGNONI DARIO (ATL. DA PAURA) - 02:30:30
9. SIMION GIANCARLO (SILCA ULTRALITE VITTORIO V.TO) - 02:30:46
10. NDIWA ROBERT (KENIA) - 02:30:48
11. IVUTI PATRICK MUTUKU (KENIA) - 02:32:29
12. RUNGGER HANNES (SPORTLER TEAM) - 02:36:17 

Full results