It’s been a while… Where should I begin? The thing is much hasn’t happen since my previous updates from April and May when I was hoping to recover from the calf injury in time to run 10mila. It didn’t happen. World Cup didn’t happen either. Next goal was Venla.
April and May were shadowed by numerous setbacks but then in the beginning of June my calf started finally show some signs of recovery and I could gradually start to run again. My shape was a big question mark after two months more or less off from running but through a hard selection I got into Linné’s strong first team. At Venla I did what I could but I was still in recovery phase and far from my top form. I did ok run technically but hated the fact that I couldn’t do better. We had lost 6,5min on the first leg and a top performance was needed. I caught about a minute on my leg but was frustrated that I couldn’t do more. Nevertheless I managed to pick 29 places and then Annika took another 21 places on the 3rd leg and suddenly we were 10th and back in the mix. Things started to look very promising in the beginning of the last leg but the rest didn’t go as smoothly and we finished 18th. We’ll be back next year…
After Venla I had 3 weeks to get in shape to our WOC selection races. But my calf was still not fully recovered, so it was pretty ambitious task. Three weeks meant 5-6 quality trainings. That was max what my calf could take in addition to physio exercises and treatments. I chose to prioritise running in terrain and did a few a few O-trainings, gentle trail intervals, one short training race and one longer race on the fells. Both races went well but I knew that there would be much harder competition waiting in Kainuu.
First day at Kainuu O Week was just an easy opening before the selection races (days 2 & 3). I took it fairly easy but orienteered well. Still it became clear to me that my pace was too slow for top positions. But instead of admitting and accepting it I just decided to try harder. So, next day I forgot all about orienteering and focused only on running. Normally running comes kind of automatically and you only need to focus on orienteering, but this time it was different. Just running in terrain felt difficult since my calf is still weak and I’ve lost ability to run in terrain. My motor coordination is like I had never run in terrain before. That combined with an effort to run faster than your shape or orienteering skills allow wasn’t a good combination. I made almost 3min mistake on number 3 and a couple of smaller mistakes after that. My focus was on wrong things and to make it even worse I sprained my ankle at the end of the course. After that I stopped reading the map and almost got disqualified after punching on the wrong last control. Half way in the run-in I noticed that I was heading into wrong finish and turned back. What a race.
After such a disastrous race it was even harder to focus on the next one. But then I realised that I have to accept the facts as they are (that my shape is what it is and my legs are what they are) and try to make my best in the current situation. It gave me calmness to do my own race at my own pace on the long distance. It paid off. I didn’t make it to the WOC team but I did my best at that day, finishing 6th (5th among Finns). I had dreamed and hoped for better but after struggling 3 months with an injury this was really the best I could do.
The long selection race was 30min longer than any of my previous runs but I was happy to be able to run it through. I could feel it in my calf afterwards and wasn’t sure whether I could run the last race of the O week. Also, my new fancy Garmin said that I would need 3 days to recover from the long race (3 days!!!) but since my calf felt better in the following morning, I ran even the last race. But my legs were weary and it was a tired run. After a good start my pace dropped dramatically on a long leg over the marshes and I also made one bigger mistake. I was still happy to finish 7th overall. It was more than I deserved after my disastrous second day. And the best of all, it seems that my calf is getting better and better and I can MAYBE finally start to train again… I’m really looking forward to that! Still plenty of cool races coming up later in the autumn!
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| Training with reindeers |
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| Look, it's Norway! |
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| Race terrain, Idre fjällorientering |
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| This is Kainuu. Never-ending marshes. |
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| Finnish summer night, Hyrynsalmi |
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| Re-charging |
