Monday 31 August 2015

Autumn is approaching

After summer comes autumn. It's an inevitable fact, happens every year. But autumn is not just the end of the summer, it's also a new start. Schools start, works start, and autumn season starts. I like to see it as a fresh new start to something better. 

After Kainuu I took a little break from orienteering and ambitious training. Instead I did everything else and enjoyed the summer the way normal people do: swimming, boating, cycling around archipelago, spending time at summer cottage, gardening, visiting friends and relatives, and sightseeing. How strange.

Anyway, the calf injury that had bothered me since March and destroyed more or less the whole season, was happy with the break too and started to co-operate again in the beginning of August. I gave it some hard time by running a half marathon and doing a 5h hike in Halden, much more than it could take, but after only some days’ recovery it was better again. Since then I’ve been smarter and not trained more than 60-90min in one go. I still don’t run daily and I’ve kept my weekly mileage low.

First week of August I spent in Halden. I could call it a WOC 2016 training camp because we did train hard in WOC 2016 relevant terrains but for me it was more spending the week in excellent company and having a wonderful time with good friends. Like mental recharging. Girls were in good shape and we pushed each other hard in intervals but outside trainings it was fun and relaxed. A lot of laugh, gossip, cakes, wine, chocolate, champagne, strawberries and candles. What else can you wish for? 

After returning home from Halden I was full of energy and decided to start a project called SM (Svenska Mästerskapen), a 3-week build-up to the Swedish Championships. Three weeks may sound like a short time in terms of getting back in shape, but the least I could do was to fine-tune my technics so that I could do my best at my current shape. The plan was very simple: 1 hard O-training during the week and 2 relevant races on the weekend. I have to admit that without a good base these three weekends with two races in a row were quite tough and included a fair amount of suffering, especially on the second day. But I made clear progress during the process and at the end of it got decorated with two medals at our district champs (not going to mention Helena Jansson or Stockholm in this context). Anyway, now I’m happily at the end of that block and looking forward to some tapering before Finnish Championships in long distance (next weekend) and Swedish Championships in long, middle, and relay (week and two weeks later). It will be fun!

Summer in pictures below. Answers to my tweet are found in them.

Määääh! (means 'me' in Tampere dialect) 
Dog catching a fish (yep, he's a bit weird guy)
Utimate and Domane on their way to Rindö
Archipelago round Vaxholm-Rindö-Värmdö-Gustavsberg



Hike in Höiås marka















Smiles & cakes

Boats & ice cream

Cycling selfie




Stockholm archipelago


Die games
Some runners are like quality wines...

Monday 10 August 2015

Tällberg half marathon

While most of the others are blogging about their big success or failure at WOC (mostly it’s about success or failure, there’s no room for a mid-thing there) we recreational runners can write about small idyllic summer events that no one knows about. One of these was Tällberg half marathon. During the WOC week I made a little road trip first to Dalarna and then to Strömstad and Halden, area where WOC 2016 goes. Nice to get started with preparations already before this year's champs were even finished. Early bird catches the worm and so on… But first to the run, then more about the training camp later.

Tällberg half marathon is said to be the most beautiful half marathon in Sweden. After running the race I find it hard to disagree. Well I’ve only run two half marathons in Sweden but this was definitively the prettiest half I’ve run. Tällberg is a well-hidden and incredibly cute little village in the hearth of Dalarna, by the Lake Siljan. Pretty as it is, the route is tough. You really need to suffer a great deal to explore all the beauty – but don’t worry, it’s definitively worth it!

I had a bit mixed feelings before the run because I had absolutely no idea if I would and could finish it. I mean who goes and runs a half marathon if your longest run in four months has been only 14km (at 6min/km pace) and if you haven’t covered any fast miles on hard surface?? No wait, I had done one sprint O race, but that was just about 15min. So basically no long runs and no fast runs in 4 months. I had run in terrain a few times but that doesn’t count really (impact and pace pretty far from road running). In other words I was terrified before the race. What the hell was I thinking about when I entered myself there?!? Okay, I can always run 5km and quit, I thought when we kicked off.

1km – I like to start gently and take the first kilometre easy. Like 3:40. Actually it goes downwards and it’s easy to get a fast start without pushing hard. I can already see groups forming. A few really fast guys up in front. Then a group of semi-fast recreational runners, probably sub3 marathoners. They are slowly pushing away from me. There’s also one woman amongst them. I should probably let her go...

2km – Around 2km starts the big climb. I try to keep my running relaxed (as relaxed as possible in that gradient) but to my surprise I’m gradually reaching people and closing the gap to the leading lady.

3km – Somewhere here I pass the woman in front of me and suddenly I’m the one in the lead. But I’ve done it all wrong. I hear Sami’s voice in my head blaming me for that. You don’t pass your rivals slowly inch by inch so that they have time to react and set themselves just behind you. No, you should accelerate and smash them (not literally) once you pass them so that you get a gap before they have time to react. But I follow the first scenario and the next thing my rival is breathing heavily in my neck and I can hear her steps as if they were my own.

4km – She’s still there, glistered in my back, and has no intension to let me go. Suddenly the climb turns steeper again, the second part of the big opening climb, and we are approaching the mountain prize point. I feel I’ve failed. I should have stayed behind her and attack if I wanted to win that polkadot jersey. Now I’m the one doing all the work and she has the advantage to sprint from me just before the mountaintop. Idiot.

5km – Near the finish of the climb now. Initially I had thought to take an easy start and definitively not to push before after the first climb. It would be essential to have fresh legs after the climb for the remaining 16km:s. The actual race wouldn’t start before after that climb. But when suddenly there, in a position of taking the glorious mountain prize, my legs refuse to listen to my brain and accelerate in order to win that prize. I explain to myself that this irrational attack is just because I’m not sure whether I will run the whole thing. If I’m going to quit early I should at least make an effort to win the mountain. I take that but I'm pretty exhausted at the top of the climb and start to doubt how I will survive the rest of the race. Just 16km to go…

5-10km – It’s mostly downhill and goes easily, we pass the arena around 9km and I get a lot of support and cheering. I feel pretty good.

11-12km - Starting to feel less great. Getting seriously tired and cannot keep up with the guys who I’ve been running with. My endurance is used. Also my calf (the healthy one) starts to cramp and running gets more and more difficult. (Actually it’s great news that it’s not the injured calf that is causing the problems. This pain is normal, part of the game.) Then I see David Andersson coming across, walking. I’m having my weak moment right there and seeing that David has dropped out doesn’t help. Just the opposite, it gives me an excuse to start to think about quitting. I’m deep in my gloomy thoughts when the woman who I passed earlier suddenly hurries past (fast and from distance, like a schoolbook example how to break your rival’s backbone). The only thing that had kept me going was my chance to win the race. No that it’s gone I don’t have anything to hold on to. The distance between us keeps growing and it’s over half a minute when we hit another major climb.

13-14km – One more climb. I’m dying but when a second woman passes me I get some extra strength and accelerate. By the time we reach the hilltop we have almost closed the gap to the leading lady. This second girl has run her race smart, saved her strengths and she’s able to push harder now. I have no chance keeping up with her – but I’m determined to catch the other girl. A moment ago I had almost given up and now I’m able to find yet another gear.

15km-17km – Tarmac turns into a path and I’m in my element. I catch a few runners, including the girl I’ve been fighting with the whole way. Just when I’m about to pass her, her personal supporter turns up with special drinks and stuff. Unfair. He follows us with his bike, giving her his support all the way home.

17-21km - We are running side by side and I get slightly irritated by the situation and decide to push away from her. I can’t remember pushing myself so close to limit but somehow I manage to accelerate, keep her behind me and finish as second lady. Also the time is quite alright. The course was seriously hilly and I didn’t think I could finish it in 90min. But I do, almost.


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