Riina Kuuselo: January 2013

It's been a different kind of winter with a lot of alternative training and compromises.

Ever since the middle of November I've been struggling with a foot injury that has lately transformed from weird metatarsal pain to more conventional plantar fasciitis (don't really know whether to be relieved or not). First I thought it was good that the initial pain was more or less gone and the pain had proceeded towards the heel but nonetheless situation remains pretty much the same. I've still got pain when I run and it gets even worse afterwards. But hey I just read that most people recover completely within a year so I've got no worries! (what?!? a whole year?!?) I also found out that it is often associated with high BMI (I should really get worried!).

So I've spent much more time in saddle, gym and pool than running and gradually I'm getting a bit bored to it. I was happy to be able to run the first World Cup round in New Zealand but in reality my foot was not yet fully recovered and running there didn't help much the process. On the other hand the whole trip was amazing and gave me a huge mental boost that I really needed.

When back in England I thought I could do some proper training again by cycling but then we got lots of snow and for a week or so cycling outside was not an option. I tried running in snow, which was much better than running on hard surface, but it was not painless. When the snow was finally gone and I was excited to get back in the saddle the first thing that happened was that my bike got punctured. I know it happens quite often but at that moment it just felt a bit unfair after all misery. The day after I got the tire changed and was just getting ready for a new ride when stomach flu hit me and put me to bed. I'm not complaining, it just hasn't been any dancing on roses lately.

Anyway, it's looking slightly better now (knock knock) and I really hope I will be able to run again in a few weeks time when heading off to Portugal for a training camp. Plan was to run both POM and MOC but we'll see how it goes. Adios!

World Cup start in New Zealand and the whole trip there was awesome. It's an amazing country and the races there were excellent.

When we got there just before New Year I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to run any of the races due to my injured foot but I was nevertheless determined to enjoy the trip (which wasn't particularly difficult). First week I still avoided running and concentrated on other stuff. We explored exotic forests, waterfalls, beaches, hot water springs, hobbit land, mountain bike parks, national parks, mountains, bubbling mud baths and other geothermal wonders. Model event just a day before the first World Cup race was my first O-training for a long while and gave me a needed wake-up before the first race.

It started with a middle distance on sand dunes of Waikawa Beach. First look on the map and I realized it was going to be a technically challenging race. "Just what I wanted" I thought slightly horrified because it looked really tricky and I wasn't sure how I was going to cope with it myself. But it was indeed really cool and I loved it! I tried to focus on simplifying things and picking features from a distance. It worked pretty well all the way to the spectator control where I forgot for a while what I was doing. My good flow was disrupted and I did a couple of small mistakes at the end of the course losing a few minutes there. But as a whole it was pretty solid race and I was quite happy with my 12th place. After all I hadn't been able to run or orienteer for a while.

World Cup 1 results

Next day we had a sprint qualification race on the Parliament grounds in Wellington. It was a typical city centre sprint course and a good reminder for me what sprint orienteering is. My sprint mode was totally off and I hesitated a lot but made it still comfortably to the final. Unfortunately my foot protested quite a lot after running hard on hard surface and racing again the day after wasn't very fun.

Sprint final started from the very famous Dunharrow (from the Lord of the Rings) by the side of Mt Victoria and zigzagged across the Wellington college area providing everything you can expect from a sprint course. After a decent start I messed it up on the long leg to control 5 where I wasn't able to execute the leg as I had planned but instead tried to run through some buildings (didn't succeed though). I lost over a half a minute there and after that did some additional smaller mistakes. I wasn't at all happy with my performance but quite surprisingly made it still among top 20.

World Cup 2 results

Third World Cup race was a combination of a prologue in the morning and a chase start in the afternoon. Both races went on open grassy hobbit hills with some steep climbs. I had an average run in the prologue with a few small mistakes. In the chase I went out as 17th with Venla and Outi just a few seconds behind me. We did a good job in the beginning and reached soon all the girls ahead from 9th place onwards. From control 10 to 13 it felt more or less like cross-country running but then in the map change (#13) we split. Lina & co who ran it around from the left were far ahead on the next control and we only reached them at the end of the course. Sprint to the finish started from the second last control before I had even punched it and I just felt I missed the whole thing. I don't know whether it was the heat or the fact that I hadn't done any sprinting for ages but I felt just helpless when it came to sprint and was unable to change the gear. It had been a good race for me but after such a faint finishing it didn't feel that good. I was 15th.

World Cup 3 prologue results

World Cup 3 chase results

Overall it was a great tour with some excellent races and I'm extremely happy that I was able to run them all. With respect to my injury and a break from running and orienteering I am quite pleased with my two top 15 results and my current 13th place in the overall World Cup standing.

World Cup overall standing

All maps are found here

Some random pics from the trip..