Un espresso, grazie!

Just a few days ago I came home from another great training camp in Italian Dolomites seasoned with home-made pasta and a good cup of coffee. I made my first visit there already in 2004 when I ran the Italian 6 Days (which was actually 3 days in Austria and 3 days in Italy back then). Ever since then I've had warm feelings towards northern Italy. Views, mountains, food, wine, coffee, ice cream...everything! It was definitively love at first sight for me. When I later found out that WOC 2014 would be arranged in the very same area it wasn't hard to find motivation to train for that. Last autumn I spent a week there training with the Finnish Team and couldn't wait to get back.

As you can read from my previous blog there was some tiredness in the air before the training camp and I wasn't feeling as perky and recovered as I wanted to. But as soon as we arrived in Asiago I forgot my tiredness, flu, allergy, borreliosis, and the rest of the problems. I just loved the to be there, able to train in those magnificent surroundings together with the national team. It was such a luxury in so many ways compared to my DIY training camps. Initially I was going there for an own training camp with a friend but at the last minute we were able to sneak in to this ready-made training camp, which made everything easier and enabled us to train more and better.

We stayed first in Asiago, training in the middle distance and relay terrain type, before moving to Lavarone, where we could focus on the long distance. The whole set-up was very good  (some of the trainings attracted even some random World Champions to take part) and I was happy that I could do most of the trainings as planned. Some of the harder sessions I had to shorten or split into parts but otherwise I was able to follow the plan. Unfortunately some terrains in Lavarone area were still covered with snow and therefore we had to improvise a bit. But not too much. All in all it was very good and I think I've got a good picture what to wait from the WOC terrains and how to prepare for it. But first, in two weeks, I need to convince the selectors that I can master those terrains. The whole Finnish Team will run the 3 Days of Trenches as selection races. I hope to find my lost flow and fitness before that. Exciting times...

Some pics from the training camp - just to make you jealous :)

Morning run, Lavarone

Minna and dandelions, Asiago

Views from Forte Belvedere 

Lavarone village

Indications of mountain sickness?

Poppies!

Duomo and the sky, Milan

Perfect gloves for Pyrintö chicks

Window shopping in Milan

Roller coaster of emotions

It seems that we have a tendency to create a bit drama when it comes to big relays like Venla or 10mila. Sometimes it's about surprising everyone by winning the relay with an unknown team, sometimes it's about getting disqualified when alone in the lead with a wrong map, sometimes it's about losing it all on the second last control, and sometimes it's about losing it before it even starts by losing 40% of your team (no they didn't die, they just had some health-related issues). Been through it all and I prefer the first scenario.

However, in this year's 10mila the last scenario hit us. Three of us had already arrived in Eksjö for the relay when we heard that two of our best runners had opted out in the last minute. It was Friday, the day before the relay, so there wasn't much to do. All we could do was to transfer two runners from the second team to the first team, two from the third team to the second team, and two from the fourth team to the third team, and for forth team...well, we told them to sell those two remaining legs for the highest bid. I'm not sure how it ended.

Anyway, the news wasn't too cheerful and the first reaction was...erm...maybe it's better not to write it out. Anyway we were more or less f..cked. Not that we didn't have good reserves but the thing was that we had also lost our last leg runner and none of us wanted to run that.  We had all had some problems in the preceding weeks and no one wanted an extra challenge. We were happy with the given legs. Period. Martina had prepared only for the first leg for some time, so she was untouchable. And Sonja and Heidi, reserves who got upgraded into the first team, got automatically legs 2 and 3. This meant that Saila and I had to play rock paper scissors for a few hours before I finally gave up and agreed to run the last leg. Saila's last desperate move was to point out the fact that I had done a couple of strides after the training we had done whereas she had felt too tired for that.  So it was settled. Argh I should have skipped those strides..

When we had finally agreed on the running orders in all our teams we had whole 15 minutes time to register them. There was some excitement that we would miss it but our confident coach Janne got it all arranged in time. After that we could relax a bit and start to adjust to the new situation. After some pep talk, map geeking and discussing tactics we felt slightly better and there was a nice atmosphere within the group. This unfortunate course of events brought us closer together and we realized that we could not change the situation but we could try to make the best of it. We didn't have a winning team anymore but we could try our best and maybe make it to top 15 if lucky.

Martina ran the first leg. She did very well but made one parallel mistake where she lost the front group. At the first changeover we were 37th, 4:05 behind. Sonja continued the good work on the second leg and sent Heidi out as 31st, 6:29 behind the lead. Heidi had the legs to hang on to anyone but unfortunately there was no one to follow and she had to orienteer on her own in no man's land. Still she managed to pick up 9 positions and came in 22nd, 7:28 behind. Saila ran very well and lifted us up to 15th place, 10:09 behind the lead. But again, there was a big empty gap in front of us and no realistic chances to catch anyone on the last leg. I was partly relieved because I was still pretty tired and not feeling 100%. I thought I could just enjoy it, without having to push 110%.

So I took all the time I needed to get up the first climb and then slowly accelerated into a nice comfortable rhythm. After 5 controls Lena caught up with me and it was time for goodbyes to my just-having-a-good-time pace. But my body fought against it and allowed me to use only 4 gears. I kept seeing Lena but couldn't really keep up with her. No 5th gear today. In the turning point of the course I made a mistake in the green (control 11) but to my surprise met with Lena again. Also Irina Nyberg from Hellas joined us there. We ran more or less together up to the spectator control, taking slightly different routes and losing sight to each other once in a while but meeting again at the controls.

I thought we had a small gap to Irina just before the spectator control but she must have been there all the time. For me it was just the usual battle between Pyrintö and Domnarvet, as so many times before. From the spectator control I took a different route choice and was a few meters ahead of Lena on the next control. On the second last it was less than that. From there we raced neck and neck towards the last control but then Lena took a shortcut across the terrain whereas I ran directly to the fence. I got a small gap and the rest is history. But I was so focused just beating Domnarvet that I had forgotten Hellas and didn't see Irina coming in the climb just before the last control. Suddenly she just flew past before I noticed. Still, I was more than happy to bring us home 14th. Big thanks to everyone involved! 

Maps and GPS-tracking

Results

Me praying for an extra gear (Photo: Jonas Birgerson)

Happy team getting through with it with a big smile (Photo: Halokeeni Magazine)

Back in Sweden!

A week after EOC we moved to Sweden, somewhere between Trelleborg and Karesuando, to quote a friend. Or between Stockholm and Uppsala to be a bit more specific. Initially we wanted to have a villa with a lake view in Sigtuna but unfortunately our dream house wasn't available. Instead we had to settle for an old mansion (herrgård) in beautiful rural landscape just a few miles from the busiest airport in Scandinavia. Contrasts are huge sometimes. Once again we are happily surrounded by sheep, cows and horses - and we feel like home. It's just temporary but it's really lovely.  

View from the bathroom

We always try to get close to these big metropolises (such as Stockholm, Birmingham and Tampere) but somehow we still end up living in the countryside. There is this strange connection between us and the cows: we never get rid of them. It all started some years ago when we lived for a while in Aitoo (a lovely tiny village some 50km from Tampere in the middle of nowhere with a few hundred inhabitants) in perfect harmony with cows and sheep. After that we have of lost our street credibility as urban citizens for good and seem to carry this piece of countryside within us (meissä jokaisessa asuu pieni lehmä..). 

Stalkers that we can't get rid off

I summed up the time in UK a while ago in another blog text but it wasn't before the last week when it really struck me. This is it, I'm not coming back. I ran my last long run in tears thinking about all the things I was going to miss. I had really learned to love England with its quirks and left part of my heart in the footpaths of Warwickshire. Luckily Sweden has delivered too and made the adaptation easy. It's almost like Finland and has offered everything that I've missed these years. First days I just spent in delight eating all Finnish/Scandinavian food that you cannot get elsewhere in the world. Best of all, you can even get Fazer's freshly baked rye bread in Sweden! Then I realized how much weight I would gain with my nonstop eating and refocused my attention to the gorgeous nature and forests around instead of ICA Maxi shelves. 

Heavenly good

Just a few days after the removal, still somewhat tired from the European Champs and the removal itself, I rented a car and drove to Skåne to explore Sweden and have a go in the Silva League for the very first time. The distance didn't look too bad on the map but it was a long drive there. I had clearly forgotten the size of Sweden.. On the way there I stopped in Eksjö to see how Tiomila training terrain looked like. It looked very nice but I was so tired that all I could do was just to walk around there. On the following morning I was feeling even more tired and had a bit of sore throat and running nose. I was hesitant whether to drive another 200km to the event that I most probably would need to quit anyway. But I decided that it was just allergy and went for it. 

Vitsippor överallt!

The race itself was much tougher than I had expected and in kind of terrain where you need to feel strong and push hard to do well. My hopes of challenging orienteering and less physical race proved false. I started well but felt tired right from the beginning. Early on the course there were some thickets that literally took all out of me and I kind of gave up. I managed to keep a decent pace in the nice parts of the course but I was too tired to push through the rougher areas and it's there you make a difference. I was thinking about retiring but then I caught up with Galina, which gave me some hope and I decided to continue. I felt tired but did pretty well up to the butterflies. Then I started to lose my concentration and did a small mistake to number 15. Rest of the short legs went fine but on the way back to number 20 I was just focusing on the route choice to 22 and forgot that there was one short leg in between. By the time I realized skipping over 21 there was a long climb back to the control and I hesitated whether to bother at all.. I went back but lost quite a lot of time there. After such a stupid mistake I found it hard to focus again and made small mistakes on the next two controls. So it was a long and hard way home from the butterflies but I didn't retire and got rewarded with a respectable 10th place in my Silva League premiere. Not too bad considering the start field. Indeed I was happily surprised that my bad day was so good!

Results

GPS tracking in 2DRerun 

Spriiiing!

This week I've taken it easy but still enjoyed having all these forests around me. I hope that I've managed to recharge my batteries and will be ready for 10mila on Saturday. We have four awesome teams and I hope we can challenge the other top teams. It will be exciting. Stay tuned! 

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