Gold at Swedish Championships

We did it! Won the relay at Swedish Championships. Amazing. I still find it hard to find words to express my happiness. It just feels so big. It’s a huge victory for me personally after a miserable season. And also it’s big for the club since it was 12 years ago since OK Linné won the women’s relay last time. It’s never easy to win. Until you actually do it. Even if you have a good team, you all need to do well on the same day. We have a strong women’s team in Linné but we’ve been more or less unlucky in the relays this season, so it really felt good to get it right at the end of the season.

Swedish Champions (Photo: Peter Ridefelt)

I ran the first leg. Not my favorite but I knew it was the best set-up for the team. I remember running a good opening leg for Tampereen Pyrintö in 1999 when I won my first senior gold at Finnish Championships. I just don't recall much of that run anymore... Then I have vivid memories from running first leg at 10mila some years ago and taking my own route choice right from the start all alone while the main group and other top teams went straight. Not a good strategy in a big relay if you’re not 100% sure to be faster than the others.

Anyway, my tactics was to stay awake (that is orienteer actively all the way) and avoid idiocy (can be pretty hard when exhausted). I was seriously tired after the middle distance and doubted whether I could run fast enough. I could feel the two races in my legs already after the first acceleration on the field. Not going to be an easy day... I look at the map and want to go straight to the path on the right. Yellow-green area under the red line looks horrible and there’s no way I’m going to go there. I just hope some of the others would choose the same route with me. When we climb up to the start point I go through the options in my mind. Am I ready to make my own choice this early? Is it smart or is it stupid? Then I see one of the girls turning right at the top of the hill and I follow. I intended to cut it sharper to the path but end up running with the pack further north before reaching it. But no major time loss and now there’s good time to read ahead and get a smooth start.

I find a nice rhythm in my orienteering and take my controls without problems. Just before the arena passage the girls in front of me take a different route but I try to be in control of my own orienteering and make my own choice. After the passage the same scenario recurs. Those in front of me turn down to the hillside before reaching the top. My control is at the top of the hill and suddenly I’m alone. Following three legs I’m on my own but then just before the long leg back different forkings gather together. I see Järla, Lidingö and Domnarvet there. Looks like the main contenders are still together. I take slightly different route out from the control but we are nonetheless closely together the whole leg. Just before the control I hesitate a little and a few teams pass me. I just want to play safe. I know I’ve done a good job so I don’t want to screw it up at the last meters. On the last climb towards the second last we are all pushing hard but instead of rushing to the control I try to read the details carefully. Control sits high up in the open hill and is actually much easier than it looks on the map. For just a short moment I regret taking it maybe too carefully but at the same time I’m very relieved that I managed to hold it together and do well despite growing tiredness. Maybe I eased a bit too early and lost some valuable seconds to Järla on the way to the last control and in the run-in but I’m just incredibly happy to be able to send Cat to the second leg in such good position. She has a big smile on her face when I hand her the map. I just know she will do well. I have two most amazing teammates and have 100% trust on them. Cat does a solid run and comes in in the lead but Järla is right behind and it looks like to become a tight duel between Järla and us. There were some dramatic turns on the last leg but Annika kept her head calm and we were over the moon to see her come first to the last control and join her in the run-in. Unbelievable, we had really done it! Results

Läs mer på svenska i UNT eller orientering.se   
Suomenkielinen reportaasi Ruotsin mestaruuksista Kestävyysurheilussa

Picture tells it all (Photo: Mårten Lång)

Gold in the relay was really the best possible way to finish the season. But the whole project towards SM, starting in August after my calf finally got better, was successful. Gold at the end of it was obviously the best you can get, but also getting back in competitive shape in such a short time felt great. It was kind of necessary too if I wanted to be part of a winning team. At the time of my last blog I had reached a decent regional level but I was still far from fighting top positions at Swedish Champs. In the winter I may have dreamed about a medal but at the end of August I doubted whether I would even make it to the final. Top10 felt definitively unrealistic. And yet, at the time of the champs, it wasn’t out of reach. In fact in the middle 10^th place was just 7 seconds away. I made mistakes in both finals and wasn’t too happy with either of my runs but two 12^th places at Swedish Champs is not that bad after all…

In the long final I got really bad start to the race: I lost about half a minute on the first control, made an idiotic route choice to the second (losing over 3min there), and missed the third about a minute. So on the 3^rd control, very early in the race, I was 30^th and over 5min behind the lead. But after that I pulled myself together and turned it to quite a decent run finishing 12^th.

Results long

GPS-tracking

In the middle final my expectations were slightly higher since I had a very good qualification run and a 2^nd place in my heat (results). In the final I tried to find the same flow and confidence that I had had in the qualification but it didn’t really work out the way I wanted. I had a good start but then didn't see the flag on the second control, which caused some additional stress and affected my orienteering on the following legs. All in all it was a bit shaky run and I just didn’t find the same flow I had had the day before. On the long leg I missed a few features that I had expected to see after climbing up the big cliff and thought for a while that I had got lost. It took a while to relocate but then it went well until the map exchange. After the map exchange I wasn't focused enough and made a half minute mistake to the next control. The rest was fine and I finished 12^th. Disappointing to lose 2-3min on mistakes on a middle distance but encouraging to be just 2,5min from the bronze. Certainly a proof of improvement! 

Results middle

GPS-tracking

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...

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.

Results

Two steps forward one step back

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.

GPS-tracking

Results

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. 

GPS-tracking

Results

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!

Training with reindeers

Look, it's Norway!

Race terrain, Idre fjällorientering

This is Kainuu. Never-ending marshes.

Finnish summer night, Hyrynsalmi

Re-charging

Päiväkirjaotteita

Matt Ogden, a club mate of mine in Linné, wrote a while ago a blog update with a title “The calm before the storm”. He probably meant just the silent weeks before 10mila but I think there's more in it. They’ve been sailing calmly from victory to victory so that you cannot expect less than a storm of success for them in the next weekend. All signs refer to that. After all, they’ve been almost unbeatable this spring. We girls on the other hand have been hiding our weapons and keeping a relatively low profile. We started the season with very stable performances from all four teams in Måsenstafetten a month ago where Inga, me and Annika took a second place just half a minute behind Järla. It was a good start but since then things have not gone that smoothly. At least not for me personally.

For me it hasn't been calm at all. It’s been a real roller coaster and a horrible storm behind the calmness. I haven’t really been able to run since Måsen and I have found it very hard to cope with the injury while counting days at the same time, first to Swedish Night Champs, then to Swedish League (both of which I couldn’t run) and now to 10mila... Below are some extracts from my training diary from the past month.

27.3. Woke up with a very sore right calf. Must have hurt it in the intervals. Went for an easy jog but could barely run. Don't know what has happened but it feels as if Sami's blood clot had hopped over to my calf!

1.4. Calf is really bad. Went to see a physio. He thinks it's a calf muscle tear. Sounds plausible. Anyway I should avoid running until it's better. Can take several weeks. Massage & ice should be fine and gentle stretching. Only seated heel raises. No JK.

8.4. Easy jog testing the calf. Not totally painless but a whole lot better. Maybe I can run in the weekend?

12.4. Ran Rånäs and back to square one. Suck. Made myself a rehab-training plan and intend to stick to it for a while. Cycling, swimming, aqua jogging, and gentle strength training. No running. Period.

18.4. A lovely long ride in the sun. Still a bit gutted that I had to drop out from the Swedish night champs last night but definitively a right decision. Could feel the calf a bit while cycling but not too much. Mostly pedaling down with the left and up with right. Works ok.

21.4. Saw an orthopedist today and had an ultrasound of the calf. It looked promising, no visible tear. At least the attachment of gastrocnemius to Achilles looked intact (the usual spot of a tear). Good news but it’s still hurting!

23.4. Baby steps. 15min walk to warm up, then 10x1min slow jog with 1min walk in between. Worked ok. Progress but still pretty far from running. No Swedish League.

28.4. Had my first ever acupuncture today. Very unpleasant experience but nothing compared to the pain afterwards. Could barely walk out from the clinic and had to walk with crutches rest of the day. Very painful. Should be better in a few days. All I can do at the moment is to wait and see...

29.4. Very relieved to notice that I am able to walk again! Started the day with some very gentle stretching exercises and a bit of massage. Calf is much better than it was yesterday. Otherwise feeling like shit, like a flu coming up... Can it be a systemic effect from the acupuncture? Hard to tell... Anyway, talked with Heidi (a friend, an orthopedist, and the best sports doc I know) on the phone today and she mentioned flexor hallucis longus and its possible involvement in my calf pain (a big toe flexor that goes deep inside the calf and attaches to the fibula). Pain feels deep, so it sounds like a good guess. So in addition to normal heel raises and stretching I will need to strengthen and stretch my toe flexors as well. She also mentioned the compartment but we ruled out MTSS (pain in the calf, not in the shin).. We also ruled out the blood clot.. After all it should have been visible in ultra...shouldn't it?? Symptoms don’t’ really fit in with neural involvement either.

30.4. Meeting with an orthopedist at a sports clinic today. Total waste of time and money. He just told me what I already knew (that ultra didn't really reveal anything). I was kind of hoping to hear some possible theories behind the pain but got nothing. He could have examined the calf but no. He just told me that it's something he doesn't know. Great. At least he was being honest. I tried to ask him about compartments and toe flexors but got absolutely nothing. Phew... So glad that I called Heidi! At least I have something to work on and some guidelines how to go on. Naprapathy guy is still the best specialist I've met here. I just hate his needles... Also, started with micro current therapy today.

2.5. A week to go. Crossing my fingers and hoping for the best...

Longing to run with these AWESOME girls soon again! (Mats Ferm)

Being patient

Being patient. I hope you got my little wordplay here. Two weeks ago I got a calf muscle tear and went to a health-care centre to show it to a physio and to get proper treatment. I was registered as a patient there. But getting injured just when the season is about to begin requires also a lot of patience. It’s all about being smart and being patient. It’s not particularly easy, especially not in the springtime when you are overexcited and anxious to get out there and race after a long winter. There’s a Finnish saying “innoissaan kuin varsa kevätlaitumella” which translates into English something like being as excited as a foal on a pasture in springtime. Doesn’t sound nearly as good in English but you get the picture. It’s about getting out and being able to run and jump freely and wildly. Don't know the proper English version for it.

On the other hand, you don’t want to ruin your whole season at this stage, and therefore I chose to be smart and not to run JK. This year JK got a lot of international attention and the start field was really good as many foreign runners came there to prepare for the WOC. It was supposed to be an individual season opening for me and I was really looking forward to it but now I just had to adjust and postpone everything. To make it even worse, I couldn’t cancel any of my reservations and chose to do the trip just for social purposes. Not a good decision. Even if it was great to socialise and meet with friends there, it would have been psychologically much easier for me to stay home and train alternative than to travel there just to support others and do some short walks in the forest. My patience is really not made for that.

The final test of my patience was our flight back home, which was only about 8h delayed. I’ve never been happier to get home. 

At least it was fairly nice weather, great company and a lovely B&B.

Sheep and stonewalls

It has taken its time to recover from a 12 day long training camp in Slovenia and Croatia but now that I’ve overcome the worst exhaustion I’m finally able to write a few lines about it. It was my first training camp abroad with my new club OK Linné and it was a wonderful experience. There’s a nice buzz and excitement in the group combined with relaxed attitude and great passion for training and racing. Racing doesn’t always need to involve sports. 7 Wonders, tight schedule to a ferry or a micro sprint on a hand drawn map over the back yard is enough to spark a competitive instinct.

First three days we spent on this gorgeous island of Cres. We arrived there late in the evening in the darkness and it wasn’t before the next morning when you could fully see and understand the beauty of it. It’s a small Croatian island with huge hills, cute small villages and thousands of sheep wandering around freely. We stayed at Beli, a charming historic village at a top of a hill with views over the ocean and orienteering terrains just around the corner. Kvarner Bay Challenge, a small local two-day event, was in the scheme in the first weekend. Terrain was typical karst terrain with good runnability apart from the stone formations. And there were quite many of them too. Like fifty shades of stonewalls and at least three ways to describe them on the map, based on how they look like, or how big or distinctive they are. I always thought that small dots in a line (......) meant a vegetation border but learned that it can also refer to a small stonewall. Educational.

In addition to KBC we did a couple of technical trainings, a sprint in the town of Cres and a few sightseeing runs exploring mysterious stone labyrinths, Celtic tombs and Roman ruins before leaving the island. Oh and after missing a ferry (because stopping for some pics) we did one spontaneous hill run too. We just started to run uphill from the harbour and after 40min of climbing, we turned back. It’s seldom you get to do something like that back home since the biggest hill in Uppsala is about 2min.   

On the way to Croatia we ran a sprint in Rovinj, a beautiful coastal town in Istrian peninsula. It was such a nice place that we stayed there for a lunch too. Some of us took a dip in the sea and smelled like fish the rest of the day. On the way back to the cars I managed to spot this little café there that valued high my home country. That cafe alone is good enough for a reason to visit the city.

In Slovenia we stayed in Ajdovščina, in Vipava Valley. It was gorgeous location with views over the surrounding hills and vineyards. Also, it was the event centre for Lipica Open days 3 and 4, which made it very convenient for us. There were many maps and terrains around for training and then there was this magnificent peak (Navrše Hill 857m) that we just couldn’t get enough of. A small stony path led from the village up to the top with over 700m of elevation gain in 4,5km distance. Once again, very different scale what we are used to back home.

Lipica Open delivered variety of terrains and challenges for each day. It was very well organized event and very interesting orienteering. After all trainings both in Croatia and Slovenia I thought I had seen enough stones but first day in Lipica Open still surprised me (see the map here). I found it hard to ran through these enormous stone fields but kept my orienteering technically together and got a nice start to the week. Second and third days were a bit easier and longer courses but offered some good route choice legs (map D2, map D3). Forth was again something quite special and fun on a 1:7500 scale map (map D4). Fifth day (map D5) was, thank god, the easiest day, both physically and technically, which was quite nice after almost 30h of training and over 6km vertical climb in my legs. All in all, just brilliant. Hills, terrains, stones, courses, sheep, company, views, weather, everything! Hvala!

Results

Maps