You should take an ambulance!

Just when I thought it can’t get any worse it did. I wrote earlier about a coccyx injury but it turned out to be a broken pelvis. A transverse fracture in the sacrum. S3 bone broken into two pieces with a slight displacement of the lower half. Coccyx got a hit too and at the beginning I was having so much pain that I couldn't really distinguish from which bone the worst pain originated. Therefore I wanted to have it scanned. To find out how bad it was and to minimize any further damage. Right from the beginning I felt that something was really wrong and that it was more than just a bruise. That's why I went to see a doctor right away to have it x-rayed. But the doctor I went to at Levi refused to do it. He just told me that they don't x-ray tailbones. As simple as that. All I got was a prescription for painkillers and an empty wallet (105€ for nothing).

A week later situation wasn't any better. I felt that the pain hadn't decreased at all and got quite concerned. At that stage I could palpate the tailbone end myself and understood that the worst pain was higher up in the pelvis. So I went to St Cross hospital to see if they could x-ray it. Nurse who took me in understood my concern but sent me forward to Coventry hospital to get it x-rayed because they could only scan limbs. So I called Coventry and explained my case. I told them that I suspected a pelvic fracture and the person in the other end told me that I should have an ambulance to get there. I agreed that sitting in a car was a nightmare but convinced her that I could take myself there without an ambulance. Big mistake. Had a taken an ambulance I would most probably gotten my pelvis x-rayed right away but I didn't want to inflate my case, so I asked Sami to drive me there instead. I went in as a pelvic fracture patient but got out with a coccyx fracture - diagnosed again without an x-ray or sufficient palpation (a young male doctor who was clearly too scared to touch me). Just more painkillers. I was really disappointed and made a bit of a scene as they refused to scan me (I actually started to cry but it didn't help).

Two weeks later I was still worried and went to see a GP at our local surgery. But there are no scanners at local surgeries. Once again I got prescription for some more painkillers and started to feel more and more like a drug addict.

Four weeks after the incident the pain had finally started to diminish and I could manage the normal life again, except sitting and lying. But I was really tired of it and wanted to get back to training. I had already lost four most precious weeks of my winter training and I didn't want to lose any more. I thought I could gradually start running again but just to play it safe I went to see my physio Sarah to get some advice how to start with. After several healthcare units and doctors she was the first person to really examine my spine. Soon she discovered the small bone displacement and sent me to an x-ray, which just confirmed what she had suspected. I was more than upset by the new piece of news (that I really had a broken sacrum with no signs of healing) but at the same time extremely grateful that Sarah had found it. Without her I would have started running and probably delayed its recovery even further. After the x-ray I was instantly told by all doctors and experts not to run for another 4 weeks.

Ironic that I had been free to do whatever I wanted the first 4 weeks with my broken pelvis but now that the worst pain was gone and I was feeling a whole lot better I was told to rest for the next 4 weeks. Then we'll see how much damage I've done during the first 4 weeks...

Status at day 40: Yey I'm able to swim! (at least a few hundreds..)

Restructuring

I've been struggling with this tailbone injury for over 3 weeks now and starting to lose my nerves! I guess it's already a little better but it's been a real pain in the ass, literally, and I'm quite tired of it. I'm tired of not being able to sit or lie down, tired of not being able to run and tired of trying to come up with new forms of cross training that I could do without pain. Everything involves your butt and there's not much you can do without one. I've been injured before but it's seldom you face an injury that prevents you even from swimming or aqua jogging. Those are the forms of training that you can most often do, even with a stress fracture. But when you hurt your pelvis (coccyx and sacrum included) then the options are rare. It feels really pathetic if you can't even swim!

So my first solution was to get a pull buoy. A what? Don't worry if you don't know. You've just been lucky and you haven't trained swimming. A pull buoy is not really a buoy but a floating foam thing that you hold between your thighs and it helps you to swim while using only your upper body. Swimmers use it to practice their arms whereas non-swimmers using one are most often injured athletes from other sports. Usually a pathetic sight. Well I've surely had some "fun" trying to learn to swim with that. My legs have always out-powered my arms, which means that when I swim or cross country ski my arms just come along and give a rhythm whereas the power comes from my legs. It works fine as long as your legs work but when the legwork stops then the movement seems to disappear. So my first training session wasn't more than five minutes (and I was all shaky after I had given my everything) but I've been able to train it up to whole 20 minutes now. What an achievement!

I have gradually added some other forms of training too, even some gentle running on grass, but nothing is yet painless. First I just wanted to get rid of the pain and didn't worry about all the undone training but after 3 weeks I couldn't help but take a look on my training plan and start to count the weeks. EOC was (and still is) my big goal for the early season and I was happy to notice that I've still got plenty of time to prepare for that if I just can start running in February. But the problem comes in delivering results over a month earlier. POM is announced to be Finland's selection race for EOC (middle, long, relay) but it is right in the beginning of March and I will really need February and March for some hard training. I'm not throwing in the towel yet but I've set myself another big target for April just to build up the base and to get the needed miles done (for the rest of the season). If everything goes well I'm probably still going to run POM but it will hopefully be in the middle of hard preparation phase. Whether I'll rock there or not I've got my big goal for April and I'll be working my ass off to get my ass work again.

"A strong butt is a key to a happy life" 

Another kind of Christmas

Happy New Year to everyone! My 2013 ended with fracture in the coccyx. A small hit onto a stone while sledging that has turned into a real nightmare and disturbed my winter training for weeks (hopefully not for months). So, a new year could have started happier but at least I know that there's only one way up and that each day will be better.

Usually we have had a habit of heading south to warmth and sun during the holidays but this year we headed north in order to enjoy a true white Christmas with close relatives in Lapland. We were amazed by all the snow and beauty when we got to Kittilä airport and I couldn't take my eyes off the snow-covered trees while we drove to Levi. We had hired an absolutely lovely cottage just by the ski tracks with Sami's brothers and their families and I was looking forward to all cross-country skiing I was going to do there. Everything was so idyllic and perfect that we could only expect to have a fantastic week ahead.

I was so thrilled about it all that I was among the firsts to run out and sledge like a kid but it didn't take many slides before my white dream came to a sudden end when I landed onto a stone. Spot on onto a stone with my coccyx ahead. That was it. I could still enjoy the atmosphere, lovely company, delicious food and beautiful scenery but it was all dimmed a bit by the constant pain I was having. I got some pretty strong painkillers that helped me through the worst and I think I would have got back home with mostly good memories if the travel itself hadn't been so horrible. After seven days from the injury I still couldn't sit without pain and having to sit through two flights and a drive from London was just too much.

I've had a few flashbacks from 2001 when I got several fractures in my pelvis and spine in a car accident and had constant pain for months. This is nothing like that but there are still some similarities. The affected area is anatomically quite close to what it was then and if I accidentally move my hip or back a bit too much or too fast the pain is about the same what it was back then. I can't understand how I ever got through it but having that horrible memory helps me now. This should be a piece of cake compared to what I went through then.

It's funny how relative everything is. Pain too. When running the last 15k of Florence marathon less than two months ago with cramping legs, big blisters and black nails, I thought I was in pain. But now I know better. I wasn't in pain. Maybe I was not having my best day as a runner but I was still having a time of my life, doing something I love. Blisters made me cry, cramping legs protested and tried to make me stop and all signals from my body said I should quit but I didn't. In the finish I was disappointed not to break the time I had set but I was still quite happy and proud that I had forced myself through the pain and finished the race. Sadly it took me over a month to realize this. The pain you have when you suffer in a race is the best pain I know. That's the pain I love, the pain I miss, and the pain I want to experience again!

Early bird EOC training camp

It's been a while since my last blog update. This is because of some personal concerns as well as uncertainty about the future. It's hard to make any plans or set goals when you don't know anything about your future work, income, possibilities to train and orienteer or even your country of residence for that matter. It looks like our adventure in UK is approaching to its end and we need to seek for new challenges. Exciting but nerve cracking. World is your oyster type of living is fascinating but also a bit stressful if you want to set goals and make commitments to work towards them. I've still got energy and motivation to continue my orienteering career but right now I'm in a place of big uncertainty and inability to make decisions or commitments. Frustrating.

I will continue dreaming about running WOC long distance in Italy to push myself forward and to train hard, but everything else remains open. Had I been selected to the national team, it would have been an easy decision for me to spend January in South Africa and February in Portugal together with the team training 100% towards EOC & WOC in near to perfect conditions with professional help, ready-made O-trainings, and masseur on hand. Luxurious? For an orienteer, yes, it surely is. But now that I'm out I will have to organize and finance everything myself. In other words I have to keep it plain and simple.

My dreams are in the future but I'm very much living the now. Last week it meant that I booked cheap last-minute flights to Lisbon and took an extended weekend off to do a short mini training camp in EOC relevant terrains in Portugal. Whatever happens in the coming months I've already got these few valuable technical training sessions in my bag for the spring. Something to remember and to look forward to during the long and dark winter months...Weekend was successful training-wise and also a lovely break from December darkness!

Third Time Lucky

It's October again and time for my annual autumn highlight: Bupa Great Birmingham Run, also known as Birmingham half marathon. This year it clashed with the British Fell Relays and Compass Sport Cup final, which was really a shame, because I would have loved to do them all. But this half marathon has become very special to me and I just couldn't pass it. I'm sorry if I let anybody down. So here we go.

I got to start by a gunshot in the faster group just behind a handful of elite runners. I knew that most of them were faster than me, so I placed myself safely far back in the group in order not to go out too fast in the beginning. What I unfortunately did not know was that my time would be based on the gunshot. I passed the start line 5-6 seconds after the shot, which isn't much, but still if I had known that it was the gun time that counted, I would have taken a sprint at the end.

0-5km: First kilometers went pretty fast but effortlessly. I hit the 5km mark in 18:49, which is over a minute faster than my goal pace. So far so good.

5-10km: After the first 5k I have found a comfortable rhythm and good company to run with. There's a drink station where I collide with one of the marshals but no one gets hurt. My 10km split is 39:29. Still half a minute ahead.

10-15km: First signs of tiredness and my calves are getting tighter. I've been running together with a girl from Solihull but she's increasing her pace now and I have to let her go. Soon there's another girl from Birmingham University who accompanies me for the rest of the race. 15km in 59:49. Still ahead. I can't believe I've just done 15km within an hour. Wow.

15-20km: I'm feeling alright until the big climb from about 18km to 20km. It seems to take all out of my legs and I find it difficult to accelerate after that. "Come on, get angry" someone shouts at the climb. I try to do that but find it quite funny. Of all feelings angriness is certainly not highest up on the list. I'm more somewhere between amusement and agony. But I survive the hill. I lose some time but not too much.

20-21.1km: "Okay come on now, it's just the sprint left, you can do it!" I tell myself. I try to speed up but my legs are empty. The climb was too much to my already aching legs and I find them useless. The last mile takes ages. Finally comes the '800m left' mark and two 800m runners pass me. It looks so smooth and easy as they surf away. I hear Sami's shouting that I should stick to them. Easier said than done. Anyway I reach the finish line in 1:25:50 and something. Definitively under 1:26. That's all that matters. I could have finished stronger but I'm still quite pleased with my run. Until the moment I go and check the official results. There's only my gun time 1:26:01. What?? I know it was clearly under that - by several seconds. Rather frustrating. 

Thanks once again for a terrific event with superb atmosphere and great support all the way through! Special thanks to all K&D runners who gave their support after the Cadbury loop. Seeing a friendly face and hearing your name is always a big help. I'm proud to be part of the 3rd best club at the event!

GPS route and splits 

Official results

Magnifico, fantastico, excellente!

That's northern Italy. And that's also Simone and her way of saying good-bye to the international orienteering community and the home crowds. I spent fantastic 1,5 weeks on a training camp in WOC 2014 regions in Trentino and Veneto with the Finnish team before going to Baden for the World Cup final. Training camp itself was excellent in many ways but maybe not optimal preparation for the World Cup final. Italy provided good food, great coffee, excellent wines, gorgeous views, lovely alpine villages, fresh mountain air and nice, runnable terrains. I just loved it all. If I ever had thoughts whether to continue or not, Italy gave me confidence and motivation to go on. I fancied the terrains there and feel keen to go there again.

Long distance race (photo Vitalii Rupp)

There was a two-day orienteering event, 2 Giorni dell'Altopiano, in Lavarone, just next to WOC 2014 long distance terrain, which attracted quite many international orienteers. There was a middle distance on Saturday and a long distance world-ranking event on Sunday. I enjoyed both races very much and was quite pleased with my runs on both days. Middle distance was pretty straightforward execution whereas long distance offered more route choices and small details. In the middle I had a smooth run but tried to save my legs a bit on ascents whereas in the long distance I ran full speed but did some small mistakes in the circle on the second half of the course (controls 8, 9, and 18). To controls 10 and 14 I took bad route choices and lost a little on them.

Results middle distance

Results long distance

Middle distance race Lavarone

Long distance race Lavarone

After training camp we drove the whole way from Asiago to Baden for the World Cup. But training twice a day in tough hilly terrains had taken its toll and I had nothing left in my legs. Long travel and one easier day (including a model event and a mixed sprint relay) wasn't enough for recovery. I loved the terrain in the middle distance but I was too tired to keep a decent pace. Also I lost 4min in total on two controls, first because I wasn't paying attention and overshoot one of the easiest controls and then because I simply couldn't get to number 5 (steep slope too muddy and slippery to use when approaching the control from the right hand side). So I wasn't at all pleased with my run. World Cup final middle map

World Cup final Baden (photo Marc Streit)

In the sprint I realized only afterwards how bad my run really was. While running I had better feeling than in the middle but because I'm not very used to sprints with climbs and stairs I had difficulties in making the right decisions. I think I took almost all wrong route choices and ended up running far too many stairs instead of running flat. I tried to stay on the shortest route but it was seldom the fastest. So I lost over a minute on four crucial route choice legs (1, 8, 12, 14) and also some hesitation here and there. It was probably one of my worst World Cup performances but it was still great to be involved in Simone's last international race and farewell party. She's an amazing athlete with amazing career and we will all miss her not just because of her talent and achievements but also because of her admirable personality. She's been such a great role model for the sport and such a great person in every way! 
World Cup final sprint map

Thank you Simone! (photo Erik Borg)

World Cup final sprint broadcast

Results, splits, GPS-tracking etc.

Towards Italy & Switzerland!

It's been a while since my last update and the summer is gone. But it was a good one, at least when it comes to weather. Why am I writing about the weather? Because here in UK we like to speak about it and this summer is totally worth mentioning. It's been historically warm and sunny, like a typical Finnish summer. We got this shopping bag a year ago with a label "Great British Summer", which has been more or less a regular joke in our house. But not anymore.

Apart from Scottish 6 days I didn't orienteer much this summer but kept myself occupied with sportives, road races, triathlon and fell running. I enjoyed the aimless floating and freedom to do whatever I wanted. I even broke a few of my PB:s quite effortlessly while floating. However after a while I realized that I needed to set up some goals in order to stay motivated. So I went and ran Finnish long distance champs in order to qualify for the final World Cup round in Switzerland.

I knew my shape was ok but as I hadn't orienteered for a while it was a question mark how it would go. I was extremely nervous before the qualification race but ran well and was only 9 seconds from winning my heat.  From the splits I saw that I had been fastest on all "running legs" so I knew I had the legs and I just needed to focus on orienteering. But unfortunately those legs were gone on the following day and the final was just horrible. It was only 5 days after a half marathon so it wasn't really a wonder that my legs weren't fully recovered and up for two subsequent races in tough terrain. In addition I made one big mistake to control 7, which didn't help at all. So I ended up 6th. It was a disappointment after a good qualification race but luckily it was good enough to get selected to the World Cup. So mission accomplished. As a bonus I also got selected to a training camp in Italy for the next year. I've got good memories from Trentino a few years back and really looking forward to get there again.

So I got back home with a huge motivation boost: now I had something to train for the next few weeks! But it wasn't just motivation I brought home with me. I also got my plantar fasciitis back. That's really annoying but I'm doing everything I can at the moment to get rid of it before the training camp. So instead of intervals and O-training I signed up to a local gym and I'm trying to strengthen all my weak running muscles. I'm hoping for a soon recovery.