Enjoy the summer pace
Summer is definitely here now, which means there’s more and more controls out there to discover. I have been battling an injured tendon in my leg for quite some time now and despite numerous hours spent on rehabilitation the days’ my stride has felt under control are limited. I do believe all those hours will eventually make me find a more economical running form which I can utilize for many fast years ahead.
10mila, World Cup round 1 and EOC are some of the spring orienteering highlights which I have participated in even if I haven’t physically been 100%. I did only one race in Sweden before the World Cup opening round and had problems with getting my unaccustomed legs to turn over in the forest. Lacked self-confidence for top-orienteering performance too, so made one big mistake in navigating to a not-so-lonely boulder in a boulder field.
IFK Lidingö SOK:s 4th place finish at 10mila in Falun was yet another showcase of how good orienteers we are when it counts, but that the little bit we’re lacking from winning the big ones needs to be found. My 9th leg was orienteering-technically flawless, but my running performance was sub-par towards the end. I managed to improve our team’s standings and was 4th fastest on the leg, so it was decent from me. At Jukola a few of us will be in better physical shape and we’re not planning on loosening the orienteering focus either.
Before EOC I was still contemplating whether I should risk hurting myself more or stay home and rehabilitate my injury. The decision to travel to Czech’s Jesenik was a good one since in the sprint I was able to push myself to the limit for the first time in months. I took one bad route choice and lacked foresight but was at the finish relishing the feeling of laying all I had out on the course. Made one mistake on the middle qualification resulting in not making it to the A-final, but could recover better for the relay instead. There I was trusted with the first leg and performed well in control and was first through most of my forking controls. I was in fact the fastest on the last km on the 1st leg and kept the Finnish team in the fight. Unfortunately teammates Aaro & Fredric didn’t find best flow on the day – but we agreed to go big at more familiar Nordic WOC terrains.
Now stop reading and get out. These days you don’t even need to put on much, but can run/swim or whatever your sport is anywhere and anytime. Since my season’s main goal is running sprint orienteering by the ocean in Sweden’s Strömstad I’ve chosen to enjoy three days of just that at Swedish Champs in Ronneby.
