On Wednesday morning, I hit some Helsinki trails for a steady run with 6 x 1min [2min] thrown in for fun. It was a very hot morning and I sweated buckets, but felt I was keeping a good rhythm on the very undulating XC ski trails. That evening, after travelling to a summer house quite close to the Jukola area, I did a short 30min course in some pretty nice terrain. However, there were too many tracks out to really feel any sense of accomplishment...
Summery view from Helsinki overnight stay
The next day there was a WRE on in the evening, the Huippuliigan. So just a short run with drills in the morning. I headed out quite safe, wanting to bag some solid controls, but soon was messing up and loosing quite a lot of time. Not only this but I punched too quickly at one control causing an MP... Happy that it was at this event and not Jukola, and there was at least some solid orienteering going on at times. Legs really didn't have much in them though which was worrying, so I took things really easy for the next two days.
On Friday we had our final club training on a Jukola relevant map. I made a complete hash of the first control but then reset and did some really smooth, focussed orienteering. Then on Saturday a few of the team headed out to the model, and after I ran a few controls comfortably, I checked out the already mud-infested arena, and then headed back for some lunch and recovery.
Nice walk on Friday evening
Unlike at 10Mila, [almost] all my preparations went really well. However, this might just have been because my race was almost at a normal time, as I was expecting to start at around 6am. In terms of nutrition - big lunch, carb dinner, porridge breakfast, light snack -2hrs, perfect. Training: last hard session 3 days before. Hydration: check. Legs in good shape: check. Sleep: well... I tried heading to bed earlier and managed to sleep for an hour between 6 and 7pm on Saturday. However, after this, although using my best efforts, I didn't get another wink before having to get up at 2am; shit. Oh well, forget about it, move on; I was told this shouldn't really effect me anyway but it was stressful nonetheless.
At 4am we headed over to the arena and at 5 I started getting ready. The team were doing well, as I found out after 'waking' up at 2am, and the pressure was mounting on me when it looked like there was a chance at breaking top 25. Our 6th leg lost some places though and it seemed doubtful; however it would be a lie for me to say that I wasn't semi-relieved... Eventually I was in the box at what felt like 6pm but was actually 6am. Did my drills as best as I could in the muddy slop which was the changeover and eventually I was tagged and heading out into the gloomy, wet terrain.
My plan, again unlike 10Mila, was to have a steady start and pick up from there, hoping in the end to have something to give on the final loop should I be caught up in a sprint. So I did just this, flowing smoothly along all the trails through the green to number 1. I was advised to really nail this control, so I made sure of this. I hesitated for a few seconds before eventually seeing it, but I really should have been more confident as I knew exactly what I was doing. Then over to number 2, 102, check, number 3... half way there when I remembered I should have punched 101. Extremely annoyed at myself but also grateful that somehow I managed to realise this before getting much further away, or even finishing. I trudged back and found my control, wasting 90s but remaining calm. I think having trouble remembering control numbers might have been the only real disadvantage from not getting any sleep...
After this though things picked up and although I was mostly alone I was orienteering pretty quickly and cleanly. Went through the southern loop really smoothly but then chose to go pretty straight to 10 which was a poor routechoice. Weaved along any trail I could find but certainly lost at least a minute from my normal time behind the winner on each control. Took my first gel at this point and was still feeling strong. On the next western loop I was caught by NTNUI and raced the guy for a bit, producing some good splits. But then he got away, way too quick for what I was feeling. Not too bothered, and soon I was heading through the arena passage as Thierry was finishing. This definitely sped me up a bit.
However, this small increase in speed was only followed by an absolute crash, which no amount of sugar could surpass. A few guys came past including GG and my navigation began to suffer with some lazy routes. However, picked up when the finish began to come into sight on my map, and it's quite a good thing that I did as the Lillomarka train was quickly catching up. Surged at the finish to keep well ahead of them, but it's only at the end when I realised they were actually there.
An absolute state by the end, felt like tearing up from fatigue and completely soaked from head to toe. Managed to squeeze out a km recovery with GG but I was soon crashing as I did for the rest of the day and the flight back home. Grim, but fairly happy with the result. Lost 5 places, but could not have really seen myself doing much better being set off so high on last leg.. Team seemed quite happy, as we finished in 34th, so that's always a plus!
Team
Splits
Positives and negatives to take from this:
+ navigationally sound (except 2) given that I was largely alone in some tricky finish terrain
+ physically good until 10km (only lost 6 mins to leader including mistake to 2)
+ preparations fairly successful
- massive crash after 10km, not too sure why I can't seem to last for longer than this (in other recent races too)
- technically lazy towards the end, missing out on climbs if possible etc...
- couldn't sleep beforehand (nerves?)
- gels don't seem to be working
I think my main worry is that my physical capabilities seem to be awful, even though I've had nearly 6 months of uninterrupted training including tough long hilly runs which should have mimicked Jukola. At the moment I'm putting this down to a few weeks of heavy training going into this; really hope there isn't another, more worrying reason.
Anyway - next up is a few final weeks of prep before Switzerland. I guess one final positive to take from Jukola is that it was much more difficult and longer than fairly simplified and shortened Long distance on Swiss terrain.
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