Jukola & WOC Camps

Summers are always packed with trips to here and there, often I wish I had a manager to take care of all the travelling, planning, accommodating and I could just concentrate on the fun part and maybe even write here more often. The organizing duty is always a bore and takes up a lot of time and money, but in the end it's almost always worth it. This season's main destination so far has been Finland of course, fortunately a somewhat convenient destination for Estonians.

The first WOC camp this year was at the end of May around Koli national park in North Karelia, which is a fantastic place! The variating trainings were a lot of fun, especially on the demanding and beautiful terrains around Tahkovaara! Some trainings from the camp: Tahkovaara intervals map, Tahkovaara middle map, Aisus intervals map, Oinasvaara middle map, Kauhee middle map.

Right after the camp, I participated in Väinänperän middle distance competition. I did not run at full competition speed, but the feet were very tired from the camp and it was very tough anyway. Then I made, what has to be this year's biggest, a more than 6 minute mistake! The mind was surely tired. I started to read the next leg already, which kinda fit in the situation, but not actually... 

Map, results

By Olle Kärner

The weekend before Jukola, I ran at Suunto Games. I was feeling rather tired after putting the last things in order for Tallinn O-Week final races. So I ran the first day's middle distance fast, but without extra effort. 4th place, 2:17 behind. The next day's long distance I didn't know what to expect. The beginning went well, but soon I got tired and decided not to torture my exhausted body any more. 11th place, 9:13 behind.

Middle distance map, results

Long distance map, results

By Pekka Luoma

Before the big Jukola itself, it was hard to tell if I had recovered or not. But as the race approached, worries faded. The men were ready and HiKi was eager to fight for the victory. We lost some valuable time on the first leg and were 75th, 4:15 behind, I tried to fix that on the second leg. The course was rather easy and there were already a lot of new paths. As long as I could run on my own, it went pretty well and smooth. After catching the big group, it was not that easy any more. I deliberately made different route choices just to be able to pass the teams I had caught and maintain my own speed. During the last part of the course I was in a ~5 runner pack, where I tried to make a gap, but was not able to. Like at 10MILA, I made odd mistakes with the controls. The leader was just 36 seconds away by the 20th control, but by the end it was 1:34 with 8th position. Leonid started well too, but soon made a ~5 minute mistake... That was a crucial moment for us, it would not be easy to reach the top again, we were 37th at that point. I was quite disappointed and after some time tried to sleep at the arena. I was waken up by the speaker talking about Valentin taking 3rd position! Wow, the guys had been running really well! Quickly to the finish to join the guys for the run-in, what a great moment! Good to see our capacity at Jukola and our hunger is only growing... Next year?

Map, results, 2nd leg GPS tracking

Story of a dinner
By Olle Kärner

The next week team Duncan went to the second camp at Koli for the final touch before WOC. Besides the cultural experience week, I made less and slightly different trainings this time: very easy recovery running at Kahuee map, intervals at Juuanvaara map (with 25 meter contour lines) and the most technical training as a warm up for the Finnish middle distance selection race. I wanted to run the race seriously, but the legs were simply tired, nothing more to it. No flow almost at all. Shame, but good training nevertheless. Map, results, GPS tracking

Smoke sauna? I guess so!
By Olle Kärner

Two weeks left!