Training Log Archive: Useless Fool

Work - Home - Work.

Testing achilles, and no pain in very short and slow loop. :o)

Today I have mostly been reading and writing. More reading than writing, and that is probably good thing. However, days doze of self irony comes from beloved site of Gymjones and here is the article.

"Talk - Action = Zero"
http://www.gymjones.com/knowledge/article/51/

Always cheerful music from the boys of Insomnium enlightes the day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA3vqVYhpgk&feature...

Today or tomorrow I will go and test if the achilles is enduring running or not. Yesterday evening there was no pain when I was actually trying to do something with kettlebels at home. Today seems to be painless also...

At home with kettlebells, not very intense as kids wanted to participate after a while. :)

Everything is so "stiff".

At least a bit better focus to overall doing and good intensity...

Our gym at work is now free to use 24/7.
At least there is a possibility to do some elliptical & functional training there as renovations has been completed.
Uh, basically it means early morning workouts for me but I guess it will be worth going.

To work - from work via "trails".

With KB's at home. Abs.

To work, from work, to Lanterna and back.

To work - from work.

At trails of Uutela - they were bit more interesting this time as trails were very slippery. Maybe Rocket Ron is not the best possible option for trails at winter... ...but soon winter will be over, hopefully.

Yesterday I was hopefully that kayaking season would have an early start but it seems that it will take longer than I expected... ...or then it needs some serious attitude to actually get to the water as it is a long way to reach the open water.


Ha-ha-ha-haa...

It seems that start of sea kayaking season of 2012 is looming very near as the weather has been very interesting. I will go and check today how far is the actual (ice) shore line this evening as when I am checking the situation from ice charts & top roof of our office, situation seems to be very promising. In 2011 it was in mid april when we had a opportunity to go for sea kayaking. Forecast says that rest of the week will be below zero celsius but after that weather stays above.

I havent set up any special goals for the season 2012.
But, I am definetly getting out from my personal "fat zone" and putting effort to build speed on foot, bike and kayak. I already hate the idea, but know that is what I need to do, as I actually have to admit that I need to work harder, eat less all kind of shit that I have been eating too long...
...anyway, primary goal is to get achilles in shape and find a combination that with to my feet for longer races. And at the same time, lose weight and gain speed.

I dont think that I will go longer races (24h or more) before I will find a solid way that works on my feet. Gaining speed & losing weight serves well for sprint races and speed gained from there serves at ARWS races later.

I am not returning to Patagonia on 2013. And what Ann said to Pavel, finalized that, ""We checked the kayaks and they were ok. It must have happened during the transport. There is 40 kayaks and we are not able to guarantee, that they will work. But every racer is responsible is for himself. So if the kayak does not work, you dont race. It is obvious." or " "You get a not working kayak, you trained hard, paid a lot of money, but safety is the first, so you dont race. Everything is fine, isnt it?"
And based on this, we should have left the race at CP1 - hooray.
Maybe it is not worth to travel more than 30000km to find out that they actually dont have working equipment for all teams and got disqualification for that.

Oh, I talked with Ann also, about matter that they actually had spare kayaks near CP4 at Navy boat, people at CP4 tried to contact them by VHF-Radio to ask if they could bring us a new kayak, but it seems that they were not actually listening... ...oh, well, safety first but there is only one minor problem, the party that were responsible about the safety of the kayaking sections, wasn't answering in any of the given channels. "You need to understand the remoteness and wild nature of the race." said Ann,
"Yes, they were about 500meters from us, we tried with 4 different radios, and in English and Spanish, and when we finally send a kayak towards them with a note written in Spanish, they left, and our teams kayak was about 100meters from the Navy boat at that time". After that comment Ann was busy to find a seat at Final Ceremony where I was talking with her.

I dont mind drowning at Magellan's. It is better option than choke to yoghurt at home. But I do care if there is a possibility that gear that race organisation provides, is broken, and only thing that they offer is withdrawal from the race. And after, or at least trying, to have discussion about it, we were basically totally ignored, as Ann hide behind the safety issues and how the logistics is so hard, repeating those lines over and over again how the race is unique, life experience and last wild race.

Anyway, we failed in the race, and it was not because the broken rudder, or conditions at the sea. We lost 1½hours waiting at CP4 and 3hours for combination of un-effiecient kayaking and because pumping the water out from the kayak as one of the spray skirts was nylon-made that we had as a replacement for Pavel as he lost his own when one of his bags never came to Punta Arenas. So, 4½ hour loss is not much in race that lasts 1 week. We reached Four Continents and Chilenos before CP6, at CP6 we passed Patagoniagetyah and at river towards CP7 we reached NorCal, Pandas, Russians and Brasilians. Then we got lost... badly... and we were last team who arrived to CP7.

We failed because of our own incapablities to communicate between team members and perform the necessarities during the race. Pavel is writing an article, race report, once it is ready, I will post a link. We all tried our best but couldn't stay focused that this is actually team work and it definetly doesn't help us anyway if we are making own decisions, especially after we have decided something together about 30 second earlier.

From personal view, I failed to maintain my feet and it got to my achilles as the blisters changed the way of movement, thou I actually didnt cared about blisters... bad choice 1. When my achilles was bad, my team members helped to carry my pack. Earlier I helped Pavel as he couldnt maintain speed and do the orienteering at same time on the river. I felt super-strong when running with pack.

Then the true bad choice came when heard at CP7 that we are the last team to arrive, we were out of as we were travelling light and we heard that CP8 is 16km further because of mistake of race organization, road was too small for truck that supposed to bring the bikes to TA at CP8. Well, no shit Sherlock, was it too small??

I guess I need to be honest and admit that after all the issues during autumn and winter with losing our sponsorship for the logistics to the race, unable to find a funding for this race and pay basically everything from our own pocket and due this we were forced to find 2 replacement members to our team to even get to Patagonia (Pavel and Christi were both strong and good people.) and because of this I lost my family's support for AR in generally. I spent all my time to find funding, failed. And after Tommi & Kati withdrawn from team, I spent all my time to find replacement.

So, I went to Patagonia basically without money, without support from the people that actually cares about me and in a team that I know only Mikko. I felt totally exhausted once my achilles went bad, I felt that I cannot walk anymore as it was too painful. After autumn, winter, issues during the race I suggested probably one of the most stupid thing that I have ever suggested to anyone, "Go on, leave me here at the site of old CP8 and continue the course, just 3 of you, if we cannot do the course, I will let you guys do the race and I will stay here and limp to CP8 in the morning" And they did, and everyone felt bad about that situation afterwards but none of us wasnt thinking very clearly at that state to actually do anything about the situation.

I warned my team members before the race that I might have a very dark moment in the race where I just want out as the mind is trying to find an excuse to stop and I will talk about getting out etc... And at that point only thing that I need is that somebody is able to say that "SHUT THE FUCK UP AND CONTINUE". No one did. And it is no ones failure, except mine, as we didnt know each other well enough in our team. What I should have done; We will rest a moment to give a rest to achilles, eat lot of pain killers, and continue running pace to CP8 and continue straight with bikes.
It didnt cross my mind at that point.

So, I stayed at river sice, and plan for the rest of the team was to continue directly with bikes. Once I got to CP8, I heard from doctor of the CP that our team is sleeping at the tent next to us. Rest of the story at report....

...now I have interesting situation, my mother-in-law said to me once I got home and slept 1 hour before going to work that "I shouldn't race or do any training, or actually I should not have a even a hobby if I still want to actually have a family" and "I shouldnt do extra-hours at work, or write articles about stupid and irrelevant things that hasnt got nothing to do with real life". She of course said lots of other things before I went to work.

But how it is possible to deny the passion for adventure racing, even after basically everything went to shit? Eventually, all this, makes me just stronger, and stronger racer. Should I actually stay indoors or do only things that are somehow acceptable? What those things even are?

Kettlebells.