Bodom Trail and spring training

It’s been a while since my last update, but now, when the trail running season is officially open I will try to write up more often. The opening of the trail running season for myself is Bodom trail, a 21K race held near Helsinki, first stop of Buff Trail tour Finland, close to Nuuksio national park. 

photo: Aapo Laiho

photo: Petteri Rantanen

My training in April for this race as well as the other summer events didn’t go exactly as planned and I haven’t done a great number of kilometers due to a knee injury in the beginning of the month. It may sound absurd but i’ve got a common skiing injury running. Did some vertical training on my local hill with runner friends on a first warm day of spring and on one of the descents - Bang! The last remains of the spring snow were rapidly melting and I just slipped with the knee bending underneath. It felt like the inner knee ligament was stretched or possibly torn. 

Thankfully, it was not a big injury - after a week of doing the exercise bike and gym workouts I tried running. A bit painfully at first but towards the end of the second week from the accident I was pretty much back on the track again.

photo: http://vonok.livejournal.com

Although April was not productive training wise - it was a month of discovering little nature wonders every day that spring brings with it. That it is one of the reasons I love trail running - getting outside even to the same trail everyday or even better, finding new trails, makes you notice and appreciate little things that would get lost or just won’t get noticed otherwise.

Another thing I discovered in April was orienteering and I just fell in love with this sport. It has all the elements of trail running and so much more. Getting lost in the woods is definitely something to try and to continue doing. We even went orienteering once together with my son in our local park and had a great time together. We overestimated our abilities a little bit since we thought that we know the local trails, but orienteering taught us to be humble - we ran out of time with only over a half of control points found, but it was time well spent. 

I think, orienteering is one of the best sport activities one can practice with kids - it has movement, thinking, cooperation and the mutual joy of  discovery and reaching goals. The important thing is not to over do it as the kids can get tired and somewhat bored if the distance is too long and there is more running and hiking than they are ready to handle. 

May started off with long holidays and I’ve spent a week in Finland - hiking and running the beautiful nature trails.

I also took part in a group trail run on the route of Bodom Trail organized by Helsinki Trail Running Club. During the run it was good to experience the challenging conditions for the race itself as the route was soaked with water in comparison with last year. And with a weather forecast promising more rain in a week before the race it looked like there could be a swimming competition.  

In preparation for the Marathon du Mont Blanc in the end of June I try running 4 - 5 times a week (not necessarily always reaching this goal) with a long  run on hilly terrain, one interval training, a training session doing uphill repeats and a couple of easy runs or orienteering. I don’t have a specific training plan and have no idea if this training is going to be enough as it is going to be my first major mountain marathon. I’m open for advice and training ideas for a flatlander looking forward a mountain marathon. 

Anyway, back to Bodom Trail. The night before the race it was raining heavily and the wind was so strong that it seemed to blow the car off the motorway. Surprisingly, the morning of the race was chilly but sunny, looked like it was going to be a good day. The route promised to be extremely swampy and wet, so any pair of running shoes would get soaked. After choosing between spiky or regular shoes, I decided to go with Salomon Fellraisers - my favorite Salomon trainer so far, and the decision proved perfectly right as it is a very fast draining shoe and grippy in muddy conditions.

The starting meadow in Pirttimäki was filling up with runners and it was great meeting Finnish trail running friends and seeing familiar faces. The event is the biggest trail running race in Finland so far   - 925 people took part this year and there were more willing to participate but the limitations of the place do not allow for more runners. The start was in groups of 200 people because the initial gravel road turns very soon to single track and bigger start clusters would result in traffic jam on the trail. The interesting detail about Bodom Trail is that the race is made of two different loops both beginning from the same start, so when the first 12K is finished it is possible to make a decision to finish with a shorter race or to continue onto the second trail of 9K. A great option for beginners doing their first race.

photo: Sari Heerman

The first 12K is a beautiful forest trail with some rocky parts and the second part is a swampy land with walking boards, roots and a couple of longer ascents. For myself, the first part of the race was pure joy - perfect weather with sun shining and the sight and especially the smell of a spring pine forest was absolutely irresistible.I often remember trail runs by their scent, every place being  so specific and bringing its own memories. 

photo: Anniina Erkkilä

I finished the first part in 1:26. The second part of the race was literally a mud bath. Finland has a few swamps and the country even hosts an annual swamp soccer world championships and here we had swamp trail running competition. Although hard, as each immersion in the mud seemed to give half a kilo of extra weight to the shoes, it was a fun run. I stopped thinking about getting a decent finishing time but took some pictures and fully enjoyed the experience as it is something you don’t get to do much often. Generally, for me it’s hard to resist taking photos during trail runs in beautiful places, but here I had to get going not to become an obstacle on the way of the runners behind.

photo: Anniina Erkkilä

I finished with a time of 2:43 which was an improvement from last years 2:59. Overall, the race felt easier this year and I was feeling good all the way. I guess, training throughout the winter was really helpful. Last year January to March were completely out due to a skiing injury. This season I managed only two weeks of skiing and unfortunately no skitouring, but it was compensated with the discovery of winter trail running.

Now this flatlander is going back to training for summer races of Marathon du Mont Blanc in Chamonix at the end of June and Heta-Pallas 55K in Finnish Lapland at the end of July. I’ve found some good tips for flatlander training and I’m going to share them in the next post and I'm always looking for feedback and more tips. For a daily update, please, follow on Instagram @trailblog.ru