After Jukola and the party boat it was a tough start to a week of hard training. Jenny, Helen Winskill and I joined Rob Baker and later Heather and Jamie for some serious and much needed WOC preparation.
Highlights of the week included 100% orienteering on Brodslojan (see Jamie's
website) and bizarrely the Vasteras Club training 'Smisk Ol' or 'whip o'.
This annual session involves a mass start on an old (1984) map of a really,
really horrible area. In this case it started fairly gently - OK, the map was
a bit out of date, but the forest was generally runable. After about 2km however,
I began to understand the name of the game. As the white forest gave way to
endless dark green you were quite literally whipped all over your body by the
prickly young pine trees. Technically this was about as hard as it gets - hunting
for a point feature on a bad map in dark green forest. Actually finding the
controls gave you a real buzz - just finishing was the challenge of this race.
It was only when I emerged from the jungle after dipping under 10mpkm that I
discovered I was back first. Heather was the first Woman to make it to the finish
alive. My skin was red raw and I was battered but it was fun and demended everything
from your technique. And I hear it's pretty relevant to the WOC classic...