Finally going - RR day 1

Leading up to it

Tuesday was another good day of training, but lost a couple of hours trying to deal with a UK bank. Did a gentle 40km split between morning and afternoon - I find when trying to build up the training, having a good rest and meal at lunchtime makes it much easier to do a decent session in the afternoon.

Because of my lack of fitness and limited training in the six months run up to this year's RR, I have been really concerned that I would be up to it. However, there is an upside to being a bit of an obsessive nerd - I have all the data from last year's training to compare it to. The main variables are me and my fitness, and the weather conditions and conditions of the tracks i.e. whether they are fast and gliding better or slow etc.

The good news is that there is very little difference - maybe doing slightly better this year, despite age and everything else.

Wednesday - arrival and briefing

Did some last minute shopping - as the wearing of compression running socks appears to be helping my legs, it may be worth continuing. I only have one pair, but luckily managed to pick up a couple of pairs of another sort at Intersport. Browsing waxes (for a cross country skier, waxes, and especially grip waxes becomes an obsession) I asked what the difference is between a tar wax and an ordinary wax. The answer is that tar waxes give better grip on new snow; someone told me later that they have the benefit of not freezing.

Tar used to be a major industry in the Kuusamo area centuries ago. Tar, in this context, is the resin tapped from pine trees. In shipbuilding (in the days of wooden boats), rope was forced into the gaps between the planks, and then the tar was heated and applied to the rope. Pine tar is also used to make a rather unique "tar ice cream" which I have had in a Viking restaurant in Turku a few years back.

Supposedly ready, I then took a taxi out to Oivanki centre; ominously the roads are mostly clear of snow and ice. Today I am sharing a room with a load of Danes. We were comparing notes on how to train, as they have very little more snow to train on than I do. They tell me that roller skiing is not the best way - too many bruises.

And now to the briefing. All the usual stuff, but this time we are more concerned with the weather and the implications. This is the second warmest winter in the last hundred years in Finland. The effect of this is that we have start at the 20km point. A lot of the first 20km is along a frozen river; but today it is not frozen. Since none of us can ski on water - at least not without a power boat to pull us along, we cannot use this, and there are no trails through the forest as an alternative.

Klaus has bad news on the weather front; an update on Monday night now shows that it will be warmer and to expect heavy rain for Friday. A large part of the county where I live (Somerset) has been underwater, and since leaving on Saturday I have received 5 flood warnings - 2 from the rivers and 3 from the sea, I was hoping to escape the relentless rain. It seems that I will not!

RR - day 1 - the start

We still have to have our bags packed as they are going on the coach that will drop them off on its way to collect participants for RR2 - the wave that starts tomorrow. We leave a couple of hours later so that the faster skiers do not arrive at the hotel for the evening before they are ready.

At least I wasn't the first to fall - someone fell before the start line, but I managed all of 5 metres before I went over. I always fall when the maximum number of people can see me. But as Liisa says - you need to learn how to fall so it doesn't hurt. My first RR had lots of painful falls - these days I guess I don't care, and so relax when falling, and so don't hurt.

We hadn't gone far when the track had to use a lake - where a stream (which would normally still be frozen) was running into it, there was open water, a few feet of ice which we skied over, and then another patch of open water. Our patch of ice was thick enough, as the snowmobile setting the trail had gone over it, and I think the water is very shallow at that point. But it highlights the difficulties; the locals all say that the current weather is much like the spring normally is in April.

The day is largely uneventful - Thor-Frederic said that stepping out of the tracks to help me up restored the grip on his no-wax skis - his new ones are a different sort to waxless skis I am used to. We seem to match each other for pace; since he is a better skier than me, it may well be taking him a little more effort.

We had been warned that the steep downhills might need extra care, especially the two down onto frozen lakes near the end. I managed the first ones perfectly under control (obviously with no-one around to see); the first one down onto the lake, I took my cue from one of the Finns and walked down - I really can't afford a leg injury.

So I arrived at the end of day 1, a little tired, a few aches, but generally OK. I have learnt to pace myself better these days.

The real surprise was that Thor-Frederic had a fall somewhere behind me and has a fractured collarbone. So on the advice of Kuusamo hospital, he is flying to Helsinki tomorrow for an operation. All the best wishes of the rest of us go with him for a speedy recovery, but I guess he won't be leading us over the finish line.