Winter training
It has happened a lot since my last article and that’s probably the reason why I kind of forgot to write something here.
My calves recovered fast and well after Venla and I could run a full training camp in Italy in the region of the World Cup Final. Together with Kasper we spent lots of hours in relevant terrains to be prepared for the competitions as well as possible. A short stop in Switzerland for some competitions in the Alps and it was already time for the World Cup Final.
I started
into the finals leading the World Cup but knew that it would be very hard to
keep the lead as only some points were between Tove Alexandersson and me. Which
meant that we had to be at least equal in points and places at the last two
races. After her winning the long distance, I was quite close to winning the
middle distance (was in the lead until one of the last controls), which had
given me the World Cup overall victory. In the end it was 23seconds that were
missing for the greatest end of season 2022. Disappointed as I had it in my
hands and had never been that close but hungry for more next year! 
The World
Cup finals ended with another disappointment from my side, as I couldn’t
perform as well as I wanted to at the Sprint Relay. Too many mistakes took me
out of the fight for gold and silver on the last leg, but we still got bronze after
strong Norway and Sweden.
After the
World Cup final, I spent most of the autumn and winter in Scandinavia and got
reminded on how real winter feels. Especially after Christmas we got a lot of
snow in Oslo, which made it difficult to find places to run without slipping at
every step. I could run some good times on my interval loops, which gave me
confidence, that my training works. Also some skiing on the endless skiing
tracks in Nordmarka was on my program. I enjoyed it from the beginning to the
end and also New Years Eve with firework all over Oslo was great to spend on Holmenkollen. Unfortunately, I had to switch to the treadmill after some weeks because I
started feeling my knee from running constantly on snow and ice. As it didn’t
really get better there, I decided to take a break of running and try to get
rid of it. During that time Kasper and I also went back to Gothenburg, where we
spent the next two weeks before going to Alicante for a training camp. It was
nice to finally be back and do the first trainings there as a new member of IFK
Göteborg. I feel very welcome on the team and am looking forward to many great
experiences together! I got the chance to join the “sprint training camp” of
the Norwegian and Swedish national teams, which were high quality trainings
where I could run against some of the best sprinters. Right after that weekend,
Alicante and the Spanish sun were waiting. I couldn’t wait to finally get some
warmer weather and was hoping for it to be the key to the healing of my knee.
While doing most of the quality sessions on the spinning bike, I could also
enjoy the nice sandy beach terrains in Guardamar. But after the first week, it
was unfortunately also time for Kasper and me to get our dose of Corona (for me
already the second one…) and the training program had to be adjusted. I also
got problems with my calfs (probably from Corona), which made it quite uncomfortable
to run. Even though, I enjoyed nice mountain views after the infection, by foot
or bike and was glad to have some good company in isolation this time.
I enjoy to be back home in Switzerland and the hills for some days now, before I’ll join the Swiss Team Camp in Turkey, where we’ll also run the World Ranking Events on 26th and 27th of February.