2022 – a great spring and summer, but a tougher autumn

2022 i almost over, and I will try to summarize my year shortly here. The spring and summer went by rather smoothly, and I have already written about them here and here. I am very happy with my WOC performances, but had slightly higher hopes for EOC – but in general a really good racing period! The autumn was tougher, were I struggled a bit with my shape, and found it difficult to perform the way I wanted to on the big races.

The Swedish Championships in September was the first sign that I wasn’t exactly were I wanted to be. The last 20 minutes of the long distance was a big struggle physically, were the world literally went black before my eyes from the last control. I was still very happy with my performance (and with the result), but normally I don’t struggle that badly in the end of races. And the following weekend I struggled even more, especially on the relay. The middle was fine, even though not my best performance, but after 20-30 minutes of the relay I had nothing left. And to perform badly at a relay is my worst, so that was mentally tough on me (luckily our 2^nd team with Ruslan on the last leg did great and won the silver, so that saved the day).

I did what I could to recover and prepare for the World Cup final in Davos, Switzerland, but coming in to the races I could feel that I wasn’t in a great place physically, and I had to do everything I could to maximize my chances to come out of the weekend without free falling in the overall World Cup standings, and that meant not running the relay (which felt strange, but I am happy with my decision). The races didn’t go my way entirely, since I stepped down in a hole halfway through the middle distance and hurt my ankle quite badly, which greatly affected my performances for the races. The long distance was a struggle from start, and it didn’t get any better throughout the race. Overall I am really proud that I managed to keep it together in such a way that I kept my 3^rd place in the overall World Cup. That was one of the toughest racing weekends I have experienced, and I was so happy that it was over.

The last weekends of racing in Sweden was a matter of survival for me, which wasn’t helped by a bad cold that I barely managed to get rid of ahead af the Swedish League chasing start final, but in the end I finished first, by the skin of my teeth, and I was very ready to end the season.

I am very much looking forward to 2023, and hope to be ready with my spring and summer shape, and not my autumn one!