Sara Lappalainen did her exercises at the Urhea campus in conditions reminiscent of a three-kilometer altitude, when the purpose was to train at an altitude of two kilometers.
One of the top runners in Finland Sara Lappalainen hall season has taken a nasty turn. The Lappalainen has fallen into a state of overwork, which has a special story behind it.
Lappalainen (née Kuivisto) has lived and trained at the Urhea campus in Helsinki. The apartments enable living in mountain conditions. In this way, training at high altitude can be simulated.
He was supposed to adjust his room to an altitude of 2,000 meters, but due to Urhea’s equipment failure, he ended up living in conditions reminiscent of an altitude of 3,000 meters.
– I probably had time to be too high for more than a week. We did really hard exercises, the recovery suffered and the body went completely crazy. Now we are in a situation where we are not going anywhere, Lappalainen told Urheilu.
There was a technical fault in the equipment, about which Lappalainen does not have more detailed information.
– There is a human error in the background, although of course this should not happen. But I don’t want to blame Urhea here. The new and wonderful facilities were built especially for us, and no one did this kind of damage there on purpose. In the future, you have to monitor the oxygen content of the room with your own meter, Lappalainen said.
The entire hall season in danger
Lappalainen’s intention was to compete in the Nordic dressage championships in Sweden on Sunday. Now the competitions are missed, and the entire hall season may be threatened.
The most important events of Hallikau are already around the corner. In a week, the indoor championships in Helsinki are on the calendar. There are only three weeks left until the reigning European Championship in Istanbul.
– Time is short, because the hall season is so short. The purpose was to get a few starts before the EC Indoor Championships. But if I can’t run in next week’s WC indoor competitions, then the whole indoor season is at stake, Lappalainen stated.
– We are trying to get the body back to normal. I can do light exercises, but as soon as we go to competition pace, I can’t stand it at all, Lappalainen described.
“All the most important exercises were ruined”
Back in January, Lappalainen’s prospects were very bright.
– What saddens me the most here is that my situation looked really good before the problems that came now. The exercises went very well, we were even ahead of the planned schedule in terms of speed.
– The fact is now that I will no longer be able to get in the same shape as if there were opportunities. All the most important exercises were ruined, Lappalainen lamented.
The difficulties that have hit me now are of such a special quality that it is challenging to predict the body’s recovery.
– It’s hard to say when we don’t have experience like this. But I do believe that my body will recover when I do light and aerobic exercises now.
– Of course, I don’t think that my body is in any incredibly serious state of overload, because we are talking about such a short period of time. You get out of shape over a long period of time, and this is only a matter of a couple of weeks, Lappalainen estimates.