Vasaloppet: 30 Days Out
Words & Photographs: Johan Rundcrantz
It’s probably the calmness, the feeling that I’m the only one out there. Silence, endless and timeless, silence. Me and nature, nature and me. Walking out to the freshly plowed tracks, connecting the boots to the skis, and sliding away into the abyss. The sound of creaking snow cracks through the silence and echoes into the darkness. But it’s still just me and nature, nature and me.
Cross-Country skiing has been around for centuries, exercised by hundreds of thousands around the world. It’s more popular in Europe but also North America and parts of Asia, historical we can travel back almost 5000 years to where sport comes from. People were using wooden skis to travel across countries for hunting—the oldest pair of wooden skis were found in Kalvträsk, Sweden and are dated to be about 5200 years old. In the 1800s, in Norway, the sport of Cross-country skiing was first created by the military where they organized contests. Since then the sport has been growing, and became part of the Olympics in 1924. Today it’s both a celebrated and highly followed sport but also an increasingly popular form of exercise, where you can find snow.
I’m a runner, or I have been discovering running in the last two years back when I decided to get sober. I was running before this, but I was tired in both body and mind, I never got the exercise and results I wanted in this state. Since I stopped drinking alcohol, running became my substitute. I have understood that I can do so much more with running when my both my body and mind is lighter and cleaner. I love running. I love the freedom of running and the challenges to push myself to run further.
However I live in Sweden where the climate changes drastically in the winter. It’s cold, dark and not ideal for running. I can still run outside, but as I like to challenge myself and like to try new sports, I found cross-country skiing. The exercise is like running, you are using the core, arms and legs in almost the same degree as running. And you can be outside, in nature in a more natural way.
In 1521 Gustav Eriksson, also known as Gustav Vasa, was on escape from the Danish King, on his skis. Part of his travels through Sweden took him to the county of Sälen and Mora, where he gathered the people and lead the revolt against the occupying power Denmark. After two and a half years of war against Denmark, Sweden won and became a free country and shortly after Gustav Vasa was crowned as King of Sweden. 400 years later was the first official Vasaloppet Race, arranged in March 1922 and the race had 119 competitors. It took the winner 7 hours, 32 min and 49 seconds to complete the 90km long race between Sälen and Mora, in the footsteps of Gustav Vasa. Today Vasaloppet is both the oldest and biggest long-distance cross-country ski race in the world, with between 14-16,000 competitors and the track has stayed the same.
Vasaloppet will be a challenge, the race is 90km long. I can’t anticipate the weather or the temperature. But I can prepare both physically and mentally. I can take a lot of learning from my running, right now I’m training with the MAF Method. This method helps me to increase both my energy and endurance for longer races, you can read more about it here. But in the end, this is not a running race, it’s still skiing and quite new sport for me even though I started casually three years ago. I’m still learning the three most classic technics; Diagonal, Stacking and Stacking with extension. For the past three years I’ve been learning by doing, looking at others and videos. But for Vasaloppet I signed up for a session with a pro skier and this took me straight to the next level. I can recommend to everyone whether you’re new or experienced in this sport to try taking lessons from an experienced pro, it’s always good to get a fresh perspective on the technics that will really carry you further and faster than you could manage on your own.
Meditation is also a big part of my training for the race, to be able to stop and pause during the training and appreciate the amazing nature surrounding me in the tracks. To take the time to sit down in the snow, feeling the warmth from my body, slow down the breath and my pulse to meditate for a couple of minutes. To find that extra energy inside of myself to continue a couple of extra miles. It can be easy just to look down in the tracks and plod away mile after mile, but we need to take in the nature and surroundings and be grateful of what we can accomplish and experience with our bodies.
It’s less than 30 days until the race on the 20th of February. Last week I traveled up north in Sweden to Orsa, Dalarna to kick off the final preparations. Unfortunately we still haven’t had any snow in Stockholm so I need to do a minimum 3-4 hour drive up north to find snow and good tracks to ski in. I did around 10-18km a day for five days including a 1-hour session with a teacher. I could feel myself getting stronger and better in the techniques day by day. In total I skied around 60 kilometers over five days, still 30 short from the 90km I will need to do in 8-9 hours.
While in Stockholm with limited access to snow, I will continue running using the MAF Method to strengthen my aerobic system and allow my body to complete longer races. Also, at my local gym I have access to a cross-country ski poling machine where I can train my arm strength as well as the whole body. The parts on my body that I need to focus on is my legs, core and arms.
Today is one month until the race, we finally got some snow in Stockholm this week and I have found a couple of prepped tracks in the outskirts of the city. I will train in the tracks if I can. But my focus on training the upcoming month will be to train my mind, as I know that this will be the part that will take me true the 90km. To sit down and meditate and prep the challenge daily, build up the feelings I will experience when I cross the finish line and create positive and energized motivation in feelings true meditation. In the end I know my body will complete the race, but I need to train and prepare my mind to explore the limits of what my body is capable of.
Tags: Photography, Movement