2013 Base Training

Recovery

After finishing my first ever marathon, I took 2,5 weeks completely off from running. I was the local Donald Duck for couple of days. I walked funny. My thighs in particular were weak and hurt the first few days after the race. Walking down stairs was difficult, I had to climb down back first. My girlfriend goes to dance in a local dance hall. They also do massage. The third day after the race I went there to get a massage. This time the massage was better than I had come across so far. One week after the race I had recovered sufficient that I could go out to do some inline skating. I had basically complete rest for one week.

Strength Training

On 15^th of Octobre I enrolled to a local gym, Mr. Mundo, just two blocks away from home. The gym is a bit robust, but not a junk yard at all, still my kind of place. The type of gym where you won't run out of weights. Not one of those expensive fitness clubs where you spend more time ”admiring” yourself in the mirrors than you do lifting weights. The weightlifting bars need to be bent from previous heavy use because the Rocky feeling is essential part of the strength training for me. I don't mind if there's water dropping from the ceiling. Even better.

I had to go through medical exam before I could start training in the gym. The part I really thought was great was when the director of the gym, Hernan Brisco, invited me to his office to talk about my goals in practice. I explained him that I had six months ago begun running again and that I was aiming to be sub-3 hour marathon runner in a year or two. So he made me a strength training plan accordingly and suitable for a long distance runner. I started going to the gym 4 times a week. I was running just one time per week. I went to the gym five weeks, a total of 20 times.

Enjoying The Fitness

10^th of November we participated in Nextel Runroller Buenos Aires. A relay competition where we had our 3 person mixed colombian-argentinean-finnish team: my girlfriend Sandra, her collegue Evelyn, and me. The first two legs of the relay were 5K running and then the third leg 11K inline skating. The girls took care of the running and I did the skating. Sandra started out first and managed to run very well (with zero running training), 33:35. Evelyn run the second leg, a solid 28:04. I skated the 11K in 30:43. Our team did well and we were in the overall results at position 279 out of 484 teams that finished the race. It was a very nice and well organized event. And we had fun. Who knows, maybe we do it again next year.

Figure 1: Asics Kayano 18, black/yellow

At week 47: 19^th of November I started to run again, six times a week. I also bought new shoes, Asics Kayano 18. I had studied the programs from the Finnish Marathon Runners and decided to give it a try. I picked their 3:30 aiming marathon program. Their programs include all the essential pieces of marathon training: Recovery Runs, Easy Runs, Long Runs, Marathon Pace Runs, Tempo Runs, Hills, and Intervals.

The temperatures in Buenos Aires in November and December start to be around 30 C. That is the maximum in Finnish summer. I am not that used to running in heat, yet. The things that I noticed when the temperatures started to go near 30 C is that I need to drink a lot more water and my heart rate is higher. Obvious reactions in the body, but I had never before been able to study this because in Finland this is uncommonly hot. Maybe one or two days the whole year. In Buenos Aires it is still considered spring.

Figure 2: Long Run in Las Cañas, Uruguay

So I stopped going to the gym and started following the 3:30 marathon program. I could keep up 4 weeks and then I was out of juice. My tank was already empty. I felt it inside me that I am doing too much with too high intensity. I don't have enough time to recover. I needed to slow down and build a good base before I could add the intensity. At that moment I hadn't decided where and when I would run my next marathon. I knew I wouldn't be ready in half year to run a marathon like I would like to. I needed more time. So I decided I will run the 2013 Buenos Aires City Marathon again in next Octobre. I had 10 months to go.

I had already run with a fairly intense level of training a new weekly record on week two of the training program, 56.8 km. I decided to cut down drastically my kilometers and start building the base slow. The days were starting to get really hot for me, so I had to wake up early and tried to run in the morning at 7 or 8 o'clock. Since 17^th of December I run only 3 times per week, keeping the intensity low, mainly Recovery Runs 6 to 9 km. We headed out for the Christmas to Cordoba, Argentina. There I experienced the hottest day so far in my life, 42 C, on the Christmas Day. I couldn't do anything else but just sit in front of a fan.

We flew to Bogota, Colombia for the New Year to visit the family of Sandra. A change of climate from hot moisture summer of Buenos Aires to high altitude (2700 m) dry cool air of Bogota. The weather is pretty much the same all year round in Bogota: daily maximum 22 C and minimum 6 C in the night. When the sun goes down, the temperature drops very rapidly. I went out for a run twice in a nearby park to experiment and feel how it was to run at altitude. The heart rate was sky rocketing when I run there. The running feels a bit like if you would be running in a hangover. One day we climbed up to Cerro Monserrate, a hill (or mountain) close to the center of the city. The next time I will run up there, mark my words!

Figure 3: Climbing the stairs to Cerro Monserrate.

Figure 4: Hills training. Cerro Monserrate in the back.

Base Training

Week 3 in January 2013 I started to build my Base. The idea was to keep intensity of running low, and start building the weekly kilometers. There is a rule of thumb that you should not increase your weekly running distance more than 10% per week. By the way, that is a lot. In my experience about 5% is sufficient for me. Anything more will just result in injury or exhaustion. I wanted to experiment this theory, trying to run without injury increasing the distance about 3 km each week. I started off by running five times a week: the first week I run 37.0 km. The next week 40.0 km. Just Recovery Runs and Easy Runs, nothing more intense. On the third week of training I added sixth running practice to the week and run 43.2 km. In 11 weeks I had built up my weekly kilometers to 71.9 km. I felt I was all the time kind of close to my limit, not pushing it, but close to it. I needed a lot of sleep to recover from the running I was doing. My week 13 training looked like this:

Week 13: Total of 375 minutes and 71.9 kilometers of running.

25.3. Monday: Easy Run/Fartlek 50 min 6.0/4.5 km

26.3. Tuesday: Easy Run 61 min 12.1 km

27.3. Wednesday: Fartlek 29 min 6.5 km, Warm up/Cooldown 24min 4.2 km

28.3. Thursday: Easy Run 63 min 12.2 km

29.3. Friday: Recovery Run 33 min 6.2 km

30.3. Saturday: Long Run 115 min 20.2 km

31.3. Sunday: REST

I had been running without injury or even nuisances, but the next week my right Achilles Tendon got sore. I had to stop running. And I started to do eccentric strength training for the Achilles Tendons and a workout program I had come across on Runner's World called Iron Strength. I was two weeks out of running. I could feel the right Achilles Tendon when running, sometimes it hurt more, but I could finish the practices.

I had run almost 800 km with my current pair of shoes so I figured out that it was time to buy new ones. The running shoes usually last from 600 up to 1000 km before they wear out and start causing injury. 28^th of April I bought a new pair of running shoes, Asics Kayano 19. The next week I would start to follow the marathon training program aiming for 3-hour finish and I needed a good pair of shoes from the beginning.

Figure 5: Asics Kayano 19, grey/blue

The base training monthly running time and kilometers:

January: 644 min, 119.3 km

February: 1070 min, 201.9 km

March: 1404 min, 269.8 km

April: 845 min, 160.9 km

Figure 6: Weekly Base Training time spent at intensity (Red line=Avg HR)

P.S. We got married in February 2013. So from now on I will refer to Sandra with the acronym "my W.I.F.E."

2012 Season Recap

Training

Figure 1: That's me in 2011.

I got back to running on 16th of April 2012 after 10 years break. I was excited. But I had to be very careful and cautious. Obviously I can't just go out there and expect that I can pick up from where I left 10 years ago. I had more weight than ever (88 kg, my height is 185 cm), not overweight just a bit soft. My muscle strength was gone long time ago. At that moment we lived on the outskirts of Buenos Aires in Pilar where the streets are partly asphalt, partly dirt road. No fancy bicycle routes like in Helsinki, homeless and "guard" dogs were running around free on the streets but the traffic is fortunately less chaotic than in the city of Buenos Aires.

Table 1: 2012 training in numbers

I had brought my dad's sneakers with me from Finland because I did not have my own anymore. His shoe is 1 size smaller than mine so the shoes fitted firmly. I decided to be as punctual as was possible since the first practice to gather good data if I actually happened to get interested in running again. So I had my cell phone to measure time and my routes measured with Google Maps. I started out easy and actually survived the first practice:

16.4. Recovery Run 41min (5,7 km) 7:11 min/km

It felt quite alright. I had gone out easy. The next day I did a very light circuit training, some crunches and push-ups. I made a plan that I would just try to get to used to running as long as it took, remain injury free. The following days

18.4. Easy Run 44min (6,7 km) 6:34 min/km
19.4. REST
20.4. Fartlek 40min (6,7 km) 5:58 min/km

First week: 19,1 km in 125 minutes (3 practices)
Second week: 22,9 km in 146 minutes (3 practices)

Since the first week I was trying to run every other day (3 times/week). Sounds ambitious. And it was, a bit too ambitious. When the third week started I got injured in my 7th practice. My first injury: left achilles tendon started to hurt. I had to stop running. If I could go back in time, I would have changed at least the first two week practices to run and walk practice and try again. It's just rediculous how injury prone one is after a long break. I wonder if one can get injured by just wearing a pair of running shoes and mental practice running for 40 minutes, probably not, but you get the point.

The next day I flew to Finland and bought a Polar RCX 3 with GPS. I had been using Polar heart monitors sometimes in skiing and running. At that time there were no GPS systems, one could just measure time and heart rate. But now there are GPS distance and velocity measurement and you can upload your practices to your computer, view and analyze the practice afterwards. I love statistics so I did not get overwhelmed with these new possibilities, but indeed try to pick up all kind of tendencies to see what kind of correlations there could be to monitor my training progress. But first I needed data and that meant going out and run.

We went out to Pirkkola brick-dust track with my friend Markku Laitinen who had been running for sometime but was not racing, yet. I tried to run a Cooper test to estimate my maximum heart rate but had to quit after 6 minutes, I had gone out too fast. It was eye-opening to wake up to reality that I could not complete a Cooper test. I had run 6 minutes on 2900m Cooper pace and had to give up. But just for the day. I estimated that my maximum heart rate is somewhere bit over 180 bpm. I set my max HR to 185. Next day I run my first Long Run:

5.5. Long Run 77min (10,2 km) avg HR 135.

...and this time I felt pain in my right ankle and achilles tendon. But three days later I was running again:

8.5. Easy Run 46min (6,7 km) 6:50 min/km, avg HR 138.

and so I continued balancing in between the nuisances and running, trying to run 3 times a week about 20 km total, and adding swimming and occasional tennis ball hitting sessions in my schedule just trying to be active so I would've not get passive again. And I thought I was in such bad shape that any exercise was very good for me. Now was not the time to get picky. Couple of things I had already accomplished. I hadn't smoked one cigarette since I started to run and did not desire one anymore. Neither did I feel like drinking alcohol. The endorphin rush that I got from running was enough for me.

Figure 2: Asics GT-2160.

I bought a new pair of running shoes, Asics GT-2160 the fourth week. After this sixth week of running I had to made a self diagnose of my painful right achilles tendon that I had developed achilles tendinitis. So I ordered myself 3x 600mg ibuprofen per day, various times cold treatment per day, daily achilles tendon stretching, and running practices to be changed to swimming and water jogging. After two weeks I tried running again, I survived the first practice, but the next practice I had to stop because of pain. Then I called a doctor to see if he would have better ideas how to deal with the injury. The doctor told me (16.6.) to get or make myself supports under my heels and do some eccentric strength training. So I did them myself and saved money. ("Tein itse ja säästin") The one thing we Finns have is that we are always proud if we can make something ourselves instead of buying it. I was out of running the next two weeks mostly swimming.

I run the next time first of July. Easy Running for 8,4 km for 53 minutes. I still felt something in the tendon. For the next practice I came up with a new trick. I had acquired kinesio tape and tried taping my tendon and it actually worked. I was back on the road running three times and quickly increased to four times a week. I used kinesio taping for couple weeks. Then, the day before I flew back to Argentina my mom gave me gel supports under my heels that she had found that day in the pharmacy. My cardboard heel supports had to give way for more sophisticated technology. With those new heel supports I could run without taping and without pain in the tendon. With the new gel supports I did my longest practice so far:

14.7. Long Run 103min 16,0km, avg HR 136 (6:27 min/km)

That week I had run 40,9km in four practices, a new record distance in a week. I probably had never in my life before run 40 km in one week. I was making progress, eventhough I was plagued by the injury.

I flew back to Argentinian winter from Finnish summer. The temperatures barely go under 0 C in Buenos Aires, but this was the coldest moment of the year so I had to put some clothes when I went out for run. Of course it was nothing new to me. I think -16 C was the limit before they postponed skiing competitions for the kids in Finland. And I have been practicing before at -30C. It feels fresh in the lungs to run at 0 C.

I had studied different marathon training programs for beginners and more advanced runners. I tried to figure out what kind of program would serve me. It needed to make me fitter, push me ahead but not get me injured. I had been injured enough, I wanted to run, feel the pain and satisfaction of a hard practice, not being sidelined by injury. After couple of weeks of injury-free running I had started to feel the addiction of running growing inside me. I wanted more. More!

I decided that I would try to run my first marathon. I needed to get first in 10K shape, then 21K shape, I knew that, but I figured I didn't need an official competition to prove me if I was fit or not. I would make my own tests on the way, but the primary objective would be to run and survive the 2012 Buenos Aires City Marathon in Octobre (7.10.). At that time I had less than 3 months time to prepare myself. 3 months had already passed since I started running. I could run 4 times a week total 30 to 40 km. That was my current fitness level. When I measured my weight in the swimming hall I had lost 5 kg or something weight at that time, weighing around 83 kg.

My training program included Easy Runs, Tempo Runs (aka. Hard Runs) and Long Runs. I started to develop shin splints, that I could keep in control with icing and cold baths after running. My right hamstring prevented me from sprinting, trying to run very hard or doing coordination practice. The hamstring rupture ended one of my seasons more than 10 years ago in the last competition of the season, and it had never fully healed. But I did not let that get me down, I was going to run a marathon and if I can't sprint at the end so be it.

After couple of weeks of happy running, the achilles tendon stroke back. I had to stop on one of my Long Runs. I tried icing, cold baths, eccentric strength training, stretching, pretty much all the tricks that I had learned recently to keep the pain away from it. The next training my right hamstring made me stop my run. OK, I'll just sit on some ice and stretch it. The week ended in a 21 km Long Run that was haunted since the start by the hamstring, followed by pain in the left achilles tendon and calf when I passed the 6 km mark. But I didn't want to quit, I could deal with the pain. I probably looked like an old pirate trying to run with a wooden leg before I stopped. Parrot on the shoulder and eye pad, sure thing!

I went to get a massage after that. But the massages I have come across in Argentina are not like in Finland where you go to a sport masseur, you ask for and he gives you 45 minutes of pain. In Argentina they touch you very gently and soft just like you were a newborn baby and if you try to explain that you are a runner and that you need as deep as possible massage for your legs, they warm up 5 minutes your calves, don't even touch the good parts (Got you! But in this case I mean the glutes, upper thighs, hamstrings), and move on to rub your back and shoulders for the rest of the hour.

So I was back with various injuries and nuisances, and had to cut down my weekly kilometers until I tried the kinesio taping again. The taping or glue by the way gives me a rash if I keep them on more than two days, so that was kind of a last resort to go back to taping. But it helped. That week I run with some nuisance, but finished the practices and run new record Long Run 24 km and almost cramping my right hamstring in between running but in the end felt better already. I was running 5 times a week, did I mention that already? All in all, I was making progress.

First of September 2012 we moved to a new home. The new home was in Olivos, 25km from the center of Buenos Aires. Since the day One I have been in love with Olivos: no stray dogs, traffic is tolerable, services are close, and most of all Paseo de la Costa, a park for skating, cycling and RUNNING is only 2 km away from my home. My new temple and sanctuary.

Figure 3: Paseo de la Costa

The next day I run:

2.9. Long Run 162min 27.0km avg HR 149 (6:01 min/km)

The right hamstring was still with pain, but did not force me to stop running. The next week my legs were pretty tired already going in to the practice. I had to stop running because of pain in the right knee, probably the so-called "Runner's Knee" if not IT-band. The knee forced me to stop several runs early. But still I run 50 km on that week. And I run the most important practice of the season: 

9.9. Long Run 181min 28.7km avg HR 156 (6:18 min/km).

I run that Long Run without drinking and I was really exhausted at the end. I got a little taste of what it feels like to try to run dehydrated. The next day I went to doctor's office because I had a sore metatarsal that would start aching if I walked more than 200 meters. No fracture. Just had to make sure I was still on the right track. I rested 10 days without running. Ice ice baby and ibuprofen. I went out to skate (inline skating) couple of days to get a little cardio practice.

Two and a half weeks to go before the race. I got back to running. I run some Easy Runs and tried to run my estimated marathon pace (5:15 min/km). Kept on tapering and tried to get healthy. I had to quit one run because I had pain on my chest. Later I figured out that I must have strained slightly my pectoral muscle while carrying food from the store. What a nerd! Other than that the tapering phase went alright, I was hopeful and excited to run my first marathon.

The day before the race we met with my friend Pasi and his chilean girlfriend, Isabel, in the marathon expo. He was living in Chile at that time. I showed a bit around my new neighborhood, Olivos, and we went out to eat pasta in a local restaurant. They went to their hotel and I went to my home getting ready for the next morning.

Racing

Figure 4: Finishing my first Marathon.

My One and only race that season: Claro Maraton de Ciudad de Buenos Aires (42K) 7th of Octobre.

The Race start was Sunday at 7:30 AM. Slightly raining, temperature 15 C, a good running weather. Cold for the spectators. My team was me and my girlfriend, Sandra. More than 7000 runners took off. I started at about position 2000 crossing the starting line 1:20 after the Bang. I was warming up the first kilometeres. First km 5:34, second km 5:22, third km 5:19. Steering clear in the traffic, and holding back. At 3 km I started feel slight pain on my left foot metatarsal. 

I run about 5:20 min/km pace really controlled up to 8 km mark. Then I added some pace running 5:05 - 5:10 kilometeres. My 10 km official split was 56:01, my position was around 2300. Sandra was cheering for me at about 11 km, waving the Finnish flag. So far so good, feeling fresh, I had survived the first test: the temptation of going out too fast. After about 15 km mark I started slowly gaining positions, the first people who had gone out too fast started to feel it and were falling back already. 

My 21K official split was 1.52:45, position 2037. I had found good pacing group: an argentinian man and a woman. Together we were working our way up in the field. Since the half way mark almost no-one passed us and we were passing at a constant pace around 4:50 min/km. 25K split 2.12:28 and position 1819. Sandra was cheering for me at 29 km. That helped a lot. 30K split 2.37:40 position 1610. I run my fastest kilometer of the race the km 31, 4:42. The legs started to really hurt after 32 kilometers. Every step. But we were still pushing and a constant stream of backs was flowing our way. 35K split was 3.02:22 position 1386. I could keep the pace under 5:00 min/km until km 37. My new team was pushing me when I started to fade and I tried to keep up, running out of energy and legs hurting, but still passing other runners constantly. 

The final 3 kilometers of the race I could not keep up with my group and my pace was slowing 5:13 (km 40), 5:27 (km 41) and 5:23 (km 42). On the final kilometer I tried to ask from the spectators how much more did I have (I had missed the 41 km mark and you can't trust the GPS in a race) "Cuanto más!?" No answer. Then I saw the finish line in the distance maybe 400 meters to go. I tried to put up a little sprint and my right hamstring reminded my immediately what my current condition was. OK, maybe I don't want to cramp now, but still tried to find the limit pace I could run without cramping. 

I finished the race at official time 3.39:06 position 1299. My netto time was 3.37:46. I went to get massage in the finish area, my legs hurt a lot, but I felt great, I had run a perfect race for my condition. With a negative split of 5 minutes. Special thanks to Paco Caballieri and Gisela Di Camillo for pacing and working together.

Figure 5: Polar Race Data (Red line=HR, Grey line=velocity)

I got a medal and a ride home in our car. I was exhausted and happy. I had done something I hadn't been able to do before. I grew a lot as a runner and person that morning. Changed my life. Or maybe I just got my old life back. All in all the season was filled with injuries as was kind of expected but I managed not to lose my hope and got through it with a very decent result in the end.

Background

There are two persons in the World (that I know of) who carry the name: Lasse Juusela. We are both from Helsinki, Finland and we are runners. I (author of this blog) am the one who has always been known as the long distance runner. The other one has been the sprinter from 60 m to 100 m. Our results are sometimes mixed up in the athletics databases making us, Lasse Juusela, look like a real life Forrest Gump who can run like the wind blows from 60m up to Marathon.

Anyhow, my grandfather (who was a world class veteran marathon runner, under 4-hour at the age of 75) took me to my first track practice when I was 6 years old at the warm-up track, Eläintarha (the Zoo), of the Helsinki Olympic Stadium. Since the first warm-up, which I thought was a race against the older kids, I have enjoyed running. As a kid I used to run all the time (when I wasn't on my bike) because I thought walking was boring. I run to my friends' houses to play Nintendo. And I could play an entire basketball game barely breaking a sweat.

Not going too deep into the details, but I had a happy childhood trying to get everywhere as fast as I could, running or biking. First time I escaped from home was when I was 5. I took my bike and went on to visit a cat (his name was Santtu) that lived in my daycare family. Maybe 4 to 5 km. When I was 10 I took interest in maps, and I started planning biking trips that would end up at my grandparents house because there was always blueberry pie waiting even if I showed up without a "warning". The trips ranged from 10 km up to 60 km. My backpack included: the map, a pump, couple of sandwiches and juice. I loved it. Adventures on my own. Back-up plans, no back-up plans. No asking for help (same as quitting). Freedom. And no cell phones, that was 1992.

I think I was 11 years old when I finished second in the 2 km XC running of Finlandia Junior Games (the biggest annual international competition for the kids in Finland). The winner was Aki Rissanen, who later became a friend of mine. The one thing I remember from that race was that about half km before the finish I was maybe in 8th position and a fellow runner on my side started crying, and I thought "if I can put a little bit more speed, maybe the rest of the guys will start crying too". I started my finishing sprint very early, no-one cried, I felt sick pushing my limit and lifted my position to 2nd when coming to the stadium. I was succesful in the local running competitions, so much that at some point I started to fear, not losing, but not winning. That was because we were all running with just genetics and active life, nobody practiced, maybe some sprinting and jumping technique, but that was it. I felt helpless against better runners.

At the age of around 13 I did not do too well. Almost everyone grew up faster than I did. The running kids started to practice running and I was still relying on genetics. The Seinäjoki boys were practicing and killing the field, I was nowhere near the top. I had also picked up a new sport for the winter, cross-country skiing. Lots of technique to be practiced there for the years to come. But cross-country skiing is a good sport, you don't get injured and you build up all-around strength, stamina and endurance in the body without even noticing. Just get out and ski. But it's expensive and require a lot of co-operation from your parents.

Let's see. The year I turned 15 I started finally grow as well. That year I gained 20 cm of height and 20 kg of weight. I was back in the competition. At that time I had been running mostly 800 m and 2000 m, mediocre times. The first championships of Finland are held for the 15 year olds. For the first time I had been practicing other than sprinting. I had gone out running the 5 km skiing track almost every day for a month, every time trying to break my time the day before. I was 5th in the 800 m competition which was my main event. A bit of a disappointment. The next day was the 2000 m race, my record was at least 15 seconds slower than the best runners had. But this race was something I will never forget. I started out in the back of the pack and had a plan to stick along until I crash. Runners were falling of the pace and I passed them at the back of the lead group until the bell rang, I was 5th, doing already incredibly well. But I still had energy in my legs, the lead group started to stretch, Seinäjoki boys in the front running away. I started passing, passed one, passed two, in the back straight only two runners ahead but they had grown a little gap already. Final 200 m all-out, sprinting probably faster than in the previous day 800 m, passed one, coming to the final straight, one more, passed him 50 m before the finish, coming out strong until the end. Bang! 17 seconds new PR, first time under 6 minutes, 5:51. Where did that come from? I don't know but that felt great! I was back!

After that season, I asked Atte Pettinen if he would like to coach me, he said yes. The final lap made me want to do it again, and I thought, why wait various laps before sprinting, when there is a sport already for that, 400 m running. 400 meters was interesting because, nobody starts his running career by running 400 meters. 400 meters is something that you either come from sprinting or distance. I was coming from the distance running, had to learn get faster. My practice companion was Ville Hyvärinen who was running the same distances, 400m and 800m.

Then I got accepted to Mäkelänrinne Sports High School, where we had training sessions 3 times in the morning: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. Normal school after that. And in the evening more practice. I increased a lot my speed and strength with my coach, and in a year or two I was a pretty good 200 m and 400 m runner. I even run pretty well the 3rd leg, the back corner, in a 4x100m team. The best accomplishment was invitation to represent Finland in youth athletics, one time against Sweden (400m) and other time Nordic Championships (4x400m team). My PRs were 100 m 11.37, 200 m 22.51, 400 m 49.95, and 800 m 1:56.72.

I went to the military and run 3610 m in the first Cooper test, best result of the platoon. That was pretty good result coming from a sprinter. I spent 362 days in the military. During the time in military I got distracted from running and training, and I thought maybe I should concentrate first time on studying. My numbers had been average in school. And so my running days were over. Got out of the military and went on studying Forest Products Technologies in Helsinki University of Technology. I also had developed some kind of keliachia type skin problem, and hated sweating, I thought I would be glad not to have to train and sweat.

From 2003 until 2012 I studied, drunk alcohol, smoked cigarettes, played a bit of basketball in the 4th and 5th division (sometimes in hangover), probably developed minor depression and felt stuck. January 2010 I went on for 5 months as an exchange student to Buenos Aires, Argentina. The sunlight made me feel energetic and happy. I rarely used any lotion on my skin, what a relief, no constant scratching. My spanish was very very bad but I was determined to learn it. Then I met my future wife.

Back to Finland to finish up my studies. My dad has always played tennis and he introduced me to his trainer, Hannu. Hannu had been an avid tennis player, a semi-professional in the 1970s, road tripping with Björn Borg and had a degree in sports science. He was ashtonished of my capability to learn tennis. I had maybe hit twice a tennis ball when I was 5 years old. So he was really excited to teach me because I hadn't developed any previous false motorics like everyone else. I went to his practice maybe 15 times and after that I hit the ball better than players on the other court that had been playing 15 years. "If we only started practicing you when you were 5 years old we would have now all been traveling the ATP tour with you" said my coach jokingly. But the tennis practice reminded me what I was good at, and that was sports.

I finished my studies in the university. That took me 1,5 years and in Octobre 2011 I returned to Argentina with a Master's Degree in my pocket. Still my spanish skills were in pretty bad shape, but now I was learning from the best, my colombian girlfriend. Originally I had been lured to be an exchange student by a fellow finnish student, Pasi Gullsten, who had already been in couple of spanish speaking countries, and most of all he had been in the same study program in Buenos Aires the year before I went. That was the first time he pushed me in the right direction.

The second time he pushed me in the right direction was when he updated his status in Facebook that he was going to take on the 2012 Buenos Aires City Marathon. If you are reading this, Pasi, you know it's not all your fault but maybe 80%. The following night I did not sleep well and I woke up. I had a clear picture on my mind: I was going to go for a run in the morning. And I did. It was Monday, 16.4.2012. I had turned 30 years old 2 months ago. The last time I had been practicing running was 10 years ago, almost 15 kg lighter.

That's pretty much it how I got in, out, and back to running.

-Lasse Juusela.