Questions & Answers with Helena Jansson

February 28, 2008 by Niels-Peter Foppen

In this issue of Q&A an interview with Helena Jansson, currently ranked 5th in the IOF World Ranking, youngest member of the 2008 senior elite group of the Swedish national team. We spoke with Helena about her study, future jobplans, her strong improvements during 2007 season and her goals for the 2008 season – the first time ever she has clearly outspoken goals for the year.

Ultimate Orienteering – If I am right, you are a medical student at Umeå University . Can you please tell us something about your study, and how you combine your study with orienteering on high level.
Helena Jansson – I’m currently on my second year of studying, which means that I have yet another four years or so before I’m done with school. This is of course if I manage to study full time all the way throughout the education, which I’m not so sure that I will. However, when I started studying a little over a year ago I never thought I would do it as well as I have. I had no hopes what so ever to actually pass the exams on the first try, but so far I have done everything that I was supposed to, and I’m very surprised of that, as well as proud. I will continue studying full time at least till summer, then I don’t know. Hopefully I will be able to perhaps study 75 percent or so, I’ll have to wait and se what my study counselor says. I don’t really have any future jobplans yet, it fells like a lifetime till I will start working, and that’s fine because I really like school, there is no such thing as learning new things every day! The combination with high level orienteering is perhaps not an ultimate one, but I don’t want to compromise that I want to do both things, and so I cope. I have had to improve planning-skills quite a lot over the last year, and I have to be quite rational when it comes to studying. There is a difference in the time you have to put into your studies if you just aim to pass the exams, of if you plan on reading every page in every book…

U O – Does Umeå University provides a special program for top athletes?
H J – Yes, in a way. When I started a year ago they claimed to have a special support for top athletes, but when I looked in to that it was mainly for the soccer players and the other team-athletes, and also, the medical students did not seem to be at all included. Now, they have started another program, and right now I have a contract with my school which says that I should be able to change dates for exams for example. I have not had any use of it so far, but hopefully it will come into handy.

U O – Supported by your trainer Harri Viinamäki you made some strong improvements last season. Can you tell us something about the trainings method of Viinamäki? What does your training program looks like?
H J – Since Harri lives in Skövde, my home town, and I live in Umeå, the very north of Sweden, we stay in contact mostly over the phone and via email. I have a very tight schedule in school, and therefore he gives me a program with a number of trainings that he thinks I should perform that week, and I plan when and where I want to train. Then, I send him my training-data via email, and he can look at what I have done. Since I started working with Harri, my training has had more structure and I never do a training that he suggests unless he can answer why I should do it. I ‘ve been better when it comes to injury-preventing training, and I try to listen to my body at all times. The “Harri Viinamäki training methods” is nothing special, it is just normal running training, adjusted to me. I get bored very easily and therefore we (or he) have to keep coming up with new sets of intervals and new ways of distance-running. What I have done is that I have focused more on keeping a high quality in the training that I perform, I run a lot more with high intensity now. Also, I run very little orienteering. This is mainly because it takes too much time to get to maps, and also, there is tremendous amounts of snow here in the winter, which makes the orienteering not so much fun…

U O – On what kinda things you aim to improve for the coming season?
H J – I am working a lot on my running uphill. I’ve always been lousy on that, and in this years World Orienteering Championships I’m guessing that would be a good thing to improve. I still think I have a few more years of really good training before I can really make the best out of me, so I just keep on trying to become even faster and stronger and better!

U O – This year is your first year in the Swedish senior elite team. What are your goals for the 2008 season as a member of the senior elite team?
H J – This is the first time ever that I have clearly outspoken goals for the year, and my goal this year is to run the World Orienteering Championships. Not just get through the course, but do it really well. This year when I reach the finish line, I will do it with a smile on my face, and if anyone asks how my race was I will be able to tell them that it was the best ever! That I was so focused, so fast, and that I did all the best that I could!

U O - Will you focus on a specific discipline at the World Orienteering Championships?
H J – Actually yes. It has taken me a while to figure out which one, and if I could choose all alone, perhaps I would not have choosen a discipline, but Harri thinks that the training is rather different if you aim at sprint or long or middle, and I agree. So, this year, I will be at my best on the middle distance. I would love to try the long, but I’m not sure I’m ready yet, so middle it shall be. Also, in a way I think middle is the most difficult one and therefore the biggest challenge, and that appeal to me. I love challenges! I will also be at my best during the relay, which is actually the discipline I like the most…