Heli Heiskanen’s Ski Classics Season XIV ended with an eleventh place at Reistadløpet. The Pro Team athlete left the finish area limping because of a hurting leg. A few days later, a stress fracture was found.

Like many skiers, Heli Heiskanen has often enjoyed Lapland’s spring breeze after the competition season and collecting kilometers at a leisurely pace. This year, the plans changed when the doctors ruled on a 12-week healing process at the beginning of April. For the first five weeks, she walked with crutches.

“What I could do was completely limited, and my loved ones had to help me. It was a difficult time,” says Heiskanen to Maastohiihto.com.

Also Read: Heli Heiskanen’s season came to an unfortunate end. 

Despite the problems, Heiskanen could also see something positive in the situation. She decided spring would be an excellent time to develop her upper body, including swimming, training in the gym, and the double poling machine.

One of the training was very useful.

“I am relatively good at swimming, and I was able to do very effective and long swimming workouts.”

Problems sorted out

Determination and care were rewarded, and the leg healed five weeks earlier than predicted.

In July, Heiskanen collected about a hundred training hours, and the injury no longer affects her training.

Despite the problematic early season, Heiskanen has big goals for next winter. In Ski Classics, she says that she will focus on the biggest competitions, such as the Grand Classics competitions, without overthinking the overall results.

“My best ranking is fourth. The level is getting harder all the time, so I’ll be satisfied if I can reach the performances I’ve had. With the current condition, I feel that it could be quite realistic,” concludes Heli Heiskanen.