Holiday training - II : swim tracking issues

A man who has a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure. (Segal's law)

For the first time ever, I own a gps watch that can be used for swimming! I was very happy with my previous watch (until its light stopped working a few months ago) but it could not be used during swimming activities. All these years, for tracking my open water swimming time during summer, I used simple cheap digital watches that are usually waterproof up to 50 m. Although these poor watches eventually get destroyed by salt and the sun, they work perfectly well for timing both intervals and whole swimming sessions for at least two or three summers. For checking my distance, I used Google maps to measure the distance between the endpoints of my swimming rounds. Of course since it is not possible to swim straight lines in open water, this was never accurate, but it gave a pretty good idea of my total swimming distance.

This year, I was excited and eager to test my new watch which is a Garmin Forerunner 920XT. It is a triathlon watch, which can be used for swimming, running, and biking, as well as combination of all three. I have had it for already a couple of months, but I never found the time to start using it before the summer holidays. When I finally hit the beach on the first day and took out my watch to set it up, I was happily surprised to see that its colors matched perfectly the colors of my goggles, my beach slippers, and my swimming equipment purse. I was so enthusiastic (you know by now how easily this happens) that I simply had to post the following picture on Instagram.

Nobody believed that the matching colors were a coincidence... But Frank, who bought the watch, can assure you that it was. Unfortunately it turned out that I was expecting a bit too much from my new watch. The heart rate belt is not to be used during swimming. There is no way the watch can get the information from the belt while in water, so the swimming functions do not at all contain a view of the heart rate. This was the first disappointment, as I was really looking forward to register the heart rate and to see how it changes between the different styles of swimming and between faster and slower swimming (the heart rate tends always to be quite a bit lower in water than when running, even during strenuous swimming). The second disappointment took me a couple days to figure out: the breaststroke rounds are not distance registered at all! It turns out that the gps signal is lost when under water. While forward crawl swimming, the distance is registered quite accurately, since the arm with the watch goes above the surface every second stroke, and just a second outside of water is enough to catch the gps signal and recap the distance. However, during breaststroke the arms are under the water all the time, and nothing gets registered. Since the watch has built-in movement control other than gps (as it can register things like distance and cadence while indoor running on treadmill) I was thinking that it could perhaps register the strokes due to the arm movements, but unfortunately not. When I do four rounds, alternating forward crawl and breaststroke, this is how it looks at the end:

Only two rounds registered. I simply have to add the missing two rounds manually. It is not so easy to see the watch while swimming, so to swim intervals while watching the time is not convenient. I think you can set it up so that it tells you when to start swimming fast and when to slow down (it has a very nice buzz which is pleasantly but clearly noticeable), but I haven't taken the time to read and learn all that. Instead, this is how I do my intervals: 120 strokes fast/60 strokes moderate for forward crawl, and 60 strokes fast/30 strokes moderate for breaststroke.

If you are interested, somebody has done a really thorough review of this watch, and he recommends it to wear it on your head (under your swim cap) for most accurate registration of distance. As I really prefer to avoid the swim cap, this is not an option for me. Don't think that I am not happy with my new watch, though; it has many nice features outside of swimming that I have already tested a bit and am looking forward to test more. When it comes to swimming, I have checked that there are devices that can register heart rate via your ear, and speak to you your heart rate while in water. Great idea, but this is a separate device from your watch. I have another idea: goggles that register heart rate and display it on the top part of the glasses! Attach a tiny antenna that sticks out of the water to keep in touch with the gps signal at all times, and you have the best swim tracker ever. Am I giving away an ultimate business idea too easily? In any case, here is another detailed review and comparison of several swim watches.

Holidays and swimming are great, but I really do miss my mountains! The first thing I am planning to do as soon as I am back in Bergen is to visit Stoltzekleiven. With Skåla Opp coming up in just four weeks, I will probably be alternating between Stotlzekleiven and Gullfjellet every second day after the holidays. Thanks to HSR training, I think I have kept my leg strength, but I am a bit worried that my uphill shape has declined during the past three weeks.

We will see on Wednesday...

Holiday training - I

"Remember that you are on holiday; don't rain too much." (Ketil Ola Skjelvan)

Every summer I spend 3-5 weeks in the Bodrum area, a peninsula where the Aegean sea meets the Mediterranean, with a large variety of wonderful beaches. Taking a complete break from training during these holiday weeks has never been an option. However, the type of training has changed quite a bit since last year.

2013 and before

Until last year, my holiday training consisted of about an hour fast open water swimming six days a week. Although my running activity and form improved over the years, and I became a regular Bootcamper since May 2012, I never considered the option of running or strength training during the summer holidays away from home. Mostly because it is simply too hot to run during the day, but also because I love open water swimming and I don't get to swim much otherwise since I am not that fond of swimming pools. Holiday swimming is very motivating, as it feels pretty hard in the beginning but gets easier and faster as the weeks pass by. What I do is to pick two landmarks (or perhaps I should call them sea marks), like two piers about 200 - 300 meters from each other, and do rounds back and forth between them and time my rounds. I always change between front crawl (freestyle) and breaststroke every second round, and I have throughout the years figured out that larger goggles that cover my entire eye area (including eye brows) work the best for me. (Leaking or foggy goggles can ruin the whole swimming experience!)

2014

2014 was when I started training seriously. By the summer of 2014, I had already participated at Bergen City half marathon and Bergen Fjellmaraton, and I had regular personal training sessions with Ketil since March. In addition, Oslo half marathon was coming up in September 2014, as well as Skåla Opp already in August, so I realized that no running could not be an option that summer. I did not want to lose my running form, neither did I want to lose my strength, so I made a plan to continue with both during the summer holidays of 2014. Ketil made a perfect strength training plan for me which was scheduled to last about an hour. The plan was easily dividable into three parts of 20 minutes each: arms and shoulders; abs; legs and butt. I combined this strength training with swimming or running every day, except Sundays. Because of the heat, the running had to be done early in the morning. Frank agreed to join me on the running program, and three days a week we hit the roads at 6:30 in the morning. It was hard to get up, but afterwards it was wonderful. The cool wind, running by the sea, the incredible early morning views and colors... When we got back, we went back to sleep for about an hour after showering and before breakfast. After that, we were as good as new to start a new day; I felt that we got so much out of those days. We also found a steep hill to do some uphill intervals, and this ended up being my weekly routine for four weeks last summer:
Monday: Early morning run 15 km; strength training arms and shoulders 20 min in the afternoon.
Tuesday: 2 km swimming during the day; strength training legs and butt 20 min in the afternoon.
Wednesday: Early morning uphill intervals, about an hour; strength training abs 20 min in the afternoon.
Thursday: 2 km swimming during the day; strength training legs and butt in the afternoon.
Friday: Early morning fartlek (irregular, fun intervals) 10 km, strength training arms and shoulders.
Saturday: 2 km swimming during the day; strength training abs in the afternoon.
Sunday: Rest
I made sure to separate leg and butt training from the days of running, and arms and shoulders training from the days of swimming.

This turned out to be the ultimate holiday training experience. I came back from holidays stronger and faster than before, and I was really happy about the whole program. If you are up to it, I can really recommend it. Getting up early during holidays is scary for most, but you can shower and sleep afterwards, and still reach breakfast at around 10:30; it then feels like you are starting a new day.  It is really a wonderful scheme. I do have early morning training even when I am not on holidays, but the sleeping part makes the whole difference!

2015

Of course, since I was so happy about last year's training program, the initial plan was to repeat it this year, too, but that was before I started my rehab program.  As it became clear that I would not be able to run this summer, and I was eager not to take a break from my HSR training, I decided to find a gym that provided the machines for my HSR exercises. My plan was to do my HSR exercises three times a week, and swim every day in addition (except Sundays - Sundays are always rest days during holidays). During my most depressed time due to zero activity at the beginning of the rehab period, Frank bought me a new sports watch which can be used for swimming as well, to cheer me up. I did not end up going to a swimming pool for alternative training, so I was very excited to finally use my watch for open water swimming at the beginning of this year's holidays.

I found a fancy training studio with all the equipment I need, and Frank and I signed up for a month's subscription. The place worked so well that Frank and I are now going there six days a week, instead of three. Frank still does a run or two out on the road every now and then, but he found that treadmill running also works fine, at least for intervals and speed tests. He is also slowly getting the taste of strength training (I must admit I had a tiny hidden agenda here). Hence this is now my holiday routine so far this year:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday: HSR exercises in the morning after a short warmup; 2300 m swimming in the afternoon (fast intervals).

Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday: Strength training in the morning, mainly arms, shoulders, abs and back, after 30 min variety running on the treadmill; 2300 m swimming in the afternoon (long slow continuous swim).

Sunday: Rest

I am very happy about being able to run again, albeit only on the treadmill and short distance (max 3 km). I try to do variations, like a 10-15 min slow run (8-10 km/h), followed by faster intervals, for example 2 min 12 km/h, 2 min 13 km/h, 2 min 14 km/h, with a minute walking break in between, and then repeat. My injury is all the time noticeable but I can run without limping, which is new since many months. When it comes to the warm up before the HSR exercises, I use the elliptical machine rather than the treadmill, to get a variation (as you can see, variation is a key word). The swimming gives a very nice rehab workout for the hamstrings injury as well. Both during forward crawl and breaststroke, the hamstrings tendon contracts and stretches (in several different ways), and it feels better and better all the time. During the first days of swimming I could feel my injury all the time, whereas now when I swim I am able to forget it completely most of the time.

Summer swimming has a tendency to motivate me to try a triathlon. Last year, as a beginning I wanted to do the Os triathlon, but it was too close to Oslo marathon, and I did not want to lose focus or energy at that point. This year I am actually registered as a participant of Os triathlon (all these plans that were made before the rehab started...) and I feel that my swimming form is becoming pretty decent. I am still not sure whether the running part is doable, but it is a sprint triathlon with only 5 km running, so let's see what negotiations with Ane might bring after the holidays. Right now I am extremely impressed and motivated by the achievements of my friends Janne, Michal and Freddy who recently completed an Ironman race, and Caroline who just won an uphill triathlon.

Oh, I forgot to tell you about my experiences with the new swimming watch! Let me continue next week. By that time perhaps I will have taken a short run out on the roads or on the beach as well, which is the next milestone on the rehab plan.

Stay tuned, and enjoy an active holiday wherever you are!

Report from rehab - III : Ane the angel

You might have noticed that my current physiotherapist is the only one I have mentioned by name among all the different therapists I have tried. Ane Falck is her full name and she is simply amazing. She never stops surprising me. The treatment evolves all the time with new ingredients being added, and this is something I have not experienced with the other therapists. I want to emphasize that all other therapists I wrote about were highly recommended by people who are extremely happy about them, but they each specialized in one type of treatment. Normal massage, deep tissue massage, acupuncture, and intramuscular needles. I also tried chiropractic twice, so in total five therapists with each their five different specialties. It turns out that Ane specializes in all of these five treatment methods! In addition to ultrasound examinations and ultrasound assisted injections...

I did not think that I would write more about rehab until perhaps later to report on my healing, because I thought there would be not much to report about. I would simply be doing my exercises until I got better.  To my surprise, about a month ago Ane said "OK, now it's time to start treatment". Treatment? I thought HSR was the treatment. I was quite curious when I went to my next appointment with her, and it was above all expectations. She gave me intramuscular needles, deep tissue massage and chiropractics in one single session! I had been transferred to Ane from my previous therapist who is also at the same center as her, to have the injured area examined with ultrasound. So I thought ultrasound was her specialization. Then we started the rehab exercises, and as I wrote before, I am extremely happy with the way Ane is following up on my progress. Although we don't have an appointment, she very often finds me in the exercise room, corrects my posture, suggests advancements in the exercises, and simply genuinely cares. To be honest, I did not think that there was more. The fact that we have now muscular treatment in addition to the HSR training is such a nice surprise, and it gives me even more motivation to conscientiously and rigorously continue with the exercises. 

Another thing that impresses me about Ane is that not only she knows so much about so many things, but she is also interested in teaching me! She shows me pictures from books and explains how the muscles, joints or the tissue around them work, what out treatment is trying to achieve, why it works, etc etc. She also gives me links so that I can read more about both the injury and the treatment methods myself. This is, in my experience, quite non-typical of therapists. She is not only treating my current injury, but she also gives me exercises so that I can stay injury free in the future, and she gives me lots of examples from her own experiences. Ane is around my age, she is a very physically active person herself, and I have the feeling that she understands me completely. She is so compassionate and empathetic, and I have never experienced this, at least to this extent, with the previous therapists. During my last session with her before the holidays, she said "Our goals is to get you back at running, as a stronger and better runner than you were before". Wow: our goal, and better than before! I almost got tears in my eyes...

I experienced the ultimate proof of the level of her empathy when I was worried about some shoulder pain just a few days before the holidays. Ane knew that I was counting on swimming a lot during the holidays, so although she understood from my description that it was probably nothing, she gave me an appointment just the next day. I got a thorough examination of the shoulder, which was by that time already quite a lot better, and I was impressed how she was able to take it so seriously when she already knew that it would simply pass in a few days. She explained to me later that it is also important to stop the mental processes around pain and injury. In the end, pain is simply signals that our brain is producing, and sometimes it can produce these signals even when there is no physical reason. This is why many people struggle with chronic inexplicable pain. I learn so much from her...

On top of all these things, we discovered that Ane and my trainer Ketil are friends from way back! What a team! I have the pleasure of working with two of the people who are the most excellent in their work, who are among the few that understand me completely and take all my worries seriously, and whom I have become extremely fond of. My hope is to continue my collaboration with Ketil and Ane until we all retire :-) With this kind of a support team, I believe nothing can stand in my way to become and stay fast and injury free!

I am afraid too many of us hang on to therapies and therapists long after we have lost faith in them. If a treatment is not working for you, and you do not get an explanation that you are satisfied with, it might be worthwhile to look into alternatives. Do not hesitate to discuss it with your current therapist, and ask him or her to suggest alternative treatments. And when you finally find somebody whom you are 100% satisfied with, trust their methods and follow their instructions to the letter to get the results that you deserve.

Don't ever let go of people who enhance your life!

Top of the world

For those determined to fly, having no wings is just a detail...

In the middle of a period mostly characterized by injury and rehab, I am having the time of my life. I can hardly believe it myself. It turns out that it is possible to get back your full enthusiasm and runners' high without being able to run and compete as normal.  Miraculously, I am enjoying myself as much now as I was when I was running everyday and competing in every race, half a year ago. Of course the fact that my injury is getting better is helping a lot, but the improvement is extremely slow. It is so slow that I now think it will still take me several months to be able to start running properly. But it's not a problem! There are so many things I can do, and I can do them in increasing intensity and length. The good news is that the fall season is full of steep mountain races, which mainly involve fast walking and not much running, and I think I can participate in them as planned!


I wrote before that I think it is important to set alternative training goals to keep up your motivation and inspiration when you are injured. In fact, anything that gives a feeling of achievement and accomplishment has the same positive effect as setting running records. This weekend I went for something I was really uncertain whether I would be able to do or not: step on and walk to the edge of Trolltunga. This is a piece of rock hanging 700 hundred meters above the lake beneath it, and it is a very famous hiking destination in Norway. The trail to Trolltunga is 11 km long, with a 750 m elevation gain, and it takes about 3 hours to drive to the trail head from Bergen. Hence, if you want to do it in one day, you have to start out early, preferably do it during one of the longest days of summer. This past week Frank and I have been watching the weather report for Saturday, which was changing all the time, and as it started to look good on Friday we decided to go for it. Lucky or us, our Melkesyre friends as impulsive as ourselves, Laila, Ove, and Cathrine, joined on short notice, and together we hit the road to Odda where the trail head is located.

I had been checking the trail reports and knew that there was still quite a lot of snow on the path, so I was not expecting so many people there. It is, after all, quite a hike. All the pictures I had seen of Trolltunga showed only very few people on the rock, so I was thinking that this is a quite deserted spot. I could not have been more wrong! So many tourists!!! We were stopped at a parking lot 10 km before the trail head and informed that the upper parking lot was full, so we had to park at this spot and take a shuttle up to the trail head. This was all fine and we had a very pleasant chat with the shuttle driver who was very happy to be able to speak Norwegian for the first time that day. The trail starts very steep, pretty much like Stoltzekleiven for the first kilometer. Then it eases a bit, but it is still uphill for the next kilometer as well. From there on, it goes slight up and slight down, all in all quite pleasant walk for the next 9 km to Trolltunga. The views are unbelievably beautiful all the way, and we were extremely lucky with the weather, which turned out much better than predicted. The ground was covered with snow for almost all of the last 9 km, and fortunately for me, nobody in our group wanted to run. We went for a fast hike, and reached the rock in 2 hours and 45 minutes from the trailhead. We only ran past long lines of slow tourists, which there were hundreds of, every now and then, and I was extremely happy to be able to keep up with my group and not slow them down.

Although I had seen millions of pictures of Trolltunga and had high expectations, the view of it punched me in the stomach as soon as we reached it. Wow! I immediately wanted to close my eyes again; it was so disturbing to watch people balance at the edge of the rock. In real the rock is more spectacular than all pictures of it I had seen. I was prepared by the many cars in the parking lots and the lines of tourists on the path that there would be a lot of people, but I was still surprised to see how crowded it was. And then I understood how the pictures were taken with only very few people on the rock. It turns out that a very nice queue system has evolved: you have a friend standing at the plateau next to the rock to take your pictures, you enter the queue and wait for your turn, and then the rock is all yours until you are done and leave the scene for the next person in line. I have a strong anxiety for heights, and I was really not sure whether I would be able to go on the rock. I made Frank promise me beforehand that would force me if I refused. I was even considering the option of taking a small bottle of wine with me and drinking it just before :-). Standing in the queue turned out to be very good mental preparation; you get to see all the people get out there do all their crazy things (naked guys, turning wheels, jumping, dancing, etc), and you get more and more convinced that you can do it. When you are finally on the rock, it feels even safer; it is tilted slightly upward and it is quite broad, so you don’t see down (unless you go all the way to the edge), and you have a feeling of being on the same plateau as your photographer friend and the rest of the crowd. I would be very happy to just go out there, but I managed even to do several jumps, and the feeling of achievement was really wonderful. How anxious I had been I could see only afterwards, as I was really shaking all over and my heart rate was 138.

We spent quite a bit of time up there. Had our lunch, and went back on the rock one more time! As we headed back, it got sunnier and hotter. We were completely sunburnt by the time we were back at the trailhead after about two and a half hours. We had left Bergen at 8 am in the morning, and at 8 pm in the evening we were down by Hardangerfjord, in Odda, to have dinner. It was such a lovely evening, nice and warm, and we sat outside by the fjord during our meal. We left Odda at around 9 pm and reached home at around midnight; exhausted and happy. I am surprised that tourists seem to appreciate this place more than the locals; it is just a day’s trip; and the part of the trail after the first steep part seems really perfect for a run. I simply don’t understand why we did not do it before.

 

You would think this kind of excitement was enough for a week, but actually the past week had more to offer. In the middle of the week, before this hike, was the fantastically informal and fun race of Fjellgeitene from the Fløyen mountain to the Ulriken mountain in Bergen. My goodness I love these guys; they are so including in all their activities. The race was organized as “take your own time and report it afterwards”;  can it be simpler and more ingenious? I decided a while ago to participate, but not run, just walk. I am so fortunate that many of my friends in Varegg and Melkesyre appreciate the easier pace these days, and in the end we were quite a big group to start at Fløyen three hours before the planned finish time at Ulriken. I walked the first half, and ran the second half as it was pretty windy at the top and one needed to keep some speed to keep warm. Due to the easy start and the long warm up, I felt really good in the second half and I ended up running pretty decently. I even caught a few of my friends who had started running earlier. Lesson learned (again!): starting out easy always pays off in the end! On top of everything, when descending from Ulriken with Fjellgeitene, I learned a completely new path! After having this mountain in my backyard for almost 20 years, and having climbed it in various paths a million times, it still manages to surprise me. What can I say?

Count your blessings... and never grow up!

As good as it gets

It's been a busy week. On Monday I managed to squeeze in time to do both my rehab exercises and a close-to-record go at Stoltzekleiven. But then I was on travel from Tuesday to Friday, and I did not get to do any of my routine training. I had in fact very optimistically packed a whole mobile physiotherapy center with me, but the days consisted of late nights and very early mornings, and in the end I was just too tired to do anything else than sleep when I was in my hotel room.

 

I had had three consecutive days of hard exercise before leaving, and I thought at least that the rest would be good for me. However, sitting still for long hours for four days seemed to make everything worse. When I finally got home Friday evening I was feeling stiffer than ever, and the injury seemed to have worsened. I felt an urgent need to get moving. Fortunately, the weather report for Saturday was wonderful and I had already agreements with several friends for going to the top of Gullfjellet. On Saturday was the Gullfjellet Opp 2015 race, and I had decided several months ago to participate. Yesterday, instead of cancelling my plans, I participated in the class for fun, where your time is not registered. As the weather report turned nicer and nicer, more and more friends decided to join. Not all of them the race, but many of them the slow fun walk up. In the end we were many who took it easy, and it was such an incredibly nice day. We started early enough to get to the top just before the winners, so that we could cheer them into finish, and enjoy the excitement there.

Interesting enough, the topic of the conversation many times during the walk up was how important it is to rest and listen to your body, and how we are not really very good at it usually. We all enjoyed so much to take an easy pace walk up and just talk and lough all the way, and have time to stop and enjoy the views and take photos. And we kept asking: "Why don't we do this more often? Why do we always run?" I felt so lucky that I had so many friends who decided to do the easy walk this particular time rather than the race. Although the weather was sunny at the start, it got more and more cloudy as we ascended, but then it started to clear up more and more as we got closer to the top. Exactly at the moment when we reached there it became completely clear and sunny. Wow, could we have been more lucky?!

I very often find myself feeling lucky. On the other hand, I am sure that in reality I'm not more lucky than others, but somehow I spontaneously end up taking things to be my luck. If a nice coincidence happens I get so excited. In the middle of all injury and rehab at least I feel that I have been very lucky with circumstances around the competitions that I missed. Like on Saturday, I am sure it would have been much less fun to race, especially since more friends did the easy walk than those who raced. In Bergen City Marathon 2015 it was raining heavily, and Bergen Fjellmarathon 2015 was so muddy and slippery that improving my time from last year would probably not be so easy. So in a way I am not that sorry that I could not race in them. And I did participate in some sense, since I was there and cheering and having fun. Another piece of luck hit me last week when the Storehesten Opp 2015 race was cancelled due to too much snow. I have been to this peak once but not during competition. I was planning to participate this year, having my time registered, but not pushing it beyond my injury. This would have been fine, but you see I have a bet with my father-in-law, who sat a limit last year on how well he thought I could perform. I am sure to be able to beat that limit, but probably it would not have been possible this year. So the cancellation of the race suited me just perfectly!

I think it is important to pay attention to the good things that happen and register them as good luck. I am afraid too many people rather pay attention to the not so good things, and just register those as bad luck, without observing the good things. How can you ever be happy if you do that? If you feel sorry for yourself, especially if you think your bad luck is the fault of others. Of course we must allow ourselves to feel sad; after all what is life if you don't experience the whole range of feelings? But try not to get buried in sadness or despair for too long. And please don't misunderstand, I am not talking about real life crises or serious illnesses; I know that not everything is possible to get over just thinking positively. But for a normal average everyday life, where not much extraordinary is happening, I think having the ability to get excited about the little good things and ignore the not so good things, is a step towards happiness. Fortunately physical exercise makes you able to do exactly that! With endorphins running in your body all the time, all you see are birds, flowers, and the sun. I read an article last weekend which I found very interesting. A famous Norwegian psychiatrist says that we should all have 0.5 per-mille alcohol in our body constantly. I agree completely! :-) But you can indeed achieve the same or even better effect with physical exercise.

Today Frank and I repeated last weekend's discovery, the path from Munkebotn, via Dræggehytten, to Rundemanen. I just like this path more and more. This time I was even able to run parts of it, my first running steps in a long long while. The weather was even nicer than last weekend, and although we were a bit too late for the regular Sunday meeting of Melkesyre at Brushytten, guess what: yes more luck, they were still there when we got there!

Every single day offers many options. Make sure to choose those that will make you happy!

The rise of the Phoenix

There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning. (Louis L'amour)

Sometimes I think that my injury and rehab period is the best thing that could have happened to my running career. Well, perhaps this is a bit of an exaggeration, but I have come to appreciate this period more and more, especially now that things are going well, I am optimistic and full of motivation again. Whereas 2014 was a year-long extremely joyful rally with exclusively positive experiences, 2015 has so far been more of a roller coaster, with sky-high ups and bottomless pits. There have been great moments of new achievements, like records at Stoltzekleiven, and wonderful new experiences, like the relay races with Varegg, and especially the trip to Holmenkollstafetten. But the period has mainly been characterized by injuries and my attempts to get rid of them, and in fact not much running. In 2014 I learned to push myself, believe in myself, and I discovered that I had it in me; the never ending motivation and the willpower to go on and on. 2015 is teaching me different things. Quite the opposite of what I thought, I discovered that I am in fact quite patient, or perhaps I have learned to become it. I have experienced moments of despair and deep sadness, but I have also discovered that I have the ability to draw myself out of such moments and get back into a positive track. Of course you know that I have been blessed with a whole army of angels, who have continuously offered support, comfort and help;  my husband Frank, my friends from Melkesyre and Varegg, my trainer Ketil, my friends Filiz and Anne Chatrine, and my physiotherapist Ane. (Note to self: I must write more about Ane later; she is like no other therapist I have tried, or rather she has the expertise of all those therapists gathered in one single person!)

2015 has taught me to think long-term rather than the next race. I think this is extremely useful wisdom for a runner. When I first realized in 2014 that I could reach physical goals that I before thought were impossible, I became quite eager and impatient to show both myself and everyone else how good I could actually become. Now I have a much longer perspective, and I am confident and patient enough to wait for some of my goals to come later and not all at once. Since I love running, perhaps an analogy is appropriate. Could it be that 2014 was when I fell in love with running, whereas now is the period when the infatuation is turning into true love? Like, when you first fall in love and you cannot see clear, and you just want more and more and more, and nothing else matters? But then you discover new sides of your chosen one that you were first too blind to see, and you learn to understand, accept and like even these sides, and you realize that you have to work to make this relationship last life long? Perhaps so. In addition, many new friendships that were established in 2014 are strengthening and deepening now, which I think fits well with the analogy.

Why did I have to become injured to reach this wisdom? There is a lot of literature, presentations, and media posts about motivation, inspiration, pushing your limits, reaching your potential, achieving the impossible, and so on. This is all wonderful, and I have found great support in reading and listening to such. However, for people who are easily motivated, have the will power and the ability to push themselves, there is no easily accessible input on how to stay injury free. Of course "rest more, run less" is an obvious advice that I have got many times, but this is not what I am talking about. I want to find out how to continue to run and compete as much as I want and still stay injury free. Quite counterintuitively, injuries happen most often when you are making great progress in your form. You experience better and better times at competitions, your resting heart rate is lower than ever, you feel great and ready to practice even more than before, but your muscles, tendons or joints are not able to follow this. How to train smarter? There are ways. I am learning, and I will let you know.

In the meanwhile, my first priority is recovering from injury. It is going slowly but forward. When I was hung up on short-term thinking, I could become so sad about the time of training I have lost since January and how good I could have become now if I could have continued undisturbed. But the new long-term-thinking me has completely stopped thinking about such things, and I concentrate only on the now and the future, the emphasis being on enjoying the moment. Channelizing my focus into activities that I actually can and am allowed to, enjoying and becoming good at these, are nice ways of keeping the motivation and the level of happiness up. Here are some examples of what keeps me going these days, which might be helpful for others in the same situation:

1. I am doing intervals and fast walks up Stoltzekleiven and Ulriken, pushing my time further and further down. My form is surprisingly good after having lost so much time with immobility, and I am doing my best to keep and improve it.  My time up Stoltzekleiven is back to where it was around the time when I had my records, and you can imagine how great a motivation this is.

2. I am setting new strength training goals, like a certain number of kilos I want to be able to lift or push, or certain exercises I want to be able to perform. This week, for the first time ever, I was able to do clapping push-ups during my PT session with Ketil. It starts as a regular push-up, but on the way up you clap your hands before you set them on the floor again on your way down. Such small games and new achievements provide a lot of fun and entertainment, as well as help me keep on a positive track. The rehabilitation exercises that I do at the physiotherapy center have considerably increased my leg strength, and I think this is one of the reasons why things are going so well at Stoltzekleiven. After all, PT sessions and rehab sessions altogether amount to an hour of strength training five days a week, and the difference is noticeable.

3. I am concentrating on longer and longer uphill fast walks, and really enjoying these immensely as I can increase the mileage of them. I am back to discovering new paths on the mountains around Bergen, and I am loving the surprising variety this wonderful nature so close to me is offering. This weekend Frank and I tried two variants of a course that I had heard of several times before but never tried. Walk up Stoltzekleiven, jog down to Munkebotn, and just below the lake there take the path up to Kvitebjørnen. My goodness, this must be one of the nicest paths in Bergen. It is steep up all the way to the top, with stairs of wood, stone and metal, and incredible views. Once you hit the top, it is more or less flat all to way to Rundemanen offering great views all the way. Or you can shortcut by walking down to Sandvikshytten and back to the top of Stoltzekleiven. There are so many cabins on these paths! And these are all so well kept and nice to pass by. I will for sure write about various combinations involving Kvitebjørnen later; for now I give you here the gps details of the part starting from the top of Stoltzekleiven, going to Rundemanen and down to Skredderdalen.

Another thing I have learned during this period is that I can participate in races just for the fun of it or for the training, and do not always have to push to perform my best. I am considering Gullfjellet Opp next weekend. I had dismissed it, but now I am thinking about participating in the class where time is not registered. I am also considering Storehesten Opp. These are minor races that might enter my B list. On my A list already two races are lost, but I am hoping to be able to participate in the remaining two: Skåla Opp and Stoltzekleiven. For the first, I will probably change my class from competition to no timing. For the second I hope that I can race properly and improve my recorded race time. When I can start running normally again? I don't know. And I am not asking this question anymore. I am cherishing the improvement, enjoying the things that I can, and looking forward to all the uphill races of the fall. But first, hopefully a lot of swimming during the summer holidays and some spectacular mountain hikes that have been life-long dreams.

Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up! (Dean Karnazes)

Report from rehab - II : HSR training

We shall overcome...

I have not been running since April 22. You'd think that I would be going mad at this point, but actually it is going surprisingly well. The first four weeks, where I was not allowed to do any kind of activity with my legs, no strength training or biking or even extensive walking, were pretty hard. I almost lost my motivation to recover and ever start running again. These first weeks were necessary to give the injury a complete rest so that the swelling and the irritation could calm down. After that the active rehabilitation phase started, with heavy slow resistance (HSR) training three times a week, in addition to regular strength training twice a week, and gradually increasing hiking/walking activity. Still no running for quite a while yet, but you can imagine how much I enjoy and cherish my uphill walks to Stoltzekleiven and Ulriken these days!

The injury that I have been struggling with for a long while is an irritation around the upper hamstrings tendons. At the back of our thighs we have three muscles stretching from the knee to the hip. These muscles each have their separate names, but they are altogether referred to as the hamstrings muscles. These muscles are attached to our knees and our hips with tendons. The tendons around the hip and the butt are called the upper or origin hamstrings tendons. My current injury is at and around the tendon attahed to the sitting bone and the surrounding bursa (small fluid filled bags that we have many of in our body, usually around the joints). The condition is probably a variant of so-called proximal hamstrings tendinopathy combined with pain from the ischiogluteal bursa. According to recent research, the most commonly accepted best way to deal with any kind of tendinopathy seems to be HSR training.

Unfortunately nobody told me this until I met my current physiotherapist Ane. I had an MRI examination already in May 2014, and the findings there should clearly be interpreted as an early stage of the injury that I am describing there. Although I showed the MRI results to every therapist I have been to, as my condition worsened, nobody was able to suggest the correct cure. My previous therapists were all into treating me with their various methods, whereas with HSR training I have to do the job myself. Ane examined my hamstrings with ultrasound, and combined with the old MRI result, she concluded tendinopathy and immediately and very firmly put me on the described rehab scheme.

 

So what is HSR training? It is a series of strength exercises for the legs and the butt, performed on various weight machines at the gym, with so heavy weights that you can barely manage 8 repetitions. These 8 repetitions are done on each leg separately, and then the whole set is repeated 3 times. Strength training on machines is not necessary for normal functional training, but in therapy the machines make sure that you put the effort on exactly the right spot and the right muscle. The idea of HSR training is that the muscle uses its own strength around the tendon both to contract and to stretch, all very slowly. I am doing a series of nine strength exercises three times a week, increasing the weights whenever I can. In addition I have a series of two active stretch exercises which I do twice a day. I do leg press, toe press, leg curl, leg extension, hip abduction, etc etc. The exercise that really goes right into the heart of my injury is the leg curl:

It is important to do it without flexing your foot. The foot should be completely relaxed, and then you pull the weight with your leg until your lower leg has a 90 degree angle with your thigh. When you don't flex your foot, you are not at all using your lower leg muscles and the hamstrings are doing all the job. My goodness was this painful the first time I tried it! I had no chance of doing it even with the lightest weight, even if I flexed my foot and helped with my other foot. In fact, even without a weight I could not lift my leg without flexing my foot! Remember that the first time I tried it was after four weeks of no running or leg training, so the fact that it was so painful at that point was really depressing. However, you cannot imagine how fast it has become how much better when I started the HSR training! Now I can lift the lightest weight completely correctly with my injured leg, no flexing of the foot and no help from the other leg. Next week I plan to move to a higher weight! It is still painful, but it is a kind of pain I can work through, as opposed to in the beginning when it felt like a sharp knife was being inserted into my tendon. I think, when I am able to do this exercise completely pain free, I will be able to start running.

Here is another test that I have to take before starting to run: single foot back plank. Lie on your back. Raise yourself on your elbows with your body straight, so that you are touching the ground on elbows and heels only. Then lift one foot off the ground. It may be hard, but it should not involve any pain. If you cannot do it because of pain in either thigh, then you should not run until the pain is gone. I am determined not to start running too soon, and I am also very careful in not getting carried away with my uphill hikes. I am allowed to do them fast and hard, but if something does not feel right, I slow down and take one or two days' break before the next uphill adventure. I also make sure to do at most two fast ones a week, and the others in moderate pace. Next step is to do longer hikes in the mountains avoiding the temptation to run. Wow, I feel so patient and wise! :-)

The nice thing about being in this phase of my rehab period, which I called determination,  is that I can do increasingly heavy activities and all the time I notice improvement. My injury is healing and activity feels better and better, albeit extremely slowly. I suppose the first four weeks of inactivity were necessary, but interestingly I felt no improvement whatsoever in the injury. As soon as I started HSR training, I could very quickly notice improvement. It is small, it is slow, but it happens all the time! It is so rewarding. If you are avoiding running due to an injury, please check the HSR training exercises that are recommended for your injury. For knees, ankles, heels, there are targeted exercises, and the healing will be much faster than just avoiding activity.

In my regular strength training I can now resume almost all my regular exercises, except those that target explosiveness of the legs. Ketil continues to add fun to my days with various games during our PT sessions. It feels so great when he tries new ideas on me and I can do them! He escalates the excitement by setting up the game from the start of the session so that I know that some new experiment will happen but I don't know what it will be. You might remember the push ups on the balls; they have by now become a regular weekly exercise. This week, we played building blocks. While holding an exercise ball in the air all the time with both legs. The important part is that you have to take every block with both hands and place it in the other pile also with both hands (it is much easier if you take with one hand and pass it to the other hand - yes I tried to cheat).

(There is a video here, but I am afraid it does not play on some mobile phones and tablets.)

Yesterday one piece of news made me very optimistic and gave me new inspiration. My friends Hege and Elisabeth, who both had long periods of not being able to run due to injuries, are back stronger and faster than ever. This weekend they both became number 2 in each their class in an uphill (from 0 to 1500 m) half marathon! As Elisabeth recited from a well known quote: 

What defines us is how well we rise after falling.