Don't cry for me Bergen City

The truth is I never left you....

So it's over. What was supposed to be one of the major racing events of this year for me passed by with me as a spectator and a cheerleader instead of a competitor. Bergen City Marathon took place yesterday. During a practice session in January I had run the half marathon course in exactly two hours, at pleasant pace and while chatting with my training buddy Roger all the way, and hence I was sure that I would have a great new personal best at the race. Well, that was before I had to change plans...

I am superstitious. I take care to try not to say "never" or "for sure". Because life can put you in situations you simply cannot imagine beforehand. But I made the mistake of ending one of my earliest blog entries (about half marathons) this way: "Next year? Bergen, for sure! Oslo, probably not." So I was asking for trouble... I have now learned that things out of my control might affect and slow down my plans, no matter how motivated I am and how hard I work for my goals. On the positive side, life is a continuous learning experience, and I truly believe that I am becoming a better person and a better runner through this experience. A few months ago, just imagining the possibility of having to cancel Bergen City half marathon was unbearable to me. Right now, though, it is OK, as I am completely slowing down to finally heal properly.

The key to keeping up the motivation and the joy for me in this situation is to keep in touch with my running network. I am lucky to have so many caring friends who continuously send me good advice and cheer me up with messages. Yesterday I was happy to cheer them on along the course while they were running marathons, half marathons, or relays during BCM.  Together with several of my friends from Melkesyre we formed a cheerleader gang and placed ourselves on one of the toughest parts of the course, where runners need the most help. Some of us had to cancel plans of participation due to injuries, and some of us just do not like long asphalt runs, but all of us were extremely enthusiastic on behalf of all the participants. It was touching to see how grateful the competitors were to see us; we got thousands of big smiles and hearts. Even if you cannot participate in a race, you can be there at the start and at the finish, meet your friends before and after, and then it is almost like having raced.  While cheering, I was surprised to see how many of the runners I knew! It was so cool to shout out the names of so many people. But even the ones I did not know felt like friends.

It is strange how sharing a passion like running makes you friends even with complete strangers. A few days before the race, I put up my start number for sale, and I got a message from a sweet young man who wanted to buy it. He was kind enough to come all the way to my house to pay in cash, and we ended up chatting for a long while about running, race goals, training, injuries, etc etc, and laughing a lot. After he left, my mom (who is visiting) said "I did not realize that it was a friend who wanted to buy your number". I told her that I did not know the person before he came. She was quite shocked that it was possible to have such a long and hearty conversation with a complete stranger. Well, that's what running does to people. It makes them connect in a completely different way than I knew before. Anders, who bought my number, and I have kept in touch, and he did great at the race! He finished in 1:29.

Another guy who did great at the race was Frank. He beat his time from last year with 9 minutes, and finished in 1:38! Frank let me coach him during the last weeks before the race, and he listened very carefully to all my advice about tapering, carb loading, resting, training scheme, and how to pace his race, something I am really proud of. I predicted that he would do better than 1:40, and although he was reluctant to believe it himself, it worked! In fact almost all of my friends had great records this year. Roger, mentioned above, did 1:36. Just imagine if I had been well enough to continue the training we started together in January! I think I could have managed around 1:50...

"Don't think back; think ahead!" That's what I keep telling myself... I am very motivated and impressed by the achievements of so many of my friends. Bjarte who ran a full marathon in 3:14 (how is that at all possible?), Øystein who brought his half marathon time down to 1:24 (has he found a formula for stopping time, both when it comes to aging and to racing times?), my guardian angel Mats who did 1:23 with an injured leg, my positivity bomb Irene who is 5 months pregnant and finished just in 2 hours, Filiz who ran for the first time in 2:06, and many many other wonderful performances. Cheering on Frank, my friends, and all other runners was great. But Bergen City Marathon was indeed crying. It was raining all the time, really heavily at times, which was a contrast to last year's amazingly sunny experience.

Next year? I hope I'm in...

Finally heading for the mountains again

I have mentioned earlier that I have grown more and more fond of uphill and trail running. Now that the snow is slowly disappearing from the mountains around Bergen, and the evenings are light, new opportunities for wonderful trail running adventures open.

Until Bergen Fjellmaraton last June, the only long enough proper running trail I knew was the plateau between Ulriken and Fløyen mountains, which is called Vidden. However, often you want to be able to do a round trip so that you end up where you started. In this respect the closely connected Fløyen, Blåmanen, Rundemanen mountains (they actually rather form one single big mountain) are perfect. Before, I only knew the most basic paths in this area, and most mainstream paths are covered with quite hard packed gravel, so they do not really count as proper trails. The last part of Bergen Fjellmaraton from Rundemanen to finish contained many paths I had never been to that are really really wonderful. During last fall I also discovered many new paths thanks to the Blåmanen races. I have now started to combine several of these paths to make extremely pleasant long enough trail running courses. Let me describe one for you:

Start at the beginning of Fjellveien (close to Restaurant Bellevue) with a slow warm up run until the starting point of Stoltzekleiven. After this pleasant warm up, do the Stoltzekleiven as fast as you can. Take a short (and absolutely necessary!) break at the top.

From there continue up until the lake and then take to right.

At the first junction take to right again, towards Skredderdalen, but don't go down Skredderdalen. Instead, continue upwards towards Fløyen and arrive at Åsebu. Take to right and run around Åsebu until you hit the main path again.

On the main path, run down towards Fløyen until the last big (and steep) right turn before Fløyen. Take to left in the middle of the turn towards Fjellhytten (there is a sign there pointing to Skomakerdiket). Once you reach Skomakerdiket, continue on the upper side of the lake towards Fjellhytten (now the sign says Fjellhytten). Follow the signs to Fjellhytten until you reach it. Either continue on the backside straight ahead or take a short break to enjoy the view and then continue.

Where you want to end up is Rundemansveien. This trail, from the main Fløyen path until the main Rundemanen path is truly beautiful. Once you reach Rundemansveien turn left to go to Brushytten and then follow the main path back. I took to left to Skomakerdiket before reaching Fløyen, and then took to left again to go towards Svartediket/Isdalen.

 

This left path to Svartediket is quite pretty;  it is slightly downhill in the beginning, and you have a beautiful view of the city all the way. Then it goes steeply down to Svartediket.

 

Instead of going all the way to Svartediket, take the streets towards the city at the first opportunity to get back to exactly where you started.

The described course (you can find its gps details here) turned out to be exactly 14 km, however it can be made much longer as you wish. Once the snow is completely gone, I plan to take right at Rundemansveien and go to Blåmanen and then to Rundemanen and then down. Another opportunity is to go directly to Rundemanen taking to right in the middle of Rundemansveien, up a steep hill (this was a part of the Bergen Fjellmaraton which I really enjoyed) and then going to Blåmanen on the way back from Rundemanen. Further down, you can add another round at Åsebu. Other options include going straight ahead or to left from the top of Stoltzekleiven to reach Kvitebjørnen via Ankerhytten or via Munkebotn, and then go to Rundemanen. The possibilities are quite endless, and contain many parts I still have never tried yet.

I will get back to you with more suggestions as I try out new combinations!

Keeping up the form during winter: Vinterkarusellen and Fløyenkarusellen

Spring is here and everybody is out running. Those who have kept or improved their form during the winter are already achieving new personal best times.

I have been wondering and asking around about what the English translation of "karusell" is, in the meaning of a series of races. I have finally figured it out: circuit! A race circuit is a series of races on the same course, repeated at even intervals (typically three weeks), that last over a few months' duration. This winter, following the advice of my trainer Ketil, I participated in two such circuits: Vinterkarusellen and Fløyenkarusellen. Winter circuits like these give a great opportunity to keep and improve your form even outside of the season. The fact that you can do better and better times at each race in the same circuit provides great motivation and inspiration. And as you know by now: I simply love participating in races.

Vinterkarusellen consisted of eight races between November 3 and March 23. Participation in at least five of the races entitled to a medal. Each time one had the option of participating in the 5k or the 10k course. My initial plan was to participate in the 5k races until the end of the year, and then participate in the 10k races in 2015. My hope was to be able to finish the 5k course (which is a tough one, with slight downhill first which you get as uphill on the way back) in less than 25 minutes before I moved on to 10k. I almost got there. Were it not for snow and ice during race number 3 and 4, I think I would have managed. (My personal record on 5k is 23:47 but that was at a track and field stadium.) During the first four races of the Vinterkarusell, I did 26:01 (on bare asphalt), 25:07 (on bare asphalt), 25:19 (on ice - running with spikes), and 25:12 (on ice and slush - running with spikes). I think the last one could easily become 24:30 were it on bare asphalt; I had a very good feeling and it was the easiest of all races up to that point. That was January 5 this year.

Then I started my experiments with various therapies, and ended up not participating in the next two races of the Vinterkarusellen. After a break of two months I participated at race number 7 on March 9 without any prior practice, which resulted in the worst time of the circuit. Given the situation, I did not let that weigh me down too much, and I was simply very happy to be able to race again. I was also planning to participate at the last race two weeks later, and hoping for a better time as I had gotten more practice since the last race. But a run the day before gave too much pain in my knees, and since I had already earned a medal, I did not participate. Instead I went to get my medal, met my Melkesyre friend Linda there who was also struggling with an injury, and ended up cheering the rest of my Melkesyre and Varegg friends into finish.

The course of this race is actually quite boring, along traffic and you go back and forth, instead of around a loop. Still I am very happy with the Vinterkarusellen experience. Especially when you do better and better at each race (I count it as better when the time slightly worsens as the ground conditions worsen dramatically), it is really perfect for self confidence and further motivation. Also, meeting your friends at the start and at the finish is always a great motivation. Last but not least, in circuits of this type so many people at so many different form levels participate that if you are a serious runner, you end up doing pretty well no matter what. I ended up being number three in my class (of typically 60-80 participants) in two of the four first races!

Fløyenkarusellen was an even better experience, especially since it is organized by Varegg and almost all my friends from Melkesyre and Varegg participated. Fløyenkarusellen is an uphill race, quite short of distance, only 2.4 km, but with more than 200 m of elevation gain. It consisted of five races between January 28 and March 25. I participated in the first and the last two races, and I was a volunteer at one of the others. My hope during this circuit was to manage under 17 minutes, but as it was the case with Vinterkarusellen, I only almost got there. My times during the races I participated were: 17:17, 17:10, and 17:02. Still, I was very happy with my improvement during the circuit. Especially since I did better and better in the last two races (which were both in March, after my not running period) than in the first one which was in January when my form was more or less at its top. Being able to improve my race time although I was struggling with injuries and pain gave me renewed motivation and hope. And reaching the finish line at these races was an incredible experience. I knew almost all of the participants, and it was like a party up at the top of mount Fløyen every single time. In particular, several of my Melkesyre friends who did not participate, showed up along the course and cheered us, which made us able to push ourselves a little bit more every time. At the last of the Fløyenkarusell races, also Frank participated, which added to the greatness of the event.

There are circuits like these all the time all around the year. Most of them have the format of offering 5k and 10k distances, and some of them even offer marathons and half marathons. They are all over the Bergen area, so everybody can find one close to where they live. I can really recommend such circuits, especially outside of the race season.

Don't just stand there; join the carousel!

Patience is a virtue (that I don't have)

I am slowly (very slowly!) learning to be patient and to shift my focus from short term to long term goals. I know that sticking blindly to a plan is not always a good thing; I know that both training and competition goals might need to be adjusted, according to form and injuries. However, knowing does not immediately imply applying in practice. It takes time, experience, and quite a bit of pain to change habits... As my former muscle therapist once told me:

Wisdom is knowledge put into practice.

I have had the knowledge for a long time, but I have not always been able to put it into practice. Hopefully this is changing now, and I am slowly getting wiser. One has to be flexible and must be able to adjust both everyday training plans and short term competition plans depending on form. For example, if it is your interval training day, you should listen to your body during warm up to assess whether or not you are up to tough training. If it feels right, go for it at maximum effort. If not, take it easy; it is OK to do intervals at moderate effort, too. If you push your body beyond what it is ready for, it will anyway not be able to benefit from the practice. One way of knowing whether you are up to tough practice on a particular day is to check your resting heart rate in the morning before you get up. In fact, this has now become a habit for me; I do it every morning. If your resting heart rate is where it should be (at its lowest), then you are ready for pushing yourself. It is is about 10% higher than normal, then it means that your body is still recovering from previous exercise, so you should take it easy that day. In fact you should not have more than two tough training sessions a week. The rest of your training (about 80%) should be at slow to moderate pace, to build endurance and strength, and to avoid wearing down your muscles.

I have become much better at listening to my body when it comes to the intensity of the training, but it is not always easy when you are training with friends. For example zone 1 training is typically hard to do with others, even with friends who have comparable training zones. Somehow I always end up going to a higher zone when I am not running alone, so I have to be more disciplined about this.

What I have not been so good at so far is to listen to my body when it comes to deciding what kind of training to do. The pain dictates that I should avoid long flat runs and rather concentrate on uphills, as the latter feels much better. However, as long as I have had the goal of participating at Bergen City half marathon at the end of April, I could not leave long flat run practices alone. After a long period of not running, I started out with three consecutive days of long flat runs, with the result that the pain is now worse than ever. In hindsight it is easy to see how stupid I was; I could at least start out with 5 km runs, right? No, of course it had to be 10, 10, and 15. During the first nine days, I did 85 km.... I am almost too embarrassed to write it down. Please don't ever make the same mistake. Start out cautiously and listen very carefully to your body after a break from running. I do understand the reason of my stupidity, though, and I have now done something about it: I have decided not to participate at Bergen City half marathon. It is simply not worth destroying my body for, although it was the first thing on my A list this year, and I have been so much looking forward to it. My first intention was to wait and see until the race day and decide there and then whether to participate or not. The problem is that the possibility of participation has been stressing me to take wrong decisions. Although long flat runs are painful, I keep doing them every now and then since I need this kind of practice for the half marathon... So I have taken this hard decision already now not to participate (which I am actually quite proud of!). Because of the Bergen City half marathon, I had on my training plan two races of 5 km each next week, to get some speed training. These are also cancelled now. Only uphills for me for me for a while! I am learning.... albeit very slowly...

Changing training plans is one thing, but changing competition plans in this way is really hard. Competing is a major part of the fun for me, and competitions have always inspired me and given me incredible boost of energy and self confidence. In the beginning, my race goals were adjusted in the way that I added more and more races on my plan, as things were going so incredibly well. Now, until I have recovered, I might have to do the opposite and cancel participation from races. As one of my experienced running friends Eva said: there is always another competition, and it is better to be able to run some than not to be able to run at all. Listen to her advice, and learn from my experiences. If you start feeling pain somewhere, take it easy for a while. It does not mean stop running; just take slower or shorter distances, or another type of running, uphill instead of flat or the opposite, depending how the pain incurred.

A while ago I read the following quote which was credited to Buddha. I was in the middle of letting go of something that really meant a lot to me, and the quote made perfect sense at that point, although I found it really sad. Now, as I was letting go of Bergen City 2015, I remembered it again:

In the end, what really matters is how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things that were not meant for you.

I thought that I might never be able to run a half marathon again, and it really made me sad. Fortunately I am an incurable optimist, so I think I will be able to do it again sometime. I just hope that running altogether is not one of the things I have to let go.... But this again is just too negative, and actually experience showed me that the quote should rather be interpreted like this:

In the end, what really matters is how passionate you were about the ingredients of your life, how kind and generous you were to others, and how wisely you were able to adjust your path as you went.

In fact, you never have to completely let go of something that is important to you. You can simply change the way that thing is a part of your life. Bergen City half marathon, we are not parting for ever. Perhaps in 2016 or later I might join you again. Even if not, I will always be your friend, and I will be there to cheer the others to finish! In the meanwhile, there is a huge number of uphill races in May and June, and as long as I do not do stupid things I hope that I will be able to train for them and participate in most of them. Yesterday, with the new wisdom, my old friend Stoltzekleiven embraced me and welcomed me back to uphill training. This afternoon, I might pay my back yard mountain Ulriken a visit or simply rest. I have to keep in mind all the time: moderation, patience, and caution (not at all my strong sides). I have to make sure to keep the pain under control and not get carried away. Perhaps records will have to wait a bit longer than I was hoping for, but I have time.

I'll be back!

Run by your man (or woman)

Running with your spouse or life partner is a great way to connect, but it can also be challenging at times. I came to think about this when Frank and I were running in Vienna a couple of weeks ago, during a weekend visit. I had not been running for a while, and we did twice 10 km in the mornings there. I found it pretty tough, although the locations and the scenery were great for both sessions. Unfortunately it turns out to be hard to get back on track after a break, although I had been constantly training in alternative ways. For me it was great support to have Frank during these two runs, but I am afraid the pleasure was mostly on my side. I was simply whining and complaining all the time! Poor Frank was extremely patient and motivating, and I did apologize and make it up to him afterwards. But this experience made me think how I sometimes allow myself to be quite childish when I am with him, whereas I never do this with other people.

Fortunately it does not happen that often (although Frank might have a different opinion). You might remember that it did happen when we were training for Bergen Fjellmaraton, and I remember clearly the very first time it happened, when Frank was teaching me downhill skiing almost 28 years ago. I was falling all the time, and of course it was all his fault! Our friends from Melkesyre keep asking him whether I am always so cheerful; well now you know the answer... Perhaps it can be compared to how our children sometimes behave when they are with us and when they are with other people. Since I learned everything about outdoor activities (hiking, skiing, running) from Frank, he is in a way my parent in this respect. Or might it be that when you are with a person whose bond to you is rock solid and will not be affected by a little whining, you allow yourself to be a bit spoiled from time to time?

Running together can have other challenges as well, but those can be easily turned into enjoyable games. Frank is faster than me, but that is not really a problem when we are running together. If we want to run fast, he can run faster and come back, and repeat this until the end of the course. Or we run at a pace which is moderate for me and slow for him, upon which his gps watch becomes very happy and congratulates him with a restitution run! All these years we have been training for Stoltzekleiven together (also with our sons when they were younger and easier to convince to go with us), and on such short courses it is really easy to make up fun games. For example, I can start a few minutes earlier and he can catch me towards the end; the later he catches up with me the happier I am, which gives motivation for both of us to go faster.

After a few months of hesitation Frank finally has now fully joined Melkesyre as well, and that allows us to train at maximal strength together.  Our Melkesyre friends are at various form levels, and we each have people we can compare ourselves and try to keep up with. Frank was a competing athlete (ski jumping and cross country skiing) when he was younger, and since many years he has been the coach of several football teams for boys. I am not sure whether this is the reason, but he was a bit reluctant to join organized training activity as an adult. However, after he joined Melkesyre and Varegg trainings, his form improved so much that he is now even more eager than me to go to training sessions. We have a weekly schedule of doing the Saturday Melkesyre intervals and Tuesday Varegg intervals together. This week, for the first time he even joined the Thursday Stoltzekleiven training (but that was only because his own football training was cancelled that day).  Although we did a few competitions together outside of Stoltzekleiven, like Bergen City half marathon and Bergen Fjellmaraton, he was not as eager as me in 2014 to join a lot of races. This is also changing now, and I suspect that he will participate in many of the racing events of this year.

Frank jokes to say that he had to join Melkesyre; otherwise he was afraid I would become faster than him. I think it is rather that he realizes that I am serious about running and competing, it is not something that will pass quickly, and he wants to be a part of it. He is always very supportive about everything that I come up with (I do come up with a lot of things some of which are a bit crazy), but he has been particularly great about all the things I tried for getting rid of the pain. "You just go and do your stretches and exercises, I will cook", he says, or "You just go and rest, I will take care of this". I am so grateful and amazed that he can be so sweet and patient, whereas he says he is impressed and proud that I do not give up and I continue to run.

Today we booked our tickets for racing together in Italy in October!

Therapies I have tried (or: men I have trusted...)

I have been struggling with pain in the right buttock and behind the left knee for a while now. The first has been there for more than one and a half years, so it started before I increased my mileage and started participating in races. I have a theory that it might be due to fast interval training on the treadmill after no running for a whole month during the summer holidays of 2013. The second came during Oslo half marathon. I was very stupid not to rest enough after this race. The pain went away for a while, but then it came back to stay.

I have tried various therapy types for these injuries, which I want to share with you in case you might find them interesting or useful. Unfortunately they have not helped me much. On the other hand, I did learn a lot from each of the therapists, and they were all recommended by people who were very happy with them. Although my body did not respond well to these treatments, I know that each of them worked perfectly for many people, including professional athletes. In the beginning of each treatment, I had full trust and confidence in each of the therapists, with high hopes that this one would be the one to cure me. Here is how it went:

Traditional physiotherapy: 
In May 2014, after having confirmed by MR an edema in the right buttock, my regular doctor sent me to a series of treatments by a traditional physiotherapist who specialized in sports injuries. This consisted in half an hour massage weekly, by hand and by a machine, all very very pleasant and comfortable. In the beginning the treatment concentrated only on the buttock injury, but after I got the pain behind the knee, my therapist also treated this part. The massage gave instant relief for both injuries, but in the long run it did not really make any difference. I continued with this treatment until the end of 2014, at which point I decided that there was no point in continuing. My therapist was an active runner himself, with a long career of participating in races, all from 5k to half marathons. In fact, he also participated in Oslo half marathon at the same time as me, and finished in 1:34, which I was very impressed with, as he was about 15 years older than me. I learned a lot from him during our discussions, so I value the time I spent at these sessions, although they did not result in a cure.

Acupuncture:
In December 2014, after discussing it with my first physiotherapist, I decided to try another physiotherapist who specialized in acupuncture. He had already helped several of my running friends with various injuries, so I was very optimistic when I started the treatments with him. He treated both injuries with acupuncture only, no massage at all. The acupuncture is not painful, and one feels a pleasant fatigue afterwards. Also this treatment gave some relief, however I did not really experience much improvement over time. My therapist also realized that the treatment was not really helping me, although he was very certain and reassuring in the beginning that he would be able to cure me. So we decided after about 4-5 weeks to stop the treatment.

Muscle therapy (deep tissue massage):
In January 2015, I started with muscle therapy twice a week. This therapist was an athlete himself, and a very philosophical man around my age, so we had many many interesting discussions and I learned a lot from him during the 6 weeks I was treated by him. Muscle therapy is incredibly painful. It is in fact the most painful thing I have ever experienced; I daresay it is worse than giving birth. The therapist pushes tense points in the muscles with a finger or with his elbow, really really hard. The idea is that this will increase blood circulation through the muscle, and promote healing. In the beginning I experienced that there was a change in my legs, and my therapist said that my tenseness was getting better, so I was very optimistic and motivated, despite the pain. My therapist forbade fast flat runs, and I followed his advice, which I really regret now. Not running did not help my injuries; it merely worsened my form, which was at top at the beginning of the year. I had already rested quite a bit during the holidays, so I should have trusted my gut feeling and just continued running. As we continued with the treatment, I experienced that my pain got worse, especially in the buttock. In fact, at some point I had so much pain around the whole right side of my hip that I was actually not able to run even if I wanted to. This period was quite depressing, mainly because I could not decide what to do. I started losing faith in the treatment, and I was all the time hesitating between continuing the treatment or not, and starting running again or not. In the end I could not take it anymore, and I decided to stop this and try something else. I must tell you though, that many runners I know are very very happy with this kind of therapy, and especially with this particular therapist. He also treats professional athletes, some of them very famous. It is just that my body did not respond well to this therapy.

Intramuscular needle therapy:
In February 2015 I started to visit a physiotherapist who specializes in treating muscles with long thin needles that are inserted deep into the injured muscles. The idea is the same as with muscle therapy, but without compressing the muscles with hard massage. Once the needle hits the affected area, one feels some trembling in the muscle which loosens. Although it sounds painful, it is not at all! Just a little bit unpleasant. Especially compared to muscle therapy, it is nothing. This therapist was also recommended to me by people who were helped by him, and he also treats proper athletes. He gave me the most complete examination of all therapists. He made me run on the treadmill to study my step, he made me do many different exercises to see how my body, my skeleton, and my muscles worked. He could even point out what was painful before I told him. He gave me a few treatments with needles, and once high pressure treatment (that is actually painful!), but there is a huge difference between this therapist and the previous ones: he does not think treatment is what I need! My body does not really respond that much to needles or pressure. What I really need is to strengthen my hips, especially my gluteus medius muscles. And he allows me to run! The only times I am not allowed to run is right after needle treatment, but otherwise I can just run as long as I am paying attention to the signals from my body. I am still continuing to see him, but it is not on a regular basis like with the previous therapists. The plan is that I conscientiously do my exercises and stretches, and we meet once in a while so that he can see my progress. I am already feeling much better, and the pain, although still there, has changed quite a bit. As all therapists have told me: change is good!

If nothing else works, a therapy that always helps is to buy a new dress! :-) I do quite a bit of my shopping online, and when a package arrives and the contents fit perfectly, there is no better therapy! And on top of that when it is 50% off of an already reasonable price...

This morning, completely by chance (because I subscribe to Runners' World and Competitor Running on Facebook), I learned about something called the piriformis syndrome and how to treat it by various stretches. The symptoms match exactly my symptoms in the right buttock! Now I am again optimistic that I might be able to treat this pain on my own. And needless to say I get a bit disappointed in all the experts I have been treated by who never ever mentioned this syndrome. I will mention it to my current therapist the next time I see him. Perhaps he can simply insert a needle in my right piriformis muscle!

On a positive high after a successful and pain free uphill interval training with Melkesyre yesterday, I am more optimistic than ever about curing my injuries by simply strength exercises, stretching, and adjusting my training. Keeping the core and the hips strong seems to be a good advice for all runners, and not the least to stretch properly and long enough. I have by now understood that most runners around my age have some kind of pain most of the time. We just have to deal with it in our own ways. Maybe I cannot run half marathons as much as I want, but then perhaps I can concentrate on uphill races. I will just keep running, training, and racing as long as it is fun and gives me joy, and I will never give up on my goal of always improving and getting faster, better, stronger.

Stay strong and never let the pain get the better of you!

Personal training revisited

It is quite amazing how much stronger I have become during the past year, thanks to personal training (PT) sessions. This week my trainer Ketil and I had our 1-year anniversary.

You might remember my first post about personal training, the benefits of it and what you should look for in a personal trainer. When I first started my PT sessions with Ketil on March 10, 2014, I had already been strength training and interval training on treadmill three times a week at Barry’s Bootcamp since 2012. Thus I considered myself strong and fast. It was therefore a big surprise to experience how much stronger and faster I became already after a few weeks’ of PT sessions once a week. Within a month I was ready for my very first half marathon! In the beginning, I was both running outdoors and still going to bootcamp classes once or twice a week. After half a year though, having gotten the real taste of outdoors activities, with running both flat and uphill, long and short distances, and participating in lots of races (of course with the great influence of Melkesyre), I found myself not participating in enough bootcamp classes and thus not getting enough strength training. At that point we increased the number of PT sessions to twice a week. I have my PT sessions early in the morning before going to work, which leaves the afternoons of these two days also free for outdoor running.

From earlier posts, you already know how much I appreciate Ketil and how enthusiastic I am to have him as my trainer, with his vast knowledge and experience as a trainer and an athlete. By now he is also a good friend, and I have hard time imagining how I would manage without his continuous expert advice and guidance. The benefits of a personal trainer are perhaps more obvious at the start of a running career. At least many of my friends are asking me why I still need a personal trainer now that I am strong and a runner with more routine and knowledge. So I thought I would explain how the PT sessions are helping me, at the same time answering some of these questions.

An alternative to PT sessions could perhaps be going to morning bootcamp classes twice a week and do double floor (with this option, you skip the treadmill intervals and do strength training for the full hour). However, during a PT session we do a lot of exercises that are not possible to do in a bootcamp class. More importantly, each week’s exercises are carefully designed by Ketil depending on what kind of outdoor activities and races are coming up, and whether I have injuries, pain or weaknesses that need to be worked on. I also have a couple of strength goals that are not related to running, but that do require the equipment in the PT room and the guidance of a trainer.

In addition to the practical and physical benefits, I get an amazing energy and boost of self-confidence after every PT session. The sessions are a lot of fun and we laugh a lot, and I feel super strong as I almost every time manage something new which I could not do before. When I am struggling with injuries or pain, or when I am worried about my form, Ketil gives me all kinds of motivating pep talk, as well as reassuring and comforting comments about how well I am doing. He has an incredible confidence in what I can do and how far I can reach, most of the time much more than I do. And all of his predictions come true! One of the things I appreciate the most is that he takes all my worries seriously, no matter how small or stupid they might sound. He fully understands and appreciates what I am struggling with, and he always has exactly the perfect feedback to get my spirit back up high in the sky.

A question that I get often is whether it is not expensive. This depends on what other expenses one has. I am not into jewelry, accessories, or expensive brands, which leaves quite a bit of room for expenses related to running and training. I drive an electric car, which gives savings in parking, city entrance toll, and gas. Every now and then PT packages are on sale, and I make sure to grab a whole bunch. Many of my friends are regulars at training centers that charge quite high monthly membership fees, and they end up not using their centers that much after all. In this respect, paying only for the classes that you actually attend (both with PT and bootcamp sessions), as it is the rule at Barry’s Bootcamp, might be more economic in the long run. If you are thinking about it, I would say just try it now!

Cool leg muscles these days by the way - bikini fitness next! :-D