Getting ready for the Blåmanen races again

It is soon time for the annual three races up to Mount Blåmanen in Bergen!

Last year the Blåmanen races gradually grew on me. I could not participate in the first one due to travel, I participated in the second one mainly for practice, and I really raced in the third one. The experience was so great that this year I actually planned my travels so that I can participate in all three Blåmanen races. I’m coming home the day before the first race, and leaving again two days after the last one!

Three races; three different courses. Thanks to them I learned great new “hidden” paths on my everyday mountains. And learning never ends; last week it was time to check out the course of the first race. I have never done that one, and since I will be on travel until the race, Frank and I did a test run of it on Friday. But first we had a stroll last Monday to learn the part of the course from Fjellveien via Sandviksbatteriet to Sandvikspilen.

Easier said than done! The stroll ended up taking a couple of hours, because we spent a lot of time trying to find the correct path and eventually enjoying the views.

The start is easy: from “The lady” just above Varegg club house, it goes left and down on Fjellveien, passes the start of Stoltzekleiven and the “BKK building”, shortly after which it takes off to right and into terrain. For a while it all seemed pretty straight forward, but then we started to go back and forth several times and just ended up hitting inaccessible huge rocks. We had read the description and we had studied the map, but in the end we had to ask a nice lady whether we could follow her to Sandviksbatteriet. It turns out that you have to turn left at a point that does not at all look like the continuation of the path. Why are the more established looking parts of the path there when they lead to nowhere??

After feeling pretty stupid for a while, we were soon taken aback by the beauty of the path and the nice views that it offers. From Sandviskbatteriet it was easy to follow the path to Sandvikspilen and the top of Stoltzekleiven. We just went back down via Skredderdalen, but the course of the race continues to Brushytten on the main gravel path, and then on the asphalt road up to Blåmanen.

For the test run of Friday my plan was moderate pace and moderate heart rate. It went easier and faster than expected, although the path until Sandvikspilen was pretty wet and muddy: 15 minutes to Sandviksbatteriet, 35 minutes to Sandvikspilen, 55 minutes to Brushytten, and finally 1:04 to the top. I feel ready!

I really like the course of this first race; I think it fits me well, as it requires quite a bit of climbing on steep uphills and not just running on moderate uphills. In that respect the second race is the worst for me, I think, as it does not involve steep terrain parts. My favorite, though, is and will always be the third one. I cannot forget how surprised I was by the secret character of the path from Skomakerdiket up to Fjellhytten, almost a bit scary at first, and that was the one I actually trained for and did well at. It was one of my best race experiences ever.

See your city from a new angle; join a race!

Elite for a day: Limone Extreme Vertical Kilometer

Another race in Italy - in a quite different division.

When Frank and I registered for the Limone Extreme Vertical Kilometer that took place Friday evening in Limone sul Garda, we thought it would have the same kind of participant mass as in the Lake Garda Mountain Race last weekend. However, as the race got closer, most of our friends who participated in the short course of Lake Garda race left, and Norway's (and Europe's!) best mountain running athletes started arriving in Limone. This was the last race in the Skyrunner World Series, and clearly a much more serious competition than we had realized beforehand. The original course of the race involved an elevation gain of 1080 m on a 3.7 km course of spectacular views and breathtaking cliffs.

Already on Sunday, the day after the Lake Garda race, our friends Bjarne and Frode guided us through this course. The day was sunny and warm, the scenery incredible, and some parts of the course a little bit challenging any anxiety of heights one might have.

We found the course steeper and longer than we had imagined, but we took it easy, and it was an unbelievable experience.

The seriousness of this race became evident during this test, as we realized that there would be a cut-off time after 2 km. If one did not reach this point within 45 minutes, one would be guided via an alternative path back to the center of Limone. I got a little stressed by this, since we spent 57 minutes to this point during our Sunday hike, but that involved low hear rate and stopping for a lot of pictures. At dinner, with my friend Roger's help I calculated that I would be well within the limit at that point during the race.

The weather worsened towards the race, and on the race morning we woke up to heavy rain and quite a bit of snow on top of the mountains. The race was to start at 6:30 pm for the regular participants and at 7:30 pm a few world elite runners. The bad weather had the very cozy effect that the whole Melkesyre/Varegg group relaxed at the hotel lobby after a long breakfast altogether, chatting about all sorts of things, in addition to exchanging experiences and advice about running, training, eating and all that stuff.

Just before the race office opened the starting lists came up, and we realized to our big surprise that all us ladies from Varegg were placed in the elite class! The idea of starting an hour later than my much faster friends and ending up all alone way behind the elite block scared me a lot, and we all decided to ask for a transfer to the 6:30 pm start. However, this became unnecessary, as the whole course of the race had to be modified due to heavy rain fall and danger of avalanches, and everybody was to start at 7 pm. The new course looked less spectacular and less scary compared to the initial course, but longer and with more elevation gain: 6.5 km up to 1247 m.

During lunch, the conversation was deep and the discussions energetic about the new course. As a perfect compensation, the weather improved drastically as the start of the race approached, and the weather report was looking perfect for the evening.

After taking a stroll a few kilometers up the new course, just to get the feeling and to get the feet going, we decided to take a rest until the race. But this was easier said than done, as the starting point was just below our hotel room balcony, and the race hosts started to talk without a break in three languages via numerous loudspeakers.

An hour before the start, we went down, met the others, did some warm up, got some pep talk, and finally started to line up for the start. I could clearly see that this was a different crowd than in the previous race. Much younger and clearly determined to run the whole way. I was wondering what I had managed to tangle myself into. I completely reset my goal; now I had to work simply to not finish last in the women's class.

The atmosphere was quite magic, though, just before the start, when they started counting down and everybody put on their head lamps. (A working head lamp and a wind jacket was required throughout the entire race, and fortunately poles were strictly forbidden.) Here is a short video from the organizers that gives a little bit the feeling at the start. 

The start was very similar to that of the Lake Garda race, a short flat stretch by the lake and then straight up the steep streets of Limone before hitting the path on the other side of the main road. This time, I started a bit slower than at the Lake Garda race, and I managed to keep my heart rate below 160 for quite a while. However, I had the feeling that I was indeed one of the last of the racers and everybody else was in front of me. The feeling strengthened when a motorbiker from the organizers started moving just after I passed him, as if to say "OK, the last racer passed, we can move on". Well, I had to just do my own race, and already after a few minutes I passed a couple of people who were completely out of breath. I went on a steady pace, for a while with constant distance to those that might be behind me and to those whom I could see in front of me. After exactly 22 minutes I passed a young Italian guy who was already exhausted. From then on, about every 10 minutes I passed a person or two, and nobody passed me, and this was good motivation. On the other side, I had the feeling that I was not pushing enough, but I did not dare to push too hard too soon, as I was expecting a lot more elevation and did not know how steep it was at the end.

The path was steep up on a road paved of small stones for a long while, and then it turned into terrain and quite muddy. My inov8 xtalon shoes were perfect on the road and the rocks, but became very slippery on mud. After passing 5.5 km, I was thinking that there was still a kilometer of distance and 300 m of elevation left, but suddenly I started to hear voices and bells and something that clearly sounded like the finish. So soon? I increased my speed, passed a couple of more people, and suddenly reached the finish, without at all being exhausted.

My watch showed 6 km, which was 500 m shorter than announced, and also the elevation was lower on my watch than what I was expecting. When I learned the finish time of the winners, about 44 minutes, I was very happy about my 1:21 finishing time. In every race, if I manage to finish within twice the time of the overall winner, I am satisfied, and here I was well within the margin. With this kind of achievement, I usually end up in the upper half of the women's list and sometimes quite high up, but not this time. In this crowd, I was number 44 of 53 finishing women, but I am still very happy with my time and with the whole experience. Interestingly, the way down took quite a bit longer than the way up, and this time we took the time to enjoy the wonderful shiny night views of the Garda coast.

At the last race I was wondering whether I started too fast. At this race I was wondering whether I started too easy. I suppose I won't know the answer until I try the two strategies on the same course. At least what seems to work for me is to go on a steady heart rate all the time.

No race for three weeks now. Phew!

Forza Norvegia! Lake Garda Mountain Race

My first race outside of Norway!

Team Melkesyre has a tradition to participate in the annual Lake Garda Mountain Race. The 2015 edition took place on Saturday, and I was one of the 17 members of this year's troop. The course of the race stretches between the center of Malcesine and the Cima Pozzette peak of Mount Baldo. I did the short version together with half of my team, which goes to 1700 m along 9.5 km.

The day before the race we took the cable car up to 1700 m, and slowly went through the last part of the long version up to 2100 m. The weather at the top was not so pleasant, and the organizers were discussing whether the long version would have to be canceled.

Fortunately, already Friday evening the weather started looking much better, and Saturday morning we woke up to beautiful clear skies.

I had a hard time getting into race mood this time, and it was difficult to make a race strategy since I did not know the course. My goal was to finish in around two hours. I decided, like at Skåla Opp, to go with the heart rate. Try to keep it just below 160 for the first hour, and then push it up to 165-169 for the rest.

Warming up with team mates and knowing that I would have the company of several of them throughout the course gave both motivation and a nice feeling of comfort. And suddenly the start time was there! Everybody started running and so did I. But it was very steep already from the start, and at the lower station of the cable car I started walking. My heart rate was a bit higher than planned, and I had a continuous debate with myself whether I should slow down more or not. I did not have the feeling of pushing too hard, so I ended up going with the feeling rather than watching the hr closely. For as long as I could I followed the back of my friend Arvid, and he helped me a lot for the first kilometers. Especially since this part involved a lot of bottlenecks and trying to pass people with walking poles.

The first drink station came very quickly and earlier than announced. At this point I had lost Arvid, but I got the company of Øystein instead, and he was great to follow with a huge Norwegian flag on his back. The first four kilometers went pretty well and at the planned speed, but I was surprised and dismayed that it was so steep. I comforted myself that it could not continue this steep for the rest, as more than half of the elevation was already done. At the second drink station I took a gel together with the served drinks and felt a bit better, especially since the first flat stretch came right afterwards. It was nice to be able to run for a while and feel the distance shrink a bit quicker. At this point I also lost Øystein, but I had the company of two Italian ladies for the rest of the race. We kept passing each other all the time, and this gave good motivation and helped keep the focus.

Everything went pretty well until I passed 8 km. At that point, I was still feeling pretty good, and I took my second gel to get a boost for the last 1.5 km. I was a bit worried because there was still quite a bit of the elevation left for the last part, but I tried to comfort myself with "Just a Stoltzekleiven left now; you can do it!". The part from 8.5 km until the end became very tough, though. I felt my speed go down, and I could see that several of my team mates who were behind me from the start started to come closer. Perhaps I had started out too fast after all?

Towards the end I felt completely empty, and everything in my body was screaming for me to stop. When I saw more and more uphills where I was expecting the finish line, I really wanted to give up. What saved me was the voice of my friend Hans Erik right behind me for the last kilometer, motivating all the time and finally telling me to run when he knew that we were close to the downhill that lead to the finish.

I finished in 2:03, and I was really finished at the end.

Recovery came quickly with pasta, sandwiches and cakes that were served at finish, together with wine and coffee, and soon we were all dancing and celebrating the good results. Jeanette: number 1 of all women on the short course! Siren, myself and Bente: number 7, 8 and 9, respectively!

The rest of the day was a long long party, and we all had a great time. I am so happy to have participated in this race, and really grateful to Bjarne and Frode to have started this tradition and for the nice organization. On the other hand, I did not get the immediate feeling of wanting to do it again, like I do at the finish of many races. Most of the course is covered with forests, and one looses one of the greatest advantages of a mountain race; the view.

Coming up next, though, is a race with incredible views: the Limone Vertical K race already Friday evening! In the meanwhile: breathtaking hikes and wonderful time with good friends.

Rimanete sintonizzati!

Cautiously back to running

"You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes, you can steer yourself in any direction you choose." (Dr. Seuss)

Going back to running after a long break due to injury is in many ways similar to starting to run at the first place. When I was a moderate runner with two or three runs of length 6 or 7 km a week, I used to run around the Tveitevannet lake quite often. When I became more serious about running, my runs became longer, and Tveitevannet, with its 1.8 kilometers around, became just too short. For a few years I did not visit this lake at all. Now I am back there, and it is providing the perfect opportunity for me to go back to fast flat running.

Already right after the summer holidays, my physiotherapist Ane started pushing me to start running again. I started with quite short runs, with long walking warm-ups first. Tveitevannet is perfect in this sense, as I can walk down from home and arrive there properly warmed up, and then start running. For the very first run after the summer, I did one and a half rounds, just 3 km, and walked the rest to complete the second round. The lake has also been perfect for restitution runs; three rounds gave the right amount of distance and time, especially since my zone 1 running speed was pretty low after the long break. After these first attempts of flat running, I have been busy with mountain hiking, mountain races, swimming, biking, triathlon, and not the least training for Stoltzekleiven, so I haven't been running at all for the past weeks. Of course, all these activities have improved my form and made my hamstrings stronger, but running is a completely different matter. No matter how good my uphill form is, I am really completely out of shape when it comes to flat running. It is also the exercise that is the most strenuous with respect to my injury, so it needs to be treated delicately and seriously.

Some of my running attempts in between all the mentioned activities have not been successful. My legs have been tired from other training, and my hamstrings did not always feel well when I tried to run. Several attempts ended up being much shorter and slower than first intended, which was not too bad as they gave nice zone 1 restitution sessions, but not real running training. This week, as all the races are done for a while, I have finally been able to do some serious running training. On Tuesday I was at the Varegg interval training session, where we had fast runs of length 200m and 400m, with 200m and 400m jogging in between. Wow was this tough! My legs seemed to have lost all their ability to speed, and I was all out of breath with a very high heart rate. I had the excuse that I had not rested after Stoltzekleiven (Barry's Bootcamp on Sunday and Ulriken on Monday), but still... On the other hand it felt wonderful to be training with the gang again, and in particular I was very happy that what was stopping me was my breath and running form, and not any pain in my injury.

Yesterday morning I had perhaps the most successful running training in a long while. I had four progressive rounds around Tveitevannet. First round at pace (minutes per km) 6:30, second at 6:00, third at 5:30, and fourth at 5:00. I was really happy that I could do this without having to stop and without pain in my injured area. Then I walked for 600 m and then I had nine sprints up to Sletten Church. There is a short and steep hill from the lake to the church. My sprints up were about 35 seconds long. My initial plan was ten sprints, but I felt a sharp pain in my heel at the end of the ninth so then I stopped. I ended the whole thing with 600 m walk back to start. What is really cool is that the time I spend completing a round around the lake now, even with the easy 6:30 pace, is so much shorter than when I was a moderate runner a few years ago. Well, I suppose I was rather a jogger than a runner then. My last round yesterday took slightly more than 9 minutes. Next time I will attempt at doing a round in less than 9 minutes. If I can then repeat this two or three times (with a couple of minutes rest in between), I think I will be ready for a 5 km race again.

Training on your own requires quite a bit of self discipline when you have a schedule you want to follow. When I was doing my first round, I was wondering how on earth I would be able to go faster, but then I got warmed up, and round 2 and 3 went so well, even better and slightly faster than planned. During the fourth round, though, my heart rate was around 165, and I started to get exhausted. When there were 400 m left, I actually stopped. But as I was going to stop my watch, I saw that I was below 5:00 in pace (4:45) and that gave me renewed motivation to continue and complete. This is exactly when running with friends comes extremely handy. You simply don't quit when you are running with someone else with the same goals. The same thing happened during my uphill sprints. I had planned ten, but during the fourth I was thinking that perhaps five was enough. During the fifth, though, I thought "Come on only five left" and pushed myself to continue. Passing half way has an incredible mental effect. Suddenly completing becomes much easier. I really wanted to do ten, but I am glad I stopped after the ninth when I felt the pain in my heel. My heels are a bit stiff these days, something I never had problems with before, and I am very cautious as I know that many of my friends have had heel injuries. So it is important to listen to your body. But not when there is no pain. Your body (actually your brain) is programmed to always try to make you take it easy, so most of the time you have to fight against its attempts to convince you to stop.

The moment you are ready to quit is usually the moment just before a miracle happens.

I'm back! - Stoltzekleiven Opp 2015

At last! Stoltzekleiven Opp 2015 came and went. I tried a new strategy this year: a lot of rest the week before the race. And it seems to have worked!

My training towards this year's Stoltzekleiven race was not giving the results I could hope for. But I had a slight consolation: since I have been doing many different things after the summer holidays, every time I practiced at Stoltzekleiven I had the stiffness of another training session in my legs. So I thought: if I will have any chance at the race, I need to rest my legs well.

My last practice at Stoltzekleiven was on Monday, five days before the race. During this past week I canceled all my HSR exercises and most of my strength training. On Tuesday I had my regular PT session, with some leg exercises, mainly back of legs and hamstrings, but we kept the weights and the number of repetitions low. On Wednesday and on Thursday I did nothing; complete rest for the legs and for rest of the body! Friday afternoon, I had a light walk/run just to get my legs going again. Zone 1 running for about 25 minutes, with a couple of 2 minute fast runs, and then about 15 minutes walking; in total 5 km. On Saturday, the race day, my starting time was late in the afternoon, so I took a walk in the morning, and then did some stretching exercises.

While I was waiting for my starting time,  I was lying on the couch and watching the broadcast from the race, and getting more and more nervous about it. I did a lot of mental training during this time. I kept telling myself that it is all in my head. I had trained well, and now I had well-rested legs, so there should be no reason for not achieving a good time, if only I was able to push myself hard enough. I studied various race statistics that corresponded to a finishing time that I wanted: below 15 minutes, and I tried to envision myself throughout the whole course doing exactly the right things.

One and a half hours before the race, I could not stand being at home anymore, so I went down to the racing area. I was lucky to meet several good friends as soon as I arrived at there, and that calmed me a lot. I started warming up, and my legs felt better than in a long long while. I kept in mind the warm up advice from dear friends, and did both slow jogs and short fast uphills to get the heart rate going without wearing out the legs. Just before the start, I took a few sips of sports gel, to trick my brain to jump with an energy boost.

I had planned to start slow, but my legs and breath felt light, so I jogged all the way until the stairs started. I had a good feeling, and started believing that this could work out, if I remained focused. A good colleague had given the advice to think "forward" rather than "upward", so I kept saying "forward" in my head all the time. It all went pretty easy and well until half way, and my time there was a lot better than I was planning for. I felt happy but also a little worried that I perhaps started a bit too hard. I kept talking to myself "Don't mess this up now; if you just keep going steady, it will work out". I imagined the voices of all my friends who helped me up during practices, and told myself to keep pushing, resisting the tiny opportunities of a little rest here and there.

My heart rate was 172 throughout the second half, so I knew that I was working at maximum level. At the wooden stairs towards the end, I did several different things, and this was actually well planned ahead. To be able to push hard until the stairs, I promised myself the reward of putting my hands on the stairs as soon as I reached them. So I crawled on both hands and feet on the first staircase, then I got up and pulled myself up using the side bars on the second staircase, and then at the last staircase I did something I never tried before; I ran! All of this was based on advice from and discussions with training buddies, and I think it worked pretty well for me, although it was a risk to do it at the race before trying it out first.

For the last few meters after the wooden stairs I had to mobilize all willpower I had to keep running; my whole body was aching, and when I threw myself on the ground after passing finish, I knew that I had given it all, and I was very happy. When I heard my time being announced on the loudspeakers, 14:39, I could have started crying if I had the energy.

14:39 is my second best time ever, and my best official time, and after months of injury and limited opportunities of training, I am so happy and relieved to have achieved it. There are so many people I want to thank, so many friends in Fjellgeitene, Melkesyre and Varegg who gave good advice and shared their experiences with me. I am so grateful to all of you, and I feel so lucky and blessed to be a part of such a group of wonderful people.

And yes, Frank had an official personal best at the race, too: 12:17! And his sister Gro (12:50), and our brother in-law Børre (11:49), and so many of our friends. It simply shows that we get better as we get older!

Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter. (Mark Twain)

The meaning of life (is not Stoltzekleiven)

The Stoltzekleiven Opp race is approaching; it is on Saturday! During early spring, especially when I was trying various therapies and was advised to take it easy on running,  I walked up Stoltzekleiven frequently to keep up my conditioning and get enough cardio training. I reached my best recording ever in February when I managed to do it in 14 minutes and 25 seconds with the help of my friend Mats, who was with me and motivated and pushed me all the way. Although my injury worsened from then on, and I could not run at all after some time, my leg strength improved thanks to HSR exercises three times a week, in addition to strength training twice a week. Just before he summer holidays I was able to do 14:50 at Stoltzekleiven all by myself.

Unfortunately, the three weeks of summer holidays worsened my Stoltzekleiven form much more than I was expecting. After the summer holidays, walking up to Stolzekleiven was one of the first things I did, and for several weeks it was impossible to get below 16 minutes. I must admit that I got quite a lot stressed by this. After all, Stoltzekleiven was the only thing remaining on my A list, and during early spring I was pretty sure that I would manage to go below 14 at this year's race. Now however, even going below 15 seems to be tough...

After the summer holidays I did quite a bit of steep mountain fast walking, in Jotunheimen, at Gullfjellet, at Skåla, and at Storehesten, and I thought that would be good training for Stoltzekleiven. I also did some biking and swimming in connection with training for my first triathlon, and although this meant less training at Stoltzekleiven itself, I was hoping that it would give good varied improvement of my general form that would also be of help at Stoltzekleiven. This is exactly what happened last year. I was mainly training for Oslo half marathon through August and September, and not at all training at Stolzekleiven, except for participating at trial races. Still I improved my time by 48 seconds last year compared to the year before. So the half marathon training helped my Stoltzekleiven form a lot. Unfortunately the same side effect did not come this year from triathlon training and participating in uphill races.

While I was feeling quite depressed about the whole Stoltzekleiven thing, last week I received the very sad news that a very good and old friend of mine died. This news really took me off guard and shook me more than I could have imagined. Until now I have been blessed to be able to say that I have never regretted anything that I have done in life. But for the first time I regret something I have not done. I am so sorry that I did not have more contact with my friend during the past couple of years. We used to be very close, but our contact recently limited itself to email and message exchanges, and I regret so much not having called more often and not having asked more often how he was. His illness progressed suddenly very quickly at the end, so perhaps I would anyway not be able to catch him to say a final goodbye, but the bare thought that I was worried about running injuries and Stoltzekleiven while he was fighting for his life is quite unbearable. This is also why I am a few days late with last week's blog post. For a while none of the stuff I have been writing about seemed important or worth writing about anymore.

On the other hand, being reminded about how short and unpredictable life is made me appreciate even more how important it is to make the best of every single day of life. Being passionate about something, no matter what it is, makes us experience all the emotions that human beings are capable of. I decided to continue with my blog and to try harder at Stoltzekleiven for the memory of my friend, who loved running. At the same time, I was discussing my lacking improvement at Stoltzekleiven with my trainer Ketil, and he warned me that my negative and stressed attitude could be affecting my performance. I decided to let my shoulders down and not get stressed about the resulting time. Just try harder and do my best. With this background, on Thursday, I came closer to 15 minutes than in a long while, with 15:11.

Yesterday I participated in the last trial run of this year's Stoltzekleiven race, and my time worsened to 15:25. But I was just back from a wonderful weekend at Kjerag and Preikestolen (where the first and the last pictures are from), and I comforted myself that perhaps my legs were tired from the hikes of the weekend. This year, I have been so lucky to be able to do several of the most spectacular mountain hikes of Norway, like Trolltunga and Besseggen, and now Preikestolen. With the sudden loss of a dear friend reminding me how fragile life is, it feels good to have grabbed the opportunities of these adventures when they showed up. No matter how Stoltzekleiven 2015 goes, I will always have the wonderful memories of these trips. And there will hopefully be many more Stoltzekleiven races for me in the future.

“Life is short. Break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably. And never regret anything that made you smile.” (Mark Twain)

Report from rehab - IV: injuries connect us

Do not go gentle into that good night
Rage, rage against the dying of the light (Dylan Thomas)

I started writing this blog when I was on top of the world. I had just completed my second half marathon and joined Melkesyre, and my shape was better than ever before. It was intended to be a blog about endless victories, triumphs, and new records, motivational and hopefully inspiring. There have been many posts of this character, but as you know there have also been many many posts about injuries, rehabilitation, not being able to run, and how to recover. Interestingly, the posts that are related to injuries and rehab have perhaps been the most popular ones.

Unfortunately, it turns out that many of us have long lasting injures, and we all make the same mistakes. Friends, acquaintances, and sometimes complete strangers approach me to discuss their injuries, and there are many interesting stories. I had never dreamed of this blog being of help in this way, but I am very happy that it seems to give relief to some people. And it is great therapy for me too,  I learn a lot from every story! Sadly, one common thing in all them is that we all seem to struggle and spend a lot of time and money before we find a therapist who is actually able to help us. Another main ingredient is that we are all easily motivated people who like to push ourselves, but whereas motivational input is easy to get, but we do not get much advice about sensible training and restitution (or perhaps we do, but we choose to ignore it).

Here is the most important piece of information I gathered during this period, which I did not know before, and which explains why we get injured, especially those of us around my age: Muscles and lungs do not age. Then have the ability to improve endlessly; the more you push and train, the stronger your muscles (including your heart) and your breathing capacity will become, and you will get faster and stronger all the time. When an adult increases his or her level of training, this is exactly what happens. It is extremely motivating, and you simply want more of it. As it all seems to be going well, you keep pushing and improving, and feeling wonderful, all the time. So far so good. But there is a backside to the story. Unfortunately, tendons, bands, joints, and ligaments DO age. They do not have the same capacity and ability as the muscles and the lungs. They get harder, stiffer, and brittle as we age, and they cannot always keep up with the intensity of the work. When care is not taken, at some point something gets destroyed and you are injured. This is exactly what happened to me.

I started to feel the first pain at the back of my right thigh in October 2013, about two years ago. I cannot pinpoint an exact trauma, a sudden pain during a single run, it was more that it came gradually, and I could feel a discomfort every time I was running. Still, this was not really a big problem, after I got warmed up I could run fast and long without much pain, and with some massaging afterwards it would go quickly away until the next time. In March 2014, I started to increase my mileage and ran longer and longer, finally participating in Bergen City half marathon in April 2014. Although the injury did not really bother me that much during running, it started to bother me outside of running, like bending down to tie my shoe or pickup something from the floor became increasingly unpleasant. In May 2014, I had an MRI examination, which showed some edema in the middle of right buttock, and I started regular physiotherapy sessions. What happened later is already explained in several blog posts:

• As nothing improved, actually things got worse, I tried many different therapies.
•  During this time, although the pain got stronger, I refused to slow down, and just continued to run.
• Finally the injury climaxed and it was not possible to run anymore; I was forbidden to use my legs for 4 weeks.   
• After these weeks, the HSR therapy started.
• I was allowed to use my legs, but no running! I did a lot of uphill walking and strength training.
• In the summer, I concentrated on swimming as alternative training.
• After the summer, going back to uphill training gave a new boost in the healing of the injury.
• I started to race again; uphill races first, like Skåla Opp and Storehesten Opp.
• To keep myself motivated and amused, I tried out new things, like triathlon and open water swimming.

Now, I am slowly going back to running, and increasing my mileage cautiously. Yesterday, for the first time in several months, I participated in the regular Saturday uphill intervals of Melkesyre. There was no pain, and it simply felt wonderful. So have I fully recovered? No, not according to myself, but my physiotherapist says that my tendon is now strong enough to try out more and more running. I have almost no pain when doing my HSR exercises, and I can do a single leg back plank on my injured leg, and a single leg side plank on my injured side, without pain. There is still some discomfort and stiffness, but Ane says that it is mostly in my head now. My brain is used to sending out pain signals when the injured area is in action, and to be on the safe side it continues to send these signals even when things have healed. The recipe ahead is: try running more, but not more often than every other day. If pain or discomfort, step back, don't do exactly the same thing for a few days, before trying again.

But what should I do in the future to say out of injury? Of course one solution is moderation. Just do not exercise or run that much. I will then not improve that much either, but just being in good (not necessarily the best) shape is good enough for many. But what if you, like me, want to push it to the limits of your muscles and lungs, well then we have to learn to train more sensibly and more smart. Resting is very important, and as we get older we need more rest. I have also finally understood why zone 1 training is important. Not only does it improve your ability to run faster at lower heart rate, but our body also gets an incredible rush of HGH (human growth hormone - which gives us recovery and muscle repair)  during the first 30-40 minutes of a zone 1 session (after than it goes down to more regular values). So, for example, doing a 30 min zone 1 in the morning and a 30 min zone 1 in the afternoon, is better than doing an hour zone 1 at once. We also need days of complete rest; no training of any kind. But how to be able to get enough training and and enough rest? Perhaps training twice some days of the week might be a good way to achieve this? It requires care and dedication, and it would work best if you actually had time to sleep an hour after the first workout of the day. But who in full work has time for that? The most important thing seems to be to not waste time on moderate speed runs of moderate length, they do not improve our form according to professionals. We need long slow runs and short fast runs, or intervals. And not more than two or three real hard sessions a week. So many rules... what happened to the fun of just putting on your shoes and getting out whenever you feel for it? It is still out there, if that's what you want. You simply have to figure out what you want.

Then you will find a way; your own way!