Keeping up the motivation - Blåmanen

Yesterday morning, as I was getting ready for Blåmanen race 2, I asked myself: "Why am I doing this?" The weather was not exactly inviting; it was rainy, foggy, and windy. My injuries (left knee and right buttock), although slowly getting better, were acting up a bit, and I had a slight cold. The answer to the question was easy: "Because I want to!" But why did I want to do it? I did not have a simple answer to this question. In fact just a little more than a week ago, I was sure I would not do this race...

After Oslo half marathon and Stoltzekleiven, I had the feeling that I would not want to participate in races in a long while. I was enjoying having reached my initial goals and going back to my normal training sessions. On the other hand, for the first time since I started my serious running adventure, I did not have a planned race ahead, and this gave me a feeling of limbo. While we were evaluating the reached goals and discussing new goals, my trainer Ketil came up with the ingenious concept of A and B lists of races. The A list contains the races which I know for sure that I want to participate in, like Bergen City half marathon, Bergen Fjellmaraton, Skåla Opp, and Stoltzekleiven, all in 2015. The B list is for upcoming races that can be fun but are not as important as the ones on the A list. The B list, he suggested, could contain the three Blåmann races and the Fana winter carousel of races, to start with. I could do them at an easier pace, more like regular training sessions rather than races, and I could decide on the go which ones I wanted to join and which ones I felt for doing fast. It sure sounded like a good plan, but I did not understand the full impact of it until later.

The genius of the B list is that while you think you're not ready for the things on it, your mind slowly starts preparing for them. And since they are not that important, you don't get stressed about them. A week ago on Saturday, out of nowhere, I woke up thinking "I want to do Blåmanen race number 2!" I have no idea why the wish to do it came exactly then. A week earlier I had signed up for the third race which will take place November 15, and at that point I was sure that I did not want to do the second race. Suddenly I felt ready. I cannot describe how happy I am for this decision, and how grateful I am to Ketil for paving the way for this. Yesterday ended up being one of the most incredibly fun days in a long while!

Of course many of my team mates from Melkesyre would participate, and I was very lucky to have especially Cathrine and Tina with me. We decided that we wanted to start about half an hour before the fastest racers, so that we would be at the top just before they would arrive. The plan worked amazingly well! We started together, and finished within few minutes of each other. Great to know that one is not completely alone on the track, and wonderful to cheer on the faster people who were on the way up while we were going back down. I had decided before the race that I would take it easy so that I would not risk worsening my injuries. For the first time ever I was only watching my heart rate and not the time. I knew that Ketil did this sometimes, and he had instructed me not to push too hard, so I wanted to try this out. I set the goal of keeping more or less constant 162 in HR, which is my threshold value, and this worked really well. I was feeling very good, no pain from the injuries, enjoying the track, and in the end I was pretty pleased with my finishing time. A wonderful new experience! Now I have the answer to the question why I wanted to do the race: it's because of this feeling of accomplishment and success at the end. Every time a race works this way, it gives motivation for new races.

Yesterday evening there was the Blåmanen races celebration dinner and party, and almost all of Melkesyre was there. I had so much fun, and I kept getting reminded over and over again how incredibly nice all these people are, and how unbelievably lucky I am to know them and to have joined this group. Every single time I am with them I get inspired in so many different ways. They all have their very interesting stories, and there is so much to be learned from each one of them. At the same time, they are all so funny and entertaining. The more I get to know them the more enthusiastic I become. What an amazing group!

Needless to say, I have by now also signed up for the Fana winter carousel races...