Keeping sane when you cannot run: Melkesyre and Stoltzekleiven!

Every runner knows how depressing it can get when you cannot (or are not allowed to) run due to injuries or therapy. Since the beginning of 2015, I have only been blogging about mountain hikes, uphills and skiing, so you might have realized that I have not really been running much for a while. I had a voluntary rest from running during the Christmas break, and at the start of January my form was better than ever. Since then I have been trying out some new therapies (which might become the subject of a future blog post if successful), and my therapists have been restricting my running activity. In the beginning I was only not allowed to run flat and fast. So I could continue my uphill intervals with Melkesyre, participate in uphill races, and run up in the mountains. I was thus able to keep my spirit high, knowing that my form was not decreasing although I was not getting any speed training. As the injuries persisted, though, a couple of weeks ago I was banned from all running. Not even uphill!

This made me feel so down: wow! More down than I had imagined and thought was possible. For a normally cheerful person, this came as a huge surprise, and not being able to shake it off gave me a feeling of failure. Fortunately I have wonderful support from my running friends and my trainer Ketil. Whenever I am with Melkesyre I get a boost of energy and motivation, and the personal training sessions with Ketil make me feel super strong and ready for anything that might come. So I decided to take every opportunity to meet the gang even though I am not able to run. Last week, for example, was the second race of Fløyenkarusellen. Since I could not participate, I volunteered to help mark the course and carry equipment to the finish. This way I got both exercise and the benefit of meeting my friends and cheering them to finish at the top. An unexpected bonus was thanks to Mats who was the other volunteer. On the way up, this dialogue ended up being a part of our conversation, while we were discussing Stoltzekleiven:

Me: -I had a new personal record a couple of weeks ago.
Mats:  -Wow, that's impressive during the winter; what is your time?
Me: -14:40
Mats: -That is incredibly good! (Says the guy whose PR is 08:43!) I am sure you can go below 14:00 at this year's race. (Exactly what I am hoping for!)
Me: -That is so nice of you to say. I even have a long term dream of going below 13:00 in a few years. (It is really more a dream than a goal.)
Mats: -Why not? If you are motivated and willing to train for it, there is no reason why you cannot do it.

I cannot describe how much this conversation increased my spirit and helped me get out of my negative thoughts and down period. It is quite incredible that something as simple as this can be so helpful. (Note to self: give your friends this kind of feedback when they are speaking about their goals - no matter what kind!) Of course it has even more effect when it comes from a person who is an expert and knows what he is talking about.

Another thing that has cheered me up a lot recently is Stoltzekleiven itself. This short and very steep hill, which has over the years helped me transform from an overweight and untrained person to an active runner on the way to become a proper athlete, has been extra generous with me this winter. It rewarded me with new personal records several times for the past few months, and as I was feeling at the bottom, it came to my rescue again and got me up. This passed week, I went up Stoltzekleiven five times. When I am not allowed to run, this is a perfect way of keeping my heart rate up. On Tuesday, with my sister- and brother-in-law, Gro and Børre, we went up twice, keeping the same slow pace both times. As these guys are so much faster than me at the race, doing slow pace with them and having cozy conversations on the way felt really good. On Thursday I was at the regular Melkesyre Stoltzekleiven training, and today I went up there again with Melkesyre on the way to our weekly Sunday meeting at Brushytten. Both of these went also at moderate and slow pace, and being able to spend quality time with my good friends on the way up and down was perfect healing for my soul.

The form confidence boost of the week, though, came yesterday when I did Stoltzekleiven all alone. Unwilling to let go of my regular meetings with Melkesyre, I went with Frank to the meeting point of the weekly Saturday uphill intervals. I had the opportunity to chat and laugh (and take the pictures that you see above) with the gang before and after the interval training, but as they were running intervals, I went to Stoltzekleiven. This time I tried something new; an advice that I got from one of my heroes, Sverre:  "Divide Stoltzekleiven into four parts. Run (for me: walk) each part as fast as you can, and at the end of every part take a break and stop your watch. After a couple of minutes, restart the watch, and continue until the next break point as fast as you can. Continue like this until the top. Look at your total time excluding the breaks. Aim for at least (!) this time at the race. Once you have achieved the time you want with the four parts, decrease the number of parts to three, then to two, and then finally try to do the whole course in the same time." Yesterday, I did the four part interval training up Stoltzekleiven. I did not time the breaks; I just waited for my heart rate to go down to around 135 before I continued. The total time (excluding the breaks) was 13:59!!!!! I think Stoltzekleiven loves me ;-) Do I need to say what I aim for at this year's race?

I have the feeling there might come more blogs entries about Stoltzekleiven... Stay tuned!