Relapse, recap, restart

"Throw me to the wolves and I will return leading the pack."

I read a training blog newly that started with "A completely wasted year". It was about a year of injury, and the person was set back in form to where she was a year ago. Exactly my situation! However, my feelings about the year 2015 are quite different. Alright, so 2014 was an amazing year of many completely new experiences... How could a year of injury and frustration match or exceed those accomplishments? Unexpectedly enough, in 2015 I challenged myself to try even more new things, I learned a lot more, and I made friendships for life, all thanks to my passion for competing, and some even thanks to my injury.

I think what I am most happy about 2015 is that Frank joined the Varegg/Melkesyre/Fjellgeitene family, and we now share almost all of our training and competing experiences. We have had more outdoor experiences together this year than the total of many years. In addition to training and competitions, we had many spectacular travels to some of the most famous mountains of Norway. We even explored the mountains of Italy, both competing and having fun. All these travels happened thanks to and together with our Melkesyre friends, and I am eternally grateful for these adventures.

Of other new experiences and highlights of 2015, the relay races in the spring, in particular the national Holmenkollen race, stand out as a lot of fun. Partly due to being injured, I also got more serious about open water swimming, and participated in my first official swimming race. I got to fulfill my dream from last year about training for triathlon, and finally participating in Os triathlon. This is something I definitely want to do more of. My new official best time at Stoltzekleiven is really what saved 2015, as it is the only real performance achievement of the year.

It would have been great to be able to conclude the year on a super positive note, but as I have learned so well this year, things do not always go as planned.  Just as I was finally back on track, on the way to full recovery and my old form, I had a relapse of my injury last week. It came unexpected. After the first shock and some panic, I calmed down surprisingly quickly, mainly thanks to my physiotherapist Ane. Although she was on holidays, she called me when I texted her, and she instructed me to completely rest for a week, to hopefully cool down and reverse the relapse quickly. Taking her advice this time has been so much easier than in the old days. Of course being surrounded by a lot of family due to the holidays, and the really bad weather outside has helped, too. I immediately started to make alternative plans for the coming months, just in case I might again have a longer period away from running. I have even started to look forward to those alternative activities.

No matter how my injury behaves in the close future, I know that 2016 will be a year of even more new training experiences, as I will be spending the first half of the year in Istanbul, my city of birth. I am already in touch with possible new training buddies, with plans of running, strength training, biking, swimming, and other activities. I do have a humble new year's wish, though: that I will not be blogging about injuries in 2016...

"Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do."

Becoming a goat: The Little Christmas Whisky Race

Goats just wanna have fun...

Several weeks of wonderful fun with tough racing and hard partying culminated on Friday with the Little Christmas Whisky Race, organized by Fjellgeitene. I have been mentioning Fjellgeitene in several posts, and what better opportunity than now to devote a whole blog entry to them? After an unbelievable form improvement and (for me) amazing achievements in 2014, I had many goals and hopes for 2015. Unfortunately most of them had to be canceled, as the year was characterized by injury, rehabilitation, recovery, and trying to regain form. Two of my goals for 2015 were achieved though: a new official record at Stoltzekleiven Opp, and becoming a proper member of Fjellgeitene.

In fact, it was largely thanks to participating in the Stoltzekleiven training sessions of Fjellgeitene that I managed to do well at this year's race. Although I had a couple of unofficial personal records during last winter, after the summer holidays I was finding it hard to achieve the same; not even close. Fjellgeitene organized a lot of interval training sessions during early fall, which were just perfect in many ways. First of all, since it was intervals we did not keep track of total time, and thus I did not get depressed by possible bad times. Second, and even more importantly, we had so much fun after the sessions, like swimming in the lake at the top, or exploring (to me) totally new paths in the mountains.

After that I have tried to join the training sessions of Fjellgeitene whenever I had the opportunity, and when the described training felt right for me. This is the thing: the average form of Fjellgeitene is quite a lot better than mine. To not slow the others down or ruin the practice, I try to choose well. The strength training sessions are just perfect. When it comes to the running sessions, for the moment I join them when the description says "relax". I know that it will then probably be a zone 3 for me, which is perfect when it fits my training plan. Sometimes a route and an anticipated completion time of the session is given, and then it is very easy to decide whether I can and want to do it.

As with Melkesyre and Varegg otherwise, a lot of laughter is involved in the training sessions of Fjellgeitene. Several of my friends join all three group's training sessions, and consider themselves a member of each of the groups, like myself. Although some people clearly identify themselves mainly with one of the groups, it is really more like a big happy family. This was also obvious at the Little Christmas Whisky Race and the following party. A short but brutal evening race, starting from just above Sandviken Hospital, following the turns of Munkebotn up to the lake, and continuing on the main gravel path up to the area where the drinks are served at the top of Stoltzekleiven Opp. It is about 2.5 km long, pretty steep, and the estimated time is around one's time for a 5 km flat race. The best part is the whisky bar at the top when you reach the finish!

I participated in this race also last year, and had so good memories that I signed up as soon as the event opened for participation. Last year, I completed a test run in 24:54, and I was expecting something around 24 minutes for the race. But on the evening of the race, the ground was covered with snow and ice and my completion time was 26:04. I was still very happy with that time, which was just seconds within the time of many of my friends. This year, though, I kept getting around 27:30 during training sessions, and was again feeling a little bit the same frustration as before Stoltzekleiven. At the race, it went better than expected, although not as good as I could have hoped for: 25:24. No matter what, the whisky session at the top was a wonderful reward.

So lucky to be part of such an amazing gang, and so many things to look forward to in 2016!

Jump like a goat!

"I can hop, I can run, and it's very very fun" (The julekalender)

This week I had four strength training sessions! Well, I should not boast because the two weeks before that, I had none... I was out of town and could not have my weekly PT sessions with Ketil. And for some reason I found it difficult to do strength exercises on my own. Usually I am good at this, but this time I simply could not motivate myself to go on the floor with push ups, planks, squats, leg raises, etc. In theory this should be much easier than going out for an early morning run in the dark... But runs happened and strength training did not.

So I wanted to make up for it by having a double dose of strength training after coming home. In addition to my regular two PT sessions this week, Frank and I joined the strength training sessions of Fjellgeitene. This is something I had been wanting to do for a long time, and finally this week I found the time and the energy. On Mondays they do an outdoor plyometrics session with a lot of jumps, whereas on Fridays they have full body training indoors. We joined both, in addition to a wonderfully exciting and wet mountain run which was zone 1 for them and zone 3 for me, but that's another story.

The Monday session was even more fun and useful than I had imagined it to be. Intensive jumping rounds on the stairs, some jogging in between, and strength training for the arms and the abs. Since it all takes place at one spot throughout the session, it is very easy to join. If it gets too tough, one can simply take short break. I had to skip a few of the rounds on the stairs not to fall out of schedule; single foot jumps all the way up are pretty tough! The toe raises at the end, though, I nailed with no break. I have been practicing them persistently for the last couple of months, and improvement came quickly. It was amazing to see how lightly some of my friends could jump; the ones who can jump the highest are also those who are fastest - it simply shows how useful this kind of training is for speed.

I find strength training increasingly important, especially for my running. It was strength training that finally got me out of my hamstrings injury after a long period of frustration. I was so determined to get well that at some point I was strength training five times a week. Twice personal training, and three times heavy slow resistance training. As my injury got better and I became able to run more and more, my focus shifted back to running, and I have for a while completely stopped the therapy exercises. I think perhaps I should start again. But it is difficult to set aside time for it when I am now strong enough to join all the other fun training sessions that are out there...

I have been talking to friends who have had hamstrings injuries, and we all seem to have the same problem. We are weaker on the side of our injury. My injury is in the right buttock, and my right ankle, right hamstrings, and right hip are clearly weaker than their left counter parts. It could be that they became weaker because of the injury, since the left side had to compensate and work more. Or perhaps they were weaker from the start, and that was exactly the cause of the injury. In either case, I should never stop trying to get my right side as strong as my left side. And keep everything strong in general of course, in particular the core.

Leg curl is one exercise that is just perfect for strengthening the hamstrings. By doing it separately on each leg, you can find out whether you are equally strong on each side. Side plank with a leg raise is a perfect way of finding out whether your hips have the same strength on each side. Regardless of whether or not you are weaker on the one side, it is important to train each side with the same intensity. And of course toe raises for the ankles and lower legs. Toe raises separately on each foot (for example 3 sets of 10 raises on each foot, standing on a stair step) to strengthen the ankles, and toe raises on both feet together (for example 2 sets of 100) to strengthen the legs. Oh, there are so many exercises that are beneficial for running; I could go on forever...

The stronger the faster!

First report from sweet spot

It’s working!

I was not expecting to write an update about my sweet spot training yet, but I have already noticed a form improvement after just two sweet spot sessions! My resting heart rate is down by 2-3 beats, my zone 1 speed has increased, and my uphill intervals feel like they did about a year ago. OK, perhaps an improvement was due now regardless of the new schedule, but at least focusing on the correct heart rate has made me aware of a few mistakes I have been making for the last couple of months.

When I checked my training log on my sports watch, I saw that I have been mainly running in my zone 4 or 5 (during competitions and speed training), or in my zone 1 or 2. Zone 1 is of course very recommended every now and then for active recovery and for a flush of human growth hormone. But I’m afraid zone 2 training is pretty useless. On the other hand, as we saw on the charts of last week, zone 5 training is as useless for form improvement as zone 2, so in that sense zone 2 is better because then at least you are not wearing out your body. Sweet spot, however, is somewhere between zone 3 and zone 4.

Getting the heart rate up to sweet spot at the beginning of a training session is hard work. Especially when I have had to do my running in the early mornings most of the time during the last 6 weeks, before my body is fully awake and before breakfast… Although I spend at least a couple of kilometers to warm up and increase speed, until I’m up at 154 bpm, it feels really tough and like I am pushing it too hard. The clue is to not rush it and just take the time to get there. Once I’m there, though, it is surprisingly easy to stay there. As kilometers pass by and I start to get tired, my speed decreases a bit so in a sense it gets easier and easier to stay at 154 bmp. Afterwards restitution is quick and I feel not at all tired during the rest of the day.

It is crucial of course to not overdo it. Since it is not that tiring, and the effect seems so good, it is tempting to do all my runs in sweet spot. But that would definitely lead to over training. I am so far keeping my sweet spot sessions short; about 6 km, in addition to warm up and cool down. I plan to slowly increase mileage there, but stick to my plan of not more than 2 sweet spot sessions a week. Supply these with a couple of interval sessions and some long slow runs, and let's see if it will get me somewhere new.

Train smart, have fun!