Plans keep changing all the time...

... but all roads lead to Amsterdam. Hopefully.

Planned races are getting canceled and new races are entering the schedule. I decided not to participate in Os Triathlon. I have now completed two official test races of the full course; they were great fun, and I think I had a good training effect of them. But I cannot motivate myself to do the actual race itself. It will take me off my marathon training for several days, and I have no chance of improving my time from last year's race.  The problem is my bike. I do not have a proper race bike. I have a Trek hybrid, which is perfect for pretty much anything other than going fast on asphalt. Last year, my kind friend Irene lent me her road bike for about a month before the race, as she was about to have a baby. This year, there were no natural candidates to ask, I had not time to concentrate on buying a new bike, so I just decided to go with my hybrid. After all, how much difference could it make in just 20 km?

Well, comparing with my training times of last year, the difference is substantial. About 7 minutes! And although my swim and run times are a bit better this year, there is no way I can make up for the lost bike time. It is a bit annoying that equipment has that much to say. After the last test race, it became suddenly very clear to me that I do not want to do the race. If I had the same bike last year and this year, then I would be competing with my last-year self, which would be motivating. But now the time I'd get at the race would have no meaning. Amsterdam is the big goal, and on the way there I will only do the races that I feel motivated for. After coming back from Amsterdam, I will immediately start "project road bike". I will get a proper road bike, and start training with it. 2017 is already long time ago planned to be the triathlon year.

OK, so motivation for Os disappeared. However, motivation for new races suddenly appeared: 5 km and 10 km road running. After running really slowly in the heat for the last couple of months in Turkey, it felt hard to start picking up speed. So Frank and I figured that entering the last races of the Fana summer circuit would be a good way to push ourselves.  The first 5 km race was three days after coming home, and my time was terrible. I started out way too fast, I managed to keep pace 5 for about 3 km, but then got really slow towards the end. The 10 km race was this week, two weeks after the 5 km, and then everything suddenly seemed to start working. I decided to try to go for a steady 5:15 pace throughout the race. It's not a big deal, it was my Oslo half marathon pace, but I want to take one step at a time. I watched the time very carefully not to start faster than 5:15, although I felt very light and strong in the beginning. I felt in control all the time, and just 100 meters before the finish I managed to speed up and pass a lady who turned out to be in my class. The final average pace turned to be 5:16, very even split, and it felt like a good beginning.

The road to Amsterdam is winding. Not everything goes as planned, and I am constantly in doubt whether I am training correctly, running enough, resting enough. I am so afraid of getting injured that I am perhaps resting too much. But they say restitution is the most important part, and there is always some small pain here and there. I should be doing more stretching, more strength training... The list is long. Fortunately, I am really enjoying the training itself. Well perhaps not towards the end of a 30 km run, but the accomplishment of completing a planned training, slowly getting the long runs longer, slowly getting a little bit faster.

7 weeks left now...

Routine slowly falling into place

“Life is 10 percent what you make it and 90 percent how you take it.” (Irving Berlin)

Planning, planing, planning, adjusting the plans, doubting all the time "Am I training too much, too hard, not enough, not correctly?", trying to make it all fit within a heavy load at work that hit me like a wall as soon as I got back, feeling behind, short of time and exhausted, grabbing the opportunities of fun, trying to let my shoulders down, getting a lot of wonderful feedback from friends, and finally slowly settling into a routine.... This is how it has been during the first two weeks back in Bergen.
First of all, my plans of trying to go for runs in the morning before work did not happen. Turning this into a routine without having anybody to run with turned out to be difficult. I have, however, managed to go to weight training classes in the morning before work, so I decided to simply switch those. Weights in the morning, running in the afternoon. Not everyday of course, and weight training not as often as I would have liked to.

And then there is training for Os Triathlon which is in just two weeks. I have quickly come to realize that I cannot set big goals for this race, as the most important thing ahead is the Amsterdam Marathon. Still, training for triathlon is a lot of fun, and participating will be great fun, too. So I have been practicing for it once a week. The first time it was only 9 degrees C in the air, and I think it was the coldest swim I've had so far. The second time, though, the weather was great, I made new friends, and we even had a swim without the wet suits after practice.

It is important to keep the fun elements in the training routine, but it takes a day of running away from my weekly schedule. Is it wise? Fortunately my much more experienced running friends assure me that it is indeed a good idea. Swimming and biking instead of running once a week, can indeed give the same training effect and in addition save the legs.

Another plan was to incorporate a lot of Stoltzekleiven sessions into my practice. That has not been happening either; so far I have only been up there three times... A strange and unexpected thing has been happening slowly over time: Amsterdam Marathon, which merely used to be a distant hope, is becoming a realistic goal as I have increased the length of my long runs to 30 km. At the same time, Stoltzekleiven, which used to be one of the main goals of this year, is slowly diminishing in importance in the shadow of Amsterdam. After all, I can always do Stoltzekleiven next year. However, if I do manage to run a full marathon, I am not sure that I will want to do it again.

So, if my general training scheme with some biking, some uphills, regular intervals, some trail runs with integrated Stoltzekleiven, and a lot of mileage in running can give me a good finish time at Stoltzekleiven, I will take it. If not, I will be perfectly fine with that, too. How interesting... Last year, achieving a new PB at Stoltzekleiven became almost a matter of life and death, and  now suddenly it is not so important anymore.

Having friends with the same goals, in particular Frank, is also playing a big role here. There are a few of us who are trying to follow very similar programs, and exchanging training schedules and experiences has been most valuable. Frank and I are doing almost all our runs together, and we are trying to gather with friends as often as we can make our program fit that. We are also entering a few races, 5k and 10k, just to get some speed training. But like with Os Triathlon, there is no way we can put big goals into these races, as we cannot afford to take time off to rest before them.

Training for marathon, in addition to having a life outside of running, does require quite a bit of stubbornness and sacrifice indeed. Most of the time it is fun, but sometimes, especially towards the end of some long runs, I cannot but fall into negative thoughts... "Why???? Why on earth am I doing this????" And then you hit the shower, and as the hot water meets your body, all the blisters and bruises start burning.... Oh well. No matter how it all goes, this kind of training has in fact already made me achieve my biggest all time goal already. I wanted to be in such a shape that I could enter any race at short notice. I am more or less there now. Give me anything, and a few days' rest before it, and I will do it! Seriously.

But not Aurland Extreme.... I will never do that. I promise.... I think :-)

Back to 12 degrees Celcius

Be careful what you wish for 'cause you just might get it... (Eminem)

Four months ago, I had a blog entry with the title "Take me to 12 degrees Celcius".  At the time it was written, I was complaining about the cold running conditions in Scandinavia; I had a few runs in Stockholm and Bergen around Easter. It was so cold that my injury, which I thought had healed, started to bother me again. Going back to the much more pleasant running conditions in Istanbul after the Easter break felt wonderful. This time it's the opposite. The wonderful running conditions in Istanbul turned less wonderful in June and it started to become simply too hot. It got worse in July when I went to Bodrum  (further south) for the summer holidays. The last few runs in Bodrum were incredibly slow. Even intervals of 1 km were at a pace which I was able to keep for about 10 km in the spring. Still Frank and I managed to perform our scheduled training and the last run of the holidays was a new record for me: 28 km! Given the heat, I am hoping that it can count as 32 :-)

Then of course I started longing for the cool summer of Norway. Unfortunately Bergen has had the worst July in more than 46 years, with records of rain and low temperatures. However, as soon as we got home, we were lucky enough to get a nice afternoon of no rain and guess what: yes, exactly 12 degrees temperature! The running felt nice and easy, but not as fast as I hoped for. I was thinking that the heavy training conditions in the heat would result in speedy legs as soon as I hit the lower temperatures. But perhaps it still takes the body a little bit of time to get the speed up, although the form is OK. We will see. In the run of yesterday was also integrated a climb up Stoltzekleiven. Also the time up there was terrible for me. Frank is doing much better. I am wondering whether it is because he was running with me, at my pace, in Turkey for the past three weeks, except the intervals. Perhaps the really slow long runs, combined with intervals at the correct speed, gave him a form boost? This is what is written all over the place, 80% of your runs should be slow, even if you are an amateur and run only a few times a week.

Anyways, back home, I have now started to try to plan my training ahead. The big goal is of course Amsterdam Marathon, but there is also Os Triathlon in just 4 weeks, and then Stoltzekleiven Opp in a couple of weeks after that. I hope to manage a bike+swim session once a week until Os, and 2-3 Stoltzekleiven trainings a week. Is this wise? Should I be concentrating only on Amsterdam? I am not sure. I have started to feel some knee discomfort, so perhaps moving a little bit of my endurance training to biking is not a bad idea. And Stoltzekleiven gives leg strength and uphill training which should come in handy in Amsterdam. The trouble is the time. I have to find time for all this plus 2-3 strength training sessions per week.

I will try to continue my Istanbul routine of training early in the morning before going to work a few times a week. Perhaps park my car at work at 6 am, run to Sandviken along the fjord, go up Stoltzekleiven, and then run back to work, shower and be ready by 8:30. Then do my other runs and strength training in the afternoons. Will this work? Is it too ambitious? Time will show.

You won't succeed unless you dare to fail...