Wuthering heights

Or "gone with the wind"?

Both titles are fitting. Winter came early to Bergen this year, and most of my running has been at wuthering heights during the past couple of weeks. When it comes to my form and my willpower to push myself hard, both seem to have gone with the wind.

It is now four weeks since Amsterdam marathon, and things are slowly getting better, but really really slowly. At least the joy of running, the eagerness to train, and the pleasure of racing and practicing with friends are all back, and I am inexpressibly grateful for it. But I have still not got back the form I had just before Amsterdam. My training volume is much lower, too, both weekly mileage and how often I run. The day after a training session, I don't feel recovered enough, so every second day is a resting day.

The good news is: all this seems to be very normal. I have been a bit disappointed in myself because all my marathon friends seem to be doing much better than me. So I started to search and read about the subject. It turns out that getting back the form one had at the time of the marathon takes around 6 weeks. And that is if one is cautious and builds up the training volume and intensity very slowly, like the reverse of a taper. Because the risk of injury is higher all the way up to 8 weeks after a marathon. So, without knowing it, I have actually been following the recipe to the letter! Things are going forward, and I do have a plan.

As promised, I'm participating in the Blåmanen races, and the practices towards them. The weather has not really been on our side, but I find it easy to motivate myself to participate, because I allow myself to not push myself to the maximum. This is exactly my plan for the winter. Consider it low season. Do not try to impress anybody; just build form. Skip training when things don't feel right. Stay out of injury.  Participate in the coming uphill races, Blåmanen, Whisky run, and Fløyen. They provide the best possible training and wonderful social boost before and after the race.

For the first Blåmanen race last weekend, we woke up to the first snow of the season. "Oh, already on with the spike shoes... " Still I found the race on the snowy ground with a little sun shining between the clouds really pleasurable. Probably a bit too pleasurable, as my time was 2 minutes worse than last year. Of course there was snow and ice this year, which perhaps compensates for some of the lost time. On the other hand my running form was not at its top last year, so I should still have been able to do at least the same time. But hey! Now I have the wonderful excuse that it was still marathon recovery period :-)

The second Blåmanen race yesterday was a little bit worse. The conditions were a lot tougher. Windy, icy, rainy, ... Every step seemed to drag the energy of a kilometer out of me. At a few points I was so angry at the ground conditions and the wind that I shouted a few swear words. I think I managed to push a bit harder this time, but still I ended up walking more than I was planning to. On the other hand, on these steep hills, I am not sure that running is always faster than walking. I was happy at the end to see that I had exactly the same time as last year. Although the course is a bit flatter this year, the ground conditions weigh perhaps 3-4 minutes.

The final part of my plan for the winter is to go back to proper strength training. I really like weights, but for some reason I haven't found it easy to make time for this kind of training recently. So I have now signed up for weekly PT sessions with Ketil again, starting this coming week! I am really looking forward to them, and I know that he will very quickly bring back my motivation to become strong again.

Only two more weeks to tiptop shape! :-)