Loose some, win some.
Just two days after I shared with you
my loss of form due to chronic lack of recovery, I received an email from
Trondheim Marathon. I had been picked as
one of their ambassadors! Yay! I get free registration, free t-shirt, and free jacket, and I get to hand out 100 NOK discounts for the registration fee to everybody I want. The email came just at the right time. It gave me renewed motivation and hope, and it made me look forward again.
In fact, Trondheim (full) marathon had been a cautious main goal of the season since the start of this year, with Bergen City just as a side goal on the go. Why Trondheim? If you want to pick an event in Norway, which offers half and full marathon on the same day, then only Bergen can beat Trondheim, in my opinion. :-) Of course I have not tried all such events in Norway, but I did try two of the most famous ones, in addition to Bergen and Trondheim:
Tromsø and
Oslo. Tromsø has a world wide reputation, because it takes place at midnight in the middle of the summer, so you run at night with the sun high up, and that is a pretty interesting experience. But the course is not the most inspiring, I'm afraid. The half marathon takes place on the main road between the city center and the airport, back and forth. And at the finish, all restaurants are closed, and pubs don't accept guests in running outfit. I think the organizers can make a lot more out of Tromsø midnight sun marathon, if they can make an after-run organization with food and drinks. The course of Oslo had also its weaknesses when I participated in 2014, but I see that they have changed it quite a lot since then; it looks much nicer now. I was not very pleased with the organization in Oslo, but perhaps that has improved as well. The worst part was that when you finished the race, it was impossible to get out of the racing area. There was a long queue along a narrow path both sides of which were blocked. I was at the edge of fainting, and found that crowded slow exit really tough.
Trondheim, on the other hand, was so spectacular and well organized, just like Bergen. The course is really pretty; you run along the river or along the sea, mostly on pedestrian and bike paths, all the way. What I in advance thought would be hard, the fact that the course is only 10.5 km long, and you have to run in twice for half, and four times for full, turned out to work pretty well in the end. There is some satisfaction in completing one round after another, and recognizing places you have been to. This year, the race celebrates its 50th anniversary, and I think the organizers are planning a lot of additional fun activities around the race.
Last year I participated in the half marathon in Trondheim. The goal I set in January for this year's race was full distance. Of course that was before my training plan went wrong. So now the question is: will I be able to make it?
I don't know, to be honest. But the idea appeals to me, and I find it motivating. So I will stick to it, as a hope rather than as a goal, just like I did for
Amsterdam in 2016. Running feels a little better now than it did a couple of weeks ago. To try to recover as quickly as possible, I did not take a single running step or any other kind of training between 16th and 28th of April. The only exception was some really easy skiing in the middle of that period. Then, on April 28, while all my friends were running the Bergen City Marathon, I had my first very slow and very short run. In did not feel that good. The day after, I tried again, still very slow, keeping heart rate zone 1, but a little longer this time, and with some hills. It felt better. Two days after that I did run/walk session in terrain, and that felt really nice. Two days after that again, I did a slow run along Fjellveien, with a 16 minute hard session incorporated, walking fast up to Stoltzekleiven. That felt very nice, too.
Finally yesterday I was back with my friends at our regular Saturday uphill intervals session. It felt really nice. I felt good, I was at my normal speed, and I felt that my heart rate and my lactate level was under control. I was really surprised to see afterwards, though, that my heart rate had been really high. Around 6 beats higher than usual at the peak of the intervals. But it definitely did not feel like that. And my legs did not feel stiff. This is very interesting. What does it mean? I suppose I should still be cautious, and follow the heart rate carefully, but I definitely feel more optimistic now. In a month from now, there is the Bergen Fjellmaraton mountain half marathon. Do I dare to race there? Time will show. The most important for me right now is to
go with the feeling and have fun!
