Ambassador's mission

When the going gets tough, the tough gets going!

Trondheim marathon is less than two days away! For the last couple of months I have been wondering whether I would at all be able to participate in any of the distances, but I have just signed up for half marathon and I am really really looking forward to it!

Things haven't been going as planned this year. After an incredibly successful 2017, I was perhaps a bit too ambitious in the beginning of 2018, and wore myself down with just a bit too hard training over time. As a result, I had to skip Bergen City half marathon at the end of April. But May was good; the weather was wonderful; I kept to the mountains and terrain, and at the beginning of June I was surprised by my performance at Bergen Fjellmaraton. You might remember all my good excuses during Fjellmaraton, one of which was that I fell and hurt my knees badly towards the end.

Although the knees were sore and stiff for a while, only nine days after Fjellmaraton I participated in a 27 km run from the center of Bergen to Knarvik. This race deserves a post on its own, which I never found time to write. It was such a wonderful experience, thanks to my friend Annbjørg who guided me through it helping me all the way. The race traverses over quite a few mountains,  and I was again surprised by my performance there. I took this as a good sign for the coming goal of running full distance at Trondheim marathon, feeling happy that my knees seemed already to have recovered after the fall.

Then during the summer holidays, I started slowly to increase my running distance with Trondheim marathon in mind. I was building up really cautiously, running only every second day, only one long run during the week, and the length of the long run only slowly increasing. Still a few weeks into this scheme, towards the end of a 24 km run my left knee started to hurt really badly. And after that I was more or less unable to run throughout the summer. Whenever I tried, it started hurting after a few km, so I simply stopped. The nice weather continued, so again I kept to the mountains and the terrain, and the knee started to get better, albeit very slowly.

A couple of weeks ago I started street running again, just to discover that my running form was completely gone. I gave up the Trondheim project totally. There is of course no chance of being able to run a marathon, as the knee is still not 100% yet. And my form did not motivate me to try a half marathon either. At some point I was considering 10 km, but then I found that it started too late in the day to fit the schedule of the rest of the family. So I was simply planning to skip the race, and just cheer for the others from the side line. Aksel, Frank and Annbjørg are going for the full distance, whereas a bunch of other friends from Bergen are doing the half marathon, and I thought I could at perhaps keep the marathoners company through the last 10 km and then cheer the half marathoners to the finish.

But then a friend suggested that I could help her achieve a half marathon PB. And that changed everything! The desired pace seemed doable for me without pushing my knee too much, although it would by no means be easy, given the lost form. Suddenly I had a new goal for the race, meaningful and within reach, and the motivation came back immediately! I am so grateful to her for this suggestion, and quite surprised by its effect on me. Still I had a small hesitation about whether or not the knee would survive 21 km...

On Wednesday I went for a 10 km run in the aimed pace for the race, both to test the knee and to test the form. Both seemed to be up to the challenge, and right afterwards I signed up for the race. After that I received yet another request of pace holding with the same finish time, so now I feel like a real pace holder. I really really hope I will be able to guide and motivate my friends in the right pace throughout the race. I am surprised to find out that this is actually even more motivating, exciting and fun task than trying to achieve a PB myself. And it fits so well with being an ambassador for the race. In fact, I've always dreamed of being a pace holder. Now I get to try it out, and perhaps I can volunteer to be an official one another time.

It's all about finding the right motivation!

All the right excuses: Bergen Fjellmaraton 2018

A good race is all about the good excuses...

Many "unfortunate" things can happen before and during a 21 km terrain race with 1080 meters of elevation gain. But don't despair! Each of those things can be used as an explanation of not reaching your goal, or to make reaching your goal appear even more impressive. :-)

Bergen is bathing in sunshine and warm weather since the beginning of May. During my 31 years in this city, I cannot remember such a long and continuous period of warm, dry and sunny weather. The winter was unusually cold with excessive amounts of snow, and in early spring I was wondering whether all that snow would disappear early enough to start training for Bergen Fjellmaraton, which took place last Thursday evening. The snow did indeed disappear impressively fast, and the mountains of Bergen have been free of snow and during the entire month of May. So no good excuse there for not being able to train for the race.

In fact, I did get a lot of opportunity to train for the race. The nice and hot weather inspired for mountain running much more than street running. Except for asphalt intervals once a week, all my training was in the terrain involving a lot of uphill during May. But I did of course also have a lot of good excuses all the way! :-)

The sudden loss of form in April: You might remember that I had to take it really really easy during the the whole month of April, after training a bit too intensively in the early spring. But May has been pretty good, although my heart rate has been higher and my speed lower than usual. Concentrating on simply having fun, and never pushing too hard, I ended up doing 250 km distance and 9500 m elevation gain during the month of May, according to Strava.

No previous races in 2018: Last year, when I achieved my PB in Bergen Fjellmaraton, I had already participated in two half marathons earlier that year, in addition to a couple of 10k races, with pretty good results. This year, all I have had so far is my worst 5k and my worst 10k ever, plus a half marathon which I quit after 9k in the beginning of April. All my training since then has been pretty easy, except the intervals, and I was thinking that pushing hard would feel very unfamiliar after such a long time.

My mind elsewhere: Perhaps enjoying life is closely related to mastering challenges all the time, and when new challenges emerge, old ones might loose their importance a little bit. I started a new job on the 1st of May, with responsibility for 150 colleagues and 500 students. I am enjoying it immensely; not a single day is like the previous day, with endless challenges, opportunities, duties and tasks. I notice that my mind is occupied with work related things most of the time, and training and competitions have perhaps come somewhat in the background.

With all these wonderful excuses, I was prepared to take it easy and just have a great time over the mountains on Thursday. In fact, after my PB last year, I was so eager to do an even better time that I had signed up in the race class for this year's race. But thanks to my excuses, I changed to an earlier start so that I could go with most of my friends who have comparable finish times as myself. When, in morning of the race, Annbjørg wrote to me suggesting that we should aim for a really enjoyable experience with 3:30 as the finish time, I felt wonderfully uplifted, and let my shoulders even further down, expecting nothing else than a great hike in the sunshine.

The race day itself had room for even more excuses, and actually some good ones, too!

Lack of sleep: Working long hours, sleeping too little, having been to a party the night before the race, where I was standing the whole evening, blah blah blah, yeah, the usual stuff. 

The heat: Despite what most of my friends think (since I am from "the south"), I actually don't take hot weather that well. I was pretty worried about the sunny and warm evening of the race. But in the end this didn't turn out that bad. And there was a wonderful breeze in the right direction once on top of Ulriken.

Almost drowned at 4 km: Wanted to take a sip of water, while breathing heavily, and got it in the wrong tube. Coughing heavily, I had to stop completely and in fact ask for help from my fellow competitors to hit me on the back. I definitely lost a minute there! Yeah, at least! :-)

Fell and got badly bruised at 16 km:  So happy to have managed to run pretty fast down all the technical parts, just in front of Brushytten, where it is completely flat and on gravel ground I fell badly with high speed. Cramps got my legs immediately, blood started pouring out of my both knees and hands, and many kind people stopped to get me back on my feet. After a quick assessment of the situation and wondering whether I would be able to continue, I decided to try. To my surprise, I was able to get back at normal speed and did not feel any discomfort from the wounds (until after the finish line). I lost at least another minute there. Yeah, right! :-)

Despite all these wonderful excuses, it actually went pretty well the whole thing! It was my most enjoyable Fjellmaraton ever. I felt like I was taking it easy, but the speed was good, and my times at various milestones kept surprising me. And it all went very quickly. I was like, "Oh, already 8 km!?", "Oh, already Rundemanen!?" all the time. I think the low shoulders and the easy start helped a lot for the rest.

Also a lot of fortunate things can happen in a race, and they did. In fact, the reason for the good experience was vastly thanks to wonderful friends! It was as always great to gather at the start line and give each other inspiration, and then gather again at the finish and celebrate together. But the help I got from some of them during the race was just invaluable!

Jan-Tore, Linda, Annbjørg, Vibeke, Cathrine, Ove, Leif, Mette, Solveig: Jan-Tore, the kindest and most enthusiastic guy on earth, is usually a lot faster than me (similar speed to that of Frank). But these days he is struggling with a groin strain and has to take it easy especially downhill. Still I was expecting him to be some 10-15 minutes faster than me, I was really surprised to catch him around half way. After that we kept more or less together all the way to finish, Jan-Tore taking pictures and talking to everybody and entertaining all the time. I cannot describe how uplifting it was to just once in my life be able compete with him. I wish you quick recovery Jan-Tore, but until then let's race together as much as possible! :-D Then there was Linda, also normally faster than me, and as expected she came from behind and passed me around 4-5 km, stopping to take pictures, shouting encouraging words and smiling her dazzling big smile. But then quite unexpectedly, I caught her after a few more km, and then she caught me, and then I caught her, and we went like that all the way to finish. Such surprises gave a sudden surge of energy and instantly everything felt a lot easier. And then the cheering gang: Vibeke at Vikinghytten half way, got an energizing hug, Cathrine and Ove just before the ascent to Rundemanen, got high fives and good pep talk, and then Leif, Mette and Solveig on top of Rundemanen, with cheering words and big smiles. After that only the easy part left!

I finished only two minutes behind my PR from last year. One minute penalty for each of the kilos I have more now than this time last year. There! Yet another excuse which I forgot to mention! :-) And just imagine how it could have gone without the fall, the drinking incident and all the other wonderful excuses! :-D

Another terrain race next Thursday. Jan-Tore, are you in? 

(Photos courtesy of Jan-Tore and Cathrine.)

A midsummer night's dream: Tromsø midnight sun marathon

I had to cross the arctic circle to achieve a new half marathon PB.

An impulsive story with a happy ending:

June 3: One of my running buddies, Ina, tells me that she is going to Tromsø to participate in the half marathon course of the Midnight Sun Marathon on June 17, combining it with a few days' vacation. This is a race I always thought would be cool to participate in, and I immediately want to join her. Later that evening, I check flights and I check with Ina whether she would like company. She is so enthusiastic that I now want to go even more, but I still cannot make up my mind.

June 4: Frank says I should go. I check flights once more. There was only one reasonably priced ticket left for the return. I say that if that ticket is still there, I will take it as a sign and go. It is still there! I buy the tickets and text Ina. Ina is so happy that I get even happier. She says I can stay in her room. I sign up for the race.

June 12: Ina and I have both been very busy, so this is the first time we get to meet before the race. During the weekly Melkesyre run in Hordnesskogen we make plans for the coming weekend. For the past week we were both in recovery after participating in the Bergen Fjellmarathon (mountain half marathon) rail race on June 1. We both had new PBs at that race, by several minutes each, so we both feel that we are on a good trend. On the other hand, we are both worried that we had almost no asphalt running since the end of April. After participating in the Bergen City Marathon, the half marathon course, we have both been preparing for the mountain half marathon so almost all our running has been in terrain and uphill. After the mountain half marathon, we have mainly been taking it easy, so it suddenly hits us that we are not at all prepared for a long distance street race! On the other hand, although the Hordnesskogen run is quite a bit faster than normal, we are able to keep chatting all the way, and we feel strong, so we think we will be fine. The plan is to simply rest until the race after today's run.

June 17: I leave Bergen at 10 am on a small Widerøe propeller plane going directly to Tromsø. Ina arrived in Tromsø already the day before, and she is at the airport to meet me. She is so nice! In fact, we do not at all know each other that well, so this is an interesting experiment in several ways. The weather is cloudy and chilly as we approach the city center. Will there actually be a midnight sun? As we promenade downtown Tromsø looking for a place to have lunch, the sun comes out! And we are the first ones to take an outdoor table in front of a cafe by the harbour. The sun becomes stronger and stronger and in a short while the whole place is full of people and no more tables are available! We sit there enjoying the sun, and looking at the local mountain top Fløya. We both want to go there, but we don't want to tire our legs unnecessarily, and anyway there is not enough time before the race. Being equally impulsive, we suddenly decide to go there and take the cable car up. Up we go with the one car, enjoy the views as the weather is at its most beautiful, and down with the next car. Then we go to her room to rest a little bit. It feels very calming that we seem to agree on everything and decisions are taken so smoothly and easily.

The race is to start at 10:30 pm, so we go to bed at 7 pm and try to sleep for about 1 hour. It is not so easy to fall asleep but at least it feels very good to rest. We are both a bit worried about how our bodies will react to running so late, especially when we both have had pretty little sleep during the last days. Around 8:30 pm we eat a little bit. In fact I end up eating a little too much. I have been carb loading for the last few days, so I really feel heavy and I am worried that I won't be able to run fast at all. We go to the start area at 9:30 pm, leave our bags and start warming up a little. We both feel terrible at the warm up. So high heart rate at so low speed! How are we at all going to run 21 km?? My stomach feels like a balloon, but I keep moving, and I am praying that keeping warmed up  until the race will get as much air as possible out of my body.

At 10:15 pm we both feel much better, while we are participating in the organized warm up. I still don't feel like racing. A few days ago I was even playing with the idea that I could perhaps get a new PB at this race, but just before start I am thinking that I will be happy if I simply manage to finish in less than two hours. At 10:30 pm the gun shot starts the race and there we go! We end up running side by side for the first 3 km, and I feel good, so I keep running with Ina although  I see that our pace is worryingly fast. After the first 3 km, though, I don't dare to keep that pace anymore, although I still feel good. I see that my HR is way above where it should be, so I slow down to something that is closer to what I had planned as my average pace for this race.

The course is pretty flat, with slight downhills immediately following the slight uphills, so it is very easy to keep the pace. The weather is not as nice as earlier in the day, but it is even more spectacular in a way. At around 7 km, we have the sun shining right on our faces, we have a little bit drizzle on our backs, and we have a huge rainbow to our left. Everything feels good, and I am still very surprised that I am able to keep this pace with so little effort.  The course goes to Tromsø airport and then turns back. I always find these turning points troublesome. I get so impatient towards the turning point: are we not there yet? where is it? where IS it????? The whole island where the inner city of Tromsø is placed is 23 km in circumference. So it would be pretty easy to make a full round instead of back on forth on the one side. Perhaps something for the organizers to consider for the future?

June 17: As we pass midnight, I start looking more and more forward to the end. The fast start has started to punish me, and I have to really concentrate to keep the pace. For every km that passes, I am really happy to see the pace of the past km and pretty surprised that also this one went well. Then I quickly recalculate what my finish time will be in the worst case, if I have to drop all the way closer to 6 min / km. And then I manage every km way better than that. I start wondering how my body works. Perhaps a lot of eating before a race is the key? And little sleep?

I arrive at the finish at 00:23, completing the race in 1 hour and 53 minutes. It is 2 minutes faster than my previous best time, which was all the way back in Oslo in 2014. Ina is already at the finish and greets me as I arrive. It turns out that she also had a new PB by more than 2 minutes, and she is 5 minutes faster than me. It is so nice that this turned out so well for both of us! Having the same kind of experience before, during, and after the race, makes the whole thing even more enjoyable for both of us.

After changing into dry and warm clothes, we want to have a glass of wine. As we were enjoying the sun the day before, we were really craving for wine, but we did not want to risk our race performance, so we said we would do it afterwards. But there is no wine to be had.... All restaurants are closed, and there are long queues in front of the bars and the pubs. The few places without queues will not let us in due to our outfit. We regret that we did not think of buying a bottle of wine during the day and placing it in the fridge in the room. Despite the fact that it starts raining and there is no wine, we are in incredibly good mood, and we think that the walking around is good cool down for our achy legs. We get hungry, we buy huge döner kebabs, and stroll back to Ina's room eating those.

We go to bed at 3:30 am, and we set the alarm to 9 am. Ina is so incredibly sweet and kind, she gives me her bed while she takes the sleeping bag on the floor. At 6:30 am we are both wide awake and start chatting. No point in trying to sleep more. We get up, have waffles for breakfast, Ina drives me to the airport, before she continues her vacation in Kvaløya and Senja.

Snipp snapp snute and then we all live happily ever after :-)

PS. Pictures not taken by Ina or me are from Kristina Schröder Photography, and the Facebook or Instagram pages of Midnight Sun Marathon.

What are cramps and how to avoid them

Cramps be gone!

I wrote last week that I learned a lot from Bergen Fjellmaraton due to interesting new experiences, like cramps. In fact, I learned even more afterwards, thanks to many useful comments from friends upon publishing the post. And I got so intrigued by what cramps are and how to avoid or get rid of them, that I read a lot about them this week.

Interestingly there seems to be no common agreement among doctors, scientists and trainers about what actually causes cramps during a race. However, many athletes swear that they are helped by immediately taking tablets containing minerals, especially salt, when the cramps occur. When we sweat a lot, in addition to losing water we also lose a lot of salt. Water and salt are essential for the signals from the brain to reach the muscles. So, it seems to be an easy explanation that if you lose a lot of water and salt, cramps might happen.

And boy did I lose a lot of water and salt during that race! I drank about 2.5 liters during the race, and I kept drinking the whole evening. I even got up during the night twice and drank half a liter each time. Still, when I got on the scale the morning after, I was 3 kg lighter than I was on the morning of the day before. So I must have sweated like 6 liters during the race! Is that at all possible? It turns out that it is; under hot and strenuous conditions a person can sweat 2-3 liters per hour. Since the race lasted about 3 hours, the math adds up.

It seems to depend from person to person how much salt you lose when you sweat, and an easy test is to taste your sweat. If it is salty and you get a crust of salt on your face afterwards,  then you lose a lot of salt when you sweat. Exactly what happens to me! So I was happy to have found the answer. I simply lost too much water and salt. I was also extremely happy to have received advice from friends about the remedy: it turns out that there are a lot of tablets and mixtures you can take before and during a race to prevent cramps! You can even take them as soon as the cramps start coming, and they will go away, as several friends experienced during Bergen Fjellmaraton.

Still, I kept searching for more explanations. Some experts do not agree that loss of salt is the (single) explanation of muscle cramps during a race. A study on all athletes participating in an ultra-triathlon showed no significant differences in salt levels between athletes who experienced cramps and those who did not. This study concluded that muscle fatigue is the main reason for cramps. But how do you measure that? The problem about finding out what causes cramps is that they happen at a time when several things happen in the body simultaneously; muscles get tired, you lose water and salt, and even your brain gets tired. So it is not easy to know which of these things cause the cramps. For almost all athletes cramps seem to come during long races, and in the second half of such a race. This supports the muscle fatigue theory. I think common sense and my own experience, as well as most experts, suggest that it is a combination of both.

Recall that I had almost no terrain or mountain training in the months prior to the race. So my muscles were not prepared for that kind of race. All experts seem to agree that you should train in similar conditions of the race that you will participate in. What all experts also seem to agree on is the importance of plyometrics, or jump training, for runners. In Bergen I used to do quite a lot of jump training, both during my personal training sessions and also during our Monday sessions with Fjellgeitene, jumping a lot on stairs with both legs, single leg, several steps at a time, etc. I am definitely going back to this kind of training! To start preparing for my return to Norway, I have also taken up forest runs here in Istanbul.

And no matter how well I train and how prepared I might feel, I know what I will have in my pocket during Amsterdam Marathon: Crampfix!

Stay strong, stay hydrated, stay cramp-free.

Always look on the bright side: Bergen Fjellmaraton 2016

When the going gets tough, the tough gets going...

Bergen mountain half marathon.... when I participated in this race in 2014, I finished in 2 hours and 53 minutes, and I wrote that it was one of the best race experiences I'd ever had. Well, let me put it this way: the 2014 version of this race is still one of my best race experiences.... This year things turned out a little different.

This 21 km long evening race has a total elevation gain of 1080 meters; it is a spectacular course, starting from a spot very close to the center of town and ending in a spot even closer. But as soon as you start, and up until a kilometer before finish, you are in the wilderness and forget the city completely. The terrain is tough; there are no gravel roads or wide paths, except a few hundred meters at start and a couple of kilometers before finish. There are lot of stony parts, and you have to watch where you place your foot.

Frank, I and a few other friends had signed up for the early start at 18:30 this year. The regular start is at 20:00, but it is a lot of fun to reach the finish before the winners and cheer them on, so we like the early start. This year it turned out a bit unfortunate. On Thursday, the day of the race, the weather was really hot with no wind. When we were about to start, it was about 26 degrees. The first kilometer is the same as for the Ulriken race (short version), so I had that part freshly in mind. I kept an easy pace and my heart rate under control, and had a good feeling. The part from there until 2.5 km was really tough; this is where we gain about 400 meters of elevation. The sun was right on us with no wind, I was sweating a lot, and I had to work a lot with my brain to keep my spirit high. Many people around me stopped completely to get a break and recover a bit, especially the ones who had started out a bit too hard.

When I reached the 3 km point, the course flattened a bit, and I took my first energy gel and some drink. Very quickly afterwards I started feeling much better. I picked up pace, I felt that I regained control, and running felt fast and easy. To my surprise, I reached and passed many people who had passed me quite a while ago, and that gave a boost of energy and confidence. Until half way, everything went quite perfectly. I caught up and kept company with a couple of friends, and much sooner than I was expecting, we reached the single drink station at the Viking hut at 10.5 km. I stopped a little longer than my friends. Drank like a liter of water, and refilled my bottles.

Then with renewed energy I set out to catch my friends again. However, almost immediately I started to feel signs of cramps in my lower legs. We were going downhill, and I had to watch how I stretched my foot downward to keep the cramps away. When we reached the bottom of that hill, running flat for a while felt OK but I had to be careful. Then, on the even surface of the swings up to Rundemanen I did not feel the cramps at all. I managed to walk very fast, and I could see my friends just a little bit ahead of me, as I was steadily closing the gap between us. At this point, I thought the cramps were gone, and I had high hopes of being able to run fast on the downhills ahead and finishing around 2:50. Once I threw myself at the path that goes down from the top of Rundemanen, the cramps started coming back. This part is very uneven with small ups and downs, and going fast here became really painful. At some point, when the cramps started to creep all the way to my inner thighs, I wondered whether I should simply break the race. I did not want to get injured, and having never experienced such cramps before, I wondered whether they could be something else.

Things got a bit better when the surface got more even again as we reached the lower parts of Rundemanen and then Fløyen. However, the stride had to be short, the cadence low, and the movements very even, if I were to continue. My heart rate was low, I had a lot of power and energy, but moving the legs faster immediately ignited the cramps again. There and then I realized that I had no chance of beating my time of 2:53 with this pace. Still I tried to run as fast as the cramps allowed, but it was too slow, and when there were about 5 km to finish, I also lost the hope of sub 3:00. At that point I decided to stop pushing. I simply jogged the rest at easy pace and enjoyed the beautiful views. As a nice side effect, the 5-9 last km were like a post-race recovery run, and I was not at all exhausted when I reached finish. And after finish I had no cramps at all! Usually this is exactly when I start experiencing cramps.

My time ended up being 3:11. Wow! OK, I knew I was going slow, but still I was a bit shocked. 18 minutes worse than last time!? Almost a minute slower per km... Or considering where the cramps started, about 2 min slower per km for the last 9 km.... Well, well. I was surprised how it did not at all make me feel sad. It was, in a sense, not my fault. My form is good, I did everything right with respect to speed for the first half, but was completely taken aback by the cramps. Why did they come? Many people, who are not used to cramps, experienced them during this race, so perhaps it was due to the heat and dehydration? Did I drink too much at the drink station and change the liquid/salt balance too quickly? Or perhaps it was because my legs are not used to terrain for the last few months? Or a combination of all? In any case, I was just so happy to finish, so happy that my real injury did not at all bother me during the race, and so happy that one more of the hopes that I set at the beginning of the year came true.

Looking on the bright side, I learned a lot from this race and can benefit from it. I now know what cramps during a race are; they don't need to stop you, but slow you down. This was my first run that lasted for more than 3 hours, so it is perfect marathon training for Amsterdam. Since I went so slow at the end, I am not tired, and I won't need that long a rest before I can train again. Wanting to stop so many times, and still continuing despite the pain, was very good mental exercise. And for the first time ever after a race, I was not at all interested in checking the results! :-) As soon as we got home, the race was over in my head, and I very quickly moved on to thinking about completely different things.

To my consolation, even Frank went a bit slower this year than last, although he was still faster than most, and several friends who are fast marathon runners could not beat my time 2:53 from last time.

What does not kill you makes you stronger...

Finally heading for the mountains again

I have mentioned earlier that I have grown more and more fond of uphill and trail running. Now that the snow is slowly disappearing from the mountains around Bergen, and the evenings are light, new opportunities for wonderful trail running adventures open.

Until Bergen Fjellmaraton last June, the only long enough proper running trail I knew was the plateau between Ulriken and Fløyen mountains, which is called Vidden. However, often you want to be able to do a round trip so that you end up where you started. In this respect the closely connected Fløyen, Blåmanen, Rundemanen mountains (they actually rather form one single big mountain) are perfect. Before, I only knew the most basic paths in this area, and most mainstream paths are covered with quite hard packed gravel, so they do not really count as proper trails. The last part of Bergen Fjellmaraton from Rundemanen to finish contained many paths I had never been to that are really really wonderful. During last fall I also discovered many new paths thanks to the Blåmanen races. I have now started to combine several of these paths to make extremely pleasant long enough trail running courses. Let me describe one for you:

Start at the beginning of Fjellveien (close to Restaurant Bellevue) with a slow warm up run until the starting point of Stoltzekleiven. After this pleasant warm up, do the Stoltzekleiven as fast as you can. Take a short (and absolutely necessary!) break at the top.

From there continue up until the lake and then take to right.

At the first junction take to right again, towards Skredderdalen, but don't go down Skredderdalen. Instead, continue upwards towards Fløyen and arrive at Åsebu. Take to right and run around Åsebu until you hit the main path again.

On the main path, run down towards Fløyen until the last big (and steep) right turn before Fløyen. Take to left in the middle of the turn towards Fjellhytten (there is a sign there pointing to Skomakerdiket). Once you reach Skomakerdiket, continue on the upper side of the lake towards Fjellhytten (now the sign says Fjellhytten). Follow the signs to Fjellhytten until you reach it. Either continue on the backside straight ahead or take a short break to enjoy the view and then continue.

Where you want to end up is Rundemansveien. This trail, from the main Fløyen path until the main Rundemanen path is truly beautiful. Once you reach Rundemansveien turn left to go to Brushytten and then follow the main path back. I took to left to Skomakerdiket before reaching Fløyen, and then took to left again to go towards Svartediket/Isdalen.

 

This left path to Svartediket is quite pretty;  it is slightly downhill in the beginning, and you have a beautiful view of the city all the way. Then it goes steeply down to Svartediket.

 

Instead of going all the way to Svartediket, take the streets towards the city at the first opportunity to get back to exactly where you started.

The described course (you can find its gps details here) turned out to be exactly 14 km, however it can be made much longer as you wish. Once the snow is completely gone, I plan to take right at Rundemansveien and go to Blåmanen and then to Rundemanen and then down. Another opportunity is to go directly to Rundemanen taking to right in the middle of Rundemansveien, up a steep hill (this was a part of the Bergen Fjellmaraton which I really enjoyed) and then going to Blåmanen on the way back from Rundemanen. Further down, you can add another round at Åsebu. Other options include going straight ahead or to left from the top of Stoltzekleiven to reach Kvitebjørnen via Ankerhytten or via Munkebotn, and then go to Rundemanen. The possibilities are quite endless, and contain many parts I still have never tried yet.

I will get back to you with more suggestions as I try out new combinations!

GPS sports watch functions - what and how to use?

GPS sports watches offer so many options on what to display during training and competition. But what to choose during various kinds of activities?

I have a Garmin Forerunner 410 which is already a few years old.  On my watch I can have four displays between which I can switch with the tap of a finger. On each display I can show up to three things, where one is displayed big and the other two small. Until the summer of 2014, I used only one of the displays, and on this I always had in the big field the total elapsed time since start. In the two little fields underneath, I had current speed (km/hour) and total distance since start. Nowadays, depending on what kind of training or competition I am doing, I use different functions.

As I was used to knowing my current speed due to a lot of running on the treadmill at Barry's Bootcamp, I used the current speed function a lot before, but nowadays I prefer to watch my pace (minutes/km) rather than my speed. Since, like many women, I find the heart rate belt uncomfortable, I did not use it much before. But after I took a fitness test last August, I use the belt and the heart rate function every single time. Here are a few examples of what I like to display and watch during what kind of activity:

Uphill intervals with Melkesyre: I display "lap time" in the big field in one of the displays, and "heart rate" in the big field in one of the other displays.  Since during these intervals we run simply as fast as we can, I do not see the point in watching the speed, but I like to see my heart rate every now and then to make sure that I reach the same maximum HR at every interval. The advantage with lap time is that whenever I push the button a new lap starts, and thus I know exactly when every interval and every break starts and ends. I push restart as soon as I hear the run command, and I push lap stop as soon as I hear the stop command. I don't care so much what the little fields display, since they are anyway too small to see during such an intensive training.

Stoltzekleiven: I simply watch one display and it shows the total elapsed time. The course is so short and intensive that for me it is not possible to keep track of anything else.

5 km race: I display "pace" in the big field. My goal is to manage this particular course under 25 minutes, and I know that I should then have below 5:00 in average pace. Until now I have been displaying current pace, but at the next race I plan to display average pace. In one of the small fields I display the elapsed distance and in the other the total elapsed time. However, I must admit that during such fast races the small fields are not so easy to see.

Uphill races, like Blåmanen races, Fløyenkarusellen: In one display, I have the total elapsed time in the big field. In the small fields of the same display I have the distance and the elevation. Since these races are not as fast (for me) as flat races, it is possible to follow even the small fields. In another display I have the heart rate in the big field. Speed and pace are not so relevant for me in uphill races, as they normally apply to flat running, whereas in these kind of races there is even quite a bit of walking every now and then.

Longer lasting uphill races, like Skåla Opp and Fjellmaraton: During these two races I had exactly the same displays as the uphill races above, but these two races took place before I started paying attention to the heart rate. During longer races (more than 1 hour) paying attention to heart rate becomes really important, so that one does not go above the lactate threshold too early. In the future I will try to more actively pay attention to the heart rate during longer runs.

Long distance races, like half marathons: In one display I have pace in the big field, and total time and total distance in the two small fields. In another display I have heart rate in the big field, and the average speed and average pace in the small fields. Normally, during such a race (or training for such a race) I have a goal time, which prescribes a goal pace, which I like to follow.  At the last half marathon I participated, I also made a pace wrist band which showed what my total time should be after every km, and I could compare this to my watch.

Training: Normally "heart rate" and "pace" are the most important information during training, depending on what the goal is. Especially for restitution training, watching the heart rate is of utmost importance, to make sure that it goes slow enough. Also for harder training where the goal is to improve the form, watching the heart rate is important, this time to make sure that the heart rate is high enough. For longer runs where the goal is to keep a slow or moderate pace, watching the pace is a very good way to stay in control.

And of course every now and then I just go with the feeling without ever looking at the watch. But I always wear it and start it so everything is recorded. I upload every run to Garmin Connect so that I have everything gathered there, and I can share it with my connections who also have Garmin gear. Recently I also started to use Strava so that I can connect with friends who do not have Garmin gear.

My next watch will be one I can use during swimming, too!

Up here there is freedom!

"Nu er jeg stålsat, jeg følger det bud,
der byder i højden at vandre!
Mit lavlandsliv har jeg levet ud;
heroppe på vidden er frihed og Gud,
dernede famler de andre."

I’m resolute now, respond to the call
that bids there are heights to wander!
I’ve lived out my life as the lowland’s thrall;
up here there is freedom and God withal,
the rest merely grope down yonder.

The above are the last lines of a famous (and very long!) poem by Henrik Ibsen called "På vidderne" (On the heights) from 1863.  The poem expresses Ibsen's fascination with wandering in the mountains, and in fact it is the first document where the (nowadays very widely used) Norwegian word "friluftsliv" (outdoor life) was ever used in written form. Recently I find myself agreeing especially with the conclusion expressed in the above last lines.

As you might remember, my running adventure started about a year ago with the decision of participating in Oslo half marathon in September 2014. As I increased my mileage and started to get more experienced, I was sure that long and flat runs would be my "specialty", at least when it came to races.  The intuition was simple: I would probably never be fast enough for short races, so if I wanted to do something "impressive" I should go for distance and endurance. What I did not consider in the beginning was the concept of uphill / mountain racing.

Of course I have always loved hiking in the mountains. Alright, "always" is an exaggeration, because I had never ever done this before I came to Norway as a 16 year-old. The pictures are from my first mountain hike in the Norwegian mountains (near Førde in Sunnfjord), and as you can see I had some lack of motivation on the uphill parts. In particular, I found the downhills followed by uphills really annoying; what is the point of going down now, when we have to climb even more to get to the next top? Why on earth are we actually doing this whole thing?? Fortunately, it did not take long before I got captured by the wonderful feeling of reaching a top and being able to see the amazing views offered by it. Since then I have preferred mountain hiking to hikes in forests, etc. As long as one is on the west coast of Norway, there is actually no other interesting way to hike. During a year I spent in the US, and during various visits to countries like Germany and the Netherlands, I had many forest hikes, and I was able to confirm how much more rewarding I find climbing up to a top and reaching a view point.

Despite this background, when I started my longer and more frequent runs in the beginning of 2014, and especially after I experienced the Bergen City half marathon in April 2014 as a huge success, I was expecting to become a mainly half marathon runner. Nowadays, as you know, I participate in all sorts of races, but my favorite by far has become the mountain and uphill races! In fact I think this is also the area where I can perform the best and have the most potential. This was perhaps first triggered by the Bergen Fjellmaraton in June 2014, and probably I started considering it more seriously after Skåla Opp in August 2014, but I think I actually realized that I could be pretty good in this kind of racing during the Blåmanen Opp races in November. I realized that was able to get close to and even beat many who are much better than me in flat races! In addition, mountain races are much more gentle to the body than flat races; you use your muscles but don't get high impact on your joints. After a flat half marathon race, I need at least a couple of weeks recovery time, whereas after a mountain race the recovery time is much shorter if hardly any at all.

Of course my fascination for mountain running is also both motivated and supported by the people who have inspired me the most in this adventure. My personal trainer and good friend Ketil whom I really look up to and learn so much from all the time (and get told off by every now and then...) is an experienced mountain runner. The same is true about my Melkesyre friend (in fact Mr Melkesyre himself!) Bjarne, who is an incredible motivator and whom I receive a lot of invaluable advice and help from all the time. Famous mountain runners and champions, like Sverre, who are so generous to share their experiences and to teach me new tricks, have most probably influenced my preferences as well. Last but not least, having good friends, both within and outside of Melkesyre, who are willing to participate with me in uphill and mountain races, and in particular training sessions, have made this kind of races definitely my favorites.

I will of course continue to participate in flat half marathons, and who knows maybe in a year or two I might even feel ready for a full marathon. My aim is to get better and better, and I really enjoy (and find very useful!) moderate speed 21 km training runs. But I see now that this kind of race will probably not become my main "thing". I want to do a few half marathons every year, always including Bergen City, and perhaps traveling to other cities for fun. But I cannot imagine myself regularly participating in local half marathons, repeating the same course over and over again. I think I will need the motivation of a fun and enjoyable course or a new place for this distance or longer on flat courses. I also run 5 km and 10 km races nowadays. I do try to get better and better in these as well, and I get very motivated and inspired when I get a good rank. However, I consider this kind of races more as speed and mental training rather than racing.

Next uphill race on my B list is already on January 28!

Bergen Fjellmaraton

This is one of the best race experiences I have had so far! Bergen Fjellmaraton took place in the beginning of June this year; it is a half marathon, 21 km. The first 3 km up Mount Ulriken have an elevation gain of around 450 m, after which it is mainly slightly downhill, except for some steep uphills every now and then. My friend Benedicte, my husband Frank, and I decided to join this race during the National Day (May 17) breakfast together. This did not give us much time to practice, but we still got to do parts of the track a few times before the race.

First, Frank and I did the whole track backwards (from Fløyen to Ulriken, instead of the other way round). This was just the morning after I came back from a trip and had landed late the night before, and it turned out to be quite tougher than I had imagined. The slight uphill all the way after the ascent to Rundemanen took all the energy I had and more, and I thought I would never reach mount Ulriken! I was totally exhausted after this practice run, which took us about 3h 30min. I cannot describe how encouraging and patient poor Frank was, as I was complaining practically all the way. I was so slow that the whole thing became just an easy slow tempo run for him, and this made me even more worried about my shape and how I would do at the race. We did not manage to find the exact path, and ended up doing 25 km instead of 21, and this is how I looked at the end:

 

Later Benedicte and I did a part of the track together, about 12 km, and I did on my own about 10 km a few days before the race, at easy pace, mainly to try to find the right path. On the race day, I realized that we had not found the right path during practices. In fact none of the participants I know managed to find the entire correct path before the race, but luckily the track was extremely well marked, and it was very easy to find the right way during the race. 

For the race day, I had got very precise instructions from my trainer Ketil: don't go out too hard; keep the tempo just below the threshold for the first 3 km up, and then GO! The strategy worked perfectly. Many people were fast in the beginning, but I managed to keep calm and follow the plan, and in fact I caught many of them later when they had burnt out all their energy. I had a good feeling the whole way, I walked most of the uphills, and ran all of the downhills and flat parts, and finished in 2h 53min, a time which I was extremely happy about. Frank was of course faster than me, and due to the experience from our practice run together, he was not expecting me that early at the finish. He wanted to take pictures of me as I arrived, but he was enjoying his free hamburger when he spotted me entering the stadium, long before he was ready with the camera. That's why the following picture turned out so blurry, but it still shows how extremely exhausted and extremely happy I was as I reached the finish:

I stretched out on the ground, which turned to be a slight mistake, as it was incredibly difficult to get up, but after 5-10 minutes I started to regain strength, was able to get up, so that we could take a celebration selfie with the whole team:

The rest of the story you know: as I was waiting for the rest of the elites to arrive, I had the pleasure of making the most amazing acquaintance and interesting conversation with Sverre Slethaug. This really wiped out all my exhaustion, and I was so excited and even happier than at finish. Then one by one, several people I know started to arrive, and it was great fun to greet them at the finish and chat with them about their performances. Soon, the main person I was waiting for came to finish as well: my trainer, mentor, idol, and friend Ketil Ola Skjelvan. Although he is too modest to agree, I believe I owe him all of these wonderful experiences I have been writing about, and I am grateful to him in particular for introducing me to Team Melkesyre. He is a person whom I really look up to, learn from all the time, and try to follow the example of as best as I can. 

The wonderful experience of this race lasted for many days. I kept going thorough the whole thing in my mind over and over again, and was happy to realize that I would not do anything any differently. A few days later, the pictures from the race became available online, and then I relived the whole thing once again. I studied every picture closely, found the numbers of people I could recognize from the race, and looked up their finish times to compare with mine. I think definitely this is the race that has so far given me the most excitement altogether.

If I manage to get rid of the pain in my knees, I definitely want to do it in 2015 as well!