Working on the uphill form

The Blåman races showed that my uphill form had declined a lot since last year. OK, so I was still in post marathon recovery period, but come on: for the last 11 months I had mainly been street running, most of it flat. When I resumed strength training after a break of about 6 weeks, it became also evident that I had lost quite a bit of strength in my legs.

But all that is going to be fixed now! First of all, fortunately the post marathon fatigue is finally gone and my energy is back! The Blåmann races inspired me to move most of my training to uphill running and walking. During the long training period towards Amsterdam, there were several spectacular mountain hikes during beautiful weekends that I could not join due to the 30+ km runs in our training schedule. I now realize how badly I had really missed the mountains. It feels wonderful to be in the low season and not to have to train towards a particular goal (yet!), so I simply pick the training sessions that I feel like participating, and these days the offered menu contains mainly uphills. 

One of the things I've been wanting to try all the way since last year is the long uphill intervals of Fjellgeitene on Thursdays. They are as long as 8 minutes! And there are six of them! Scary enough just the thought of it. It took me more than a year, and many conversations with and encouragement from Lars the chief goat,  to mentally get ready for these. Finally I tried them this week! Yey! And it was not even that scary! Between the 8 minute intervals are 2 minute breaks. In the breaks, the group jogs downwards. To compensate my slowness compared to the rest, I rather walked uphill during the breaks. In the end this worked out a bit too well; I got further than everybody, and followed Jonathan Albon (!!!) all the way to the top of Rundemanen. Next time, I think I can allow myself to either stop during the breaks or perhaps even slowly walk down.

Fjellgeitene also inspires in a very fun way when it comes to leg strength and plyometric training. I think we can call it the annual winter challenge. Last year, there was the daily toe raises challenge. How many toe raises can you do without a break? You stand on a step with your heels hanging on the outside. You lower yourself slowly, then raise yourself on your toes slowly, and repeat. This year's challenge is rope jumping. How many seconds can you rope jump without a break? It has to be done in a speed of about 100-120 jumps a minute, and the rope has to pass under your feet between every single jump (no double jumping). It is surprisingly tiring! So far my record is 60 seconds, but fortunately the challenge continues until February, so there is still time to improve.

All this is of course not enough to get my leg strength back. As promised, I have returned to my weekly personal training sessions with Ketil, and my goodness it was about time! After the first session I could neither sit down nor get up for several days; my legs were incredibly sore. The good news is that strength comes back pretty quickly. Also the running form is coming back. The best indicator for this is the Hordnes forest runs of Melkesyre every Monday. This course is pretty hilly, with a lot of ups and downs, so even the prescribed easy pace of 6:30 can feel challenging. At least it did two weeks after Amsterdam. It felt like a race. Since then it got better and better, and last Monday it was finally as easy as it should be.

But don't think that I have forgotten all about flat running. I have something new to test out. I will tell you next week :-)

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! :-)

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!

Elite for a day: Limone Extreme Vertical Kilometer

Another race in Italy - in a quite different division.

When Frank and I registered for the Limone Extreme Vertical Kilometer that took place Friday evening in Limone sul Garda, we thought it would have the same kind of participant mass as in the Lake Garda Mountain Race last weekend. However, as the race got closer, most of our friends who participated in the short course of Lake Garda race left, and Norway's (and Europe's!) best mountain running athletes started arriving in Limone. This was the last race in the Skyrunner World Series, and clearly a much more serious competition than we had realized beforehand. The original course of the race involved an elevation gain of 1080 m on a 3.7 km course of spectacular views and breathtaking cliffs.

Already on Sunday, the day after the Lake Garda race, our friends Bjarne and Frode guided us through this course. The day was sunny and warm, the scenery incredible, and some parts of the course a little bit challenging any anxiety of heights one might have.

We found the course steeper and longer than we had imagined, but we took it easy, and it was an unbelievable experience.

The seriousness of this race became evident during this test, as we realized that there would be a cut-off time after 2 km. If one did not reach this point within 45 minutes, one would be guided via an alternative path back to the center of Limone. I got a little stressed by this, since we spent 57 minutes to this point during our Sunday hike, but that involved low hear rate and stopping for a lot of pictures. At dinner, with my friend Roger's help I calculated that I would be well within the limit at that point during the race.

The weather worsened towards the race, and on the race morning we woke up to heavy rain and quite a bit of snow on top of the mountains. The race was to start at 6:30 pm for the regular participants and at 7:30 pm a few world elite runners. The bad weather had the very cozy effect that the whole Melkesyre/Varegg group relaxed at the hotel lobby after a long breakfast altogether, chatting about all sorts of things, in addition to exchanging experiences and advice about running, training, eating and all that stuff.

Just before the race office opened the starting lists came up, and we realized to our big surprise that all us ladies from Varegg were placed in the elite class! The idea of starting an hour later than my much faster friends and ending up all alone way behind the elite block scared me a lot, and we all decided to ask for a transfer to the 6:30 pm start. However, this became unnecessary, as the whole course of the race had to be modified due to heavy rain fall and danger of avalanches, and everybody was to start at 7 pm. The new course looked less spectacular and less scary compared to the initial course, but longer and with more elevation gain: 6.5 km up to 1247 m.

During lunch, the conversation was deep and the discussions energetic about the new course. As a perfect compensation, the weather improved drastically as the start of the race approached, and the weather report was looking perfect for the evening.

After taking a stroll a few kilometers up the new course, just to get the feeling and to get the feet going, we decided to take a rest until the race. But this was easier said than done, as the starting point was just below our hotel room balcony, and the race hosts started to talk without a break in three languages via numerous loudspeakers.

An hour before the start, we went down, met the others, did some warm up, got some pep talk, and finally started to line up for the start. I could clearly see that this was a different crowd than in the previous race. Much younger and clearly determined to run the whole way. I was wondering what I had managed to tangle myself into. I completely reset my goal; now I had to work simply to not finish last in the women's class.

The atmosphere was quite magic, though, just before the start, when they started counting down and everybody put on their head lamps. (A working head lamp and a wind jacket was required throughout the entire race, and fortunately poles were strictly forbidden.) Here is a short video from the organizers that gives a little bit the feeling at the start. 

The start was very similar to that of the Lake Garda race, a short flat stretch by the lake and then straight up the steep streets of Limone before hitting the path on the other side of the main road. This time, I started a bit slower than at the Lake Garda race, and I managed to keep my heart rate below 160 for quite a while. However, I had the feeling that I was indeed one of the last of the racers and everybody else was in front of me. The feeling strengthened when a motorbiker from the organizers started moving just after I passed him, as if to say "OK, the last racer passed, we can move on". Well, I had to just do my own race, and already after a few minutes I passed a couple of people who were completely out of breath. I went on a steady pace, for a while with constant distance to those that might be behind me and to those whom I could see in front of me. After exactly 22 minutes I passed a young Italian guy who was already exhausted. From then on, about every 10 minutes I passed a person or two, and nobody passed me, and this was good motivation. On the other side, I had the feeling that I was not pushing enough, but I did not dare to push too hard too soon, as I was expecting a lot more elevation and did not know how steep it was at the end.

The path was steep up on a road paved of small stones for a long while, and then it turned into terrain and quite muddy. My inov8 xtalon shoes were perfect on the road and the rocks, but became very slippery on mud. After passing 5.5 km, I was thinking that there was still a kilometer of distance and 300 m of elevation left, but suddenly I started to hear voices and bells and something that clearly sounded like the finish. So soon? I increased my speed, passed a couple of more people, and suddenly reached the finish, without at all being exhausted.

My watch showed 6 km, which was 500 m shorter than announced, and also the elevation was lower on my watch than what I was expecting. When I learned the finish time of the winners, about 44 minutes, I was very happy about my 1:21 finishing time. In every race, if I manage to finish within twice the time of the overall winner, I am satisfied, and here I was well within the margin. With this kind of achievement, I usually end up in the upper half of the women's list and sometimes quite high up, but not this time. In this crowd, I was number 44 of 53 finishing women, but I am still very happy with my time and with the whole experience. Interestingly, the way down took quite a bit longer than the way up, and this time we took the time to enjoy the wonderful shiny night views of the Garda coast.

At the last race I was wondering whether I started too fast. At this race I was wondering whether I started too easy. I suppose I won't know the answer until I try the two strategies on the same course. At least what seems to work for me is to go on a steady heart rate all the time.

No race for three weeks now. Phew!

Happy go lucky

In the last blog entry I wrote about how much I enjoy uphill and mountain running/hiking. Weather gods must have liked it! As an unexpected reward, I received during the past seven days beautiful sunny winter weather and five wonderful uphill and mountain running and hiking experiences.

Sunday and Monday evenings I had the pleasure of doing, for the first time in the dark, two hikes that I know very well. Sunday it was Geitanuken in Åsane in the northern part of Bergen. I really like this hill, as it offers a 360 degree view from the top, which is really rare for Bergen mountains. And Monday it was our own neighborhood hike from Nattlandsfjellet up to Nubbevannet along the ridge facing the city. Incredibly enough, I had never done this in the dark before.

As much as I enjoy hiking in the dark with a headlamp, Tuesday and Wednesday it was time to take advantage of the beautiful sunny weather and the daylight. I was lucky enough to be able to leave work early, and even luckier to have friends who could do the same to join me. Tuesday offered a 16,2 km course and a combination of hiking and running from Ulriken to Svartediket on the heights of Bergen, and Wednesday we went for a shorter version just up to Ulriken via the steepest path and down on the slightly longer path to the south. It felt incredibly good to enjoy hours of sun in the darkest time of the year!

As enjoyable as all these wonderful hikes were, the highlight of the week came Thursday evening during the regular Melkesyre training at Stoltzekleiven. This hill will never stop surprising me. Since 2001 it has given me a lot of memorable experiences and pleasures, along with a lot of pain, and it has constantly helped me to improve my form over the years. Until 2013, my best time ever up Stoltzekleiven was 17:15. In the race of 2013, after a lot of training during that fall, it rewarded me with an incredible jump to 15:58. In 2014, I managed 15:10 as my official race time, and improved it further to 15:02 later in the fall. It was in fact one of my announced goals to reach below 15:00 at Stoltzekleiven in 2014. On Thursday, 22 days overdue, it happened! I managed 14:40!!! The feeling is so amazing that I think I still haven't touched the ground yet since Thursday!

I must explain, though, that I did not do it alone. I got fantastic help from my Melkesyre friend and mentor Bjarne (whose official 2014 time is 10:22!). He was right behind me all the way up, giving me precise instructions on many things, like step length, placement of hands, how to follow the path, at the same time pushing me, albeit very gently, and most of the time telling me how great I was doing. I cannot describe how grateful I am to Bjarne for this amazing experience. It came at a very unexpected time. First of all, in the middle of winter and really off season. Secondly, I had been to muscle therapy the same afternoon, and I had been running and hiking several days in a row. In addition, as during all of the hikes described above, I was wearing spikes, which were extremely useful on the icy paths on the way down, but really not ideal on the bare rocks up the hill. There is more good news: Bjarne has pointed to several small mistakes that I am doing, and by simply correcting them I can improve my time further without necessarily improving my form.

Unfortunately I do not have a finish picture from the last Stoltzekleiven experience, but below is one from September 2014 which shows how I normally look when I reach the top (just that on Thursday it was far worse than this...)

The bottom line of this week's story is that nothing is impossible! Don't ever slow down on your goals and expectations. Plan your weeks as much as you can to take advantage of the possibilities that life offers at all times.

Seize the day!

Running on snow and ice - spikes

Winter is upon us, and with more and more ice and snow on the sidewalks and mountain paths, headlamp alone is not enough as extra running and hiking equipment for this time of the year. Nine days ago I purchased my first pair of running shoes with spikes! As the shoes that were recommended to me are not waterproof, I also bought a pair of waterproof wool socks (yes, they do exist!). I am extremely happy with both pairs of equipment, and I want to share my experiences here with you. I have by now used them (always together) four times:

Uphill interval training with Melkesyre Saturday December 13: Our weekly uphill training with Melkesyre takes place at Fløysvingene. That Saturday, the start of the course was on bare asphalt. The shoes worked very well even this surface. Upwards from Fjellveien to Fløysletten, the ground was mixture of ice and bare gravel, and the shoes worked perfectly on this surface. In fact, I think these shoes can be quite perfect for trail running even when there is no ice and snow! As we arrived at Fløysletten the ground became covered with soft snow, and the spikes became quite useless. On the other hand, no other shoe was good on this surface either; nobody had a good grip.

Ulriken hike with Melkesyre Sunday December 14: The weekly Sunday hike with Melkesyre usually goes to Brushytten but that Sunday, due to bad weather, they had electricity problems and had to keep closed. That's why the plans of Melkesyre changed to a hike up to Mount Ulriken with the hope of a cup of coffee at the cafeteria at the top. However, just before the start of the hike, we discovered that the cafeteria (as well as the the cable car) was closed to to heavy wind. The hike was performed nevertheless, but with no stop at the top due to really heavy wind. Instead, we had a cosy gathering in one of my Melkesyre friends Øystein's car, where everybody drank their coffee from thermos and we ate cookies and rolls that Øystein and Janne had baked. OK, back to track: how did the shoes and the socks work? The start of the course was a combination of ice and gravel, it continued with bare stones and lots of water, and then it turned into a thick layer of snow, with lots and lots of water underneath and all over. The shoes were perfect. I had very good grip all the way, and felt that I could really trust the shoes to hang on the icy parts. The socks were incredible. We were so wet, and my shoes were soaked in water most of the time, but still my feet felt warm all the way. When I took of the shoes, my feet were humid but not really wet. After a few minutes they were completely dry.

Vinterkarusellen 5 km race Monday December 15: BFG sports club organizes a collection of eight races this winter. At each race the participants have the choice between a 5 km and a 10 km course, and those that participate in five of the races receive a medal at the end. I have so far participated in all three of the races that have taken place. The course starts with a round at Fana Stadium and continues on the road to the airport and then turns back after half the distance. For the third race this Monday, Fana Stadium was completely covered with slippery ice, almost like a skating arena. The rest of the course was a mixture of bare asphalt, ice, and slushy snow. On all these surfaces, the shoes worked perfectly. In fact, without the spikes I think this race would be very difficult to complete. On the slight uphill parts with soft snow, the grip was not perfect, and I felt like I lost a few centimeters for each step I took. My finishing time was not as good as I was hoping for, but in the end it turned out to be quite good under the circumstances: I came in third in my class!

The little Christmas whiskey run Wednesday December 17: Fjellgjeitene - the sister running group of Melkesyre - organized an incredibly fun race starting from the bottom of Munkebotn and ending on top of Stoltzekleiven, where we were served whiskey at the finish! The event was followed by a party afterwards, and although it was pretty windy and rainy during the race, we all had a wonderful experience. The start of the course is normally asphalt until the Munkebotn lake, but this part was mainly covered with wet and slippery ice. I was not sure how well I could trust the spikes on this kind of ice, but they performed surprisingly well and I had very good grip. As we got higher up, the ground was covered more and more with snow, which became deeper and deeper as we ascended. The shoes worked fine, but on this part probably normal trail shoes would also work equally good. All in all I was very happy with the shoes and the socks, as well as my performance at the race. The shoes were also perfect for the descent. However, I was helped all the way down by two of my most gentlemanly Melkesyre friends, one on each arm, so my safe and fast descent is mainly thanks to them and not the shoes :-)

I can really recommend this piece of eqipment; I promise you will not regret it!

The pleasures of headlamp running

This winter, thanks to Melkesyre, a whole new running and hiking experience has been revealed to me: afternoon and evening runs in the dark on unlit paths with a headlamp. I could never have imagined how extremely cool and nice this is! In fact, it has only advantages: the boring paths become much more interesting and exciting in the dark, and if you are up in the mountains the views of the city are incredible. If you are lucky enough to be out when the skies are clear, you can in addition enjoy the stars and refresh your knowledge of astronomy.

In the weekly schedule of Melkesyre there are two afternoon sessions: Monday runs at Hordnesskogen (an unlit gravel path in the forest) and Thursday runs up to Stoltzekleiven continuing to Brushytten. As the afternoons started getting darker, I was wondering whether these sessions would be moved to earlier in the afternoon. When I first heard that the time is fixed and they simply go with headlamps, I was pretty surprised, at least about Stoltzekleiven. I simply could not imagine how it would be to go up there in the dark. Well, it is simply fantastic!!! This week, I had a new PR up Stoltzekleiven; I beat my previous record by 6 seconds! In the dark! With a headlamp!

Earlier winters my running in the dark limited itself to running on lit paths, which basically meant on the streets or at Svartediket (a gravel path by a lake), and definitely no mountain running. As a result, I was doing much more indoor running on a treadmill in the winter, and finding it incredibly boring, at least for longer distances. Joining Barry's Bootcamp helped a lot, as the indoor training there is great fun, and in the end I did not think that I was missing outdoor running in the winter. Well, I was wrong. You never know what you are missing until you get to experience it!

I usually find running in Hordnesskogen a little boring, as it is in the forest with no views. However it becomes much more interesting in the dark! Then you can even imagine that you are on top of a mountain or by a lake. But the real joy of headlamp running for me is definitely up in the mountains. I have now tried several of the paths I know in the dark with a headlamp, and I have had the most wonderful experiences. The setting very easily gets quite magical, with unbelievably beautiful views of the city. And the path looks pretty different in the dark, which adds to the excitement.

As if this all is not fun enough, there is an upcoming mountain race in the dark, which I am really really looking forward to: Det lille julewhiskyløpet. But the course is pretty tough, even in the dark and with a headlamp. I just hope that the snow will not hit us before to race.... To be able to continue with winter running in the mountains, the next step for me should be to get winter running shoes with spikes.

If you have dismissed the possibility of afternoon and evening runs in the mountains or other unlit pahts, consider it again. Try headlamp running; it is really great fun, especially if you have friends to do it with. This reminds me of a song by the German pop duo Ich und Ich: Mach dein Licht an und weiter gehts...

Turn on your light and go!