Last race of the year, a little whisky, and some reflections

Join a running group!

I've said that before, I'll say it again. If you have an interest in running, there is nothing like being a part of a running group.

You have of course your family, friends, and colleagues, but nobody can understand you like your running buddies when it comes to training and competition goals, injuries, frustrations, joys, victories, and failures. With who else can you talk for hours on a single injury history, or on a training period towards a competition, or on heart rate zones? Who else will always cheer you, encourage you and motivate you whatever your goals are, and comfort you and give you pep talk during your down periods? And every now and then you can be even lucky to make a new friend for life, getting into deeper topics and opening your hearts to each other.

Friday evening was the annual Little Christmas Whisky Race with a party afterwards. I must admit that I am still struggling to get back my form. I was 4 seconds faster this year than last, but the ground and air conditions were perfect, so I should have done better. OK, so a marathon breaks you down, but think of all that training I invested in before Amsterdam. Should that not pay off now when the fatigue is gone and my energy is back? I could easily get buried in this kind of negative thoughts were it not for the frame around the race. With the whisky bar at the finish at the top and the party down at the club house afterwards, there is no way one can feel down after such an event. So yesterday, instead I found myself thinking about how fun it is to get older.

Yes you read right. When I say this to my younger friends and colleagues, they are always surprised. Perhaps I would also have been if I heard it in my twenties from people in their forties. My goodness, I remember how sorry I felt for them then. When my older colleagues at that time spoke about reading glasses and graying hair, I pitied them. Still they were the ones to have the most fun at parties, and I was always astonished by that. (I mean, like, isn't life almost over?) Now I know why. As we get older, as long as we are lucky to keep our health, life gets easier on many plans. Kids are growing and can take more and more care of themselves, you have reached a level in you career,  for most the economic situation improves, and you get more time for yourself. If you, at this point in life, start investing some time in a rewarding activity, like sports, and on top of that find a group of people to do it with, then life becomes a play ground and you are back to the joys of childhood all over again.

Just think about the race and the party afterwards, and all the people involved in organizing such an event. Carrying food, drinks, and fire wood up to the finish area, registering people and timing the racers, preparing the party, baking cakes, doing kitchen duty, cleaning afterwards, .... And how effortless and easy it all goes when there are so many people who are willing to contribute. It is always like this. There is always somebody who takes initiative to organize a party, a dinner, a weekend trip, a training session, a mountain hike, you name it. With all the extremely sad things going on around the world, I feel so blessed to be surrounded with all this kindness and positive energy.

My experiences from my local club Varegg, with my Bergen running group Melkesyre and Fjellgeitene, and my Istanbul running group Istrunbul, who embraced me so warmly for the brief time I spent there, make me think that running groups all around the world work in this positive way. If you're rather interested in biking or swimming, or other sports, there are groups for those as well.  I follow online quite a few such groups both in Bergen and Istanbul, and they all seem to burst with positive energy. There is no reason to hesitate. Don't do it alone.

Join a group!

Run, swim, lift, sleep, repeat

Holiday for the mind, boot camp for the body...

Holidays have started! I have been in Bodrum since Tuesday evening, and this is what has already happened so far:
Wednesday: Treadmill running and weight training at the gym, then swimming in the sea.
Thursday: Treadmill running and weight training at the gym.
Friday: Outdoor running and swimming before breakfast, weight training at the gym in the afternoon.
Saturday: Long run outdoors.

The rest of the family is arriving in a few days, and until then I have full freedom to just eat, train and sleep as I want. I get up very early, I sleep in between the sessions, and I go to bed very early. My mom serves me the most delicious and nutritious meals, and my mind is completely empty of work and other worries.  I don't even bother to stay at the beach outside of swimming, which fits perfectly with the fact that we've been on a ten-day-long public holiday and the beaches have been super crowded.

As always, planning is half the battle. Before coming to Bodrum, I checked possible gyms to attend for a month. Last year, I tried out the gym at Turgutreis marina, which worked out pretty well. But they did not have all the equipment that I need for my HSR exercises. To be as well prepared as possible against injuries towards Amsterdam marathon, I have restarted regular leg curls, leg extensions, hip abductions (inside and outside), and seated leg presses, in addition to various other exercises. I found out that a new gym has opened much closer to where I stay: Pürivol spa and fitness center of Swissotel Turgutreis. They have all the equipment that I need, and I started my membership there already the day after I arrived.

If you are planning to do something similar, I think starting your subscription already on the first day of your stay is important. Otherwise, things might get postponed and in the end perhaps never happen. When it comes to running, I was thinking that I would have to do it alone until Frank arrives next week. However, I have been so fortunate to have several of my friends from Team Istrunbul here for the public holidays. They have kept me company for the runs of yesterday and the day before; it has been great fun, and I am really grateful. What's more, my mom keeps me company for the swimming sessions. In fact, we're off to swimming right now!

Happy active holidays!

End of an era, beginning of something lifelong

It's not "good bye" it's "au revoir"...

My time in Istanbul is up. I cannot believe how fast the last six months have passed. I remember it like yesterday how excited and anxious I was about joining Team Istrunbul when I arrived.  A bunch of total strangers just half a year ago, a sweet gang of good friends, some of them really close, now. Work and reconnecting with old friend were the main reasons of my stay in Istanbul. But what has had the biggest effect on my daily life is my interaction with my new running friends. I have, after all spent a couple of hours with them 4-5 times a week for the past few months.

Planning is half the work, and I am very happy that I managed to get in touch with Team Istrunbul before coming so that I was ready to go from the first morning. I cannot imagine how training here would be if I did not join the group immediately. I would probably not even come up with the idea of running early in the morning, before work, especially in winter when it was dark and cold. I would most likely try to run in the evenings, and maybe give up after a while, seeing how crowded the pavements are during the day and in the evenings. Perhaps I would run much more on treadmill at the university gym. I would definitely have much less fun, many fewer friends, and not even close to the improvement I have had in my form.

Saying farewell to my friends in Bergen when coming to Istanbul was not so hard. I would, after all, return after a few months. Saying farewell to my friends in Istanbul is much harder. I will probably not come back for such a long period in a long time. But I will definitely come for shorter visits, as I have always done, and for sure I will go running with them every morning whenever I am here. But apart from that we have many opportunities to meet at races. Already in October many of them are also going to Amsterdam marathon. Then there are plans of coming to Norway for Bergen City marathon and the Tromsø midnight sun marathon in 2017. In fact, many of them are in Norway right now, racing today in Haugesund Ironman. One of my goals for next year is to participate and complete the 2017 version of this race, and I sure hope to see my Istrunbul friends there then.

In addition to running together, we have shared a lot of other nice moments. These beautiful people even threw me a farewell party. I have been so impressed with the kindness I have been shown. I have been invited to guest training and swimming facilities of some, yoga classes of others, to coffees, dinners, homes, and weekend trips. We have shared so many laughs, some serious and thoughtful moments, a lot of madness, and quite a bit of love. Thank you so much for everything guys! I will miss you a lot, but you know this is not the end. It is just the beginning!

Sometimes it takes a short time to grow an old friendship...

The heat is on

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

Istanbul has been really hot the past week. You might remember that I complained about the cold weather in Norway in some posts, and bragged about how pleasant the temperatures early in the morning in Istanbul are. In fact, even though spring started to turn into summer, early mornings kept cool, breezy, and pleasant. Two weeks ago I was running in the forest and it was 10 degrees C when we started at 6 am. But then everything changed suddenly. Yesterday the same spot at the same hour was 20 degrees...

Running along the sea on our usual IstRUNbul early route has required a lot more sweat this week than earlier, and longer weekend runs that continue until 8 or 9 am have started to feel like running in the desert. OK, I am exaggerating, but the weather got very quickly very hot. Much hotter than what is normal for June. On the positive side, the weather is preparing me for the south of Turkey, which is much warmer, where I am headed in a little more than a week. Another positive effect of too hot compared to too warm is that the muscles, joints, and tendons are warm and soft and relaxed and no such part complains about pain or injuries.

But effort-wise it is a lot tougher to run fast in the heat than in the cold. I already experienced a tough hot run during the mountain marathon in Bergen a few weeks ago, and I am now certain that when it comes to how fast you can run and how much you can push yourself, too cold, though not ideal, is better than too hot. I am running quite a bit slower now, in fact most of my friends are. All advice about running in hot weather says that you should not care about the speed, but rather watch your heart rate. Sometimes some of us get dizzy or a too high heart rate and start walking. My body has adjusted quickly and nowadays starts sweating already in the beginning of the run. In the end, all my clothes are completely drenched. Sweating is good; it means that the body is able to adjust and cool down, but it feels unpleasant. Everything becomes slippery, and gear starts gliding and sliding, resulting in sores at the usual places. I have stopped using the heart rate monitor; it is after all bikini season and I do not want too many blemishes all over my body.

I have started to take precautions against the loss of body liquid and salts during training. I am taking some supplements containing a blend of minerals that one looses when one sweats a lot. I have the impression that it works; I feel a lot less tired. After a run, instead of drinking plain water I drink mineral water. I also drink a lot more mineral water than usual also throughout the day. And of course I try to drink much more water than usual in general.

It is interesting how the weather of where we live affects our training for races. In Turkey, most runners prefer the spring races because they are able to train for them throughout the winter in pleasant temperatures though it might rain and even snow every now and then. Preparing for races in the fall is a lot tougher because of the hot summer. In Norway it is the opposite. The pleasant temperatures of the summer, after the cold of winter and spring, give perfect conditions and enough time to prepare for the fall races. This year I will have a mixture of both. Preparing for the fall race in Amsterdam, I still have more than a month of Turkish hot summer, but then come two months of cool and pleasant Norwegian early fall.

In the meanwhile, I am really looking forward to the rain...

Take me to 12 degrees Celsius

Some like it hot....

I don't. However, it turns out that I don't like it cold, either. After two weeks in Bergen, I am on my way back to Istanbul. These two weeks in Bergen have made me reflect a lot about running performance. Already a couple of weeks ago I told you my suspicions about the effect of temperature both on running performance and for muscle health. I am now pretty convinced, and accordingly a bit worried about the future.

Until now, my experience with running in Turkey was limited to the summer months. Then it is simply too hot. Although we run early in the morning, it is still very hot and humid in the south of Turkey where we spend our summer holidays, and performance clearly decreases. During these summer runs, I have learned to watch heart rate rather than pace or speed. As long as you know your heart rate zones, you can simply keep to your normal schedule according to the heart rate, and mostly ignore the speed. Experts say that you will get the same training effect. What I did not realize until now is that also cold temperatures affect your running performance in a negative way. And as an additional negative effect, cold temperatures also make it easier to get injured, as it is not as easy to keep the muscles warm throughout a run.

I was lucky enough that I got to run the Bergen City Marathon's half marathon course twice as planned during these two weeks, under quite pleasant weather conditions. 5-7 degrees Celcius, no wind, a little bit of drizzle now and then, but mostly dry. 5-7 degrees worked perfectly for my muscles; no pain or discomfort what so ever, but my performance was not as good as I was expecting. Recently, I have been doing my morning 10k runs in pace 5:30 in Istanbul, 15k runs in pace 5:45, and 20k in 6:00, but even the 6:10 pace of the two half marathon practices in Bergen felt pretty tough. Oh well, I did not let that really get me down. But then the weather got colder...

There were two uphill interval practices that I was planning to join, but as uphill fast running is quite strenuous for my hamstrings, and the weather was so cold that I canceled those. On the one day, I rather did flat 1000 m intervals around a track field, after warming up properly for at least 2 km. Those worked better than I was fearing, and I had no pain in the end. But then I went for a simple run on a cold and windy day with hail showers, and that did not go so well. As the run was slow and short, just 7.5 km and 6:20 pace, I did not warm up. Everything was painful, and it felt rather like 5 in pace than 6:20. My heart rate was high and I had an aching butt and leg at the end.

I have asked Google, and the articles I found tell me that ideal running temperature varies between 10 degrees and 15 degrees Celsius. The longer the run, the lower the temperature. 15 degrees seems perfect for 500 meters, whereas 10 degrees for a full marathon. In Istanbul since January I have had temperatures between 5 and 15 degrees during my runs, which perhaps explains why everything has been going so well there. Now I understand better why many elite runners go to warmer places during the winter months. Or take a seasonal break...

I think I also understand better the mechanics beneath my injury of last winter. I had been struggling with some pain for a long time, but the injury culminated in the winter at its coldest. Until last year I did not really run that much outside during the winter but rather did indoor strength and interval training at Barry's Bootcamp. But last winter I really got the taste of running on snow and ice, using a head lamp whenever necessary, and I joined all the training sessions and races that were available. I enjoyed this immensely, but I now think that this played perhaps a role in worsening my injury. During these two weeks in Bergen, I have talked to several friends who are suddenly struggling with hamstrings injuries. I think the combination of cold weather and uphill fast running is in particular unfortunate for the hamstrings. This makes me wonder what I should do in the future, in the coming winters...

The good news is that, although I do get quite worried about my hamstrings every now and then, I am incomparably more relaxed now than last year. If the injury gets worse again and I cannot participate in the races I was planning to, well then I can do other things. I can swim, I can bike, I can walk up to Stoltzekleiven, Ulriken, Skåla.... I can concentrate on strength training, yoga, pilates, or try completely new things. And there is always another race and another opportunity. The most important thing is to be in general good health, both oneself and one's closest family and friends.

Every day for us, something new
Open mind for a different view
And nothing else matters
(Metallica)

Seeking back to my roots? Or is it all in the head?

Talk to your muscles and they might respond.

Healing from an injury turns out to be a tedious and fascinating process. Even long after the injury is physically healed, you might feel actual pain in the problem area. In the end pain is simply some signals that your brains sends, and the brain turns out to work in mysterious ways.

During my therapy to heal from my upper hamstrings tendinopathy, at some point my physiotherapist Ane started to push me to start running again although I still had pain. She told me that the brain works to protect the injured area by sending out pain signals, even when the injury is largely gone. The brain seems to think “Best to be on the safe side, let’s give her some pain so she lets that area in peace”. In fact, this is exactly the reason a good physiotherapist will never order you to simply rest. With exercises like the HSR training that worked so well for me, you are convincing your brain to work to heal the area, insisting on using those muscles so that they are not just left on their own. As prescribed, my injury got better and better, albeit very slowly, and then something very unexpected happened as soon as I moved to Istanbul two months ago. The pain immediately and suddenly disappeared!

Already the morning after I arrived in Istanbul I started running with Team Instrunbul. And to my big surprise I felt no pain. It was the first time I ran completely pain-free in two years! Since then, running with them four times a week, I got faster and faster, still no sign of the pain in my butt. Other small pains came and went, something I consider normal for all runners, I had to be cautious from time to time, but no pain in the butt. I think this again shows that pain is something very strange. As I arrived in Istanbul, everything was in a new setting, there were so many new things to think about, and being excited and anxious about all these things, my brain forgot about the pain. At least that’s how I interpret the sudden disappearing of the pain.

Now, as soon as I am back in Scandinavia for a short time, the pain in my butt is back! What to make out of it??? I was running in Stockholm on Friday. The weather was dry but really cold and windy, and my butt twas hurting all the time. In fact it started giving me some signals already the day before, as I was on my way to Stockholm. Did I really do something to make the injury worse, or is it simply my brain that recalls how everything was last winter when it was at its worse and most painful? Perhaps my body, after all, functions better in its birth place than in the place where it has been living for the past 30 years? In fact, searching a little bit on the subject reveals that when running in the cold, we are actually more exposed to injuries. Now I understand better what many of my experienced running friends from Bergen told me when I was leaving for Istanbul: “it will be so wonderful to run in warmer weather”. 

One of the new things I tried in Istanbul, is going for a full body massage every now and then. It is not the kind of painful deep tissue massage I tried in Norway before. It is mostly pleasant, although some hard pressure is applied to problem areas. One thing that my massage therapist makes a point of, exactly in line with what Ane was telling me, is activating the brain to heal a problem area. He says that the aim of the massage is not to make muscles feel good, but rather find the problem points and push them so that the brain realizes that something has to be done there. He also tells me to talk to my muscles. Massage the hurting muscle lightly, and speak to it, like “Don’t worry, you will be fine, the pain will be gone very soon”. If you think this is too much Hocus Pocus, think again. It is simply making your brain aware of that particular area, and putting the brain and the muscle in connection. The brain has so many things to take care of, and it chooses the easiest way to deal with things. If you function well enough with some pain, it says “Well, that’s going fine, no need for me to put any effort to heal that” or “Let the pain stay there so that she will not push it too hard”.

When I say that pain is simply signals, don’t take me wrong. The pain is real. It is really there. But it does not always mean that something is physically wrong. Especially if it concerns an old injury, it might sometimes be that your brain just sends you these signals out of habit or because it is reminded of something. If you have a long lasting pain which nobody can figure out what to do about, you might want to ask your physiotherapist about HSR (heavy slow resistance) training. It really works wonders. When it comes to new pain though, which was not there before, be much more careful! Backing off a little bit on running as soon as you feel the pain, and taking it easy for a few days, might make it disappear again. After all, being cautious and not running a couple of weeks is infinitely better than not being able to run for many months, like I had to learn the hard way.

Listen to your body, and make your brain listen to you.

The most unexpected victory ever: Deer Run 1 - 2016 Istanbul

Sometimes good things come so unexpectedly that you miss the opportunity to make the most out of them...

On Sunday I participated in one of the most fun and well organized trail races I have ever been to: race number 1 of 2016 in the Geyik Kosulari (Deer Runs) series in the Belgrad forest of Istanbul. I picked this race long before moving to Istanbul, when I was trying to find a race that could be combined with visits from my running buddies from Norway. To be honest, I picked it just because the date was convenient, and I could never imagine that it would be such a well organized, challenging, and fun event.

Frank, and our friends Bente and Arvid from Norway also signed up, and they arrived a couple of days before the race, to leave enough time for acclimatizing and keep our legs going with quite a bit of sightseeing. We all felt fit for fight and ready for the unknown. But, as it happened several times before, my body likes to make pre-race time more exciting than necessary. Just like it was the case with the Blåmanen Race 3 in November, also this time suddenly I was not at all sure that I would be able to participate until the morning of the race.

The night before the race was as sub-optimal as it could be. I had to rush to the hospital due to an acute infection and was immediately put on antibiotics. The night ended up short with uncomfortable sleep, but in the morning I was fortunately feeling much better, except the strange feeling one has when on antibiotics. The advantage of having other things than the race to think about is that one is not as nervous about the race itself, and one gets so intensively happy when it becomes clear that one is actually able to participate. The insecurity of a possible problem during the race also makes one let one's shoulders down, which might in the end turn pretty advantageous for the race performance.

I had signed up for the 14 km course, and I was not sure what kind of time to aim for. The organizers advised that 14 km on this trail race would take almost the time one has at a flat half marathon. I had run in this forest once before, not exactly at this course, with my friends from Team Istrunbul, and I found that the half marathon time was probably a little bit exaggerated. On the other hand, at Bergen Fjellmaraton, which is a mountain half marathon, I spend one hour more than my flat half marathon time, so in that sense, the recommendation could make sense. In the end I concluded that I would be very happy to finish in 1:50 or less, and I lined up at the 1:50 flag at the start line. There I also found a couple of friends from Team Istrunbul, and it was calming to chat to them just before to the start.

The course turned out to be so much more interesting and adventurous than I had expected. I was somehow expecting wider tracks, like tractor roads, but we were mainly on real nature narrow trails, had to climb over and under fallen trees, jump over ponds of mud, with several steep ascends and descends. There was also much more elevation gain and loss than I had expected. Most people were not wearing trail running shoes, and I felt that I had a big advantage in the muddy uphills and downhills. There was indeed a lot of mud, and the mud is different than that in Norway. This one is more like clay, it sticks to your shoes and makes them heavier and heavier as you go.

The first part of the race was mainly uphill, but with some downhill and flat parts to give a rest. Feeling a bit the effect of the antibiotics, I was mainly following my heart rate, making sure not to exceed my threshold. At the 6th kilometer, as I was anyway getting pretty tired, the sun came out and hit me right in the face, and that gave an amazing boost of energy. Just after that I saw the sign that we were getting close to the drink station, so I quickly grabbed a gel and drank it just before I reached for a few cups of water. Filled with renewed energy, and with the path going slightly downhill for quite a while from then on, I was feeling much better and started to recalculate my target finish time. I figured I should be able to finish below 1:40.

It was all going perfectly well until there were 3 km left. I was not expecting any more real uphills, but suddenly the path took a sharp left, and the person on duty standing there cheerfully acclaimed "Come on, the last uphill!". OK, just one last uphill I can do, I thought. But that one uphill was a long and steep one; it took almost a kilometer. Perhaps sub 1:40 was too optimistic after all? Recalculating at the 12th km sign, I thought I could still do it. I grabbed another gel, fell while fiddling with it, but got up quickly, and got a real energy boost to go the last part. But when there was only one kilometer left, there was a new uphill. How is that at all possible? Before start, I was watching the first round of the 28 km, and I knew that it was downhill towards finish. So I was not at all prepared for this last uphill which lasted for about 500 meters. At that point I was really angry and I even shouted a few swear words I'm afraid. Anyway, finally the uphill ended and I could run with all that I had for the last few hundred meters down to the finish line. 1:38!!!! And extremely happy!

In fact we were all very very happy with our performances, and with the organization. First of all, there were so many more participants than I expected. And it was so well organized, with many officials along the course showing the way, taking photos, and cheering on, and a lot of people handing out all sorts of food and drinks after the finish line that I did not know what to take. Although we changed into dry and clean clothes, we still started to feel cold pretty soon. When we got a chance to get a ride with my university's shuttle almost all the way home, we grabbed that opportunity and hopped on. I was after all on drugs and did not feel too well at that point.

What I realized only after coming home and checking the results online was that I had won my class!!! And that with 11 minutes' difference to the next person! So, I became number 1 of the nine ladies in my class, and number 8 of all the 77 ladies who started in the 14 km course. Wow! That was so unexpected. In fact, as I have said to so many friends, it has been one of my biggest goals: to win my class in some race. And it happened now! But I left the arena before the ceremony, and thus lost the opportunity of going on the podium and receiving an especially designed medal for the class winner... What can I say? I simply hope that there will be other opportunities.

The day after the race I fell sick, and in that sense perhaps it was good that I took the earliest ride home, so that I did not get even sicker afterwards. But I think the medal ceremony would have been worth it. Perhaps you are thinking that I should not have raced at all, being on drugs, reduced and all. But believe me, it was totally worth it! It was an amazing experience! And I feel so incredibly lucky that I felt so good on exactly the race day, as the day before or the days after I would definitely not be able to race.

Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must, just never give up....

Picking up speed with Team Istrunbul

Half a minute faster per kilometer in one month.

Finally my speed and endurance are coming back! After half a year of not being able to run, when I cautiously started running again, I found that my old speed and endurance were largely gone. The entire fall was full of uphill races like Skåla Opp, Storehesten Opp, Stoltzekleiven Opp, Lake Garda Mountain Race, Limone Extreme Vertical, Blåmanen races, etc etc, which suited me fine, and my training mainly concentrated on uphills and terrain. Although my heart rate and performance were fine in these races, it did not translate into speed when it came to flat running, which was basically restricted to the one month I spent in Paris. Trying to run fast felt exhaustive and hard, and even slow runs bumped my heart rate up to threshold level when the distance got longer than 10-12 km. 

Moving to Istanbul gave a sudden improvement of form already from the very start. I think a new environment and joining a new running group gave a subconscious change in state-of-mind which was beneficial. Meeting new people and getting used to a new place kept my mind busy with other things than concentrating on the hardness of a run. The mornings runs of Team Istrunbul offer a large variety in speed and distance. The group is big, so there is always somebody to run with matching your pace and distance. I try to vary so that sometimes I do longer and slower runs, and at least twice a week I try to hang on to a group of faster runners. The best is when the fastest people are tapering or doing a (for them) low zone run, which gives perfect sweet spot (zone 3.5) conditions for me, as well as allowing them to tell entertaining stories all the way.

It is quite a lot of fun to check my training log since November and see the improvement. During November and December Frank and I did a few longer runs, but the distance never got over 16 km and the pace stayed slower than 7 min/km. Just before I moved to Istanbul we also did a few 10km runs at my sweet spot zone, which resulted in a pace of 6 min/km.

Nowadays, during training I run 10 km in 55 minutes staying in sweet spot all the time, which corresponds to pace 5:30. I have also tested that I can do 3-4 kilometers with pace 5:15, still not going above sweet spot. When I was training for Oslo half marathon in 2014, 5:15 was my target race pace, and it feels really good to get my body and head used to that speed again without feeling exhaustion. That is the beauty of running in a group. There is chatting and interesting stories all the way, so any negative thoughts about the hardness of running get distracted by all the fun stuff. The varying weather and the many beautiful sunrises also help keep my mind away from concentrating  thoughts. Also my long runs have become easier. During the last week I did two 20 km runs in pace 6:30, staying in zone 1 most of the time. This is a huge improvement compared to just a couple of months ago, when I had to break a 20 km 6:30 pace training at 14 km because my heart rate was close to threshold level.

In a sense I am experiencing the form improvement that I had in 2014 all over again. However, at that time I was not really aware of my heart rate zones, and I was pushing my self hard, feeling exhausted at the end of every single run. I think sweet spot training is really working. No exhaustion; just a lot of energy for the rest of the day, and steady improvement of form. What I have not been doing so far in Istanbul is interval training. Perhaps this is fine for the moment, as I am still building up my endurance and distance, which I need for the long flat races of this year. I might soon start doing treadmill intervals once a week. I have just tested the university sports facilities. They have treadmills, all the equipment I need to continue with my HSR training, as well as a huge swimming pool, which really makes me start planning a swimming session once a week.

So many opportunities, so little time...

The days are just packed

It is quite unbelievable that I've only been in Istanbul a little more than a week. It already feels like much longer, and I feel quite settled and "local". The most interesting is perhaps that some of my new running buddies already feel like old friends considering the level of trust and affection I sense in our relationship. I wonder how things would have been if I had not found and contacted Team Istrunbul. Of course I am very lucky to move to a place where I already have a lot of close friends and family, but come to think of it, I see my running buddies much more often than I can meet with my old friends and family. It was the same also in Bergen, and I am grateful for the experience and confidence that I got from Melksyre and Fjellgeitene, which I think enabled me to get in touch with Istrunbul so quickly. This weekend Frank is visiting, and also he joined the group and enjoyed very much the social running, and not the least the super cozy coffee gathering afterwards.

Let me give a brief summary of how the three most important things related to this blog are going at the end of the first week.

Running
Well, as you can conclude from the above, it is going wonderfully well. I am so pain-free that I cannot believe it myself. I try to understand the reason, but I have no clue. Is it that my body actually prefers asphalt running to uphills and terrain? No matter the reason, I am regaining speed more quickly than I could have hoped for. In Bergen, I felt that I was stuck in slow running, and now suddenly everything seems to have opened up. Perhaps it is all in the mind, and a physical change of environment gave the necessary change of mind and inner motivation to run faster. I am now working on increasing my weekly mileage.

Eating
This is a big issue, and considering my goal of losing a few kilos this year, I am in the wrong place. This country offers (arguably) the best food in the whole world. And it is so easily accessible; my neighborhood is packed with restaurants of all sorts, and home delivery of whatever you might wish is only a phone call away. As long as I am alone, though, I have been behaving really well.  For breakfast, cereal or oatmeal, just like at home in Bergen. For lunch, my work offers a large variety of hot dishes everyday for a very reasonable price, and there are several different vegetable dishes and salads, and lean meats in the menu every day. I have been strong enough to stay away from bread and deserts, and I am very content with how the lunches are working so far. For dinner, I usually just make a salad or a quick wok, and also try to stay away from bread/pasta/potatoes there. Of course, my wonderful regime has fallen apart very badly now that Frank is visiting, and there is no limit to the variety of things we have been eating and drinking. I am taking this as an opportunity to just taste once the things that I have missed so much (mezes, kebaps, deserts, boza, sahlep, ...), and afterwards I hope I will continue to be able to keep away from them.

Strength training
I have started Pilates! I liked it immediately, and everything my Pilates trainer told me already at the first lesson made perfect sense to me. First of all, it is serious strength training, and as I asked to be pushed hard, things got pretty tough. The idea of Pilates, though, is that there is a balance between strength training and extensive stretching. And the stretching part in particular I think will do me well. (Just look at the picture above; how stiff I am!) As I had noticed myself already, and my Pilates trainer saw immediately as he studied my posture, I am very strong (and too tight) in the muscles on the front side of my body but not as strong in the ones on the back side. So now we will try to balance the strength, which means for example extensive stretching of my chest muscles, and perhaps losing a bit strength there. This is very hard for me of course, agreeing to lose a bit strength at some places, but I am willing to give it a try. In the end, if things don't work out, I'll simply let Ketil fix me up after going back to Bergen. :-) Joking aside, I do truly believe that I can get stronger and more flexible during these six months. The type of Pilates I will be doing has several interesting "machines" to do it on, which mainly give instability in many different ways so that you have to use your own strength to stabilize your body. I am sure there will be reports with pretty funny pictures in the sequel.

Stay strong and balanced.

First things first: IstRUNbul

Sometimes sticking to your plan pays off even better than expected... 

I arrived in Istanbul Friday evening, and already Saturday morning I was running with Team IstRUNbul. It does not sound so overwhelming at first, and it was exactly as I had planned and was looking forward to before leaving. But I had perhaps not taken into proper consideration that this is not just a week's stay; this is actually moving. Typically, you enter the apartment and immediately discover things that need to be fixed. Even if you plan to be in bed early (because of the early run the morning after), you end up taking care of a lot of things and being very late. And then you don't really get a good night's sleep because you're thinking of all the things that need to be done the day after, which you still haven't figured out how. So perhaps the most natural, and even sensible, thing would be to cancel the Saturday morning run, and rather wait for the next one (Tuesday morning).

But boy am I glad that I was out there yesterday; early bird really gets the worm! First of all, one less thing to think about. Getting quickly into a running routine and meeting the new group was a big issue for me, taking quite a bit of space in my mind, and now it's done. And it was great fun and very rewarding! Secondly, everything seems better and easier after a run, and I was full of energy for all the other things that needed to be taken care of yesterday. And finally, I get to keep the rhythm of running without falling out of it again. Once you think you should wait until you have taken care of all the practical things, the break can get longer than first intended.

The one member of the group whom I knew, could not run yesterday, so I was on my own. At first I was thinking that this was unfortunate, but now I think it was perhaps a blessing in disguise.  I immediately connected with a couple of  group members and ended up running and chatting with them all the way. I was pretty nervous when I went to the meeting point, though. What if nobody showed up? What if they were too fast for me? Fortunately, as it seems to be the case with all running groups, everybody was friendly and welcoming, and after the start the group naturally divided into different paces. The people I ended up running next to are extremely nice, and it turned out that with one of them we have very similar goals for this year.  She has already run a full marathon, and she is a bit more experienced than me, so I have a lot to learn from her. Luckily for me, our paces for various zones seem to be similar, and we are now planning to work together towards our goals.

This morning she and I went for a new run, a bit longer than yesterday, all by ourselves. The sun came out as soon as we started, and it hid behind the clouds as soon as we were done and sat down to have our coffee. As I was back at home, it started raining. Could we have been more lucky? I think this is promising very well. I am also a bit surprised by how well my body works. No pain, just wonderful running feeling which I had missed so much and have not been able to experience since March 2015. Could it be the temperature? Perhaps running in the cold makes things worse for injured body parts, and at more pleasant temperatures it is easier to keep the muscles warm and happy? I am not sure, but whatever it is, it is working, and I am very happy and optimistic.

Today I met even a few more group members, and an idea for Runatolia (half) marathon in Antalya in March came up... Sounds really fun, but I'm not sure.  It's not among the goals and the hopes of this year, but we'll see.

"Life is like a box of chocolate; you never know what you're gonna get." (Forrest Gump's mom)