Trondheim calling

Loose some, win some.

Just two days after I shared with you my loss of form due to chronic lack of recovery, I received an email from Trondheim Marathon. I had been picked as one of their ambassadors! Yay! I get free registration, free t-shirt, and free jacket, and I get to hand out 100 NOK discounts for the registration fee to everybody I want. The email came just at the right time. It gave me renewed motivation and hope, and it made me look forward again.

In fact, Trondheim (full) marathon had been a cautious main goal of the season since the start of this year, with Bergen City just as a side goal on the go. Why Trondheim? If you want to pick an event in Norway, which offers half and full marathon on the same day, then only Bergen can beat Trondheim, in my opinion. :-) Of course I have not tried all such events in Norway, but I did try two of the most famous ones, in addition to Bergen and Trondheim: Tromsø and Oslo. Tromsø has a world wide reputation, because it takes place at midnight in the middle of the summer, so you run at night with the sun high up, and that is a pretty interesting experience. But the course is not the most inspiring, I'm afraid. The half marathon takes place on the main road between the city center and the airport, back and forth. And at the finish, all restaurants are closed, and pubs don't accept guests in running outfit. I think the organizers can make a lot more out of Tromsø midnight sun marathon, if they can make an after-run organization with food and drinks. The course of Oslo had also its weaknesses when I participated in 2014, but I see that they have changed it quite a lot since then; it looks much nicer now. I was not very pleased with the organization in Oslo, but perhaps that has improved as well. The worst part was that when you finished the race, it was impossible to get out of the racing area. There was a long queue along a narrow path both sides of which were blocked. I was at the edge of fainting, and found that crowded slow exit really tough.

Trondheim, on the other hand, was so spectacular and well organized, just like Bergen. The course is really pretty; you run along the river or along the sea, mostly on pedestrian and bike paths, all the way. What I in advance thought would be hard, the fact that the course is only 10.5 km long, and you have to run in twice for half, and four times for full, turned out to work pretty well in the end. There is some satisfaction in completing one round after another, and recognizing places you have been to. This year, the race celebrates its 50th anniversary, and I think the organizers are planning a lot of additional fun activities around the race.

Last year I participated in the half marathon in Trondheim. The goal I set in January for this year's race was full distance. Of course that was before my training plan went wrong. So now the question is: will I be able to make it?

I don't know, to be honest. But the idea appeals to me, and I find it motivating. So I will stick to it, as a hope rather than as a goal, just like I did for Amsterdam in 2016. Running feels a little better now than it did a couple of weeks ago. To try to recover as quickly as possible, I did not take a single running step or any other kind of training between 16th and 28th of April. The only exception was some really easy skiing in the middle of that period. Then, on April 28, while all my friends were running the Bergen City Marathon, I had my first very slow and very short run. In did not feel that good. The day after, I tried again, still very slow, keeping heart rate zone 1, but a little longer this time, and with some hills. It felt better. Two days after that I did run/walk session in terrain, and that felt really nice. Two days after that again, I did a slow run along Fjellveien, with a 16 minute hard session incorporated, walking fast up to Stoltzekleiven. That felt very nice, too.

Finally yesterday I was back with my friends at our regular Saturday uphill intervals session. It felt really nice. I felt good, I was at my normal speed, and I felt that my heart rate and my lactate level was under control. I was really surprised to see afterwards, though, that my heart rate had been really high. Around 6 beats higher than usual at the peak of the intervals. But it definitely did not feel like that. And my legs did not feel stiff. This is very interesting. What does it mean? I suppose I should still be cautious, and follow the heart rate carefully, but I definitely feel more optimistic now. In a month from now, there is the Bergen Fjellmaraton mountain half marathon. Do I dare to race there? Time will show. The most important for me right now is to

go with the feeling and have fun!

Never change a winning game

And don't ever suppress your inner compass...

For the last three months I have been doing the opposite of what I was preaching during the whole last year. Why?? Heaven only knows... I wanted to try something new. As a result I ended up wearing myself down, and not getting enough recovery for at least two months. Now I realize that I won't able to run Bergen City half marathon next week...

It all started so well. 2017 turned out to be the year of my best performances ever. Thanks to deep conversations with and great advice from my friend Mats (whom I miss so much!!!), I had a great winter training season with quickly improving form. The recipe was reconfirmed by our test coach Dag: all running should happen either in zone 1 or in lactate threshold zone, nothing in between! That resulted in my best performances ever in every course last year.  Six half marathons in total:  1:56 in Fana in April, 1:57 in the hilly Bergen City a month later, 2:48 in the mountains in June, 1:53 in Tromsø later in June, 1:54 in Trondheim in September, and finally 1:52 and current overall PR in Oxford in October. And in between, a PR of 14:05 at Stoltzekleiven.  I had the recipe! It was working!! And I ruined it all by completely changing the game...

Why? After Oxford came a period of quite a lot of travels and rest, followed by an unusually cold winter with a lot of snow, ice, and freezing temperatures. At the same time, I was losing a little bit of motivation after all the achievements of last year: "Am I now simply going to repeat it all?". On top of all this, it was a busy period with family visits, celebrations, and significant changes concerning work. I was not being very disciplined in my training, so I thought it would be a good idea to have a strict training program to stick to. In January I entered a program which I ad read a lot about and many people had a lot of success with. On the background of my performances so far, it instructed five days of running every week: two interval sessions, two moderate runs, and one long slow run. Nothing special so far; this was anyway more or less the amount I was running before. However, the speed of the runs were quite different from my previous regime. The intervals were slower than my previous intervals and the moderate runs were faster than my previous zone 1 runs. I think those moderate runs were what "killed" me. They were easy enough to perform, but not slow enough for recovery.

It is hard to imagine that someone at my level, with a program that on paper looks pretty moderate and reasonable, can actually end up becoming overtrained, but I am afraid this is exactly what happened. I know it might sound ridiculous, and that's also exactly why I never thought of this option on the way, until my body stopped functioning. In retrospect, I should have seen it coming. I was simply too dedicated in following the plan. I never missed a single run. I did it early in the morning if I knew I would be busy in the evening. I did several in a row if I were going away for the weekend, sometimes two per day. I  also had two hard strength training sessions every week. My legs were tired and stiff most of the time, but I was able to conduct everything as planned, and that gave a certain feeling of achievement and satisfaction. There were clear signs, though, that I should have taken more seriously. I could see that my heart increased over time, when the pace was the same. Also my resting heart rate has been increasing steadily. I was somewhat worried about all this, but I comforted myself thinking that all this was simply about getting adjusted to the new regime...

The first serious sign came during Easter. I did a hard interval session in the morning, before leaving for the mountains for the Easter, which went well. Then came several days of skiing, and that all went in pleasant pace. But during one of the longest skiing sessions I felt really exhausted already from the start and did not really feel well throughout the entire day. It was strange, since we weren't going fast at all. Even Frank got worried and suggested that perhaps I should see my doctor. But I thought I was just having a bad day. Right after Easter, another hard interval session. Then a couple of days rest before a half marathon in Fana, just outside of Bergen, two weeks ago... I ended up not finishing that half, my first DNF ever. My heart rate was high, my speed low, my legs heavy. After this, I started to do some serious thinking. I had to quit the plan and take a couple of days off. I was feeling down, and to regain the joy of training I went running with friends just for the fun of it. A short (200 m) relay race and a great hike to Stoltzekleiven just last week felt really good. So I thought I was over the though days. So I just had a little too much training and a little too little recovery. Nothing that cannot be fixed with a couple of days taking it easy! Well, unfortunately it turned out not so. Although Stoltzekleiven was great and I felt wonderful, the next three days I could not take a single step. It was a wonderful sunny weekend, but I stayed at home the entire time, mostly sleeping. My body would simply refuse to do anything straining, and I listed to it and let it be.

Then came Monday and I felt ready and fresh again, and eager to train. Still I wanted to be cautious, so went for just a slow run with friends. Although I was at the back line with a friend who had completed a 10 hour ultra race a couple of days earlier, and we were going really slow, it still felt though and my legs were stiff already from the start. How could this be? After three whole days of rest?? I realized that it was time to seriously figure out what this was. I was at the doctor's and got everything checked that can be checked with blood tests. According to the results, there is no lack of anything that can explain this very strange behavior of my body. Then I started to Google the symptoms, and came to the conclusion that I simply got no recovery at all during the past two, three months. This lead to the situation I am in now, which cannot be repaired by just taking off  two or three days from running, or by simply taking it easy.

What now? Well, nothing, simply nothing. No running, biking, rowing, swimming or strength training for at least a week. Then, wait until the resting heart rate comes down to normal. Hopefully, I managed to catch this early enough that I won't need a very long time for recovery. (In bad cases it can take a year to recover, but I hope that only applies to serious athletes training much much more.) Then I will start very cautiously with very slow short runs. And then I will take it from there. And for sure, whenever I am ready, I will go back to my winning game: everything either in zone 1 or in threshold zone. Nothing in between!

On the other hand, if you never try, you will never know....

Friends with the treadmill

Practice makes perfect

The winter in Bergen has so far been colder than usual with quite a bit of ice covering the ground and the roads. I must admit that I find it harder and harder to run in the cold. Uphill intervals and slow runs go fine, but when the temperature is below 0 degrees C, fast flat runs become quickly unpleasant. Not only my spike shoes get uncomfortable, my muscles become stiffer, and I never get them properly warmed up with the outside temperature all the time cooling them down.

Fortunately there are treadmills! You might remember that I have had a hard time getting used to running fast on a treadmill. There I get the opposite problem: it very quickly gets hot, and of course very boring. But practice makes perfect, and having a plan makes it all much more pleasant. Last year, I followed the treadmill plan that the Norwegian marathon queen Ingrid Kristiansen was posting regularly throughout the winter. Most of those sessions were quite doable, and with music in my ears, I slowly got used to doing longer and longer intervals on the treadmill.

I still find it quite unbearable to do a long fast run in steady pace on the treadmill, but I have found a couple of interval sessions that work really well for me. They are motivating, as one can measure progress all the time, and they are both well established among coaches toward the goal of faster running in races. They turned out to be doable and fun for me, so I wanted to share them with you.

For improving your 10k race time:
This interval session is recommended by several coaches. There are of course many ways to improve your 10k, but I have seen the following mentioned many times: when you can run 3 x 3000m in the pace that you want to achieve during a 10k race, then you are ready. This interval session prepares you to get to that point. The important thing is to do all the intervals in the pace that you want to achieve at the race. So, if you want to run a 10k in 45 minutes, then your pace should be 4:30 min/km, which corresponds to 13.3 km/h. I would actually be happy with a pace of 5:05 in my next 10k race, so I set the treadmill to 11.8 km/h. The first goal is to run 6 x 1500m in that pace, without getting your heart rate much over lactate threshold. When you are comfortable doing this, then you do 1 x 3000m + 4 x 15000m in the same pace. When this goes well, then you do 2 x 3000m + 2 x 15000m, and so on, until you reach 3 x 3000m in the desired pace with not too high heart rate. At this point you are ready for your next race. Just rest for a week, and then GO!

I am not even at the point of 6 x 1500m yet. I can do 4 of these, but my heart rate is a bit too high at the end of the fourth one, so I have so far stopped after 4.  But I feel that I can very soon do 5 of them. And then after a couple of weeks hopefully all 6.  On my way to the 6 x 1500m, I am also considering to do 4 x 1500m + 4 + 750m on my next attempt. The 1500m intervals, in my speed, take about 7.5 minutes. The first one feels the longest. Then it gets more manageable. I have to work with my brain all the time, and use the milestones 500, 750, and 1000 meters to motivate myself. It helps if the gym has TV screens or the treadmills face the weight training / cross fit area. Watching other people makes time go faster.

For improving your marathon time:
This is something I learned from our local running guru Per Gunnar, who had a remarkable article in the Kondis running magazine about how he helped a runner to achieve a sub 3h marathon time. The interval session is called Yasso's 800s. I have read a lot about them since then, and they are surprisingly easily doable. The session consists of 10 x 800m intervals. You run each interval in a time that reflects your goal time for a marathon. If you want to run a marathon in x hours and y minutes, then you have to run each 800m in x minutes and y seconds. So if you want to run a marathon in 3h 30min, then you run each 800m in 3min 30 sec. The break between the intervals is 400m, and you spend exactly the same time in the break as you do in the intervals, meaning that you run in half the speed.

I tried this immediately after reading the Kondis article, and of course I had to try sub 4h marathon time. Running 800m in 4 minutes corresponds to speed 12 km/h, so I set the treadmill to 12.1 km/h and 0.5 incline. Consequently, I did each of the 800m intervals and each of the 400m breaks in slightly less than 4 minutes. I was pleasantly surprised that I could do this without getting my heart rate much above threshold. But what does it actually mean? Can I run a marathon in sub 4h now, if I train for it? My single marathon attempt so far resulted in 4:17. Can it be that I am in better marathon shape now? At least, in 2017 I broke all my previous records in single every race and on every single course. I also participated in more races in 2017 than the total of all races before that, so perhaps I should try a marathon again this year?  In any case, the fact that Yasso's 800s are so easily doable, and one can all the time improve by setting the speed just a tiny bit higher, makes them a really fun interval session on the treadmill.

Of course, for street races, the intervals are better to do out on the road. But with 0.5 incline on the treadmill, I hope that the effect can be comparable. Running on the treadmill is in theory easier than out in the street, since the mill goes without you having to push your weight, and there is no air resistance because you are not moving forward. But at the same time, the fact that you are not moving forward is really hard on your brain. You have to constantly convince your brain to keep pushing your body forward although you are not getting anywhere! I am sure this plays a different role for each person, but the fact that you actually can focus on a point in the distance and run towards it and it gets closer and closer, definitely makes outdoor running much easier psychologically. The advantage of the treadmill, when it comes to these particular intervals, though, is that you can make sure to run at the correct speed all the time!

Hit the mill and get the skill!

Slower the training, faster the race?

Embrace the break, break the record! 

Seasonal break, periodic training, alternating workouts,... all these highly recommended things sounded difficult to plan and fit into a busy life just a few weeks ago. But now suddenly they are all happening automatically!

I have been traveling a lot since Oxford Half. With the result that I have been feeling quite exhausted for the past few weeks. When the trips were being planned long time ago, I naively thought that they would give a good opportunity to recover from the race. However, it did not work out that way. I think I underestimated the effects of flying, sitting and walking a lot, little sleep, combined with more than normal alcohol consumption.

During the trips I did in total just three very slow runs. In between, I only had time to join a few of the scheduled Melkesyre training sessions, and other than that I again did mostly slow runs. I even did not have the energy to do much strength training. In the days just before and just after Oxford, I was planning to participate in a couple of 5k races this past and coming week, but I did not (and still do not) at all feel up to it. So all in all I have been taking it pretty easy, and there: automatically a period of serious cut in the training effort, almost a seasonal break!

During this time, somewhat to my surprise, I was not really stressed by the thought that I might be losing form. But I did find quite a lot of comfort in reading about smart training. We know it, but it still helps to read what all experts write: the slow runs are the most important. And they have to be really slow. There should be no more than 2-3 hard effort training sessions (intervals or tempo runs) in a week, and the rest should be all in zone 1. Anything in between is called "junk mileage" by many coaches. And you might as well just drop it. In fact, several coaches and athletes advocate that dropping it is actually better for your form.

I have found a lot of inspiration in reading about Deena Kastor recently. She is the US marathon record holder for women with 2:19 in 2005, and ten years after that in 2015 she broke the US masters marathon record with 2:27 at the age of 42. She explains that her continued success is probably due to cutting down on mileage and concentrating on quality. Her mileage now is about half of what she used to have 10 years ago, and this adjustment has enabled her to continue to be better than all her peers. Of course her current mileage is still way more than most of us, around 120 km a week, but hey after all we are talking about 2:27!

Another study I have read was comparing short and max intensity intervals to longer threshold intensity intervals. Tested on two groups of otherwise equivalent athletes, the study showed that intervals that lasted 5-10 minutes (rather than 1-4 min), and had a lesser intensity than those of the shorter intervals, enabled the athletes to race faster at the end of the test period. So no need for those short sprints!

Maybe it's all in my head, but reading all this, and getting finally enough sleep during the weekend, I feel like I am doing just the right things at this point in time. Ok, so I still don't feel like street racing, but do I really need to? There are no important street races coming up soon, whereas the uphill season is definitely here with two Blåmanen races in the coming two weeks, the Little Christmas Whisky race in December, and then the Fløyenkarusellen starting just after the new year. My training, except some of the really slow runs, has been mainly uphill in the past weeks, with a peak this last week with several uphill (short and long) intervals. They say periodicity in training should also involve doing different types of runs so that your body does not get used to the same thing which leads to stagnation of improvement. So there, with almost no effort suddenly I have also achieved variation between street running and uphill running in separate periods!

The most important thing is of course to have fun the entire time. And when having fun coincides with what seems to be the right way to train, it feels pretty good. Another thing that Deena Kastor strongly believes in for success is the power of positive thinking. In fact she has just written a book about this which will be out in April 2018. For example, she finds great comfort in reading her own training logs before a competition, seeing all that good training before her eyes, and having confidence that it will give her the results that she is after. So who knows, perhaps believing that you are training in just the right way is as powerful as actually training in the right way?

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

How to avoid loss of form during the holidays

Unfortunately I am not able to give you the answer :-)

It’s the middle of holiday time, and my news feed is full of articles on how to avoid losing your form during the holidays. These articles usually have headings like “Holiday doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to give up on your race goal” etc, but the message inside tends to be more negative than the sound of the heading, encouraging you to run more and harder than what you probably would like to if you are at a hot place. Of course if your holiday is just one week or two long, there is nothing to worry about. I am pretty sure that such a break is fine, no matter how little or easy you choose to run. But my holiday is almost four weeks long at a place where running fast turns pretty impossible due to hot and humid weather, even at very early hours of the day.

This year, I should perhaps be worried about losing my form more than ever before. Although a fitness test I took in March suggested that my running form had declined since my previous test three years ago, 2017 has actually worked out pretty well so far. My goal has been to catch up with my form of 2014 and improve it, and I managed to beat Pinar of 2014 in every race that I participated this year.

Despite this, I am not that worried bout losing my form during the holidays. In fact, this is perhaps the most relaxed holidays I am having since 2014. It doesn’t mean that I am training or running less than in the previous three holidays. It’s just that I don’t think about it that much; it comes more natural, and it doesn’t cost that big an effort. Both in 2015 and 2016, I had signed up at a gym to do my strength training and to do some treadmill running during the holidays. This year, I am keeping it simple:  running in the very early morning about 4 times a week, swimming in the middle of the day 5-6 times a week, and doing a 30 min strength training session on the bedroom floor 5-6 times a week. I have also tried aqua running a few times; I find it pretty slow and boring, but I am hoping that it has at least the same effect as recovery runs.

But of course my running form will decline. I know it by experience. No matter how hard I try, it is not possible to keep up the volume and the speed in the heat. Previous years, I would try too hard sometimes, and still I would see no results. This year, I am simply applying my new rule: all running happens at either heart rate zone 1 or at lactate threshold heart rate. The holiday runs are pretty varied: intervals, slow runs, longer tempo runs, always starting out at zone 1, and never exceeding threshold heart rate (in fact nothing in between). The result is that my speed is much less here than at home. But still, I have so big confidence in this rule that I have high hopes of getting up my speed within a few weeks after the holidays. We will see; I will let you know.

I definitely owe much of the form improvement of 2017 to heart rate zone training. You might remember that I was complaining about a big loss of form after Amsterdam marathon. It took me so long to start feeling up to training hard again. Thanks to valuable advice from experienced friends I found the ingredients that could finally get me up and back on track. Dedicated heart zone training, a few kilos off, dairy-free diet, and supplements in preparation for the menopause are some the components behind my improvement in 2017. I have also participated in more competitions so far this year than before. I ran three half marathon street races in the first six months of 2017, which is the same number as I ran in total before 2017. And I ran several 10 km races, which I never did before. Keeping the training at a manageable pace (never above threshold), and rather concentrating the hard efforts around competitions, is an advice that I have tried to follow conscientiously, and I think it has worked out for me.

Mind you, my improvements are not that spectacular. To give an idea on my 2017 PRs: 30 seconds in the Fløyenkarusellen 2.5 km uphill race, 1 minute at the Fana 10 km street race, 2 minutes at half marathon, 4 minutes at mountain half marathon, etc. As a comparison, my friends are improving by far more minutes than me. But after a year of injury (2015), and a year (2016) of frustration of not being able to get back to my 2014 form (although I had some really nice achievements in 2016, like competing a full marathon in a decent time), it feels great to finally start getting better than before again.

Have I found the perfect training scheme? No. There are so many more things that I want to do, which I find hard to find time or motivation for. I want to get better (read: feel safer) in biking. After the holidays, I have two important races coming up: Stoltzekleiven at the end of September and Oxford half marathon in the beginning of October. It will be tough find time to train in such a way that I can get a new PR in both. And, if I manage to do so, I cannot imagine that there will be much time for biking. But hey! The reason for all this is to have fun, I remind myself! So, do the training that gives you the best pleasure and that you find the most motivating and rewarding at the time. There will be time for the other stuff at some point. When form in one discipline improves, it is nice to push it. When improvement gets hard to obtain for some reason, it could be motivating to try something new.

Enjoy your holidays, take it easy, and don't forget to have fun!

Total decline

Numbers don't lie...

I have been implementing threshold training in a quite disciplined way during winter. However, the values I have based my training on were from a test I took in August 2014, so I wasn't entirely sure that I was actually training at correct intensity. This week I took a new test and got my lactate threshold and VO2-max values measured. Unfortunately, all values had gone down since 2014.

Good news first. Among the values that had gone down were also weight and fat percentage! :-) 2 kg lighter and 5 points less percent body fat compared to 2014, on the very same scale. My VO2-max had not changed much, around 52, which is still better than that of 99.5% of women my age, and better than even that of 96% of 20 year-old women. And the best news of all is of course Dag Hilland, the conductor of the test. It was so nice to see him again, get loads of information, motivation and advice. No matter how the results come out, the test itself is an incredibly rewarding experience, thanks to Dag. Both Dag himself, and not the least his wife Rebecca, have improved their forms impressively during the last few years, and Dag says it is all due to very disciplined threshold and zone 1 training. So I have been doing the right thing, but with a little too high HR than I needed to.

Not so good news. My heart rate zones are now quite a bit lower than what I thought. My zone 1 is really slow, and my threshold heart rate is about 7 heart beats lower than before. This corresponds to about 0.2 km/h slower speed at this HR. Recall that threshold HR is the point where your body starts producing so much lactic acid that you cannot keep going more than about an hour at that level. So this will have quite a bit to say for my half marathon time. Interestingly, the speeds that I can keep at various heart beats are still the same as before, but my body starts producing lactic acid earlier now than before.

To be honest, I was expecting this. But perhaps still hoping for better results. At the end of 2014 I was in really good shape, and then almost the whole of 2015 was characterized by injuries. Although I did a lot of uphill training and had a new record at Stoltzekleiven in 2015, there was almost no running, so my running form must have declined quite a lot during that time. Then in 2016 there was a lot of running but without paying attention to HR zones at all. It would have been nice to know where I was just before Amsterdam Marathon in October 2016. After that I lost a lot of form, and it is first recently that I started to feel some improvement again.

On the positive side. No matter what, it is good to know the real values and train accordingly in a dedicated way. Anyway my recurring injury in the hamstrings does not really make fast running much fun these days, so the slower zones fit me much better now. My new threshold zone is actually what I thought was my sweet spot, and it is quite pleasant to run in that zone, even for pretty long intervals or tempo runs (up to 10k). My new zone 1 is so slow that I can do it even when hamstrings and legs are complaining, and I can transfer some of my zone 1 training to biking and swimming, making sure to have even lower (10-15 heart beats) lower HR then. So in a sense, the new values will make my training easier and even more pleasant than before.

Boosted dedication. I have been reading everything I come across about threshold training, but there has not been a very clear single advice. I have been applying what Ingrid Kristiansen advises: never above threshold during training, only at competition. Dag's advice is very in line with this. Never ever train above threshold, not even during short intervals or uphills. The advice was very clear: a lot of zone 1 training, as much as you can get done. Then 2-3 times a week, training at threshold, either in form of intervals or a not too long tempo run. I must admit that although I was very careful about not exceeding (what I thought was) my threshold, I had not been doing much zone 1. My runs outside of threshold intervals were somewhere in between, and I have now adjusted all those down to zone 1.

Why threshold and zone 1 training.  Dag and Ingrid say that training at threshold has the same effect on your form as training at maximum heart rate. You train your heart to be stronger by pushing its current limits. If you instead train at maximum intensity, then the impact on your form will be the same, but you will wear down your body much more and accumulate a lot of lactic acid. You will need much more time for recovery so your total training volume will decrease. Keeping your intensive training to 2-3 threshold sessions a week allows you to train every day, as long as all your other sessions are in zone 1. Zone 1 training seems to do wonderful stuff to your body, your cells, your blood vessels, and your mitochondria (some tiny stuff in your cells that convert calories to energy). It also helps to keep you out of injury.

So I now have a clear recipe to follow and a lot of renewed motivation. But things are unfortunately still not so straight forward. My legs won't let me run as much as I want these days, so I have to resort to swimming and biking. I have no idea how this will impact my running form, but in any case I need this kind of triathlon training. I have also started seeing my physiotherapist Ane the angel again. Within my body's limits, I think I am doing everything I can.

The rest, I leave in the hands of the universe ;-)

Something bit my butt

I should have bitten my tongue...

"If you are feeling great and completely out of pain, don't tell anyone",  a wise friend told me. Just a little too late... About three weeks ago I was feeling great, my form was steadily improving, and I remember telling several people during a training session that for the first time in almost three years I was completely free of pain, I didn't feel any discomfort what so ever in my legs.... And then just two days later my hamstrings started to complain... I have been struggling with them since then, but I have some hope that the situation is getting under control.

How did I get there in the first place? I honestly don't know what I did wrong. As I was writing in an earlier blog post, improved form is the foremost danger of injury. You start running faster and longer, and then one thing might lead to another. However, I was really being cautious, not running more than before, and not pushing for sprints or max HR. It could actually be that the triathlon weekend, although it gave varied training, was a bit too heavy with the kind of training I was not used to. Seven sessions of 90 minutes each, all within 48 hours. Hamstrings started complaining shortly after that, with a few really painful "lumps" in the muscles at the back of my thighs.

The worst part of starting to feel some pain that could be the start of an injury is not knowing what to do. "Shall I back off? Shall I stop running completely for a week? Shall I run short and slow runs? My form was so nicely improving; will everything be ruined if I have to stop for a while?" Once you decide what to do, then you relax and start focusing on your new plan. You have to decide wisely though. Loosing a week of running now could be so much better if you can stop the pain from developing into a consistent injury, which might make you loose several months of running later. I think I have managed to reverse the pain now; and this is how I went about it:

Backed off from running for about two weeks. I decided not to take any risks. I stopped running and weight training on the legs, to give them some rest. The triathlon weekend had made the threshold much lower to go to the swimming pool, so I swam several times a week during this time. I also had the opportunity to go cross country skiing, which worked perfectly in this period.

Compression and ice. I frequently applied ice on the hurting parts, and used compression around my thighs. Several days I wore both my tightest compression shorts and a compression band underneath my clothes. I still have two half liter bottles filled with water, in the freezer, and I take them out and place them under my butt when I am sitting, sometimes even when I go to bed.

Positive thoughts. Like: "Even if things get worse and I cannot run for a while, there are so many other things I can do. I can bike, I can swim, I can go to spinning classes, I can row, I can do more strength training, I can do Stoltzekleiven and Ulriken regularly, ...." Or: "If I cannot run Bergen City half marathon, then it was really fortunate that I signed up for Ironman in Haugesund. I can concentrate on the swimming and biking part of that, hoping that the legs will be in shape to start running a month or two before the race."

Massage. Poor Frank.... He massaged me (and still does) every day to loosen the lumps. Having tried all sorts of therapists during my previous injury period, I knew exactly where to press and how hard. I could of course go to a massage therapist again, but the very hard and painful pressure is not really working for my body. I did consider needling, though, because that works much better. But so far the massage has worked pretty well. The lumps are decreasing in size day by day and getting less and less painful.

Yin Yoga. Wow! Why did I not try this before? I think I know why. Probably because there is not enough workout in it. Actually there is no workout in it. Yin Yoga is simply about relaxing, stretching gently, holding the stretch for several minutes, letting go of all tension, and not pushing harder than what feels comfortable.  I have done this several times now, and it actually takes a few times before you realize how it works. At the first session you think that you are relaxing but actually you are not. There are so many small muscles all over the place that really need some practice to completely relax. It's just wonderful. I could never have imagined. I really really recommend it to all runners.

Heavy slow resistance training.  Although it is my constant intention never to stop with these exercises, I had been neglecting them recently. After giving the legs a few days of rest, I took up HSR training regularly, and I immediately started to notice improvement. These are the remedy to every injury! There are HSR exercises designated for every part of the body. And there is the added bonus of getting stronger by doing them.

Back to running. But not too fast and not too cold. I decided to try and see what worked. Flat fast running brought back the lumps, whereas uphill running worked much better. So the concentration is on the uphills these days, and the flat running happens mostly indoors on the treadmill. My legs work best when the surroundings are warm, and I try to avoid icy conditions.

Bike roller. After every run I sit on the bike for about 15 minutes and roll easily to loosen the legs. This actually seems to work wonders.

What's the plan ahead? Simple. Just keep doing the things that work and stop doing the things that don't. Keep the positive thoughts, although I did notice a slight worsening of the form. My HR is a little higher now,  and it is easy to fall into negative thoughts like "but things were going sooo well, why did this have to happen now?" Then I tell myself to stop whining and remind myself of all the much worse things many people are struggling with everyday. This is in fact nothing in comparison!

Set your priorities right, keep you spirit high, enjoy life in every way that you are able to.

Winter training that actually works!

By reducing the intensity of my training, I have finally started to improve my form!

OK, we hear this all the time. A mistake that many non-elite athletes do is to train too hard too often. Somehow, the idea that you have to train at a lower intensity to be able to improve your form seems counter intuitive. I have even written about this before, explaining sweet spot training, but I still wasn't able to implement it systematically myself. Neither had I fully understood what "too hard" means. Are we not supposed to push at maximum even during intervals?

Since December I have been very disciplined about threshold training, meaning that I don't let my heart rate go over my lactate threshold, even during intervals. And it has been giving results! Several things happened simultaneously in early December, which finally made me take serious action:

1. I started following Ingrid Kristiansen's blog and her weekly treadmill program for long distance runners.
2. I had a very eye-opening talk with my friend Mats about both vegan lifestyle and threshold training.
3. I was admiringly observing how my friend Cristian's form was improving recently, and I started asking him more detailed questions about threshold training, something that he has been advocating for a long time.

Treadmill running: You might remember from earlier posts that I really didn't use to be friends with the treadmill. I used to find it too boring, I used to get too hot, and I used to find it difficult to motivate myself to stay on a treadmill for longer than 3km. But all that has changed thanks to Ingrid's weekly treadmill recipe! Once a week she publishes a treadmill session, tailored to improve one's 10 km performance. The sessions started out short and easy, and gradually they have become longer and harder. All the time the idea is to stay below your threshold heart rate, perhaps except the last minutes. The speed changes all the time, and there are periods with lower speed to recover, which one can look forward to, which makes the whole thing manageable (though I would still not call it enjoyable). Ingrid is very strict about staying below threshold during training. It is during competition that you get to use your full capacity. I had heard this many times from my friend Eva, but had not been able to implement it carefully like now. Especially during winter, picking the day of the week with the worst weather for the treadmill session works perfectly.

 

Threshold intervals: Following the advice of Ingrid and Cristian, I also started watching my heart rate during interval sessions when training with friends. Normally I would try to go as fast as possible, and perhaps work hard to pass some friends, but now I am simply watching the heart rate, and the whole training session becomes much easier and more enjoyable. I also have so much more energy after a training session compared to what I used to. Recently, I have given priority to interval sessions with as long intervals as possible, as I feel that keeping my HR at threshold during longer intervals is more valuable. The 6 x 8 minute uphill intervals of Fjellgeitene have become a regular.

Does it work? The big question! I have been sticking to my plan, but all the time I have been wondering whether it was actually working. Since the treadmill intervals were getting harder and I could still keep them below threshold, I had a hope that my form was improving. But since I hadn't been running fast in a long time, I was wondering whether I would actually be able to run a race fast enough. So I tested myself this week: I participated in the Vinterkarusellen 10 km race, and I did my best time so far in that course! I kept an even pace throughout the course, and my heart rate was hardly above threshold!

What´s the deal? Ingrid explains this very nicely. The threshold HR is normally not easy to change. That's the heart rate at which your body starts producing too much lactic acid, and unless you are very untrained, there is not so much you can do about this HR level. But, by training just below or at this level, you constantly increase the speed that corresponds to this HR level. So with the same HR you start running faster and faster, which is in particular important for races that are 5 km or longer. And why not push it harder? When you train at higher intensity, you end up with a lot of lactic acid, which not only disturbs the quality of your training session, but too much lactic acid too often over a longer period seems to have a negative effect on your form. And mind you: it is only your hard sessions that should be at threshold HR. These should not be too many; you need a lot more sessions at lower intensity!

You might remember that I struggled a lot to get back my form and energy after Amsterdam marathon in October. I was getting quite frustrated that my training was not giving the effects that I was hoping for, and I was tired all the time. Finally, things are working again, and I have regained the energy to train and the will to compete. The danger is that when form improves and there is enough energy, it is easy to overdo it. I have done it myself, and I have seen so many friends do it, too. You start running too much, and then you get injured. So I am very careful to limit myself. At most five days and not more than 50 km per week (at least now during the winter). One day of complete rest (no other training either), and otherwise keep to strength training and restitution sessions on a bike.

If you are training regularly but not really improving your form, you might try reducing the intensity of your training. Many of my friends train at the same intensity as they race. I also used to do it. Unless you only run once or twice a week, it is the wrong way to do it. After a while you don't improve, and even worse, you wear your body down. If you don't know your threshold HR, you can take a lactate and oxygen test, or you can find a lot of advice online on how to get an approximate value.

I still have one more thing I am not doing right: the slow runs... I am still not able to do regular zone 1 runs, which all experts say are very important. They help us recover, they eventually increase our speed at this low HR, and they teach our body to burn fat rather than carbs during long races, which improves our endurance. So that's my homework for the coming weeks!

Train smarter, race faster!