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 :-)

Numbers don't lie

Do the math, run your path.

One and a half years ago, just before the Oslo half marathon 2014, I took a fitness test to get my oxygen volume and lactate threshold values measured. It was an amazing experience, and it taught me so much about how our body works. I learned that my lactate threshold at that time was reached at heart rate 162, or at 11.4 km/h running flat. I was told that I could keep going at these values or below for a long time, but if I went above these values, I would most likely hit the lactate wall after about an hour. This did not fit my plans too well, because I really wanted to finish the half marathon in 1 hour and 50 minutes, which corresponds to an average speed of 11.5 km/h. Then I thought "So what? If I can do 11.4, then I can do 11.5 as well", and I went ahead and followed my own plan. It worked for 18 km, but then the last 3 km were so painful and slow that the overall time ended up being 1:55. If I had listened to the advice and kept 11.4 instead of 11.5, I would have finished in 1:52.

Of course, being quite inexperienced yet, I did several other mistakes as well. For example, at that time I did not really watch my heart rate. I did not wear a heart rate monitor, especially not during races. Nowadays I almost never train or race without a heart rate monitor.  I have been using the values I got from that first test ever since, but now I feel that it is soon time for a new test. First of all, I was injured and not running for so long that those values probably decreased a lot during that time. Now, however, I feel that I can run as fast as before, so it would really be good to see how the numbers match. On the other hand, for the first half marathon that is on my list this year (in Bergen in just three weeks!) I really want to go with the feeling and enjoy the race as much as I can. So perhaps I will wait with the test for a while still.

I think the biggest mistake one can make during a long race is to start out too fast. It is unfortunately the most common mistake as well, especially among new beginners. For the first half of a race, you feel so good, it feels like you can keep the speed going for the entire race, but when you reach the half, you already start getting exhausted, and then the end becomes really tough and painful. All experienced runners and on-line coaching sites advise negative split, which means that you run the first half of the race slower than the second half. For a new beginner, this is very counter-intuitive. It is so easy to think "Let me just get as far as I can as fast as I can while I have the energy, who knows what will happen in the end?" The problem is that the probability of something bad happening at the end increases a lot when you start out too fast. I have heard the advice that when you reach 2/3 of the distance, you should still have half of your energy and power left. Again, this is not so easy to measure for runners who are not yet that experienced, but I think it is safe to say that starting out not too fast is a good idea no matter what. If you know your threshold values, and you monitor your heart rate, it is easy to see how you are doing, and whether or not you are running too fast.

Also when training for a long race, most of us make the mistake of running too fast for too long during practice. Of course, running fast is good training, and it eventually decreases your heart rate for that speed. But it also wears out your body unnecessarily, and the effect can rather be achieved by shorter intervals. The biggest loss, though, when you always run fast is that you never get to run slow. Running slow, at heart rate zone 1, has countless benefits. It teaches your body to burn fat, and it initiates a tremendous flush of human growth hormone. It teaches your body eventually to run faster and faster at that low heart rate. It builds up your blood vessels, it strengthens your ligaments, joints and tendons, and it gives your brain the signal that long runs are not dangerous; in fact quite enjoyable. Such positive traces in your brain are said to be very important during a race, when things start getting tough.

The marathon season is here for full. Good luck everybody with your training and your races. And most importantly:

 Don't forget to have fun!!!

Cautiously back to running

"You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes, you can steer yourself in any direction you choose." (Dr. Seuss)

Going back to running after a long break due to injury is in many ways similar to starting to run at the first place. When I was a moderate runner with two or three runs of length 6 or 7 km a week, I used to run around the Tveitevannet lake quite often. When I became more serious about running, my runs became longer, and Tveitevannet, with its 1.8 kilometers around, became just too short. For a few years I did not visit this lake at all. Now I am back there, and it is providing the perfect opportunity for me to go back to fast flat running.

Already right after the summer holidays, my physiotherapist Ane started pushing me to start running again. I started with quite short runs, with long walking warm-ups first. Tveitevannet is perfect in this sense, as I can walk down from home and arrive there properly warmed up, and then start running. For the very first run after the summer, I did one and a half rounds, just 3 km, and walked the rest to complete the second round. The lake has also been perfect for restitution runs; three rounds gave the right amount of distance and time, especially since my zone 1 running speed was pretty low after the long break. After these first attempts of flat running, I have been busy with mountain hiking, mountain races, swimming, biking, triathlon, and not the least training for Stoltzekleiven, so I haven't been running at all for the past weeks. Of course, all these activities have improved my form and made my hamstrings stronger, but running is a completely different matter. No matter how good my uphill form is, I am really completely out of shape when it comes to flat running. It is also the exercise that is the most strenuous with respect to my injury, so it needs to be treated delicately and seriously.

Some of my running attempts in between all the mentioned activities have not been successful. My legs have been tired from other training, and my hamstrings did not always feel well when I tried to run. Several attempts ended up being much shorter and slower than first intended, which was not too bad as they gave nice zone 1 restitution sessions, but not real running training. This week, as all the races are done for a while, I have finally been able to do some serious running training. On Tuesday I was at the Varegg interval training session, where we had fast runs of length 200m and 400m, with 200m and 400m jogging in between. Wow was this tough! My legs seemed to have lost all their ability to speed, and I was all out of breath with a very high heart rate. I had the excuse that I had not rested after Stoltzekleiven (Barry's Bootcamp on Sunday and Ulriken on Monday), but still... On the other hand it felt wonderful to be training with the gang again, and in particular I was very happy that what was stopping me was my breath and running form, and not any pain in my injury.

Yesterday morning I had perhaps the most successful running training in a long while. I had four progressive rounds around Tveitevannet. First round at pace (minutes per km) 6:30, second at 6:00, third at 5:30, and fourth at 5:00. I was really happy that I could do this without having to stop and without pain in my injured area. Then I walked for 600 m and then I had nine sprints up to Sletten Church. There is a short and steep hill from the lake to the church. My sprints up were about 35 seconds long. My initial plan was ten sprints, but I felt a sharp pain in my heel at the end of the ninth so then I stopped. I ended the whole thing with 600 m walk back to start. What is really cool is that the time I spend completing a round around the lake now, even with the easy 6:30 pace, is so much shorter than when I was a moderate runner a few years ago. Well, I suppose I was rather a jogger than a runner then. My last round yesterday took slightly more than 9 minutes. Next time I will attempt at doing a round in less than 9 minutes. If I can then repeat this two or three times (with a couple of minutes rest in between), I think I will be ready for a 5 km race again.

Training on your own requires quite a bit of self discipline when you have a schedule you want to follow. When I was doing my first round, I was wondering how on earth I would be able to go faster, but then I got warmed up, and round 2 and 3 went so well, even better and slightly faster than planned. During the fourth round, though, my heart rate was around 165, and I started to get exhausted. When there were 400 m left, I actually stopped. But as I was going to stop my watch, I saw that I was below 5:00 in pace (4:45) and that gave me renewed motivation to continue and complete. This is exactly when running with friends comes extremely handy. You simply don't quit when you are running with someone else with the same goals. The same thing happened during my uphill sprints. I had planned ten, but during the fourth I was thinking that perhaps five was enough. During the fifth, though, I thought "Come on only five left" and pushed myself to continue. Passing half way has an incredible mental effect. Suddenly completing becomes much easier. I really wanted to do ten, but I am glad I stopped after the ninth when I felt the pain in my heel. My heels are a bit stiff these days, something I never had problems with before, and I am very cautious as I know that many of my friends have had heel injuries. So it is important to listen to your body. But not when there is no pain. Your body (actually your brain) is programmed to always try to make you take it easy, so most of the time you have to fight against its attempts to convince you to stop.

The moment you are ready to quit is usually the moment just before a miracle happens.

Report from rehab - I

They tried to make me go to rehab but I said, 'No, no, no.' (Amy Winehouse)

Last week I wrote about the five phases of rehab I have been experiencing since April 22: relief, acceptance, resignation, change, and determination. I think it is even more important to name the phase before the rehabilitation finally starts: denial. For a long while one experiences pain and discomfort which actually gets worse and worse, but still one chooses to ignore the signs and believe that there are ways to run which will make the whole thing go away. You can easily see this in some of my earlier posts, when I truly (and with a lot of hope) believed that there was nothing wrong with me, I just needed to run uphills and terrain for a while. Well, in the end everything became so painful that it was simply not fun to run anymore in any way. Still I kept doing it until as late as April 18, looking perfectly happy:

It turns out that the denial phase is extremely common, perhaps most among new beginners, but also among surprisingly many experienced and even professional runners. Just look at the story of Tom Goom, who is an experienced runner and racer, as well as a physiotherapist! He ended up with exactly the same injury as myself, going through exactly the same stage of denial before he had to accept the situation and start rehab. We run as long as we can even as the pain increases, until we simply cannot anymore. If we could stop a little earlier, perhaps the recovery would be quicker as well. What is for sure it that giving advice to others is so much easier than following that advice ourselves. Tom Goom had seen hundreds of patients doing the same mistake, and had given them advice and guidance which he did not manage to follow himself. What I know from my own experience is that we are not willing to take advice that comes lightly or appears to be not thoroughly enough thought through.  Of course I received the advice of taking a few weeks off running and resting more many many times, but I did not trust it because I did not have the impression that people who gave the advice had complete understanding of my situation. There were two people whose very clear advice finally made me see the realities, agree to stop running and to go into a complete rehab program. My running friend Eva, and my current physiotherapist Ane.  Their advice was the same: you must stop running. In every possible way. For as long as it takes to fully recover.

So why did I take their advice and not others'? First of all the two advices coincided in time and I was in more pain than ever. Secondly and more importantly they both showed a great deal of real empathy and true compassion. Just after my first consultation with Ane, I got a long message from Eva, where she explained how she had been observing me over time, how she could see how much pain I was in, how she has experienced similar things, how she actually feels very uncomfortable to give this advice because I might take it the wrong way, but how she must say it because she really cares. I cannot describe how much I appreciated this advice. I had got the similar advice (well, rather instructions) from Ane the day before, and it was great relief to get a confirmation from Eva, as well as having somebody who understands and cares, at the time when I was feeling the most depressed about the whole situation. When it comes to Ane, she was much more strict and clear in her instructions than any other therapist had ever been to, but more importantly she understrood exactly how I felt. She forbade me to run, but she also explained to me that she knows that I will feel very sad about this, that it can even be compared to a depression, because running has become a part of my identity, an ingredient of what defines me. No therapist ever had understood me to this extent. She also did several things that she did not have to, like posting a letter to my doctor herself (rather than leaving it to her secretary) to speed up the start of the process, and to send me motivation and encouragement through text messages. This kind of understanding and care (especially outside of scheduled visits and office hours) from a therapist is really rare I think. It builds trust, which gives courage and motivation to continue the rehab and not fall into the temptation of starting to run as soon as the pain feels a bit better.

What also really helped me through the difficult time was the care and compassion that I received from friends. For example, when we were in Oslo for the Holmenkollstafetten, the day after the race, my friend Tone went running very early in the morning before breakfast (although it had been a very late night), so that she could keep me company when all the others went for the scheduled running practice after breakfast, which she knew I would not be able to join. I cannot describe how much this meant to me. Tone has been supportive in many ways during this period; she has a similar story with a hamstring injury, and I have learned a lot from her experiences. Her caring but direct way of telling me what she thinks is extremely helpful, and I appreciated a lot when she (and in fact her whole family) kept me company when I had to cut short of a long hike with friends last week. 

As you know, I am now in the determination phase, and things are in fact going much better. After the four weeks of complete rest for the legs, I started the heavy slow resistance (HSR) training and got back to uphill fast walking. I have, already after two weeks of HSR, noticed a significant improvement of the situation and I am in much less pain than in a long long while. I am also surprisingly fast up Stoltzekleiven and Ulriken after such a long break, so my spirit for the time is really high and I am feeling better and more optimistic than in several months.

Yes, I've been black but when I come back you'll know, know, know. (Amy Winehouse)

Long time dream come true: Skåla Opp 2014

Climbing the Skåla Mountain in Loen, Norway, had been a dream for me for many years. I made several concrete plans with different groups of friends over the years, but every time something came up and I could not go. To make sure that I would actually do it in 2014, I got good help from one of my dearest friends, Filiz. Already early this year, we agreed that we would spend a weekend in their family cabin in Stryn (which is 10 min drive from Loen) in August, and climb this amazing mountain which goes up 1848 meters straight from the fjord on a path of length 8 km.

During the summer holidays this year, I learned that the annual Skåla Opp race was on one of the weekends we had reserved for this event. As soon as I realized this I wanted to do the race! Filiz was hesitant. Her tradition for this mountain is enjoying a full day hike in nice weather and silence without hundreds of racers around. But I managed to convince her, and we both signed up for the race. The competition class was full, so we would have to time our run ourselves.

After coming back from the summer holidays and resuming my PT sessions with Ketil, I learned that he would do the race as well. In fact this would be his seventh time, and he had lots of detailed information about the course and instructions about where to go fast and where to take it easy. During the couple of weeks before the race, he prepared me for it mentally, so well that I could picture the whole course in my head, although I had never been there. He estimated that I should be able to finish the race in less than 2h 30 min. I myself calculated that Skåla approximately equals 8 times Stoltzekleiven, both in elevation and in distance. My best Stoltzekleiven time at that point times 8 would give 2h 8min. However, hoping for this seemed too optimistic. I decided that I would be very happy with a time around 2h 15min.

The race was on Saturday August 16, starting early in the morning. We left Bergen early enough on Friday so that we arrived in Stryn in the afternoon. We had a decent dinner with lots of proteins and carbohydrates (as before all long races, we had been carbohydrate loading for a few days, which is one of the best things about participating in a race ;-), and we even found time to do a slow hike in the Stryn mountains in beautiful sunny weather. On the day of the race, however, the weather was unfortunately not so nice. Rain at fjord level, and fog and light snow on top!

We arrived in Loen early enough to get a parking spot at Hotel Alexandra, and after using the bathrooms there, we took the free shuttle from the hotel to the start area. Perfect plan! We got our start numbers, and Filiz started immediately, whereas I wanted to warm up a bit and find the correct start spot for the competition class. I started there and timed my race from that point. The most important thing was to start not too fast, according to Ketil. I kept it at a pace which I felt was around my limit but did not push it above that until I reached about half way. The distance and elevation markers were very helpful, and I was surprised about how well and fast I was doing according to my schedule. Some parts that were described to me as tough climbing passed more quickly than I had hoped for, and finally only 1 km was left! But the last km was also the hardest. At this point, it was really foggy so I had no idea how close to the top I was or how steep the last part was. As I was running out of all energy, I heard the loud speakers from the top announcing that the finish was close. I increased my speed towards the end, and I was so exhausted when I finished that I ended up giving a hug to the person who put a medal around my neck, and just hanging there for a while. I finished the race in 2h 13min, and I was extremely happy about it.

As with all races where there is the option of starting before the elites, it was great fun to be on the top and greet the winners as they arrived. I was also very happy to find Ketil at the top, and that was the point when I met several people for the first time who later became my Melkesyre friends. These people were so extremely nice and kind; they included me in the pictures they were taking, which gave me wonderful memories to look back to. Many of them did extremely well at the race, and several of them had personal records this year, with Jeanette winning her class being the highlight. I also had the pleasure of walking down with them, and witnessing all the fun that they were having. I think perhaps that was the point I decided that I wanted to join Melkesyre.

Both Filiz and I were so happy with this experience that we agreed to sign up for the competition class for Skåla Opp 2015. This turned out to be easier said than done. The registration opened already September 1 this year, but the interest was so massive and the organizers were so unprepared for this, that the system went down and stayed down for several hours. Fortunately we managed to sign up before the competition class was full. I am really looking forward to the race, but I would have liked the option of starting before the elites and still having my time recorded. Most mountain races offer this option but not Skåla Opp. I hope they will change their strategy in the future, so that we can start earlier than the elites and still compete with registered times. It is just so much fun to be on top when the winners arrive!

I will of course be wearing my Melkesyre t-shirt at Skåla Opp 2015 :-)

Champs rule

 

Well of course they do; they are the winners. But many of them rule in so many other ways than just being the best. I am always amazed when famous athletes turn out to be incredibly kind and nice people. I tend to think that you have to be very competitive and quite egoistic to become a champion, but surprisingly many super good athletes are also super sweet people. I think, for example, the alpine king Aksel Lund Svindal is simply unbelievably nice, although I have never met him (I might be a tiny bit biased since my youngest son is called Aksel). It is just incredible how kind and encouraging he is when he talks about his competitors and team mates, and how he can keep an unbelievably positive attitude even when he is seriously injured just at the start of a season. After I started participating in races, I have had the pleasure of meeting several winners. And I must admit that I was quite surprised to see how humble, kind, and encouraging these people are. I already told you about my meeting with Kirsten Marathon Melkevik, and how incredibly encouraging and complimenting she was about my achievements, as well as my leg muscles, balance, etc. Well, there are many sweet champs out there.

In June this year, I participated in Bergen Fjellmaraton. I will write about that experience in the next post, but for now let me just write about the finish of that race. As with many mountain races, we had the option of starting earlier than the elites, and I had started early enough so that I could be already in the finish area when some of my friends participating in the elite class would arrive. I was sitting down on a roll of material at the side of the stadium and waiting for the others, when a person came and asked whether he could sit next to me. He was enjoying a hamburger, and wanted to sit down while eating (I was feeling too sick of exhaustion to take the offer of free hamburgers at the finish). We started chatting and he asked me about how I had done. I told him my finish time, and he seemed very impressed. I also told him that I was a fresh runner, and went ahead and told him about my Bergen half marathon adventure as well. He was really encouraging and gave me lots of compliments on the "incredibly good" times that I had achieved in these races. Finally, I asked him whether he was happy about his race performance and his finishing time. Yes, he was indeed quite pleased, he said. When I asked him about his time, he replied 1:35 (1 h 35 min). At that point my jaw dropped; I had managed to hear over the loudspeakers that the winner finished in 1:35. I asked him: are you the winner??? Yes, he replied shyly... O-M-G! Those who know me can perhaps imagine how excited I got at that point. First of all, how could it be that the winner was simply sitting there and enjoying a hamburger all by himself? (Well with me, but I am nobody in this context.) Where were the cameras, where were all the admirers? Alright, so things are pretty low key in Norway, but still I would expect the winner to get some special treatment, at least be inside in a warm room... Then I started asking him millions of questions. He could not have been kinder and nicer when he explained how he became so fast: he has simply been doing this since he was a little kid, he said. I asked him how fast he can run on a flat road, and he said he did not really do flat roads and was not very good at them. Of course by now I know better. He is in fact amazing in all sorts of running races, flat, steep, long, short, he simply wins almost everything. He also does some ultra races of incredible lengths in incredible short times. I was new and ignorant at that point and had never heard of him, but by now I am a big fan of Sverre Slethaug! He is an incredible athlete, and he is indeed very famous, both in Norway and internationally. Since then I have had the pleasure of meeting him at several races, and he is just as sweet every singe time. When I congratulated him on winning a 10 km race last week, he replied by congratulating me and all other participants... As we were all winners!

Several examples of incredibly sweet champions are among my team mates in Team Melkesyre. In August this year I participated in the Skåla Opp race (I will write about that very soon), and the winner in my class was Jeanette Amundsen. Later I learned that she is a Melkesyre Team member, and the first time I joined a Melkesyre training, I had the pleasure of talking to her. I was telling her how impressed I was with her achievement, while she kept going on asking me about my finishing time and my experience of the run, and all the time telling me how incredibly well I had done at the race. She also told me that there is no reason I cannot be at least as good as her, and that I should just keep training to get there. So incredibly sweet! Of course I don't believe I can ever beat Jeanette, but winning my class in some competition at some race some time is indeed one of my goals. Other champs in Melkesyre are Gro Svendal and Eva Quivey, and they are equally humble and sweet about their achievements compared to other people's. I also want to mention my friend Cathrine Haugstvedt in Melkesyre. She came number 2 in her class at a 5 km race last week, and she can do both short and very long distances very fast. I am so incredibly inspired by her; she is quite new to running, and just unbelievably humble about her achievements. I could have mentioned so many more of course, but somehow women around my age are most impressive to me, as I consciously or unconsciously compare myself to them. Guys, I am very very impressed by you, too!!

Talk to a champ; you will find it super rewarding!

How to start running

When I was in my late teens and early twenties I tried a few times to start jogging. We lived close to Tveitevannet, a lake which is 1.8 km around and quite flat, and this was the venue for my few attempts. Unfortunately they all ended in complete frustration. I could only run a few hundred meters and then I would be completely out of breath and exhausted. I did not see the point of this endeavor and I simply gave up!

About ten years later I was inspired to try again. This time we lived on top of a hill, about 2 km from the same Tveitevannet. I had just met Benedicte, who lived close by and would soon become a close friend. I was impressed to learn that she could run down to Tveitevannet, around, and all the way back up. She had started not long ago, and this motivated me to give my old running project another try. If she could do it, then maybe I could as well?

At least it was easy to get started. It was 2 km downhill to the lake, so no problem to run all the way until I reached the lake. (I am much more cautious about running downhill nowadays.) Around the lake I would run some and walk some, and then walk all the way back home. After a while I could complete a whole round around the lake without having to walk. The clue is to take it really easy. Just run very slowly until you can do a few kilometers without walking, before you try to increase your speed. The next phase was to try to run up the hill on the way home. Again, walk some, run some, until one day I could run it all! Albeit very slowly! It took only a couple of months from the first attempt until I could run the whole course, from home and back.

Why did it work when I was 30 but not when I was 20? I think I was much more motivated the second time; I was quite desperate to do something about losing weight and getting in shape. Being older, I was also perhaps more patient. Having a role model, who was around my age and in a similar work/family situation, definitely helped a lot, too. It is really great to have somebody to run with, especially in the beginning. You can push each other, and appointments make sure that planned running actually does happen.

If I could, then you can, too. Just do it!