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)

Time to add new ingredients to weekly routine

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform. (Mark Twain) 

Since I arrived in Istanbul, I have been running four days a week. What has stabilized itself as a routine by now is: 10-12 km at pace 5:30 Tuesday and Thursday mornings, 12-15 km on Saturdays, and up to 20 km on Sundays. The longer the run, the slower it is. Since things are going well, I feel that I can do more, but I want to keep Fridays and Mondays run-free to rest and to separate the long weekend runs from the harder efforts of the weekday mornings. I have been wondering whether I should run on Wednesdays, too. Perhaps just a slow and not so long recovery run, but I am cautious and I don't want to get tangled in a new injury due to overuse. To get the recovery benefits of a slow restitution run, without wearing out my legs, I started swimming instead. From now on Wednesdays are swim days!

I have for the first time tested my sports watch for indoor swimming, and it works surprisingly well. You enter the length of the pool (the one of my university is 33m) and then the watch keeps track of the distance, as it detects the change of direction every time you hit the end of the pool. I am a bit slower than I expected. It took me one hour to swim 2000 m. Last summer I swam 1500m in 33 minutes at Bergen Open Water competition, but that was with a wet suit, which really increases speed. And this time it was, after all, supposed to be recovery and not too fast. The first week of my swimming gave actually more swimming than expected. Yesterday I went swimming with Polen, a running friend who is a professional swimmer. She pinpointed a series of things that I can do to improve my swimming. There are several things I have been doing wrong all these years! As soon as she showed me, it all made perfect sense. But to actually put it into practice and coordinate all body parts to work as they should, will take quite a bit of time. So, now my swimming has even a more defined goal than before.

In addition to running and swimming, I am continuing three days of Pilates a week. I like the combination of strength training and stretching it gives. Already after one and a half months I feel that my back is more straight and my right side, which has been very tight and tense since the injury,  is looser and more relaxed. My core is at least as strong as before, as there is a lot of emphasis on the abs, but I might have lost strength at other places, since I am not lifting weights the same way as before. On the other hand, I make sure to get a session of HSR training once a week, to make sure that my injury stays away. The good news is that my hamstrings tendon does not hurt at all anymore when I do these exercises.

All in all, this gives nine workout sessions a week. I try to keep one day completely free of training, but it is not so easy. In fact I should also be doing intervals, but I don't know when. Perhaps I can exchange one of the weekly runs with an interval session. At least, the very earliness of the morning runs is a great benefit to be able to fit all these things into a weekly schedule on top of a full working week and quite a bit of social activities in the evenings and weekends.

It's a busy life...

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.