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.

Marathon training II : Improving form and avoiding injury

It is a delicate and frustrating balance...

The ultimate paradox of running and other endurance training is that as one's form improves, the danger of getting injured increases. Just when everything was going better than ever, I started to feel pain in my hamstrings again, and this week I had to back off from running. On the positive side, it has been a week of unusually nice and warm weather, so I could enjoy hiking and just relaxing in the sun, in addition to strength training and swimming. But the fear that the pain might not go away is extremely disturbing.

It is so typical! As our form improves, we are able to endure more and more training, but as the distance and intensity increase, so does the danger of injuries. Muscles can endure a lot, the lung capacity gets better and better, but the joints and the tendons are fragile, especially the older we are. I mentioned it once in an earlier blog entry, but I want to share it again: the story of Tom Goom, who is a physiotherapist in addition to being an experienced marathoner. It is a textbook example of what NOT to do.

First things first: maybe I focused too much on the negative sides of marathon training last week. There is a lot of satisfaction and feeling of achievement involved with following such a program and seeing the results. When I came back from holidays, it took me about two weeks to get to the speed that should correspond to my training level. I had been running quite a bit slower during the hot summer in Turkey, and coming back to the cool summer of Norway did not give the immediate speed effect that I was expecting. Just three days after coming back, I did my worst 5k race ever. Two weeks after that, I did one of my best 10k races. A week later, I had a 20k tempo run which was considerably faster than my planned marathon pace, and it went all nice and easy. In addition to all this, the real long runs, 30k or more, which felt really painful in the beginning, started to feel much easier and go faster and faster.

So everything was going just perfect. In the first few weeks after coming home and starting to follow the marathon training program more conscientiously, I was often quite exhausted, and could only do four of the five planned running sessions. As my form improved, though, I was able to endure more training, and I started to do all five running sessions of the week. I felt better and better; both form-wise and with respect to how little tired I was.

I have been all the time taking extra caution with respect to injuries, doing my leg strength and HSR training exercises regularly, and taking a lot of dietary supplements to stay healthy and keep strong tendons. I am a bit embarrassed to share the following picture, but this is in fact what I take every morning, hoping that they will keep me away from injuries. I am not sure whether they are of help, but I am pretty convinced that at least they don't hurt.

But in the end, although I've been cautious and listening to my body,  you see that things may still go wrong. Hopefully not terribly wrong... At least there is no acute injury that happened during a run. I had a nice 34 k run last Sunday. I rested on Monday. I had leg strength training Tuesday morning, and a zone 1 15 k run Tuesday evening.  In fact the 15 k was supposed to be 19 k, 13 of which would go in marathon pace, but I felt like taking it easy. So far so good. But Wednesday morning I woke up feeling pain in both upper hamstrings tendons. I was really in doubt about what to do. I had planned to participate in a 10 k race on Thursday, but I canceled it to be on the safe side, and went for an easy hike instead. That turned extremely spectacular and gave me the chance to catch up with friends I had not seen in a while. So there has been no running since Tuesday, which is perhaps a good rest for my legs in any case. Today I hope that I am ready to run again.

Fingers crossed. Only four weeks now...

Take me to 12 degrees Celsius

Some like it hot....

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Talk to your muscles and they might respond.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Relapse, recap, restart

"Throw me to the wolves and I will return leading the pack."

I read a training blog newly that started with "A completely wasted year". It was about a year of injury, and the person was set back in form to where she was a year ago. Exactly my situation! However, my feelings about the year 2015 are quite different. Alright, so 2014 was an amazing year of many completely new experiences... How could a year of injury and frustration match or exceed those accomplishments? Unexpectedly enough, in 2015 I challenged myself to try even more new things, I learned a lot more, and I made friendships for life, all thanks to my passion for competing, and some even thanks to my injury.

I think what I am most happy about 2015 is that Frank joined the Varegg/Melkesyre/Fjellgeitene family, and we now share almost all of our training and competing experiences. We have had more outdoor experiences together this year than the total of many years. In addition to training and competitions, we had many spectacular travels to some of the most famous mountains of Norway. We even explored the mountains of Italy, both competing and having fun. All these travels happened thanks to and together with our Melkesyre friends, and I am eternally grateful for these adventures.

Of other new experiences and highlights of 2015, the relay races in the spring, in particular the national Holmenkollen race, stand out as a lot of fun. Partly due to being injured, I also got more serious about open water swimming, and participated in my first official swimming race. I got to fulfill my dream from last year about training for triathlon, and finally participating in Os triathlon. This is something I definitely want to do more of. My new official best time at Stoltzekleiven is really what saved 2015, as it is the only real performance achievement of the year.

It would have been great to be able to conclude the year on a super positive note, but as I have learned so well this year, things do not always go as planned.  Just as I was finally back on track, on the way to full recovery and my old form, I had a relapse of my injury last week. It came unexpected. After the first shock and some panic, I calmed down surprisingly quickly, mainly thanks to my physiotherapist Ane. Although she was on holidays, she called me when I texted her, and she instructed me to completely rest for a week, to hopefully cool down and reverse the relapse quickly. Taking her advice this time has been so much easier than in the old days. Of course being surrounded by a lot of family due to the holidays, and the really bad weather outside has helped, too. I immediately started to make alternative plans for the coming months, just in case I might again have a longer period away from running. I have even started to look forward to those alternative activities.

No matter how my injury behaves in the close future, I know that 2016 will be a year of even more new training experiences, as I will be spending the first half of the year in Istanbul, my city of birth. I am already in touch with possible new training buddies, with plans of running, strength training, biking, swimming, and other activities. I do have a humble new year's wish, though: that I will not be blogging about injuries in 2016...

"Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do."

Jump like a goat!

"I can hop, I can run, and it's very very fun" (The julekalender)

This week I had four strength training sessions! Well, I should not boast because the two weeks before that, I had none... I was out of town and could not have my weekly PT sessions with Ketil. And for some reason I found it difficult to do strength exercises on my own. Usually I am good at this, but this time I simply could not motivate myself to go on the floor with push ups, planks, squats, leg raises, etc. In theory this should be much easier than going out for an early morning run in the dark... But runs happened and strength training did not.

So I wanted to make up for it by having a double dose of strength training after coming home. In addition to my regular two PT sessions this week, Frank and I joined the strength training sessions of Fjellgeitene. This is something I had been wanting to do for a long time, and finally this week I found the time and the energy. On Mondays they do an outdoor plyometrics session with a lot of jumps, whereas on Fridays they have full body training indoors. We joined both, in addition to a wonderfully exciting and wet mountain run which was zone 1 for them and zone 3 for me, but that's another story.

The Monday session was even more fun and useful than I had imagined it to be. Intensive jumping rounds on the stairs, some jogging in between, and strength training for the arms and the abs. Since it all takes place at one spot throughout the session, it is very easy to join. If it gets too tough, one can simply take short break. I had to skip a few of the rounds on the stairs not to fall out of schedule; single foot jumps all the way up are pretty tough! The toe raises at the end, though, I nailed with no break. I have been practicing them persistently for the last couple of months, and improvement came quickly. It was amazing to see how lightly some of my friends could jump; the ones who can jump the highest are also those who are fastest - it simply shows how useful this kind of training is for speed.

I find strength training increasingly important, especially for my running. It was strength training that finally got me out of my hamstrings injury after a long period of frustration. I was so determined to get well that at some point I was strength training five times a week. Twice personal training, and three times heavy slow resistance training. As my injury got better and I became able to run more and more, my focus shifted back to running, and I have for a while completely stopped the therapy exercises. I think perhaps I should start again. But it is difficult to set aside time for it when I am now strong enough to join all the other fun training sessions that are out there...

I have been talking to friends who have had hamstrings injuries, and we all seem to have the same problem. We are weaker on the side of our injury. My injury is in the right buttock, and my right ankle, right hamstrings, and right hip are clearly weaker than their left counter parts. It could be that they became weaker because of the injury, since the left side had to compensate and work more. Or perhaps they were weaker from the start, and that was exactly the cause of the injury. In either case, I should never stop trying to get my right side as strong as my left side. And keep everything strong in general of course, in particular the core.

Leg curl is one exercise that is just perfect for strengthening the hamstrings. By doing it separately on each leg, you can find out whether you are equally strong on each side. Side plank with a leg raise is a perfect way of finding out whether your hips have the same strength on each side. Regardless of whether or not you are weaker on the one side, it is important to train each side with the same intensity. And of course toe raises for the ankles and lower legs. Toe raises separately on each foot (for example 3 sets of 10 raises on each foot, standing on a stair step) to strengthen the ankles, and toe raises on both feet together (for example 2 sets of 100) to strengthen the legs. Oh, there are so many exercises that are beneficial for running; I could go on forever...

The stronger the faster!

Triple triumph - Blåmanen race 3

Yes yes yes! Sometimes everything goes better than expected!

Blåmanen race 3 was yesterday. A bit sad that it's all over for this year. I have heard this from several people this past week - we should have Blåmanen races all the way to Christmas! Yesterday's race was perfect in all ways, in fact in more ways than I could have expected or even dared to hope for. Just an hour before the race I was not sure that I would be able to participate, but then everything worked out in the best possible way.

On Wednesday during a test run of the third race together with Fjellgeitene, I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my ankle. It was so painful that I decided to stop and simply walk back, not to risk any injury. And then started of course several days with worries and wondering about whether I should participate in yesterday's race or not. I have a few long distance running goals for 2016; was it worth risking a long period without being able to run again, just for a single race? On the other hand, I had this kind of sharp pain at the exact same spot once before, and then after a couple of days everything was fine.

What would life be without the caring, compassion and advice of good friends? I discussed the matter with many people. Several of my friends who have had long time trouble with their achilles tendon advised me the be cautious. And a long term achilles injury is exactly what I am most afraid of. But my trainer Ketil and my friend Irene, who is a physiotherapist, concluded from the description that it is probably not the achilles, and as long as it is not painful I should simply participate in the race. Yesterday morning I had still not made up my mind. My plan was to warm up with my proper asphalt running shoes, and then decide depending on how everything felt. I used kinesiology tape on my heel after watching some youtube videos on how to apply it, and during the warm up I had no pain what so ever. At the end it was when talking to my friend Roger just before the race that I made up my mind. He said "that's not the achilles, that's just some simple ankle pain. I get it sometimes, too, and then the day after it's gone". Yes! Exactly my experience, so I decided to race. And it all went so well!

Thanks to breaking the practice on Wednesday, and not running anymore until yesterday, my legs were completely rested. This last course of the Blåmanen races is my favorite. It is also the one I know the best, as I practiced it twice last year before the race, and went there several times again after the race.  The weather was beautiful! Big sun from a cloudless sky. And cold enough for all the mud to have frozen to give a steady, albeit pretty slippery here and there, surface to run on. I used my shoes with spikes and they worked perfectly.

So many heroes yesterday! I got so much help all the way up; it was simply heavenly! On the first flat part I was running with Cathrine and Tone, and we were laughing all the way. On the Fløyen turns, in fact all the way up to Fjellhytten I had the company of Hans Erik. Just like last year! So reassuring to have the same feeling as last year, where this was the race I did the best. This is our course, Hans Erik! Just before we reached Fløyen, we met many of our Melkesyre friends who were doing the regular Saturday intervals. They stopped and cheered vigorously. And then came Bjarne, as always in the middle of the steepest hill! I was so happy to see him, and he kept me company during the worst part. Just at Fjellhytten, Jan Erik was cheering and taking photos. And from Fjellhytten and all the way to finish I had the company Aldona who was just in front of me. I cannot describe how great it feels to be surrounded with all this goodness and kindness. Thank you so much everybody, I owe you all big time!

The best part was that I felt no pain whatsoever in my ankle (and of course my hamstring injury was completely forgotten for the time being), so I was exceptionally happy, cheerful, and not the least grateful all the way. The sun was shining brightly all the time, I found myself smiling all the way, especially towards the end when I knew that I would actually be able to finish without having to stop or slow down due to pain. And then my finish time.... 57 minutes!!! OK, still one minute worse than last year, but one minute better than last week's race, which is for most people a faster race. Last year, I had exactly the same time on both races, 56 minutes. This year, 58 on the last and 57 on this one. So in a sense I did better than last year, given the circumstances.

I feel that I am the luckiest person in the whole world!

Report from rehab - IV: injuries connect us

Do not go gentle into that good night
Rage, rage against the dying of the light (Dylan Thomas)

I started writing this blog when I was on top of the world. I had just completed my second half marathon and joined Melkesyre, and my shape was better than ever before. It was intended to be a blog about endless victories, triumphs, and new records, motivational and hopefully inspiring. There have been many posts of this character, but as you know there have also been many many posts about injuries, rehabilitation, not being able to run, and how to recover. Interestingly, the posts that are related to injuries and rehab have perhaps been the most popular ones.

Unfortunately, it turns out that many of us have long lasting injures, and we all make the same mistakes. Friends, acquaintances, and sometimes complete strangers approach me to discuss their injuries, and there are many interesting stories. I had never dreamed of this blog being of help in this way, but I am very happy that it seems to give relief to some people. And it is great therapy for me too,  I learn a lot from every story! Sadly, one common thing in all them is that we all seem to struggle and spend a lot of time and money before we find a therapist who is actually able to help us. Another main ingredient is that we are all easily motivated people who like to push ourselves, but whereas motivational input is easy to get, but we do not get much advice about sensible training and restitution (or perhaps we do, but we choose to ignore it).

Here is the most important piece of information I gathered during this period, which I did not know before, and which explains why we get injured, especially those of us around my age: Muscles and lungs do not age. Then have the ability to improve endlessly; the more you push and train, the stronger your muscles (including your heart) and your breathing capacity will become, and you will get faster and stronger all the time. When an adult increases his or her level of training, this is exactly what happens. It is extremely motivating, and you simply want more of it. As it all seems to be going well, you keep pushing and improving, and feeling wonderful, all the time. So far so good. But there is a backside to the story. Unfortunately, tendons, bands, joints, and ligaments DO age. They do not have the same capacity and ability as the muscles and the lungs. They get harder, stiffer, and brittle as we age, and they cannot always keep up with the intensity of the work. When care is not taken, at some point something gets destroyed and you are injured. This is exactly what happened to me.

I started to feel the first pain at the back of my right thigh in October 2013, about two years ago. I cannot pinpoint an exact trauma, a sudden pain during a single run, it was more that it came gradually, and I could feel a discomfort every time I was running. Still, this was not really a big problem, after I got warmed up I could run fast and long without much pain, and with some massaging afterwards it would go quickly away until the next time. In March 2014, I started to increase my mileage and ran longer and longer, finally participating in Bergen City half marathon in April 2014. Although the injury did not really bother me that much during running, it started to bother me outside of running, like bending down to tie my shoe or pickup something from the floor became increasingly unpleasant. In May 2014, I had an MRI examination, which showed some edema in the middle of right buttock, and I started regular physiotherapy sessions. What happened later is already explained in several blog posts:

• As nothing improved, actually things got worse, I tried many different therapies.
•  During this time, although the pain got stronger, I refused to slow down, and just continued to run.
• Finally the injury climaxed and it was not possible to run anymore; I was forbidden to use my legs for 4 weeks.   
• After these weeks, the HSR therapy started.
• I was allowed to use my legs, but no running! I did a lot of uphill walking and strength training.
• In the summer, I concentrated on swimming as alternative training.
• After the summer, going back to uphill training gave a new boost in the healing of the injury.
• I started to race again; uphill races first, like Skåla Opp and Storehesten Opp.
• To keep myself motivated and amused, I tried out new things, like triathlon and open water swimming.

Now, I am slowly going back to running, and increasing my mileage cautiously. Yesterday, for the first time in several months, I participated in the regular Saturday uphill intervals of Melkesyre. There was no pain, and it simply felt wonderful. So have I fully recovered? No, not according to myself, but my physiotherapist says that my tendon is now strong enough to try out more and more running. I have almost no pain when doing my HSR exercises, and I can do a single leg back plank on my injured leg, and a single leg side plank on my injured side, without pain. There is still some discomfort and stiffness, but Ane says that it is mostly in my head now. My brain is used to sending out pain signals when the injured area is in action, and to be on the safe side it continues to send these signals even when things have healed. The recipe ahead is: try running more, but not more often than every other day. If pain or discomfort, step back, don't do exactly the same thing for a few days, before trying again.

But what should I do in the future to say out of injury? Of course one solution is moderation. Just do not exercise or run that much. I will then not improve that much either, but just being in good (not necessarily the best) shape is good enough for many. But what if you, like me, want to push it to the limits of your muscles and lungs, well then we have to learn to train more sensibly and more smart. Resting is very important, and as we get older we need more rest. I have also finally understood why zone 1 training is important. Not only does it improve your ability to run faster at lower heart rate, but our body also gets an incredible rush of HGH (human growth hormone - which gives us recovery and muscle repair)  during the first 30-40 minutes of a zone 1 session (after than it goes down to more regular values). So, for example, doing a 30 min zone 1 in the morning and a 30 min zone 1 in the afternoon, is better than doing an hour zone 1 at once. We also need days of complete rest; no training of any kind. But how to be able to get enough training and and enough rest? Perhaps training twice some days of the week might be a good way to achieve this? It requires care and dedication, and it would work best if you actually had time to sleep an hour after the first workout of the day. But who in full work has time for that? The most important thing seems to be to not waste time on moderate speed runs of moderate length, they do not improve our form according to professionals. We need long slow runs and short fast runs, or intervals. And not more than two or three real hard sessions a week. So many rules... what happened to the fun of just putting on your shoes and getting out whenever you feel for it? It is still out there, if that's what you want. You simply have to figure out what you want.

Then you will find a way; your own way!

Back to basics

Back to mountains; back to bootcamp!

Holiday in the sun with family and friends I don't get to see that often was truly wonderful, but you know that I was really really looking forward to getting back to some uphill training. Coming back home and going back to my routine training has been even better than expected. The few days back in Bergen have been full of wonderful training, and my legs are loving it. I have also been lucky to meet many of my running and training friends in just a few days, and I feel super energized with renewed motivation. I am still partly on holidays, and a few times this week I trained twice a day with some sleep in between. It is so nice that it strengthens my wish to be able to do this for a longer period some time in the future. I do keep telling myself, though, "Don't get carried away now; do not make the mistakes of the past". And believe me, I am cautious!

I wanted to do a real mountain hike as soon as coming back to Bergen, and I am blessed with friends who are so spontaneous that I could do it with them already the day after arrival at home. We had an easy pace hike up to Gullfjellet Wednesday afternoon, chatting and laughing all the way up and down. Still some snow there on the path towards the top, but much less than I was expecting, considering how much there was during the Gullfjellet Opp race in June. 

I also wanted to get back into serious strength training. Although I did quite a lot of it during the holidays, it is just not the same without an instructor or a trainer. Ketil is on holidays for another couple of weeks, and I wanted to fire up my muscles before resuming our personal training sessions. What better way to do it than to have double floor classes at Barry's Bootcamp?! My lovely training buddy Irene, who is by the way scheduled to give birth in three weeks and still in full training, and I made plans to go to some sessions together, and already Thursday morning I was at a core (abs) session under the instruction of Christian, and my goodness it was tough. I think I have left my abs a bit unattended during the past three weeks. Christian put high intensity and kept the heart rate going  high throughout the class, and I cannot ever remember to have sweated that much during a strength training session; sweat was dripping from my nose tip, ear flips, and elbows. Afterwards I was completely exhausted; I could not remove myself from the couch for several hours.

Christian is not only a great instructor; he is also an infinite source of motivation at all times. He has an incredible story, which is so inspiring that whenever I feel down or sorry for myself because of injury or pain, I read a couple of his posts to draw myself up. He has a serious illness, cystic fibrosis, which disables about 70% of his lung capacity. Without training he would actually die. In fact it is such a mind blowing dilemma. Thanks to his intensive training he is able to slow down the progression of his illness. However, he cannot become an old man unless he gets a lung transplantation, which he is not yet sick enough to get since he is fighting his illness so well. He improves his shape and runs marathons, and then comes a rainy winter with lots of infections where all training is lost, and he is back to square one. He repeats this restlessly over and over again. Whenever I feel like complaining, I think of Christian. He is so strong, and nobody should complain unless they fight at least as hard has him.

The same afternoon, Frank and I went for the regular Melkesyre Stoltzekleiven training. I pushed it but I was still a couple of minutes behind my personal record. A bit disappointing, since I was very close to my record just before the summer holidays, but OK since I had heavy legs from the strength training and the Gullfjellet hike, and it has after all been three weeks with no uphills. Fortunately, the race is still two months away, and I hope that gives enough time to get back into shape and improve my recorded race time. On the positive side, from the top of Stoltzekleiven we had a wonderful easy jog up to Rundemanen and Blåmanen, which was a lot of fun and went really well with respect to my injury.  My hamstrings are working quite well now for steep uphill fast walking and slow terrain running, although I am still no good at flat fast running. I think the treadmill intervals of Barry's bootcamp classes will be a nice way of getting back into speed training without putting too much strain on my injury, and on Friday I was planning to attend a regular class. But listening to my body (wow, I am good at this now!), I figured that it would be better to rest my legs, and I went again for a double floor class (no treadmill, just strength training for the whole hour). To my big surprise Ketil and his fiance Mona were there to attend the class, and I had the bench between Ketil and Irene, with Mona just behind; you can imagine the pressure I felt!

So great to meet and catch up with all these wonderful people all at once and so unexpectedly. The class was instructed by Tage the legendary, who brought Barry's Bootcamp to Norway, first to Bergen, then to Oslo, and soon to open a second branch in Bergen. No matter how good or bad shape you are in, bootcamp classes are a great way of getting into better shape. They can prepare you to start running faster or longer distances, in addition to making you stronger, or make you even faster and even stronger if you are already in great shape. I daresay it is more efficient than any other training for strength and speed.

In the meanwhile I am of course also back to my HSR training with the regular machines, and back to training sessions with Melkesyre. Although I do my own variant sometimes (walking up Stoltzekleiven instead of running intervals to Fløyen) it is simply wonderful to meet my gang before the start of a session and to rejoin them at the end. The HSR is going well, too. I was happy to see that I have kept or increased the weight on all exercises. On top of that, my injury feels even better now after a few days of uphills. The only disappointment is the leg curl which is still at the same weight and pain level as it was before the holidays. But I am able to do it properly and draw my leg all the way up to my butt. The day I will be able to increase the weight on this exercise will be a new milestone. I am looking forward to it!

Patience is power.