All the right excuses: Bergen Fjellmaraton 2018

A good race is all about the good excuses...

Many "unfortunate" things can happen before and during a 21 km terrain race with 1080 meters of elevation gain. But don't despair! Each of those things can be used as an explanation of not reaching your goal, or to make reaching your goal appear even more impressive. :-)

Bergen is bathing in sunshine and warm weather since the beginning of May. During my 31 years in this city, I cannot remember such a long and continuous period of warm, dry and sunny weather. The winter was unusually cold with excessive amounts of snow, and in early spring I was wondering whether all that snow would disappear early enough to start training for Bergen Fjellmaraton, which took place last Thursday evening. The snow did indeed disappear impressively fast, and the mountains of Bergen have been free of snow and during the entire month of May. So no good excuse there for not being able to train for the race.

In fact, I did get a lot of opportunity to train for the race. The nice and hot weather inspired for mountain running much more than street running. Except for asphalt intervals once a week, all my training was in the terrain involving a lot of uphill during May. But I did of course also have a lot of good excuses all the way! :-)

The sudden loss of form in April: You might remember that I had to take it really really easy during the the whole month of April, after training a bit too intensively in the early spring. But May has been pretty good, although my heart rate has been higher and my speed lower than usual. Concentrating on simply having fun, and never pushing too hard, I ended up doing 250 km distance and 9500 m elevation gain during the month of May, according to Strava.

No previous races in 2018: Last year, when I achieved my PB in Bergen Fjellmaraton, I had already participated in two half marathons earlier that year, in addition to a couple of 10k races, with pretty good results. This year, all I have had so far is my worst 5k and my worst 10k ever, plus a half marathon which I quit after 9k in the beginning of April. All my training since then has been pretty easy, except the intervals, and I was thinking that pushing hard would feel very unfamiliar after such a long time.

My mind elsewhere: Perhaps enjoying life is closely related to mastering challenges all the time, and when new challenges emerge, old ones might loose their importance a little bit. I started a new job on the 1st of May, with responsibility for 150 colleagues and 500 students. I am enjoying it immensely; not a single day is like the previous day, with endless challenges, opportunities, duties and tasks. I notice that my mind is occupied with work related things most of the time, and training and competitions have perhaps come somewhat in the background.

With all these wonderful excuses, I was prepared to take it easy and just have a great time over the mountains on Thursday. In fact, after my PB last year, I was so eager to do an even better time that I had signed up in the race class for this year's race. But thanks to my excuses, I changed to an earlier start so that I could go with most of my friends who have comparable finish times as myself. When, in morning of the race, Annbjørg wrote to me suggesting that we should aim for a really enjoyable experience with 3:30 as the finish time, I felt wonderfully uplifted, and let my shoulders even further down, expecting nothing else than a great hike in the sunshine.

The race day itself had room for even more excuses, and actually some good ones, too!

Lack of sleep: Working long hours, sleeping too little, having been to a party the night before the race, where I was standing the whole evening, blah blah blah, yeah, the usual stuff. 

The heat: Despite what most of my friends think (since I am from "the south"), I actually don't take hot weather that well. I was pretty worried about the sunny and warm evening of the race. But in the end this didn't turn out that bad. And there was a wonderful breeze in the right direction once on top of Ulriken.

Almost drowned at 4 km: Wanted to take a sip of water, while breathing heavily, and got it in the wrong tube. Coughing heavily, I had to stop completely and in fact ask for help from my fellow competitors to hit me on the back. I definitely lost a minute there! Yeah, at least! :-)

Fell and got badly bruised at 16 km:  So happy to have managed to run pretty fast down all the technical parts, just in front of Brushytten, where it is completely flat and on gravel ground I fell badly with high speed. Cramps got my legs immediately, blood started pouring out of my both knees and hands, and many kind people stopped to get me back on my feet. After a quick assessment of the situation and wondering whether I would be able to continue, I decided to try. To my surprise, I was able to get back at normal speed and did not feel any discomfort from the wounds (until after the finish line). I lost at least another minute there. Yeah, right! :-)

Despite all these wonderful excuses, it actually went pretty well the whole thing! It was my most enjoyable Fjellmaraton ever. I felt like I was taking it easy, but the speed was good, and my times at various milestones kept surprising me. And it all went very quickly. I was like, "Oh, already 8 km!?", "Oh, already Rundemanen!?" all the time. I think the low shoulders and the easy start helped a lot for the rest.

Also a lot of fortunate things can happen in a race, and they did. In fact, the reason for the good experience was vastly thanks to wonderful friends! It was as always great to gather at the start line and give each other inspiration, and then gather again at the finish and celebrate together. But the help I got from some of them during the race was just invaluable!

Jan-Tore, Linda, Annbjørg, Vibeke, Cathrine, Ove, Leif, Mette, Solveig: Jan-Tore, the kindest and most enthusiastic guy on earth, is usually a lot faster than me (similar speed to that of Frank). But these days he is struggling with a groin strain and has to take it easy especially downhill. Still I was expecting him to be some 10-15 minutes faster than me, I was really surprised to catch him around half way. After that we kept more or less together all the way to finish, Jan-Tore taking pictures and talking to everybody and entertaining all the time. I cannot describe how uplifting it was to just once in my life be able compete with him. I wish you quick recovery Jan-Tore, but until then let's race together as much as possible! :-D Then there was Linda, also normally faster than me, and as expected she came from behind and passed me around 4-5 km, stopping to take pictures, shouting encouraging words and smiling her dazzling big smile. But then quite unexpectedly, I caught her after a few more km, and then she caught me, and then I caught her, and we went like that all the way to finish. Such surprises gave a sudden surge of energy and instantly everything felt a lot easier. And then the cheering gang: Vibeke at Vikinghytten half way, got an energizing hug, Cathrine and Ove just before the ascent to Rundemanen, got high fives and good pep talk, and then Leif, Mette and Solveig on top of Rundemanen, with cheering words and big smiles. After that only the easy part left!

I finished only two minutes behind my PR from last year. One minute penalty for each of the kilos I have more now than this time last year. There! Yet another excuse which I forgot to mention! :-) And just imagine how it could have gone without the fall, the drinking incident and all the other wonderful excuses! :-D

Another terrain race next Thursday. Jan-Tore, are you in? 

(Photos courtesy of Jan-Tore and Cathrine.)

Wuthering heights

Or "gone with the wind"?

Both titles are fitting. Winter came early to Bergen this year, and most of my running has been at wuthering heights during the past couple of weeks. When it comes to my form and my willpower to push myself hard, both seem to have gone with the wind.

It is now four weeks since Amsterdam marathon, and things are slowly getting better, but really really slowly. At least the joy of running, the eagerness to train, and the pleasure of racing and practicing with friends are all back, and I am inexpressibly grateful for it. But I have still not got back the form I had just before Amsterdam. My training volume is much lower, too, both weekly mileage and how often I run. The day after a training session, I don't feel recovered enough, so every second day is a resting day.

The good news is: all this seems to be very normal. I have been a bit disappointed in myself because all my marathon friends seem to be doing much better than me. So I started to search and read about the subject. It turns out that getting back the form one had at the time of the marathon takes around 6 weeks. And that is if one is cautious and builds up the training volume and intensity very slowly, like the reverse of a taper. Because the risk of injury is higher all the way up to 8 weeks after a marathon. So, without knowing it, I have actually been following the recipe to the letter! Things are going forward, and I do have a plan.

As promised, I'm participating in the Blåmanen races, and the practices towards them. The weather has not really been on our side, but I find it easy to motivate myself to participate, because I allow myself to not push myself to the maximum. This is exactly my plan for the winter. Consider it low season. Do not try to impress anybody; just build form. Skip training when things don't feel right. Stay out of injury.  Participate in the coming uphill races, Blåmanen, Whisky run, and Fløyen. They provide the best possible training and wonderful social boost before and after the race.

For the first Blåmanen race last weekend, we woke up to the first snow of the season. "Oh, already on with the spike shoes... " Still I found the race on the snowy ground with a little sun shining between the clouds really pleasurable. Probably a bit too pleasurable, as my time was 2 minutes worse than last year. Of course there was snow and ice this year, which perhaps compensates for some of the lost time. On the other hand my running form was not at its top last year, so I should still have been able to do at least the same time. But hey! Now I have the wonderful excuse that it was still marathon recovery period :-)

The second Blåmanen race yesterday was a little bit worse. The conditions were a lot tougher. Windy, icy, rainy, ... Every step seemed to drag the energy of a kilometer out of me. At a few points I was so angry at the ground conditions and the wind that I shouted a few swear words. I think I managed to push a bit harder this time, but still I ended up walking more than I was planning to. On the other hand, on these steep hills, I am not sure that running is always faster than walking. I was happy at the end to see that I had exactly the same time as last year. Although the course is a bit flatter this year, the ground conditions weigh perhaps 3-4 minutes.

The final part of my plan for the winter is to go back to proper strength training. I really like weights, but for some reason I haven't found it easy to make time for this kind of training recently. So I have now signed up for weekly PT sessions with Ketil again, starting this coming week! I am really looking forward to them, and I know that he will very quickly bring back my motivation to become strong again.

Only two more weeks to tiptop shape! :-)

Back in mountain business: Ulriken Opp 2016

Sorgen forgikk meg på Ulrikens topp...

Third race and third personal record of 2016! Yesterday I participated in the Ulriken Opp mountain race. It has two versions; one of length 1.7 km with elevation gain 410 m, and one of length 3.6 km with elevation gain 605 m. With almost no mountain training since December, I did not dare to do the long one. Moreover, I had done the short course two years ago, and I wanted to see if I could beat my time from then.

In 2014, my first time in this race, the short course took me 26 minutes and 45 seconds. Last year I was in shape to do better, but I could not participate due to injury. This year, I did not know what to expect. Since the Christmas Whisky Race in December, I have not been running up mountains. However, I did start uphill interval training three weeks ago, and I have done a few trail runs involving steep hills. My general form has been improving, albeit slowly, since I started running again in September, and my time at Bergen City half marathon was better this year than in 2014. So I had some hope of beating my time from 2014 also in this race.

But not practicing at all is really a drawback. With no form improvement, just practicing the course a couple of times can improve the race time with at least about a minute. Fortunately, when I was in Bergen about a month ago, I had a go up Stoltzekleiven, which was faster than I had expected, and that gave me some additional hope and mental confidence that I would be able to push myself yesterday.

The first couple of hundred meters of the short course are not as steep as the rest, and it is easy to do the mistake of running too fast at this point. It never pays off! I think I was able to do it more or less correctly. Then it gets steeper, and it is important to find a pace that is fast enough but still saves your energy for the last part. The last 700 m are brutally steep, and then you just have to go with all that you have. I was so lucky that many of my friends from Varegg/Melkesyre/Fjellgeitene were standing by and cheering at this last part of the course. I had in particular outstanding help from Åshild just before the stairs at the end. Not only did she cheer and push, but she also started running by me! With her help I started to run and kept running all the way to the stairs. At the finish, I was totally exhausted and my arms ached badly, which for me is a sign that I did my best (I think it is lactic acid creeping all the way up). As threw myself at the feet of my friend Michal who came to finish just before me (and whom I tried to catch all the way), I was very happy with my finish time: 25:12. One and a half minutes better than 2014!

Almost all goals of 2015 got killed by injury, and Stoltzekleiven was the single personal record of last year. With that background it feels indescribably wonderful to break my previous records on all the races of this year so far. Perhaps it is not entirely correct to speak about a record for the Deer Race of February, as it was the first time, but since it gave me my first class victory ever, I think it counts. For next year, I set it as a goal to do the long course with the aim of finishing in less than 40 minutes. Of course the main goal is to manage to stay out of injury...

Shit happens; look forward, be dedicated, and surround yourself with good people!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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