I want to ride my bicycle... or do I?

There are nine million bicycles in Bergen....

Or was it Beijing? At least it feels like that in Bergen right now! "Everybody" is preparing for the Bergen - Voss race, and they are all so fast...

I cannot make up my mind about whether or not I like biking as a training form. I remember when reading Haruki Murakami's book about running how much I agreed with him about the drawbacks of biking: your speed does not depend only on your strength and endurance, like in running. It depends on so many other things, like having a good and light bike, not being afraid of speed, whether you are good in maneuvering around all sorts of obstacles like people, kids, animals, and vehicles on your way... and the 9 million other bikers...

After experimenting a bit with triathlon, I was quite demotivated by the slowness of my heavy hybrid bike. So in winter Frank and I bought racing bikes. And the difference is indeed amazing. But it took me some time to get to the point where I could actually experience the difference. First I had to get past the obstacle of click pedals...

I knew that I would struggle with biking when the feet are locked to the pedals. I had tried this once a couple of years ago, fallen badly, and given it up. But now there was no way around it. During the winter, I put my bike on a stationary roller, and used it for restitution as often as I could. At the same time, I clicked my shoes on and off the pedals a million times to let it become natural. When the spring came, though, and we went for our first biking session outdoors, things did not work as easily as I hoped for. Just at the parking lot, before we even started, I fell twice trying to mount on the bike, and Frank and I were both wondering whether we would at all be biking that day. The thing is, unfortunately, it takes some falling before the brain realizes that it should very quickly unlock the correct foot before trying to set it on the ground. There is no help in soundly standing still with one foot on the ground, if you suddenly want to put also the other foot on the ground forgetting that it is still locked to the pedal. 

Of course things depend on earlier experiences. Although I could bike as a kid, it was never a natural part of my daily life. Growing up in a big city, we would take the bikes with us to a park and bike there. In contrast, Frank was biking daily as a kid, even participating in some small competitions. Even though I have biked more than him as an adult, his balance and confidence that comes from childhood is incomparable to mine. For him lock pedals were not a problem at all. After a couple of biking sessions, I was still feeling pretty insecure, and started to discuss whether I should go for another brand of lock pedals that some said were easier to click in and out of.  I discussed the matter with Knut Bøe, the legendary biker who now owns the bike shop we bought our bikes from (in fact I've discussed so many things with Knut, and we have been in the shop for advice and help so many times; he is an extremely inspiring and motivating person!), and concluded that I simply needed more practice.

 

So here I am now. Lock pedals are working fine; it has become natural to click in and out of them without thinking. Back/shoulder/butt aches from long rides are getting less and less painful, and more bearable. I still don't have the level of balance I would have liked. For example, slowing down during a race to get a bottle of drink offered and actually drinking and eating while riding still seem like distant dreams. But  as long as I have things to work on and improve,  I am somewhat motivated.

The problem is... I simply don't enjoy it that much. Oh, so there I've said it. Biking works perfect as recreation and restitution. But it is a pretty inefficient way of training to improve form. You need so many more hours than for running, you need free passage, empty roads, no people, no cars, and most importantly no other bikers. At least I do. I am so cautious that I slow down for people, cars, and especially unpredictable obstacles like kids and animals. But most other (faster) bikers don't. So there I am, slowing down in wait of an opening, and suddenly comes a fast biker and passes me and takes my opening before my path is again clogged with people. I know many of my friends won't like me saying this, but what I find among the biggest obstacles in improving my biking skills and increasing my enjoyment, are some of the fastest bikers out there.

Early Sunday mornings work fine. Before everybody else is out. Say from 8-11, you can get a lot of km done in peace and quiet, with as much speed as you dare. But here is only one Sunday a week... And I seem to be mostly motivated for this kind of commitment when I have an injury or pain that prevents me from running.

Oh well, we'll all see how it goes. It took me years to start enjoying running, so perhaps time is all that it takes. Once (if ever!) I have better balance and speed, and can join the group rides of Fjellgeitene, I am sure it can become much more fun.

And I am going to their after-party of the Bergen-Voss race!! :-D

Negative split at last! (Bergen City Halfmarathon)

Listen to your heart.... 

Yes, you know that all my training is about keeping the right heart rate these days, and little by little, it is giving more and more results. Just a quick recap of the recommendations (first from Mats and Christian, and then from Dag): all training happens either at zone 1 or at threshold heart rate, even the intervals. If anything happens in between, then it is progressive training where I start from zone 1 and work my way up to threshold HR, increasing speed at regular intervals. Already before the mentioned recommendations, I had started to not exceed the threshold heart rate, following the blog of Ingrid Kristiansen, but I was not good with zone 1 runs then. Now I have a lot of zone 1 in my training, not always by running but also by mountain hiking, swimming or biking. 

OK so what are the results? Not that they are very impressive (yet!) but still motivating: 10k PB in January, PB in the Fløyenkarusellen uphill race in February, my second best half marathon time ever in March, and PB of the Bergen City half marathon course two days ago. The improvements are small, mind you, but set into the following perspective, they are really uplifting: injury and no running in the whole of 2015, and falling behind of most my previous records during 2016. I am still VERY happy with 2016, as it gave me so many new experiences with a whole bunch of running buddies in Istanbul plus the euphoria of completing a marathon decently. But in 2017, I am finally catching up with myself of 2014! :-)

I won't bore you with the details of the race on Saturday, but I have some observations that I found interesting and that you might find helpful in your training. After the fitness test in March, Dag told me to start a long race well below threshold heart rate. On the other hand my threshold HR had fallen down to my zone 3, so I knew that there was no way to get a good half marathon time that way. So, three weeks ago I participated in a local, low profile half marathon just to test what I could do. I was not at all well rested for this race, but I managed to keep the pace I had decided beforehand very evenly until the end. The interesting part is that I was already at threshold HR from start, and after half way, although my speed was the same, my HR increased by about 10 beats. It was great to experience that I could go with much higher HR than I was told, and this helped me a lot during the Bergen City half marathon. For the first time ever in a race, I finally achieved negative split! My average pace was 10 seconds faster per km in the second half of the race compared to the first half.

I think the best way to become better at half marathon is to race more half marathons. In 2014, although I was faster in a sense, I did not at all have the same endurance as now. At that time, participating in a low profile half marathon that goes inside a forest was something I would not be able to motivate myself for. But now I can just join a race whenever I feel for it, without particular preparations, and this was actually my goal all the way from the start. When you race more, you get to know your body and your heart better, and you get to test how much you can push and when. My experience is that every half marathon feels easier than the previous, in fact quite pleasant. To keep the motivation throughout a race, I have acquired quite a few tricks which work really well for me:

Music. I just started with this recently, during the preparations for Amsterdam marathon. It was not easy to keep the motivation and the spirits high during the last long training runs, and I discovered how much better I felt when listening to music. My music list is very embarrassing, containing a crazy blend of old and new, oriental and pop songs, a complete mix of genres, but all fast and very rhythmic. Pick whatever works for you and try it out, especially if you have problems with motivation or losing speed during a long race.

Positive feedback. I find giving positive feedback to others during a race extremely rewarding. You get even more positive response back, and I always feel a rush of energy and increase of speed after such incidents. It is of course best if this comes naturally, but if not, perhaps you can even fake it until to you make it. ;-) I get very emotional during races, and whenever I see something or someone that moves me, I give a cheer, a clap, a thumb up, etc. This time, first it was the lady who was running inside a huge logo of the main sponsor of the race. I had read about her in the newspaper, but when I saw her at about the second km, I was surprised by how huge and impossible to run in her costume was. I clapped, cheered and gave her a thump up, and her response was invaluable! I repeated this whenever I felt for it: racers in wheelchairs, racers with strollers, slower marathoners who were still in their second round, ... Their response was so rewarding, and I immediately felt the increase in my speed. I was also fortunate to have many friends along the course who cheered me, Melkesyre with their kettle bells at the worst hill as always, Stian the world champ who ran with me along Fjellveien, Kari and Caroline who showed up surprisingly at unexpected places, and then the Melkesyre gang just 200 m before finish again. It helps, and it also proves that it's all in the head.

Nutrition. I always stop at every drink station. Whenever I did not do this it got back at me, so now I never skip one even if I feel good to go. About 200 m before a station I take a gel, and then I take two cups of water which also help clear my mouth and clean my sticky hands. Although one looses about 10-15 seconds by this (stopping means slowing down or walking), I think it pays off as better pace during the next few kilometers. At least for myself, I always feel a surge of energy and increased motivation after this. It is also a nice rewarding scheme; whatever the distance you are running, you can concentrate on the next drink station, promising yourself a short rest when you reach that point. It makes it easier to push when you have milestones.

Not exactly advice from an expert, but sometimes experiences of a peer might be more valuable than expert or elite advice. Last but not least: If you're struggling, don't forget that going easier on training might turn frustration into fun and improvement.

Total decline

Numbers don't lie...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Something bit my butt

I should have bitten my tongue...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spreading the joy or going for everything at once?

Tri or not tri; that's the question.

Last weekend I participated in a triathlon training weekend for ladies. Most of the other participants were experienced triathletes, with several iron(wo)men 140.6, but I managed to hang in there. Perhaps a bit too well, as I have been experiencing some hamstrings pain since then, so I might have pushed it too much. But hey, what happened to "variation is good"? And there was variation all right!

It started with swimming Friday evening. And mind you not just regular swimming, very interesting swimming drills. I have never been to a swim training before. Inexplicably, I have been able to swim freestyle naturally since I was a kid, so I have simply stuck to that, and grabbed a few tips on the way here and there from swimmer friends. But swim training turned out to be quite different than what I expected. Swim with one arm ahead and one arm on the side of your body (like Superman) using only your legs. Then swim both arms on the side of your body, rotating from side to side every 6 kicks. Then the most difficult: swim with one arm ahead, and one arm in the air perpendicular to your body. Mind you, you must also breath every now and then, and do it right, without falling on your back. At the end of the evening, I had a lot of neck pain. I must learn to keep my head straight.

Saturday started also with swimming. For warmups we had to do various swim styles, back, chest, and something I had never tried before: butterfly! A lot of fun. Then there were intervals, and there was breathing every 5 strokes and then every 7 strokes. And then there was breathing where only one of your goggles shows. I didn't know that there was so much more you could do in the swimming pool than just regular swimming. And it turns out that simply regular swimming is actually what you should not do. You should do drills and intervals every single time. And it is better to go to the pool three times a week 30 min each, rather than once 90 minutes. I must admit this became a bit too overwhelming to me. How to find time for this, when you also want to continue with your other activities?

Anyway, then there was the spinning, and I think this is where I might have pushed too hard. My legs are not used to biking a lot, and we did some pretty serious intervals, which I thought went pretty well. But I think I might have exhausted my hamstrings and noticed it only when I started running. The running training was fun but the advice was a bit frustrating. I have heard it many times before: You have to run with a frequency of 180 steps or more per minute. I find this very difficult. Still I did stick to it during the running training of the weekend, but I could already feel my hamstrings complaining about this frequency. During the healing of my hamstrings injury in 2015, my physiotherapist advised me to use the "whole movement" of the leg, i.e, push your leg all the way to the back. But with high frequency, the steps get shorter and the movement not so "smooth". When my body works in a different way than the expert advice, I get a bit demotivated, and start worrying too much about what to do.

Then there was more swimming and more running on Sunday, and there was a lot of fun. So many wonderful women, and I was very lucky to have my friends Irene, Wenche, and Torunn there with me. So many interesting stories, and so inspiring to see that ironwomen bodies come in all sizes and shapes. I also got some very interesting tips that I had never heard before: For long races, we were advised to try the 9-1 running to improve our race time. Run 9 minutes, walk 1 minute, run 9 minutes, walk 1 minute, from start to end. I have been calculating and calculating every since, whether this could make sense for me. It was said that this is the way to go for everybody who is slower than 3:15 in a marathon. I will try it at the first opportunity and let you know how it goes.

Contrary to what I was expecting, the triathlon weekend did not really boost my enthusiasm for triathlon. Perhaps because I realized how much serious swimming and biking training is involved. By serious I mean that it is not "just" swimming and biking, but drills, intervals, hills, etc. Frank and I have been considering seriously the Ironman 70.3 in Haugesund in July this year. This is exactly why we bought new bikes a couple of months ago. I was thinking that all I need to do is to start swimming once a week in the beginning of June, and get the biking under control. Biking (with locked pedals) is the thing I am the most worried about, and I thought simply feeling safe would be enough. Well, I think it is still "enough" in the sense that I would be able to finish within the cut-off times of each of the disciplines. But the question is whether I should hurry and do it this year, or I should use the summer season to get better at biking, and then rather save Haugesund for next year?

Since I have been experiencing a nice form improvement, I am having a lot of fun already with getting new PBs in the local races around Bergen. So I could just concentrate on this for this year, and I could start on new challenges next year. I could still do the shorter triathlons, like Os and Strilamann this year, but not let triathlon become the main goal of the year. Last year, marathon was a new challenge. Do I need new challenges every year, or should I spread the joy over a longer time period? I still haven't made up my mind. I have an invitation to join Haugesund at a reduced price. The offer expires on March 1, and then it will be 1000 NOK more expensive to sign up.

I have three days to decide; what do you think?

Winter training that actually works!

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Train smarter, race faster!

Going vegan or going hungry?

An apple a day keeps the doctor away...

Last blog post received so many interesting comments that I wanted to continue a little bit more on the nutrition thread. During the Christmas break, I stumbled upon a few programs on BBC tv. The one program was about the benefits of vegan lifestyle, and the other was about how fasting for 24-72 hours every now and then can be beneficial for your health. The indications were so strong that I got really curious about both. But I also have some questions that I haven't found the answers to.

Fasting
Now let's start with this one, since I do in fact have some experience with this. Three times, during 2014 and 2015, I completed a three-day juice program. At that time, I did it mainly for weight management, but now I have learned that the benefits are so much more. In fact, the 2016 Nobel Prize winner in medicine and physiology, Yoshinori Ohsumi, got the prize exactly because of his research showing the benefits of hunger on the renewal of human cells.  The bottom line of the story is that when we go hungry (less than 500 kcal a day) for 1-3 days, the growth of new cells in our body slows down, and instead the body starts repairing existing cells. For a person with high cholesterol and blood pressure, such a diet can reduce the values to normal, even just after fasting once (then you have to do it every now and then to keep the good effect). Even for healthy people, this process is documented to slow down aging, and it might cancel or postpone the risk of serious diseases.
  
Vegan diet
The benefits of vegan diet seem to be very comparable to the benefits of fasting. Animal protein is one of the foremost promoter of the growth of new cells in our bodies. The production of new cells is good when we are young, but as we get older it also means quicker aging. Vegans, in average, not only live longer, but they also age better. Meaning that they stay healthy and young looking until very old age. Vegans are also in average slimmer, they almost never suffer from heart strokes, and there is a lower occurrence of cancer among them.

The benefits of going hungry or going vegan seem to be endless. And since benefits of both methods seem pretty similar, we can probably choose which one we would like to apply, if any. If the idea of going hungry a day or three every now and then (it is really not that difficult) seems doable, perhaps that is easier for you than to change your whole diet. Or perhaps anyways you have reduced animal products quite a lot, and the way to a vegan lifestyle is not so long. I must admit that I got inspired to try another juice program; I'm starting already on Monday!

Now, let us be more critical. Of course if you compare vegan lifestyle or periodic fasting to "normal" unhealthy eating habits (yes, unfortunately normal - meaning average - eating habits are unhealthy), the benefits are huge. But what if you are, like me, a person who is quite careful about what you eat, and avoid unhealthy fats, sugar, white flour, starch, prefabricated foods, and fried foods? What if your diet already contains a lot of vegetables and otherwise consists of fruit, lean meats, whole grains and nuts? Unfortunately I could not find any studies that compare such a life style with that of a vegan. One of the arguments used by vegan sites is that our ancestors did not eat meat or animal products. But we live longer today than our ancestors, and our brains have evolved a lot since their times. Could this be due to animal products? And how about athletes who want to improve running form or body strength? Are we not dependent on muscle growth?

I am sure both "sides" of the debate can give convincing answers to my questions one way or the other. While I was thinking about these things, I ended up watching another program on Norwegian NRK tv, this time, about areas in Europe where people live longer and stay healthier than the average European. Now, these places had very little in common in their diets. Toulouse in France (lots of duck, blue cheese and red wine), Iceland (almost no vegetables, lots of dried meat, fresh fish), and a small place in Italy (lots of olive oil, vegetables and fresh made pasta). The conclusion of the researchers was that there might be some components in these diets that are balancing out each other. However, they had one thing in common: almost no industrially processed foods.

What seems to be sure is that average European diet nowadays contains too much meat and animal products, and too much processed or prefabricated food. So, even if you don't want to go vegetarian or vegan, cutting down on meats and animal products is definitely a good idea. Avoiding processed and prefabricated foods (instant soups, sauces, cereal, packed snacks, etc) is probably even more important. Fasting a day or three, a few times a year, especially on resting days when you are not planning heavy exercise, can also be a good component to add to your routine.

For myself, I am inclined to continue with my dairy-free diet. I am enjoying it more and more, and it is surprisingly easy. I feel light and energized, and my form is actually improving. I have also discovered how much calcium there is in green vegetables, especially kale! I have calculated that I get more than enough of calcium without any dairy. So I was probably getting too much calcium earlier. That might also be a slow down of form, I have read. On top of my dairy-free diet, I am eating more fish and less meat, and I have almost stopped eating chicken. A couple of times a year, like after Christmas and after summer holidays, I might do a three-day juice program, to balance the effects of junk food and too much wine ;-)

Say yes to new adventures! (Better an "oops" than a "what if"...)