Maridalen course: light endurance ride

Sunset-Oslo

Finally back on the bike again after some weeks of recovery. I've been using the bike far to little both in the second and third quarter this year. In the fourth quarter I've scheduled one session a week. The aim with todays workout was to prepare the body for that kind of training in the months to come. Initially the body felt a bit rusty, but I soon got the hang of it. After 20 minutes of cycling I started to feel fresher in my feet and managed to speed up a bit. It was an evening session and it shure is getting chilly outside. Hopefully I will be getting some more weeks outside on the bike before winter is settling and forcing me to ride on stationary wheels inside.
I experienced problems with the cadence sensor. I need to sort that out before next session.

Technicals:
-Distance: 17,9 km
-Time:  50m 00s
-Average speed: 21,4 km/h
-Cadence, average: didn't function-needs mending
-Elevation gained: 134m
-Calories:  886 kcal
-Average heart rate(max): 154
-Weather: dark, windy, low humidity, chilly, 5 degrees celsius

The GARMIN logfile can be found here:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/52970581

Running: light endurance session

Thueringen Ultra-2010

Three days since my last running session. Back then I experienced discomfort both in my knees-especially the left-and in my butt. No wonder then I was a bit worried as I set out for a light running session in the evening chill. Autumn is definately here-as a matter of fact winter is fast approaching. My body and feet felt pretty fresh tonight. I almost felt airborne from time to time in a way that it didn't cost me anything to run at pace just a slight slower than marathon pace. In addition I didn't feel any discomfort to mention at all. I'm especially happy for not feeling anything in my knees. I'm pretty certain that Yesterdays strength-session made a difference on that matter.
Anyway, my aim was just to have a light endurance-session to prepare the body for the training in the fourth quarter. Mission completed so far.

Technicals:
-Distance: 5,41 km
-Time:  28m 51s
-Average pace: 5:19 min/km
-Elevation gained: 52 m
-Calories:  379 kcal
-Average heart rate(max): Not monitored.
-Shoes: Saucony Kinvara

The GARMIN logfile can be found at:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/52857461

Strength-training: beginning of the 4th quarter

Autumn-Nordmarka, Oslo

It feels good to resume strength-training. It seems like to much effort put in running and leaving cross-training out, results in injuries. Right now I'm having some difficulties with my knees-especially my left knee. After 30 minutes of light strength-training it felt better. This 4th quarter I'm doing three exercises. Deadlift, squat and seated rowing. Length of each workout is 30 minutes. The most of it is dedicated to seated rowing(15 min). On average two sessions a week. The purpouse with this is to strenghten my core. It is one of my limiters when it comes to basic strength and I'm putting more emphasis on correcting that now. Hopefully I shall se some results of it in Bislett 24h race at the of Nov-2010(in just over 6 weeks).

1. Technicals:

-Warm-up: 5 min running on treadmill
-Seated rowing: 10 minutes, ligth load + 4 minutes, light load
-Squats: 1 set/6 reps/40 % load, 1 set/6 reps/50 % load, 1 set/4 rep/40 % load
-Deadlift: 3 set/4 reps/50 % load
-Stretching: 6 minutes
-Time, total: 41 minutes
-Workout time: 30 minutes.

Kikut-loop: long run

Towards Kikuttoppen

What a beautiful day! Late autumn, ligth breeze, sun and lovely colours in the woods.
When getting the opportunity I try to extend the period of which I run in the woods before the winter is putting these kind of activities to an end. I ran mostly on gravel roads and a short section on trail. My aim with todays workout was to have a medium, long run, practising routines I need to make use of at Bislett 24h-race at the end of November this year. I was a bit anxious to to learn how my body would react a week after my last training session, which also happened to be a long run. I have stayed away from training the whole week deliberately in order to recover properly before starting on a new meso-cycle(fourth quarter of 2010).
Well, I have lost some fitness during the last two week-mostly speed. I experienced some discomfort in my butt during the run but not much. The final 5km the knee were starting to bother me and after the run I could barely walk. Interesting.. I had some similar pains in Thueringen Ultra, 3th of July this year and some minor pain at Berlin Marathon two weeks ago, but this was more painful. The question is what my measures are going to be. Initially I've decided to monitor it closely, put of the next running session till the end of the coming week and after two sessions of cross-training. In addition I'm down on wolume on my next long run the next Sunday.

Lake Skjærsjøen

I did 25 minutes of running and 5 minutes of walking. The running part I tried to make easy crusing at 5:30-6:00. The walking part I aimed to stay between 8:00-9:00, and not over 10:00. To some degree I managed to do so. Average pace was down a bit due to a part on trails, and a toilette visit after 5,5 km. In addition elevation gained was 596 m-that had an affect on my average pace as well. My feet weren't as fresh as I hoped they would be, but I guess that's just what to expect after a period of recovery with little running.
Next week is preparation-period. Time to prepare the body and mind for some basic training again.

Tecnicals:
-Distance: 35,28 km
-Time: 4h 26m 52s
-Average pace: 7:33 min/km
-Average moving pace: 6:48 min/km
-Elevation gained: 596 m(16,9 m/km). I need to get down under 10 in the basic period.
-Calories: 2.410 kcal. I guess half of this was replaced. I need to increase my energy-intake. Improvement task in the basic-period.
-Average heart rate(max): Not monitored.
-Shoes: Mizuno Aero 8.
-Weather: Partly sun, 8-10 degrees celsius, breeze, low humidity in the air

The GARMIN logfile can be found at:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/52407095

Monthly report: Sep-2010

UltraBirken-2010

In short this month has consisted of two weeks of tapering and an competition period of two weeks-the latter with one A-priority competition at the end of the week.
In the beginning of the tapering-period I suffered from a ligth stretch in both my hamstrings. In addition I was subjected to a virusinfection that put me off for a couple off days.
At the end of the tapering period I felt very fit, but experienced injury-problems. I had pain in my butt  right where the muscles of the feet is attached to the butt. I spent some time stretching and made use of ice and managed to reduce the pain. I didn't disappear, though.
First week of the competition period I participated in the race UltraBirken. I finsihed, but somewhat slower than I'd expected. I experienced again pain in my butt and felt a bit unfit on race-day. I endured a great deal of pain to finish the race. The race was nearly pure trail and I need to train more on racelike conditions to improve on my finish time.
Second week of the competition period I was just resting and trying to recover after UltraBirken which cost a lot of effort to finish. Anyway, I felt rather fit at Berlin Marathon and managed again to finish at PB under difficult conditions with a crowdlike race and lousy weather.

Evaluation:
I went through three, tough races in August-the last one at the end of the month-and I didn't recover properly before starting the tapering period. As a matter of fact I needed to start the tapering period a week earlier. I've been putting a lot of strain on my body both in July and August and I suffered from that in September. I have scheduled to many competitions on a limited time-range. In addition I'm not good enough to differ between hard and easy workouts. Further on my quality workouts is to lengthy. Not including cross-training in
the building period was a mistake. I paid the price with experiencing injuries in my hamstrings and butt.
Both the races taught me invaluable lessons. First I need to train more in the terrain to improve on my time. Second I'm able to endure a lot of pain allready and I'm sure that I can improve a lot on that area by including mental training in my programme. Thirdly, I need to improve on my nutrition-intake during my races-I have to establish a routine. Fourth, my core is weak and I need to improve on that in order to increase on my running pace and keep it steady over the whole time of the race. Fifth, I'm attending to many races. It wears me out and leave me less prepared for the important races. Sixth, I need to improve on my recovery routine-in general and after competitions.

1. Total activity:
-Workouts: 12, including 2 A-priority competitions
-Distance: 224,9 km
-Time: 25h 3m 4s
-Verticals: 2.948 m
-Calories: 14.805 C
-Days off: 18 days of 30(60 %, the whole month is in the tapering and competition period adn half a week in the transition period).

2. Running:
-Workouts:10
-Distance: 208,59 km
-Time: 23h 21m 50s
-Verticals: 2.836 m
-Calories: 13.919 C

3. Bike:
-Workouts: 1
-Distance: 16,34 km
-Time:  51m 14s
-Verticals: 112 m
-Calories: 886 C

4. Strength:
-Workouts: 0
-Time: 0m

5. Flexibility:
-Workouts: 1 (sportsmassage)
-Time: 50m

6. Shoes(as of 3th of Oct):
-Mizuno Wave Ronin (purchased 8.4.10)     : 512 km
-Puma Concinnity (purchased 30.4.10)        : 220 km
-Montrail Masochist (purchased 14.5.10)     : 415 km
-Mizuno Wave Aero 8 (purchased 28.7.10) : 146 km
-Saucony Kinvara (purchased 9.9.10)          : 56 km
-Puma Trailfox (purchased sep 2006)          : 40 km

Weakly report: 39/10

From Nordmarka-Oslo,  Photo by Ole Arne Schlytter

Originally I planned it to be a transition week, but I decided to extend the third quarter a bit leaving room for some recovery activity and a long run on trails before the winter.

I had a recovery session on the bike and a short, recovery run. In addition I started swimming again which felt pretty good. I'd missed that part of my training. Now it's back again. I've scheduled one session a week throughout the whole winter. Finally I had a wonderful, long run on trails along Nordmarka from north to south accompanied with some runner-friends of mine. We had a good run in spite of a lousy weather.
It has been a pretty though third quarter, but I've managed to perfom well in the races I've attended. I'll evaluate the quarter in a separate report, but I feel that there's a potensial for better performances if I make sure to get proper recovery. I feel now that I've been training and racing a bit hard both the second and the third quarter. It's time to go for another approach the fourth quarter this year and the first quarter next year.
I'll write more about that later, but I need to get better to distinguish between low- and high-intensity training. In the last two quarters I've been wearing my body down a bit leaving me not fully rested before the next race or workout. I can't keep on doing it this way in the time to come. I'll do a thorough evaluation in a quarterly report next week. Next week it's tranistion and I'll begin training again on Saturday.


Technicals: 

1. Total amount of training since 1th of January: 
246,4h/ 7,25h pr week(Running: 194,6h/1.802,8 km) 
Verticals: Not monitored before 6th of June 

2. Total amount of training since 12th of July: 
95,2h /7,9h pr week (Running: 86,3h/ 783,9 km) 
Verticals: 11.814 m( Running: 11.064 m) 

3. Total amount of training this week:
8,8h(Running: 6,7h / 49,9 km)
Verticals: 884 m(Running: 771 m) 

4. Body weight: 70,2 kg
(Sunday morning) 

5. Shoes:
-Mizuno Wave Ronin (purchased 8.4.10)     : 512 km
-Puma Concinnity (purchased 30.4.10)        : 220 km
-Montrail Masochist (purchased 14.5.10)     : 415 km
-Mizuno Wave Aero 8 (purchased 28.7.10) : 150,4 km
-Saucony Kinvara (purchased 9.9.10)          : 56 km
-Puma Trailfox (purchased sep 2006)          : 85,5 km

Nordmarka-Oslo: Autumn run

At the start-lake Mylla

Spirit is good as we travel by train towards our destination Grua. Todays run is going to be the last long run in the terrain before the winter. Luckilly I've been accompanied with some of my runner-friends-Gunnar, Leyla, Thore and Ole-Arne. After a short drive from the train station we're ready to embark on our journey on trails towards Sognsvann-some 50 km longer south. We all agree that this is going to be both a social happening as well as a long run. The point is to spend a great deal of time in the terrain and have fun.

Our first port of call is the mountain top-Kolleren, situated at 688 m above sea-level-a difference in height from our starting point at the eastern end of the lake Mylla of almost 200 m. Distance is just over 5km.

At Kolleren

Not a soft start-the trail moves steeply upwards the first km and we're quickly gaining height. Conditions are demanding today with densed rain and a very wet trail, but we've decided to have a good run and continue along the trail. The trail is marked-or suppose to be marked-so I follow the course carefully as self-appointed navigator as we head for our next target. The conditions set aside, it's beautiful terrain. It's Nordmarka exhibiting it's best parts. The course levels out and we soon pass the lovely lake Aasjøen. Shortly after we begin the final ascend towards the top Kolleren. A km longer down the road we're experiencing a demanding situation as we have lost our marking, the fog is closing up and we're a bit uncertain about were to head. A bit of active working with the compass and the map and we reach the top after some serious off-road running having spent just over 1h and 20m to cover 5,5 km. Not very impressing, but we managed to solve what could have developed in to a serious situation, and we reached our destination. I'm sure the view from the top is magnificent but today we saw almost nothing.
A short break to have some snack and we're on our way towards our next check point-Katnosa Gård. The trail descends rapidly and the forrest soon gives shelter from the stiff winds present up on the mountain.
It is also more visible now, good marked and takes us along beautiful wooden trails that makes an impression in spite of a lousy weather. A good path gives less consern about our whereabouts.

Katnosa

After some time we're able to see one of Nordmarka's most lovely lakes Gjerdingen. Indeed it's marvellous to be out running in the woods. We've managed to move forwards at a greater pace than on the first lap, and after a while we're making the last descend down to the fram Katnosa. At this point we've spent 3h to cover 14 km-1h 40m on the last lap. Not an impressing pace, but the conditions are demanding and we're moving forward as a team. Having enjoyed our run so far we decide to increase our average pace by running the next lap on gravel roads. Our next check point will be Sandungen Gård-situated by the lakes Store og Vesle Sandungen.
As we move forward we suddenly realise we're not alone in the woods in spite of the dreadfull weather. It's hunting season and we spend some minutes talking to some nice people with a different aim than ours this day.
Pace is definately up as we're covering ground towards Sandungen. The last descend brings us down to Sandungen Gård. During the run I get a chance to speak with Leyla. She's pretty new in the ultra-arena, like myself actually. She's been doing a few training runs and ran her first ultra-race at Romerike 6h earlier this year, finishing with a distance of just over 52 km. That's a pretty good first-time performance. It's also pretty impressive to embark on a run like this. The length of the distance is one thing, but with more than half of it on terrain and under lousy conditions, it is nothing more than impressive to take part and complete it.

Sandungen

At Sandungen Gård, 3h 45m from start we've covered 20 km. Weather is still lousy and having spent some more time than we thought we would the decision to run a faster course towards our next check-point Kikut, is soon reached. Instead of running straight south and visiting the mountain-top "Kikuttoppen" we decide to run south of the lake st Sandungen towards Hakloa and run south on gravel roads towards our check-point from there. Kikut is a very welcome check-point as it will provide us a shelter from the wind and rain, an opportunity to warm up a bit, have something warm to eat and a longer rest.
The trail south of the lake st Sandungen is good and pleasant to run. It's pretty wet though. 
During the remains of the lap Ole Arne tells me he's been an active runner for some years, but have recently started running again after a two year break pursuing another passion-photographing. I'm pretty certain he'll be up and running again so to say after a period of patient training.

Kikut

After some time on the road we finally approach Kikut and get a chance to step inside, warm up and have something to eat and drink. The cottage is cousy and warm. Time passes by as we enjoy the warmth by the fire, the food and talk about just about anything that we se fit-most of it running though. It appears that both Thore and I are participitating in Fredrikstad marathon later this month and Bislet 24h at the end of next month.
All good things must come to and end and we decide to head for our final port of call-Sognsvann. The course now is almost completely on gravel roads and passes Bjørnholt and the lake Skjærsjøvannet.

Sognsvann-final destination

Darkness is fast approaching as we make our way towards our final destination. Right after the lake Bjørnsjøen the road ascends steeply a few 200 metres. Thore and Gunnar appears to be excellent climbers as they soon disappear in the mist towards the top. Shortly after the road levels out and the rest of us is soon running again. Come to think of it we haven't seen much of other people on our way through Nordmarka today. A few hunters, one or two bikers and some hikers at the cottage Kikut. Besides that the woods are silent.

Passing the lake Skjærsjøen we are entering the last 5 km of our trip. The last km is runned together and as always it's a great pleasure to arrive at the finish line-almost as great as running. Having spent just over 46 k  and about 8h 17m in the woods-6h 15m on the move-it's great to complete a good day spent.

All photos by Ole Arne Schlytter.

Technicals:
-Distance: 45,5 km
-Time:  8h 17m 42s
-Moving time: 6h 13m 59s
-Average pace: 10:56 min/km
-Average, moving pace: 8:13 min/km
-Elevation gained: 725 m
-Calories:  3.068 kcal
-Average heart rate(max): Not monitored.

The GARMIN logfile can be found at:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/51553535