For those of you who dont know what to do on Sunday I have here the perfect solution for you. Log on to the Vasaloppet website (http://www.vasaloppet.com), click in the top-right corner for an English version if you dont feel that the Viking language is for you.
On the website you will be able to follow all people in the race. My race number is 10244 for anyone interested to monitor my progress in the race. The race starts at 8am CET (ie 7am for you in the UK), but dont worry, I aim to finish the race in around 8h30min, so there will be plenty of time for you to check the race, even if you are not up at 7 *smile*.
Any text messages during the race will be much appreciated. Hearing the mobile phone receiving a text during the race gives a boost and makes me push myself harder.
Over the next couple of days (Thursday, Friday and Saturday) Martin and I will be up in Salen in Northern Sweden perfecting our technique (or rather picking up the basics of moving forward on cross country skis).
The 90km race will be a great pre-race training session ahead of Namibia. I am looking forward to Sunday already! I’ll keep you updated on our training from Thursday and onwards!
Tuesday 26 February 2008
Monday 25 February 2008
One Tube line done - ten to go...
What did you do on Saturday? I had my own way of how to spend a Saturday. I took my trainers and thought that it was about time to discover central London a little bit. As mentioned in a previous post we had had plans on creating some alternative races and running around all the stops on the Circle Line was one of them. So that is what I did on Saturday. Circle Line is actually not that long, roughly 14-15miles the route I went (including getting lost around Barbican, luckily it was around 3pm on a Satuday *smile*).
I had a backpack packed with some books for added weight, energy bars and 2 liters of energy drink as I sat off from Embankment. I took the anti-clockwise route and for each tube stop I took a photo (the result can be seen here).
CLICK ON THE PHOTO TO SEE A LARGE VERSION
It was a great day for a run, and a number of times I was positively surprised by how friendly people are, either by offering to take my photo, or by stepping out of the way - thank you Londoners (well rather, thank you all tourists, because let's be honest, there is nothing Londoners avoid as zone 1 on a Saturday!). It took me about 2h 30min to run around in a slow jog. I am trying more and more to run the way I will run in the race and the backpack and the slower pace is all part of this.
Last but not least I wanted to update my Fame and Shame list:
Fame list - Martin S, who after being on the shame list last week got up the next day and came with me for a morning run.
Shame list - Tom and Ben for failing to make the inaugural run of many more Tube line runs. Meaning I will have to do the Circle line again. I dont know whose excuse was the worst, Ben's for complaining about a calf injury (proving again that Northerners are soft) or Tom who mentioned something about being an Usher at a wedding.
I hope you all had a good weekend. Now it is the Vasalopp week starting and me and Martin Svensson are flying to Sweden on Wednesday to train and prepare for the 90 km cross country ski race on Sunday 2 March - wish me luck, I'll need it!
I had a backpack packed with some books for added weight, energy bars and 2 liters of energy drink as I sat off from Embankment. I took the anti-clockwise route and for each tube stop I took a photo (the result can be seen here).
CLICK ON THE PHOTO TO SEE A LARGE VERSIONIt was a great day for a run, and a number of times I was positively surprised by how friendly people are, either by offering to take my photo, or by stepping out of the way - thank you Londoners (well rather, thank you all tourists, because let's be honest, there is nothing Londoners avoid as zone 1 on a Saturday!). It took me about 2h 30min to run around in a slow jog. I am trying more and more to run the way I will run in the race and the backpack and the slower pace is all part of this.
Last but not least I wanted to update my Fame and Shame list:
Fame list - Martin S, who after being on the shame list last week got up the next day and came with me for a morning run.
Shame list - Tom and Ben for failing to make the inaugural run of many more Tube line runs. Meaning I will have to do the Circle line again. I dont know whose excuse was the worst, Ben's for complaining about a calf injury (proving again that Northerners are soft) or Tom who mentioned something about being an Usher at a wedding.
I hope you all had a good weekend. Now it is the Vasalopp week starting and me and Martin Svensson are flying to Sweden on Wednesday to train and prepare for the 90 km cross country ski race on Sunday 2 March - wish me luck, I'll need it!
Wednesday 20 February 2008
My own fame and shame list
I thought is would be appropriate to do my very own fame and shame list.
Currently on my fame list:
- All of you that have supported my charity fund raising! Thank you very much for all your help!!
- Ben and Tom for coming up with lots of ideas of crazy races. Below are some of the ones we are considering:
a) Run around the Circle line, taking a photo at each Tube stop.
b) start on Trafalgar square and from 4 signed envelops randomly decide North, South, East and West and have two teams competing which team can run to the M25 the quickest.
We need some input on new non-traditional races we can do, any suggestions, please add them on the comment field. I'll make sure I'll report from any of these that we do.
Currently on my shame list:
- Martin S. Martin is my flatmate and we are doing Vasaloppet, the 90km cross country ski race, on the 2nd of March together. Typically I can get Martin out of bed in the morning to join me for a run.
It normally takes about 5min of verbal abuse to get Martin out of bed for a run, but this morning I couldnt get him to join me. With the race coming up he should be taken every opportunity to prepare, so that is why he is on my shame list today!
Monday 18 February 2008
Welcome to my ultra running blog
Thank you for visiting my blog. I have secretely been writing this blog for the past months (or rather, in November and then the last week). I thought is was about time for me to start promote it a bit, and hence many of you got an email this morning.
The blog is about the steps I take to run a ultramarathon on the 7 April. For those of you who dont know what an ultramarathon is I include a definition: "An ultramarathon is any organized footrace extending beyond the standard marathon running distance of 42 kilometers, 195 meters (26 miles, 385 yards). Ultra races typically begin at 50 kilometers and can extend to enormous distances. There is no limit. " (quote taken from http://www.ultrunr.com/what_is.html by David Blaikie).
The run I am doing is 77,805 meters longer then a marathon, ie I am going to run 120km, and did I mention that it will be through the Namiban desert *smile*. The heat in the day will be about 35 degrees Celsius and at night time about -5.
On the blog you can read about some of the races I have done leading up to the race in Namibia. The next race on my schedule is on the 2 March, when I am doing Vasaloppet (90km cross country ski race in Northern Sweden).
Once again, thank you for visiting the site, and I would be delighted if any of you would help me to raise some money for the Facing Africa charity (for more information about Facing Africa, click on http://www.facingafrica.org)./ Any help is grately appreciated!
The blog is about the steps I take to run a ultramarathon on the 7 April. For those of you who dont know what an ultramarathon is I include a definition: "An ultramarathon is any organized footrace extending beyond the standard marathon running distance of 42 kilometers, 195 meters (26 miles, 385 yards). Ultra races typically begin at 50 kilometers and can extend to enormous distances. There is no limit. " (quote taken from http://www.ultrunr.com/what_is.html by David Blaikie).
The run I am doing is 77,805 meters longer then a marathon, ie I am going to run 120km, and did I mention that it will be through the Namiban desert *smile*. The heat in the day will be about 35 degrees Celsius and at night time about -5.
On the blog you can read about some of the races I have done leading up to the race in Namibia. The next race on my schedule is on the 2 March, when I am doing Vasaloppet (90km cross country ski race in Northern Sweden).
Once again, thank you for visiting the site, and I would be delighted if any of you would help me to raise some money for the Facing Africa charity (for more information about Facing Africa, click on http://www.facingafrica.org)./ Any help is grately appreciated!
Saturday 16 February 2008
Running thoughts
In a macho moment (I dont have many to be honest!) I tried to come up with a couple of the best cheesy, macho running thoughts to have with me on the run... I cant say that this is what I am thinking of constantly whilst running, but at times when things are tough, it is good to know what others have been through.
The last couple of months I have built up a small library of books covering ultra-running, ironman experiences, and training guide books for endurance racing. I find it comforting to have read about people that have pressed on to their limits and then continued through the wall. It helps me to mentally prepare for the Namibia race. To have seen a pair of feet with hardly any skin left sort of prepares you for what will come.
So if anyone out there has any good one-liners, please click on the comment button below and I'll make another list of the best ones in a later post.
To get you in the zone, consider these one-liners (cheesy, are they not *smile*)
"Pain is fear leaving the body"
Dean Karnazes cross country coach
"Pain is temporary, quitting is forever"
Lance Armstrong
The last couple of months I have built up a small library of books covering ultra-running, ironman experiences, and training guide books for endurance racing. I find it comforting to have read about people that have pressed on to their limits and then continued through the wall. It helps me to mentally prepare for the Namibia race. To have seen a pair of feet with hardly any skin left sort of prepares you for what will come.
So if anyone out there has any good one-liners, please click on the comment button below and I'll make another list of the best ones in a later post.To get you in the zone, consider these one-liners (cheesy, are they not *smile*)
"Pain is fear leaving the body"
Dean Karnazes cross country coach
"Pain is temporary, quitting is forever"
Lance Armstrong
Train to run, eat to run
This week I had my first session with Anna (the nutrition and inspiration coach I mentioned before). The first session was just a general discussion over food. I had written down what I had eaten the last couple of days prior to talking.
In short I was eating far too little. I had averaged about 1800 calories a day, and with my level of training I should be eating 2700. Mainly I was eating too little fruit and vegetables, and too little fat. It was interesting to hear how lack in certain food will impact your body's performance differently.
We also discussed the Vasaloppet race and what was needed for that. During the race you will use up about 8000-9000 calories. This will be a great way for me to try out how to prepare for a long race in terms of food intake, and how to eat during the race. I guess ordering Pizza like Dean Karnazes do for his long runs is out of the question (for the ones of you that have not read Dean's book "The Ultramarathon man", I can highly recommend it). He ordered a Pizza to be delivered to a long country road and said "I am the guy running along the road, and in 30min time I should be around junction X". I think the delivery guy would have problems identifying me amongst the other thousands of people at the Vasaloppet! And for Namibia I am pretty certain we are out of range for most pizza delivery places anyhow *smile*.
I'll get back to you on what I'll settle for in terms of race food, but this should be an interesting one... Probably as important as the training itself for ultra distance races.
By the way, this week I learned how many people will be racing with me in Namibia. About 20 people, that is all! I thought this was going to be a pretty special race that wont maybe appeal to everyone, but 20 people seems very little! That will be the opposite end of the scale to Vasaloppet where your first hour is spent in waiting for people in front to get up for the first hill. On the positive side I might be able to do what Ben and I have tried a couple of times. A very fast sprint the first couple of hundred meters and I should be able to say that I was leading the inaugural run of the Namib Ultra Marathon :-)
In short I was eating far too little. I had averaged about 1800 calories a day, and with my level of training I should be eating 2700. Mainly I was eating too little fruit and vegetables, and too little fat. It was interesting to hear how lack in certain food will impact your body's performance differently.
We also discussed the Vasaloppet race and what was needed for that. During the race you will use up about 8000-9000 calories. This will be a great way for me to try out how to prepare for a long race in terms of food intake, and how to eat during the race. I guess ordering Pizza like Dean Karnazes do for his long runs is out of the question (for the ones of you that have not read Dean's book "The Ultramarathon man", I can highly recommend it). He ordered a Pizza to be delivered to a long country road and said "I am the guy running along the road, and in 30min time I should be around junction X". I think the delivery guy would have problems identifying me amongst the other thousands of people at the Vasaloppet! And for Namibia I am pretty certain we are out of range for most pizza delivery places anyhow *smile*.
I'll get back to you on what I'll settle for in terms of race food, but this should be an interesting one... Probably as important as the training itself for ultra distance races.
By the way, this week I learned how many people will be racing with me in Namibia. About 20 people, that is all! I thought this was going to be a pretty special race that wont maybe appeal to everyone, but 20 people seems very little! That will be the opposite end of the scale to Vasaloppet where your first hour is spent in waiting for people in front to get up for the first hill. On the positive side I might be able to do what Ben and I have tried a couple of times. A very fast sprint the first couple of hundred meters and I should be able to say that I was leading the inaugural run of the Namib Ultra Marathon :-)
Monday 11 February 2008
Charity fund raising
I decided that since I am doing the race in Namibia I should use the opportunity to try to raise some money for charity. I have chosen a charity that is called Facing Africa. Facing Africa is concerned with the prevention and cure of the Noma infection.
If you want to support me doing this race, please feel free to do so by supporting Facing Africa. On the link to the right you can help me raising money for their charity. If you feel you can support me in doing this, then that would be great, but please dont feel that you are obliged to give to the charity. There are many ways that you can help, an email, phone call or a text is much appreciated too. But I do think that when I am doing the race and I can think about the people it maybe help, I will get some extra strength (and I think that will be much needed!)...
So if you are feeling generous, donate a pound (or a Swedish Krona) or two...
If you want to support me doing this race, please feel free to do so by supporting Facing Africa. On the link to the right you can help me raising money for their charity. If you feel you can support me in doing this, then that would be great, but please dont feel that you are obliged to give to the charity. There are many ways that you can help, an email, phone call or a text is much appreciated too. But I do think that when I am doing the race and I can think about the people it maybe help, I will get some extra strength (and I think that will be much needed!)...
So if you are feeling generous, donate a pound (or a Swedish Krona) or two...
Sunday 10 February 2008
Richmond park and D-Day minus 55
Yesterday I had planned to go running for an hour or so, maybe run down to Battersea park and back again. I gave Mo a call in the morning and we had actually not caught up at all this year. It is the first week of February and all of a sudden you have not seen one of your friends since last year, strange isnt it??
Mo wanted to go Downhill mountainbiking, but I said that until I have done Namibia I will not do anything that might mean I break a bone or something similar. The race through the Namib desert will be difficult enough as is. I need a injury free run up to April.
Instead he agreed to join me for a run in Richmond park. We met up and did a loop of the park, which turned out to be about 11km or so. It is great to run with Mo, his steps are just so flowing so I end up pushing harder then normal too. When Mo took his scooter back home I had decided to run back to my house. I didnt at all know how far it was, but I reckon running by the river should take me straight home.
I had learnt my lesson from last week, so I had a backpack with a Camelback with water and several energy gels and bars. It feels really great to be running far. Running from A to point B is such difference to doing a loop. Running along the Thames was great and weather turned out to be perfect. After about 2h I called Mum and Dad and had a quick chat whilst running. I told Dad that I thought I would have about 2h left before I was home. In the end, I was home after 2h and 10min! About 25min away from home I stopped a traffic warden (they can be helpful too!) and asked for directions. He said it was too far to run back to my house and that I should take the bus instead! I told him I had been out for more then 3h 30min at the time, so that should not really be problem... We all mean different things when we say "that is a long run" *smile*.
If I am equally accurate the run in Namibia should take about 18h... That is what I aim for anyhow, even though that time is not the main thing, it is to complete I focus on.
It was nice to be able to do a longer run, 4h 10min and towards the end I was feeling strong and could have continued.
Today I was aching in my tendons on my upper foot, so I decided not to do any running today. I walked for 45min instead to try to loosen up my legs from yesterdays' run.
I am feeling good about the prospect of Namibia! Next week I have my first session with a lifestyle and nutrition coach from Sweden. Anna Bergström has her own busines called "Formidabel" (http://www.formidabel.info). I'll let you know what tips and tricks I can get from Anna.
I have asked her to help me with 3 things:
- How should I eat to maximise the body's ability to recover between sessions?
- What should I eat to prepare for a race?
- What should I eat during the race in Namibia?
I'll keep you updated as progress is made :-)
Mo wanted to go Downhill mountainbiking, but I said that until I have done Namibia I will not do anything that might mean I break a bone or something similar. The race through the Namib desert will be difficult enough as is. I need a injury free run up to April.
Instead he agreed to join me for a run in Richmond park. We met up and did a loop of the park, which turned out to be about 11km or so. It is great to run with Mo, his steps are just so flowing so I end up pushing harder then normal too. When Mo took his scooter back home I had decided to run back to my house. I didnt at all know how far it was, but I reckon running by the river should take me straight home.
I had learnt my lesson from last week, so I had a backpack with a Camelback with water and several energy gels and bars. It feels really great to be running far. Running from A to point B is such difference to doing a loop. Running along the Thames was great and weather turned out to be perfect. After about 2h I called Mum and Dad and had a quick chat whilst running. I told Dad that I thought I would have about 2h left before I was home. In the end, I was home after 2h and 10min! About 25min away from home I stopped a traffic warden (they can be helpful too!) and asked for directions. He said it was too far to run back to my house and that I should take the bus instead! I told him I had been out for more then 3h 30min at the time, so that should not really be problem... We all mean different things when we say "that is a long run" *smile*.
If I am equally accurate the run in Namibia should take about 18h... That is what I aim for anyhow, even though that time is not the main thing, it is to complete I focus on.
It was nice to be able to do a longer run, 4h 10min and towards the end I was feeling strong and could have continued.
Today I was aching in my tendons on my upper foot, so I decided not to do any running today. I walked for 45min instead to try to loosen up my legs from yesterdays' run.
I am feeling good about the prospect of Namibia! Next week I have my first session with a lifestyle and nutrition coach from Sweden. Anna Bergström has her own busines called "Formidabel" (http://www.formidabel.info). I'll let you know what tips and tricks I can get from Anna.
I have asked her to help me with 3 things:
- How should I eat to maximise the body's ability to recover between sessions?
- What should I eat to prepare for a race?
- What should I eat during the race in Namibia?
I'll keep you updated as progress is made :-)
Train as you will be racing...
I have now been training regularly for a little bit more then a year, and I feel that I am getting more and more confident running. However I am conscious that I am not running under race conditions. Ideally I would run in warm conditions, but London during this time of year hasn't much desert heat to offer.
However another thing for the race is that I will have to carry everything that I need for the duration of the race with me. That includes clothes (it will be +35 celsius during the day, but -5 during night), food, cooking equipment (just a tin, there will be fires at each water stop, every 20km) and safety equipment (whistle, anti-venom pump, mirror for reflection etc). In addition to that you have to carry all the water you need between each water station.
I bought a new backpack that I will use for the race (you have got to love Raidlight, http://www.raidlight.com , a French adventure gear company), but whilst waiting for it to arrive I have started to run with a backpack on. I did my first run with a backpack last week. I only ran for 25min to make sure I didnt overdo it, and to my surprise, my feet hurt after only 25min! I had some books in the backpack and it weighed about 8kg. This just goes to show that I need to be looking to prepare myself as much as possible, and in an environment as close as possible to race conditions...
Try it, running with backpack can be a new challenge for you :-)
However another thing for the race is that I will have to carry everything that I need for the duration of the race with me. That includes clothes (it will be +35 celsius during the day, but -5 during night), food, cooking equipment (just a tin, there will be fires at each water stop, every 20km) and safety equipment (whistle, anti-venom pump, mirror for reflection etc). In addition to that you have to carry all the water you need between each water station.
I bought a new backpack that I will use for the race (you have got to love Raidlight, http://www.raidlight.com , a French adventure gear company), but whilst waiting for it to arrive I have started to run with a backpack on. I did my first run with a backpack last week. I only ran for 25min to make sure I didnt overdo it, and to my surprise, my feet hurt after only 25min! I had some books in the backpack and it weighed about 8kg. This just goes to show that I need to be looking to prepare myself as much as possible, and in an environment as close as possible to race conditions...
Try it, running with backpack can be a new challenge for you :-)
a bump in the road...
The week after the Tough Guy me and Ben sat out on a Saturday morning to revisit Box Hill. I cycled down to Ben and from there we went to Box Hill. When we got there I had been on the bike for about 2h15min (and had a very sore bum!). We locked up our bikes and started to run. 15min into the run my shin started to ache pretty badly. I stopped and tried to massage it a bit, but I was getting a bit worried. Shin splints now would mean several weeks of running and would not be a very good lead up to Namibia.
I pushed on but after 5min stopped and we decided to head back, walking... As bad as it felt it is not worth getting an injury and I think that listening to your body is essential. It was a long time since I have felt lower whilst exercising, and the 40min walking back to the bikes was very demotivating.
Back on to the bike and pushing on towards home. The further we went I was feeling the energy leaving me and found it more and more difficult to keep up with Ben. What are they made of these Northerners??? Dont tell him that, I am supposed to be the Viking, but on this day I couldnt keep up...
When I finally got home I had been out for a bit more then 5h and I was feeling pretty low. Partly from the lack of energy, and party from the fact that I stopped the run after only 20min...
Two lessons learnt today:
- Listen to your body and know when to stop, especially if you cannot recognise the pain.
- Dont forget to fuel your body. For any session longer then 1h, remember to bring fuel for the body...
I pushed on but after 5min stopped and we decided to head back, walking... As bad as it felt it is not worth getting an injury and I think that listening to your body is essential. It was a long time since I have felt lower whilst exercising, and the 40min walking back to the bikes was very demotivating.
Back on to the bike and pushing on towards home. The further we went I was feeling the energy leaving me and found it more and more difficult to keep up with Ben. What are they made of these Northerners??? Dont tell him that, I am supposed to be the Viking, but on this day I couldnt keep up...
When I finally got home I had been out for a bit more then 5h and I was feeling pretty low. Partly from the lack of energy, and party from the fact that I stopped the run after only 20min...
Two lessons learnt today:
- Listen to your body and know when to stop, especially if you cannot recognise the pain.
- Dont forget to fuel your body. For any session longer then 1h, remember to bring fuel for the body...
Write down your training schedule!
So with a seriously tough race ahead I sat down to try to draw up a plan over what I needed to do... All books I have read, and accounts on blogs etc all speak of the same thing: Time on my feet. For a first time ultra runner the no1 priority for me is to get running, and get lots and lots of miles in my legs.
I have decided that my schedule will look as follows:
Monday - rest
Tuesday - 45min run
Wednesday - 60min run
Thursday - 45 run
Friday - rest
Saturday - long run 2-3h at least
Sunday - 1h run
With this as my ambition I have started to write down each week what I am going to run. What is so strange is that as soon as I did it I have felt such difference in how I approach each day. Knowing what I should do it is no longer up to how I feel at 6.30am when I wake up and am about to go out. I doubt anyone is reading my blog to get advice in training (and if you do, for your own good, go find yourself a better blog for training advice *smile*) - but I am amazed how much difference it makes to actually write down what you are going to do... It makes total sense, but I had not thought that the difference would be so immediate!
So go away, get a piece of paper and write down what you are going to do this week... If it is getting around to cleaning out a wardrobe or if it is to make sure you get to do a certain amount of miles running doesnt matter, I am so surprised that it was such a difference!
I have decided that my schedule will look as follows:
Monday - rest
Tuesday - 45min run
Wednesday - 60min run
Thursday - 45 run
Friday - rest
Saturday - long run 2-3h at least
Sunday - 1h run
With this as my ambition I have started to write down each week what I am going to run. What is so strange is that as soon as I did it I have felt such difference in how I approach each day. Knowing what I should do it is no longer up to how I feel at 6.30am when I wake up and am about to go out. I doubt anyone is reading my blog to get advice in training (and if you do, for your own good, go find yourself a better blog for training advice *smile*) - but I am amazed how much difference it makes to actually write down what you are going to do... It makes total sense, but I had not thought that the difference would be so immediate!
So go away, get a piece of paper and write down what you are going to do this week... If it is getting around to cleaning out a wardrobe or if it is to make sure you get to do a certain amount of miles running doesnt matter, I am so surprised that it was such a difference!
Tough Guy 2008
2007 had ended very strong with two weeks of almost daily sessions of 3h or more. As 2008 started I paid the price for increasing the amount of training as much as I had done for those two weeks... A chest infection kept me off running for almost 3 weeks. It just goes to show that the rule of only ever increase the amount of training by 10% per week actually make perfect sense.
I came back into training with only a week left to the Tough Guy 2008 race. During the week I felt that my legs were actually ok, and maybe the three weeks off also brought something good with them.
The Tough Guy itself is a great race (http://www.toughguy.co.uk). It is basically a great way for a guy to get to crawl in mud and laugh about it :-) This year we unfortunately was not allowed in the first start line, which meant that as the start went off we had 700 people ahead of us, and we were not even allowed to start to run until a minute after everyone at the start had set off. I tried to stay with Ben as we tried to overtake as many as possible ahead of the narrow trails that forms the country miles of the race.
Before the race I had said that I would improve at least double the amount of whatever Ben did (easy to say when he came 36th last year, and I came about 780 or so...). I kept with him for about 5-10 minutes or so, then had to take it a little bit slower, but I was still overtaking people throughout the race.
After crawling under barb-wire, through mud, jumping into freezing water, crawl through tunnels I had managed to get in on 218 place, which for me was great... Ben had only improved 6 spots, so I outdid him with a mile *smile*.
Unfortunately a year until we get to have that much fun again, but the good thing was that now I only had Namibia in my sight and no shorter racing to do. I set out to write down a proper training schedule and start to plan more carefully how to come to Namibia as well prepared as possible...
I came back into training with only a week left to the Tough Guy 2008 race. During the week I felt that my legs were actually ok, and maybe the three weeks off also brought something good with them.
The Tough Guy itself is a great race (http://www.toughguy.co.uk). It is basically a great way for a guy to get to crawl in mud and laugh about it :-) This year we unfortunately was not allowed in the first start line, which meant that as the start went off we had 700 people ahead of us, and we were not even allowed to start to run until a minute after everyone at the start had set off. I tried to stay with Ben as we tried to overtake as many as possible ahead of the narrow trails that forms the country miles of the race.Before the race I had said that I would improve at least double the amount of whatever Ben did (easy to say when he came 36th last year, and I came about 780 or so...). I kept with him for about 5-10 minutes or so, then had to take it a little bit slower, but I was still overtaking people throughout the race.
After crawling under barb-wire, through mud, jumping into freezing water, crawl through tunnels I had managed to get in on 218 place, which for me was great... Ben had only improved 6 spots, so I outdid him with a mile *smile*.
Unfortunately a year until we get to have that much fun again, but the good thing was that now I only had Namibia in my sight and no shorter racing to do. I set out to write down a proper training schedule and start to plan more carefully how to come to Namibia as well prepared as possible...
Update from December 2007....
hmm, how do I pick up from where I left things last year... Well to start with I guess that I can only hope that my stamina when running is hopefully a lot better then my stamina writing this blog :-)
I had in mind to try to take you through what training I have done since the Ballbuster, but that would for one just be a long list of how long I ran for each day, and number two, probably not very accurate since I have not really written down how much I have trained etc. So instead I'll give you a high-level overview of the main sections and instead I'll take a "from-here-onwards approach".
After Ballbuster I went off to Egypt for a week of diving and snorkeling. Sharm El Sheikh was just the place to go for sun, beach and watching some very cool marine life. Camera in hand I spent hours in the water, t
rying to get some cool shots of Lionfish. We spent a fair amount of time in the gym when the sun had gone down, me running and cycling, and Louise doing her Yoga, probably not the ideal holiday for everyone but we really enjoyed it. It was good to sweat out every day, and nice to get into a rhythm that I might have lacked before. We also climbed Mount Sinai, a very cool experience and the views from the top at sunrise was spectacular... A lot of credit to Louise for agreeing to do the 3h climb since we started at 2am at night, to be able to get there for the first rays of the sunrise.!
Once back in London I was just days away of Christmas holiday. Me and Martin (together we are doing the Vasaloppet in March) went up to Arvidsjaur, a small village up in the very Northern Sweden. We had 6 days of training cross country skiing. I can see how repetitive being a professional athlete would be... We went up at 8.30, had breakfast, relaxed a bit, took our skiis, went out for about 2h, back to the hotel to have a shower, out for lunch, relax and maybe sleep 1h, out again for 1h or 2, back the hotel, out for dinner, relax and fall asleep around 10, up the next day and then do it all over again :-)
We had some great days training, and although we got overtaken of just about everyone we improved for our 90km vasalopp in March... One thing we both learnt, and that is how odd the northern Swedes are... I wonder if all Swedes appear equally odd for people not from Sweden...
After the training up North I went down to my parents place near Malmo in Southern Sweden. I had a great week down South and I managed to get some longer runs in during the Christmas period. My parents live about 30-32km from Martin and Kickan, Otto and Bruno (the Murbeck clan). I took it in turn to either cycle to their house, or to run the distance. We had a dinner party and some of Kickan's friends had asked her if I had actually cycled home at 11pm when everyone but me left... "Surely Joakim didnt cycle back at 11?". "No" Kickan answered, "we stayed up talking and he didnt leave until 2 in the morning" :-) . Some say it builds character to be cycling in the head wind at 2am in the morning and knowing that you have a long cycle run ahead of you.
On reflection I can say that it is probably a good thing that I dont mind if people think I am crazy, since I think that most people thought it was odd when I was running through the countryside leading a cycle with me and a backback on my shoulders and the bike full of christmas gifts to Martin and Kickan's two sons, Otto and Bruno.
Well that was about the training I managed to do before the New Year, more about the New Year in next post...
Cool runnings (remember the movie about the Jamaican bobsleigh team?)
I had in mind to try to take you through what training I have done since the Ballbuster, but that would for one just be a long list of how long I ran for each day, and number two, probably not very accurate since I have not really written down how much I have trained etc. So instead I'll give you a high-level overview of the main sections and instead I'll take a "from-here-onwards approach".
After Ballbuster I went off to Egypt for a week of diving and snorkeling. Sharm El Sheikh was just the place to go for sun, beach and watching some very cool marine life. Camera in hand I spent hours in the water, t
rying to get some cool shots of Lionfish. We spent a fair amount of time in the gym when the sun had gone down, me running and cycling, and Louise doing her Yoga, probably not the ideal holiday for everyone but we really enjoyed it. It was good to sweat out every day, and nice to get into a rhythm that I might have lacked before. We also climbed Mount Sinai, a very cool experience and the views from the top at sunrise was spectacular... A lot of credit to Louise for agreeing to do the 3h climb since we started at 2am at night, to be able to get there for the first rays of the sunrise.!Once back in London I was just days away of Christmas holiday. Me and Martin (together we are doing the Vasaloppet in March) went up to Arvidsjaur, a small village up in the very Northern Sweden. We had 6 days of training cross country skiing. I can see how repetitive being a professional athlete would be... We went up at 8.30, had breakfast, relaxed a bit, took our skiis, went out for about 2h, back to the hotel to have a shower, out for lunch, relax and maybe sleep 1h, out again for 1h or 2, back the hotel, out for dinner, relax and fall asleep around 10, up the next day and then do it all over again :-)
We had some great days training, and although we got overtaken of just about everyone we improved for our 90km vasalopp in March... One thing we both learnt, and that is how odd the northern Swedes are... I wonder if all Swedes appear equally odd for people not from Sweden...
After the training up North I went down to my parents place near Malmo in Southern Sweden. I had a great week down South and I managed to get some longer runs in during the Christmas period. My parents live about 30-32km from Martin and Kickan, Otto and Bruno (the Murbeck clan). I took it in turn to either cycle to their house, or to run the distance. We had a dinner party and some of Kickan's friends had asked her if I had actually cycled home at 11pm when everyone but me left... "Surely Joakim didnt cycle back at 11?". "No" Kickan answered, "we stayed up talking and he didnt leave until 2 in the morning" :-) . Some say it builds character to be cycling in the head wind at 2am in the morning and knowing that you have a long cycle run ahead of you.
On reflection I can say that it is probably a good thing that I dont mind if people think I am crazy, since I think that most people thought it was odd when I was running through the countryside leading a cycle with me and a backback on my shoulders and the bike full of christmas gifts to Martin and Kickan's two sons, Otto and Bruno.
Well that was about the training I managed to do before the New Year, more about the New Year in next post...
Cool runnings (remember the movie about the Jamaican bobsleigh team?)
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