Author: Marius

to any athletes, whereas the endurance is the element where you can have the most improvement. That is 99% of athletes will get much, much better from just doing the endurance work better but at the ultimate end of this you will also have a limitation in the speed area (not speed endurance, but pure speed).

Problem with especially weight training, is that when you are very aerobic trainined and the muscular adaption is to long distance running you will in most cases experience a loss of endurance when doing so not only because of the local lactatic acid accumulation during that work but also because of a reduction in general circulation.

I have managed to a fair degree to balance this, with much help from Leif Olav but still it is very, very difficult to get it 100 % right.
It was much easier when I was a middle distance runner or a moderate long distance athletes. But when the margines are like now, you have absolutely nothing to lose from on the endurance side.

So we are spending some time this fall doing some easy drills to get into a pattern of training that may help this element without losing out on the other stuff. Quite interesting actually.

We started working on this back in 2001 and have been through many models. It will be fun data to look back on when I have more time to reflect over the last years work (maybe in a few years when it will all be gathered together). 🙂

Treadmill running again, as it was snowing quite hard yesterday. Which is fine sometimes in between the other sessions.

All well !

Marius

the treadmills at the top athletics center have been out of order recently.

Though I have to say I dislike the Norwegian winters, it also brings certain benefit with it.

I spoke to Ingrid Kristiansen about it once. She claimed that it was maybe better to stay in the south-east areas of Norway during the winter (vs. west), as the winter conditions naturally made the running a bit slower so that you got a good progression towards the summer.

I have to agree with her. Spending time in the US, close to Indianapolis at University there, we had the “perfect” winters. Seasons, but very mild winters. However, I found it hard to get the real periodization there like I get here in Norway – especially when the Norwegian winter is alternated with training camps in warm conditions. Then you get really hard training while gone, and easy enough easy running on the more snowy surfaces in Norway. Plus a real booster in training when the spring sets in! Nothing like April and May in Norway when you feel the season getting closer 🙂

Not much news in training. Just doing the daily training like I should and getting in the mileage needed in between my studies.

From snowy Oslo!

Marius

Model. It is very, very interesting stuff – brings some freshness into the debate with its theories of limitations of performance for endurance athletes. Noakes is a South African medical doctor and one of the prime exercise physiologists in the world.

He makes a point about how those with the best running performance is acutally those with the best cornorary blood flow, the most economical heats plus the muscles with the greatest contractility and elasticity. This is regulated by a central governor in the brains motor cortex – that regulates so that the heart will not get anaerobic.

So he makes a point about how Vo2 max “is not the critical factor determining exercise performance”. Rather “it could be said that athletes heart and muscle strength and fatigue resistance enables them to run at a high speed;once the high speeds are reached athletes need a high rate of oxygen confumption (high Vo2 max). But the high rate of oxygen consumption does not create the ability to run fast – rather the high Vo2 max is the complex result of heart and muscle factors that determine the ability to run fast”

He has worked with many of the best South African marathoners and has done high class research on elite athletes over decades so his latest conclusions are quite interesting ; how the body regulates itself to avoid the heart from going anaerobic (resulting in collapse) rather than the muscles.

The fall is a good time to go into these things. Alot of research does not apply to daily training -most of it is done on just moderately trained and with too small groups (and many, many other factors playing in) but sometimes you find intersting stuff. And I believe, either way that it is important to have a general interst in these things to keep the flame alive. It gives you things to think about, and new challenges develop. You avoid the static by looking at running as a dynamic process.

Things are going fine with training. We still have no snow here in Oslo, so I can run my longer intervalls outside still. So I can run them with the Vidar group. Quite nice, I just run a bit longer and we take the recoveries together. Plus, Henrik will be in full practice again very soon so then we can do those sessions together again 🙂 Another few weeks now with buildup before going up to maximum volume and load in January.

From Oslo,

Marius

to also get in the right mental mode.

It will be my seventh year on top level and it is very easy to fall into the same old pattern and rythms from previous years without really giving yourself a challenge. Therefore you need wakeup calls on the way. I am lucky because I have worked with and work with people who are very professional in their work. They know me and they know this aspect. Without these people pushing me, the way down to 13.20, 13.30 is very, very short. I have to be professional, not only in the planning and doing – but also mentally.

When I first started long distance running I had Per Halle working with me – and his own experience as a top runner made me hungry to reach where he once was. In my first season I managed 13.22 and the year after that I started working with Frank Evertsen. The attitude we developed during the years together was quite special. To put it quite simply, when I ran 13.09 I could not possible think that I would ever have a season where I ran slower.. it was forward, faster and stronger. It was the way and the only way. Much can be said of what happened in 2002 but either way when I speak to him I still get that attitude out right away. And it is a reminder of what is needed if you want running to go as fast as you want – and give you as much of a challenge as possible.

Two easy days this weekend 🙂

Marius

for the younger athletes.
They had managed to gather almost 150 kids from young age up to 19 on this small island outside of Aalesund on the Norwegian coast. Very well organized and must have been a huge inspiration for those young ones 🙂 I can remember myself back then, one of the main things that kept me running (instead of just playing soccer/handball) was the social things around. And when time was ready for it, I commited but that was long, long after I started athletics originally.

Then on Saturday I did a small race up there, a local race that was held for the 24th year in a row. In absolutely beautiful weather and surroundings it was nice to get a nice float around. Though sore legs today after hammering down the last part there on asphalt 🙂
You can see a link to the race just below.

I will continue the same training path this week and hopefully get another few weeks with no snow..

Marius

same time.

It is the fifth year I am attending those on a Senior level. And it has changed dramatically. First, in 99 and 2000 we had Olympic Champs Rodal and Hattestad plus lots of other stars attending. You could feel professionalism from the athletes. I was only 21 years old and those happenings were BIG events for me. It helped me realize what kind of attitude you need to get to the top level. Then from 2001 up until 2003 about nothing happened. Most of the stars resigned and the atmosphere changed totally. Until last fall – when the new team chief Tømmernes started bringing things back again. You can say alot about the influence of a team chief who is not coaching – or daily involved. But when you have taken part of this through three different phases you know what you see and what has changed. It is great to see. On top of that Thorkildsen won the Olympics in the Javelin, giving Norwegian Athletics a huge lift 🙂

Then next weekend I will travel to a small place north-east in Norway for a small road race there. Trine Pilskog, who did 4.05 1500 meter this summer and was in Athens asked me if I would attend a local race there plus speak for a group of younger athletes having a regional team weekend. So that will be a fun experience. To test the shape a bit and see other parts of Norway than Oslo.. Hopefully I can get into a good float. A good aerobic float – what you really want when you are running anything over the 1500 meter(for some also the 800). But to achieve this you need lots of planning, carefully taking the right daily decisions and never settle for the second best. It is a string of priorities and either you must have the confidence to make those yourself the hard way or you must have someone really good there to do it based on the daily signals you send. I have never seen a top class distance runner get there through nothing but a clear set of choices and patterns based on top class (and clear) running knowledge 🙂 So hopefully those things will pay off for me even in the fall when just trying to get gradually better..

From Oslo,
Marius

underway around twelve. About two and a half hours later we had finished the whole thing.

This used to be a big event some years ago with many teams participating. But it is good that they keep up the good tradition there.

I will try and stick to Henrik during this weeks work. He is training were good these days and will be a perfect one to stay behind to get into shape again. His runs rythmically and even paced and always finishes the trainings. You need that kind of attitude around you once you start up again. A runner can never always rest and body and mind for periods of time – but never too long, especially once you have started the real training again..

It is just a matter of getting in good enough shape again to get up high (toe running) during the hard runs. In that middle phase of your shape you get nothing “for free” and it can certainly be felt during the looong threshold runs 🙂 As one of the runners on the commented out at Ås : “I saw you were out running the other day,but it did not look very good” 🙂 Now, that was during an easy run (very easy) and probably not a very good indication of the real shape..

Just some easy threshold runs today to get some blood flow through the legs.

All well from here,
Marius

underway around twelve. About two and a half hours later we had finished the whole thing.

This used to be a big event some years ago with many teams participating. But it is good that they keep up the good tradition there.

I will try and stick to Henrik during this weeks work. He is training were good these days and will be a perfect one to stay behind to get into shape again. His runs rythmically and even paced and always finishes the trainings. You need that kind of attitude around you once you start up again. A runner can never always rest and body and mind for periods of time – but never too long, especially once you have started the real training again..

It is just a matter of getting in good enough shape again to get up high (toe running) during the hard runs. In that middle phase of your shape you get nothing “for free” and it can certainly be felt during the looong threshold runs 🙂 As one of the runners on the commented out at Ås : “I saw you were out running the other day,but it did not look very good” 🙂 Now, that was during an easy run (very easy) and probably not a very good indication of the real shape..

Just some easy threshold runs today to get some blood flow through the legs.

All well from here,
Marius

intervall training weekly.
For most of you this may seem more than enough to keep a “good level” for someone who did 13.06 this summer. I have had many, many discussions with different people over the years who claim I will run quite well if I did winter/fall competitions. My tests of course show way different things ; I am able to build my shape incredibly much considering where I come from at the start. Through very careful+smart planning and very hard work. But because most of my running ability is through this, as soon as I have to back down on this stimulus the shape will drop.

But for the fun of it I will throw in a few low key competitions this fall starting this weekend. Just very, very low key stuff – but fun events. So we will see how fast it goes 🙂

All is well. I am training and building shape as much as possible now. I like the fall training. It is spontanious, I can throw away most of the measurement equipment and just run on the feeling. The training results are not that good then, but it is just a nice confirmation of the stuff I am doing the rest of the year – and how that works.

From Oslo!

Marius

takes time, lots of patience, but it is the way to do it. You basically have a choice (if you are not a pure natural talent) : either be king of the winter or king of the summer 🙂 I have seen many, many runners do extremely good training sessions in the winter. Even at the top athletics center on treadmill sessions runners running next to me claim to be on their threshold while running 0.5 km faster..

It makes me think of my years as a middle distance runner, especially when I was coached under Mr.Coe. The training was hard and intense the year through. Lots of fun but for most it will not work for long distance training. For long distance you just have to do it gradually, otherwise you will peak in the early May races or during the wintertime on different occcations (not able to really control any real progression)

I will continue trainings with Henrik the following weeks. He does the Norwegian half-marathon championships tomorrow but then goes into two weeks of good training. So then I will try to stick with him on the sessions:) Hopefully I can give him a hand in preserving the fine shape he is in at the moment..

All well from rainy Oslo,
Marius