Author: Marius

perfect with a nice 1500 meter now :))

Threshold session yesterday. Important to keep the endurance going even in the tapering part of the season…

All well,

Marius

200 meters (!) so one of the Kenyans took over. He is the younger brother of Daniel Komen and looked quite fresh for most of the race. So I stayed behind him until the 1200 meters. I then passed him and turned on the pace. It was nice and even – and the 1500 meter was passed in +/- 3.45 – not sure of the exact splits. It was the kind of race I wanted so that I could stretch my body nice and hard. It was three seconds better than the old record from 1974.

I will now do a low key 1500 meter next weekend in Tønsberg near my birthplace. That will be fun. It is a national race (with some of the Florø Kenyans in it) in the middle of a teenage track meeting so a good thing to participate in. Everything of course to buildup until the Bislett Games and the Golden League meetings that will start at the end of the month.

It feels nothing but great to be back racing well again. After a very difficult year – just to feel the stride being back again. The power, the drive. That is what I like and what I run for..

Marius

Link to photo/article from the race :
http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=61877

http://www.ftif.no/fff2003/bilder.html

2000m
1 31 Marius Bakken, 78 NOR 5.01,48
2 36 Ali Maataoui, 80 MAR 5.03,13
3 32 Ken Koima Komen, 84 KEN KEN 5.05,26
4 25 Peter Biwott, 76 KEN 5.05,65
5 37 David Flückiger SUI 5.11,15
6 34 Per Erik Wullum, 74 NOR 5.13,51
7 38 Daniel Kemboi, KEN 5.19,39
8 39 Bjørnar Kristensen,82 NOR 5.23,75
9 40 Joachim Brøndbo,85 NOR 5.24,39

good Maroccon (who won it last year) plus a variety of other athletes (also two other Norwegians).

All fingers crossed 🙂

Marius

Ps : for the Norwegian readers. Found this old clipping from a track magazine 13 years ago :

“Spydvinner på topp i ski og sykkel”
Pål Arne Fagernes fra Asker Skiblubb er blant de beste i landet på ski og sykkel, og nå også i spyd. Imidlertidig er det ikke mye 15-åringen får trent i spyd. -Jeg har ikke kastet noen i vinter, og heller ikke de siste 14 dagene før mesterskapet. Ellers kaster jeg spyd en gang i uka. Jeg mangler trener, og da er det litt vanskelig å motivere seg, sier Pål Arne, som helst vill vært med på 3000 meter.
-Jeg har ikke fått løpt noe løp på bane i år, så jeg har ikke klart kravet. Senere i år skal jeg få løpt en 3000 meter, eller kanskje en 2000-meter hinder, sier sprekingen fra Asker Skiklubb.

:)) Så ble det spydkaster og bokser av ham mens jeg får forsvare æren på 3000 meter alene…

check for EPO/blood doping) and I can sense that the testing is being done more frequent and at more “correct” timings now. It makes perfect sense to do this kind of close tests right before the seasons debute. And I will probably have to do another one this weekend also :))

I did one of my favourite sessions this Tuesday. Some few 1000 meters in the mid 2.30s. It is comfortable hard – and not enough repeats to wear you down. It is a nice tapering session before the meeting this weekend because it gives your legs some work but at the same time you avoid the really hard internal stress.

All going well,

Marius

what I wanted a bit over a week until the seasons debute.

The seasons start will be special. Especially this year, as last year was hard. Just feeling your body totally out of it. And unable to hit back. I got some good anwers this winter during the 3000 meter that I am building myself back again – but outdoors is outdoors. It is then it really matters. While last years winter felt really short this one has been the opposite. Long…. – building, building, building and staying in Kenya.. I got an early start to the whole year (because I decided to stay out of racing after the European Championships last summer) which was what I needed. Hopefully that kind of buildup will pay off..

Some good massage these days to freshen up the legs again 🙂

Marius

World Track Championships, has won World Cross Country (twice), the World Cup plus World Half Marathon. He also had a world record (two mile I think). A very complete runner – with great endurance and at his best under 12 seconds for the last 100 in a race and 24 for the last 200.

I like talking to him once in a while because he has extremely high natural training intelligence. He is always hunting for the right kind of training and knows his body much better than most other elites I have met. So you always get something clever out of the conversations. We had a discussion around training progress, hill work, training cycles, altitude training and race preparations. His next big race will be in Paris, the World Champs in the marathon (already selected for Marrocco)

He came to Norway as a 14.20 kind of runner and progressed down to winning the Olympics and running 13.00 in the 5000 (when the WR was 12.58) An incredible story. We decided to talk some more while in St.Moritz at the same time this summer (most of July for both)

Tomorrow is another track workout. I had a great threshold session yesterday and am slowly preparing myself for Florø.

Marius

of Kenyan 5000 meter athletes.

I like running the first race of the season in Florø. It has a great atmosphere and I have very good memories from that meeting. Sort of a soft start before the harder 5000 meter races. The weekend after Florø I will race a national 1500 meter in Tønsberg before running the European Cup in preparation for Bislett Games Golden League the 27th of June here in Oslo. I have a good feeling about that kind of an buildup.

Yesterday was a press conference for the Bislett Games. It is usually every year around this time – with the meet organizers and the press. Reminds me (like every year) that the Bislett Games is only a few weeks away…

All going well,

Marius

a team there for a few years now. You need a combination of long distance, middle distance and sprinters to compete well. The start and the finish is at the Bislett Stadium so I stayed down there to follow the events on a really nice and sunny day. I like those events ; Oslo is one of very few major cities without a marathon and therefore this is the closest we get to staging great running gatherings.

For three years now I have not been able to watch it either because I have been to the Horse Racing Track the same day to watch the Oslo Grand Prix Races with my sponsor “Rikstoto” (Norwegian Horse Racing Company) Unfortunately they have cut all sporting sponsorships this year after three years of great co-operation and we are now looking for new partners to fill in for their space.

Treadmill running today. It is very soft on the cinder around Sognsvann after heavy rainfalls earlier today so I will run those inside in shorts instead. A great alternative because the quality will be much higher.

Marius

the stride while at the same time preserving “peaking energy” for when it really matters.

We had a snowfall here in Oslo last week but it is all gone now. So I hope we will see the sun and feel the spring again soon. It helps you get an extra lift in the workouts when you start going faster.

A while ago we discussed spending the whole of April in Kenya like I did in 2001. I am really glad I did not. They say it has been the heaviest rainfall there in 10 years now – and EVERYTHING is basically floating in mud :)) Sometimes it is better to be home even though Kenya is great…

From Oslo,

Marius

compare it to earlier years and because you get a gradual feeling for the longer tartan work again.

It was windy and chilly but I felt fine throughout the session. It was a controlled effort and together with Eystein my coach, we had planned a number of factors to determine the paces/times. I had to be within certain limits to be allowed to continue the session. I like these kind of guidelines – it is great to both keep you focused and to control yourself. Running is a lot about self control – not only when it comes to self discipline (doing the work) but also when it comes to doing it right when the adrenaline pumps during a session.

Tomorrow is a flushout session on the treadmill. A good effort to work the system just hard enough to help it get back into normal again quickly 🙂

Marius