Author: Marius

A flat out fall in the turns after the 3 km , though, shows me that I better stick to the track this summer 🙂 No injuries though, just a bit beaten up the next day..

Our 5×5 km team won the event, with a good margine all running a pretty good race. It is rare that all the best long distance Norwegians are gathered at the same place, as we usually run different distances as the marathon, steeple plus 5000 meters.

Next up now the the European cup next weekend. Hopefully getting in some more trackwork in the time between. Not too much, just enough to get in a good float.. I have to be careful, so that my endurance stays high – it is the endurance you run a good 5000 meters on. Normally I would have travelled to summer altitude to build this, but this year this does not seem to be a choice. Though it does feel strange to have to change parts of the concept that worked for 13.06 last year.

Well, out for the morning session 🙂

Marius

A nice floatthrough. Henrik will also be on the team, plus two 8.40 steeplers and an Ethiopian who runs for Haugesund, west in Norway.

Then after that is the European Cup in about 10 days and marks the seasons trackstart. Will be interesting to see how it will develops, we have plotted out a number of races that fits nicely into the schedule (with a peak at the Bislett Games + World Champs) Just enough to be where I want to be. A few we are not sure of yet, but at least more than 4 (!) races that a Norwegian newspaper for some reason reported today 🙂

Things are going fine. Training gradually and doing me best to stay injury free and healthy. This morning a long threshold session after some track 1000 s the other day in 5000 meter race pace. Just gliding through..

From Oslo,

Marius

stayed on the track for all months throughout. But from experience I have learned how I can use the track work to its best benefit in a limited number of months even though it feels good to just float around there 🙂 Just a number of 400 meter repeats. Not very hard but at ok speed with short recoveries. A nice session to start with. Sort of in between. 200 meter repeats is too short for the real lasting effect and 1000s too early. So 400 marks the adjustment to the track work nicely.

It felt surprisingly comfortable to take on the spikes again. Just like last year when I did the same routine. Probably has to do with lots of hard running on the treadmill, where you have a high frequency (higher than outside) and are able to keep a nice toeoff. Plus the plyos (jumps) I do every spring pays off also.

Now it is just to focus onward. Get in a good training rythm and make sure that I stay healthy. Looking forward to more track work 🙂

All well,
Marius

April but since the season this year will be be bit delayed on my part (last years Bislett Games was early June) the start this year will be a relay up at Ekeberg, above Oslo the 9th of June – the DHL relay. 5×5 km, on a team consisting of some of the best runners in Norway including Henrik. It will be a fun even, plus a good time to get a run through. In addition to that, the club Vidar is the organizer, so a nice pay back for taking so good care of my during the Eastern training stays and Monday trainings.

Things are going well. This evening one of the sessions run up by Sogsvann on my normal “test” route. At this time I need stability on those runs – the stability is needed when track workouts starts to progress. Otherwise you will soon lose the endurance component needed – if the running base you have is not stable enough. Nice and “fresh” weather outside, just how I like it when running those long sessions 🙂

Henrik set another personal best in the 10000 meters the other weekend, running a low 29. Great to see his progress after years of struggling. It feels much better to see those personal bests coming when you have seen the other side also..

From Oslo, looking forward to the season.

Marius

down south the coaststrip from Oslo 🙂 Will be interesting to see the results from there. I spoke to the national coach the other day, Tømmernes, as he came by when I was running one of my treadmill sessions. He was excited as always about the season. It is good to see that the Norwegian athletics (that have been struggling the last few years) finally have some leadership and optimism. I like leaders like him – he will back you until the end and be the last one to jump off the boat (which is really rare for a person in his position) But, once the season is over and there is no more hope for that year he is also the first to put down very, very clearly the changes that needs to be done. One should not underestimate those leadership things even though, in the end, it is the daily training, each single day and hour that makes world class results.

Training is going well. I have still been pressing hard just waiting for the body to tell me to rest 🙂 But as long as the pressure can be held high I will try and continue. A test at Jonny Høgseth yesterday showed that things are fine with the muscular system so a nice “checkpoint”.

Just back from an easy run out in the rain. Which is fine really, as it forces the long intervall sessions to inside on the treadmill which is much more effective than running outside on those long hard intervalls. Though after a long winter I would not mind some outside runs now :)) Hopefully it will clear abit until Monday…

Well time for some rest now,

From Oslo,
Marius

get a good blood slow through the legs. Very hard sessions on the treadmill recently, but I have been getting great help from phyio Høgseth to keep the system sharp on a minimum recovery..

Henrik is getting back into regular training now after the marathon in London and will run a 10 km track race next week. It is nice for me to have someone there who will always be ready for the long endurance stuff -even in summer when alot of people like to taper alot.

Another look at Bislett stadium the other day as I drove past it. Looks great already 🙂 Now it is just a matter of staying healthy and sharp until the opening the 29th of July which will be one of the real highlights of the season..

All well!

Marius

it.

Yesterdays session was another treadmill one. As I travelled to South Africa quite late in the winter buildup it is beneficial to do some more treadmill work just before getting into the harder outside stuff. But it was hard to see the others running 200 and 400 meters repeats in the sunny weather outside while I was in the top athletics center running those long intervalls 🙂

Had a talk to former world champion in the biathlon (plus Olympic champion in the relays) Frode Andresen yesterday. Interesting, he knows as few things about training that not alot of others have bothered going into depth in. Refreshing to see people coming to the same conclusions – not only on subjective “feeling” but on test results as well. Will be interesting to see how well he can be in the Olympics this winter – at altitude in Torino anything can happen.

Still feeling fresh after altitude and will continue pressing the sessions until I need a rest period (from prior experience in about a weeks time) Until then, plenty of training and plenty of rest 🙂

From Oslo,
Marius

participated in the Holmenkollen relay, a huge relay around the city of Oslo with thousands of runners + hundreds of teams a total of about 17,7 km and 15 legs total. Quite fun but since I am have decided to continue running for my small club Runar (that I have been a member in since I was 10 – and have supported my greatly throughout the years) it is difficult to have an ok team. It takes a good group of middle distance runners ( + maybe some skiers for the climbs) to have an ok team. But maybe in the future..

So to get a good run through it is ok to do a test today. It tells me if the winter training has been going well and that I am ready to soon start the track work that I have waited for so long 🙂

From Oslo!

Marius

threshold enables you do to more harder reps plus the hormonal effect after altitude speeds the recovery quite a bit. You can feel it from the soreness you get through the sessions, but still then the recovery thereafter is fast. So it is really just a matter of running easy when you absolutely have to, other than that press on throughout this period:)

Next week I will be doing some tests again just to ensure that things are ok going into more faster work soon. Always making sure that the endurance element is right, it is what carries you through those 12 1/2 laps on the track.

Still enjoying the Norwegian spring. It is a great to come home from altitude and get this hard training period as we head into the spring and summer..

All well from here,
Marius

the sprinters ; the principles of muscular tension plus recovery of the central nervous system. The sprint group of Alnes has almost perfected these two elements (in addition to their sprint training in general) and it gives me a constant challenge as I know I have alot to learn from this being a distance runner.

When a distance runner “rests” he either runs very easy runs or just rests totally. Then he just feels “dead” during that period and not really rested coming out of the recovery part and feels “out of shape”. The sprinters on the other hand have understood that the nervous system needs rest but the muscular system needs just small stimulus on a regular basis to be sharp. Those two combined you can almost rest totally while at the same time keep your “shape” (muscular) very, very sharp. Extremely effective and hopefully I can use this even more in the future. We know TONS on training but very little research has been done of recovery on the other hand – even though training is really just about breaking down, while the recovery is the building up part!

I feel fine and rested now after the post altitude period. So gradually increasing stress now 🙂

Out around beautiful and sunny Sonsvann,

Marius