Author: Marius

Africa soon will be very refreshing for tired running legs. The three weeks home before leaving again has been a formula I have used for many years now and it works well within the overall periodization.

I will go to Pootchefstroom and Dullstrom in South Africa, to the altitude down there. It has been a while since my last altitude stay now, so a good chance of great effect 🙂 Last year I stayed for three weeks up in Dullstrom and I liked both the training conditions plus the altitude it is located at. Combined with a period a bit lower altitude first will give me a nice step-up-effect in both stress load and blood effect. Not that the blood effect is of any real concern now (I am much more into the whole respiratory,muscular + intracellular effect this time a year – that will be more long lasting), but it will help me some in the training the first weeks when I get home. So I sort of both use the altitude training for the direct stimulus once there, and the booster effect down at sea level. In that way you sort of get a domino-effect – and continue lift in performance through back to back training camps and pushing at home. It is so easy to just “go through the motions” once you are home and comfortable without really realizing that the winter is passing by as you are “just training” (and not putting in full gear) Therefore, going away now will be quite helpful.

Henrik is back again from a cross country race down in Europe so probably an easy run with him once of the next days. Good to have a marathon trained athlete around – they always look for a good,long run :))

All well!
Marius

motivational for a hard working athlete to have people like that around you while doing those sessions, it also provide you with the security you need to really keep going on the right track. You can just see and feel how you are being watched throughout the session – every stride you take and ever measurement that comes out. All closely monitored and questioned to the smallest detail. I come out of this sessions not only physically tired but also mentally tired from the constant challenges you get. We are lucky to have access to the test-lab at the Top athletics center on those tests. That way, things are easy to compare as this is the best calibrated treadmills around. You have to be quite aware of this, as a comparison the new treadmills they have at the center (Woodway) are around 1.5 km/hr different than some of the old ones in speed ! That is a huge difference – making around 45 sec difference in a 5km if you try and predict max time on a well trained 5km athlete. So you have to always look for those factors and not be “blinded” just by the speed you see on the screen.

I have had two easy days after Wednesday, which is very, very rare. But afte a very long period of hard training, topped by this test, I needed it. Tomorrow I will go hard again, fully refreshed..

Marius

gathering was a double lecture by former Olympic Steeple Champion Anders Garderund, who ran 8.08 in the steeple as far back as 1976 (!) Plus, he also has 1.47/3.36/13.17 (when the world record was 13.13..) so a very, very good athlete. I could not agree more with what he had to say. His training methods were very similar to those of Per Halle, that I used prior to my 1999 season breakthrough (controlled with the lactate measurements). A great deal of aerobic running in the winter, lots around the threshold, before tapering in the summer. Plus a period of strength, jumping exercises in the spring. About just like I did back in 99. Sometimes it is easy to fall into the trap of “small” things without remembering the basic stuff. Like he said himself :”The formula is 2 x 7 x 52 x 10. Train twice a day seven days a week, 52 weeks a year for 10 years ; that is the investment you have to make to run fast” 🙂

On Saturday before I left, we did a 12 x 1000 meters intervall training is one on the nice training areas in Sandnes, a park close to town. I was feeling fine throughout and got a good steady lactate curve throughout. The team had a total of 4 lactate meters there, so the other athletes also got some readings. Some of them had excellent “feel” for the pace which will a very helpful ability for them in this important endurance winter buildup..

From Oslo!

Marius

there, always free of ice usually not much wind (it is located right between the waterfront of Oslo and the highway) and very flat. Plus we have measured up an exact 1000 meter making it easy to compare year after year the progression you have. Henrik and I was running together and feeling fine both of us. Just like last year when some of the lift in training shape came from those fast asphalt sessions in between training camps when we were hitting the intervalls there with good speed building up to the spring season. They have located the new Oslo marathon down in that area and I can understand why. You should be looking a long way for a flatter and faster route if you wish to run a fast 42.195 km. Maybe not ideal if you have great number of enterants (it is narrow, only 4 meters wide) but quite nice if you wish for a nice fall marathon time.

Rest day today with two very spaced sessions. Twelve hour between them, much more than normal. Sometimes you just have to fit them in between a busy schedule.

All well!

Marius

the last weeks, and the best place to monitor that is of course on the treadmill.

Briefly from Oslo,
Marius

through Nairobi after weeks in Eldoret on the way back. The feeling of actually staying a night in a real hotel in Nairobi is quite special after looong weeks at the “special” Eldoret hotels 🙂

I had a nice morning run today, around the small lake in the forest area here. After the long weekend (Martin Luther King day on Monday-so holiday) it has been very quiet in the forest reserve making especially the morning runs very peaceful. Something else than hammering on the asphalt among cars in Oslo..

I will bring with me those refreshing runs when I go back to Norway to rest and build more winter training. You get the kick start you need as the season will come soon enough 🙂

From Florida,

Marius

Quite smart concept and the cross country coach there explained to me how runners prone to injuries not only prevented being injured (and recovered when injured) but also built more strength in those muscles so that in the future they could take more training. Interesting concept and it looked quite efficient also. One of those things that gets so spesific to the movement of running that you could use it as “alternative”/cross-training (something I am normally not greatly into) to take more training even for those healthy and fit. A main problem you see for those injured runners is that even regular “running in water” is not spesific enough to ensure a fast comeback after the injury. So even though the cardiovascular system is ok, it takes time to get into the running rytm again, sometimes 6-8 weeks. The only runner I know that has managed this right away is Jim Spivey (3.31 1500). I spoke to him about it a few years ago and saw the very tough program he was doing while running in water, returning to a 3.57 mile only days thereafter. But that is probably a rare example of that, and maybe a system of underwater treadmill running could (should) make this kind of post-injury comback easier. Should be something for the Top Athletics center in Oslo..

Nice to see the local University here. I actually also bumped into one of the former assistant coaches at Indiana there, who was coaching in 97/98 when I competed for the school. So we got to catch up on some of the people there-where they had gone plus how the program was doing.

I will be doing a run with the coach there tomorrow, just en easy evening run. He has 14.11 in the 5000 meters before so should be quite able to keep up (at least on those very easy runs)

We are enjoying a bit cooler weather here now, down to around 20-22 degrees C. After a period of very tough training, it is refreshing to get out in the morning feeling the fresh breeze only to warm up nicely during the day. And you can go out training at 9-10 in the morning, no problem compared to for example Kenya where we had to get out at 6-7 not to completely sweat away 🙂 So much easier to keep a bit of a more normal daily rytm over here..

Time for the evening training now.

So long and all well,
Marius

windy giving us a tail wind on the way back. Henrik is still feeling strong in his legs so we managed to stick together today also, especially since I had a couple of very recent hard workouts in my legs already. No problem on the way, except a family of wild pigs getting a bit too territorial. Nothing like the alligators though that sometimes appear around the running tracks….

This evening I took a very easy run for recovery, with a quite talented high school runner from the area. Those runs are very comfortable and it is always nice to meet other running enthusiasts in the area you are visiting. I have run both in high school and college over here so I know the great feeling of being part of the running system over here. I sometimes wonder how good the American runners could have been if the system over here – in terms of school spirit/connection had been combined with the more European way of doing the sport (more individualized in terms of work/racing) There should be absolutely no reason for the US not to have a good group of top-top athletes in the longer distances considering the huge number of runners over here and the impressive programs developed. But you never know, the key to long distance running will probably be discussed as long as I live and beyond (or at least as long as the Africans are beating us 🙂 )

Looking foward to a day of only easy running tomorrow after a good nights sleep..

From sunny Florida!

Marius

The link below will be activated, probably tomorrow. There you can see some of the area around here, plus some from the mornings workout with Henrik.

the session we ran into eachother on the path and the pace was close enough so I just adjusted the rest of my session. It is dead flat over here so you get a smooth stride on the hard packed cinder paths. Perfect this time a year when you need to get into the rythm again after spending the fall on the treadmill..

Days go by fast over here. So far this January they have had 8 degrees above C average weather so great for training. You cannot be asking for more than nice running conditions and nice weather this time a year if you are used to the Norwegian winters.

In between sessions we are being taken care of by an American family over here who has also been to Norway (lecturing at the Univ). They are friends of my manager Staale Jan and personal friends of Jack Waitz, so we are being taken good care of 🙂

I love being back in the US again. You start to remember why you spent some of your best running years over here. Inspirational and a good way to start the new year !

The link on the previous post is now active with pictures.

All well from Tampa, Florida

Marius

hotel where we are staying. He is in excellent marathon-endurance shape at the moment so no problem training together, especially now in the beginning of the stay. It felt great going from 0 degrees in Norway to 26 degrees C here and shorts ! You forget how nice it is until you are right there..

Then yesterday, Jack Waitz the husband of Grete Waitz came down from Gainesville to visit us, plus did an easy run with the group this morning. Quite nice, he has tons of experience witin the field of long distance running and training – to say it mildly.

This evening we will do another easy run, running on the small soft paths in the forest. Hopefully it will be a very easy one. I had plenty of problem sticking with the group when former 2.11 marathoner Terje Ness got into his floating form during the easy run.. Usually I run quite easy on those..

Time for some shopping now. The link below with pictures will be activated hopefully during the day or so. There, you can see the training areas we are running in, plus the people around here.

All well, enjoying the sun and feeling “home” in the US again 🙂

Marius