Category: News

two intervalls I measured myself right below the lactate treshold so perfect timing. I kept picking up the pace but with full control over those numbers. So I kept right behind Henrik for the remaining of the session. He will race a half marathon in a bit over a week in Milano so he is increasing the pace in some of his sessions these days. Makes it easy for us to run together.

Tomorrow is an easy day. 36 km today, so just two longer runs tomorrow. But recovery will be easy as I got the lactate right on todays training. If I had stayed only 0.2/0.3 above the treshold I would have needed a day extra recovery. Says alot about how important it is to be accurate in terms of training intensity and training control. I believe this is why many people miss out on the performances they could have achieved. They go just that bit too hard on everything, end up not recovering and eventually overtraining. We have tested hundreds of lactate strips on Kenyans and they are almost always, even when running 2.40-50 in the 1000 meters (the good ones) below 3.0 mmol/l. Extremely low values. And guess what, they can (and the Ethiopians also) run hard almost twice the number of sessions that normal mzungos can… not that hard to realize once you got it right and can feel it on your own body also 🙂

Time to rest now..
All well,
Marius

video analyzes during the treadmill session on Wednesday. Quite interesting. They got a DVD made before I had finished the session so I could take it with me home to view slow motion. By increasing speed and doing it on several occations, we can watch the progression on a muscular basis also. This will be especially important as I will soon go into a period of more race specific work (plymetrics and speed) Anything that can give you a benefit must be used during that crucial time. The sprint coach plus his assistant who was there for filming have these things in their fingertips. They have excellent knowledge of running mechanics and anything related to the muscular and nervous system. I got long distance running and most of the stuff involved with it pretty much automatic now. But it is impressing to see that people have equal levels of information avaliable on other elements of running that may be beneficial as well. It give you that little extra edge during the workouts 🙂

Out for an easy run. Soon spring, cannot wait to get on the cinder paths around Sognsvann again…

From Oslo,
Marius

the year before my “breakthrough” when I did those sessions with the Oslo club BUL down at that same place 🙂 Excellent for training – flat, hard, no cars and always dry. No time to rest, plenty of time to push.

Henrik is the person I have done the most trainings with in my life -and shared the most of my good running experiences with. Travelling numerous times to Kenya together and sharing room there, plus two times to Bolivia. So we know eachothers strengths and weaknesses during workout situations after spending so much time together.

I did a hard treadmill session that same morning, so that we would be even in the evening. He did quite good in a 20 km road race about a week ago so in pretty good shape. So we floated nicely through the session together and it felt very effortless..

Tomorrow is another “sprint-coach-observed” session, so I better take it easy today to get ready for that 🙂

All well,
Marius

push the sessions. It is good to feel that your muscular system gets the work needed while at the same time the inner chemistry is working.

To help me with the transition into faster (and more muscular) work, I have brought in one of the team-members Leif Olav Alnes on weekly trainings. He is a sprint coach and has excellent knowledge of anything concerning speed and the muscular system. I am lucky to have the freedom to bring in people like that, with special knowledge, when it is needed. A person with a “sprinters mind” will not be distracted by all the “truths” distance runners take for granted and therefore you get challenged in a totally different way. What makes perfect logical sense for me – from my viewpoint, may not (and sometimes do not) seem so natural for someone coming from a totally different angle. In that way you get a great dialogue with new thoughts and ideas. I have been training on a high level for so many years now and I can feel it is refreshing to have someone there during those workouts. It is good for training and and it good for motivation. What I like about training is really not doing the training itself, but planning it – seeing the progression day by day, finding out new things, projecting and discovering how to do things better. That is what makes running worthwhile spending time and energy on. And with those extra drops of energy from “outside” people during the week you manage to keep those things alive 🙂

Next training camp will be during Eastern break and in Italy, close to the Pisa area. So until then, I will stay on the treadmill and do the progressive work there.

Marius

problems with colds or anything even with the change in climate and altitude. So I have a very good starting point for the very important next period of training. It is time to put in the last hard winter work before moving towards the spring and faster sessions.

The Bislett Games is early this year, the 11th of June so I have to be sharp fairly early. This means two things ; you must be right there, both in terms of cardiovascular and muscular fitness as the race comes around – but at the same time you have to be patient so that you do not start early with the peaking period. That will be a problem later in the year, as the Olympics is late August. So I am using all the knowledge from prior years and notes to time it perfect. I like this kind of planning – it gives you a chance to control the outcome through smart choices 🙂

All well,
Marius

the temperature difference between there and here is not as great as it could have been.

I am looking forward to some easy days of training to get used to sea-level now with plenty of time to do other things also.

Marius

trainings in the rain.. 😉 So I waited for abit and it cleared nicely.

I went very hard this morning. This period is when I can really push because I am acclimatized but at the same time not so tired from the altitude training yet. On most sessions I put down a minimum of work that should be done in a particular training zone and then I make sure that I stay there for that number on minutes in total. If I go too hard or too easy, I just have to run another intervall. So precision pays off – and the precision is really what I think makes running interesting in general..

We are staying close to the national parks of South Africa, where they have all the safaris. Some of the athletes have travelled there already and we are considering it. It all depends on training and time. So far I have only seen lots of huge cows, snakes and a pig (sleeping right in middle of the dirt path) that scared the life out of me 🙂

Gotta go now,

Marius

needed. Plus, with the group of other Scandinavian athletes here it is more social than some of the places down in Kenya. I feel priveliged being down here. In the last years I have seen so many exciting places – and stayed there over long periods of time. And now also South Africa. You feel lucky to have experienced those things together with the moments running (fast 🙂 )has given to you itself.

I doubled up another two hard sessions yesterday with the lactate testing done during it. We have apartments right in the middle of the training paths so very convenient to just drop by the room in between intervals to do that. The tests still show a nice progression in the training.

Something I can also sense in the recovery patterns down here. We just had the physio from the Federation down here and he went over my muscles and was happy with the state. That is an important indication, together with sleep and general well being that things have been going well 🙂 So I hope to continue that trend throughout the stay and into the next period. It is interesting to monitor those things closely. To know your body and to find those things you can do to help yourself. Almost like a project by itself. You find patterns and little signs all the way. I have done a good job with this beginning in Kenya and that is probably the reason why things are in balance training and recovery wise now. It is good to have that feeling going into the spring and see that is has paid off to be patient.

Lunch is waiting. They have some excellent restaurants up here so we usually eat out for both lunch and dinner.

From the mountains of South Africa,

Marius

Kenya, the running paths of Bolivia (plus the hills there) and the living standard of St Moritz. So I like it so far 🙂

There are plenty of other athletes here also. Among them five other Norwegians and Finnish+Swedish athletes.

This evening is a longer run. Probably stretching up a bit higher. I like the first part of stays at new places, when you can explore and find all the new running routes. I already know where to run my intervalls (did one yesterday) and am now just finding out the different other possibilities.

Yesterdays session was going quite well. I could push allthroughout the session and the heartrate and lactate matched like it should. A very important indicator that everything is going well. So I came back again very, very tired but in a good way 🙂 Those sessions is what you strive for as an athlete. When the muscular chemestry is working so well that you are able to push really, really hard but still keep going….

Time for lunch,

Marius

very laid back. A really great change from Norway :))

Most of the training is done on the endless grass paths and fields around. In many ways it reminds me of my time in the US. The weather (hot and humid), the city structure (houses, streets looks alot like the US) and the campus where I do my runs (part of Univ.of Pretoria). So I get these flashbacks to the wonderful time in particular while training in high school in the Chicago area. A good motivation 🙂

I had a hard training this morning and will do another one this evening. Same as two days ago. Then I was doing a hard AT session in the morning and a training with shorter intervalls with the 400 m sprinters in the evening. They have these grass 400 m. tracks here, so I was running in lane 4-5 while they were doing it in lane 1 and 2. When they get very short recoveries (they were doing it for endurance and muscle recovery) then it works very nicely to run it together.

From South Africa !

Marius