Category: News

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

exactly what times you have been hitting before.

I have had a very good week of training with fresh legs and nice training times. Today was 1000 meter repeats on cinder by the Sognsvann lake. A very hard session. I hate those 1000s. They are much easier on the track or on the asphalt. But I can run many more of them and get totally worked down by doing them outside of the track instead – as long as possible until I have to get the spikes on. I finished up with some anaerobic threshold work to flush the lactate acid out of my legs. A smart way to recover faster from the session.

Tomorrow is some spike work on the track and some plyometric work (jumping). It is time to get a bit more adjusted to the track now even though I run with spikes every week year around.

Marius

great to see an athlete who has been really good for almost 10 years (since 1993) to finally be able to put it all together and smash barrier after barrier.

I am also impressed with the way she has done it – training wise. I had a very nice talk with her coach Alex Stanton over the phone this last October and got some great insight into the way they are doing the training. I already had quite detailed copies of her workouts, intensity levels and periodization but I still needed some clear answers to some specifics. He was very helpful to me in doing so. They have perfected a system of training I believe very much in. High mileage, high intensity (and lots of it), clever periodization and loads of altitude training. I believe this is the best way to good performances but also the most difficult one. It can (and will) break you down sometimes but in the long run when you manage to balance it this is the way to go. Especially for us mzungos who do do have the natural altitude endurance base that altitude-born have.

Training is going well. I am just getting over a small cold but will hopefully be ready again for tomorrows workout 🙂

Marius