Category: News

get the race out of my legs. I need those endurance sessions now to ensure that the tapering process will continue without losing the essential endurance element.

This week will be a mix of track workouts on off track work. All of it at float speed, controlled and lactate tested but with more variation than normal to “break the pattern” I have good experience with this from earlier years ; to do the same things but just with small variations all the time.

Recovery is also a key element right now. Small things like not moving around too much, plenty of physio, good food very frequently, lots of sleep and relaxed days. The last one no problem in the extremely hot summer here 🙂

I took a short trip down to the Bislett stadium the other day and it looked absolutely great. Steep stands, facing down to the track. It looked just like the old stadium just with a brand new look to it. Much, much better than expected – including a very hard track for fast times. So looking forward to the 29th!

From sunny Oslo,
Marius

this very important phase in between spring buildup and the seasons peak for the Bislett Games and World Champs in Helsinki.

I had originally planned to pass the 2k in around 5.18 to get the qualifier. But the front pace was very, very fast. The plan was for them to do 2.34 but instead it was 2.31. So at the tail of the field I got through in 2.35 for the 1k and 5.11 for the 2k. I then stayed with a group of runners up to the 3k at 7.52. One of them being Garcia that Spaniard that is back from a two year ban. He got past me on the last lap after running head to head for a while and finished with a 13.10. Quite nice for him, considering that he only ran a 5.20 2000 meter the 14 of June (for 8th), a 7.59 3000 in Zaragoza (9th) the 24th before hitting the 13.10 here.

Easy run this morning before travelling home.

Fantastic night for Norwegian athletics last night. Tømmernes was quite happy 🙂 84 in the javelin for Thorhildsen, 14.53 in the 5000 for Susanne Wigene (after passing the 3000 in 8.53 with a pr of 9.01) plus Pilskog in 4.07/1500 and World Champ qualifier for her also. Looks quite promising..

Time for a run now,
From Italy,
Marius

intervalls on the cinder there. Just easy float as he looked after and read me the lactate readings to me in between runs. I like to have familiar people around me before meetings and he has done an excellent job as both Federation coach and before when he was closely linked to the athletics part of the Olympic team.

The rest of the Norwegian athletes arrived today and they all seem fit and ready to race. Great to finally have some other Norwegians at these meetings 🙂 Last year it was only me plus Trine Pilskog the 1500 meter runner.

Easy run tomorrow again in the park before breakfast. Then relax, relax, relax during the day before my race starts at 20.37 Norwegian time..

From the Golden Gala,
Marius

in the period around Bislett Games in early June 🙂

The field this year is probably the fastest I have ever run in (see below). 14 (!) sub 13 runners in the field, including the world champ from 2003 Kipchoege. The only runner missing here is Bekele who ran a fantastic race in Paris.

I am hoping to meet the qualifying limit for the World Champs in this race. I need the B-standard for the Norwegian federation to select me as I did the A-standard last year (national rules). It is around 13.25 which should be possible and what I am aming for in this early peak period. So I will try and run as much of an even paced race for that time. It is quite different than last year when I was in top peak shape for the Rome meeting but this still provides a great chance to meet a goal and get that qualifier.

We will be four Norwegians in the meeting, Thorkildsen in the javelin, Pilskog in the 1500 and Wigene in the 5000. Quite exciting, in the 6 seasons I have run in the Golden League meetings, this is the highest number of Norwegian participants we have ever had so looks like Norwegian top athletics is on the way up again 🙂

Well, off I go to Rome 🙂

From Oslo,
Marius

5 5.000 M G.L. Premium 2 RIZKI Monder BEL
5 5.000 M G.L. Premium 3 KIPCHOGE Eliud KEN
5 5.000 M G.L. Premium 4 SIHINE Sileshi ETH
5 5.000 M G.L. Premium 5 BIRHANU Dejene ETH
5 5.000 M G.L. Premium 6 GEBREMARIAM Gebre-egziabher ETH
5 5.000 M G.L. Premium 7 GARCIA Carlos ESP
5 5.000 M G.L. Premium 8 DINKESSA Abebe Negera ETH
5 5.000 M G.L. Premium 9 LEBID Sergiy RUS
5 5.000 M G.L. Premium 10 TADESSE Zersenay ERI
5 5.000 M G.L. Premium 11 HASSAN Abdullah Ahmad QAT
5 5.000 M G.L. Premium 12 SONGOK Isaac KEN
5 5.000 M G.L. Premium 13 LIMO Benjamin KEN
5 5.000 M G.L. Premium 14 GENETI Markos ETH
5 5.000 M G.L. Premium 15 ESPANA Jesus ESP
5 5.000 M G.L. Premium 16 WENDIMU Mulugeta ETH
5 5.000 M G.L. Premium 17 IWAMIZU Yoshitaka JPN
5 5.000 M G.L. Premium 18 KAMATHI Charles KEN
5 5.000 M G.L. Premium 19 DE LA OSSA Juan Carlos ESP
5 5.000 M G.L. Premium 20 KIPROP Boniface UGA
5 5.000 M G.L. Premium 21 LIMO Richard KEN
5 5.000 M G.L. Premium 22 MOUSTAOUI Mohamed MAR
5 5.000 M G.L. Premium 23 BAKKEN Marius NOR
5 5.000 M G.L. Premium 24 GARCIA Alberto ESP
5 5.000 M G.L. Premium 25 FITSCHEN Jan GER
5 5.000 M G.L. Premium 26 GOUMRI Abderrahim MAR
5 5.000 M G.L. Premium pm2 KORIR Shadrack KEN
5 5.000 M G.L. Premium pm1 KEINO Martin KEN

This is the time of the year to finetune the body, including the muscular system – in reality if the muscles cannot perform the contractions at the rate needed it does not help how much you have trained during the winter. It really does not help to have a great engine if you have no wheels..

They need to be very soft in resting position while at the same time able to rapidly contract. Alot of athletes have their muscules in constant tension, and therefore cannot go from this soft resting position to hard contractions within the short period of time needed. Therefore they end up feeling “dead” all the time with no forward moving force.

Spoke to one of the other Norwegian long distance runners about this yesterday. And after checking his quad muscles and they were very, very tight – I asked him if he did not notice this as he was now struggling in his running. He replied “not really”. So I asked him to first lift his own quad muscle sideways and feel the tension there, and afterwards take the same grip on mine. His comment : “wow, your muscles are untrained” :))) great comment, I never knew an untrained could run 13.06 🙂 But it does illustrate a common misconception You do not have to be tight to have “worked hard” You should instead have maximum capacity to fire on those soft muscles from when there is a need to…

Gotta run now, out in the nice weather..
All well from here,
Marius

days to get out of the system 🙂

We have (finally!) had some nice warm days here in Oslo recently. Which feels great for the legs. The warm weather in itself is nice, but also the hormonal effect you get from the sun.

Went through the old statistics on the Norwegian federation page the other day. Quite interesting, they have published all the Top performance lists all time – from the age of 13 and upwards. To illustrate how specific training works, look at this – which is the far end (last column) of the 60 meter top performance list for 16 year olds
( http://www.friidrett.no/friidrett/statistikk/at/gj/g60.htm )
Funny, the 2nd place finisher in the Norwegian 100 meter final last year right next to the top Norwegian 5000 meter runner on the list 🙂 Alot of things can happen through those training years..

7,2 Jarle Øvstegård Langevåg IL Ålesund 12.06.1991
7,2i Ørjan Tveit Ås IL(1)Skedsmo 22.02.1992
7,2 Kristian Fagerland IL Skjalg (1)Stavanger 25.06.1992
7,2 Robert Asad IL i BUL (2)AOslo/La 24.09.1992
7,2i Mats Tonning IF Herkules (1)Sandefjord 27.12.1992
7,2 Tri M. Dang IK Tjalve (1) Oslo/Bi 30.09.1993
7,2i Marius Bakken IL Runar (2) Sandefjord 27.12.1994
7,2i Martin Rypdal IL i BUL, Tromsø(2)h Mo i Rana 20.01.1996
7,2 Steinar Lundemo Stjørdal FIK (1)Flornes 25.05.2000

Hard intervalls tomorrow evening outside the track. Hopefully getting a good feel and plenty of distance in there..

All well form Oslo 🙂
Marius

just a couple of weeks ago did in the 7.50s in the 3000 meters. The pace picked up eventually and it felt comfortable to float away towards the end for the win in 8.24 vs. 8.28 for the second place 🙂

Now I will try and rebuild things before the first 5000 meter of the year. Hopefully in some better summer weather than what we have experienced recently here in Norway… the coldest spring I can remember as a runner – but as a long distance runner you are used to those kind of temps so it is still ok 🙂

All well from here,
Marius

distance runners but I have not had time yet to look at the exact fields 🙂

It is one of few events during the year when the whole national team is gathered – even those who are not officially on the team the rest of the year for team gatherings. So looking forward to that part as well 🙂

Off to Estonia,
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