One month ...

One month until my first half-marathon!!! OMG, I’m not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing. No, of course it is a good thing. I still have a long way to go before I’m ready, but I’m heading in the right direction and will be ready, I’ sure. My long runs (which I do on Saturdays) will be 14km this Saturday, 16km the Saturday after that and 18km after that. Then on the Saturday week before the race, I will just do a 10km run to make sure that I’m not too tired as the race approaches. This is all very exciting. Still, I have been feeling a little discouraged lately. It feels like my progress is very slow and it is a little disheartening to be running so slowly. But, I’m trying to stay motivated (and succeeding) by reading a lot about running and watching endless Youtube videos. Trying to remember that this is a ‘marathon and not a sprint’!

I got a new gps/pulse clock :) It is a Garmin Forerunner 220. Simple but with all the things one needs, gps to measure distance and speed and heart rate monitor to measure effort. Had my first run on Tuesday and it went very well. It was an ‘easy’ aerobic base training run, which means one runs at 65-75% of max pulse. That is not very fast! Tomorrow I have an interval training waiting for me. The intervals will be sprints or hills, I haven’t decided, at 85-95% of max pulse. I’m looking into all those different interval training programs, there are a lot of them out there. One is, for example, where you run as fast as you can for 1min and walk/jog for 1min, and repeat maybe 10 times. As your form improves, you increase the time but keep the rest in between the same, and even shorten that as you improve more.  There is also the pyramid, run 1min as fast as you can, rest, than 2min, rest, than 3min, rest, than 4min, rest, than 5min, rest, than 4min, rest, 3min, rest, 2min rest, 1min. You can also measure distance instead of time. I think I’ll do one of those tomorrow. Which calls for another 6am wakeup call (or even earlier) as it is just too hot here in Oslo these days. I love the heat and love spending time at the beach or park soaking up the sun, but it does make running tricky and also, I get very lethargic, very slow and dazed and not very interested in vigorous activities.

I don’t have the energy to write anymore now so ...

Finding the pace ...

Last Thursday I went on a great midnight run in the moonlight. It was still very hot but at least there was no sun. It was only 6.6K and very slow, but lovely. Then, on Saturday, I had my long run. I took the metro up to Frognerseteren (in the woods north of Oslo) and set up to run to Sognsvann (also north of Oslo). The best thing about living in Oslo is the great public transport system that takes you right into the middle of nowhere so it is very easy to enjoy the nature here, and there is plenty of nature here! 

I have walked this route several times, and knew that it was about 10-12K, so I figured it would be a great way to do some nature watching while getting my miles in. It started fine but soon I realised that this was going to be tricky. Lots of hills going up! Which is a little strange as I’m sure that Frognerseteren is further up from sea level than Sognsvann. But, I soldiered on. The first 5Ks were very difficult but finally around the 6K mark it got easier and I found a good pace and was just cruising along. Then disaster strikes! I somehow misread the signs and before I knew it I was on a gruelling trail run. I actually loved being in the woods on the trail, but I was not prepared for it. Maybe if I hadn’t already run around 6K and had on trail running shoes, it would have been fine, but that was not the case. After about 3K trail running/crawling I finally found the right path and got back to normal running. I managed to clock in 12K in record braking 1 hour 44 minutes! I’m very proud of myself for not quitting and managing to run most of the way, even if it was very slow and, in hindsight, maybe not very smart. I went home and stretched and stretched and then spend the rest of the day at the beach. The next day I was basically comatosed! My hip flexors and ankles were destroyed, I could barely walk, and I think I may have slept for 15 hours in total. I couldn’t even stay awake for the World Cup final in Brazil. Crazy! And even crazier is that I can’t wait to be in better shape so I can start giving this trail running another go ;)

I took 3 whole days off from running, to get my hip flexors time to heal and just to rest. And went for a great 7.4K run earlier today.  I just love running along Oslo’s marinas. So beautiful. And the paths are perfect so there is no need to worry about traffic. 

As usual, I’m still battling my sugar addiction and cravings and working on a balanced healthy diet. I got myself two new books. Finding Ultra by Rich Roll and Eat and Run by Scott Jurek. Both are vegan ultra athletes. It is very inspiring to read their stories and see what they are eating and how they are training. Now, I’m not even contemplating becoming an ultra endurance athlete, but I can take things from their books and use in my half marathon training as well. You don’t have to be an ultra endurance athlete to want to optimize your training. Interesting stuff. Now I just have to take what I’m reading and apply it to my real life. Now, that is a challenge!

In all my reading and youtube watching these last weeks, I’ve learned (again!) that I’m running too fast on my easy days and not fast enough on my hard days. This is the classic beginners mistake in running. The black hole. I even remember blogging about this last year. I’ve been trying to use the “conversation” test to make sure that I’m not running too fast, but it is not easy when you are running alone. And, it is not as reliable as a pulse clock. I just have to make some sacrifices, dig deep in my pockets and buy a pulse clock. It is so important to run in an aerobic state where the body is burning fat to get energy, and not in an anaerobic state where it is burning glycogen (or something like that). I really want my body to be burning fat! And it is also important as you start to run longer and longer distances as the body has enough fat to keep you going for a long time (even if you are a lean running machine) but only enough glycogen to fuel you for maybe 1,5-2 hours. Running in about 65-75% of your max heart rate is optimal in the easy and long runs. Tempo runs, where you are working at your race speed should be around 87-92% (race speed should be around 85-88% of your max heart rate) and intervals/speed training is 95-100% (these number I got from Runner’s World). Calculating your max heart rate can be tricky, but a relatively easy formula I got from Grete Waitz (she got it from Frank Horwill) is 209 – your age x 0,7 = your maximum heart rate. Which for me is 182. This formula is for females. For males it is 214 – your age x 0,8.  This all sounds very scientific but if Grete Waitz (9 times winner of the New York Marathon and a gold and silver winning Olympian) says it is a good formula, then it must be a good formula! Now, I just have to get that pulse clock. Will do some research and figure out which is the best and which doesn't brake the bank ;)

News from Boot-Camp Bryndis!

I’m injury free and back on track with my running. Did a fantastic 8K run on Monday as prescribed in my training plan. Went for the run thinking that I would just see how it feels, walk a lot and just take it easy, but I just felt great the whole way through and was even somewhat surprised when it was over. Went on a second run yesterday, felt great in my body, but had not taken the weather into consideration before I went out. I started just past 11am and it was way too hot. We are in the midst of a heat wave here in Scandinavia and I sure got to feel that in every fibre of my body. Stopped after 6.2K in a 8.2K run, and walked the rest home having already walked a great deal during the run. So today, I’m waiting for it to cool down a little more before heading out for my 6K tempo run. It is already almost 10pm so I’m not sure if it will cool down at all (temps are still in the high 20s), but as I don’t have to get up early tomorrow, I suppose a midnight run will be perfect. The perks of being on summer holidays! Saturday I will have a long run, and I’m planning to go running in the woods north of Oslo. Should be around 13K run. Can’t wait.

Earlier today I was watching the Forks over Knives documentary, and finally managed to find my vegetarian project motivation again. Yeah! So, now I’m back on track towards veganism. No meat, no fish and no eggs. They call that lacto-vegetarian. Lacto meaning dairy. I still have a couple of pieces of chicken in my freezer that I will eat before I’m 100% back on track, but basically feeling very good about it. I guess I needed the break to give my head a little breathing space to process everything. Changing one’s lifestyle isn’t an easy task and there are going to be bumps in the road and I’m just happy to be over this bump, at least for now. We will see how this progresses.

One of my biggest challenges these days is my serious jelly addiction. The photo below shows my fix. My drug of choice!

 That moment when you open the bag, and you don’t know if it’s a bag with lots of yellows and red ones and just a few black ones, or if there are more black ones. Combining the colourful ones with the black ones, OMG, it is pure heaven. So good! Now, there are three main reasons as to why I should not eat my jellies. 1) NO ONE SHOULD EAT JELLIES! No one!! There is nothing good in them. Nothing at all! You should not eat them and you most certainly should not give them to your children. They are only bad for you. You could just as well have a smoke or a joint or give your children some cocaine. Seriously! This is some horrible stuff, people. Do you know what they put in them? Really? Disgusting, horrible, sickening stuff!!! I still just love them. 2) As a person training for a half-marathon and a person with a full marathon ambitions, and a person working hard on losing weight, eating jellies is not a good thing. I’m sabotaging my own hard work by succumbing to my sweet tooth. Not that I’m eating this everyday. It’s like every 3-4 days, I just have this insane cravings and I just can’t resist. Very weird! 3) As a vegetarian, I obviously should not be eating jellies as they are made from ... (it is too disgusting for me to talk about it here, youtube it if you must!).  Anyway, this is my life at the moment. Fighting the jellies!

Love being on vacation. Even if I’m not travelling much. Just spending my days watching running documentaries (in the last few days I’ve watched Spirit of the marathon, Run for you life, Running on the Sun:Badwater 135, The Ultramarathon Man and Running the Sahara, plus a couple of documentaries on Everest, as well as some films featuring crazy running/climbing people). Lots of motivation there. I also bought two marathon training books for my Kindle and am finding even more motivation there. Got a love having all the time in the world to do just what you want. I hope you are all enjoying your summer as well.

Positive thinking ...

I’ve recovered from my bad mood which I was in because I managed to injure my back last weekend and now I have to take a rest from running (and working!). My doctor gave me some nice pills and told me to have an active rest, which means walking, stretching and swimming if I can manage that. She also said that some careful strength training is OK, as long as I don’t use heavy weights. Just be careful but active was her advice. So, that is what I’m doing. I’ve been going on short walks around my house and have been stretching, but it is still very painful so I’m taking it very slowly. And I’m trying to look at the bright side, now at least I’m determined to keep up with my strength training, focusing on the core muscles. I’ve been too lazy lately and I guess this was a good wake-up call in that regards. No use crying about spilled milk, as they say, so I will just use this experience as a good learning curve and will move forward from that. Hopefully, within a week or two I can be back on track with my training and things will be OK. I have summer holidays from Saturday so I have plenty of time to rest between workouts. Always look at the bright side of life, people.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlBiLNN1NhQ

June was an amazing month. Out of 30 days, I ran/walked on 15 and rested on the other 15. 50% is not to shabby! That’s pretty awesome, actually. I did over 100K in that month. Can you imagine that? I am so proud of myself, what a fantastic achievement. In total, I’m up to 461,5K this year. Running and walking. That is pretty cool. 

On my photos above, pink is running. Orange is walking. Green is strength (and you can see how lazy I’ve been!). Blue is rest days. A lot of blue in March and April as I was fighting with my knee.  July will probably be very orange and blue but I will manage to put enough pink in there to keep me on track for my half-marathon in August. There simply is no choice! Can’t wait to fill out the next 6 months. This method of keeping track of my training is working very well for me. It is such a motivation to fill in the days and I’m such a visual person so this makes total sense to me.

Well, back to licking my wound. Have a great month, I just love July and hope you do too.