20/5-26/5: Distance and hills...
Date\Day        km      Time            min/km
26/05/2013 s     35.06     2:29:11     4:15    
25/05/2013 s     2            0:06:04     3:02    
25/05/2013 s     10          0:40:00     3:59    
24/05/2013 f      9.91      0:44:00     4:26    
23/05/2013 t     12.85     0:53:00     4:07    
22/05/2013 w    9.94      0:40:00     4:01    
20/05/2013 m    17.12    1:15:00     4:22    
Total: 96.88km, av pace: 4.01/km

Mon - PM: 17km, out along Hardebergaspåret out to the road crossing and back. Not feeling too tired after the usual early morning start and a long run on Sun, so clocked up a bit of distance ahead of the race Thurs.
Tues - rest day, primarily due to the heavy rain.
Weds - AM: standard 10k route round by the Källby ponds and back into Lund. Probably a bit too quick in retrospect the day before a race, but after not running the day before and the return of nicer weather I'd a good bit of energy built up.
Thurs - PM: Sankt Hans Extreme, see sep post.
Fri - AM: appx. 10km recovery run, mainly the same route as Weds but at 30s/km slower. Quite sore legs after the hilly race Thurs.
Sat - AM: In Lund due to visiting gf's friends later in the day, so decided to try a short bit of track again at Lunds CIP. Managed 5x400m at 72-73s/lap pace, P 1min - ankles seemed fairly happy with shorter efforts at short of 100% speed. 5km warmup beforehand round Stadsparken at 4.00/km pace, and the same for warmdown in reverse.
Sun - AM: quite full of BBQ food and having not run as far this week, decided to try a much longer run than usual to see how far I can push at present. Ran from Skejby in the north of Århus down to Moesgård beach, along the coast past Ris skov, through town and through the woods - a distance of around 11 miles. I chose this route since it offers a number of opportunities to 'chicken out', either by shortening the route or taking the bus!

Covered the first half in warm and sunny conditions at just over 4/km pace in around 1h10. I returned back along the same route, this time unfortunately into quite a strong wind which made it doubly hard. I found I had to stop twice for 2-3min rest and water - at the traffic lights by Tangkroen (likely out of habit after 1900 training!) and at Bellvue beach, before the hill back up home. Managed around 35km in around 2 1/2 hours - so appx. 3h marathon pace. Pleasingly, my ankles hurt less than the rest of my legs at the end! I suspect under race conditions at 3.30 pace I'd run out of gas at around 16 miles - long way to go until attempting a good marathon time...

Summary: despite several longer runs and a hilly 10km race, the injury problems seem to have stayed away - only on the high speed turns on the track during a longer session do I now feel it. I'd have liked to have managed a faster time on Thurs, but tiredness after work limtied what I could manage. I may make the run to Mosegård the new 'standard' Sunday run over the summer, replacing the route north through Lystrup, in order to build 'distance-fitness'.

Next week aims: Midjysk bjergløb 5.4km on Sunday; will likely head to Skrylle on Tues to do some hilly intervals ahead of that. Would also like to try some 3.20/km pace intervals on the track or on the road (at target pace for the Malmomilen).
MotW: DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince - Summertime. First truely 'summer' long runs...

St Hans Extreme 23-5-13, 10k\500+m : 1st in 40.05
(picture Erik Erikkson\Lunds OK - more here...)

A hard race held on a Thurs evening round St Hans backar in Lund, site of an old rubbish tip long since covered with large artificial hills - practically the only good sized ones nearby, as can be demonstrated by the view from the topmost - covered in grass and woodland. It's been a nice but infrequent training destination over the past few months due to injury problems.

Although the evening itself was warm (but not too warm, 12-14C) and sunny, the days preceding the race had seen heavy rain, making the course very muddy and slippery. I thus decided to run in short 5mm cross spikes, due to the minimal tarmac sections of the route - despite these being harder on the ankles than well-cushioned trainers.

The course itself was very difficult. It reminded me of the old days of West Yorkshire league cross, the Northerns and training round Bramley Fall in Leeds, except all of those had flat, recovery (football pitch) sections - this was simply unremitting hills, with little space to catch a breath. Not quite as hard I think as Xtreme Running Aarhus...

I had a less-than-ideal preparation for the race, having to start work at 6.30am and spending much of the day until 5 on my feet in the cleanroom. As such, by the time of the race start at 19.00 I was very tired - despite some caffeinated help. My aim for the race was thus to take it as training and run around 40min pace.

The first 2 laps went fairly well, run in around 9-10min\2.5k lap. It was quite tricky with the orienteering controls - I probably lost 3-5s on each, having to stop and stamp; should do some more orienteering to practice! Except for slightly missing the start 'gun', I'd led from the front and built up a lead of a few minutes. On the third lap, tiredness plus stomach cramps (something I suffer from time to time) hit. A brief 'pitstop' into the bushes was needed to set things right again - always wise to bring toilet paper on any run, even races...

Feeling a bit better, I put on a bit of gas for the remainder of the 3rd lap and took the 4th fairly gently, being around 2 min ahead - better to sacrifice a bit of time than to have the same problems and DNF.

The most worrying thing about the race was the sound made by my ankles on going up some of the hills: a loud crack! :-S Thankfully, little pain though...hopefully just remaining tightness than any particular problem.

Slightly disappointed with the time, but run at far from my best, evening races tired after work are always far harder work than nice morning weekend races! A well organised race (by Lunds OK) and good bit of training for the Malmomilen and the Midtjysk Bjergløb 5.4km that I've been talked into, plus a nice t-shirt prize as well :-)

PS - also a sweaty appearance on TV4's local news! (video)

13/5 - 19/5:  Hill test and more distance...

date\day          km         time           min\km
19/05/2013 s    24.96      1:47:00     4:17
18/05/2013 s    10.08      0:36:20     3:36            
17/05/2013 f      7.88      0:37:00     4:41            
16/05/2013 t      5.42      0:22:00     4:03        
16/05/2013 t      7.2        0:27:05     3:45            
16/05/2013 t      4.37      0:20:00     4:34        
16/05/2013 t      1.21      0:05:00     4:07             
15/05/2013 w    10         0:38:00     3:48            
15/05/2013 w    5.14      0:21:00     4:05        
15/05/2013 w    3.06      0:14:00     4:34             
15/05/2013 w    1.36      0:03:00     2:12             
15/05/2013 w    5.49      0:21:00     3:49            
14/05/2013 t      6.21      0:30:00     4:49                
13/05/2013 m    6.9        0:31:00     4:29    
13/05/2013 m    8           0:34:00     4:14
Total: 107.28km, av pace: 4.03/km

(Picture - Brabrand parkrun, Århus)
Mon - standard easy runs, AM: Hardebergaspåret 5 miles to the Utmarksvägen bridge at the edge of Lund. PM: run down through Klostergården along the river and back past the F&F Arena. Lots of bugs now down by the river, makes running down that way a bit unpleasant in the evenings!
Tue - PM: felt v.v. tired. Took an easy jog up to Lund CIP and back through Stadsparken.
Wed - AM: standard 10km route down past Källby sewage works alongside the river. Done at quite a quick pace around 3.40/km for the last 8/9km. PM: tested the route for St Hans Backar Extreme next Thurs. Approximately 2.5km lap with lots of fairly steep, short hills - very little recovery space, making it a very difficult route. Ran the first lap slowly (appx. 11min) to find the way (which had already been well marked by a good number of other people running on the same grass!) and the second a bit faster (~10min). Ankle seemed to cope ok with 2 laps - 4x2.5km next week should hopefully be ok. Spikes probably a must if wet weather, even on a dry evening the worn grass made the route slightly slippy.
Thurs - AM: easy run round Stadsparken at 4min/km. PM: track session with Björnstorps IF at Lunds CIP. Struggled a lot; my ankles still seem to cope badly with track running either due to the hard surface or the cornering. Managed 3x1km @ 3.20-3.25/km (P 90s)and some 600s, 800s and 400s in around 1.15-1.20/lap, but found it hard to run the shorter intervals without pain. Will take another 2 week break from the track and see if there is any improvement.
Fri - AM: easy run, up through town to St Hans Backar and back through town. Stuck to the paths around the hills, legs still quite stiff after track the night before.
Sat - AM: parkrun in Århus. Legs still feeing quite tired plus a bit of stomach trouble. Managed the first 3km in 3.10/km pace, then the tiredness caught me and I crashed on the 4th hilly km to around 3.50-4.00/km to finish the 5km in 17.20. Took a second 5km lap in around 18.30 to build some extra hill running distance.
Sun - AM: Decided on a single long run. Took my standard route round Egå Engsø and up through Lystrup, Hjortshøj and back along the coast. Ran the 13 miles to Bellvue hallen in 1h21 - approximately the same pace as back in Sept before the injuries. Included a trip along the beach and up through Ris skov (inc. the djævelbakker) to reach 25km in around 1h45. Very pleased with the lack of ankle pain although I found the run much harder than before injury, particularly the final long, straight section along the coast from Skæring - substantial work will be required on longer distances before returning to racing anything above 10km.

Summary: first week at >100km/wk since pre-injury last year. Pleased with the ability to run further with less pain, but it's also clear that much future work is required at longer distances - I had hoped to run the Århus City Halvmaraton at the start of Jun  (and may still do as a tempo-tur, depending on how tired I think I'll make me for the MalmöMilen) but I suspect I'd be unable to run much faster than 1h17-1h20 at present. The ankles remain a problem and a concern, especially on track...
Aims next week - run a few more km on Mon\Tues and then easy on Weds, ahead of the St Hans Extreme race on Thurs evening. Either Mon\Tues take another test of the route - otherwise training at Skrylle. No track.
MotW: bit of classic Nirvana.

---------6/5 to 12/5-------------------------------------------   
date                day             km         time        min/km
12/05/2013     s                13.55     0:51:00     3:45            
12/05/2013     s                7.87       0:35:00     4:26            
11/05/2013     s                8            0:28:20     3:32            
09/05/2013     t                6.87       0:30:00     4:22            
08/05/2013     w              14.65     1:03:00     4:18             
07/05/2013     t                3.89       0:15:00     3:51             
07/05/2013     t                3.33       0:15:00     4:30             
07/05/2013     t                6            0:22:50     3:48            
06/05/2013     m              10          0:43:00     4:18
Total: 74.16km, av pace:4.05/km
---------29/4 to 5/5-------------------------------------------            
05/05/2013     s                22.93     1:40:00     4:21            
04/05/2013     s                5.04       0:17:30     3:28            
04/05/2013     s                3            0:00:00     0:00            
03/05/2013     f                10          0:42:00     4:12             
02/05/2013     t                8.06       0:35:00     4:20            
01/05/2013     w              16.21     1:30:00     5:33        
30/04/2013     t                5            0:23:00     4:35             
30/04/2013     t                5            0:19:00     3:47             
29/04/2013     m             10           0:43:00     4:18         
Total:85.24km, av pace: 4.19/km

29/4-5/5: Recovery....
29/4 Mon -  very easy easy Monday run around Klostergården in Lund. Brought an ankle support in Stadium; helped somewhat, but still a dull pain from the outer side of the left one.
30/4 Tue - 2x5km laps at Skrylle in 19min and 23min, a test of the ankle over race distance and on rougher terrain. Thankfully, again less pain than previous days - with the right ankle injury, any such running was impossible. Hopefully just mild damage...
1/5 Wed - Holiday in Sweden, so most of a nice warm day available. Took a very slow, long run up to the north of Lund to see if the ankle worsened with use; fortunately, again the pain faded with distance. Only problem was tiredness after cycling to Skrylle and back +10k the day before!
2/5 Thu - stayed well clear of the track and did 5miles along the Hardebergaspåret. Fairly ok.
3/5 Fri - 6miles round Klostergården and past the sewage farm. Also ok. Some reduction in ankle pain.
4/5 Sat - back in Århus. Brabrand parkrun 5km in 17.30. Decided to take the first 2km very easy at around 3.30-3.40/km pace and increase the tempo gradually thereafter to as much as I could manage. Quite handily had another runner at around 17.20-17.30 pace to act as 'hare'. Caught up with a final km of 3.10 - but no sprint finish :-) 3km warmdown around Hasle bakker. Quite a pleasing workout and a good confidence boost before the race next week.
5/5 Sun - decided based on Weds that a single long run might be preferable for the ankle - with the pain seemingly coming in the first few km when starting from cold and then fading, 2 shorter runs would've been harder on it. Ran my standard long run route round Egå Engsø, up through Lystrup, Hjortshøj, Skæring and back through Risskov. Around 4min slower than pre-injury in the autumn, a combination of caution, tiredness and a lack of many 10mile+ runs since then!
Summary: Thankfully, the injury seems to not be as bad as the right ankle over the winter and it improved throughout the week. Will still stay clear of the track for a period to ensure full recovery.
Music of the week: I usually have a particular song(s) I have stuck in my head, listen to whilst running or particularly define a week of training. This week: Daft Punk - Get Lucky

6/5-12/5 - Lundaloppet week
6/5 Mon - standard easy Monday run around Klostergården in Lund
 7/5 Tue - 3km warmup, then 4x1km intervals along the Hardebergaspåret in 3.30,3.25,3.29,3.24 p. 1min. Test of the ankle before the Lundaloppet. Used some quite handy yellow km markers which were painted on the path just on the outer edge of Lund (for a previous race?). Felt quite tired and the pace was as good as I could manage, ankle felt very uncomfortable but I could manage the set quite well. Jog back to Lund afterwards.
8/5 Wed - long, easy-ish run, in order to build up a few km for this week and allow for pre-LL rest. Uphill through the uni and to Skt Hans Backar, then under the railway to Gunnesbo and back down Bryggaregatan to Lunds CIP, then Svanegatan and the park back home.
9/5 Thurs - run up the hill for the Lundaloppet to uni, then past Sparta along Tunavagen and back home along the Hardebergaspåret. Felt particularly tired, so cut the run as short as possible.
10/5 Fri - no run. Full day of rest for the ankles ahead of the Lundaloppet. Trip to Ven and a nice walk instead.
11/5 Sat - Lundaloppet
12/5 Sun - recovery run from LL. Decided to split the long run into 2 shorter ones as usual, with a 13.5km tour up to Skt Hans backar around 11am (very hot run!) and a later run down through Klostergården and back past the arena. Ankle felt quite good on both runs, but still some pain in the left when starting off which faded gradually during the course of the run. In addition, a nice trip up to Skrylle for another walk.
Summary: an easy week and reduced distance before the LL and a good race win. Pleased at improvement in the ankle and that it survived the race. Aim now is to maintain that pace over 10k...
MotW: Duran Duran - Girls on Film. Stuck in my head round the Lundaloppet...

Lundaloppet - 1st, 16.20-ish (i think...i forgot to look!)

The big race through Lund today. A bit of an unusual\annoying start time - 15.30 - instead of the usual morning race times, leaving much of a day of resting and waiting! Fairly hot day, 15-16C but cloudy, making for harder running.

Wandered up to the race around 14.30, in time to see the 10k runners. I would def have preferred to run the 10k versus strong competition (good PB potential) but with a good fraction of the race on ankle-wrecking cobbles I decided to stick with the shorter distance.

Started off quite quickly - around 2.58 for the 1st km. One or two runners had decided to get there first, or had forgotten the remaining 4km :-) I unfortunately dropped some time (around 20s) heading up past the Botanical Garden from 1.5-2.5km, heading through 2km in around 6.28 and 3km in about 9.40. From 2.75km it was time from the cobbles; fortunately, the ankle held up to the punishment although it was difficult to run at full speed.

Had a quick look back with around 500m to go and saw another runner about 15s behind. With the noise of the police motorbike and support cycle whistles, I'd not realised anyone was that close back. So I hit the gas for the finish on the CIP track - greatly assisted by the great support of those watching!

Pleased with the time after all the injury problems - but will have to see how things are tomorrow with my ankle. Now to train to keep that pace going for 10km in Malmo in a month...

22-28/4 - Lund, Århus and Injury Disaster...

date                  dist         time          min/km
28/04/2013  s   17.28     1:11:00     4:06        
28/04/2013  s   12.55     0:53:00     4:13    
25/04/2013  t    4            0:13:51     3:27    
25/04/2013  t    4            0:16:00     4:00    
25/04/2013  t    8.32       0:37:00     4:26    
24/04/2013  w  7.24       0:33:00     4:33    
24/04/2013  w  9.55       0:41:00     4:17    
23/04/2013  t    2            0:06:15     3:07    
23/04/2013  t    2            0:07:30     3:45    
23/04/2013  t    4.72       0:20:00     4:14    
23/04/2013  t    1.17       0:08:00     6:50    
23/04/2013  t    2.03       0:06:00     2:57    
23/04/2013  t    8.63       0:37:00     4:17    
22/04/2013  m  8.06       0:36:00     4:28   
Weekly total: 91.55km, av pace:4.11

Mon - usual easy run, 5mile route through Klostergården in Lund.
Tue - am: track session 5x400m at 1:13\lap at Lunds CIP First attempt to kick start some track training. Fairly easy session in total distance at a good pace, followed by 4km warmdown back through Stadsparken.
pm -  easier pace run through south of Lund
Wed - am: standard easy loop of Klostergården
pm: took a run round the course of the Lundaloppet on 11/5. Some difficult cobbled sections and a moderate hill from 1.5-2.5km and very twisty in the final sections. Horrible wet weather.
Thurs - track session with BIF. 10x600m at 3.27/km pace. Decided to go somewhat easier due to feeling a bit tired and not wanting to push too much. 4km warmup/warmdown plus 10x400m easy on the track.

BUT...DISASTER!
Fri- couldn't run at all! Severe pain in my left ankle (the uninjured one), developing through the night after track. Pain in the outer park of the ankle, rather than the inner as the injury to my right. Attempted a slight jog along the road, then decided running was totally out. Decided on a full 2 days of rest Fri and Sat.

Sun - very slowly started a run out around Ris skov in Århus, running laps of the gold route. Thankfully none of the sharp pain of the previous days, but the kind of dull pain similar to the right ankle injury. Managed 2 laps then headed down to Bellvue strand and put both ankles in the cold sea for a while, which definitely helped! Took another run later in the day to see if the sharp pain would return and to acertain the severity of the damage; ankle was still the same as the morning. Successfully ran for an hour around Egå Engsø and back down along the coast.

Summary - Too much, too soon. Trying 2 track sessions in a week whilst trying to increase distance was too much of a strain to put on the ankles at this stage, and I've paid the price for it. I've likely hurt the peroneal tendon this time, the pain being mostly located behind the achilles and down towards the outside of the left foot. Whether this is an acute problem resulting from track-related damage or underlying tendonitis coming through, I'm not sure...regardless, a reduction in training is once again required. Disappointing to suffer such an injury after many months of exercises to strengthen the ankles to head off any further problems.