16.12.13-22.12.13: Post-Beamtime, Pre-Jul

Date	km	time	min/km
22/12/2013	2.5	00:11:48	04:43
22/12/2013	3.4	00:14:00	04:07
22/12/2013	5.15	00:21:00	04:04
22/12/2013	1.23	00:05:00	04:04
22/12/2013	0.23	00:00:49	03:33
22/12/2013	0.23	00:00:49	03:33
22/12/2013	0.23	00:00:49	03:33
22/12/2013	0.23	00:00:49	03:33
22/12/2013	0.23	00:00:49	03:33
22/12/2013	0.23	00:00:49	03:33
22/12/2013	1.15	00:03:30	03:02
22/12/2013	9.98	00:41:00	04:06
21/12/2013	10.06	00:41:00	04:04
21/12/2013	10	00:43:00	04:18
20/12/2013	10	00:41:00	04:06
19/12/2013	14.01	01:00:00	04:16
18/12/2013	16.15	01:07:00	04:08
17/12/2013	4.55	00:18:00	03:57
17/12/2013	6.18	00:23:00	03:43
17/12/2013	2	00:06:30	03:15
16/12/2013	8.8	00:35:00	03:58
total=	106.54	av pace=	03:51

Mon 16/12 - AM/PM/whatever time it was! Still coming off nights, so standard 'beamtime' run.
Tues 17/12 - PM: 5x400m intervals at CIP at around 80s/lap pace. Probably too early to do intervals, felt absolutely shattered still from nights at the beamline! Warmup and return back home of appx. 5k and 6k (extra loop in Papegojelyckan).
Weds 18/12 - PM: 16km\10miles up to Skt Hans and back via CIP, around 4/km pace. Felt a bit better.
Thurs 19/12 - PM: 14k along the Hardebergaspåret. Felt really tired again from work, couldn't manage the full 10miles.
Fri 20/12 - AM: standard 10k route down along the river past the sewage works and back via CIP and Stadsparken. Felt better than the previous night. Final day at work before Christmas.
Sat 21/12 - AM: hoped to do the parkrun in Kbh, but the weather was horrible - high wind and driving rain. So ran the same 10k route as Fri. PM: standard 8.7k route with an extra loop in Papegojelyckan to make 10k.
Sun 22/12 -AM: hill training at Skt Hans. Usual 6xlong hill, 5xshort hill and 2.5k lap of the extreme running route. Extremely muddy after the rain, which was fun! PM: same route as per Sat evening, just a bit quicker.

Summary - hard couple of weeks due to lots of work inc beamtime, which totally wrecked me for a week and a half. Now have a couple of weeks holiday over Christmas with a bit more time for running. Wll run the 1/2 marathon in Copenhagen on NYE, so everything will be planned to that. God Jul!

9.12.13-15.12.13: Beamtime!

Date	km	time	min/km
15/12/2013	8.7	00:35:00	04:01
14/12/2013	8.7	00:35:00	04:01
13/12/2013	8.7	00:35:00	04:01
12/12/2013	8.7	00:35:00	04:01
11/12/2013	8.8	00:35:00	03:58
10/12/2013	11.86	00:44:00	03:42
09/12/2013	11.06	00:46:00	04:09
total=	66.52		03:59

This week was essentially a write-off due to exhausting beamtime at Maxlab, including nights Thurs-Mon. Managed a single run per day on the standard 8.7km route through Skt Lars and Klostergården in Lund, with a bit extra if I felt up to it.

2.12.13-8.12.13: Recovery from DM Cross, Storm and Snow

Date	km	time	min/km
08/12/2013	10	00:45:00	04:30
08/12/2013	9	00:36:00	04:00
07/12/2013	3.61	00:15:00	04:09
07/12/2013	5.13	00:22:00	04:17
07/12/2013	2.5	00:12:00	04:47
07/12/2013	0.23	00:01:00	04:22
07/12/2013	2.76	00:12:00	04:20
07/12/2013	16.13	01:08:00	04:12
06/12/2013	8.38	00:32:00	03:49
06/12/2013	10	00:45:00	04:30
04/12/2013	16.38	01:08:00	04:09
02/12/2013	16	01:08:00	04:14
total=	100.12	av pace=	04:16

Mon 2/12 - PM: 10 miles (16km) along the Hardebergaspåret, fairly easy pace.
Tues 3/12 - rest day
Weds 4/12 - PM: 10mile (16.5km) tour up to Skt Hans in Lund. Added an extra loop round past Willy's and the Max IV site. Weather not so great, but not as bad as...
Thurs 5/12 - DEATH STORM II, 30m/s wind = no run!
Fri 6/12 - good pace standard 8.5km route down to the river south of Lund to survey the storm damage. Far fewer trees down this time, probably since Death Storm I took out most of the weaker ones last month. PM: 10k aroudn the centre of Lund, waiting for Katrine to arrive on a cancelled train!
Sat 7/12- AM: No chance of the parkrun in Kbh, since it snowed very heavily over Fri night! Thankfully this has been the only snow this winter so far. So went and did some snow-hills up at Skt Hans. Hard work in deep snow, but good training. Had to dodge the sledges of the kids coming down the hill :-) PM: easy-ish 10miles (16k) along the Hardebergaspåret; still quite snowy.
Sun 8/12 - tired legs after snow training. AM: standard 10k route along past the sewage works south of Lund. PM: easy 9k rounds Stadsparken and out towards CIP. Snow had been melted mostly by heavy rain by the evening.

25.11.13-1.12.13 - DAF Vinterturnering / Cross Challenge,  DM 10km Cross Viborg

date	km	time	min/km
01/12/2013	22	01:23:00	03:46
29/11/2013	10	00:42:00	04:12
28/11/2013	8.7	00:36:00	04:08
28/11/2013	8.7	00:36:00	04:08
27/11/2013	15.31	01:03:00	04:06
25/11/2013	8.7	00:36:00	04:08
total=	73.41	av pace=	04:04

Mon 25/11 - PM: easy recovery run in Klostergården, Lund after Nytårscup.
Tues 26/11 - rest day. Horrible weather, so easy choice.
Weds 27/11 - PM: easy 15.5km, up to Skt Hans and a loop back via Gunnesbo in Lund. Quite late after work, so hard going.
Thurs 28/11 - AM/PM: easy standard Klostergården route, as Mon.
Fri 29/11 - AM: 10km in Lund, past the sewerage works in Källby. Easy again - tired legs.
Sat 30/11 - rest day, before race.
Sun 31/11 - DM 10k Cross, Viborg: 35:08, 34th place

Photo: fra Herning Løbeklub,fb

I had pretty much zero expectations for this, other than to not get injured. But I was quite keen to do well though, hence the easy week of training beforehand. Race was at an idrætshøjskole, next to the lake on the edge of Viborg, which was a very nice setting with a good view across the lake to the cathedral (and some good changing facilities and somewhere warm to sit, an improvement over the last round in Roskilde). No train this time - went on the bus from Århus with the others from AGF and 1900. Weather was dry, sunny but not too cold at 8-10C but it was quite windy ~15m/s max. The course itself, although quite a nice 2k lap, stretched the definition of 'cross country', with 1/3 of the lap on grass and 2/3 on prepared hard trail paths. I thus ran in the trail shoes I won at the Himmelbjergløbet, which proved excellent for the job. Took a warmup of 2x2k lap at a decent pace; immediately felt some pain in my left ankle on some of the tighter turns. But "once you've come this far, you can't go back..."!

Race itself started off slowly for the first half a lap - I suspect some of those racing the EM cross next week were slowing the pace as much as possible (or tactically taking the first bit slow). Ran the first 3 laps at 6.20, ~13 and ~20.30 to 6k. I went off fairly hard, as I usually do now to maximise the amount of 'good ankle time'. On the 4th lap, it started to hurt quite a bit and I dropped in pace to finish in just over 35min. Took 5x2k laps afterwards at an easier 4.00/km pace to build up the distance to 22k total and for a bit of endurance work, and to stay warm while the women's race took place. Overall a race to be pleased with, a good improvement and my best cross performance since the DM 2011. A good haul of medals for 1900, particularly in the vet category - soon i'll be a M30 'veteran'; 'den unge gamle'!

This is definitely one of the days where Danish running can be very good. The VT is great since Denmark is small enough and the events prestigious enough to regularly have the best runners from the entire country showing up, from juniors upwards. This something which is very difficult in other places (such as England or Sweden) due to the size of the place, meaning local or regional races and leagues can often dominate the objectives of clubs and the race calendar.

Summary - easy week before DM cross. Next week back to regular training. Have no (major) races now for the rest of 2013, but I'll do a race on New Year's Eve. As yet undecided between the Nordea Nytårscup 10k in Århus or the Änglamark Nytårsløb in Kbh - 5k, 10k or even one very last half marathon of the year.....