Date\Day          km      Time         min/km
21/07/2013 su    42.2    3:02:00    4:18   
20/07/2013 sa    5         0:17:45    3:32   
20/07/2013 sa    5         0:20:00    3:59   
19/07/2013 fr    12        0:45:00    3:45   
17/07/2013 we  10        0:44:00    4:24   
17/07/2013 we  12.25   0:52:00    4:14   
16/07/2013 tu    7          0:30:00    4:17   
16/07/2013 tu    10        0:34:09    3:24   
16/07/2013 tu    6          0:24:00    3:59   
15/07/2013 mo  10        0:42:00    4:12   
total:119.45, av pace: 4.00/km

Mon - PM: standard 10km route round Klostergården.
Tue - PM: training on my own at Skryllegården. Warmup 3.5km from Södra Sandby, then 10x1km, pace 3.20-3.30 (av 3.25\km) p 90s. Intervals around the 5km and part of the 10km route, including the hilly sections. Several km of warmdown at 4.00/km, followed by a run back to Södra Sandby and bike back to Lund. Hard training session and very warm.
Wed - AM: standard 10km route round Klostergården, PM: route up to Skt Hans Backar and back via Lunds CIP. Easy pace.
Thur - Rest day. Felt extremely tired, especially after hard session on Tues.
Fri - still feeling tired. Took the usual 10km route at a decent pace and then 2km on the track at CIP (done as 800,800,400 p 1min). 
Sat - Still tired - journey from Lund to Århus didn't help! Brabrand parkrun 5km in 17:45 - stiff legs, very slow. Extremely hot morning. Took a second lap of the route at 4.00/km and decided to rest the remainder of the day.
Sun - Energy back after some rest and good grillmad :-) Decided that since I'd done fewer km this week and the legs were feeling fresher, I'd test myself on the full marathon distance at training pace. (Many trainers would advise against this, but I think it's essential to do from time to time to gauge fitness, build confidence and remind yourself quite how much it hurts - just not to be done at full race pace!). Started at home in Skejby and headed south along the coast down to Moesgård beach as in previous weeks, then headed back up to Bellvuehallen. From here continued north past Egå Marina until Skæring where the road turns back to Grenåvej and back again the same way to the traffic lights next to Bellvue, making the full 42.2km. Aimed for 4.00/km pace, but lost some time to the heat and on the hills in Marselis\Skåde skov to finish in 3h02 (4.18/km).

Summary - another 120km week; felt extremely tired from Thurs-Sat though, likely down to work. The 1x10km session at skrylle was very good, although a faster equivalent on track would be useful. Sun marathontest was primarily to check if i've reached the point I can take such a distance (particularly my ankles)- apart from some slight pain in the outer left, they were fine. Still a lot of work away from being able to run at a good race pace over that distance...
Next week - maintain same weekly distance, another 10x1km interval session (perhaps on track this week), try and do some tempo running (Skrylle or on the Hardebergaspåret).

8-14.7.13: Half Marathon Buildup

Date                    km         time        min/km
14/07/2013    su  13.51    1:00:00    4:26  
14/07/2013    su  12.46    0:56:00    4:29  
13/07/2013    sa  19.02    1:20:00    4:12  
13/07/2013    sa  5           0:17:02    3:24  
12/07/2013    fr   10         0:42:00    4:12  
11/07/2013    th   4.36      0:19:00    4:21  
11/07/2013    th   4           0:13:20    3:20  
11/07/2013    th   1.6        0:06:24    3:59  
11/07/2013    th   4.4        0:18:45    4:15  
10/07/2013    we 10         0:44:00    4:24  
10/07/2013    we 10.12    0:42:00    4:08  
09/07/2013    tu   13.09    0:52:00    3:58  
09/07/2013    tu   6           0:20:00    3:19  
08/07/2013    mo 9.81      0:40:00    4:04
total: 124km, av pace: 4.02/km

Mon - PM - easy 10km. Loop of Stadsparken in Lund, followed by the standard Klostergården-Arena-Lunds CIP route. Did some short sprints and stretches on the track to help the legs recover.
Tue  - PM - trip to the Wallanderloppet in Ystad. 6km tempo at ~3.20/km followed by a progressive run of 13.5km from Ystad to Svarte along the coast, beginning at around 4.30/km and ending 3.15/km. Nice evening out and felt fairly comfortable during both runs.
Wed - AM - 10km, standard route - Klostergården, past the sewage farm, back along the road to Stadsparken @ easy recovery pace. PM - 10km+ along the Hardebergspåret, out and back.
Thur - PM- some track practice. warmup 4.4km run to Lunds CIP, 6x400m at 1.18-1.20/lap with 2x800m at the same pace. 4 easier laps at 4.00/km pace. Run back\warmdown 4.4km. Ran at 8.30pm - too hot to do earlier. Felt a bit of pain in the outside of my left ankle.
Fri - AM - 10km, as per Weds.
Sat - PM - went to 1900's event at Viby stadium in Århus to do 5000m on track. Race was run at 4pm, but still extremely hot and windy. Decided to run it as a tempo session with a long run (back home) afterwards as per Tues, at around 16.40-17.00min; the wind (and a slow start) took a few seconds out, finishing in 17.02. Took the run back up through Viby and Højbjerg to the Søsterhøj transmitter, then back along the coast to Ris skov and back along Grenåvej. Around 24km in total.
Sun - decided to split the long run in two due to the distance covered the previous day. AM - loop of Egå Engsø and back along the coast to Ris skov, then back along Grenåvej. Around 13.5km. PM - reverse tour, starting with a loop of Ris skov and back along the beach to Bellvuehallen, then back up the hill.

Summary - first week since injury that I've really run a 'competitive' number of km in a week, or at least a distance suitable for 1/2 training. I'm now pretty much where I was this time last year; effectively a year has been lost to ankle injury :-(
Happy at the tempo-races on Tues and Sat, where I felt very comfortable running just above 3.20. Will continue to maintain and possibly increase distance to build endurance at sub-3.30 pace before the Malmo 1/2 on 10 Aug.
MotW - 'Papa was a Rolling Stone' - The Temptations.

Holiday to Wallanderloppet - On Tour

Milan Fri 21.6 - Sun 23.6
Stayed in the northwest of Milan and did 2 runs of around 14km at 4.00\km pace around the local  Parco Lambro. Went early in the morning, primarily to avoid the worst of the 30C heat and to fit in more tourism during the day. Fairly basic park, paved paths with a 3.8km (odd distance!) running route around it and a few artificial hills. Definitely a better option than running in the city, with plenty of obstacles, mainly dog walkers and street cafes than traffic. Sunday is definitely BBQ time at the park in summer - expect a few to be already running at 7.30am!

Val Gardena Sun 23.6-Sun 30.6
Running in the Dolomites: excellent views and some challenging terrain, very hard to quite get used to 5km (horizontal) in 45min! Favourite route was from the village of Ortisei (St. Ulrich) up trail route 15 to the cable car station on the Seiser Alm\Alpe di Susi (and back), an extremely steep and hard climb over 6-7km horizontal and 800-900m vertical taking around 45min. This was made even more difficult by unseasonable snow for the last 200m up; but that's what Scandinavian winter prepares you for! Excellent view over the Alpe di Susi from the top, which has a number of running trails used for altitude training (I only saw the marked Paul Tergat Trail).
I also ran a small ('zeroth edition') mountain half marathon - and my comeback over that distance - as part of the IVV Olympiad, starting in Selva Gardena (Wolkenstein) and running up and down the picturesque Val Valunga and back via a kamikaze descent to St Christina. With very little competition, it was a run solely against the clock and 1h36 was not too bad for 1800m altitude and lots of climb. Definitely one of the most spectacular landscapes I've ever raced through. Extra pleasing was that I only felt a soreness in my left ankle after such an effort, which faded quickly over a few days.
Overall only 3\4 runs (when not too tired from hiking) and little distance covered - but when running in mountains, distance and pace becomes somewhat irrelevant.

Venice 30.6-3.7
The city itself is possibly the single worst, hardest place to run in the world. Practically the only time to do it in the summer is as early in the morning as possible (before 7am) - there are far too many people during the day, even into the late evening. Other obstacles are the stifling heat and high humidity, combined with a good bit of air pollution from boats, A\C and people smoking in the narrow alleyways, plus the difficulty of navigation and the constant steps up and down the bridges.
The only decent route I found (from San Marco) was to follow the signs to St Marks Square through the street labyrinth and then along the lagoon-front of Castello, through the Bienniale Gardens, one of the few bits of greenery, to the naval base and football ground and back - around 7-8km. Be warned though, this route is suicidal after 7am as this is when the tour parties start to arrive - this runs right through tourist central!

Aarhus 3.7-7.7
Back to Denmark for some more regular training. Decided over holiday to return to marathon training, after the ankles had survived the hard workout of the mountains - meaning initially increasing weekly mileage.

Thurs 4.7 - 10.98km (43min, 3.55\km). Standard 'Tour de Risskov', round the forest and along the coast. Quite tired from flying back.
Fri 5.7 - 13.42km (53min, 3.57\km). Loop round Egå Engsø and back via Ris skov.
Sat 6.7 - 6.67kmx2 (25min, 3.45\km), 5km (17.35, 3.28\km). Run to Brabrand parkrun, 5km parkrun, run back. Good tempo session, very hot weather.
Sun 7.7- 34.22km (2h30, 4.21\km). Route along the coast down to Mosegard. Very. Hard. Work. Tired legs from the previous days, ok on the outward leg making the turn at Mosegard beach at 1h13 but started to struggle on the way back - the final climb back up from Bellvue beach was horrible. Much work required to get up to 42km.

Lund and Ystad 8.7-
Mon 8.7 - 9.81km in 43min (4.05\km). Easy-ish Mon run round Stadspark and a loop down through Klostergarden, back round to CIP for some warmdown work and stretches. Very tight and tired legs after prev workouts, stretching helped somewhat. Feeling the effects of hayfever again - welcome back to Sweden...

Tues 9.7 - Wallanderloppet, Ystad. 6km, 20.13 (~3.20\km). (Photo: Björn Tufvesson) Legs were far too tired to make a decent effort at this race, but it was such a nice evening that I decided on one final 'holiday' outing down to Ystad on the train to run the race in the motionist category as a tempo run, followed by a nice run along the coast to meet the train further along (in Svarte, around 8km from Ystad). Given my sore thigh muscles and tight hamstrings, I did a lot of stretching and warmup and I settled on 3.20\km pace as a good tempo (nice and easy to aim for 20min for 6k). The race itself involved a good number of tight, blind corners in the narrow streets of the old town, hence the few extra seconds - I imagined a child or car the other side and and instinctively slowed down each time! The tävlingsklass attracted a number of the good local runners and some impressively fast times - a few sub-19 - and a good number of spectators, plus a record number of entrants.
Afterwards, continued a good run around the town and into the sunset on the bike path along the coast by the very flat Baltic sea (13.08km, 52min, 3.58\km)- which also became a ~3.15\km race for the last 4km to make the 22.05 train back to Lund from Svarte! Overall a good evening out; I regretted missing this race last year and although I couldn't go full speed, it was good to manage 3.20s and still have desire for another 13km of running; v. promising for longer distance racing.

Malmomilen struggle, sportpicture.dk

Hayfever and holiday...

10\6 - 16\6
Date\Day          km         Time          min\km
16/06/2013 s     25.68     1:43:00     4:00    
15/06/2013 s     10.77     0:43:00     3:59    
15/06/2013 s     10           0:34:50     3:29    
14/06/2013 f      5.89       0:23:00     3:54    
12/06/2013 w    6.96       0:36:00     5:10    
12/06/2013 w    12.03     0:48:00     3:59    
11/06/2013  t     10           0:36:30     3:38    
10/06/2013 m    11.69     0:50:00     4:16
total:93.02km, av pace:

17\6-20\6
Date\Day        km         Time         min\km
19/06/2013 w  5.26       0:23:00     4:22
18/06/2013 t    14.91     1:00:00     4:01   
17/06/2013 m  8.73       0:36:00     4:07 

Mon 10\6- took a different run to the usual Mon route, down past the arena and round the ponds south of Lund before heading back via a lap of CIP. Very tired and a somewhat slow pace.
Tue- training at Skrylle. 5km warmup, then 5x1k. Could only just manage 3.25\km, tight chest, struggled throughout and felt very tired. Sore eyes after cycling back to Lund.
Wed- am: very easy run south through Klostergarden and back up through Stadsparken in Lund. Done at a very easy pace to try and rest the legs a bit. pm - run up to St Hans Backar via Tuna and back through uni. Bit higher pace, but still not feeling great.
Thur- decide to take a full day of rest, plus Nordic Physics Days conf kept me busy.
Fri - fairly easy 6km round the arena and Stadsparken ahead of the Malmomilen.
Sat - Malmomilen. Rubbish. See sep post.
Sun - definitely felt the hayfever during the night: sore throat, red eyes, horrible headache and blocked nose. Particularly bad due to the amount of pollen sucked in racing - I find it especially bad after hard effort. Took 2 loratadine tablets plus some over the counter nasal spray and eye drops, which reduced the symptoms. Fortunately, it was raining - nothing better than pouring rain to run in during pollen season! Took a long run with gf on a bike down to Lomma and back (after remembering Lomma has no rail station...doh) - rain and a fresh wind off the sea made 25km manageable.

Mon 17\6 - very easy run, late in the evening (9.30pm) to avoid the worst of the pollen, down through Klostergarden and back via Lunds CIP. Felt shocking - like a very bad cold; tired, headache, sore throat, etc...
Tue 18\6 - felt marginally better, primarily through a shedload of sleeping and anti-histamine tablets. Run up to Norra Fäladen, up what I term 'Synchrotron Hill', on the basis it overlooks the new Max IV and the motorway, and back via St Hans Backar (they'd just cut the fucking grass...arrgh!) and Lunds CIP.
Wed 19\6 -
Thur 20\6 -
Fri 21\6 - HOLIDAY!

Summary: hayfever season is here :-( and this year it's a bad one, probably a product of the long horrible winter. In retrospect, the signs were there before the race in Malmo, tiredness and a headache which I attributed to working too hard. Hayfever is something you have to just push through as a runner (it's like running with a permanent cold) - anti-histamines provide some relief, as does timing your runs later in the day, but neither is a complete cure. For me, mid-May (tree), mid June-early July(grass) and late-Aug (harvest, dust+stirred up pollen) are the worst times and I can definitely feel it in Sept when it passes; chest feels less tight and interval sessions become far easier. On the upside, both ankles have felt good these past 2 weeks!

Next week: Off on holiday to the Dolomites and northern Italy, hopefully leaving hayfever behind - training will thus mostly be hills!
MotW - 13 - Black Sabbath's new offering...

MalmöMilen 10k: target: 33.00, result: 34.50....urgghhh!! 

Absolutely rubbish outing in Malmo for the 10k race round the city - a worse 10k time than the DM (whilst injured) and 40s slower than the Skryllemilen, with significant hill climbs. Fuck!

Not quite sure what went so badly wrong. On the tues before the race I'd done 5x1k and found my legs to be very tired, with running <3.30 difficult. However, I rested extensively on thurs\fri - no running thurs and only a short, slow 4 miles early on fri and didn't feel particularly tired before the race. Pre-race preparation was normal, as before more successful races over the last few months.

First indication of problems came at around 2.5k as I was overtaken by another runner (running at my 33min target pace) and I found myself unable to catch back up - and neither could I shake the runner behind. I was able to battle through, running 5k in just under 16.40 but at 5-6k, running into the wind, my legs really started to give up and I was overtaken by 3\4 others. The last 4k really was a struggle to complete.

Partly, the poor performance could have been down to hayfever. My eyes were stinging and I was struggling a bit to breathe at the end, plus a telltale sore throat in the evening after. The 20C+ hot, windy weather and the unusual 3pm sat race time didn't help either. I've run poorly in mid-late June in the past, particularly the DM 10,000m on track last year (although injury played a part in that). Another possibility is the switch to longer runs, away from faster paced efforts slowing me down or that I'm currently overtraining - although this hadn't hindered previous races.

I think more likely is that I've become 'tired in the head' from increased training and racing (and working) over the last month and am lacking some motivation. Years of no track running has always made June a kind of end-of-season point where good race performances are hard to come by. Hopefully holiday in a week should help with that...

3/6-9/6 - Difficult week...

Date\Day           km         Time         min/km
09/06/2013 s     13.66     0:58:00     4:14
09/06/2013 s     13.5       1:01:00     4:31    
08/06/2013 s     10          0:36:10     3:36    
08/06/2013 s     12.26     0:55:00     4:29    
07/06/2013 f      7.07       0:26:00     3:40    
06/06/2013 t      7.06       0:28:00     3:58    
06/06/2013 t      8.67       0:34:00     3:55    
04/06/2013 t      11.33     0:51:00     4:29    
04/06/2013 t      2.5         0:10:00     3:59    
03/06/2013 m    17.16     1:17:00     4:29
total: 103.21km, av pace:  4.08/km

Mon (pm) - standard run along the Hardebergaspåret. Felt ok to start off with, but then increasingly tired towards the end of the run - pace dropped from 4.00/km to closer to 5.00/km. A busy day at work beforehand.
Tues (pm) - worked too late to head up to Skrylle, so ran up to Sankt Hans backar and took a 2.5km lap of the Extreme race course, followed by a run back via uni. Again, quite tired.
Weds - urrrrgh...felt very tired, combination of work and likely not recovering well enough from the race sun. Took a complete day of rest.
Thurs - decided to go back to 2 shorter runs a day to give some mental rest as well as more recovery time. (am) Took a short run down to Källby and back via the arena and (pm) same route, but with an extra loop up to Lunds CIP inc 1km track effort (at a slow 3.50/km...).
Fri- legs again demanded more rest, so threw in a shorter run as Thurs (am) at lunchtime, before taking the train back to Denmark.
Sat (birthday!) - (am) Brabrand parkrun, 5km in 17:10. Was aiming for sub-17 on the tough summer route (appx 1min slower than a flat 5k) in honour of my 28th birthday, but unfortunately it was a very windy day - and the worst kind of wind on that route, against for the faster first 2km rather than the hill sections. Followed by a second, slower lap at 19min pace. (pm) close to 1h run around Risskov and back along the beach to Bellvue strand before heading back up the hill to Skejby; beer and nice food afterwards!
Sun - (am) run down to the harbour in Århus to see the Aarhus City Halvmarathon. Some great performances from 1900 runners on quite a difficult route, with 2 hill climbs in it. I think I might have considered racing this if not for the Malmomilen next week, but just as a test of the ankle and current progress. Definitely aiming for the September 1900-organised Århus half; since it's a flat course and is the DM (and VM qualification race), it will be very quick making it good PB-potential - a summer of training lies ahead for that.
(pm) easy run again round Risskov and to the beach...but not so pleasant stomach cramps at around 3/4 though! a couple of 'pitstops' required, one invovling a rapid dash into the bushes in Mollerup skov :-(
Summary -  probably didn't rest enough after the race on Sun and underestimated how much it'd tired me out - tiredness not helped by quite a busy week at work. But with some rest and switching to shorter runs, I was able to get some good training done and just about get over 100km for the week.Still slightly concerned that the longer runs are at the exclusion of pace - work and tiredness prohibited a proper interval session in the week.
Aims for next week - hopefully intervals on Tues at Skrylle. Easier runs towards the end of the week ahead of the Malmomilen on Sat. Malmomilen target is 3.20/km pace - so 33.20 or better.

27/5 - 2/6 - Bjergløb buildup...
Date\Day           km         Time         min/km
02/06/2013  s    5.56       0:18:45     3:21    
02/06/2013  s    12.15     0:51:00     4:11    
02/06/2013  s    2            0:00:00     0:00    
01/06/2013  s    6            0:25:00     4:09    
31/05/2013  f    22.22     1:35:00     4:16    
29/05/2013  w  10          0:38:00     3:48    
28/05/2013  t    6            0:20:35     3:25    
28/05/2013  t    8            0:32:00     3:59    
27/05/2013  m  17.16     1:07:00     3:54
total:89.12km,   av pace:3.52/km 

Mon - (eve) run along the Hardebergaspåret, same as previous weeks out past the road crossing and back with a lap of Stadsparken. Gave it a bit of gas this week and went a bit later in the evening, such that there were fewer flies to inhale!
Tues - (eve) Training st Skrylle with Björnstorps IF. 3km red route warmup, then 6x1km, hilly - first 5 at 3.25-3.30\km pace, final with the hammer down at 3.05/km. Legs felt very tired after the distance put in over the previous days, very sore calf muscles and backside. Warmdown 5km at appx. 4.00/km. A very good preparation session for running hills at speed ahead of the race on Sun.
Wed - (am) standard 10km route to Källby. Did it in the morning to avoid some flies along by the ponds, unfortunately even at 7am it was quite bad!
Thurs - rest day.
Fri - (am) for the first time since the morning back in Sept I suffered my initial ankle injury, I ran the same route as the run on which it occurred - the full distance along the Hardebergaspåret to Sodra Sandby (including an extra loop in SS to get above 21km). I took it very easy at the start - lesson learnt from Sept - running around 4.30-4.40/km until the outer edge of Lund, before increasing the pace gradually thereafter. I was probably the most aware of any slight strain, complaint and my running style of any run I've done for many months, but I came through it! Now, just to increase the pace gradually...
Sat - (am) Brabrand parkrun in Århus. I was 'efterløber', starting 10min after everyone and running a very easy pace behind to make sure everyone got round. Extra 1km loop since I managed to catch the backmarker before the end. A nice, easy run to loosen the legs before racing Sun.
Sun - (am) Midtjysk Bjergløb 5.4km (see sep post)
Summary - a good week, with some longer distance runs (at the highest av. pace for some time) built in to build stamina, but still at a low mileage for the week due to the race. Slightly concerned this is at the expense of pace however. I again avoided the track, with the ankles ok on the longer runs but not on high speed track intervals (and still not quite right on hill intervals or racing either). Fly season has begun, but more importantly so has hayfever season - I found it hard to breathe running where the grass had been cut along the river in Lund. But, it's something I just have to cope with...
Aims for next week - try and push back up to 100km and build in more pace, via intervals or higher tempo runs.
MotW - The Isley Brothers- Who's That Lady . Another very 'summer' song...

Midtjysk Bjergløb, Bjergspurten 5.4km (appx. 120m climb) - 1st, 18:44 

Trip to Virklund near Silkeborg for the shorter version of 'Denmark's Hardest Mountain Race', organised by SMT Silkeborg. A quite early start to catch the bus from gf's parents house near Horsens, got to the race around 9.15 leaving a long time to kill until the 11am start. Very windy and (relatively) cold day, the race number tent was nearly airborne at one point!

Decided to do the less prestigious 5.4km to protect my ankle. The 27km full-bjergløb at this time is too much and 12km, with a hilly final 6km, was too much of a risk at this stage of recovery - especially since this race would contain stiffer competition and I'd potentially have had to push harder than I wanted to on the hilly section rather than setting and controlling the pace. The competition was somewhat weakened today, with the winners of previous years absent - likely on account of the Århus City Half next week. I'll be skipping that ahead of the MalmöMilen the week after; it takes more than a week to recover from a 1/2 and I'd rather take one decent race time than 2 crap ones.

Probably didn't quite warm up enough before the start as I ran the first km in a lethargic 3.28km - on tarmac, with downhill sections. Two runners stuck with me through this section, up to the start of the hill when I started to pull away. To try and get back some time, I pushed a bit and ran the 2nd km, up the main 70m climb, in 3.19/km - even catching and overtaking the lead bike! :-) The 3rd and 4th km were mainly downhill, however I covered these at the same 3.18-3.19/km pace - partly to recover from the hill effort and partly because I'm still very cautious descending after injury. I passed 5km in just inside 17min, slowing slightly for the final 0.4km slightly into the wind.

Afterwards took a 14km easier run at 4.00/km from Virklund to Gjessø and back - much better to do some after-training at an easy pace than re-injure myself over the longer race routes.

Overall a top day out and a good run. Nice walk back to Ry via the Himmelbjerg on the way back - walked some of the course covered by Himmelbjergløbet in October, one of my all-time favorite races due to the challenging course, the lovely autumnal woods and the epic Rocky-esque final km 15 with the huge climb from Julsø to the tower.

Big box of takeaway chow mein in Ry, def needed after racing and walking so far! Hope to be back sometime to run either the 12 or 27km routes...

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.

15-21/4 - week in Lund and Skrylleloppet

date                day        km         time          pace(min/km)
21/04/2013     sun        13.61     1:01:00     4:28    
21/04/2013     sun        10.66     0:45:00     4:13    
20/04/2013     sat         10           0:34:00     3:24    
20/04/2013     sat         4             0:00:00     0:00    
19/04/2013     fri          5.59       0:24:00     4:17    
18/04/2013     thu        8.17       0:33:00     4:02    
17/04/2013     wed      7.01       0:29:00     4:08   
16/04/2013     tue        5             0:22:30     4:30    
16/04/2013     tue        4             0:12:40     3:10   
16/04/2013     tue        3             0:11:00     3:40    
15/04/2013     mon      9.14       0:37:00     4:02    
Total: 80.18km, av. pace: 3.59/km

Mon: Easy run down through Källby, up past the arena, to Lunds C IP and back through Stadsparken. Legs quite tired after long run the day before, but included 5-6x1min efforts on some of the quieter roads in the industrial area.
Tue: Training at Skrylle with Björnstorps IF. 3km warmup at 3.40\km, followed by 4x1km (hilly 1.5km red route) in 3.13,3.10,3.11,3.13 and 2x1km at 3.40\km. 5km warmdown round the yellow route. A good hard session, managed 4km at full pace before I started to feel the ankle, then slowed to the pace of the majority of the group as usual. Very warm evening - something I've been looking forward to after all the cold, dark months up there and definitely an example of why Skrylle is such a nice place to train.
Wed: Another shorter easy run - legs really stiff after Tues session! Taken at lunchtime in the sun, short route as per Mon but without the diversion to IP.
Thur: Repeated Mon route in the morning, but then had to work late, so missed the track interval session and it was too late to run in the evening...
Fri: Very easy 5.5km and loop of the F&F arena in the morning. Resting my legs before the race Sat, but a nice run-out just to stop getting too stiff.

Sat: Skrylleloppet 10km (hilly, trail) : 34.15 (3rd place).  (Pictures)
I was initially reluctant to do this race, after testing the course a couple of weeks ago and finding it was hard for my ankle to cope with the terrain. However, after the success of Tues session on similar trail terrain (and the suspicion that the adrenaline of race conditions would probably help), I decided to risk it. The other reason pushing me to do it was that this is the only seeding race I can practically attend for the Lidingöloppet in Sept - where without a good time (<37min) I'd be forced to start from the back and work my way through the crowds, not an attractive prospect. The race was run in pretty ideal conditions - 12C, sun and very little wind on a dry course. My plan was to run the race very conservatively, aiming for 35-36min and 3.25-3.30\km pace for the flatter first 5km. Within the first 3km I found myself in a fairly comfortable 4th place, with 3 guys in a group together around 10-15s ahead - I decided this was far from ideal, since it would give me little push through the harder second half of the race. I thus increased pace and caught the 3rd place runner at around 4km. At this point I judged the front 2 to be running around 33min pace; too fast to risk at this time. So I stuck to the runner in 3rd, which helped greatly through the hilly final 3\4km, having someone to run with. At the end of the final hill I was again left alone to finish the final km for a great time (and a good seeding time), the fastest 10km I've managed since the injury and on a v. hilly course!

Sun: Split the long run up into 2 this week, primarily after racing Sat. 13km in am, 10km in pm. Morning: took a run up through the uni to Sankt Hans backar - great view from the top, all the way to the bridge and Copenhagen - and back via CIP and Stadsparken. Evening: standard 6mile route run past the lakes in Källby and back along Trollebergsvangen.

Next 2 weeks will be focused on preparing for the Lundaloppet on 11/5 - ideally increasing distance towards 100km per week with 2 tempo sessions pw, primarily on the track. 

8-14/4: Back in Sweden

date                day              km         time           min/km
14/04/2013     sun              16.16     1:05:00     4:01    
13/04/2013     sat               12.54     0:50:00     3:59    
13/04/2013     sat                 5.00     0:16:55     3:22   
13/04/2013     sat                 1.18     0:05:00     4:14    
11/04/2013     thu                 7.20     0:24:00     3:20
11/04/2013     thu                 2.00     0:00:00     0:00    
10/04/2013     wed             10.00     0:37:30     3:45    
10/04/2013     wed               3.00     0:00:00     0:00   
09/04/2013     tue                 8.06     0:34:00     4:13    
09/04/2013     tue                 6.67     0:29:00     4:20   
08/04/2013     mon               9.75     0:39:00     4:00
Total: 81.56km, av pace: 3.54/km

Mon: Run in Lund, standard route down Malmovagen, through Klostergården and past the sewage farm lakes at Källby. Fairly easy recovery run after flying back Sunday night. 
Tue: 
am - 5mile run along Hardebergaspåret to the outer bridge (Utmarksvägen). 
pm - shorter route through Stadsparken, past the arena and back round to Lunds Central IP through the industrial area. 
Wed: 10km green route at Skryllegården. Decided to do this at as good a speed as possible as a test to see if I could manage the upcoming Skrylleloppet, with a view towards getting 36min for a good Lidingöloppet seeding time. Legs felt quite tired at the start and I could only just match the 3.35/km  pace required. At 7km, as the route became more hilly,. I was forced to stop due to increasing ankle pain - unfortunately it doesn't seem up to running on uneven, muddy trail. I completed the final 3km as 3x1km intervals with 1min pause. Quite frustrating, but unsurprising. Afterwards, a 3km warmdown on the white 'myror' route.
Thur: Training with  Björnstorps IF at Lund C IP. 800,400,400,800x3 (1min, 2min pause) with some warm up and down. First track session since about October; I found the ankle didn't like taking the inner lane tight corners so well, so ran out in lane 3 at an easier 3.20/km pace for all intervals. Afterwards took a 2km warmdown back through Stadsparken.
Fri: Rest day after hard sessions on Weds and Thurs

Sat: Amager Strandpark parkrun - took the train over to DK to run the Strandpark route again, after my previous abortive attempt. Course is largely flat and entirely hard surface, so aimed for sub-17. Not a good start when I lost 20s after running straight into a bollard (doh!), but worked my way back and ran happily at 3.20/km pace for a pleasing 16:55 finish. Afterwards took a tour of Amager for 50min, up to the bridge to the main city and back down through Amager faelled to the train at Ørestad.  
Sun:  Tired legs, took a fairly easy long run out along the Hardebergaspåret, as far as the road crossing past the golf club and back again via a tour of Linero. Lovely sunny day and great spring weather! 

Overall a week with a few less km but some higher intensity sessions for once, on the track and on the trail. First time I've averaged sub-4.00/km for a week for some time.

1/4 - 7/4 San Francisco

Flew straight to California after the IoM to attend and present at the 2013 MRS Spring Meeting. Horrible journey over, slightly hung over and with a cold, through several busy and unpleasant US airports!

 Despite having a fairly heavy cold, I managed easy  runs most mornings and evenings of around 30-45min duration and ~4-4.30min/km pace. From my downtown hotel (on 4th Street/Market) I found the best route to run in the early mornings was along the bay front, between the baseball stadium and Fort Mason, a fairly flat section with a number of toilets and places to drink. However, later in the day and in the evenings I found this section becomes impassibly busy with tourists - instead cutting through the hilly back roads of Chinatown and Nob Hill to Fort Mason and continuing along the bayfront towards the Golden Gate bridge was less crowded. On this route, I managed to take a run up the twisty Lombard St (pictured) a couple of times! I found the weather to be extremely variable (as most tour guides of the place will tell you) although warm enough for shorts most days - definitely advisable to wear at least a thin waterproof jumper in early April.

On my final morning there, feeling a bit better, I decided to try and do a long run in order to stretch my legs before the long plane journey back. Somehow I got a bit carried away with myself and managed 31.84km in 2h15 - the longest run I've managed in half a year and without too much ankle pain :-) I took a route along Market St, through Haight-Ashbury (the old 'hippie town') and down through Golden Gate Park to the sea. From here, the route was fairly easy - just follow the coast, all on nice soft trail paths. I'd imagine the views from Land's End and of the bridge from Fort Point are quite spectacular; unfortunately, this day was dense fog and drizzle, meaning I could make out the bottom of one of the bridge supports at best! 

I also visited(\mooched free stuff) at the expo for the Rock n' Roll San Francisco Half Marathon, run on the day after I'd left - a great route including across the Golden Gate bridge, with lots of bands playing along side the race (and a large beer tent at the end!). Quite frustrating, since I could've stayed to do it - but I suspect despite being able to do long easy runs I'm not up to a competitive half yet, and I certainly wasn't when I planned the trip in Jan.

Weekly total: 93.46km

Isle of Man Easter Festival 28-31 March
10km: 35.26
Hill ~4miles: 24.50
5km: 16.59
Overall: 20th place. 

Definitely the coldest edition to the festival I've yet attended - temperatures in the very low positive degrees and snow on the ground! Hilly 10km on Friday to begin with, managed the first 3km ok then definitely felt the lack of training, dropping back through the field steadily as the race (and the hills!) went on. Decided to risk the Peel hill race on Sat, despite the very muddy and slippery conditions  I managed to get through it without wrecking my ankle further - fortunately for much of the route I was largely running alone and could ease off at the more tricky downhill points. Some substantial rest and a bus part-way back to Douglas on the usual 10+mile running pub crawl helped ahead of the 5km, a flat but windy route on road along the harbour front. Ran fantastically for the first 3km again - 3.12/km pace - but then began to feel the ankle, slowing but recording my first sub-17min 5k since September! Overall a good weekend of running and very stiff legs at the end of it; one year I might be able to go to this without carrying some sort of injury...

Weekly total: 83.1km

DM 10km landevej 2013: 34.47      Resultater, Video, Billeder

A couple of months ago, watching the 15km round in Copenhagen, I never thought I'd be able to make this race, so it was great to be able to line up and run against the best runners in Denmark today. A nice and sunny but bitterly cold day for the race in Århus, felt quite stiff legged and tired; warming up helped, but unfortunately the start of the race was delayed around 10min - standing in the cold was not so good for the injured ankle. The race was far harder going than last week, I had to slow down a lot on the tight corners and really felt the ankle running downhill on Kongevejen (I've found running downhill and on tight corners to be painful - I assume it pushes injured tendon and bone into better contact). Tried running 3.20 pace for the first 3km, but realised I wasn't up to that today, so switched to 3.30 pace - the final 3/4km were especially hard going. Target was around 34.30 so quite happy with the time at this stage of recovery - slightly demoralising to be passed by so many people, but I'm more interested in running at my own pace atm!

On Thursday I fly to the Isle of Man for the Easter Festival there - I'm particularly pleased to be able to run at least some of the races. The 10k on Friday will be a substantially harder challenge, a hilly and twisting route as opposed to the largely flat course today and last week. 

Training Summary
Weekly total: 68.3km. Av Pace: 4:21/km.
Date-------------------------km-----Time------Pace(min/km)--Speed---Cal--------
24/03/2013     Run / Jog         10     0:34:47     3:28     17.25     328      
24/03/2013     Run / Jog         3     0:00:00     0:00     0     0       
23/03/2013     Run / Jog         3.76     0:15:00     3:59     15.03     291      
23/03/2013     Run / Jog         4.95     0:20:00     4:02     14.85     359        
22/03/2013     Run / Jog         8.59     0:38:00     4:25     13.56     620   
21/03/2013     Run / Jog         8.06     0:37:00     4:35     13.07     593        
20/03/2013     Run / Jog         6.58     0:38:00     5:46     10.39     477       
20/03/2013     Run / Jog         8.06     0:34:00     4:13     14.22     584        
18/03/2013     Run / Jog         11.43     0:50:00     4:22     13.71     850        
18/03/2013     Run / Jog         4     0:00:00     0:00     0     0       

Injury Comeback (again...)

In mid\late- Sept I managed to damage my posterior tibial tendon in my right ankle - a combination of overuse and too strenuous an early morning run. I then promptly did a very silly thing and tried to manage it keep running, which worked up to VT3 in Odense in Nov where more serious damage was suffered. The injury is a slow healing one and one that leads to ever increasing pain with mileage. This has especially been so in the v. cold Scandinavian winter (I guess this is down to reduced blood flow...) which has led to a near total reduction in training and killed off any plans for a spring marathon.

Over the winter I've been limited to 10-15k of running per week and lots of cycling (fortunately it's a tendon not much used for flat pedaling), plus a few easy 5ks at 1900's Nytårscup and the DuPont Cup in Aarhus, just to try and retain some fitness. Unfortunately, I found swimming did use that tendon, ruling out that!

Since the end of Feb I've been trying to gradually build up to train again. This has mainly consisted of shorter 3-5mile runs morning&afternoon, in order to minimise ankle pain, at low intensity (4.30-5.00min\k). I've followed this with 15-20min standard core training exercises, stretches and ankle-specific exercises to focus on the injured area - I've found balancing on one foot for 10x1min and 3-5x30 ankle raises with stretches inbetween to be the best. In this way I've built up (5-10% per week average) weekly distance to around 50-60k over a period of 2-3 weeks, with rest days taken whenever pain could be felt.

Over the previous two weeks of March, the ankle has been good enough to build in longer runs - up to 8-10k in distance - at a slightly higher intensity (4-4.30\km). I've done these about twice a week, usually one on the weekend (usually two laps of Brabrand parkrun) and one on a weeknight (usually on the Hardebergaspåret in Lund or at Skrylle). I've also started some interval training on Tues at Skrylle, usually consisting of 1-5min intervals, and trying to get as close to 17min 5k as poss at Hasle Bakker on sat mornings. At present, I'm trying to keep the same weekly dist. - 60-75k per week - but now including these higher intensity runs.

I've now reached the point where I'm confident to try racing over 10k again, something which would've been impossible a couple of months ago. My first such race since last year was the DuPont Cup round at Brabrandhallen on 17\3 in horrible conditions of biting cold, wind and snow&ice on the ground - all the worst possible for the ankle (and non-functioning toilets...not pleasant!). My plan was to try and run the best pace I could (starting @ 3.20\km) for as long as possible and ease back if any pain. First 5k was completed in 17.10 and I stayed around this pace until about 7.5k where I started to feel the ankle a bit; I backed off the pace over the last 2k to finish in around 34.50 - not the greatest time ever but a good place start. Managed a 4k warmdown run and some exercises afterwards, and some dull pain from the ankle the morning after.

On 27\3 I shall try the DM 10k, with the same sort of aim. Should be an easier course, but also easier to get sucked into starting too fast...

(Billeder: Simon Mikkelsen, stiften.dk)

27/8 - 9/9/12

27/8 - ingen løb
28/8 - 8.06km, 3.37/km
29/8 - m. 8.61km, 3.30/km , a. 9.77km, 3.41/km
30/8 - 11.8km, 4.02/km
31/8 - 8.06km, 3.43/km
1/9 -   5km, 3.28/km (Hillerød parkrun 17.33), 3.22km efter.
2/9 -   29.5km, 1h53 (3.49/km)

I alt: 82.04km, av. tempo 3.42/km


Man-Fri jeg løb almindelige ruten omkring syd Lund og også nord op til S:t Hans backar.  På weekend jeg og min kæreste rejste fra Lund til Hillerød parkrun på Sjælland. Det var en dejlige men kuperet rute i skoven, og en ret god lørdagstur hvis du bo i Nordsjæland (eller København) med meget venlige mennesker.  Jeg tror 'parkrun Sverige' i Lund ville være en god idé...På Søndag jeg løb til Flyinge med min kæreste på cykel, langs cykelsti til Sodra Sandby. I Flyinge vi så også den SM i ridesport på Flyinge Hästsportcentrum.


3/9 -   ingen løb
4/9 -   m. 9.76km, 3.53/km a. 8.06km, 3.58/km
5/9 -  11.08km, 4.02/km
6/9 -   8.06km, 3.43/km
7/9 -   9.76km, 3.47/km
8/9 -   m. 9.76, 3.58/km, a. 6.44km (uden ur)
9/9 -   19.35km, 4.04/km


I alt: 83.07, av. tempo 3.55/km


Fra 3-10/9 jeg havde 'beamtime' på MAXlab, så jeg var meget træt og havde meget travlt alle uge. Så desvære jeg kunne ikke løb DM halvmaraton i København eller Århus halvmaraton :-( På lørdag aften jeg rejste med cykel til Skryllegården og løb på oplyst stier gennem skoven - det er en ret god træningplads!

man: 5.03mi (8km) uden ur. Let løb efter Odderløbet på Søndag.
tirs: mr. 3.77mi (6km) i 21.00 (3.30/km), af. 4.37mi (7km) uden ur.
ons: mr. 6mi, af. 4.37mi  uden ur.
tors: mr. 4.37mi (7km) i 24.30 (3.30/km), af: 7.3mi (11.7km) i 48.16 (4.07/km)
fre: 4.37mi (7km), uden ur.
lør: 8.28mi (13.3km), første halv (4.14mi) i 26.09.
søn: 20mi (32.1km) i 2h16. (4.13/km). Regn-tur, efter skybrud. Mange veje blev oversvømmet!

I alt: 67mi (107.2km)

Disse uge jeg har løbet omkring Klostergården i Lund og i Statsparken. På Lørdag, jeg løb til Hasle bakke og parkrun, men jeg har ingen lyst til at løb fordi af trætte i benene, derfor jeg hjulpet med at læser stregkoder, så min kæreste kunne løb.  

På Søndag  jeg løb en længere rute end normalt, med omkring 3mi mere forbi Studstrupværket. Jeg har besluttet det min mål i 2012/2013 skal være 2h30 i København og/eller Stockholm maraton i mai/june næste år, så jeg har begynder til at løb videre på Søndag til at bygge min udholdenhed. Jeg kan ikke løb 3.30/km tempo videre end 14mi nu, så det skal være min fokus over vinteren.

Jeg har haft en små sommerferie fra at skrev min blog og hårdt træning, fordi der er ikke så mange konkurranceløber i aug.Træning har for det meste været 9-20km løbetur pr dag, tempo på 3.40-4.00/km, med få 400m intervaller på banen i Lund (jeg stadig har brug for en ny svensk løbeklub...)

På Søndag 19/8, jeg løb i Odder (Odderløbet), en meget kuperet halvmaraton - og det var den varmest dag disse år!.  Jeg troede ikke hurtiger end 80 minuter var bedste (omkring 3.45/km) og hurtiger kunne være farlig i solen med ikke så top-fitness og i min først halv siden Berlin i apr. Jeg var plads 3. i 1.20, bag fra Simon F Jensen fra AGF og Thorkild Sundstrup fra Fremad (i en meget stærk tid af 1.16 - rigtig flot løb!). Jeg mistede omkring 30-60 sekunder, som jeg savnede stedet med omgang-bandet og havde til løb tilbage op ad bakken...doh! Det var en godt løb, men jeg havde problemer med bakken - jeg tror Skåne er for meget flade og jeg har brug for træning på mere kuperet terræn før mere 'bjerg'løbet. (Billeder fra løb)

Jeg har lyst til løb Marselisløbet 2/9/12 og DM halv i København på 9/9/12 - men jeg har 'beamtime' 3-9/9 i MAXlab i Lund, så arbejde kommer første som sædvanlig.

Dag	Afstand, miles (km)	Tid (Tempo)
Mandag	6 (9.68)	39.02 (4.01/km)
Tirsdag	ingen løb	-
Onsdag	6 (9.68)	38.00 (3.55/km)
	6 (9.68)	34.15 (3.32/km)
Torsdag	4.72 (7.61)	28.19 (3.43/km)
Fredag	4.82 (7.77)	29.50 (3.50/km)
Lørdag	4.12 (6.64)	28.02 (4.13/km)
	3.11 (5)	17.34 (3.30/km)
Lørdag	4.12 (6.64)	24.01 (3.36/km)
Søndag	16.28 (26.25)	1:37.36 (3.41/km)
I ALT:	55.25 (89.11)	336.7 (3.46/km)