Month: February 2005

to ensure highest possible stress on the system before going home. Seems like it is working, it took me almost an hour to get out of bed this morning 🙂 That is how it should be at the end of these stays ; in control but ready for rest in the post-altitude period. Ask Henrik about those days in Kenya, when at the most extreme we could barely walk out of the door those last training days just waiting to rest on the plane and get home. Not from the very hard intensity (anaerobic work) but because of the total work load in a relative short period of time.

We still have great weather here 25-27 degrees C mid-day – cool in the morning, something that is nice but also important in terms of getting training done. Because the thunderstorms can be very dangerous up here. We had one a few days ago (in the evening only); you get the loud sirens going though the hills, warning people about going outside. Then, usually about half an hour later you can see thunder and lightening all over. Like the information paper we receive on arrival here says : “Please do not run outside during the thunderstorms. This is not a joke – it is not uncommon with deaths from lightening here”. Something a Norwegian orienteering athlete got en experience with a couple of weeks ago. Ignoring the sirens, just going for “a few more reps”, the thunderstorm came upon him suddenly and as he counted it coming closer, down from 4-3-2-1 seconds before lightening was all around him in the forest. So he dove down flat only to see lightening hit 20 meters in front of him. Better be careful 🙂

Nice weekend up here now – it is a typical weekend, holiday place so the streets are more crowded than usual with people arriving from the cities around. I can understand them, getting away from the hot, humid city areas up to cooler higher altitude with the fresh mountain air it can provide.

Well, time for another run 🙂

Marius

and peaceful. I did parts of the run with Karl Johan only as Björnar and got out a bit later. Easy and comfortable, just for recovery.

Had an interesting talk with race-walker Trond Nymark yesterday. I have respect for the kind of work the world class 50km walkers are doing, both in terms of total volume (250+ km weeks..) and intensity (long, 20-30 km threshold trainings). It gives you perspective of what is needed in general to reach top level. One things that re-occur time after time when you speak to top endurance athletes like him, regardless of sport ; the ability to to a very, very high training load over time – while at the same time having incredible focus on resititution. It is not a matter of how much you wish to be training, it is only a matter of how many hours you have a day and how much training you optimize within that time frame. This double focus – realizing that training is merely a matter of breaking down (training) and building up (resting) is so simple in theory but very hard to to practically. It is a double edge sword. Do one too much of one of them and you will not achieve the results you wish. While at the same time small adjustments in one of the two can trigger massive improvement in the other. So interestingly, speaking to others at elite level – you spend more time discussion restitution than one would think, as oppose to pure training talk.

Speaking of rest between trainings, right before I left Norway I incidentally bumped into Eirik Hansen, a Norwegian runner who has in the 13.30s 5k and 7.40s 3k in the 1980s. I have met almost all of the 13.20-40 Norwegian runners but with him I have only seen his name in the record books. There again, you get the balance ; how he managed to balance the rest and the training ; while doing “160-180 km weekly, all easy runs at 3.20-30/km plus hard intervalls” – and how his running career really ended once he could not keep up that balance anymore because of other commitments. Good to have these things in mind when you spend the days resting through long morning at the training camps 😉

Another long run this evening. Maybe a bit progressive, depending of how my legs are feeling.

I have linked to some more pictures from here (link should be activated later today). The first pics, up the the “Dullstrom sign” is from Potch the rest from here.

All well from here,
Marius

in the stay. With some testing done through the session the internal stress will therefore be the same as later in the stay (though the speed is slower) so quite controlled to ensure proper recovery after the travel..

We live only about 5 minutes jog from the grass fields and running paths in the area. Quite good location (something others have found out also, we live only 200 meters from Kelly Holmes house up here 🙂 ), you get a warm up down there before going hard either on the roads or the grass.

I had to spend the first run of the day looking for cinder roads to run on, as the rest of the Norwegian group here consists of throwers and sprinters. But having spent lots of time in Afria I had an idea on where to look : you always find nice, non-asphalt roads going parallell to the railroad tracks in Africa so I just look (and listen 🙂 ) for the railroad tracks and right there of course miles after miles with soft nice running surfaces.. a good change for tired legs having logged lots of asphalt miles back in Norway in between training stays now.

We are a group of six athlets from Norway here, the Olympic javelin champ Thorkildsen plus another 84 meters javelin thrower, a good discus thrower (65+ meters) plus two sprinters 20.40s 200/ 50,400 hurdles). So the whole “elite” team of the Norwegian federation (four athletes) are here. Plus some coaches of course to follow it all.

Then there are plenty of international top athletes here, especially middle distance runners and throwers. It has to be the perfect place for middle distance running : moderate altitude, nice temperature (25+), a mix of grass field tracks, regular tracks, cinder roads and huge grass fields. No wonder this has been a base of so many top runners the last years (Holmes, Mutola, Sepeng, Bucher etc.etc).. quite inspirational to be in such place, just like St Moritz is in the summer. You see others in your situation, working towards the summer with the goals and ambitions. A good way to break up the training winter.

The link below will be activated a bit later in the day. Just a few pictures from the first day here. We had an evening shower in the evening, other than that excellent training/resting temperature and sun..

From S-Africa –

Marius

Norwegians in other events, then up to Dullstrom where some of the other Nordic middle/long distance runners have their camp for the winter.

Next update from there..

Marius

Africa soon will be very refreshing for tired running legs. The three weeks home before leaving again has been a formula I have used for many years now and it works well within the overall periodization.

I will go to Pootchefstroom and Dullstrom in South Africa, to the altitude down there. It has been a while since my last altitude stay now, so a good chance of great effect 🙂 Last year I stayed for three weeks up in Dullstrom and I liked both the training conditions plus the altitude it is located at. Combined with a period a bit lower altitude first will give me a nice step-up-effect in both stress load and blood effect. Not that the blood effect is of any real concern now (I am much more into the whole respiratory,muscular + intracellular effect this time a year – that will be more long lasting), but it will help me some in the training the first weeks when I get home. So I sort of both use the altitude training for the direct stimulus once there, and the booster effect down at sea level. In that way you sort of get a domino-effect – and continue lift in performance through back to back training camps and pushing at home. It is so easy to just “go through the motions” once you are home and comfortable without really realizing that the winter is passing by as you are “just training” (and not putting in full gear) Therefore, going away now will be quite helpful.

Henrik is back again from a cross country race down in Europe so probably an easy run with him once of the next days. Good to have a marathon trained athlete around – they always look for a good,long run :))

All well!
Marius

motivational for a hard working athlete to have people like that around you while doing those sessions, it also provide you with the security you need to really keep going on the right track. You can just see and feel how you are being watched throughout the session – every stride you take and ever measurement that comes out. All closely monitored and questioned to the smallest detail. I come out of this sessions not only physically tired but also mentally tired from the constant challenges you get. We are lucky to have access to the test-lab at the Top athletics center on those tests. That way, things are easy to compare as this is the best calibrated treadmills around. You have to be quite aware of this, as a comparison the new treadmills they have at the center (Woodway) are around 1.5 km/hr different than some of the old ones in speed ! That is a huge difference – making around 45 sec difference in a 5km if you try and predict max time on a well trained 5km athlete. So you have to always look for those factors and not be “blinded” just by the speed you see on the screen.

I have had two easy days after Wednesday, which is very, very rare. But afte a very long period of hard training, topped by this test, I needed it. Tomorrow I will go hard again, fully refreshed..

Marius

gathering was a double lecture by former Olympic Steeple Champion Anders Garderund, who ran 8.08 in the steeple as far back as 1976 (!) Plus, he also has 1.47/3.36/13.17 (when the world record was 13.13..) so a very, very good athlete. I could not agree more with what he had to say. His training methods were very similar to those of Per Halle, that I used prior to my 1999 season breakthrough (controlled with the lactate measurements). A great deal of aerobic running in the winter, lots around the threshold, before tapering in the summer. Plus a period of strength, jumping exercises in the spring. About just like I did back in 99. Sometimes it is easy to fall into the trap of “small” things without remembering the basic stuff. Like he said himself :”The formula is 2 x 7 x 52 x 10. Train twice a day seven days a week, 52 weeks a year for 10 years ; that is the investment you have to make to run fast” 🙂

On Saturday before I left, we did a 12 x 1000 meters intervall training is one on the nice training areas in Sandnes, a park close to town. I was feeling fine throughout and got a good steady lactate curve throughout. The team had a total of 4 lactate meters there, so the other athletes also got some readings. Some of them had excellent “feel” for the pace which will a very helpful ability for them in this important endurance winter buildup..

From Oslo!

Marius

there, always free of ice usually not much wind (it is located right between the waterfront of Oslo and the highway) and very flat. Plus we have measured up an exact 1000 meter making it easy to compare year after year the progression you have. Henrik and I was running together and feeling fine both of us. Just like last year when some of the lift in training shape came from those fast asphalt sessions in between training camps when we were hitting the intervalls there with good speed building up to the spring season. They have located the new Oslo marathon down in that area and I can understand why. You should be looking a long way for a flatter and faster route if you wish to run a fast 42.195 km. Maybe not ideal if you have great number of enterants (it is narrow, only 4 meters wide) but quite nice if you wish for a nice fall marathon time.

Rest day today with two very spaced sessions. Twelve hour between them, much more than normal. Sometimes you just have to fit them in between a busy schedule.

All well!

Marius