Month: June 2005

This is the time of the year to finetune the body, including the muscular system – in reality if the muscles cannot perform the contractions at the rate needed it does not help how much you have trained during the winter. It really does not help to have a great engine if you have no wheels..

They need to be very soft in resting position while at the same time able to rapidly contract. Alot of athletes have their muscules in constant tension, and therefore cannot go from this soft resting position to hard contractions within the short period of time needed. Therefore they end up feeling “dead” all the time with no forward moving force.

Spoke to one of the other Norwegian long distance runners about this yesterday. And after checking his quad muscles and they were very, very tight – I asked him if he did not notice this as he was now struggling in his running. He replied “not really”. So I asked him to first lift his own quad muscle sideways and feel the tension there, and afterwards take the same grip on mine. His comment : “wow, your muscles are untrained” :))) great comment, I never knew an untrained could run 13.06 🙂 But it does illustrate a common misconception You do not have to be tight to have “worked hard” You should instead have maximum capacity to fire on those soft muscles from when there is a need to…

Gotta run now, out in the nice weather..
All well from here,
Marius

days to get out of the system 🙂

We have (finally!) had some nice warm days here in Oslo recently. Which feels great for the legs. The warm weather in itself is nice, but also the hormonal effect you get from the sun.

Went through the old statistics on the Norwegian federation page the other day. Quite interesting, they have published all the Top performance lists all time – from the age of 13 and upwards. To illustrate how specific training works, look at this – which is the far end (last column) of the 60 meter top performance list for 16 year olds
( http://www.friidrett.no/friidrett/statistikk/at/gj/g60.htm )
Funny, the 2nd place finisher in the Norwegian 100 meter final last year right next to the top Norwegian 5000 meter runner on the list 🙂 Alot of things can happen through those training years..

7,2 Jarle Øvstegård Langevåg IL Ålesund 12.06.1991
7,2i Ørjan Tveit Ås IL(1)Skedsmo 22.02.1992
7,2 Kristian Fagerland IL Skjalg (1)Stavanger 25.06.1992
7,2 Robert Asad IL i BUL (2)AOslo/La 24.09.1992
7,2i Mats Tonning IF Herkules (1)Sandefjord 27.12.1992
7,2 Tri M. Dang IK Tjalve (1) Oslo/Bi 30.09.1993
7,2i Marius Bakken IL Runar (2) Sandefjord 27.12.1994
7,2i Martin Rypdal IL i BUL, Tromsø(2)h Mo i Rana 20.01.1996
7,2 Steinar Lundemo Stjørdal FIK (1)Flornes 25.05.2000

Hard intervalls tomorrow evening outside the track. Hopefully getting a good feel and plenty of distance in there..

All well form Oslo 🙂
Marius

just a couple of weeks ago did in the 7.50s in the 3000 meters. The pace picked up eventually and it felt comfortable to float away towards the end for the win in 8.24 vs. 8.28 for the second place 🙂

Now I will try and rebuild things before the first 5000 meter of the year. Hopefully in some better summer weather than what we have experienced recently here in Norway… the coldest spring I can remember as a runner – but as a long distance runner you are used to those kind of temps so it is still ok 🙂

All well from here,
Marius

distance runners but I have not had time yet to look at the exact fields 🙂

It is one of few events during the year when the whole national team is gathered – even those who are not officially on the team the rest of the year for team gatherings. So looking forward to that part as well 🙂

Off to Estonia,
Marius

A flat out fall in the turns after the 3 km , though, shows me that I better stick to the track this summer 🙂 No injuries though, just a bit beaten up the next day..

Our 5×5 km team won the event, with a good margine all running a pretty good race. It is rare that all the best long distance Norwegians are gathered at the same place, as we usually run different distances as the marathon, steeple plus 5000 meters.

Next up now the the European cup next weekend. Hopefully getting in some more trackwork in the time between. Not too much, just enough to get in a good float.. I have to be careful, so that my endurance stays high – it is the endurance you run a good 5000 meters on. Normally I would have travelled to summer altitude to build this, but this year this does not seem to be a choice. Though it does feel strange to have to change parts of the concept that worked for 13.06 last year.

Well, out for the morning session 🙂

Marius

A nice floatthrough. Henrik will also be on the team, plus two 8.40 steeplers and an Ethiopian who runs for Haugesund, west in Norway.

Then after that is the European Cup in about 10 days and marks the seasons trackstart. Will be interesting to see how it will develops, we have plotted out a number of races that fits nicely into the schedule (with a peak at the Bislett Games + World Champs) Just enough to be where I want to be. A few we are not sure of yet, but at least more than 4 (!) races that a Norwegian newspaper for some reason reported today 🙂

Things are going fine. Training gradually and doing me best to stay injury free and healthy. This morning a long threshold session after some track 1000 s the other day in 5000 meter race pace. Just gliding through..

From Oslo,

Marius

stayed on the track for all months throughout. But from experience I have learned how I can use the track work to its best benefit in a limited number of months even though it feels good to just float around there 🙂 Just a number of 400 meter repeats. Not very hard but at ok speed with short recoveries. A nice session to start with. Sort of in between. 200 meter repeats is too short for the real lasting effect and 1000s too early. So 400 marks the adjustment to the track work nicely.

It felt surprisingly comfortable to take on the spikes again. Just like last year when I did the same routine. Probably has to do with lots of hard running on the treadmill, where you have a high frequency (higher than outside) and are able to keep a nice toeoff. Plus the plyos (jumps) I do every spring pays off also.

Now it is just to focus onward. Get in a good training rythm and make sure that I stay healthy. Looking forward to more track work 🙂

All well,
Marius