Feb 21
Gentlemen and ladies, Jakob & Jakob are very excited and pleased to announce a brand new partnership with Chillout Travel Centre. Chillout is one of our cosy oases in Oslo where we often come to enjoy a cup of coffee while sauntering through their shop, browsing through it’s huge variety of travel literature and closely examining their multicoloured backpacks. Read more
Yesterday’s long rung was scheduled for 06.00 a.m. by the forest trails of Skatås in Göteborg. Even though the snow cover wasn’t as deep as in Oslo, there was still a light sparkling of dusty white over the trails here as well. Apart from bunkering up some miles in our legs, we were also supposed to try out our new camping stove which we will bring to the Sahara. Jakob & Jakob’s accumulated camping experience over the years is quite poor, and what can we say? We love our feathered beds, bacon and egg-breakfasts and gourmet dinners. Read more
We’ve been lying low on quantity the last couple of weeks, concentrating instead on intervals and toughening up our muscles, teaching them to withstand the pain of lactic acid. Training intervals is at it’s core about one thing, and one thing only: getting as close to your own personal lactate threshold (the intensity where you run almost as fast as you can, but slightly below max so as not to accumulate lactic acid in your muscles, thereby terminating your exercise) as possible, pushing the limit ever upwards in order to become faster and stronger. Read more
The question is often entertainingly debated and has contributed to many an interesting discussion over dinner tables in families more than mildly interested in the sport. Haile Gebrselassie, for instance, has two Olympic gold medals (10 000 m in Atlanta and Sydney) and four World Championship gold medals, being the first person to break the 2.04-barrier in the marathon (Berlin, 2008). On the other hand, the flying finn, Paavo Nurmi, dominated running during the early 20th century and ruled supreme in the Olympics of the twenties. He is second on the overall list of most olympic gold medals (9), being beaten only by Michael Phelps. Read more
Cross country skiing is supposed to be one of the best alternative training modes for running, not only strengthening your legs, but also improving your balance, your coordination (ski poles are tricky) and your upper body strength. Last weekend, Jakob & Jakob found themselves in the lesser travelled forests and highlands north of Lillehammer, borrowing a cabin from a close relative. As cabins go, this one was marvellous in all it’s simplicity and extreme cosiness. But since it lacks running water, a WC and central heating, you need to take care of all of this yourself. Read more
Please say hello to our newest crew member: chiropractor Martin Klcovansky! Martin works in Göteborg at Citysjukhuset +7 and treats a wide variety of patients, but specialises in sports injuries in both amateurs such as ourselves and professional athletes. He has very generously agreed to collaborate with us and help us reach our goal of staying fit, healthy and injury-free. One of the basic rules in Jakob & Jakob’s general philosophies of training states that one should surround oneself with people smarter than yourself to surpass the limits one wishes to cross. Read more
Yeah, really it is. Just have a look at the video below that we’ve snitched from coach Christian’s ultrarun blog. The video shows a desert race without a fancy soundtrack and without the make up. You can imagine the hot, dry wind exacerbating the heat. If you’ve ever found yourself in a furnace, you know how we’ll feel. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego could probably tell us that what will save us is our faith in our own feet and in the divine. Tomorrow marks NINE weeks left to the race, and rest assured that Jakob & Jakob are as prepared as they normally are prior to a race. No, don’t laugh! Really! Read more
We often read how good sports is for the body, the soul and our well being. Many of us have experienced how sports have changed our characters for the better. We glorify the olympians and celebrate our heros. Less often do we hear about the failures. How sports destroy hope. How sports can be the pathway to destruction. Jerry Seinfeld once pinpointed this by saying that winning silver must be horrible, because you know that you are the first loser. Like anything Seinfeld says it sounds hilarious, but there is a grain, no – a solid rock – of truth in it. I can only imagine the fierce competition on the pinnacle of any competitive sport. Read more
Running really is full of contrasts. Last Saturday, I went out for a morning run. Failed to look at the thermometer before I headed out, but since we’d had double blue digits in Oslo all week, I ran down the stairs from the 5th floor prepared. Sporting merino buff and gloves helped a bit, but -15°C is still pretty darn cold. It was only for an hour, down to Skøyen and back again, but when I returned home, I had icicles chaining my eyelashes to the buff and had sprouted a goatee of ice. I got frostbite on my cheeks during a particularly chilly day last winter, skiing in Serre Chevalier. This was despite wearing a merino buff up to my ears and ever since then, I try to cover my face when running in chills below -15°C. The condensation of my breath makes for some funny effects, though. People were staring at me on the home stretch, whether admiring my goatee or feeling sorry for a poor schmuck out running on a Saturday morning, I’ll never know.
Icy lashes and a little goatee
Ladies and Gentlemen, Jakob and Jakob are enormously proud to present our very first sponsor: INOV-8. INOV-8 is one of the world’s leading off-trail running brands, renowned for their world-class products. They cater for triathletes, orienteerers and ultramarathoners alike, their shoes being highly functional and technically advanced and absolutely perfect for our needs and demands.
Both of us ran in INOV-8 Roclite 312 GTX during the Trail du Verdon and had nothing but praise for the shoes. They fit snugly around the heel and had wide toe boxes where there was more than ample room for our (well, my…) wide feet. Apart from the fact that the shoes are very comfortable, they are absolutely awesome in the terrain. The traction when running on wet forest trails is extraordinary and we feel very safe and secure when running in them. A fact further underlined by how I almost sprained my ankle trail running in my regular Asics Nimbus, thinking they had the same grip as my Roclites on wet stones.
Right now €603 
Jakob & Jakob 