Biting ice and burning sand

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

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INOV-8 – our very first sponsor!

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.

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Dreaming about Norseman

Our hero, Lisa Nordén, did it again! On Sweden’s annual sport’s gala yesterday, she hit a trippel whammy winning The Performance of the Year, Best Female Athlete and the Jerringprize. The last prize is one of the most coveted athletic prizes in Sweden, being awarded by the Swedish people in a telephone vote over several weeks. Triathlon is once again, it seems, a hot topic. So much so actually, that one considers a comeback. Ah, to be swimming, cycling and running to exhaustion again…

Lisa, Lisa, Lisa!!!

Even though we’ve dreamt of Marathon des Sables for very long, we’ve been glancing over at Norseman almost as long. The world’s toughest triathlon. Why we want to race it? Take a look at this video.

The Treadmill

One of the main characters in one of my favourite book series owns a pub outside of London called The Treadmill. If ever I fancied to open a pub of my own, that would be the name I’d use myself. It brings to mind a water wheel spinning endlessly in a river flowing lazily along the English countryside. A treadmill is also one of the most evil torturing devices known to man. A rubber band where you can essentially run as fast as you like without moving an inch in any direction. Read more

The physics of planning training

And as quickly as that, the training year has started again! The old kicked out and the new welcomed in again. January is a splendid month to start up new habits properly, and this time we thought we’d put our back into it and stop skipping training days. Five days of running and one day of strength combined with a job that keeps very irregular hours is pretty demanding. Read more

Modern art, slippery slopes and a renewed spot

When one lives in exile, it’s always lovely to have visits from the motherland. Jakob is particularly diligent and frequently comes north to Oslo to see that I won’t languish up here. Also, it’s much more fun to go out and run if you have company. New year’s eve saw us hurriedly run intervals past the hospital for 35 minutes, before we had to head back home and dress for dinner over at miss Stabæk’s and her boyfriend Munich’s house. It was a wonderful evening with a gigantic turkey, champagne by the barrel and loads of kids running around, some of which, strictly speaking, I have seldom seen with dry noses.

Merry New Year’s!

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Bambi, anyone?

Winter is a challenging season for runners, at least for those of us who love the soft feeling of the forest trails beneath our soles and despise the hard and monotonous thud-thud of the treadmill. Luckily, there are other options. Cross country skiing is supposed to be one of the best forms of cross training for runners, training not only one’s feet and legs, but also the upper body. And, in some cases, the balance. Ever since a close friend’s older sister shoved me down from balancing on a wooden fence as a kid, I’ve worked hard on improving my balance. Read more

Merry Christmas!

Mom’s gesture at 7 am this morning through the kitchen window said it all. A smile and a gentle tap to her forehead with her index finger. You guys are lunatics. But we’d like to maintain that there’s no better way to start a Christmas morning than with an early run, in some places shuffling through ankle-deep and untouched snow, down Järkholmsvägen that passes by the sea. In an hour, it will be time to sing in Christmas with my old choir, Gothenburg’s Boys Choir, in Kristus Konungens Church. And then, the holidays will have really started. Merry Christmas!

Looneys

The frosty-faced runner

OK, so it’s been a pretty busy week. Only one night on call (tonight), but full workdays and last-minute-christmas shopping has taken it’s toll. Christmas eve at mom’s and dad’s will be a sorely welcome respite. So, what have we been up to? Well, planning next year, of course, and trying to get some running done in between work and sleep. Our Danish coach Christian has generously been piling up the kilometres for us in our training programme, but despite our best efforts we sometimes miss some scheduled runs due to, simply, life intervening. This week has seen me lace up my shoes only thrice, and today’s long run had to be scratched in order to take a breather after a full workweek and prior to a whole night of work at the neonatal intensive care unit. Read more