Starting to gather my stuff around 4.30 pm. Its dark outside, but not completely. The snow lightens up, and even deep in the wood it is bright enough to run.
Almost half an hour later I have prepared everything. Heating up the sportsdrink to avoid chewing ice halfway home. Energi-gel, not because I am running very long, but because I need everything I can think of to keep my energy. Salsa is gooooood, but it will only take me so far..
5 pm and I am off. Calling home to anounce that I will be a bit late. No surprises this time, running a known way home. Actually the shortest one, I think, that is possible from Kista to Hägersten. A little more than 17 km, 1 hour 30 min.
Temperature around -5 C at the start, dropping towards -10 C towards the end. Fairly ok, but when I stopped for two minutes to take a call, the cold air is there directly. Have to run a bit faster to get warm and realize that I probably need to buy a wool sweater as well, not only long underwear pants of wool.
Its different to run on snow and ice. My icebugs (running shoes with short spikes) works wonderfully, but when there is pure ice its a bit slippery anyway.
And the snow.. Works good, but on the places where the snow is a bit soft, its almost like running in sand.
Its difficult to cover all skin, and my nose starts to get really cold. I try to cover it the best I can, with the know effect that the scarf get wet from my breath and then freeze to ice. Nice!
The run felt good, everything was working and my knees didnt hurt so much today. I actually start to believe that I might survive the cold here. For a while.. :-)
måndag 25 januari 2010
söndag 24 januari 2010
A lot of clothes and new findings
6.30 am. Not as early as in Panama, not by far. But still. Dark. Cold. Silent. Sunday morning.
To avoid the last weeks curious feeling of trying to drink ice after 20 minutes of running and the waterbottle froze, I decided to put my "camelback" to test. A new insulating cover for the "drinking tube", and heating up the sportdrink to almost boiling.
Also testing home made energy gel. After the disastrous experiment with the Rune cakes in December, I decided to try something new. Why not make my own energy gel....
Bananas, cacao and a lot of other stuff. Honestly, it looked really discusting. But tasted ok. Lucky me. Hmm. Not really gel, so I decided to put it in my waterbottle. Getting started after 7 am.
Light is slowly coming. The sunrise in Sweden is so long compared to Panama. In Panama, its like a light switch is turned on, its really fast.
In Sweden, the sunrise last for one or two hours.
Which is nice.
During winter, sunset starts directly after sunrise.
Which is not so nice.
Beautiful in any case, and while running in Årstaviken, I have to stop and take a phot- its so beautiful! But stopping for just a minute, and the cold is kreeping in. I dont have a thermometer, but it feels a bit colder than just a few below zero.
Continue Årstaviken runt, crossing Liljeholmsbron on the way back, and decides to turn right and go pass the small lake Trekanten, then continue to the historical place, Vinterviken, where Alfred Nobel made explosives many years ago.
Now its really cold, even though the sun is coming up- behind the clouds. Luckily, they have put up a sign- No Diving. Great, I was just about to jump into the water, sorry, on the ice...
To avoid the last weeks curious feeling of trying to drink ice after 20 minutes of running and the waterbottle froze, I decided to put my "camelback" to test. A new insulating cover for the "drinking tube", and heating up the sportdrink to almost boiling.
Also testing home made energy gel. After the disastrous experiment with the Rune cakes in December, I decided to try something new. Why not make my own energy gel....
Bananas, cacao and a lot of other stuff. Honestly, it looked really discusting. But tasted ok. Lucky me. Hmm. Not really gel, so I decided to put it in my waterbottle. Getting started after 7 am.
Light is slowly coming. The sunrise in Sweden is so long compared to Panama. In Panama, its like a light switch is turned on, its really fast.
In Sweden, the sunrise last for one or two hours.
Which is nice.
During winter, sunset starts directly after sunrise.
Which is not so nice.
Beautiful in any case, and while running in Årstaviken, I have to stop and take a phot- its so beautiful! But stopping for just a minute, and the cold is kreeping in. I dont have a thermometer, but it feels a bit colder than just a few below zero.
Continue Årstaviken runt, crossing Liljeholmsbron on the way back, and decides to turn right and go pass the small lake Trekanten, then continue to the historical place, Vinterviken, where Alfred Nobel made explosives many years ago.
Now its really cold, even though the sun is coming up- behind the clouds. Luckily, they have put up a sign- No Diving. Great, I was just about to jump into the water, sorry, on the ice...
I decided to cut the planned 2 hour run to 1:40, around 16 km. It really is a tremendous difference running here, not being used to the cold, the snow and the ice.
Checking the web, I could see that the temperature was around -12 C when I started. Not warm. And a lot of funny things happens. To the body of course, knees, feet, face, hands.
Covering the face with a scarf to handle the worst cold results in ice building up on the scarf, and after 20-30 minutes of running, the scarf have turned to ice.
The training program is more or less screwed up, and I have to focus on slowly getting used to the cold.
The race in April... Well, lets see...
Checking the web, I could see that the temperature was around -12 C when I started. Not warm. And a lot of funny things happens. To the body of course, knees, feet, face, hands.
Covering the face with a scarf to handle the worst cold results in ice building up on the scarf, and after 20-30 minutes of running, the scarf have turned to ice.
The training program is more or less screwed up, and I have to focus on slowly getting used to the cold.
The race in April... Well, lets see...
lördag 23 januari 2010
tisdag 12 januari 2010
Discovering Sweden
The only way to get used to my "new" country, is to embrace it openly- but with a tremendous amount of clothes on!
Time for run number two. I have realized that it will take some time to get used to the cold and get to my normal level of training. I am actually slightly worried about the race in April, and is actually considering the 50-mile version instead of the 100. With that, I can relax more in my training and give more time to adapt to the climate, the new job and everything. And give more time to my family and friends.
So, no freezing, that is the goal for now. This is what I tried today:
-Thick underwear (kalsonger)
-Long underwear, 50 % wool! (bought in Dressman of all places. Apologize to my panamanian and other latam friends, but Dressman sell clothes for men, no training stuff. Normally..)
-Thick socks, 100 % wool.
-Windproof running pants.
-Thick underwear (synthetic) on upper body.
-Another layer of fairly thick shirt/jacket.
-Windproof running jacket.
-Windproof gloves with fleece.
-Head-band, windproof.
-Cap/hat, thin
-Running shoes with spikes (the, in Sweden, famous Ice Bugs: http://www.icebug.se)
-Water-bottle, handheld
-Ipod (of course..)
Result:
-Feet, feeling warm and good
-Legs, perfect
-Body, feeling good, but got cold when I had to stop for a minute in the middle of the run. Easy to get warm again while running though.
-Hands, perfect
-Head, not good. Was ok first half, but when there was a slight breeze I got cold directly. Need to buy some completely windproof
-Face, ok. Thinking about what I should do if it gets slightly colder and a bit more windy.
-Waterbottle. Ok for about half an hour. Then I started to get ice instead of water to "drink"... This will be a tricky one, and now it wasnt even "cold"!!!
Run a nice 7.5 km run. Except for freezing a bit in my ears and left knee hurting a bit, it was actually pretty nice. It is cold for sure, but it is also incredibly beautiful! On the picture, I am passing the old headquarter of Ericsson at Telefonplan. I also remember coming with my father to his office there when I was a kid, playing "lunar landing" on his Texas programable calculator. That was really coooool!
There are so many things I rediscover now. The special feeling of pain behind the ears while running in cold for example.. But also the silence, which is emphasized with the snow. The snow is eating all sound, and with the cap on, you hardly hear a sound. Scary or magic? Pick your choice!
When I look at all the people, I think "wow, how can we live here? All nine million! Are we nine million crazies or what?". On the other hand, I think the climate makes us tough! Both Sweden, Norway and Finland have pretty tough dudes/dudas. We have to, in order to survive. Physically and mentally.
I realize now, thinking about when my dear friend Dino came to Panama last August to visit and run the marathon, that we are stubborn indeed. After only two days in Panama, he run a tough, tropical marathon. And made it! I know he suffered, his feet swelling up, cramps, everything, but I think the swedish mentality just kept him going.
We are a tough bunch! :-)
Time for run number two. I have realized that it will take some time to get used to the cold and get to my normal level of training. I am actually slightly worried about the race in April, and is actually considering the 50-mile version instead of the 100. With that, I can relax more in my training and give more time to adapt to the climate, the new job and everything. And give more time to my family and friends.
So, no freezing, that is the goal for now. This is what I tried today:
-Thick underwear (kalsonger)
-Long underwear, 50 % wool! (bought in Dressman of all places. Apologize to my panamanian and other latam friends, but Dressman sell clothes for men, no training stuff. Normally..)
-Thick socks, 100 % wool.
-Windproof running pants.
-Thick underwear (synthetic) on upper body.
-Another layer of fairly thick shirt/jacket.
-Windproof running jacket.
-Windproof gloves with fleece.
-Head-band, windproof.
-Cap/hat, thin
-Running shoes with spikes (the, in Sweden, famous Ice Bugs: http://www.icebug.se)
-Water-bottle, handheld
-Ipod (of course..)
Result:
-Feet, feeling warm and good
-Legs, perfect
-Body, feeling good, but got cold when I had to stop for a minute in the middle of the run. Easy to get warm again while running though.
-Hands, perfect
-Head, not good. Was ok first half, but when there was a slight breeze I got cold directly. Need to buy some completely windproof
-Face, ok. Thinking about what I should do if it gets slightly colder and a bit more windy.
-Waterbottle. Ok for about half an hour. Then I started to get ice instead of water to "drink"... This will be a tricky one, and now it wasnt even "cold"!!!
Run a nice 7.5 km run. Except for freezing a bit in my ears and left knee hurting a bit, it was actually pretty nice. It is cold for sure, but it is also incredibly beautiful! On the picture, I am passing the old headquarter of Ericsson at Telefonplan. I also remember coming with my father to his office there when I was a kid, playing "lunar landing" on his Texas programable calculator. That was really coooool!
There are so many things I rediscover now. The special feeling of pain behind the ears while running in cold for example.. But also the silence, which is emphasized with the snow. The snow is eating all sound, and with the cap on, you hardly hear a sound. Scary or magic? Pick your choice!
When I look at all the people, I think "wow, how can we live here? All nine million! Are we nine million crazies or what?". On the other hand, I think the climate makes us tough! Both Sweden, Norway and Finland have pretty tough dudes/dudas. We have to, in order to survive. Physically and mentally.
I realize now, thinking about when my dear friend Dino came to Panama last August to visit and run the marathon, that we are stubborn indeed. After only two days in Panama, he run a tough, tropical marathon. And made it! I know he suffered, his feet swelling up, cramps, everything, but I think the swedish mentality just kept him going.
We are a tough bunch! :-)
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