Life is all about up's and down's
The thing is how you can cope with it!

Not only the weather was up and down, but also my mood and running shape. Wednesday morning in the pool for doing some alternative training and on Thursday morning a horrible run in the forest. Because of the warm weather last week I was only slipping around on my morning run on Thu. morning. I guess that was the reason why I had some problems in the left foot. On Friday morning only 6km easy because of pain in the foot and in the evening 90mins on the stationary bike. Saturday I was able to run again, but still I was running/jogging very easy in the morning and had to replace the scheduled intervals with easy running for the evening. Sundays long run with the guys was ok, but I could still feel the foot a bit. Altogether the week was far away from perfect in terms of training but I hope the next week will see some more mileage again (this week under 130km). I hope that also the weather supports me - today we got a lot of snow again and I hope to run on a thin snow layer next week - I have enough of ice and snow slush! If everything is going well I'm going to introduce a second fast session on Thursday (1st one should be on Monday) - we'll see if the foot is ok.

In study life I had a presentation in Finnish on Wednesday - man, I was excited about this one. Anyway, I survived and moreover gathered some motivation to call my subjects to inform them about a research meeting all by myself (in Finnish of course, because they are over 60). Now it's time to prepare the feedbacks for them because the meeting is already next Tuesday. So there is some work to do...

Finally, on Saturday I had a nice time and some good company - the best company I can think of

The highlights of last week
were, first of all the african dinner on Wednesday evening, when I ate my first ugali (the famous energy source for kenyan runners) and secondly some heavy discussions about training and coaching philosophy at the weekend. On Sunday I got a small blood-blister after the long run. Probably there was a fold in my sock - I could feel it after 1 1/2 hours but continued for 40mins. At home I discovered the reason for my pain. Taking it easy on monday morning with only 6km easy I hope I won't have any more problems. Apart from that studies are going well and it's not as busy at it was 2 weeks ago. That means: more time for good training and sufficient recovery - Jess.

Winter in Jyväskylä hasn't decided yet if he wants to come or not. Last week it was constantly sub zero with some snowfall and last weekend saw a lot of skiers getting their skis prepared - the conditions were indeed skiable. Now again most of the snow is gone and it's grey and wet.

So, today I was lucky to stay inside and make a tough work-out on the indoor track. From now on, onday will be one of the core days concerning training. Now, that my study is finished and I don't need to go to the gym so often anymore to coach my subjects I can do the fast training when the other guys are also doing their workouts. Today again 3x3K (9:55/9:43/9:40) plus an additional 2K in 6:34 with Mikael.

We (my coach and me) also made plans for the christmas/new years holidays when I will be in Germany. I will run at least 2 races: One high-quality race in Bietigheim (Bietigheimer Silvesterlauf on 31.12) and the traditional "Falkensteiner Neujahrsberglauf" (new-years mountain run) on 05.01, in which I competed each time for the last 15 years or so. It's so good to have a coach again and discuss the planning of the season - Danke Chefe.

A new cycle
is just about to start of. After I survived the last two weeks of excessive testing I am lucky that I can now adjust my normal life/studies/work to running and not the other way round. I started this new period with a really recovering weekend. I can't remember the last time when I had such a quite weekend - I slept around 10hours per day! Now I feel fresh again, especially mentally. The next weeks I am trying to increase the pace of the normal and the recovery runs. So just go a bit over the comfort zone and push your body to go faster. When I know I have a recovery afterwards, instead of a long day in the lab, it should be much easier to force your legs to move faster.
Today I just felt this effect in the first fast session after around 10 days of easy running only: 3x3km indoor. I ran 9:44/9:50/9:39 and was really surprised how easy the pace felt. I thought it would be a real struggle to run 10mins after not running fast for such a long time. but the legs and the mind was free.

Since I don't have too many measurements the following weeks (except for some days when I have to make strength tests from noon to evening) I want to concentrate on improving my finnish skills. Perkele, I missed so many lectures during my measurements and now I can hardly keep up the pace.

Thesis measurements
Last week started the POST-measurements for my M.Sc. Thesis. So quite busy times, spending 10-12 hours in the lab and analysing data. The 6 months of training for my subjects past really fast, but now I'm looking forward to finish all my measurements and focus on running again. At the beginning of December all the measurements should be done. Last week I mad the first bicycle-ergometer tests - "my" endurance-trained subjects improved quite a lot but still it's not so easy to analyse all the results because it seems there are also some non-responders. Anyway the differences to the control group are obvious (but I still have to run the statistical analysis i.e. significance etc.). This week most of the arm ergometer tests take place.

Because of the measurements I have to cut back the training during the weekdays and increase mileage and intensity again during weekends. Last weekend I ran 80-90km in 3 days (fri-sun) with one fast session (flat 10K in 34mins) on Saturday. Now it's again running easy (until Thursday) because I have to get up early and don't get too much sleep. You should not "burn the candle from both sides", especially during this time of the year when the days are getting rapidly shorter and the mood might be somewhat depressing. For those times it's also really important to have someone, who cheers you up and brings you to other thoughts, e.g. we (Minna and Ritva +me) went to the "top of Jyväskylä" and enjoyed a nice+relaxing evening.