Searching for the flow.
The first days back here in Finland are history now and I’m feeling really happy to be back. If the weather would be better and if I would be in a better shape it would be perfect.
The road conditions are indeed horrible and last days it was extremely dangerous to run outside because of lot of ice and snow-mud due to high temperature (around freezing point). On Monday and Tuesday I did some medium-fast kilometers, whereas I had to go indoors (treadmill and 200m indoor track) because I was afraid of breaking my legs on the slippery roads. Anyway, I felt horrible during the workouts and legs were feeling extremely tired even though the speed was far slower than at the end of last year. I guess to some degree it’s the flu I had in the beginning of 2008 but it might also be that I took it a bit too easy during christmas holiday :(

Also normal life goes on and there are a lot of news everyday concerning working, studying and university. Yesterday was one of those normal "crazy" days and I only realised that I was on my legs for 12hours when I rode my bike back from school. After getting up at 7.30 I had lecture until 10 and immediately afterwards went for a run and some sprints. Then lunch and at 13.00 Student Union meeting, followed by some lab-work and discussion with profs. Finally at 18.00 the second run with some gym afterwards. Then to Sauna and back home - puuuuh. During the preparation for the new season I'm not planning on having too much of those days, because I know I need a lot of rest to stay injury-free and to maintain a good quality in training.

Back in the forests!
Just a quick note that I finally made it back home to Jyväskylä. With the new (preliminary) passport I had no problems. The air is great (fresh and clean) but the weather is horrible (raining away the snow). The first run (easy 12K) felt great and my flu is almost completely gone. Now I'm indeed motivated for the following weeks and months - in terms of both sports and academic issues.

Incredible false start into 2008
The olympic year started off horrible: After a bad flu, which caused training loss and cancellation of the first competition I wanted to travel back to Finland today. On the airport the airline staff told me that my identity card is not valid anymore (it was valid until 01.01.08 only).
Now I have to stay in Germany for at least a couple of days more.
Because I'm totally messed up I won't continue to write anything for today.

2008
The last competition for me in 2007 was the 27.Bietigheimer Silvesterlauf. With it's 3.725 finishers it's one of the biggest silvester-runs in Germany. And the atmosphere is just amazing! Over 20.000 people along the 11,2 km track making a lot of noise and motivating all the runners.
I was satisfied with my race and somehow it was representative for this year: I made a step into the right direction but there is still a lot of work to do until the top is reached.
For the first two kilometres the speed was really calm and I found myself running at the end of the leading group - along with all the German Champions and those guys with international experience. However, the quite hilly course took its toll and at the end I was 2 1/2 minutes behind the winner in 15th place (35:37 min). Still I reached my aim of getting into the TOP 20. It was a great experience to run in front of this crowd and with all the strong opponents.

start of the race: "mass movement" indeed

me (bib. 26) in the chase group - approx. 6km into the race

home stretch: soon the pain will be released

also Kimmo was there and finished in strong 39th place

On new years day: getting the year started with an easy run with my brother and sister-in-law

Bietigheimer Silvesterlauf
I took 15th place in the last competition of this year in a top-notch field.
Race report and pics will follow tomorrow.

White Christmas
Now it's time to enjoy the Christmas time. Just the night before christmas eve we got a thin layer of snow here in my home town - I guess that's what you call a white christmas nowadays.
I visited the Zwickauer Weihnachtsmarkt (christmas market of my home town) and enjoyed the warm, christmas-like atmosphere there. They also sold finnish honey, so I could have some conversation in Finnish because the salesperson was a native Finn. You should have seen his face when I went there the first time and said "Voi helvetti".

on the christmas market: I can apply my Finnish; Finnish honey in Zwickau = amazing

On 23rd I had a small (low-key-like) competition over around 10km. The conditions were not easy, some ups and downs as well as lots of unhitched paths with quite some rocks and pure ice at some parts. Anyway, I won the competition in 34:16min - and I think it's my first victory on German soil for a quite long (too long) time. Last time I won a competition in Germany was in 2006! My mum also participated and took 2nd place in the women category over the shorter 6km round.

the first victory on German soil for a long time - short before the finish line

Yesterday, on Christmas Eve, we had the usual traditional Christmas meal with turkey. Also we were 9 people altogether - I can't remember to have a Christmas dinner with so many people. But since my brother married the family grew a lot and it was really nice spending the Christmas Eve together in a warm-hearted ambience.

Merry Christmas to all of you for the rest of Christmas.

First days home
After a save but delayed return on Tuesday I am now back home (or is it "only" my origin?) - anyway, in Zwickau. Surprisingly the temperatures are the same or even a bit lower than in Finland, that means under the freezing point. At the same time the air is not as fresh but therefore the days are longer and the sun is much stronger than in Finland.
The first days have been busy with training and some traveling (because we are going to have a new car soon, pictures will follow later). At the same time it was indeed pleasant to see all the close family members again or for the first time, as it was the case for my 3-months old nephew Lu.

the first evening home: along with my brother Lars and his son (my nephew) Lu

Today featured the first fast running training since 2 weeks. After I had the problems with the left thigh I waited quite long to let it heal. However today I wanted to make a test to check if I am prepared for a competition on the weekend. So the program was 5x2000m on the tartan-track. Times (6:30/6:31/6:28/6:26/6:21 with 2mins recovery each) were ok, but when I tried to run faster I could feel that my left thigh went tight and there was no use to force new problems. Anyway the setting for the training was quite strange just when I started the workout it became dark. Fortunately, I have a responsible coach and thus the floodlight was switched on only for me after I came from warm-up. Together with the darkness came a really dense fog + the artificial light = perfect setting for a bad horror movie. Together with the negative temperatures the fog produced a nice Erik, but see yourself:

what is it? An angel, a wig? No! A germanrunner after 5x2000m in foggy, freezing weather.

Going home for Christmas
After another busy week at university I will go home next week and will stay there for 3 weeks, celebrating Christmas and New Year with my family. I'm really looking forward for the holiday - not having any measurements, lectures, student union meetings and all the other commitments - just put my feet up and relax after training.

Last week Thursday I had the last endurance(VO2,max)-test for my master thesis. I calculated how many tests I made overall and counted exactly 100 endurance tests for my thesis; plus a lot of strength measurements for the overall-project in which I'm conducting my Thesis. Now it's all about analysing the results and starting the writing process. Anyway, this will be much easier because I can organise my time more flexible, i.e. around the training.
The first (preliminary) results are already presented and I'm lucky about it, because my supervising professor gave me a lot of input and opened my eyes to look at some correlations I was not thinking of before.
Thursday also was the last Finnish-exam for me. Let's hope I passed.

Training was once again not running so well (that's a play on words). I think I teared a muscle in my left thigh and now I'm fighting with the edema. Beginning of the week saw only one short running exercise (30-40mins in the morning) plus one bike or gym session in the evening. Last 3 days I could run twice again, covering around 20-25km per day, but everything with slow pace and completely aerobic. My legs are itching to run faster, but I want to (or better: have to) be fit when I'm going to Germany, because there I scheduled at least 2 competitions. So, just stay calm and don't do anything stupid.

The next post will probably be published from Germany, so keep updated for some pictures of a traditional German christmas-market (auf deutsch: Weihnachtmarkt) ;)

Happy Birthday Suomi
Today is the independence day here in Finland - only 90 years ago Finland became independent. Still a young country ;)

Last week was a bit too stressful and I took some things too serious. In fact I never went to bed before midnight and sometimes it was even after 2am. However, on the weekend my body showed me that it was way too little recovery. Without really urgent things to do I slept 12 hours on Saturday and more than 10 hours on Sunday. I also used the time and the exhaustion to think about general things - and I found that I will concentrate on fewer things and can't participate in every event or happening. It's time to say No.
Also the next year I want to invest more time and effort in sport, so other things will have to fall short. After checking the German Rankings for 2007 in track&field I gained some motivation. This year you have to scroll down quite a bit to find me (only on place 46 in half-marathon). I hope this will change next year and I will go way closer to the TOP10. The quality in Germany is not as high as it used to be in the past decades, there are only couple of guys runningon international level and then there is a quite big gap...
Training is going well and the foot problems disappeared, so my diagnosis of a minor inflammation was right. Anyway I will increase the cross-training (gym, cycling, aquajogging) until the end of the year because I neglected it the last weeks.
Also concerning my studies of Finnish language I got good news: I am close to pass Suomi 3 (intermediate level) and have only one test (written grammar and vocabulary) left. Ymmärtämisen ja puhetentit menivät (erittäin) hyvin.

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.

Cross country running
Although I'm not the best cross-country runner and enjoy much more to run on flat roads, I took part in a 9K-cross country race last weekend. The race - which was held in Pajulahti - was at the same time the qualification for the Nordic Championships (international contest between FIN, NOR, SWE, DEN and Iceland). So I was lining up with a selection of the best runners in Finland. Considering this fact I'm satisfied with my 9th place.
I took it somewhat easier this week with only one medium fast session on Wednesday; thus my legs were feeling much fresher than last week and I could push harder for the last third of the race. Still I lost the final sprint against two other guys - 5 seconds faster would have been 7th place. Anyway, now I know where I am and have some more motivation. The national team is only one minute away and my best training mate Miika got the last spot on the Finnish team, finishing 4th - Congratulations. Funny thing is that last year he was running the same time like I did this year (on the same course of course). It will be his first time in the dress of the national team and that's why he changed his plans and doesn't run Frankfurt marathon next weekend because the Nordic Champs are just one week after that - crazy guy. Also the two other guys of JKU (the local athletics club from Jyväskylä) finished well with Juha taking 3rd and Henri taking 5th place. I'm looking forward to having some good workouts together with them this winter.

In the University we had the International Degree Students Come Together, which I was organising together with some other guys from the Student Union board. It was a nice evening and once again a good opportunity to make some contacts.

Here are also a some (quite old) pictures, taken at the Finlandia (half) marathon and the German Nationals in halfmarathon.

yes, the weather was really horrible, the muscles were cold and I was lucky to cross the finish line (though it might not look like that)
2 lucky guys: Miika & me after a hard 21,1 km in German Nationals

Pieksämäki Osmon Super Hölkkä
That's the name of the competition I was competing today (October, 14th). It was the 3rd time I ran 10K in that race but this time the course was changed a bit compared to the last 2 years. Nevertheless, the 32:36 I was running this year (2006: 34.26, 2005: 32.51) means a personal course record. I took "only" 3rd place, but considering the last week with a lot of tough training I am really satisfied. My aim was to run around 33mins, so I am indeed glad I did it. In fact it's the fastest time I was running in a road race in Finland. If the legs would have been fresher I could have been more competitive for the first 2 places, because after 8 km I was lying in second place and only 20meters behind the leader Mikko. However, I couldn't hold on and the tank was empty, so I lost around 1oometers and one place (to my teammate Marko) during the last 2 kilometres.
After all it was a good end of the training week. I was running around 150-160km in 13 running sessions, including 3 fast sessions (18x100m sprints on tuesday, 14K crescendo on thursday and race today) and one long run (~27K on saturday). Furthermore, 2 cross-training sessions took place this week. One on the spinning bike and one combined session in the gym/swimming pool with Minna, a tough girl making her way towards a professional race cycling team. It was really nice having her company and time went by so fast.

The last and the following week are not too busy, so I work on my plans for next years. I'll let you know when they are ready. So much can be said: If everything runs normal Erik will give a debut.

New (training) season started
After Finlandia (half)marathon I took it easy with training for 2 weeks and enjoyed the student life by going out almost every second day.
However, now the first week of the new training season is already over and I completed some promising workouts (a flat 10K in just under 35mins and a lot of good-feeling mileage). On last Sunday I went to Helsinki to run the "tunnelijuoksu": A strange 5 km-race in Finlands longest street tunnel. The course was quite challenging, because the first kilometer declined around 30meters which meant that I was running 25meters under sea level! The second kilometer climbed back to sea level and after 2,5km there was the turning point. So on the way back the same amount of altitude difference. My performance (8th place in 15:52) was ok, considering the facts that 5K is a sprint for me and most of the best Finnish runners + some Kenyans were running for the price money.

Another reason why I will never forget this week is the birth of my nephew. Yes, I'm an uncle now! Unfortunately I will have to wait until Christmas holidays until I can see the little man.

Finlandia marathon
halfmarathon: 2nd place in 1:13:50

Season peak
One week after the race it's time for a short race recap of the German halfmarathon-championships. I took 19th place in 1:09:31h, so I reached my aims of getting into the TOP 20 and running under 70 minutes. The track in Bad Liebenzell was flat (but not super-flat) and the weather conditions were just perfect (around 15°C, dry, almost no wind). The first 15km I ran in a group of around 5 guys and could save some energy by just "rolling" with this group. The last 5-6 km I increased the pace, consequently blasted the group and passed some runners lying in front of me. Since I ran without a watch I don't really know the splits (except the first 5km which were around 16:15) but I think the pace was even with the first 5K and the last 3K being somewhat faster.
My body was working well but I could feel that I did only few fast kilometers. The last 10km all the leg muscles (calves, quads and hamstrings) were quite stiff and even the lower back sent some pain every now and then. Well, that's one thing to improve: getting more fast kilometers, especially on hard surfaces. After the race it took me around 4 days to get rid of the pain in the calves.
Following the race I spent 3 days at home and enjoyed being with my family and meeting some old friends. At the same time I continued a reduced, slow training because the next halfmarathon (Finlandia marathon here in Jyväskylä) is already next weekend.

before the race

early in the race (~4km) in a big pack - I'm on the left, wearing number 40

later in the race (~11km), still in the (now reduced) pack - I'm between number 227 and 35

10.000m sub 32
The 10.000m track competition on last Tuesday in Lempäälä turned out to be a worthwhile trip. I clocked a 31:59,86 which was way faster than I expected. My aim was to go sub 33, which would have been a good test for a halfmarathon under 1:10h. Now I am quite confident that I can go under those 70minutes in the German championships. However, it is no self seller and the conditions might not be as perfect as in Lempäälä (around 17°C, no wind). On the other hand I ran the 10.000m in normal training shoes (Nike Air Pegasus) and without special preparation. In fact last week counted again 170-180km and also this week I am going to run around 170km.

The race itself was pretty nice. Negative was only that I had to run the second half on my own and the pace was not so steady (slowest km: 3:18min - fastest=last km: 3:04min). Aah yes, I was also a bit frustrated when Miika lapped me just 100m before he crossed the finish line - but at least he lapped me only once ;). It also motivated me for my last round - actually I was thinking I am on a 32:10 or 32:20 course (unfortunately there was no chronometer next to the track) and it was just 200m before the finish, when one guy cried: "31:25" that I realised I can make it sub 32. Then I really kicked hard the last 200m and indeed dipped under 32minutes.
The recovery from the race was also quite good. Now, two days after the race I am feeling ok and I am ready for some medium-fast runs.

The odometer is rotating
with less than 3 weeks to go to the main competition of this year (german championships in half-marathon) it's just the right time to set the peak mileage. Last weeks' mileage was between 170 and 180km. Some quality workouts and medium-fast runs give me the confidence I need. Next week I'm competing in a 10.000m track competition, which at the same time is the final test for the half-marathon. So far the summer-training was really good - especially the sufficient recovery made me feel fresh and avoided injuries or diseases.

In the university the new international students are arriving since August. I was a student tutor for a group of 3 guys (Erez from Israel, Kuba from Poland and Andrei from Romania) and 1 girl (Sviatlana from Belarus). I welcomed them after their arrival, showed them around on the campus and in the city and made some administrative things with them (student union registration, housing office, opening bank accounts etc). Some days were quite busy but at the same time it was nice and we had some fun.
I also have a new room-mate, Tahir from Pakistan. He is going to study in the same course as I do (Biology of Physical Activity) and he is a quiet and calm person so far.
My Master-project is also running well and the subjects are obviously improving their shape.