This afternoon I had the pleasure to run with Eva. We met outside the tunnel between Annehem and Nöbbelöv and Eva took me around Ladugårdsmarken. It is also out in the country.

The weather had been very strange today. It was around 17oC (63F) and a bit chilly so I decided to wear longer pants, long sleeve shirt but then the sun began to shine so, temperature went up to 20oC (68F), changed to shorts and t-shirt and also filled water in my water bottles and brought my water belt with me. When I finally ran to meet Eva the sun was gone 🙂

Here we coming out in the country, these runs are the ones I like the most, out in the country on those country roads.

A long time ago I went for a walk in this area. Interesting how memories come back

We passed someone who was out riding a horse. We also ran out in the bushes where it was a bit overgrown.

On this run we discussed The Color Run, Kulturnatten, me getting ready for Lidingöloppet, how impressed we are with some of the Coach K Runners who have had an amazing race season, Österlen half Marathon, my pulse watch which does not show the correct speed anymore. What Eva has been doing lately. Very nice with company today

Totalt time: 1.07.39 h, distance: 12.28K

The Color Run, also known as the Happiest 5k on the Planet, is a unique paint race that celebrates healthiness, happiness and individuality.

Today I participated in the craziest race I have ever run. The difference between this race and other races is that there is no timing, where thousands of runners are covered from head to toe with colors at each passed kilometer.

I met Roger, a friend of mine who recently has joined Coach K Runnners, on the bike path behind my house and we ran 4K as warmup to Stadsparken in Lund. It was a bit chilly and I do not want to get sick since Lidingöloppet is next week so I had a long sleeve shirt over my The Color run t-shirt. I also inaugurated my race dots instead of safety pins. Plan to use them on Lidingöloppet.

We locked in some of our stuff at Högavallsbadet and went down to the fountain to meet the rest of the Coach K Runnners that would participate to take some before pictures.

Then it was time to walk to the stage and get ready for the start. Some participants had already thrown colors on each other and some was rollling themselves in the colors that had fallen on the ground. Most participants were college students. We did some dancing in front of the stage. Since there was color throwing going on we got some colors on ourselves 🙂 We also did the wave a couple of times.

Then it was time to get to the start line. Groups were starting every 5 minutes and while waiting we were doing the wave many times, some dancing and colors were thrown.

Then it was time for our group to get to the start line. Water was thrown over us to get the color to stick better during the race and just before it was time to start to run it was a color showering party. I was glad I brought with me my sun glasses. Prior to the start the sun came out 🙂

There is a rule that they have on all regular races and that is that if you are walking or is slower you are keeping yourself on the right side and if you are running or running faster you are keeping yourself on the left side. That does not always work on regular races but here was more chaos so it was a lot of zigzag in the beginning to be able to move forward.

I and Roger were able to run for a while til it was time to run down a bike path down to Stattena road when it got crowded again and then on Stattena road there was a narrow part where it got packed.

I would say that not all participants were runners on this race because it did not take long before some participants had stopped running and then walked. Some were waiting for their friends. During this type of race you cannot be too many to run in a group. It got interesting when we were going to run over a round about. Lucky us there were cops who kept track of the cars and runners. We got to Idrottsplatsen and then the first k came and yellow colors were thrown at us.

This day it is also Kulturnatten in Lund so I guess at the Tech park there were a crowd and some performance, they might have wondered what crazy colored people are passing us. TIme for the next k where pink colors were thrown at us. We skipped the water station. It was perfect temperature, not too warm, not too cold.

We took an alternative way at the water station and I realized at this race you cannot get disqualified or no ropes will be drawn so you cannot continue 🙂

Roger and I kept a comfortable pace and continued running on the other side of the Tech park and at the train station it was time for the next k where green colors were thrown at us.

We had some audience who was curious about this race and stood and watched on the side of the roads.

Some bikers dared biking in the opposite direction where we were running and could have been in trouble.

Then it was time for the last k were blue colors were thrown at us.

Then it was not long til we saw the finish line.

After the finish line it was time to head to the stage again and participate in a mass psychosis. Every 15 minutes color bags were thrown to us and then a rain of colors fell over the sky down on us. In between we were dancing and jumping.

I have to say that this is definately the craziest race I have participated in so far. Very different than the other races I run during the year. It is a bit insane but I am glad I could experience this spectacle.

Then Roger and I felt we were ready to run back home. We went to the fountain to see if there were some other Coach K Runners there or not but not.

We went back to Högavallsbadet and got our stuff and then back to my neighbor hood. Some people that we passed looked at us funny, I wonder why 🙂

So warmup 4K, The Color Run 5K, some gympa (=aerobics) and cool down 4K.

Tonite it was running as warmup, unknown distance.

And Robin was our guest instructor, we started with soft Newaza (part of the warmup) and after that regular Newaza. I still am out of shape since I did not exercise judo the whole summer.

Then Robin showed us some techniques that I was struggling with in the beginning but at the end I could do it correctly.

Then we did Koka, three people went out on the mat and then three other people was wrestling with them. The person who won stayed on the mat and then another person wrestled with the winner. I had to attach the big boys and got some tips what to do when I am much lighter than them.

Tonite I ran 2K on the treadmill at the gym as warmup, speed: 6 min/k and total time: 12.10 min. Was a bit tired in my front thighs and calves after yesterday’s hilly exercises with walking poles.

After running it was time to row for approximately 5 minutes, 1K. It was a gluey rowing 🙂

At the gym tonite I exercised the back, shoulders and legs.

The last thing I did was core: circle, oblique crunches, ”slowly down boat”, ”the world plank” and regular plank, in between I did the boat.

This week suppose to be a resting week (before Lidingöloppet) but tonite I did an exception.

About two years ago I bought walking poles but I have never used them. On the hilly intervals last week we discussed walking poles and Björntorps IF has walking poles training on St Hans hills on Wednesdays.

So Coach K Runners was invited to ski walking / running with walking poles and now I had a chance to use my walking poles for the first time.

I ran with my walking poles and a jacket to St Hans hills and got up to the top hill. More and more people showed up. Some of us were there for the first time.

We started with warm up doing Indian jumps, ”kicking butt”.

After that we did ”both feet jump” 10 times multiple times and after that jumping on one foot 5 times and then changing to the other foot and jumped 5 times multiple times.

Then it was time to do exercises with the walking poles.

Tomas was the instructor and showed us how we would using the walking poles walking, you should think skiing and did that exercise up to the top hill from the middle hill. After that he showed us how we would use the walking poles running up the hill but not running really, you should jump more and using your arms. We did this also from the middle hill to the top hill. The arms were doing the hard work. 🙂

Then we went down to the longest hill and walked up with the walking poles to the middle hill and then ran with the walking poles up to the top hill. This was done 3 times.  I was really breathless when I got up to the top hill.

After that we ran down with the walking poles to the grove and did planking for 10s (which of course was not a problem, later tonite I will continue with my plank challenge and do planking for 75s) and then we ran up on the steepest side of the top hill with our walking poles. OH MY GOSH! We did this 3 laps.

Then it was time to put the walking poles away and get down to the grove again and first do low lunges 5 times and then 5 pushups til you got up to the top hill. If you were fast you were waiting for the rest doing ”Jägarvvila” which of course is one of my favorites 🙂 This felt familiar (Physical training with CKR)

The last exercise was 5 squats on one foot, 5 squats on the other foot and do this 5 times.

This was definately worse than hilly intervals and my arms started to ache during the exercise tonite plus front thighs. Now my calves have started to ache too. Looking forward to tomorrow 🙂