#18 – 50 runs in 100 days – Hardcore edition
#125 – 100 Days Of Miles Challenge

Yesterday I had a cold feeling (that I might catch a cold) and hoped that I wouldn’t have a cold this morning. So no training yesterday, drank a lot of fluid and stayed warm and hoped for the best. Didn’t get any worse yesterday so I was hopeful.

It was suppose to be cold this weekend. When I woke up 6 am the temperature was 0oC (32F) so it was time to test the same 2XU windstopper tights I had last weekend since it is very likely that the temperature might be the same in Dec. And  I plan to wear these.

Took the train to Höör and then the ”Ring bus” to Frostavallen which was a short ride. Alternative when I do not have anyone to run with.

Last preparation before my last race and ultra race this year Dec 12th. Decided to run the middle part of Tjörnarparen which I have not run yet this year. The worst hill is on this part and I had a goal. The first part is very familiar since it is part of my 45K run. I realized I had mixed up the different parts because all of a sudden I had to turn left and I thought that I was on my way to the ”Spong” part. A flash back came back. So it was time to be on the black marker that get very camouflaged. It was very gooey and wet and was trying to avoid getting too wet feet. First I am running in the forest and then get out on a dirt road and then the famous spong comes and here it would be interestering to see how my Altra Lonepeak would handle it and once again I was positively surprised how good it works to run on those sponges and not doing any ice skating 🙂

Last year on Tjörnarparen I was in a shitty mood during the black marker. After half the distance I had to start walk/run, walk/run and also I got to a part with a big puddle and realized that I had to run through it and got really wet feet and then when I was on my way to the third fuel station a official showed up on a hill and cheered me on. That made my day so much better 🙂

After the third fuel station I remember that I ran on a dirt road and it felt SO long til I got to the green marker and was wondering how I would feel today. The dirt road is long but finally Djuralidsbacken was there (Djuralids hill), the worst hill on this ultra race, it is short but steep. My goal today was to run up this hill, walked up this hill last December and I DID IT, ran the whole hill. Felt so good, short after that there is another steep short hill, ran up that one as well, it felt so much shorter today 🙂

Once again during this run I passed some other runners and we said hallo to each other, two bikers that I said hallo to too.

When I had around 5K left I was hoping I would not miss the bus that just goes once every hour. So I had natural Fartlek at the end, came back 3 min before the bus was suppose to come. Had to wait some extra minutes and had to warm my legs. When I was running I was warm but when I was not moving it was COLD

Results

Altitude

Distance: 14.59 miles (23.49K), time: 2.55.06h, average pace: 7.27 min/k, max pace: 5.17 min/k, cadence: 170, VO2 Max: 30 ml/kg/min