Today I woke up 7.15 am to run earlier in the morning to avoid the heat. Last night I put two water bottles in the refrigerator.

It was also time to test the sport drink that is going to be served on Lidingöloppet in September, Pripps Sport Energy.

Before I started the run I did my mandatory stretching and put liniment on my right knee and left M. Gluteus maximus.

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The temperature was 20oC (68F) which is my ideal temperature and was also met by a nice breeze. At 8.10 am I started with 3 laps on St Hans hills and was basically there by myself. The good thing was that it was dew in the grass so my feet was nice wet. I saw a guy walking. On the third lap St Hans came alive when more runners showed up and one lady was out with her dog. After three laps I ran up the top hill again and then I continued on my 8k run.

After 19.5k I felt the three laps in my calves and part of my brain was on it’s way to give up and wanted to walk the last 2 laps on St Hans hills. Up to this time I have been drinking every other k. I did not look forward to the last 2 laps so it was time to take out ”pannbenen”. (=Grab the bulls by its horns). My energy was going down so it was time to drink every k and only sport drink so I could wet my hair to stay cool. So I started to run my first lap and survived. Now some freesbee golfers had showed up and I used the word Fore again to let them know that I was going to pass them :-). Now my feet was also tired, I was on ”slippery ice” a couple of times but blocked it to avoid sprain my feet. Now the feet was not nice wet anymore but warmer. So it was just to run the last lap and see if my brain would refuse to run the top hill again but I did not have a problem with that either. A family was walking down that hill and looked at me strangely. After that I just had to run home.

I went directly to the shower with my clothes on to cool me down and after that it was time to make brunch since I did 28.5k before breakfast. Totalt time: 3.30. 27 h which is not a good time but expected when running before breakfast, my body is not fully awake. No walking this time either. What saved me this Saturday was the breeze. 🙂

The sports drink Pripps Sport energy has been served at Lidingöloppet before and I do not have any problem with it but without any breakfast I felt it in my stomach but did not get cramp.