This morning it was time for a trail run with Coach K Runners. I took the train to Höör train station where Åke waited for me, Catherine and Emelie to take us to Fulltofta.

It was a bit colder this morning and grey. I was wearing my winter pants, orange long sleeve, fleece and green windstopper, gloves and hat. Energi belt with a new sports drink, Tailwind, that will be served at Hallands Ultra 50K in June, which I plan to run. I tested the citrus flavor. I also hade made a protein drink, Choko Chai-shake, to drink afterwards.

We were 5 Coach K Runners who decided we would run the 18.8K run that Åke, Robert and I ran last Fall. But Bäckaslingen which is the first part was withdrawn from the run because it is too wet at the moment.

I have had an issue with my right gluteus since end of January which which means that I cannot run any longer runs at the moment, over 32K so I have taken a decision to not run longer than around 20-25K til end of March to rehabilitate myself. I got an advice to take a timeout for a week from running which I did so my first run after the timeout was Wednesday this week. I also got an advice to do foam rolling. I have to admit that I was a bit sceptic but gave it a try Thursday at the gym and I was in shock when the pain was gone after my first foam rolling, decided to buy my own foam roll yesterday. For the first time I have not woken up with pain since I started foam rolling. Did foam rolling yesterday and this morning before the trail run.

Since Emelie hadn’t done any long distance running before she wanted to run 10K so Åke ran with her back to Fulltofta Naturcentrum when we had ran 6K and the rest of us continued the last 13K of this 18.8K trail run.

I am so glad for my Suunto GPS pulse watch where I can import routes and follow them. Since I had not run this run since last Fall I have forgotten part of the run, then it is so good to have the pulse watch as a backup and practice to follow the markers. Åke had said that he would continue his run when he had left Emelie at the Naturcentrum and run in the opposite direction from us. We never met him.

There were a few times when I looked at the watch and thought we would turn left (which was true but we had to run into the woods first and then to the left 🙂  ) The pulse watch was a life saver 🙂

During the run the sun came out and I took off gloves, hat and the windstopper, a sign of spring. 🙂

When we were getting close to Fulltofta Naturcentrum we were on the orange marker (Skåneleden) which we also ran last time in Fulltofta, missed the last piece of this 18.8K run this Fall last time time we ran in Fulltofta, but on this orange marker also is a white leaf marker to the left. at that time I said now it is going to be interesting to see if Åke will meet us or not because we came on this white leaf marker in the opposite direction this time. Catherine needed to visit a rest room and I said to her that we will wait for you but she wanted us to continue and I told her we would continue on the orange marker, which was true for a while but then we continued on the red and white marker (Bokskogen). This is where I realized we didn’t have her mobile number and hoped she wouldn’t get lost.

I asked Lars how long his longest run was and he said it was 45 min and we had at this time been running 14K and he was tired in his legs. At that time I had a bit faster pace than normal and asked if the pace was fine and he gave it an OK 🙂 It was such a relief to see Catherine when we came back from the loop.

The joy this morning was that my right gluteus did not bother me, I had some other issues, one of them was that I was tired in my legs but I prefer that instead of my glutues forces me to walk and stretch a lot. Part of the run I was able to have a faster pace than last time.

I was on my way to go to a physiotherapist next week but yoga in combination with foam rolling has really done a great work this week with my gluteus. I will give this a try a couple of more days and will see what it gives.

Distance; 11.7 miles (18.84K), time: 2.21.44 h,
average pace: 7.31 min/k, max pace: 5.46 min/k, VO2 max: 27 ml/kg/min