Right at this moment while I am sitting here thinking how stupid it was of me to run and make my knee hurt even more, MCKs new MTB 2010 training plan is starting! For more info, check this Forum link or the Mölndals CK website.

Måndagar 18.00 Klubbstugan: Teknikträning för alla
The idea here was to give parents something to do while their kids were off having fun in the forest. But I have no teknik either so this will be useful.

Tisdagar 18.00 Samling SCA parkeringen: Kvalitetsträning för tävlingscyklister
For those of you with ambitions of winning Sportklass in every Västgötacupen race, this is where you should be. Of course Björn is there so your chance of actually winning Sportklass is low anyway. But still this is perfect training if you like XC. I sometimes do this.

Torsdagar 18.00 Klubbstugan: Träning för alla. Indelat i grupperna nybörjare i skog, utvecklingsgrupp
I am still not exactly sure what these sessions are for but probably to act as a bridge between the Monday pass and the Tuesday pass. So I will probably be at this one too.

Lördag/Söndag Forumpass
Check the forum here to see if someone is planning a långlopp pass or simpler LVG pass.

Training is open for members of other clubs too so you are welcome to try if you happen to be in Mölndal.

Thanks for asking. It hurts like hell to be perfectly honest. The pain seems to have focused itself above the knee in the actual quadricep muscle where I thought it was in the first place. I thought riding lugnt och fint was supposed to be good rehab for this? I can't ride much slower than I did on Saturday.

Maybe it is time to reduce my goals to 'just finishing' the many långlopp races I have already entered and paid for. In my first year of MTB that is all I did and I felt perfectly satisfied with that.

I had a few goals with today's training:
1. To test my injury but not make it worse.
2. Find a new route for training.
3. Find out what it feels like to run immediately after cycling.
Along the way I managed a bonus goal:
1. To get hopelessly soaked from all of the rain and water.

My route was Allum - Öjersjö - Tahult - Önneröd - Härkeshult - Jonsered - Centrum and after two wrong turns and two stops to check the map, I was out in the forest smelling the pine trees thinking how fantastic it is to be riding in nature. If only it were sunny and not pouring rain and 4C. Bläää. This was a great MTB or cross route but the holes in the road would easily swallow a LVG.

Time: 1:23:55 (This will get better. Now I know where I am going.)
Average HR: 156
Distance: 25.6km

So then after a long transition, it was time for running. In a normal duathlon, I assume that I will not have to unlock two doors, greet the neighbour and their dog, make comments about how this was not the most perfect day to be 'ut och cyklar' and then change shoes and leave. But at least it was within 5 minutes.

Time: 14:35
Average HR: 172
Distance: 2.8km

Not very impressive numbers there. But this was just pure pain. I actually had a leg cramp after 1.5km! Fy FAN what a surprise it was to run off the bike. Need a bit of work on this. I also skipped over the 5km of running before the bike too. But one can say that my route with its 3 or 400m vertical was not a typical duathlon 20km. But still, this was quite the discovery.

Whole trip
Energy: 1260 kcal
Peak HR: 184
Average HR: 158

New season means a new collection of energy products designed to make us the fastest cyclists in the world. So I ask you, what products do you use? On a long race or training pass, will you drink water or energy drink? And for that extra kick when you need it near the end of a long race, what do you choose then?

I have changed over my few years but at first I was stuffing in whatever Enervit product I could find while eating a ton of pasta before races to load. But this just gave me one hell of a gubbmage. Last year I was just drinking water during långlopp with the odd splash of energy drink at the food stops. But then I would have serious energy drops after around 55km. So my current strategy is to just take water and the Enervit liquid more often.

Yep, one can't complain when it is 13C outside. Too bad I was inside for most of the day. This weekend promises 4C and rain so maybe being injured is a good thing. Then again, I did just buy a fresh bottle of Pedro's Green Fizz cleaner so I suppose I can do a little bit of rain riding. =)

I finally made it to SportRehab and after some checking around they concluded that I have a very common football injury. (???) I am not sure if that is because of their location across from Nya Gamla Ullevi but anyway I strained my medial collateral ligament. I must have twisted it at some point and then overstressed it during spinning.

Anyway, I am supposed to rest from fun things like MTB or terrainlöpning since that will twist my leg and it will never heal. But light running or cycling is good to do as rehab. So it looks like for April I will be riding LVG, taking it easy and stopping for fika. Does this mean I should switch to HCK?

Yes, I still have to work since I am not a fashion fjortis bloggare who makes a pile of cash just by advertising. But working does force you to take a break from training which is good for my body. And cycling is good for clearing my mind after a tough day at work.

27-28 mars is our MCK training weekend but instead of Vårgårda it will just be at the clubhouse in Lindome. The snow never ceases to mess with us. I am not really sure what the 4 training sessions will involve but soon I will know. And I think the best strategy is to rest until then since my knee is feeling ganska bra.

Although it is sunny and 7C outside right now so naturally I feel like heading out...

After yesterday's pass, my bike was no longer white so my goal today was to wash it. But that is boring so I decided to have another ride first and then wash it. I pity anyone out today who decided to head east first and then return home west. I did that yesterday so today I headed west first towards Skatås and was met with one hell of a motvind. It was one of those so strong that I could feel my MTB swaying and this thing is 11kg!

Anyway, I did most of 8:an which was basically stopping for people and accelerating the whole way around. But there was no ice/snow so that was nice. Then I headed back along the road towards Kålltorp and E20 before literally flying along the cykelmotorväg along E20 back through Sävedalen.

Time: 58:20.4
Hr peak: 187
Hr average: 152
Energy: 664 kcal

It was a lovely day to make my first ride of the year. Almost too lovely. There is still a ton of grus everywhere and ice/snow patches here and there but I ride an MTB so these things do not matter.

I just did a fairly lugnt ride Partille - Jonsered - Aspen/Lerum - Aspenäs which passes lots of lovely places for fika if you are that type of cyclist. Fine, I admit to one break in the middle. But it is only March so a break is allowed.

Distance: 29.5km
Time: 1:38.09
Hr peak: 181
Hr average: 148
Energy: 1067 kcal

Ja ja...maybe the 148 heart rate average is a sign that I was a bit too relaxed. But then again I was recently called an 'alpin ekorre' for my fine running.

So what about my knee? Yes, it is still there and it was sort of hurting about halfway through. But it was more like a 'good pain'. The bike seems to be set up well. It is amazing what shifting the seat forward 3cm can do. It also has SPD pedals which naturally helps. Let's not discuss why I wasn't using SPD before. It is stupid not to use them. But I finally started to in cross.


And then we end with a nice picture to illustrate how I feel about stänkskydd on bikes. Mud is my friend. =)

This whole thing with muscle compression is really quite magical. Like back in the days when we were all building model cars and had to hold the parts together until the glue set. It feels like the same thing is true for my muscles.

Of course then the knee support band stretches and ends up falling down so it looks like I have an extra pair of socks. But, fine, I can live with that.

I still have not had the time to get this checked out by a professional but it feels good enough to start rehab. And rehab = a lugnt tour on my MTB tomorrow. =)

When I said that I would focus on cross season 2010, I was also hoping to do something before that. But on a day like today, I have to wonder. My pain is still there so it was time for a little self-diagnosis. I can tell you that it takes a PhD in Neuroscience to be able to sift through all the useless webpages before you find proper medical advice. Fortunately enough, I have a Phd in Neuroscience. Still I ended up consulting a sports medicine textbook available through the library at work.

The vastus medialis is one of the four quadricep muscles. This is the one on the inside of the leg which ends at the knee. Just down at the knee they usually call this VMO or vastus medialis oblique and this is precisely the muscle I seem to have strained.

A strong VMO helps to prevent runner's knee and the best exercises to build up strength in this are the leg press and, you guessed it, spinning! Damage to this muscle is commonly a result of improper bike position and too much resistance. I agree completely.

So I suppose I should go sit for several days at my local Vårdcentral to get this confirmed. But I am expecting that I will be out of service for 2-4 weeks more since that is usually how long things take.

This sucks.

And then we have the parts for my new cross. I am far from finished yet but this is a start.

The crankset is an FSA Gossamer which I had bought last December. It is the usual compact 50-34 because they did not have the cross-specific 46-36 but honestly last season was just fine going through the 34 and a range of 4 gears on the back. I think this is high enough for a cross to start with but maybe I will change it later on.

The gears are Shimano Ultegra 6700 which is the updated 2010 edition. I have the shifters, back derailer and chain so far. I need to see the frame before I get the front derailer. And the cassette is a 105 since it is just going to get full of sand and crap anyway.

The handlebars and seat are Ritchey's WCS series with their nice world champion colours and good reputation. White because the frame is black and red. So...next is the frame. It should be here any day now...

By popular demand, here is an update on my MTB pimping process.

This is a seatpost from FSA and their new series SL-K. Snygg som FAN is what I say. Sure, this is probably going to make very little difference in my bike performance but why not.

The plan is to continue with an SL-K stem and handlebars but I have not decided on stem length and riser vs flat. I need to ride a bit and see how it feels after my adjustments. But a 110mm stem is probably better than the 120mm that is on it now when considering that my old Trek had a 100mm and exactly the same frame size. And probably I will change the seat too since my ass deserves better.

And to give an update on my leg pain, it is still there but seems to be in my calf muscles sometimes and other times it is over the whole quadriceps. But the point is that it feels different than before which I assume is some kind of improvement or healing process. I can walk still but obviously walking too much will slow the healing. So I am not going to do anything until the weekend.

Ja, so why did I go to the gym when my leg is still hurting? Well, I have lots of other muscles which are still fine. =) This was the same Nautilus method routine as last Wednesday but with no leg exercises. Feels good to at least do something.

It is a lovely day out but I will just get to sit and stare at all the bike parts I have bought for my new cross. The low pound value and 25th anniversary sale make ChainReactionCycles the only choice at the moment. Sorry to all the Swedish stores but my income is far too limited at the moment to be patriotic. But when I realize that I can't put anything together, then I will visit a local shop.

Those of you out there that are getting jealous of the fact that I have trained so much will probably be happy now. I fear that my träningsvärk may actually be an injury since it is not going away. And when you become a gubbe, headling takes longer and longer.

My pain is in the quads (lår) but just above the knee and I know that this is precisely the place that hurt during and after spinning on Monday. And since then I have tortured it with leg presses and 70 minutes of hill intervals. Duh. Then last night I did some very very lugnt riding on my trainer with no resistance for 10 minutes. I thought that it might be that I needed to stretch things back into place by using it properly. Nope. That hasn't worked either.

So it looks like I get some rest now which is good since I have a busy week of work ahead of me. In a way, spinning at such a high resistance is silly because we have an invention called gears. If it gets hard, you change gears. And if the hill is so steep that you need to kill your legs just to get up, I guarantee that it will be faster to jump off the bike and run up.

It is a gorgeous day outside today even if 'gorgeous' means 3C. It is sunny and would be a perfect day for a ride. I will save that for tomorrow instead when it will be equally sunny and warm.

Not surprisingly, my leg pain during the intervals last night has grown to become my largest träningsvärk of the year so far. Still, it is nowhere near as bad as when I first started running. So tomorrow will be a 'lugnt och fint' ride around with focus on my position on the bike and what I can improve. My muscles deserve this.

It is Thursday again so that means time to drop by Sportlife Örgryte/Göteborg tennis club. In their lobby right now they have bikes from PitPro so I had something to do while waiting. Yep, if someone gave me one of those to ride at the XC races, I would not complain at all.

Anyway, today was time for hill intervals so I was all excited. However, during the 3.5km warmup I could feel why it is not so good to strength train the way I did one day before running. Aj it hurt everywhere and now my lårmusklar are not happy with me at all. So it was probably good that the 'hill' was not like the one we MCKare ran up last weekend.

The trainers said that we should run the 4x1min intervals (2 min vila) at a fairly steady pace. But mjölksyra is something for elit so if you run too hard you will wake up tomorrow and not want to train. Well, I wasn't planning on training tomorrow so of course I will run like hell and collect as much mjölksyra as I can. =) Afterall, I have 500m mountains in Norway to get over during the summer.

The first two 1-min were okay but my last 2 were horrible and I had no energy. Then after some strange co-ordination moves which just made my muscles hurt more, it was time for 4x30s intervals (1.5 min vila) and those I could manage better.

Finally it was time to 'jog' back down to the start but it was clear and downhill so I couldn't really help but try and pass everyone. As usual, I couldn't catch the top 5 but still I did well. They must think I am an idiot.

After my little incident with spinning on Monday, I have been re-thinking my training a bit. While BodyPump is sort of fun, it only works for some muscle groups. And what I did before with the Nautilus method was working all muscles 2-3 times per week. So this morning I switched back to this.

A round on the machines according to this:
Chin-ups (biceps) - 45kg, 12st
Dips (triceps) - 45kg, 12st
Military lift - 40kg, 10.5st (this was very tough)
Shoulder press - 20kg, 12st but the last 2 were ugly
Abs - 25kg, 15st + 10st
Then I sort of repeated all the muscles again on different machines, each time taking one that did not limit my movement. These are harder and mean my arms/legs start shaking all over but they are way more effective.

Honestly, this round of things was very effective. The problem is that I will have to do this in the morning because after work is too crowded.

I just signed up for another two MTB marathon in Norway. First we have Raumerrittet outside of Oslo.


And then we have Farrisrunden in Larvik the weekend after.


Racing in Norway should be fun although the cost is more than races here in Sweden. But there is something magical about starting a race with a few thousand other cyclists of all levels.

The weather has been very strange this afternoon and it is extremely dry in the air. That will explain what happened to me during Cykel 30. Anyway, I felt very out of place with this bunch and to try and get the most for one of the 4 min songs I had basically maximum resistance while sitting. Damn right it hurt but I kept at it and obviously pushed a wee bit hard. The next song was 3 min of high cadence which is actually stupid after such a tough song. But in a room full of beginners, no one was really making any effort so it didn't really matter to them.

Somewhere a minute into this song my nose started bleeding quite badly. Dryness does this kind of thing. Sure, everyone has a nosebleed once in awhile but this was one of the worst I have had. Good thing they had napkins because I needed a lot and I could feel myself becoming quite pale. All this is natural since my heart rate was up and the blood was pumping strong. What pissed me off was that not one person in the entire room bothered to ask if I was okay. They just stared and kept riding. What the hell is this? If you fall on your ass in the street, someone will say 'Hur gick det?'. In this room? Nada.

So after another few minutes the bleeding stopped and I did Core but I was not all that into it after this...especially when it was the same people.

In a way this is good because MCK is starting the MTB training and then I will be there 3-4 days each week. And tonight I could have been running instead which would have been more effective. Stupid gym.

Yes, spring. And I don't mean running this time. I mean the season. Even if it is only +1C outside, it feels like we are finally through the worst of this winter. The sun is wonderful today and if I had any energy at all I would be out riding. But I have no energy after yesterday.

It was nice to watch Vasaloppet today. You can see directly why this type of skiing is like MTB...pure power will get you much farther than mind games. Even if it did end in a sprint. After this I have actually decided to do CykelVasan, mostly for the history and for my love of everything to do with Dalarna. Even if there are basically no hotels. And even if they have no clear transport arrangement to actually get yourself and your bike from Mora to Sälen.

Finally it was time to kör igång our new focus on MTB but due to the ice it was not very much MTB. Still, this was a good day. First it was time for my second 90 minute running session of the week and this one was much worse. The idea was stavlöpning but instead of taking my ski poles I took the walking ones so I was sliding around a lot. When I could, I had a very nice rhythm going with the poles and steps and it was pretty fast too. So do not be surprised if you see me running in Partille with poles now. Super effective training guaranteed! So this was your basic running in terrain where there are no trails plus a series of hill intervals which were great. I felt really strong this morning.

Next on the agenda was discussion and starting from around Easter there will be some type of MTB långlopp training which will be arranged so that you can jump off and head home at several points. This will be up until Billingeracet but I plan to continue with routes from Sävedalen after that. In all of these cases you do not need to be a member in MCK to join in.

So then it was time for some 'core' training with a pilates ball. It was okay but I still need Core at the gym to get all of the basics too. Then testcykel with many nasty little intervals that made my legs burn and should make tomorrow rather difficult. Good thing Vasaloppet is on. I won't need to move.

If there is any MCKares out there reading my page but not www.mck.se, you will have missed that we are having a little training day tomorrow for the MTB group plus a planning meeting for training etc.

So check the MCK page and the Forum for all of the details.

90 minutes of running on solid ice? Check! Now can we have some spring weather?

As I said, Sportlife has running passes at Skatås on Thursdays so if you are a member at any of their gyms, just drop by. There were about 30 today which was surprising considering that 8:an was covered in ice pretty much all the way around. It wasn't so bad to run since you are just sort of flying over it. So running on ice is way easier than cycling on ice.

The theme was supposed to be fartlek (no jokes, I promise) but it was light jogging for the first. Then they decided to try some intervals but said that they should be steady without mjölksyra. Huh? I thought interval meant 'kör som FAN!' so that you fall over during the last one. It was 2-4-4-2 minutes and it was supposed to be 1 minute rest between. But after the interval we all had to turn around and go back so that the whole group would be together again for the next. So it was a longer break. Using my method, I was 6th fastest in the whole group which felt good. The others at the front were also doing proper intervals.

Then it was more light jogging and I was starting to feel pretty dead so the pass was a success. For 'fun', they threw in a couple of '8 lamppost' intervals where it was sloping a bit up. Oj oj did they feel lovely. And after that it was about 2km downhill back to the start.

Yes, I am in pain. Yes, it was a good pass. Next week's theme is hill intervals. Excellent. But the 'hill' on 8:an was nothing compared to my Partille hills so I should be well prepared.

This winter has really killed my cykelträning and I am wondering what to do with all this running experience. Last year the answer was to run a few races until GöteborgsVarvet and then I switched to MTB to race Billingeracet with basically no cycling at all. I finished Billingen but it could have went a lot better.

So how can I make the best use of all this running now and the months of April and May? The answer...Duathlon! Duathlon comes in many forms but mainly it is running, cycling and then running again.

Precisely at the right time (April-May), there are 4 races listed under Duathloncupen 2010 on duathlon.se. These are unfortunately all around Stockholm so if there is a Göteborg equivalent, please let me know.

The 'sprint' distance is 5km running + 20km LVG + 2.5km running which would be the perfect length during cross season. And the SM distance is 10km run + 40km LVG + 5km run which is perfect for MTB marathon training.

Where do I sign up? This is perfect for me!

My body and I are in complete agreement this morning...today is a good day. Today there will be running!

I read in a British cycling magazine that the Cervelo website was full of great videos and bike porn. I think the new CykelCity catalog would be the Swedish equivalent.

So if you didn't get one of these, you know where to go. And if you did, maybe it is best to hide it from your wife or girlfriend...

This is one of those days where my body and I are not really getting along with each other. I am being urged on by my schedule and want to do Core tonight and also some running because it is sunny. But my body says 'Nej pucko, I need a rest!'

I recognize this conversation from when I am about 60km into an MTB långlopp. My body is always saying how stupid an idea this is but I still push on and finish. This time, however, I will not get any medal or great sense of satisfaction for 'pushing through' the pain and going to the gym tonight. And my body is correct to point out that I was very mean last night in BodyPump and lifted more than I should have.

Fine.
Me 0 - Body 1

BodyPump was pretty tough tonight. They changed a little bit to make it 'more fun' which means pure pain. My legs were burning through the knee bends and 'for fun' the lunges were with one leg on the step board and weight on your shoulders. The 12kg left me dying to scream FAAAANNNN but I resisted.

My new schedule of the week is this.
Monday: Spinning/trainer + core (home)
Tuesday: BodyPump
Wednesday: Core 45
Thursday: Sportlife running
Friday: Nothing
Saturday: Spinning/Core 45 or Running/Cycling
Sunday: depends on Saturday

Today was actually good enough to ride or run outside but I didn't get home from work in time to be able to enjoy it. And now comes the cold yet again. =(

I did a quick pass on the trainer...5 min warmup, 10 min high cadence on 50-13 and then 5 min cool down. That was plenty to give the legs a tingle.

I also did a few core exercises because I should do them more often and they are easy to do anywhere.