And so it was time for my långlopp premiere for this year. The clouds were scary but it only rained a little bit at the beginning. It was warm and very nice overall. The start was not exactly maxspeed direct so I was sitting in a klungan. I was not so happy with the pace in that one (in hindsight, I should have stayed there) so after some effort I caught up to another which was keeping a nice pace. I selfishly just sat second last in this 7-man klungan and things felt okay although the grusväg part was a bit more difficult. Then it was left onto a road heading through Saxdalen which soon led to a right turn that no one wants to see, the road up to Ljungåsen.

When the hill started på riktigt, the pace fell off directly but I had a good rhythm going so I moved to the side and took position at the front of the klungan. Two others followed and sat in front of me so I could have a nice ride the rest of the way up. At some point we passed a distance marking and I was surprised to see that we had covered 30km in just over an hour. I have never averaged anywhere near 30km/h on my MTB before so the pace was that fast. At the top there was a food stop and I had my first Enervitene liquid a banana and a water refill. For once I took the energy before I needed it.

The two I was with took a quick stop and the others who I left behind on the hill had also caught up and left just before me. So I left and rode quite hard to try and catch up but this was downhill now so it is pretty impossible to make up time going downhill. I misread the map before the race because then I realized we were also going over Abborrberg and that was not as bad as the first but tungt ändå. I was on my own all the time now but I tried to keep up the tempo.

Around 55km it happened again. Total energy crash. Evidence that I had gone out quite hard was now very obvious. I felt very weak but I tried anyway to keep a steady motion in the pedals. But my pace was way lower. At this point I was feeling stupid about the 10 LL idea because LL in general feel horrible. I knew that I was close to the 60km mark so I really tried to keep going. I could feel strange things happen because all of a sudden I had a bit of energy. Maybe I was using fat now? I saw the 60km sign and was happy but after a little bit more I started feeling weak again so I stopped for my second Liquid. I decided to keep walking and a group passed me thinking I had a punka but I said that I had no energy. I got on the bike again and tried to keep a steady pace but at the first hill I could feel the cramp monster awakening on both legs. Good thing the 2nd food stop was a bit farther ahead.

I spent quite a few minutes there enjoying gurka and sockerkaka. A lady arrived just before me said she was having cramp problems too. She left and another guy arrived and left so I was about 500 m behind him. The 70km mark was on the road from Sunnansjö and this was a nice part. My strength was back and I was slowly gaining on the guy in front of me. The course turned back onto the grusväg we started on and then there was only 10 km left. I caught up to the guy and passed because I always run the 'now or never' principle during the last 10km. So I had a good lead on him and could see the woman about 400 m ahead but then started the hill of death. Slowly sloping up and probably 2km long. Fan that hurt. I was dead but I tried to keep some pace. Seeing the road and realizing that everything else was road...man I was happy.

So then it was 5km left and the slight downhill meant I could make up time on the woman in front. At the cykelväg I managed to pass her and I kept pumping but I saw that she was på rulle so I knew that this was going to end badly. I had worked too hard and my legs were screaming so I had to shift down and take it easy. She didn't pass though. Psych games. On the last corner I went a bit wrong and saw it was shortcut so I let her pass because she went the right way. About 10 m behind her and with the Finish in view, I shifted to stora klungan fram and smallest back and flew passed her and made one hell of a spurt with the little energy I had left.

Check out these numbers!
Distance: 90km
Time: 3:46:22
Energy: 3073 kcal
Hr ave: 161
Hr max: 187

This was WAY above what I expected. Not bad at all for me. So that explains the satisfied look.

And a nice plaque never hurt either.

Even a handlebar in my ear could not stop my satisfied look...