And so on this kinda cold morning it was time to experiment with cycling to work. One could suspect that I stole this idea from Sveriges storsta cykelblogg but I have been thinking this for quite awhile.

My Merida was the clear choice and it felt quite strange at first after all the time on my MTB. Plus, it was against the wind entirely along the E20 cykelmotorväg. After a free wrong turns and a detour, I found my way through some pavé sections to Ullevi and along Nya Allén. From there it was a quick trip to Övre Husargatan and to the hill which no one at work even tries to ride up. At 08.00 when I felt seg, it was a bit jobbig but that was essentially the only hill so it was fine. Of course I ripped the bottom of my pants because they caught in the front gear but they were an ugly colour anyway so it was fine.

38 minutes it took. According to Västtrafik it should take 38 minutes by bus too. So the argument that it takes longer to ride is not holding up. It was only 36 minutes on the way back! Of course both times are ideal because during the week there will be way more traffic and people in the way. But with a bell and a set of indestructable tires, this should work.

Yes, today is definitely a rainy day. Some would say that it is always like this in Göteborg. And those people have been getting just as much rain as we are. In GP, the story was pretty neutral. In DN, it sounded like the rain was so bad that panic spread across Stockholm and half the city died. It is just rain.

Anyway, my lack of training this week has left me a bit annoyed and it is definitely time to change my routine. I need a balance between work and training. Training helps me feel good and then I can perform at work. So I need my friskvårdstimme and a couple more.

I just saw that DustCup down in Åstorp is cancelled because of too few entries. So I guess a successful MTB race concept is not enough to increase the number of cyclists here. Then again I am not surprised. Nothing has been written on MCKs forum page for MTB since 5 juli so everyone has vanished. Guess it is just time to tjuvträna for cross. =)

This is an obvious choice for most people but for me I had to choose the cross parts. =) Of course I could spread the orders out over 2 months but it is going to take me all of August to try and put the thing together by myself. And then I only have two weeks extra to take it to CykelCity Lasse to get it built properly. Yes, cross season is almost here. Finally!

You don't have to speak French to get the fact that it is raining today and not sunny. And you can see what rain does to my lovely white uniform. So why did I go out? Well, there is a good chance that one of my last three marathons will be wet so I still need to train in this. And I didn't need to worry about sunscreen today. But why I decided to wear a backpack is beyond me...

At first it was just grey so I tried the Riddar Tures Väg hill with cold muscles...fy fan. It is over pretty quick but certainly steep. But I was confused so I went to Kåhög to test Nedre Östergårdsvägen again for comparison. I think the second one is steeper but they are both painful.

After that I found my way over to Tvärbackavägen which changes over to a very nice gravel road. Well, nice means not smooth. That leads back to Jonsered and good old Härkeshultsvägen which remains the worst hill in Partille. The rain was heavy at that point so I rolled to the bottom and had to clear my glasses off. While I was stopped, a group of 4 MCKare passed and Karlsson came back to see if I wanted to tag along for their adventures in Lerum. They had already been in the forest. Yep, MCK doesn't stop for rain. But since I did not have so much more time and I had no food with me, I had to pass on their tour.

That little chat rest gave me the urge to fly up the hill as fast as possible and to my surprise it actually worked. Yes, interval training is da shit. I could keep going at the top and flew nicely along to Knipavägen which turned out to be rather hellish. I took that all the way back down to the bottom and it was sticky slow wet sand the whole way. By now I was a mess so it was time to end my tour and wash my bike.

Yes, the end. And that is what you see above. I know what my readers want the most is a pic of my rrrumpan. ;)

Unfortunately I have to stop by work tomorrow morning which sucks because I was hoping to get a bit of XC training in before the TdF tempo. Not a great start to the weekend, in other words.

Is it just me or has this TdF been one big anti-climax? Anyway, before watching this I wanted to take a quick Tour de Partille. Somehow it ended up to be 75 minutes anyway.

First stop was Råhultsvägen in Jonsered which is a slow and painful little hill that never ends. The hill a block over may be more steep but it is over much faster. So it is nice to have some variation for my hill intervals.

And then I went over to Kåhög because I saw on the map that there is a road which becomes gravel and connects over to small roads in Lerum and towards Olofstorp. But I ended up on the wrong road which ended at a farm full of very angry sheep.

The correct road is at the top of Nedre Östragårdsvägen. Fy fan what a steep road that is! We have a new winner in the 'Partille's worst hill' contest.

For those of you who like to dream about what MTB is like in other countries, you already know about DustCup in Denmark...a series of XC races for everyone which manages to attract over 500 people per race. Here we can't even do that for some långlopp.

Well, thanks to some initiative from Åstorps CK, 1 augusti will be the first DustXplorerSverige race. For the future of MTB in this country, we all need to go to this.

So despite my current lack of XC skill, I will be there 1 augusti. Will you?

It should come as no surprise at all that my legs are stiff today. And now I get to enjoy a Sunday night of trouble sitting and standing up. Good thing I have a veteranlicens. =)

Yet by some miracle of medicine, I have just returned from an hour on my MTB which felt just great. My only purpose was to look for places to train cross and there is a nice grass field which has some ready-made trails and things. When I have a good track and see if it is rideable, I will post a map. But it is perfectly located for us in Sävedalen.

Then I went around the running trail at Blacktjärn which is another great place for cross riding which we are not supposed to ride on. Bläää

I was a bit surprised that it started raining at exactly 08.00, the time SMHI said it would start raining. And it kept raining so I had to come up with a new plan for training which would not result in an afternoon of bike washing.

So I threw on my sexy running tights and headed out. Like every time I decide to start running, I drove to Lerum and the 2.5km trail at Riddarsten which has enough hills and variation to keep things exciting. It was not so bad to run in the rain except my glasses kept fogging up so I could not see. But the sweat was just washed away nicely.

I did 7.5km and it was pretty bad. This is not a good sign at all with cross season coming. Cross is all about maxing it for 40-50 min and that did not go well this morning.

For lack of something better to write about, I can just direct your view to the link list on the right for the cross season schedule. Yes, thats one long list of races. Me like...

I managed to make it to work today just before a storm of impressive rain quantities. I guess this means the start of a good day. I have been relaxing since the weekend and also trying to find ways to show that I actually did to better on Mörksuggan this year than in 2008. All I could come up with was that if you look at the overall results, I beat more people this time compared to last even though the same number raced. That will do.

But class differences are obvious. I was last in H30 (or H Sport 30 as it seems to be called now) by quite a bit but far from last in motionär class. I raced H30 because I have a licens and need a result for CykelVasan where I will now start in Group 4 a whole 15 minutes before any Norwegian motionär. Do I deserve this start position? No.

Again I have to start complaining about this whole licence system. Now we can choose between H Motionär, H Sport and H Sport 30 in the same race. Why? Denmark has a points system so no matter what age you are, if you get a certain number of points you are forced up to the next class. In Norway they have dropped the whole Motionär class entirely so if you want to race just to try it, you pay an engångslicens. And the races all start by seeded results so you always race with equals no matter what age you are.

I have noticed on CykelCity's Race Weekend website that people with a tävlingslicens can't enter the motionär class. I agree that it should be like this but it screws me over. In LVG I am definitely a motionär but now I would have to race with the best and get lapped in about 10 minutes and kicked. Anyone can get a tävlingslicens if they pay here.

How hard would it be to start a points system (Class A, B, C, D) anyway? I would find it fun to work on a system like that and could happily run some calculations and make some tables. That would be far more useful than writing entries here about nothing...

What do you think about tävlingslicens? Do you have one? Does anyone need one?

Over the weekend my car had one of those exciting moments. I can say that I will never again see 6 digits all the same. So where was I when my car passed 111111km?

By this little lake about halfway between Rättvik and Falun. And where was I when it turned 100000km last year on my way back from Grenserittet? On E6 just passing under Angeredsbron. What a silly memory I have.

However sitting in this car yesterday without airconditioning on a 30C day for almost 6 hours was pure torture. Can I move to Iceland now? Please?

Nej. So for those of you who do not like reading long entries, I gave away the ending directly. Just like when I raced Lida Loop the second time, I was 3 minutes slower. 3:58 is still under 4 hours but I can't say I was all that thrilled to be slower. Just goes to show you that spending more on your bike does not make a whole lot of difference.

From the start I was with the pack until the Vidablick hill and even then I was still with everyone. The hill was not that bad but I probably should have used the easier gears. At the top I was welcomed by MCKs cheering section which was great. Then things fell apart in a muddy singletrack where I was sliding all over due to too much air and no treads left on the tires. But soon the gravel started and things were okay again. I am not really sure if the track is the same now as 2008 because that tough corner was gone.

Soon it was time for Nedre Gardsjö which is my favourite part of the course...a lovely little Dala village, some water, a bridge and Mörksuggan himself. The first 2 food stops I just grabbed two cups of Enervit and kept going. And that was dagens mistag.

It was 26C so I must have been dehydrated after this because I was slowing down. I stopped and had a gel at one of the few hills I had to walk up. This part of the course I remember from before...an endless singletrack winding up and down through the forest. Normally I would find this wonderful but today it just awoke the cramp monster in my right thigh. The Enervit doesn't have enough magnesium so I had to put up with this for the rest of the race. My shoes are also squeezing my toes so that was killing.

At Östbjörka I stopped and had a rest, another gel and a bunch of water. Then things were going well again and a few nice gravel roads brought my mood up again enough to survive the next singletrack which was tougher. One last drink stop with 15km to go and now time for some lovely Dala nature and that one psycho hill. Stort tack to the guy with the garden hose halfway up.

10km left and I knew a lot of singletrack remained. I was with a small group and going quite fast so energy was not a problem anymore and the cramp monster was happy again. I lost all of them on an uphill where they all didn't make it. This felt great since I was getting passed all day. 5km left and I was flying but I knew those sand hills were left. They went better than last time.

All that was left was the short hill up to the Jarlstugan field and once again I was cheered on by some MCKare. After a bit of a slow loop under the bridge and passed the crowd it was time to floor it and get over those 2 last hills. First one...great. Second one...pure pain. Then one hell of a spurt for the crowd although I was not racing anyone.

So, in summary, the combination of Enervit and Squeezy gel was good but I need more magnesium for the cramps. I honestly can't say Vitargo made any difference. Obviously I am not training enough singletrack, I need new tires and my shoes are killing my feet. And riding in 26C weather is a bitch when you haven't done it for a year. But still, Mörksuggejakten is a great race and the only one here with this much people watching and cheering us on...heja pojkar! ;)

After a day of Dala tourism, I am in a very relaxed mood. For example, I learned that Anders Zorn could not really figure out what it was that he liked about painting naked women but he did it anyway. Vilken kille! And the Vasaloppet museum has me in the mood to dust off my skis for the winter.

Anyway, back to Mörksuggan and my PB. In 2008 I did this 70km race in 3:55:07 which felt like winning an Olympic medal at the time. So can I beat this tomorrow?

Före
- My Full Dynamix is over 1kg lighter than my old Trek
- I am using SPD pedals now
- I have raced two impossible races in Norway with much bigger hills
- I actually train
- The weather forecast tomorrow is 20-27C and partly cloudy (perfect)
- I am starting in H30 so I will not get stuck behind everyone on the singletrack at the top of Vidablick

Emot
- 2008 was a year everyone had fast times
- My bike could fall into pieces
- Every race is different so it is impossible to know what will happen

Honestly, this race is pure joy no matter what happens so I will not flip out if I am slower. Well, I will if I am a couple seconds slower.

I am finally back in Falun...city of sport and where things all started for me. After essentially no exercise through high school and university, 5 years ago I decided to start training. My first sports-related trip was to Falun for cross-country skiing. Then my first MTB race ever was here. Långa Lugnet the year they had the world cup race. I didn't finish but since then I have been hooked on MTB marathons and Falun.

My first plan was to walk around the city and check a few stores while they are opened. And it took about 5 minutes before I saw an MTB star. Of course a stop in Cykel & Fjäll was a must and even the Intersport here actually has some useful stuff. When you have a demand, stores have stuff. Where is the demand in Göteborg???

Then I had to have a quick ride around just to make sure the bike is okay. My back brake is a little too good so I will probably slide around nicely on those grusvägar. I rode up to Kopparberget for a lap of their very slippery stone trail. It's always fun to get to actual Falurödfärg on my tires. Next I rode to Främby to check out YA Arena then down to the water at Runn for a ride back to the centre.

Riding here is very different because no one reacted at all to seeing me in complete racing uniform. It is nothing unusual here. Right, so after a free dinner in the hotel, I suppose I need another Vitargo.

So this is my thumb's up sign for my first Vitargo of my carb loading experiment. I had this about 2 hours after a pretty big lunch so I did not feel hungry. But I drank it over 10 minutes or so. This is my report...

30 minutes after: Absolutely stuffed. 3 pasta plates indeed.
45 minutes after: Extremely tired, full stomach
1 hour after: More stomach rumbling
1.5 hours after: I felt just fine again.
When I got home: Not the least bit hungry.

Honestly, this did not feel great but I will complete the experiment and see how the race goes anyway.

My bike is nice and clean and it works as good as it always does so now I can start thinking of energy again. The only pusselbit I have left to figure out is the carb loading thing. Last time I essentially ate two buffet meals the day before and was so stuffed that I could hardly move. That strategy can work but it is hard to achieve or afford in most hotels.

So now I will try Vitargo which is what CykelCity seems to suggest and what kosttillskottslagret.se could send me very quickly at a good price. The Vitargo theory is to eat normally (does that mean chips and burgers?) and have two servings of their powder the 3 last days before a race. One serving is supposed to equal 3 plates of pasta. But how big is their plate?

As a recovery drink it is of limited use since there are no vitamins, protein or anti-oxidants in it. And for loading itself, well, it tastes horrible. But my stomach does not feel enormous after drinking it so that is good. Will it work? Soon I will know...

I managed to find a new brake pad at Bikeplace.se, the first store I checked and the one closest to work. So I started working on the bike as soon as I got home and managed to pull out the old pad. Indeed...one side was completely worn down.

I opened the oil lid and tried to push back the piston and it went about half way so that I couldn't get the disc between the pads. So the quick fix was to put one new pad and the one that wasn't worn down together and things fit back without adjustment. I know that this is a quick fix but it will do.

Besides, I want to order some SwissStop pads since these work superb for cross.

This morning I went out for what was supposed to be a quick little ride. It was 70 minutes. And now it is 17C and windy here which was not terribly pleasant until I had been riding for a bit. Or, actually, it became warm when I reached Jonsered for another 2 times up that hill.

After the hill I kept going up to Knipavägen again and ended up riding all the way along that until the singletrack because I missed the right turn I was planning to make. So I had to stop and check the map and realized that there was only one road crossing which means I rode back and then left until I reached Bohusleden. The plan was to ride this a short bit until Råhultsvägen and it was tough going and rocky until I reached the other side of the rock hill. Then it became just perfect around Råhult...lots of roots but very rideable. And the view of the hills in the distance from here is amazing!

My hatkärlek is with my bike again. Has anyone else had a Full Dynamix before? How was yours? I still have a clicking noise and lately the whole bike has a drifting feeling. The fork does not feel all that smooth anymore when I hit things. And the new thing for today was that my back brake seems to be shot which made the steady downhill on Råhultsvägen a bit scary. Going up this would be interesting.

For a bike just over 1 year old, there seems to be a lot going wrong with it. Should I expect this? My old Trek was flawless for 3 years of hitting everything while I learned to ride. And my Merida CX is also perfect after almost 2 years of sand.

So how was Ränneslättsturen in the 30C weather yesterday? I know that a few people in Mölndals CK were planning to race this. I can see on the results list that Tomas came 23th in H40! How about a race report? Add a comment below.

I did not enter this because it is my 'bad luck' race. Every time I do enter it, something happens. The first year my car died. The second year I had to change jobs. And last year I broke a rib. So obviously I was scared to even sign up. And by not signing up, nothing bad has happened. Superstition is a fun thing eller hur?

With exactly a week until Mörksuggejakten, I thought it was time to get some race-specific training. We all know that this starts with a climb up to Vidablick which locals call the most beautiful view in Sweden. And the view does make the 190m vertical a bit more pleasurable. I don't really remember the hill being so bad when I raced in 2008 but later on my legs were not happy at all when it came to the other big hill.

So I started towards Jonsered with a pair of legs that felt strong enough to take on any TdF star (sound familiar) but when I got to the feared hill, realism kicked in. I saw a police car up the road a bit but there was no risk of being stopped for speeding...this hill is tough. 1 km steadily up the whole way. I had about 3 easier gears plus the whole small ring left so I could have made it easier. But making it up the hill in my bike's middle gear is better for muscle building.

I reached the top and turned immediately to roll down and then up again with no break. The second time was getting slow near the top but that was only 150m. So I went down again for a 3rd time and my legs were a lovely red colour but I was almost getting used to the hill. Strange. After the 3rd time I kept going because now everything I did would be after 225m of climbing...race-specific training in other words.

I took a right on Knipavägen which was a gravel road at first and then switched over to a very bumpy tractor road. The first part was a nice downhill but then it turned up again for a painful couple of km. The end of this becomes Vildmarksleden which is definitely singletrack since the grass was so overgrown that you could hardly even fit one bike through. This part was okay but quite rocky. I think Lida Loop had a couple of sections with this theme. It got a bit easier/wider after that and was some pretty okay MTB. This comes out onto a gravel road which you can use to reach Landvettervägen quickly but the trail actually turns and heads up another rocky hill which I walked considering the strange noises still coming from my silly bike. It must be the pedals since everything else is tight.

After that it became a beautiful little trail which was fun and rideable and came out at Kåsjöbadet after a nasty steep gravel hill. Then it was clear sailing down my usual trails back home. But these usual trails felt entirely different after 3 times up that hill...

SMHI has for the first time this year predicted 30C for Partille and they are right. I went to the city and walked around for an hour and that was enough heat for the day. I don't think it is particularly safe to train with this strong sun and temps above 27C. So I will watch football and head out in the rain and 18C tomorrow. Perfect temp for me.

Trafiken.nu has now expanded their Cykelreseplaneraren to include Partille so you can check if you are taking the fastest route to work, for example. Make sure you check 'Kraftfull' when it asks which type of cyclist you are. =)

So if we first check the feared Brudaremossen, you can see that over the 2.5km from the tennis club, it climbs 90m and the last 30m up is very steep. Like asthma-attack steep. So for you math types, that is an average of only 3.5% grade.

If you like 30m cliffs and want to miss all that other slow climbing stuff, I suggest Riddar Tures Väg in Paradiset instead. And since there is a little gravel hill connecting the end of this to Gavelåsvägen, you can make your very own GP from hell.

But now we have to discuss the king of hills in Jonsered...Härkeshultsvägen up to the E20 bridge! A glorious 75m over less than a km making it a 7.8% grade on average. Of course this is still nothing compared to what I have seen in Norway but it is not possible to drive there before every training pass. So I work with what I can.

Did I miss a hill? Write a comment so we can crown Göteborgs toughest climb.

First of all, how about Holland! Finally this VM is getting interesting. It is no fun when the favourites always win.

Anyway, I decided to take a very effective 35 minute pass with focus on some hill intervals. Mörksuggejakten starts with a lovely little hill so if I can get up that quickly and smoothly, I can get to the fun bits.

I just went to the gravel trail which goes up from Sävedalen S towards Björndammen since this is not smooth and is just long enough to roll back down and then start again without any real rest. I chose a 419m section starting at a singletrack intersection and then stopping at the sign which points towards Björndammensterassen. This is only 26m vertical but it is a steady climb which means a 6% grade. So I did this 5 times on a pretty lagom gear so I would feel it in my legs. And on the last one I continued up to terassen. Then I headed back home along the nice trails.

This was extremely effective. The only disadvantage was the mosquitos.

It is pretty normal to see people running in Göteborg up until GöteborgsVarvet and then everyone stops. I would also say the same for VätternRundan since I see a lot less LVG people out now despite the nice weather. Strange. And even our MTB training will be less after SM week which is a shame since I am ready to start now. I have a few big races still coming.

You will also notice that I dropped Sandefjordrittet just because of the cost. But Mörksuggejakten, Grenserittet, CykelVasan and Birkebeinerittet are all paid for so those plans are unchanged. Then I will probably end with Bockstensturen which means 4 nasty races over 5 weeks. I think I will have made my point by then.

Anyway, I will head out for some hill intervals between the games.