I could start the day by dissing Öijer for calling the Toyota Prius a car but instead I went running. The first 500m is always ego killing since it slopes up gradually and your muscles are cold. I could feel my rib directly but after some of those knee-lift and ass-kicking warmup tricks I felt fine and had reached the forest. Up to Furulund went smoothly and even on the hill of death I was thinking how it is easier to run up this hill than ride up. That was when I reached the steep section and changed my mind. The rolling hills for the next few km had those kött qualities Björn was writing about during his PB run. But training when you are essentially dead IS training with effect.

I turned right onto Bohusleden to get to the proper terrain and then my smile appeared. It is so soft on the knees and dodging all the rocks and roots means a complete workout of my muscles instead of the monotone thuds you get on the road. The km flew away here until I reached the little grusväg which leads over towards Oxled which naturally joined onto my 'favourite' blue trail leading to Puketorp.

I paused at the scene of my MTB accident and immediately felt like an idiot. Any other line would have been better at that stage so why I chose the biggest roots to hit is beyond me. I also know why this fall caused a lot of damage...I did land on roots. Landing in dirt does not hurt like this did.

So this was well over 10km of joy and certainly 3 days of paralysis.

Now that cross weather has temporarily left us, Chris Cross has been finding other ways to be cross. My car search feels like those Top Gear challenges where if I don't find anything I will be forced to take the undiserable option of wasting money fixing my Colt or have nothing at all.

I went to check Toyota Center in Mölndal and was thoroughly disappointed. I have always had a Toyota aversion and I do now more than ever. They had one Aygo+ which I will admit was larger than I expected. But to pay 90G for something that has gone 8000 mil is silly. Then there were two Auris or should I say Arse because you would have to be one to buy either of these examples. 130G for something scratched and abused with completely bald tires on steel rims. Come on. I would need to spend like at least 6000kr to get any of these 3 in shape. And the two Yaris? They were sold already which means they would have been good.

While I was there I walked over to US Center and Gbg Begagnat and found they also sold Fiat. For essentially the same price as the Aygo, I still say the Fiat 500 is a thousand times better. In the used section it was just laughable. There was a Renault Scenic which was a good price but when I opened the door it made two very loud clunking sounds...piece of shit. Naturally they had just sold the 3 cars I went there to look at.

The only way around this may be to start driving stick again. You have no clue about my experience with a crap driving school Volvo S40 which stalled in every busy intersection in Sthlm. I could just not get the feel for that car. Okay, fine, when I drove a smaller Peugeot it was better and the VW Passat I rented once was sweet. But now I have been driving automatic for 5 years.

Maybe I should think of the fact that I sat in the perfect car today for all my criteria except automatic...the Alfa Romeo Mito is stunning!

Maybe it is the mild weather with the clouds? Or maybe it is my sudden rest from MTB due to my arm? But it feels like there is cross in the air now.

So I had a look around and found that Sthlm Cyclo Cross will happen again this year...October 29th in Kungsan. That is excellent news, of course. I also read on Björn's page that a new CX Cupen website is on the way so we will just have to try and be patient to see what the CX group has fixed for us this year. Will Falun move the race to the centre like they were mentioning last year? Will Söderköping continue the winning concept of having the slowest possible track ever? And will we get to avoid snow this time? Can't wait to find out.

But in the nearest future I will try and run just to see if my ribs are injured. It feels much better now and the bruises are fading. I thought that maybe while I am concentrating on being a motionär I could do typical motionär things like Lidingöloppet. Running is rather perfect to prepare for CX season...even if I do hate it.

The last couple of weeks there have been so many times where I needed a car that I think it is time to just buy one. Debt? Who cares anymore. A fresh look at Bytbil tells me that there are a whole pile of Toyota automatics floating around which were not there a few weeks ago. They are naturally all some type of silver but I think I need to drop that criteria.

There are 3 Aygos in more exciting colours and I think I should have a test drive and see. But I think a better choice is a Yaris to solve the bike issue. A price of 120000kr for a 2006 tells me that it keeps value long enough for me to trade it in on something else in a couple of years.

Oh, and there are so many Prius that one wonders why they bothered. I don't have a plug so it is useless to me and it is the same engine in the Yaris but twice the size. No logic there. Still, one has to be impressed by the 1.33L engine they stuff in their iQ gokart...fan that thing must fly! Too bad it isn't even big enough to hold my bike wheels.

There has not been so much to write about these last few days. My arm bruise is quite horrific today since it is healed and clear where I had the scrapes but is surrounded by a dark red mess of colours. Not nice. But the worst part is the rib pain. Unfortunately now it feels like something is cracked.

But that is fine since I start work again tomorrow and my chair there has wheels so I don't need to get up all day.

I have done a lot of thinking about this car issue and the last couple of days I have checked out my financial situation. Just this month is hopeless and next also so there is no sense in getting all upset about it. Actually getting to Ränneslättsturen was something I have tried for 3 years before and this year I finally did it AND finished it. I would have been in fine shape for the other 3 marathons I had planned but shit happens, so what.

I will still make things work for cross season even if I have to do weekend car rentals or become good friends with an MCKare that has a big car. It will work out. And then I will be in better shape financially, plus I can see what 2012 has to offer for cars if I wait until September.

I know I promised lots of gore today but my arm just looks a bit scraped now. No multi-coloured scary bruise. Just a dark ring and the scrape marks. So there is not much point in photography for this small an injury.

And I can also localize the 'rib' pain better and it is actually on my side directly under my bicep. If I breathe very deeply I feel a bit sore but this is nowhere near as bad as when I actually cracked a rib. So things are just fine. One fall should not kill me. Even a spectacular one.

Just thought I would update you on my latest injury. My bicep is turning many different shades now so by morning it should be a horror show. Of course I will take a picture and post it here. =)

The bad news is that obviously I did land on something else since one of my ribs is also sore. Crap. I know all about cracking ribs from 2009. This may be a very tough week. More details tomorrow...

The idea was spontaneous and would have been good if I had followed it. The forecast looks horrible and my bike was too dirty for the 'bucket on balcony' method of cleaning so the plan was a simple rullpass over to Skatås to use their hose. Pure återhämtning. But for a rullpass why was I still pedalling at normal speed??? Especially since my left knee seemed to be protesting loudly to this rude idea so early on a Sunday morning.

And one can really ask why I decided that a quick trip along my blue trail in Puketorp would also be a good form of återhämtning after a pass yesterday which involved basically no singletrack at all. But it is fun. Well, it was fun. I did manage a rocky downhill this time so I was proud of my super technical skills. When I came to this seriously nasty root section which Sid had taken me through flawlessly every time before, my confidence came back to get me. Yes, a classic 'stuck between two roots' case. And suddenly I was flying over the handlebars.

In this situation one has no time to ponder about landing. You just land. And I can deem several body parts more appropriate for me to land on. For example, my head is well protected. Or my stomach and hands are a pretty practical place also. But noooo...I had to land directly on my right bicep in the same freakin' spot I landed on while skiing.

The scrapes at least provide some marking of where I landed and are probably just a surface thing but underneath fcuking hurts. I do not really think my arm has ever healed and this will set me back again. But perhaps this time I can convince the stupid vårdcentral that I did fall and that they should x-ray me and send me to a doctor that is going to treat it instead of give me painkillers.

But to be positive, my bike is clean and I did pass a motionär on a little hill in a rather ego-crushing way. =)

Despite my continued frustration over car shopping, I managed to have an absolutely brilliant MTB pass today! It was actually just my usual Tahult-Härkeshult-Jonsered route but Ränneslättsturen has had some training effect. I was strong the whole way around, even up the first hill of death at the Furulund running trail and even on the slow painful ones later on. And the monster hill after the little bridge was nothing today. I attacked it with confidence. Dagens lera came after I turned left onto Knipavägen where they are obviously removing some trees. Partille kommun is mad when it comes to tree removal. So this part was enough to cover myself with mud before heading down to Jonsered and the motvind back to home.

I have to use this positive energy for something. I feel another CX session coming. Especially since my pedals/vevparti are all but falling off now. I fix. And while I fix I CX!

I have been in Oslo the last couple of days but more on that later. I am still thinking about cars and what to do and it never gets any easier. No matter what I choose I will dive head first into debt at a point when I was just getting out of debt.

The Honda Civic does fit all of my criteria but there is a difference in down payment of 10000kr compared to the Opel Corsa and that stings. The dealer that has all the Corsas also has some 1-year old cars of various models which would mean an almost new car and pretty good value. Oh, and to all of you suggesting an Aygo/C1/107, the only ones available right now are 3 years old and high mileage.

Normally I would just say 'life is short...just do it' and go for the cool Civic but my stomach is not with me on that idea.

I did not want to spend vacation time on car issues but I have no choice. After some asking round it is clear that no one can ever win the used car game so it is time to just buy new and be done with it. The following are my criteria of what a car has to be before I will buy it...

1. New
2. Well under 200000kr
3. Automatic (trust me, it is better for everyone else too)
4. As cool as possible
5. Practical enough to hold my bikes inside
6. Not white, silver or beige

These 6 things reduce the choice a hell of a lot unless I prefer ordering from the factory and waiting a minimum of 3 months. I am not at that stage yet. So which cars in greater Göteborg meet the first 3 requirements?
Kia Picanto - not big enough for my bike and far from cool
Fiat 500 - again too small and very cool except only in white and silver
Fiat Punto - good size but non-metallic white and very crap interior
Peugeot 308SW - bigger than a whale and I know what these are like after 2 years
Mitsubishi Colt - again with the non-metallic white and they have killed the design
Mazda 2 - this was highest on the list for a bit even the only one available is beige but they are everywhere and I have seen two actually broken down

So then we have the serious list...
Opel Corsa - rated by TopGear as the best car you don't want. It is so boring outside but quite comfy inside. Has an 85 bhp eco engine which saves a grand a year on taxes but is rather unexciting to drive.
Citroen C4 - Really only a few kr under the top price and quite the comfy midsized car. They had black and red which are both fine but compared to the supercool DS3 sitting next to it, somehow it seemed like a waste of money. Plus the inspection stats for 3 year old ones are well under the Germans and the eco engine was a bit small for the size of the car.
Honda Civic - I think this may be the winner. They had 5 automatics, one in each colour. The summer sale brings it into the price range and you can't get any cooler. The designers must have went mad. The engine is a 1.8L which means higher gas costs but a lot more power.

But still it is quite depressing to come to the conclusion that the Honda Civic is the best available option. There have been 5 Civics through the years in my family and two are still in service. But the Canadian version is a sedan which is ugly som fan so I could satisfyingly say to my sister that my Civic is cooler than yours.

So now I need a few days to think whether I want to dive head first into a loan at a time when I do not need a loan. It would save my cycling season...

Sorry if my updates are not right after my adventures. That can happen during summer when you are either not connected all the time or just simply are too lazy to make that effort. Last night was more laziness.

I had an hour and wanted the most effective training possible so for some reason I threw on my running shoes. It was hot last night so this was a good idea for the first few minutes but once I was up the hill to the appropriately-named Puketorp I was wondering what I was thinking. Once I started on the forest trails I felt great dodging in and out of the trees.

Having no functioning car has forced a temporary retirement from cycling and I am trying not to get seriously upset about that. I checked on a rental car for Grenserittet and they charge 1250kr EACH time you cross the border. Halden is 5km into Norway so that feels like a ripoff.

So now I need to mention the term cykelglädje because my MTB will be used for making me happy. But this means more CX which makes me happy AND sore.

Now that I finally have some vacation plans in the works, I can write what is actually Part 1 of my little tennis experience. I had just entered the area and walked into some exhibitors hall and saw a small crowd of people just standing there. Like any curious being I walked over and had a peak over the crowd and suddenly I had eye contact with #1 ranked tennis player Caroline Wozniacki. A fine start to the day.

For those of you living in a cave (or Knivsta), Caroline is from Denmark and her parents are from Poland and are actually still training her. She has been ranked #1 on the WTA tour for 37 weeks and at home is more popular than, well, anyone. I had read a few articles which all talked about something magical while watching her play. Apparently she inspired some guy to write an entire book about one of her key matches. And there are always groups of around 5 middle-aged men in the crowd cheering her on (yes, they were in Båstad also). So when I saw an ad that she would be playing at Swedish Open, I had to see for myself.

We start with a clip from her first match in Båstad where Alizé Cornet seems to have left her phone on. The smile says it all. Every other player I saw there was annoyed constantly, so much that one wonders why they are playing tennis at all if they get so upset. Caroline enjoys it. And her style of play is enjoyable to watch since she has this perfect precision to place the ball in the back corners right on the line and has the skill to have her opponent running all over the place. And for those of you interested in grunts, I can report on that since I was sitting about 10 m away. It starts very softly and increases until she hits the ball but there is no outcry like her Russian counterparts. This is efficiently directly the energy at the ball and not any method to mess up her opponent.

And then during her second match against Sofia Arvidsson she just all of a sudden could not serve. There was no real sign of injury/trauma to her arm other than the entire set she had just played. But her trainer did one of those quick arm checks and I recognized the result. Shoulder problems. I still have shoulder problems...bitch of an injury. So she stopped playing since Båstad is hardly the place to kill yourself to win. But watching the clip above from 2009 when she was climbing the ladder will show you that she is a fighter. Aj what a painful clip. Solid muscle cramps are what characterize an MTB marathon, especially in Norway where they have real hills. But you fight on.

Which brings me back to cycling again. Why do elite cyclists quit as soon as they are a bit behind? I never quit and the organizers have to pull me off the course before I will. And that is why, to this day, I still think that a finish is higher ranked than any DNF.

My motivation is rock bottom after hearing yesterday that I can't actually rev my engine very much or the whole exhaust will fall off the car. Then another place confirmed that it is worth 5000kr and said to not put any money into it at all. So that's it. I have no car.

This morning I just went out for my usual ride up to the running trail at Furulund and over to Kåsjön and despite lack of motivation my muscles felt strong. With a week of återhämtning that should be no surprise. The rain has left all those nice smooth grusväg full of tricky grooves and holes so now this is full-on MTB in addition to serious hills. I am trying to make some kind of last-minute vacation plans since this feels like a waste of work holidays...

Before I post the second part of my tennis adventures I thought I would update you on my car issue. I went over to Vianor which had some kind of free inspection before you book any time. They lifted up the car and my day was suddenly ruined. There is rust everywhere. Apparently it is leaking a bit of oil and essentially all of the exhaust is rusted.

They are doing a temporary fix for 600kr which will just seal the exhaust enough to have it inspected. They suggest inspection since that will say what I have to do. But it was clear that they suggest replacing the whole exhaust.

What has been bothering me is the sentimental value since this is my first car. But if it leaks oil I can't leave it parked anywhere and it will just rust away completely. Walking home I just stopped into Bilia to ask what a rough figure of what they would pay for it as a trade-in. They said max 5000kr.

So Sid is worth more than my car. Fan! Screw the sentimental value. I have no choice but to let them insult me with a few kr. On the positive side I have to get meself a relatively new car. Can I afford it? Well, no. But if I leave it any longer I risk CX season and being stuck with a pile of metal worth less than GP.

So, I have just been on one of those spontaneous trips that are always superb. Too bad that the flying along the E6 has left my car with a roaring noise and a nasty smell. So much for Dalarna.

Right, so while we are all involved in the rather posh sport of cycling, I thought I would go and check out the most posh sport of all...tennis. When I first moved here I was playing quite a bit and even took some lessons but I never really found anyone equal. So after several near castration attempts and general frustration with getting beaten so bad, I started cycling...where I also get beaten badly.

Anyway, the Swedish Open in posh little Båstad is an example of something fantastic when people put some time and money into sport. Just like Ulricehamn for skiing or Falun for MTB, it is possible to bring the world to little Sweden. Just check out their Hotel Skansen where you can have a little conference and fix your own tennis tournament.

Watching tennis live is really something special. Essentially the players don't want you there and seem to have so much difficulty concentrating that they lose their whole game if someone sneezes. Then there is the ref sitting up there on the podium. One had this deep voice which said 'Game' in a way that made you think he was a commentator. And I loved how they would just turn to the crowd and say 'Quiet please' over and over. It creates such a strange atmosphere. The crowd wants to clap but if they clap too much they get yelled at. It's crazy!

Yes, and why I decided on these two days to visit...well...I am single so I don't need to justify choosing women's tennis. The question, you may ask, is whether they do grunt as much as in this clip?

Well, to some extent the answer is yes. Since you are sitting so close to the court and it is so quiet, you hear everything. The French players were quite happy to yell out a few 'putain' or 'merde' when they messed up and your dear local hero Johanna Larsson has a temper also. Here is a nice temper clip...


I can fully understand the grunts. In fact, that tells me they are trying. To see just how hard they hit that ball is seriously impressive and if that grunt gets an extra 30 km/h on their service, well, why not?

Well, now I am on vacation and I thought of a spontaneous little trip down to Skåne today. I didn't want to mention anything negative in my race report the other day because I was in such a good mood. But on the drive home I could hear the hole in the exhaust getting larger and larger. So I have no clue if I will be heading up to Falun now.

The worst part is that the inspection is coming up so essentially I fix it or its körförbud. But investing any money in a car which is worth nothing is never fun. And with its lovely sound now it really is worth nothing.

On this historic day not only did I actually make it to Eksjö but I also started and finished Ränneslättsturen, the most technical långlopp I will do this year. The start went fast and people were just flying along the grusväg and I was trying my best to keep up. I felt bad and was not terribly fast but I made it through Sträcka 2 without too much trouble despite constant noise from the jävla vevparti. Food stop #1 with the first Squeezy gel. I didn't drink so much which was stupid but I did from there on.

Sträcka 3 was the worst for me but I felt okay after the food. The singletrack at Bastabergen was so jobbig och dryg that I will officially call it Ica Stig. It got better after that but it seemed to take a long time before Food Stop #2 and just before that was quite tragic because someone had a heartattack. They got it going again but us gubbar need to watch.

While I was drinking and enjoying the break and another Squeezy gel, Kristina and Bernt rolled up. I knew they would catch up because I was useless. And they left before I finished my gel so I had to battle my way to catch up to them. Like it says in the banbeskrivning the next part was their training course and it was so jävla rolig with those up and down parts. It reminded me a lot of Mörksuggan although the one there is better.

I could see that Kristina was having it tough and it got worse since hip troubles made the last 30km horrible. But she finished as the hero of the day! Anyway, I felt great so at the point just before the tunnel under the road I said 'you guys will likely catch up again later' and I made my attach. That was a good section for this since it was easy and flat so I could fly. And again with 25km left there was a road section so I could again take off.

By the time I reached the Skidstugan part my cramp monster was growing in my knee and that 2.9km section was pretty crappy. The 'hills' were not really bad and I was always on the middle klingan but just that section was tougher. Food stop #3 was taken quite fast since I didn't want anyone to catch up. New Squeezy gel and a full bottle of Enervit for the last 19km.

Sträcka 6 was fairly nice and I kept a steady pace but there was one hill I had to get rid of someone I had been following for too long. Something I have been training is to keep going after a long hill since most take a break and slow down. So my first try worked so well that he was gone...very gone behind me. This is the point when I usually get confused with the signs because I was not sure if the sign I saw was 15km or 10km. Turns out it was 10km which is good because I was in the process of flying and took any chance I could to pass since those around looked rather dead. I was not exactly full of energy either and my stomach was starting the cramp game but at the 5km sign it was time.

You will know from the past that I go all in during the last 5km because there is nothing to lose. But this was a nasty 5km. From 5-4km I passed 3 people and made another of those uphill passes. 4-3km was pretty bad overall so I just tried to keep moving. Somewhere in 3-2km I passed one more guy on an uphill and had a nice lead but from 2-1km he was behind me. I did not want any spurt because I had been killing myself so I had to choice but to get my lead before.

I was on fire at this point and did actually lose him before the trail ended and it was just a smalö road up to the start area. I looked back and saw that he was nowhere but decided, fan, why stop now. Spurt the whole freakin way around the finish area and flying across the line. Then I was dead.

The results are up now and it seems this took me 4:51:35 which is progress. Under 5 hours would have been my goal if not for the bad luck associated with this race. When I think about 2009 Billingeracet which took 5:22:54 for the same length, this feels like quite an improvement.

After a crappy start, this was one of my best långlopp in terms of how I felt and how I arranged the energy. And since everything else I do will be less technical, you can't ask for better training. So I am more than satisfied!

You can write your own race report under the comments if you want. It would be nice to hear how it went for the rest of you...

I have said many times that this is a notorious bad luck race for me. I have tried to do it 3 times and have actually never managed to start. I woke up this morning feeling like crap but now I am okay. And I seem to have a hole in my exhaust so for the moment I am Raggarbil Chris. But I am ready. This was supposed to be a hotel in Jönköping but it is some jävla camping and a stuga. But it was very cheap. Sorry for not including anyone of you in the travel plans but you know how it is with me getting to races. I am not reliable.

But now I have been to Eksjö (lovely centre by the way) and have my number because it is like 45 minutes from Jkpg. So now I am sitting in the camping restaurant where the wifi is trying to write to you about race plans.

The have divided the race into 6 sträckor and it is safe to say that I will be brilliant for Sträcka 1 which is the 1km masterstart. =) This time I will probably go against my normal tendency to take it easy at first. Sträcka 2 is essentially grusväg so there is no reason to hold back. And Sträcka 3 for the most part also sounds okay. I know I am going to lose more time when it gets to the more technical Sträcka 4 and 5 but that is only 16 km. So my real plan will be to just take it easy and keep moving in these parts. Because this is normally the type of section I do lose a lot of time. By Sträcka 6 and the 10km remaining signs I will be running on pure motivation as usual.

In terms of energy plans I will be running mostly on Squeezy gels with filling of Enervit drink and a few splashes of water. The fact that there are only 3 stops is perfect so there is no reason to hang around. But do take something at the first. Trust me. You won't feel like you need it but it will help you later.

So maybe I will see a few of you tomorrow?

How fitting to have my 666th entry on the weekend where Göteborg becomes the centre of metal. Iron Maiden tonight and then the Big 4 on Sunday. Rock on! But before we do I am happy to announce that I am healthy, rested and damn eager to race some MTB. Any other time I have tried to do Ränneslättsturen I have had something bad happen. So now I will challenge bad luck again and finally do this. My super secret race plan is in the works.

But first lets get back to this 666 thing. I am no expert in death metal but Down in Black by Mustasch is harder than Bohusgranit.

And this 666th entry has to have a bit of In Flames. Other suggestions could be Entombed or if you are boring and haven't heard Metallica a million times then they could also work.