I said in one of my three positive posts in a row that things were looking good for some actual racing. And naturally half of cykelsverige is now gluing tubdäck before the big premiere tomorrow. Like I said I have to skip the first two weekends. But Sunne is on.

So far it seems like this year is less organized in terms of the MCK-Cupen, uh, I mean CX Cupen. Or maybe it just feels that way since I haven't managed to make it to any training sessions. So I had to make my own arrangements which is fine. Especially when I found a superdeal on renting a Volvo XC70 (eller liknande) and took advantage of the Sunne Spa special prices for us. So now I am more than ready to mess up some of that lovely grass around their hotel and occupy a prime location in their spa area between races.

While I was at it with the special deals I also booked a car for SM and Helsingborg weekend since I plan to race Kristianstad too and I am sure no one else will. But then I hope things will be more organized for the rest. If someone can bring my bike to Lund I can take the train.

Today would have been a perfect day to ride to work and head off to cross training at Vallen. Naturally, my brain did not really think of this at 07.00 this morning. But I did leave a bit early so I could finally do some mid-week cycling. Everyone at work was paranoid over some newspaper article saying that desk jobs cut your lifespan short because you don't move. So even though most have been sitting at their desk for over 15 years, everyone was up and walking around and in a mood for training. So I said 'I am going cycling' and left early...I can do 'ute o cyklar' and the opportunity was there.

So again it was MTB time for my intense 1 hour loop up the monster hills to Kåsjön and around all the little grus löpspår. Great for the legs and also nice for teknik because the gravel is really loose and covered with leaves and crap. One has to stay awake.

I see also that it is rullskidor season but I am not stupid...I am not trying out my pair which I have never ever been on before. If you remember last year, the day after I bought rullskidor it snowed and there was snow on the ground every day after that.

Now that the bills are paid for the month I can see how things are looking for my car downpayment. The answer to that is skitbra faktist. So bra that I can loosen the purse strings a bit and take a CX Cupen weekend afterall. Yippee!

Let's just see which I choose. Obviously not this weekend and next weekend I have friends visiting. After that is open though. It would be very very nice price if Ck Valhall or Södertälje CK could fix a wee little CX race for 30 okt. Or what about my old club MTB Täby? There were some superb cross spots in Sollentuna.

Tomas said today that this blog is far too negative and I know what he means. So lets change this starting from now. Positive thing #1: It is sunny and lovely outside. Positive thing #2: I do not feel the slightest bit sick anymore which proves, yet again, that CX is good for my health.

It was great to see everyone again so this naturally meant lots of chatting and funny comments here and there. Lasse's course at Skatås today for the next GöteborgsSuperprestige actually was not all that great for Chris Cross. My legs and my Ridley are meant for corners and igångdrag so the long paved trail was to my disadvantage. The start was the usual 'me trying to get out of the way' thing but probably I should have been more aggressive today. To be honest I had a hell of a bad first lap which featured clumsy things like running clear into a pole in the first sand part, landing smack right on the seat on a bad remount (aj aj) and a nasty back wheel slide on the road corner part after the downhill. So it was time to focus on technique and calm down a bit...even if these things were very funny.

By the second or third lap I could see Mikael ahead of me again with his superwheels and it looked like he was just kind of enjoying the sun and not even making an effort. Can't have that. So I made an attempt to catch him and was doing well in the straights and igångdrag so I was getting closer and closer and he could see this. Second last lap I went into the löphinder with too much speed and slid off to the side a bit but did not lose so much time. I was within reach and hoping he would mess up before I did.

Last lap came faster than I expected and I wasn't even lapped (note the positivity!) but suddenly after the sand I was an extra 30 m behind and wondered what happened. Turns out that Mikael rode through the sand that time and I ran so our battle was over. I still gave it everything I had but the gap was too much. But it was a fun race and, thankfully, I didn't feel like I would die after it was done.

I am perfectly okay with missing Vätternrundan but I was considering CykelVasan for next year. Too late for that. They only opened the system a week ago and already it is sold out. So apparently there are now 9000 people in this country with an MTB or it is all Norwegians. So where are they all during Långloppscupen or any of the XC races? It makes no sense if you ask me.

Anyway, I did CykelVasan 2010 and don't really need to do it again because it was not terribly exciting. But easy races are good for confidence. So I guess it will be Way Out West instead...no problems there.

There has been something wrong inside of me this week so I have been dying for the weekend to use my proven 'Training makes you healthy' technique to prevent becoming sick. Not sure how successful that plan was but whatever, it is nice outside today.

I decided on the MTB and the whole Tahult route which I didn't finish last Sunday due to a sudden massive rain storm. But under the threat of clouds I made it around today. Nothing much has changed...the hills are still massive and the forest is soothing and nice. Plus that road still has an unusually high number of Volvo 740s. Knipavägen and the hill down towards Jonsered kyrka are nicely packed now so that was brilliant to get some grusväg training. The water level in Säveån is so high that I had to take a relaxing look over at the lake which explains why I had so much power in my legs for the final wind stretch through Lexby.

I will be at Skatås tomorrow for GöteborgsSuperprestige even if I am sick. I need some social time. But for now I need to get some food and then watch Emma in CPH.

I read the very good news on CX Sweden yesterday about Borås. In general Borås has it tough because everyone is convinced that it rains all the time. But I have always thought that the centre is lovely and so I am superglad that the CX cupen race there will be smack in the centre of it all...Christmas lights and everything. That I am looking forward to! Did I ever mention that I lived in Borås for 3 months when I first moved to this side of the country?

In terms of CX Cupen for myself, I had already decided to skip Falun/Ludvika and now I have some friends visiting for Kumla/Söderköping. And I already dissed Sunne for the cost so I may very well be making my race premiere in time for SM in Åstorp. I have a feeling that October will be tough financially so it may be best to just focus on training so that I can make my comeback in November.

But first I have a nice weekend coming up with GöteborgsSuperprestige on Sunday and Skatås again...yippee!

Yesterday I started doing what a cyclist in the 'Old Boys' class should never do...actually compare the cost of races to other things. We permanent members of what is politely called 'Andra klungan' have to realize that racing is fun and we are never going to get anything for this fun in terms of prize money. This is the largest group of cyclists in the country and many, of course, never join clubs because they can just as well have fun on their own in Skatås or with other happymtb people. But sooner or later one realizes that it is more fun to race on a closed track free from mushroom pickers, angry old ladies with dogs and anyone on horses. So we just continue racing despite the cost and all is well...until I have an autumn like this and actually need to save money.

The price for the spa weekend in Sunne seems to be 1800kr for the fancy hotel and then around 2200kr for the rental car. That price is identical to 3 nights in Brussels and a return flight. Of course I chose the most expensive example but still you get my point. And I think everyone reading this knows very well which wonderful sport one can watch while in Belgium for a weekend. So maybe while I am completely righting off 2011, I should take the opportunity to become a real CX fan...

You are probably wondering why on earth I would take an MTB ride, especially just when it started raining like hell. This is cross season afterall. And riding my MTB just made me feel bad for missing the entire Långloppscupen season because of my car and arm.

Why is the question. Well, I did some calculations and I completely missed something in my budget. Picking up a new car in December means I will need to get winter tires directly and I have a feeling that is why Hedin Bil said my Renault Clio will not be there until December. Sneaky bastards. A quick look around puts a set of 4 dubbdäck at 7000kr which I was not at all prepared for. Fan. That was my CX Cupen budget. And then there is that little trip to see my parents in Canada which is supposed to happen over Christmas. Fat chance of that with a plane ticket at 8000kr.

So an MTB ride is me saying that I want to keep training hills and would prefer to have brakes while doing so. But cross season is looking shite at the moment.

The fact that there are no scheduled cross races/training this weekend makes me wonder what I am missing. So, fine, I will just have to torture my body by myself here in Partille. I started in the centre down by Säveån and rode up the steep little grass hills a few times. Yes...wet grass. Then for more warm-up I rode along towards Hemköp and back to the Sävedalen side to attack the hill up to Frejaplan. Oh fan...that hurt a bit more than I expected.

Up around Vallhamra Torg there are a lot of open fields which are not parks but just wild grass so it is free for me to ride wherever. I found a gem of a football field that is just entirely sucking wet grass...mmm...time for tubdäck. And along a bit I found many steep grass hills which were wet and challenging and certainly high on the list of ways to torture yourself on a bike.

But to top it all off I returned to the part next to where I live which has stairs sort of like Skatås. After 6 laps up that under the watchful eye of my old neighbour and his little dog, I was done for the day. Aj.

Finally that big application is sent in and I can return to having some normal life with no money. But training should be possible.

I was reading through the guide for race organizers on the CX Sweden page and I found it quite good. I especially like that it is clearly stated that this is not MTB and that it should be possible to ride the course carefully on a LVG bike. Did you see that CK Lunedi? Maybe that is why Jkpg disappeared from the schedule entirely.

And then we have the Chris Cross rule...as soon as the winner crosses the finish line, everyone else finishes the lap they are on. So I don't have to hold up the start of the next race by needing to do my extra lap in order to get points. I am generally lapped around 30 min into the race.

It is better to be clear with this since sometimes I did have to do the extra lap and sometimes I did not. Since I like to go full out on my last lap, it would be good to know just when that lap will be. Unfortunately, it also means that you can stay on the course, punka 5 times and just walk around in general and still get points. So I suspect there will be less DNFs.

Well, my hopes of another GöteborgsSuperprestige on Thursday are long gone since those involved in that grant with the deadline Thursday at midnight are in no hurry. So that pisses me off.

But now that Falun is open for anmälan it is high time to discuss CX Cupen strategies. I know most probably have secret plans for equipment or have been training cross all year. My strategy is a bit different. Only 9 races will be included so we don't have to do every race. Assuming that I will finish pretty much last in Superklass as usual, I need to find a way to get the most points I can.

Taktik #1: Choose races no one else will choose.
This unfortunately means no Sthlm which is one of the few races I have people to battle with. But with over 60 starting there were no points left for me. Last year I got most points in Ludvika, Söderköping and Södra Sandby.

Taktik #2: Choose races where people are most likely to DNF.
This is harder to predict because it depends on the weather. Lidköping was a DNF for me and many others and Kumla is just tough overall so people could give up.

Taktik #3: Choose every race.
I would if I had my car and a wad of cash.

Which races will you choose?

I rolled over to Skatås this morning feeling like this was going to be tough. My kondition is still obviously missing somewhere. Maybe it has been hijacked. Oj, wrong day for that word. But the Introcross portion went well and my technique was coming back again, slowly. I had some power in my legs but I didn't want to kill myself before the Superprestige started. The stairs I had trained a few weeks ago so that was fine. The grass also felt fine. But when the race started I didn't feel fine at all.

In usual style I went from first to last within the first 400m but I didn't want to shove my way around the tight corners. Why ruin things immediately when the point of this is training. Or is it? Things moved to VM-status when I saw that I was with 2 others at the back. My whole first lap was basically at max since I wanted to pass and my chance did come at the sand when I managed to run by. But no matter how hard I pushed I could not break away so for the next lap I was looking ahead to see if I could pass the next guy while also looking behind to stay ahead. Then I messed up on a remount after the sand and was passed.

So I was chasing again and trying to push on the grass and over in the second half I was flying on the grus, braking late and trying my best to start quickly after each corner. The problem was the guy in front had superlight high profile carbon wheels and tubulars so he was just cruising along as if nothing was happening while I was behind pedalling my ass off just to keep within a reasonable distance.

On the way around the corner before the tents and finish line the guy in front took a fall. First evidence that,in fact, he was stressed by my chasing. So after the polite 'Are you okay?' I passed and made some attempt at an attack in the wet grass with 2 laps to go. He was there at the sand but then somewhere in the next part he disappeared. At this point my energy was crashing and I was hurting so I know I slowed a bit, mostly to avoid mistakes. Last lap was horrible and I was ready to faint but decided, anyway, to sprint like hell after the löphinder.

So today was far from perfect but if I almost faint then no one can say I didn't try...

We all know that races go better if we have been training a bit the day before. And this leads to the desire to train every day. But I am not at that stage yet. Today I just wanted to get a bit of feel for the Ridley and whether I need to re-adjust the shoes/seat/pedals. The goal was not to kill myself.

Like every time I get on that bike and reach the very wet Sävecrossen area, the desire to just kill myself with massive attacks on the hills, superb dismounts and daring grus corners is overwhelming. But today I was stronger and managed to take it easy. I can remember my cramps at Hondacrossen last year so probably it is best to listen to my body instead of my brain during pre-season.

I have been hoping that GöteborgsSuperprestige would appear in Skatås again. And this Sunday my hoping will pay off. There are no excuses for not making it from Partille to Skatås so it is time for some CX. Even if my body or my bike have a tendency to fall apart, it doesn't matter. Vi ses på söndag!

Athletes have this fascinating tendency to become national heros and there are few things bigger than hockey in this country. In a way that is what makes Sweden a lot like Canada for me. So reading yesterday that Stefan Liv died in a plane crash with the rest of his new team in Russia is beyond tragedy.

For reasons I don't even remember now, HV71 has always been my team so Liv has provided many special moments over the years in hockey finals or VM/OS. And judging from all of the stories and pictures in the papers this morning, I was certainly not the only one. Stefan Liv will be remembered...

Work has entered an even more crazy phase so I don't expect to be able to breathe until 19 sept at the earliest. Meanwhile, I am wondering where my kondition has went. I was in Amsterdam for a great conference and I can see how important cycling is for that country. They also have frites and mayo which is just so bloody fantastic. The whole trip made me want to come back and experience cross there and in Belgium.

But back to my kondition. Johan? Did I leave my kondition at the house in Amsterdam? Or did your spanish friends steal it? Maybe I sent it to Cambridge with the others because from what I could tell that city could use some kondition.

How do I know it is gone? Well, I went on my usual 10km terrain run of death and seriously did feel like I was dying. And now, yes, I have träningsvärk. Yep, my form curve is following the stock market at precisely the time when it should be pointing up. Fan fan.