It seems like even the gym people have been bitten by the CX bug. Sportlife calls theirs CXWORX30 and I already told you about this 30 minutes of torture before. Despite a long day at work and Sunday's return of my F&%#ing shoulder pain, it was time again...

With only 30 min this is yoga on amphetamine and I just can't believe how tired it makes me. This is all for my core which mostly means my stomach, the part of me which likes to attract food and expand every year. There is also an ass song which is probably also good considering how tight our cycling shorts are. If only there were any women that took even the slightest possible interest in our sport. At some point during the sidplanken I could feel my shoulder start to scream again. It just never seems to heal. Bläää

Anyway, this whole experience was better than the first time. And the fact that it still hurts means I am doing something right. Good good.

I had many plans for today. My first idea was to head off to Borås on one of those double-decker buses since I had no other way to get there. But there is this small thing about watching CX in the rain that was discouraging. Also the fact that only 2 people signed up for prestige. After all the time that people like Mattias have certainly spent to get any permit to race in the most central and fine place Borås has to offer, it has to be a disappointment to see the turn-out. I like the original idea of just having some cup races which you have to attend and then let others just arrange if they want.

Anyway, the real problem is SMHI's little forecast of winds at 37 m/s. Yes...37 metres in 1 second or 133.2 km/h if that makes you appreciate things better! I have no desire whatsoever to get hit with that kind of sidewind on a high bus somewhere out on Rv40. And yesterday's wind of half that speed had me wingy as hell on my MTB. I think the farthest I will get today is Allum. At the same time, one has to experience this kind of storm. So I will do my best to try this without ended up flying over Sävedalen...

I was expecting a weather disaster but that came later in the day. So I was able to take a nice ride and stay reasonably dry. Just to be completely boring I did the same route as last Saturday with start up to Kåsjön as usual. Hills etc etc etc followed by stora klingan out on the bus road parallel to Landvettervägen. I kept at it with the stora even after my right turn at Öjersjö which meant heading west and a wall of wind. So it was time to get into my best tempo position (not really effective on an MTB) but my legs did not seem to mind.

There were a lot of rullskidor types to chase down and for those doing classic that is no big challenge. A couple were doing skate but they are no match for a bike...even a bike with me on it. Back over to Delsjön there is quite a solid rullskidor track on the grusväg but it is a bit tricky since the rut is deep sometimes and my tires got stuck. So rather than take the easy/fast way I jumped out into the rough grus and gave some other muscles a bit of abuse.

Next was a cleaning stop at Skatås which was very needed plus an extra little side trip up the hill to Björkekärr which is lovely and has several nice little circle roads with hills in the middle. Yes...GP on an MTB.

So my winter training is off to a good start except it is time I find some better winter pants and a windproof top. Gloves and shoe covers too. But that will have to be a January present...soon it is car time.

I have heard some people talking about Beach 2012 already so why not start too. Last night I was at Sportlife Exclusive for a nice little styrka session. My goal with this is simply to have a base set of functional muscles so that I don't keep getting injured when I fall.

Despite many theories, I still follow the Nautilus method (or should I say Actic now that they changed names?) 12 reps max of anything at the highest weight I can manage. If I can do that, I increase the weight. But if I can only do 8 reps I reduce the weight. This simple and quick method means that about once a month I go up a weight on every machine. That pace of progress is perfectly fine for what I need.

After the 7 minute warmup on the ass machine it was time directly for the dips and chinups which I managed at a respectable amount over half my body weight. Shoulders are of course a problem and I have no strength at all there. But I will. There was one motion that made some very uncomfortable sounds in my right arm/shoulder which is a sign that I still have some problem there. But the most important muscles for MTB are just fine.

And to end things off I did 500m on the SkiErg thing which is a fine way to demonstrate how weak one actually is in the upper body.

I think it counts as especially ambitious to set a goal on a grey Monday at this time of year. But why not? This one relates to XC which I have honestly always been quite scared of. In 2009 when I had my first real season with MCK I was doing HSport at the Västgötacupen races and then training on Wednesdays with the club. This combination, despite a race time of only 30 minutes, led to my seriously good time at Grenserittet. I see no reason why I cannot use XC for good interval training but there is no reason to kill myself in H30 or even HSenior. Racing is also training.

I realize that HSport is always an unpredictable class and you never know if some Elite is there who just doesn't feel like Elite that day. But until I am finishing top 5, why should I go to any higher class? So that is the second of my 2012 goals...finish top 5 in HSport in a Västgötacupen XC race. Are you up for that challenge Sven? I see you were also in this class last year...

I believe I have just found one of the toughest 2hr distanspass routes I can manage this close to home. My original plan was to head along Säveån on that grusväg and then along Göta Älv and then the old railway path back east again. But when I got to Kviberg I decided to take a lap of the GP course on the hardest gear as fast as possible. That seemed to piss off a few people so it was only one lap but very effective. Then, for some reason, I felt like exploring so I headed up from Kviberg towards Gårdsås and Bergsjön. Fy fan! Not 1 or 2 but THREE nasty gradual hills later I was at the top. Here we have a good hill-training location.

I was following the cykelväg signs towards Angered but came across a sign towards a motionspår and Lärjedalens trail. Knowing full well that I was at the top of the hill and dalen suggests the bottom, I reluctantly started down this nasty little grus bit. The elljusspår was completely empty because the thing was full of hills and would be quite the fun little run. Eventually I made it down to the bottom where the little trail along the river is and that was MTB with a capital M (T and B also)! I fail to see how they could actually manage to put out grus and still have it so rough. They might as well have just left it the way it was originally. So that gave the body a good shaking.

After that was the railway trail with the ever-so-slight grade up to Gunnilse where there are two special little hills just to wake up the muscles which, by this time, were already very much awake. And right after that it was time for Göteborg's own Muur-Kapelmuur up to Angereds kyrka followed by a very muddy road over to Lexbyvägen...my favourite. Today I could even chase a van since they kept slowing down for all the speed bumps.

It goes without saying that by the time I reached Lexby and the bottom of the hill I was completely dead and ready to fall over during the last couple km. And that, my friends, is how it should be.

I have felt full of energy this week which is strange because I haven't even made it to the gym or anything. But having the membership means I can actually go and not have to have some stupid silly obstacle in my way. Speaking of that I still have no clue when my car is arriving. But things that prevent me from skiing are good things...

Anyway, back to the glädje bit. This morning I jumped on the MTB yet again and really nailed the hilly sections up to Kåsjön today. I thought it was good to vary things a bit so I turned right at Öjersjö and went along that rather straight and windy little cykelväg. Just before the golf course there is a pretty gradual but long uphill which I attacked with pleasure and the felt the nice reward of the downhill towards Rv40. Then I turned right and into Delsjön near that little stuga thing where everyone seems to try and find. From there it was grusväg and people-dodging all the way over to Skatås with the occasional hill attack without even changing gears. Why bother when my legs felt so strong?

Yep...training for 2012 is going just fine right now...

Last night was an interesting walk to ICA. Or should I say slide? The little fluctuations in temperature mornings/nights now in Partille have left things a bit slick. So now I can start to think that winter is perhaps on the way.

This will be my forth winter in the Göteborg area. In 2008 it was very rainy through Nov/Dec and then not very cold at all after that. Both 2009 and 2010 were snow and this time last year I believe I was already out making my first attempt at skiing. But 2011 is very different. Here we are mid-November and only now has there been any sort of sign of cold weather yet we have had weeks of perfect blue sky and sun. So I am not complaining at all...

Yesterday was interesting. I had massive träningsvärk in a place I have never had pain before...directly on my stomach muscles. One wonders if there are actually any muscles hiding in and around the fat but apparently there are. CXWORX30 seems to have had some impact.

They had this one thing in the push-up position where you had to move one arm in a circle while supporting on the other and holding body position with your stomach. Another fine moment was changing position from resting on your arms and then up to your hands in push-up postition and then back down again. It's all very good.

So my question now is whether I should torture myself with a step pass or a Bodycombat pass? Both will lead to me falling at some point and generally being uncoordinated in a group of people but, well, I can take it...

I started the day with TV10 and their coverage of STHLM cyclocross from a few weeks ago. There were a few small changes to the course so I would have actually had to change gears...that is a good thing. But I smell a bit of 'fiasko' since it really looked like Wengelin was passed the pit and ran backwards to change his bike. As far as I know, that is a no no in the CX rule book.

Anyway, to keep with the cycling theme I jumped on the MTB for something resembling a distanspass. It was just my usual hill fest up to Kåsjön and then Öjersjö - Tahult - Härkeshult - Jonsered but I haven't done it for awhile so it was long enough. I was freezing so I had to stop for a Squeezy gel in Jonsered so, obviously, the final part went very quickly.

If I have any readers left, what is the best strategy for distanspass? Should it be very long and low intensity or should I keep training hilly routes? I mean 2 hours hilly has to be better than 3 hours flat or?

Naturally the CX part of this training pass caught my eye but the only thing it has in common with CX is the intensity. Sportlife use to have something called S-Core which I really found useful for stability and all that stuff I need now. But that is gone and replaced by CXWORX30 which is the same idea for core training except much much worse. Fy fan is all I can say. Obviously S-Core was easy compared to this feast of balance and muscle pain.

They schedule a 30 min spinning before this all the time and that combination, my friends, is a recipe for some serious träningsvark. Bring it on!

I realize that CX SM hasn't even happened yet but like I have said many times my current cross skills would bring so much shame to MCK that I might just get kicked out entirely. But on the positive side...this season I have never finished last in Superklass. =)

I was looking at the Långloppscupen page where they always calculate your result time as % over Darvell or whoever else happened to win. Over the years I have stayed pretty much constant at 75% over the winning time which in relation to H Motion is pretty far from last but in H30 it is enough to leave a big gap in the result list. If I could improve to be 60% over the winning time I would be essentially in the running even in H30 and 4 years from now when I make my H40 premiere. In långlopp terms this means somewhere between 20 and 40 minutes faster than what I do now.

Half of that time could be saved by being more efficient with the food at the stops (i.e. 10 minutes faster by not stopping for so long). I think I can manage another couple of minutes with bike changes since Sid already improved my time considerably. But it is that remaining 10 minutes which simply requires better form.

Ränneslättsturen was a pretty typical LL experience for me. I started out comfortable and felt quite bad after 20km but then after some energy around 40km I was on fire and could tackle the rest at quite a good pace and finish fast. I lost a few minutes in the typical LL singletrack queues but overall this was the way things normally go for me. My hill training in Partille works great but I need to be out a lot longer. My problem with these distanspass 3-4hr is that I feel seriously ill after 2.5hr. But getting to 60% is going to hurt so I have no choice...

Many have called me a snob since I often live in new apartments. But anyone that has tried to find a rental in a city over the last couple years knows that there are two options: miljonprogram under terrible conditions or overpriced but quality nyproduktion. And I have tried ghetto life and it is not for me. So then if I am not a snob, how can I explain that I just joined Sportlife Exclusive???

First of all, I needed to buy a 3-month card in order to take advantage of a little friskvårdsersättning from work and there was only a couple hundred kr difference between Exclusive and the regular Sportlife. The advantage with Exclusive is the age limit of over 20 which really really helps for anyone who has tried to use any machines on a normal weekday night. I prefer to just use the machine...not sit on it and try and look cool for the fjortisar like most others are doing.

But there is still a bit of inner snob in me because I immediately fell for the fact that it is beautiful in Exclusive. But most importantly the gym has an excellent mix of machines and cardio which is all a part of 'The New Chris Cross 2012' plan...

Well I can be happy that yesterday I finally felt better and Mr Stomach was happy happy fin fin again. But it was around lunch time that I actually realized this because most days last week were okay in the morning. But this delay has meant missing yet another GöteborgsSuperprestige, the last I would have been able to attend anyway. So the good ol' towel has pretty much been thrown in for my CX season this year.

It is time to re-group and start from the very basics. A head start on winterträning I can get and some basic strength training is probably good for injury prevention. Oh, and I need to keep away from the skis...

One very unusual bi-product of these last two weeks is that my shoulder seems to have cured itself and is pain free. How did that happen???

Yes, only 57 days until 2012. And I can't wait to get a fresh start and be over with crap year 2011. So I see this as a very positive inlägg that there are only 57 days more of negativity.

Things are also more positive with Mr Stomach so there will be no new carbon fibre replacement needed. Hopefully I might even be able to do some training tomorrow for the first time in several weeks. That would be nice.

I think it is time to start marketing this site as a motionärblogg so my readers can be fat gubbar that are having even more trouble than I am. But I do have some good plans and they do not involve skiing.

This morning the EU has threatened to stop paying Greece at all if they don't get things straight. And I think it is time to take a similar hardline approach with Mr Stomach. If things are not better by tomorrow, we are done. No more partnership Mr Stomach. You will be replaced with a fancy light-weight carbon fibre model. I am serious because it sounds like Sunday's GöteborgsSuperprestige will be a classic and I want to be there.

I was feeling okay Tuesday afternoon after working from home for two days. Watching cross from Koppenberg helped and one has to wonder whether Stybar wants his Ridley back considering he slid into a brickwall and messed up a remount and that cost him the race.

If this is some kind of food poisoning, my guess of sources is the dodgy american 'maple syrup' I was using. But being at work again yesterday for the usual 5-coffee approach to the day, I wonder if that is the real problem. Still, the Enervit sportdryck is a miracle drink. It has exactly the same ingredients as those rehydration drugs from the pharmacy so why use extra money. Yes...a bottle of Enervit while sitting on the sofa watching TV...it's da new sheet!