I slept in a bit so my original plan for a distanspass had to be swapped for a shorter and more classic trip. We can call it backpass of death, if you want. The start is the same as my running route up to Furulund which for the most part is easier on the bike compared to running until you hit that one monster where the 5km trail starts. Aj. And I had no speed because I had to dodge a confused and funny old man and his dog but in a way it was good because then I had to test the hill from stop all in one go. I was basically out of breath all the way around to the stables at Kåsjön.

Next up Landvettervägen and left towards Tahult to see how the next hill of death was holding up. Yep...it is still there. Not quite so bad as my premiere ride last year though. Once you are up to Tahult things are nice but the road is falling apart so I would not suggest any LVG on that downhill just yet. Left on Härkeshultsvägen and a few little hills again up to the forest which I just love. So close to the city yet complete silence and wonderful nature.

At that point I was thinking how good my legs feel and what a nice steady pace I can maintain. CX and skiing has kept me in decent shape I think. Then I hit the worst hill of the trip and it never gets any easier. No choice but to just shift down and take it. For some MTB experience I turned onto one of those grusväg called Knipavägen which is in horrible shape and is therefore the perfect MTB road. From there I turned right and went passed the hunting club and down a bit of a tricky hill since the mud was grooved and you could not really see that it was grooved.

Down to Jonsered and then I was behind another cyclist probably coming from Lerum but he turned off thereby avoiding the race I know we would have had. I headed right over to Kåhög feeling rather weak as usual. One has to ride this stretch to push yourself. Heading west the wind is against you on 90% of the days on this road so the whole experience is nasty. No prestige for me today...I was dying. But not as bad as last week. Progress is always good.

Sunday morning before Paris - Roubaix...what can I do? How about a more proper distanspass? Okay. Done. At first I was worried because the strap of my cykelbyxor was hitting my shoulder in a bad spot but once I started it seemed to have more of a compression effect than painful effect. Good good.

The route was Partille - Utby - Gamlestaden - Alelyckan - Eriksbo along the cykelvägar and other little trail sections that appeared once in awhile. From Eriksbo up to Gunnilse is one of those gradual up hills that you don't really noticed until later when your legs are not happy. And from Gunnilse up to Angereds kyrka along Turiststråket is one of those spots where legs complain a lot. This is where the short and steep hills start and continue to Lexbyvägen, Partille's best cycling road.

But, like always, the joys of that road mean I hit the wall somewhere around the horse stable and have to struggle on empty just to finish the last 2km and get home. And that is why I am obviously messing up the idea of distanspass at relaxed pace. I should not have a complete energy crash after 75 minutes. Even if it was 27.5km. That is just how it is.

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...

Just got back from what was supposed to be a nice relaxing ride to make sure my bike was okay. Naturally, I made it much harder. My lap up and around Furulund is getting faster but everything after the hills are tough when you try and fly up them in the style I did tonight. Ouch. But my legs felt strong, as expected after my race last weekend.

Now that the temperature is up near 20C, there are more annoyed people out with their dogs. Even if I always slow down and pass them so that there is no way I will squish their silly little 'dog', they are still pissed off. But since others think it is fun that I am riding there, I will keep doing it. A course like this is far too good to give up.

The pasta meal I just finished was amazing! Next stop Oslo!

At MCK on the LVG side we have something called 'Andra klungan' for those of us that can't keep up to MCK Elit. Well, as usual, tonight I had a round of 'Egen klungan' instead. Up to Furulund went quite well this time which is a sign that I am rested, my legs are strong and that what I have is more allergy than sickness.

So I just took a quick spin around the motionspår again with lots of starts since many people were out walking their dogs. I flew down the hill back to Sävedalen and then took a few of the villa streets back home. At one point I was behind a slowly-moving police car. Since it was slow, I immediately thought I should pass but I didn't. My MTB doesn't exactly have any reflectors or bells so I saw no point in giving them reason to stop me.

The bike is clean and I just need to check a few things but I am ready for MTB marathon #1 this weekend. Now where is my pasta...

This sign always makes me smile because this is what we all want to be. Håkan Hellström wrote a song about this street and I will now write an blog entry about it.

So what has changed? Did I eat snabbmacaroni? No. I just had the usual sportgryn. What changed was my bike position.

The first few minutes felt different in my knees but every rotation felt so much more effective. My quads and calves were solid and when I got to the hill up to Furulund it felt great. Since my plan today was to just spend about an hour, I decided to push much harder than I have on this trail before. Wow! What a difference! I could stand up just fine and really attacked the hills. But just to make sure that it wasn't just a matter of time before I have a calf cramp, I rolled down to Allum and then did a bit of tempo training along the river since there was no one around. And I could certainly feel a bit of pain starting but how often in MTB do you have a flat road to fly along at over 30 km/h?

So watch out HSport...things are happening...

Today may have been my last chance to train distance before 16 maj and Billingeracet so I sort of combined all my favourite routes together. First up the cykelväg from Sävedalen since this is gravel and nicer than the road. This took me up to Furulund where I turned in and headed onto the 7.5km running trail I mentioned before. After those hills I already felt quite crap and I didn't have any desire to catch up to the other MTB cyclist in front of me. Instead of continuing all the way around, I cut off towards the Kåsjön parking area to join the cykelväg towards Landvetter. Then it was time for the Tahult - Härkeshult - Jonsered route which was just the same as usual...hills but still road. My legs felt great at this point so I kept going at a steady pace. Back in the valley I turned north on Lexbyvägen up the hill again to my favourite little logging road.

Originally I was going to take that last but I decided it was a good time and headed off towards Paradiset. Of course I discovered why I liked the road last week because in reverse direction it slowly climbed all the way back up the hill I just came down. So by the time I reached the end of that I had been out for 90 minutes and thought it was time for a break and some pictures.

Yep, only 10 km from Avenyn you find this. And if I write bike porn again I am sure to get a hit from Google yet again. =)

You can also see some tractor marks which were nothing compared to everything else in the way on this road.

Here I look ready to continue my ride. Perhaps also I look like I have seen a few hills.

Switching direction meant that I could enjoy this bit of gravel hell back to the road. There I seemed to be following a LVG guy from HCK and was also keeping up but instead of passing I turned off on that gravel road heading over to Angereds kyrka since it is much nicer (hills + gravel = nice). Down again to Gunnilse and I was going to turn around but I didn't feel tired so I followed some cykelväg signs pointing up to Rannebergen. Fy fan was that a nasty set of hills. The road part was bad enough but then it switched to a lovely forest trail and went straight up. At the top was some kind of lake (St Molnsjön or something) with a nice trail around it which was a natural turning around point...especially since people did not seem to like that I was there.

Heading back was a story of wind but nowhere near as bad as last week. The hills were hurting but I kept at it and by 2.5hr or so I was back on the road down to Lexby. Again, I felt like I had something left to give so I went flat out along the rest of that road back to Partille station. Was I tired? Yes, my legs were burning. Did I have the energy crash? No. So I added a bit of an extra loop out towards Utby and then across to Hemköp and back home but still no energy crash.

Time: 3:03:59
Distance: 58.5km
Höjdmeter: I am guessing at least 700m
Hr ave: 159
Hr peak: 187
Energy: 2382 kcal

So you are probably wondering if the Enervit Pre Sport worked? The answer is nja. It did not help right away but certainly I lasted longer. I also stopped for my banana and cookies earlier this week. And my Hr ave is lower which suggests that last week probably helped my overall fitness. So it might have helped a bit. It certainly did not hurt.

It is good to train with others for two reasons. First, at least in my case, you learn how to behave when riding with others. Or in my case I learn that I can effectively get in people's way. And second, you realize just how slow you are. These things might sound negative but I am pleased with the MCK training tonight.

My first plan was to join the 'middle group' since I was a bit worried about the pedal thing. But they told me to take the tävlings group which actually was a good thing. We just went around the Lindome track where Göteborgserien had a race towards the end of last season. I found the track brutal then and I still agree. But once I started I realized it was better with the SPD and I could unclip. Of course the first couple intervals I was hesitating which meant I was way behind the others.

We did jaktstart with start order in reverse meaning that I always had to go first. But that was fine. I did Öijertekniken on the two hills which I knew that I would not get up. So before losing all my speed I jumped off and ran. Yes, cross was good for something. This was actually quite fast. And in a race situation at the back where I always end up, this will work against those I will be racing.

Of course I was tired but towards the end I pushed harder and tried staying in one gear instead of switching down. And suddenly I could sort of keep up. This is exactly the kind of discovery I need to make. Great for confidence.

This was also my premiere for the new MCK shorts and legwarmers. Two local fjortisar approved of the look but I was a bit disturbed at the rude farting noise the shorts made when rubbing against my bike seat...

My plan today was långlopp training and a lot of it. So that meant mostly gravel roads, a couple trails and plenty of hills. To start I went straight up that nasty hill at Paradiset which ends, drops down again on a gravel path and then heads straight up again until you reach the hiking trails. This was quite useless for MTB since you could not really ride very much so with very little distance travelled I had already used 30 minutes.

The point was to reach a logging road which is the MTB equivalent of a Paris-Roubaix road. These ALWAYS appear in långlopp and they hurt. The stones are the size of my head, wood chips are everywhere and there are holes which shake you around. So by the time I reached Lexbyvägen I felt like a smoothy. Good trail. Then I took a direct left towards Angereds kyrka on a Norwegian-style gravel road which was pretty smooth but full of hills. Soon it was time to head east on the old railway path to Olofstorp and this part went far too fast (more on this later). Then after rather quickly passing a group of 10 motionär who were enjoy the view, I turned left at Bergums kyrka to head off to where they were looking...another set of mountains.

This road is a moderate gravel road with some holes every once in awhile to keep you awake. It essentially goes straight up a good 120 m but does it by going up a bit and then down and then up a bit more. You get the idea. This was the road I used for last minute training for SM-marathon in Falun which was made up of the same sort of roads. Then I found a nice lake.

This looked like a fine place to stop for a banana and a couple of cookies.


Have to have some bike porn in this entry also.


And here I have taken special care to line my nose up perfectly with the horizon.

So then it was time for the jobbig part of the trip. Once I got back to Olofstorp I was faced with one of the worst headwinds I have ever felt. But I kept going, trying to stay as low as I could even if trying aerodynamics with an MTB is a bit silly. The new tight-fitting uniform helped a bit also but the flirt potential is down when you are hardly moving at all.

By the time I reached Angereds kyrka and headed back on that Norwegian road, I could feel the result of wind riding. Aj. But when I reached Lexbyvägen I just stayed on it and since I was almost home I decided to push a bit harder. What a great road! Of course when I reached the bottom and turned right into the wind again, I had my usual energy crash. I should have kept going a bit longer but I was almost home. But this is what I usually face in a långlopp. And I never get this after LVG since you are using less muscles for that.

With these numbers in April, I guess an energy crash is not really surprising.
Distance: 52.3 km
Time: 2:45:54
Hr ave: 162
Hr peak: 187
Energy: 2249 kcal (45 of the cookies I had with me)

This afternoon I had a mind-numbing headache so I just headed home to rest for a bit. So no MCK training for me. My head cleared and then I felt fine so I went for a spin around the local trails.

But first we start with dagens outfit for all you fashion types. And this is certainly not good press for my phone since you see how crap the picture is in low light. Still, this is the fancy new MCK jacket.

I took off through the little trail at the bottom of the hill which connects to the gravel bike path up to Landvettervägen. My bike finally feels stable so this was no problem and riding up the hill was much less of a pain than running. I just kept climbing and did the 7.5km running trail I used to run in the winter. Then the hills started to hurt. Aj!

After awhile the 5 and 7.5km split and it becomes pure MTB trail. Sven, this is where we need to train! It has a bit of everything but is not going to kill us. There is one gravel downhill towards the end that is tricky but overall this is perfect. But I suggest tires wider than 2.1 for the wooden plank parts. And the SPD was fine today.

I have no clue if I was supposed to ride there but, unlike Skatås, no one minded. If you show respect for others, they are not going to complain. Where I show less respect is out on the cykelväg where people walk 5 across and don't move. Anyway, the MCK jacket earns respect and several smiles from women also. Can I buy another one? =)

The best part of the trip was along the cykelväg towards Utby where I was actually keeping up to a couple of fjortisar on their mopeds. Guess they didn't fix them to go over 30km/h. I even had one chance to pass them but I didn't feel like giving them a reason to run me over.

Time: 1:06:41
Hr ave: 164
Hr peak: 190
Energy: 906 kcal

Finally, I will conclude by saying that I can feel all of my muscles now. Yes...MTB is a full-body workout.

After spending the last 3 days in Uppsala/Sthlm where it was rainy and 2C, it was a pleasure to return to bästkusten this morning to see the perfect spring day. 15C! So sitting in the conference I thought, nej, tonight I have to train. No more buffet meals for me. There are 2 more days of conference so I can sneak away.

So I scrambled together all of my MTB stuff and headed off to the MCK clubhouse in Lindome figuring that 'teknikträning' would be a good day to start. It was great to see everyone again but suddenly I remembered the difference now. Yes, the SPD pedals are on so this would be my first forest ride. Naturally, the warm-up was on our teknikbana which is where I took several rather spectacular wipeouts last year. Great. The very first trail felt very strange so naturally I fell over with my left foot still attached. Beautiful. Now I am a real cyclist. =) Of course I managed to slide my finger along a tree and slice it open nice so I had to take a break and stop the bleeding. Then I was back and just rode around a few more times and got the hang of it. Downhill feels completely different and you can control the direction much better. Of course that is probably also because I moved my seat forward.

The others were, of course, trying to climb over giant rocks, wood skids and whatever else was impossible so I just continued to ride around getting use to things. I threw in a couple of hill intervals also just for fun.

My leg feels just fine so I see no excuses now. Maybe I will do all of Billingeracet again afterall.

I thought I would do the same route as last week except in beautiful sunny weather instead of horrible rain. There was a pretty stiff wind though so I did not shatter my record by so much.

Distance: 25.6km
Time: 1:08:21
Energy: 981 kcal
HR peak: 186
HR ave: 167

The hill up to Furulund is really one to respect because it never ends. And this route has two others which are also pretty nasty. Still, I can't believe that I took 15 minutes longer last week. It just goes to show how much time is wasted by stopping for map reading or a quick break. This is something I have a problem with during långlopp races. The people at the food stops are nice so you want to have a chat. Then you lose 30 minutes if you stop 3 times.

Last year one of my best races was Grenserittet where I averaged 19.25 km/h. Today was close to 23 km/h with comparable hills. So maybe there is some hope. Although doing 3 times this distance 6 weeks from now at Billinge is a scary thought.

But now it is Tour of Flanders time!

Right at this moment while I am sitting here thinking how stupid it was of me to run and make my knee hurt even more, MCKs new MTB 2010 training plan is starting! For more info, check this Forum link or the Mölndals CK website.

Måndagar 18.00 Klubbstugan: Teknikträning för alla
The idea here was to give parents something to do while their kids were off having fun in the forest. But I have no teknik either so this will be useful.

Tisdagar 18.00 Samling SCA parkeringen: Kvalitetsträning för tävlingscyklister
For those of you with ambitions of winning Sportklass in every Västgötacupen race, this is where you should be. Of course Björn is there so your chance of actually winning Sportklass is low anyway. But still this is perfect training if you like XC. I sometimes do this.

Torsdagar 18.00 Klubbstugan: Träning för alla. Indelat i grupperna nybörjare i skog, utvecklingsgrupp
I am still not exactly sure what these sessions are for but probably to act as a bridge between the Monday pass and the Tuesday pass. So I will probably be at this one too.

Lördag/Söndag Forumpass
Check the forum here to see if someone is planning a långlopp pass or simpler LVG pass.

Training is open for members of other clubs too so you are welcome to try if you happen to be in Mölndal.

After yesterday's pass, my bike was no longer white so my goal today was to wash it. But that is boring so I decided to have another ride first and then wash it. I pity anyone out today who decided to head east first and then return home west. I did that yesterday so today I headed west first towards Skatås and was met with one hell of a motvind. It was one of those so strong that I could feel my MTB swaying and this thing is 11kg!

Anyway, I did most of 8:an which was basically stopping for people and accelerating the whole way around. But there was no ice/snow so that was nice. Then I headed back along the road towards Kålltorp and E20 before literally flying along the cykelmotorväg along E20 back through Sävedalen.

Time: 58:20.4
Hr peak: 187
Hr average: 152
Energy: 664 kcal

It was a lovely day to make my first ride of the year. Almost too lovely. There is still a ton of grus everywhere and ice/snow patches here and there but I ride an MTB so these things do not matter.

I just did a fairly lugnt ride Partille - Jonsered - Aspen/Lerum - Aspenäs which passes lots of lovely places for fika if you are that type of cyclist. Fine, I admit to one break in the middle. But it is only March so a break is allowed.

Distance: 29.5km
Time: 1:38.09
Hr peak: 181
Hr average: 148
Energy: 1067 kcal

Ja ja...maybe the 148 heart rate average is a sign that I was a bit too relaxed. But then again I was recently called an 'alpin ekorre' for my fine running.

So what about my knee? Yes, it is still there and it was sort of hurting about halfway through. But it was more like a 'good pain'. The bike seems to be set up well. It is amazing what shifting the seat forward 3cm can do. It also has SPD pedals which naturally helps. Let's not discuss why I wasn't using SPD before. It is stupid not to use them. But I finally started to in cross.


And then we end with a nice picture to illustrate how I feel about stänkskydd on bikes. Mud is my friend. =)

Finally it was time to kör igång our new focus on MTB but due to the ice it was not very much MTB. Still, this was a good day. First it was time for my second 90 minute running session of the week and this one was much worse. The idea was stavlöpning but instead of taking my ski poles I took the walking ones so I was sliding around a lot. When I could, I had a very nice rhythm going with the poles and steps and it was pretty fast too. So do not be surprised if you see me running in Partille with poles now. Super effective training guaranteed! So this was your basic running in terrain where there are no trails plus a series of hill intervals which were great. I felt really strong this morning.

Next on the agenda was discussion and starting from around Easter there will be some type of MTB långlopp training which will be arranged so that you can jump off and head home at several points. This will be up until Billingeracet but I plan to continue with routes from Sävedalen after that. In all of these cases you do not need to be a member in MCK to join in.

So then it was time for some 'core' training with a pilates ball. It was okay but I still need Core at the gym to get all of the basics too. Then testcykel with many nasty little intervals that made my legs burn and should make tomorrow rather difficult. Good thing Vasaloppet is on. I won't need to move.

If there is any MCKares out there reading my page but not www.mck.se, you will have missed that we are having a little training day tomorrow for the MTB group plus a planning meeting for training etc.

So check the MCK page and the Forum for all of the details.

Last night was the kickoff for MCKs new focus on bringing more elit to MTB. And I am ganska nöjd with the benefits this program will bring to me too.

The first difference is that Karlsson will help us with individual plans for our training based on which goals we have for next season. And I assume that this will also mean extra training for me to start bridging the gap between my level and the others in 'H Sport'.

One message was quite clear...during the winter it is better to spend time on styrkträning and alternative activities like running or skiing instead of cycling all winter. I am not planning to entirely stop cycling but it is nice to know that if I ride once a week it will be enough providing that I keep up other training forms. It is also nice that I can do most of this at home so I will not need to worry about my stupid car freezing all the time.

As expected, the summer training will be focused on XC which is not really my thing but I should be able to pick up some better technical skills on Monday/Thursday. I think Karin's question about a women's group was a bit misunderstood since what is still missing is a 'långlopps' group that trains distance with lots of grusväg. So I predict that 'MTB andra klungan' will also make its premiere next season for at least 5 of us.

Maybe I am wrong about my training but for my långlopp times of 4-5 hours, I need to train my body to get through that 'collapse' feeling I always have after 3 hours. And I do not see how interval training will help me with that.

Since it was nice out today and my entire body aches from yesterday, I thought I would take one of those nice motionär rides and enjoy the nature...or why not a pensionär ride and really take it easy!

Then I realized I only had 1 hour until Superprestige started and this week my computer could access sites from Belgium. So this MTB pass became a screamer instead. 53 min and only 18.8km but with the number of people out enjoy the weather around Skatås, this became 53 min of stopping, rolling passed the dogs and then accelerating som fan to get speed again, all in quite a tough gear. I need more of these 'quality' passes.

If only I were less paralyzed now. A vilodag or 3 is what I need now.

I took off on my mountainbike and it is a nice change to have wide tires and good brakes. This hour was mostly to get out and roll around a bit since tomorrow it is CX race day again.


What is wrong with this picture? Hopefully you guessed the mud. 'Twas not a dry day in lilla London but Vättlefjället is really beautiful this time of year even in the rain.