Jaha, and what do I have to celebrate on this Monday morning? The start of the week where all the bills come in? The start of the week of the month where I am completely broke? No, it must be something more positive than this. And you are right. Today I celebrate the 1-week anniversary of the start of my cold! Woohoo! Yes, I am still sick.

About 3 years ago I caught something like this on my flight home for Christmas one year. So I spent the 2 weeks in Canada with my family completely sick. Now I am into the coughing phase and so long as there is something to cough up, it is fine. But my coughs last night while I was trying to sleep...fy fan how unpleasant that was. Ouch.

Yes, new beginnings are the theme of this week.

And now I will write my most important entry ever. So important that there will always be a link to this. Why? So I can read it whenever I am sick or when I get upset for missing races. Why do I bother with cycling?

If you look at the results of the races I enter, the story is always the same. I am nowhere near. It is bad. In the results list, there is always a big gap in time between my name and the one above. But do I really suck?

Cycling in Sweden is very small and those competing have talent. Loads of talent! Probably they have been doing this all of their life compared to my few years of experience and no formal lessons. Actually, I have only been doing exercise of any type for a few years. So where are the others like me? They are off in Skatås or other places playing around. I know because I see them. I have chosen to join a club and support CykelSverige since this is a great thing for kids.

But back to the point...am I that useless? Lets take some examples.
GöteborgsVarvet: Last year I ran this in 1:55 which was slightly above average. Not bad since in Canada our general fitness is only slighty above that of our fat, lazy American neighbours.
Grenserittet: With basically no långlopp training at all last year, I came 3866 out of 5370 in this Norwegian race. You can understand why I have an interest in races in Norway all of a sudden.
Orust Runt: Last year I did this 80km LVG race under the disguise of a beginner (no MCK shirt). I floated around at 30km/h with one group that was trying to break away from me many times. They didn't succeed. Out of kindness I didn't spurt away at the end but I had the energy for it.
Göteborgscrossen: Every week I was battling away with people at my level. Most times I even won those battles.

So am I that bad? Nja...not really THAT bad. When I am battling with equals, I am pretty good. Then why do I keep doing MTB races with people who are all elite?

1. Cycling is fun. Just look at the smile on my face.
2. I meet a lot of great people through cycling. MCK is great. MTB Täby was great.
3. I see many places in Sweden I would not normally see. Who knew that Hjo was such a pretty little town? And I owe my love of Dalarna to cycling.
4. Cycling is a great exercise and one needs health benefits in today's stressful work environment.

And these are 4 reasons why you will still see me at races, probably finishing last. I constantly push myself and eventually I will start to take in those minutes I have up to the next person in the race. And if that never happens, who cares?

Today I feel exactly the same as yesterday. The same mild cough. The same mild sneezing. I did not have soup last night so perhaps that really is the magical cure for colds. Anyway, my decision to not start Billingeracet was a good one.

In other negative news, my mom in Canada said that it has rained there all week and was cold. With about 75% certainty, that weather will be in Göteborg this week. Bläää.

I feel a lot better and I can actually talk today. But I am one day short of a full recovery. So with great annoyance, I cancelled my hotel reservation and will not be starting Billingeracet.

Without the proper mix of eating and light training a few days before a marathon, the race becomes just a glada motiönar tour. And I already did that last year.

But on a positive note, if there is anything positive about this week, I can buy a new set of tires with the money I save on hotels.

After my little walk in a grey Göteborg, I wonder how it is possible that I can feel this tired and still be awake. It's 14.00 and I want bed. This must be a flu.

So now I will move the blogg to Örebro and get all my gnäll out in one entry.
1. It is May and yet I am still wearing my winter jacket. Enough is enough.
2. Last Thursday when I was so snabb, it was also chilly out. That led to my sore throat in Friday.
3. Saturday I raced in Hjo and my body felt seg som fan but I finished. Felt like crap that night but I still raced Sunday in Tidaholm.
4. So this has meant a whole week of gnäll since I was so stupid last weekend. Racing has made me way more sick than I would have been and that is costing me Billingeracet.

While I am at it, I can also gnäll about work deadlines. Up until 31 May I am very busy so honestly I don't even have time to go away. I would have managed just fine if my brain had been functioning these last few days.

Ja, even though I had yet another long sleep I am not through this thing yet. The coughing and sneezing is better so theoretically I should be almost there. But I feel completely drained of any energy this morning. You know that feeling you get about 3 hours after a race when your body is completely dead and useless? That's what I feel now.

At work yesterday they were quite happy that I had no voice. But I wonder why, of all days, did I get so many phone calls? I can't talk! I was even presented with a fine flirting opportunity on #7 but I had no voice at all. And I still don't.

Things are not looking positive.

This is the view from my office and it is pouring rain and 6C. This is certainly a good way to keep people at work since you need to walk a fair distance outside to get to any spårvagn from here.

So here are my thoughts on rain. In cross season, rain is a dream. A grown man can slop around in the wet for 40 minutes without any risk of getting sent to the looney bin. But what about rain during MTB marathons?

In Finnmarksturen it rained just when I was starting the toughest uphill in that race. Perfect timing! And the same thing happened to me in MTB SM tempo last year since the rain hit when I reached Mördarbacken. But there it continued and was a bit heavy to be that fun.

The worst rain I have been in was during Grenserittets speedseeding last year. That was 10km of max speed in my case until the sky opened and it poured so much I could not see where I was going. And the water was so deep I didn't know where the track was in the downhills. I just aimed and hoped for the best. No wonder I ended up with leg cramps in the real race the day after.

If it were 6C and raining this much at the start of a marathon, I am not sure I would make it. Standing waiting for the start would leave me soaked and then I would need twice the energy just to keep warm. I will gladly use my mind to win over muscle pain or tiredness but a full-body chill is too much for anyone.

I have been fortunate with weather for my marathons but I will say this now...I am going to start 10 MTB marathons in 2010. And I hope to finish them also. Given the right conditions, I always finish eventually. But some things are beyond our control.

When I woke up this morning after a long sleep, I felt brilliant. By the time I got to work I felt pretty far from brilliant. But overall I am better than yesterday.

This of course means that I will just manage to get healthy in time for Billingeracet but will have a less than ideal preparation in terms of food. Whatever I eat will just go straight to my stomach instead of those super powerful legs.

I never said that Billingeracet would be my best and there has to be a first marathon of the year. This is it. So be sure to have loads of gurka and Ryfors godis ready for me at the Brobacka stop...I will be stopping there for awhile.

My cold has finally broken after the annoying sore throat which started last Friday. So technically I could have just sneezed on my bike but I decided to drop by CykelCity anyway and get some grease and a couple more yummy products from Enervit.

After I left there I was out in the sun which game me an instant migraine. Either it is that whole vampire thing again or perhaps I do work in a dark office all day. Anyway, tillsvidare I will be home resting and sleeping. But Billingeracet is on...

After quite some time and a few google searches, I realized how my headset works. I checked the bag of stuff with the fork for my cross and was getting all confused looking for the expanding cartridge. But the MTB doesn't have that type.

Anyway, I did slide everything out and clean it but I don't have any grease so I will pick that up tomorrow. Probably a lot of this was a result of me taking the stem off before just to try a smaller size. Duh. But now I know how to adjust a headset and stem.

So Billingeracet is on again as long as my current sore throat doesn't develop into some svininfluensa.

I was hoping that I would not need to buy anything for my bike since I am broke. And, sure enough, bad luck has hit me. I just noticed that the headset is completely loose so that my whole shock moves in a rather unpleasant way. No wonder the bike sounded funny during the race. The bottom bearing has fallen down a bit from the frame and when I turn the bars I hear a 'scratchy mud' sound. So it looks like I will have to change the headset.

In some way this is good because I do need to learn how to change these things. But the problem is to get whatever parts I need before next weekend. Good luck. First I am injured. Now my bike is falling apart. 2010 is not getting any better...

I am quite impressed by all the MCKare this weekend. Last year we all raced in HSport and this was something I found very annoying. They are not beginners and what is the point of driving for so long to race for 20 minutes on an easy course?

But this year we have all taken a step up and most of us are suffering. The guys in H40 are suddenly racing twice as long and on the full course. Yesterday was a disaster but today they all finished. And my own pain in HSenior is a sign that I am also taking a step up. The only way we will get better is to race with those better than us.

So for now I, like everyone else, will die on the sofa and let the cold virus which is inside me take over. Then I will be ready for Billingeracet.

And so it was time for Race #2 of the weekend but this time at Tidaholm. And with a name like Hökensås one can expect hills. And the first was just to get up from the parking lot to the start area. So I took my practice lap but this time I made no opinion about how fun the course was after yesterday's silly comment.

HSenior was 2 laps which made me believe that I could go out quite hard and still make it around. My start was perfection and I was actually ahead of about 4 people after the start straight. So I kept it up but soon there was only one behind me when we entered the first singletrack and I could tell that I was slowing him down so eventually he passed also. And today everyone disappeared after the nice downhill part where it turned into a muddy mess of grass. That was Hill #1 and once you made it through the mud it was okay, but long. After that it was a series of nice wide trails of the kind I train on so things were moving along well until the 2nd half when the F15-16 girls were already wanting to pass. Sure, they are fast but I thought I was moving along well. Hill #2 was rocky and crap so I had to walk. But then I could follow one of the girls just to push myself but she disappeared in one of the downhills. I am too chicken in these.

There was lots of mud in these downhills and I managed to fall before the mud since I was trying to get a better line for when I hit the mud. So soon I was back to the start area where there was a nasty sand hill full of people and I didn't make it. But then it was back to the wide start straight so I could speed up.

On the second lap I really pushed myself on the wide trails but I just fell apart on the hills. It was not as bad as Hjo but I should have been able to get up all these hills today. And just to prove that, I did get up the last sand hill where the people were.

So overall I was 16th of 17 since one had technical problems on the first lap. And my bike is also making some strange noises so I have to check that out.

Whoever was taking pictures yesterday and today, please send them to me. I know I had a good race face today. =)

Already from driving up the road to park at Högaliden, I knew that today would be about hills. I took a relaxed test lap and thought it was quite a nice course. This was mostly trails covered in pine needles and not so many nasty rock parts. It was the kind of trails they put in långlopp so for the sake of practice for Billingeracet next week, I stayed in HSenior. Yes, 3x4.5km.

My start went much better today since my shoe clicked in and I did not lose so much time. I was still last by the end of the straight but I was definitely with the rest. Then there was a sharp right and drop into a fun little singletrack and I could slowly see everyone disappear. I was going quite fast but there were so many long and gradual hills that by the time I was finished half a lap I was hurting.

There was one rocky uphill bit that was tough and since I knew that the F 15-16 were right behind, I just jumped off the bike, got out of the way and ran up instead. I think it is time to give up on Öijertekniken because it is not helping anymore. The second lap was absolutely horrible and I had no strength in my body. So I probably am sick but yet I raced anyway. When I reached the rocky part some P 15-16 riders wanted to lap me so yet again I was off the bike. But I was worried of getting lapped by someone in my race so I kept up and made it to Lap 3. Yes, Lap 3. I was getting the hang of it by Lap 3 except I was dead on the hills. And when I reached the rocky bit there were people behind me again. This time, though, it was people warming up so I didn't move. Let me finish my race. And that I did. With an agonizing ride across the muddy grass field and up to the finish area, I could hear the cheers from fellow MCKare and that was all I needed to make a good finish... 1:05:31 is a pathetic time but it was good for 17th since only 17 started. And 17th = lots of points. =)

It was a tough day for others in Mölndals CK with lots of bike problems and asthma symptoms. But my former club MTB Täby did very well in H40. I have been lapped many times by Erik Vrang and company in club races.

There should be some pictures soon too...

Yes, some things don't go quite as planned. Here is the new, uncrashable Volvo S60 crashing into a truck in front of hundreds of journalists.

But luckily the windshield wipers turned on so the driver would be able to see through all that oil and stuff flying out of the engine. Seriously, would anyone actually trust a car to stop itself? That would be like trusting our computers to run perfectly every day. It just never happens.

In other news, I feel quite crap now and I am wondering if that fish I had for lunch has made me sick. But everything is packed for tomorrow so I will just sleep and see what happens.

The start list is now up for Högaliden race tomorrow and even though I emailed the organizers, I am still in HSenior. And with the thought of how long it will take to drive there, maybe I should just stay in this class (start time is after 12.00). There are only 17 people in HSenior and only 6 in HSport but since this is Kalas cup, many are in the veteran classes instead.

So I will probably just accept the pain and take HSenior. But it will be bad mentally to be passed by most of the F15-16 class starting only 2 minutes behind...

Today I tried the new Enervit R1 recovery drink after the race and here you can see the lovely Italian packaging...

Il recupero is just what I needed and BCAA e glutammina sounds like things my muscles could use. And sure, several ora after the race my legs feel fine and my slight knee pain is gone. So this seems to work as well as their R2.

The main difference between R1 and R2 is sprint vs endurance. If you are racing for an hour, use R1 recovery. Longer races need R2.

And then there is the taste...gusto limone. I know that means lemon flavour but it tastes absolutely horrible. And that is the sign of a perfect recovery drink.

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...

I was just at CykelCity and there I ran into a certain MCKare that strongly disagrees in the use of energy products during racing. And what was he buying? Energy products. =) Of course I was also there to buy energy products so I am not exactly innocent either.

It is obvious that Billingeracet is near. One is never really prepared for the first LL of the season. Especially one which starts and ends with a monster of a hill.

I have just spent the last hour adjusting my MTB to try and get a better position. I never had a problem with the shoes on my cross so it has to be the MTB. According to the way it 'should be' set up, I had to raise the seat and then push it a bit more forward. But since I was trying it so much in bad positions, my knees and back feel quite crap now. I think it is correct now but a good outside test will answer that for sure.

I think it is quite obvious that I will be in HSport this weekend.

I guess you probably already guessed what was in my cyclecomponents box. My Ridley X-ride cross frame!

But DAMN look how fine it is! Just wait until I cover it in mud! The geometry is much different than my Merida and with a front end this low I should be a corner master. Now if you excuse me I would like to be alone with all this shiny aluminum and carbon...

I have a course again this afternoon so there is no way I can make it to MCK training tonight. But I suppose that is okay for Knä-Chris. The good news is that I have two bruises on my knee which is a good sign that it is just a surface injury and not serious. I can walk fine so I am positive.

But to continue with more reasons why spring is not my season, the björkpollen is killing me and I refuse to take medicine for this. So I am rather sedated now.

The thing is even though I am sedated, injured or in general useless shape, I still end up racing. Maybe that is stupid.

After the race on Saturday I felt some knee pain and that is still with me today. It is the left knee. My right one is now heeled and fine. But I can't believe the bad luck I am having since I switched to SPD.

The pain is nowhere near as bad as last time so this is a minor thing. This knee pain plus the fact that I get calf cramps every time I stand up suggests that my bike position is all wrong again. So it is time to put the MTB on the trainer again and adjust. So I will see about next weekend. For the sake of Billingeracet I may switch down to HSport for the 2 XC races.

Waiting for a start is always a mix of nervousness and excitement but what makes it funny is all those comments people throw out to psyche each other out. Some people are really bothered by these things and I am sure that is why others do it.

The best one I heard yesterday (rough english translation here) was 'Soon I think you are going to be sick because when I pass you there will be a cold wind.' Classic. =)

Which line do you use?

I was on the road very early this morning to get to Kvänum and after my test lap I was ready to leave and go buy a kitchen instead. This was a proper XC course full of technical trails covered with nasty roots and rocks. Then there were many flat wet rocks of the kind that I cracked my rib on last year. But I stayed anyway since there is no better training pass than a race. I let some air out of the tires and then took a warm-up lap later and things were so much better.

I raced in HSenior which had 35 people and for some reason they put me in the first starting row. I think it may be the CAN in my licence number so maybe they think I am like one of those Norwegians that come here and wins everything. Starts have never been my strong point so I was instantly last due to SPD problems. But once I got my silly shoe clipped in I could catch up with the others. I was riding faster than I would normally and was surprised that it actually does work. I had one guy just in front of me so I had to pass him to avoid last place. And I did it using Öijertekniken on the first of many nasty uphills. But I kept going because he could pass me again but I had already lost contact with those ahead so I focused on speed and technique.

The first lap I am satisfied with but it left me pretty tired. I made it most of the way around before people from the start groups behind me wanted to pass. But I could still focus on my race. Second lap I really tried to get up those hills and that led to cramps in both of my calves which is a sign that I was pushing and a sign that I need more training. So I was off the bike far too much and pretty fed up by the time I reached the psycho rock drop which I chickened out on every time.

After that point, it was really just roots left and no matter how hard I pushed I could just not master those. But soon I was out on the beginner course again which meant the end was near. There I gave it everything I had and flew along the grass field over towards the finish. Yes, the finish line where someone from the women's class had just passed me in a spurt I did not know was happening. Lovely. So overall it was 44:44 of the best training you can get. That meant 31st which is fine. Except that my left knee now hurts while my right is okay now.

Special mention to Benny Andersson who raced H50 as a warm-up and won followed by H30 which he also won. 16 years from now I would be happy to be able to start a race in H50. =)

Results are here.
Västgötacupen 2010 page is here.