Changes in Latitudes

I'M AN ULTRA RUNNER!  Saturday was the EcoTrail Oslo race. The race this year includes five distances: 10k, 20k, 30k, 45k, and 80k. Marius ran the 20k and I ran the 45, but I'm going to say 45+ because my two gps devices both calculated at least 47km. It started out chilly at Holmenkollen. Some of the 80km runners were passing through as we lined up to start. There they could get bananas and waffles and fill up on water. The whole first half was lots of uphill on gravel roads and some technical terrain. I really enjoy the technical terrain, as it feels more like I can take little pauses and hop around. I have to concentrate a lot more on where my feet land, so I don't have much time to conjure up negative thoughts. There was supposed to be an aid station after 15 kms (the first hill), but a mile after that I finally came to the aid station. All of the stations were off by at least a mile. It was hard to estimate how much water I was able to drink and if I reall...

Long story short, I missed my PR by 42 seconds. Darn!! But now I'll go back to the beginning. I had some great training weeks logging over 40 miles a week before we brought home Pancho. The last six weeks of training were average, but not stellar; at least not quite up to a standard for a PR as with my half-marathon training. And I think the problem was mainly that and that I didn't have as big of a breakfast as usual because I worried about feeling sick during the race. In addition, I read last night that poor core strength leads to poor posture later in the race thus setting off a chain of events that lead to muscle cramps in the legs. Friday before the race I worked a half day, and Marius and I loaded up the car and headed east to Oslo - an 8 hour drive from Bergen over the mountains. We gave Pancho a motion sickness pill, before we left only to realize too late that he should have taken the pill 90 minutes before we left. So he got sick in his cage, and then I had...

I realize I never got around to posting about Madrid. I wanted to upload pictures from Marius' camera, but that has been hard to remember the few times I go to Oslo. So I promise to post something with the pictures I took with my phone. So news since Easter... April 30th I logged over 1000 kilometers of running so far this year. I saw at the end of March that I could get myself to do it, and I did! It was a great night in Bergen for making that goal as well. June 1st I'll start my training cycle for the Oslo Marathon. My second attempt, so I'm aiming for anything better than 4:09:00 - my finishing time last year. My shoes that carried helped me run past my 1000th km this year also surpassed their 1000th km of their lifetime My favorite running spot lately is Fjellveien - a road which runs along the rim of the valley just above the city- Great views of downtown, fresh air, gravel pathway. Experimenting with some new ways to fuel - quinoa berry bowl ...

We drove from Copenhagen to Oslo in one day; it's only 6 hours. While we were still in Denmark we found a grocery store to stock up on cheaper beer and some road snacks. But then the GPS took us the wrong way, and we found ourselves in line for the ferry from a city just north of Copenhagen to Helsingborg, Sweden. Instead of backtracking to the bridge, we decided to take the 20 minute ferry ride across. We obviously went way north! Six hours later we were back in Oslo. We took it easy the next day and walked around our neighborhood and up the river. It was good weather for a long walk. Rigmor had us over for dinner and served moose "gryte" (a stew) and "Troll krem" (troll cream = lingonberry, egg whites and sugar) for dessert. We still had some must-sees to cover in Oslo. Mainly the royal palace and ski jump/ski museum. We made it in time for the changing of the guard. Skis varied by region and were over 15 feet long back in the day! Dad...

First Carlsberg of the trip As we crossed the bridge from Malmö, Sweden, into Denmark, we saw blue sky, blue water and white sail boats. The bridge was long, but before we knew it we were in Denmark...yet again, no indication that we actually entered another country, and it felt more like we were crossing the bridge up to the U.P. Following our GPS passed lots of houses that Marius described as "typical Danish", but to me they just looked like "typical northern Europe": brick homes with steep roofs. There were tons of cyclists! A lot of people bike in Norway, but Copenhagen sets the bar really high. We came to the street with our hotel and parked in the street. As well as there being two other hotels, there were also two "gentlemen's clubs", and the street smelled like pee. At least the room was alright! We went to the tourist information center around the corner and got a map for a walking tour of Copenhagen that "should only take...

I realized I never wrote about Mom and Dad's visit back in the beginning of September. They were here from September 2-11. We started in Oslo and then drove down to Copenhagen, via Gothenburg, for a long weekend before coming back up to Oslo. It was a lot of fun! I wish I could remember the "Dad-isms". I should have written them down! I will try to think of them for the next post. We had them in our little 44 m/sq apartment, so it was definitely pretty tight with the four of us, but we all share hotel rooms when we were on our little roadtrip anyways, so it we got used to it fast. When they left, though, it seemed so quiet. When they arrived we quickly got them into the Oslo experience with a visit to the famous sculpture park, Vigelandsparken. A walk is the best cure after travelling. The next day Marius went to the office and we went to the Viking Ship museum. But Marius caught up with us in time for the Kon Tiki museum. I highly recommend both of those...