Changes in Latitudes

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 ...

I'm officially a marathoner !! 16 weeks of dedicated training came to an end...and I am not going to say that the marathon was my "victory lap" for all that training, because it sure did not feel like that. But I'll start from the beginning. I was so excited to go to the running expo and get my number. Adidas was the first half, and the other half had some 2XU, Garmin, Maxim sport fuel and other random stalls for compression wear and Runner's World Norway. Jack Waitz (husband of Grete Waitz ) was also there signing a copy of his book. I've become such a Norwegian that I didn't get a picture with him, but I probably should have. I say that I'm a Norwegian because if they see someone famous they observe from afar and do not want to disturb them. Got home with my goodie bag, which was mainly tons of brochures for things. I got one little sample bottle of soap (less than 1 oz) and a pink sweat band. At least I got a free copy of Runner's World N...