Lidingöloppet 2015

Thinking about the race I did last Saturday I don't think that I could have asked more. Well, I could have, but only if I were a dreamer which is not actually a thing that ties into long distance races very well.

Lidingöloppet 2015 - start

Since the first time I ran the whole course five years ago while I was training, I never stop loving it. I frankly think that it is the best course I ran. Challenging for me since I normally perform better on flat and hard terrain. Tough, but really nice! I guess it's not easy to find a 30km cross country running competition with 22.000 competitors around the globe...
And I finally got it, My goal was to run around 1h45m. I tried for two years to achieve it but I wasn't probably ready for it. This year, after four weeks where I was able to focus on training well, I finally hit the target. I must confess that on Friday right after a jogging I felt really tired and I was quite scared to have the same feelings of last year when I was never really able to push hard as I wanted in the hills from the very beginning of the race.

Lidingöloppet 2015 - Lidingövallen

I started quite careful, trying to follow the group of runners after the Africans. It was fun since many of my club mates were part of that group and it felt quite good. Before crossing the first kilometer I realized that the Africans were not keeping such a high pace as expected, so I tried to catch up a little bit, but nobody else followed me. So I thought that it wasn't probably the best idea and I waited alone for couple of kilometers until I was "swallowed" again by the pack. Some of the guys tried to increase a little bit the pace before crossing Lidingövallen, I followed them and found myself leading the group with my orienteering club mate Mårten Boström. I kept going with a stable pace until the last loop (10km to go). There I felt that I could still push in the hills, while my friend Mårten (probably not in the same amazing shape of last year) was struggling a bit. While I could run away from him, I thought it wouldn't have been wise to try to follow two Norwegian runners that overtook me; they were looking too strong in the hilly parts. I cross the finish line in 8th position, after 1h43m40s, really happy for it, also because on the last kilometer (pretty flat one - 3m06s) I was still feeling really fresh on my legs and able to speed up when I saw the finish,
Maybe I wish yesterday I were running a marathon instead, because I don't know if I'll be able to keep this shape for four more weeks; Winter is coming here! So, that is my challenge now and I honestly wouldn't trade what I did this year in Lidingöloppet with another race.

Too slow for racing?

Three weeks ago I left Stockholm for landing in my Country. So far I've found the perfect weather in my hometown and apparently I left Sweden right before the Summer ran away. I'm going to be back in Stockholm in the middle of the next week, at the end of my vacation. Training motivation is not really high, but I've followed the plan and since I arrived here I drastically increased the amount of kilometers per week, running 160km the first week of holiday and then up to 180km the second. Of course, such a change had some consequences...
The first weekend of my Summer holiday I ran a high quality 10km race near my place (Giro delle Mura Città di Feltre), where I ended up in the 21st place out of 26 runners (results here). Far, definitely too far from the leader Stefano La Rosa. I didn't run that bad -my pace was slightly faster than 3.10/km- but I was feeling too heavy and I couldn't do better. I must admit, it doesn't feel so nice when people ask you "why were you so slow?". There is no answer for that, but yet another question: "is it better to be the first of the slower or the last of the faster?". I have no idea what's the answer yet...

Marcialonga Running 2015 - Last hill

The week after I ran Marcialonga Running, a competition following the track of the cross-country skiing competition held in Cavalese in the end of January. Again, I ran even slower than the last year, especially on the last hill, where I couldn't push harder that 4.30/km. Slow, too slow for racing. My legs just couldn't do any better!
Those two races reminded me the normal feeling of the marathon runner. They brought me back in the days, while I was training for other marathons and I couldn't constantly perform the way I wanted. Of course, at that time I was fresher, younger and more trained, but I feel that it is just normal. The best thing to do is probably to take only the positive inputs (if any!) and keep training for Venice Marathon.
So, yes, I'm definitely too slow for racing. Now. But I need to race in order to train. Thus... Never mind, I will not cry for my bad performances and still feel positive on the long term goal, and if I'm going to be too slow for racing in one month as well, never mind, at least I'll find myself conscious of the fact that I tried to do my best.