The results of the Nike Challenge

YES! My team won the Nike Challenge and I came third place overall in the entire challenge. Not too bad, right?!? So now I'll get my own design of Nike LunarGlide+2! Plus a T-shirt as well as a running jacket.

Anyways, it hasn't been too much running last week. I don't know why, but the main reason was that I was too tired. I had too much things to do and I've been running far too much since the start of the Nike Challenge. Everything was just about running. It was a great experience, but in the end, my body didn't have the energy to keep on running as much as by the beginning of the challenge. In a way, it was good because I got 4 days of resting. I just had to. It almost drove me to nuts, but when I finally went running again last Saturday, it was as if I had found my best friend again.

Next challenge is the ultra race on October 23rd. With a distance of 50k, we are about 100 runners who will run trail ultra running race called Markusloppet. It's gonna be a different experience!

A few months ago I planned on joining the Honolulu Marathon this December, but now I've decided to postpone the plan until next year. Instead of running the marathon, I will maybe register myself for the Bromölla Marathon (a small marathon in a small city in the east of Skåne, southern Sweden) on November 14th. It's gonna be a different experience running a marathon in the cold winter weather. Thank God southern Sweden don't have snow until the end of December. However, who knows- maybe we will this year?!?

Keep on running!

3rd week of the Nike challenge.

Like I told you earlier, I came fourth in the first week of the Nike Challenge. Yesterday night, the 2nd week of Nike challenge came to an end. The results? I took the lead at 9.40 p.m. by 18 km. Shortly after, I saw another guy passing me with five kilometers and placing himself first. I went out running again, for 13 km. Came back and uploaded the distance from my Nike+ clock. It was 11.10 p.m. then. However, about five minutes after, I saw the same guy passing me by 3 km. By that time, I was too tired to go out for a run again. Surfed into the Run Unleashed group at Facebook and congratulated the guy who "stole" my first place.

This morning, I checked and noticed that there was another guy who beat us both! So the final results made me third overall in the 2nd week. Sucks. But at least, I was in the top five and I'll get another Nike t-shirt. Now the 3rd week begins and I swear, I'll fight harder this week. Next Tuesday will be an exciting night. Now I'm aiming to win the 3rd week and to win the entire challenge in total (which ends by the night of September 23rd). I'm in the 3rd place overall after 15 days. It is gonna be a tough competition, as I am running against a few other competitive guys who will do anything they can to win. However, I want to be the first girl who wins the weekly challenge! The previous 2 challenges were won by guys.

Cheer on me!

Copenhagen Powerade Halfmarathon

Today I participated in the halfmarathon race in Copenhagen. It was actually nothing I had planned beforehand. I just decided to run the race after my friend got hurt and wanted someone to take his place. So I did. I got to know this last week, just when I started the Nike challenge. I decided to still get through with the challenge as I will also run the race. Even if I ran 70 km this week before this race, which is about 40 km more than the previous halfmarathon I participated in last June, I finished the race in 1:48:17. My personal record is 1:46:38.

I actually think I could have done better. However, the same thing happened in the race as in Copenhagen Marathon last May. Which thing you may wonder? I got my one-period-once-a-month for this race. It is nothing I can control. Women got their stupid-assed periods and we can't control our periods after a race. It is impossible. Anyways, the same thing that happened in Copenhagen Marathon, like this time, was that I got pains in my stomach in the middle of this race. The pains made it a struggle for a few kilometers to get through, then they just stopped. For a while there, I felt nauseous, but with my strong mentality I just tried to get off the mind of the feeling and succeeded.

The rest of the race went through much easier once the pains stopped, but I just couldn't try to keep up my pace. In all, I'm pretty satisfied. I know for sure that next time I will participate in a half marathon, marathon or ultra race, I will not run as much as I did this week. As for the period thing, it is nothing I can control. I can just hope that I will be lucky next time so that I won't get my period.

Great running practice!

My food after a hard but great run with several intervals with a group of runners in Lund. This was my second time running with them and I really enjoyed it. I was not the fastest runner in the group, but I was surely one of the most assiduous runners. We ran 10,6 km in total, including the intervals.

Oh, and by the way- I bought Garmin Forerunner 305 today but I haven't tested it yet. I will do it first thing tomorrow morning. Exciting to see how much my running average pulse is, in both persistent long distance running and speedy but shorter distances.

After reading a book by Jonas Colting, I'm planning on trying power yoga and see if it is something for me. According to Colting and several other runners, and other athletes as well, yoga is a great complement to running.

It's been a crazy month

Even if it is only 8 days into September, it has already been a crazy month for me. I joined a Nike+ challenge beginning on September 1st and ending on September 24th. The top five runners with most running kilometers can win prizes each week. Yesterday, the first week ended and I came fourth. Today, a new week begins and I'll do whatever it takes to win this week. It's crazy, because I also got a half marathon race this Sunday. I should rest and run less until then, but I won't. I'll run like the devil chases me. After September 24th, I deserve a few days of rest (well, I say few days but I doubt I'll rest more than one day).

I beat my old record of most running kilometers in a single week during the first week of this challenge. My previous record was 70 km in a week, now I've run 135 km in a week. Most running kilometers a month is usually 230 kilometers. Now, I think I can make it 400.