Managed to run 20 km's this morning again. It starts do be a nice routine to do the weekend main training session already on Saturday morning. It feels good to have it done. Then anything or nothing that happens for the rest of the weekend, is OK.

During my year in Kuala Lumpur, I was lucky early on to run in to Choi, who invited me to join him & his running friends for LSD training on Sat mornings. Those training sessions + some marathons, were the base for my survival mode running in Malaysia. I got very sick of indoor threadmills and the heat and humitidy made it hard to run outside during the days. After 8.30 in the mornings it was to hot already. It was really early mornings for me. Getting up before 5 AM to eat some light breakfast and drive down to Bukit Aman car park at Lake Gardens, from where we started at 6 AM. Still dark and no traffic yet. Most of the dangerous animals were probably still asleep. Azlan, my local manager, had told me lots of scary stories about snakes, tigers, etc that killed people around the KL area on a regular basis in the bush, but but ... I encountered mainly monkeys. It was good to be a part of team of runners anyhow. If you meet a hungry tiger, you just have to run faster than the slowest runner in the team. A tiger will be happy with one person for breakfast. Perhaps 2 since most runners are skinny guys ;-)

There's an anecdot from Africa, that I picked up a long time ago and like very much, that goes like this:

Every morning in Africa, a Gazelle wakes up,

It knows that it has to outrun the fastest Lion or it will be killed.

Every morning in Africa, a Lion wakes up,

It knows that it has to run faster than the slowest Gazelle or it will starve to death.

So, it doesn't really matter who you are. When the sun gets up, you'll better be running!

I remember that I once had a pair of Adidas Gazelle shoes, that I liked very much, but they were more of general sports style, not for running. I also had a pair of specialized running shoes of the brand Tiger, that I didn't like at all. I think I gave them away to Yngve. I bet that he still wears them (just joking Yngve, if you by chance read this).Tiger was actually the Swedish branding for Asics back then. Also Lejon shoes were big in the eighties, but a bit to sloppy in the structure and poor cushioning.

My conclusion with all this is that my style is probably more of a Gazelle than a Tiger or Lion. If someone releases Monkey shoes I might try them too. Must be good for off road running.

Last night, I went with Elvira to check out a gymnasium school in Mölnlycke, Hulebäck. It's not easy for teenagers who are leaving the compulsary school (or their parents) to decide upon what kind of school to apply for. It's difficult enough to know what kind of educational direction to choose. Both the private and community schools are competing in getting their volumes filled with students = getting financial fundings or tax money from the communities where the children lives. Lots of marketing tricks are used to appear more attractive than the others. For example, at Hulebäcks gymnasium, we were served a very nice dinner. I also got a bit extra suspious when the staff & teachers were acting like classic sales persons. It's of course nice to be treated like a customer, but last night the behaviour felt a bit untrue. My perception based on dealings with teachers etc from the past didn't match at all, but times are changing for sure and hopefully also for the better. Well, I hope that the teachers are as customer minded, friendly and helpful to the students normally too.

Big school with 1700 students, sounds like a lot to me. Elvira is checking 3-4 different schools, so let's see what happens.

My reflection is that, even if it's good to have many options to choose from, it's so confusing for a 15 year old, who is confronted with so many other crossroads in life all the time, so they might go for something that actually has been packaged and marketed in a more attractive way, regardless of the quality of the content. References from others are very important.

Hulebäcks gymnasium has a nice motto that I like "Be the one you are and become the one you want".

It was much easier when I was young. Then the big question was, to continue or not. We were only 3 out of 15 boys that continued with studies at gymnasium level. The rest started working straight away at the various industries around or got involved in the family business. They then bought motorcycles and had money for parties and other fun stuff all the time. Plus no boring homework during evenings. I felt a bit jealous of that sometimes. On the other hand, for us, there were lots of nice girls in the gymnasium ;-)

Yes, there's been lots of unexpected expenses the last month. The collapse of the heating system in the house topped the bill. Just to swap the whole thing to a complete new system. Some expenses you just have to accept. I would have preferred to use some of that money for a nice winter vacation trip with the family, but but ... it looks like it has to wait until next winter. Health & Happiness are more important and also a warm house.

1. Adequate Training

2. Consistent Training

3. Adequate Recovery

4. Setting Goals

5. Coaching

6. Nutrition

7. Positive Mental Attitude

This list is according to Active.com's triathlon newsletter and there are lots of stuff to read about each habit. My general view on these kind of articles is that there are to many of them and to much writing/talking. It feels a bit like reading instructions before you try yourself, regardless if it's about some new technology equipment or some IKEA furniture. Much more fun, to try yourself first and trust your intuition. Of course it seldoms works the way I think, due to either illogical constructions or that I'm smarter than average ;-) Instructions are for dummies ;-) 

If I make an evalutation of my own habits to become a more effective triathlete, runner or whatever, I believe that I have one out of these seven habits and that is number 7. Regarding the other 6 habits, I shoot from the hip and steal my moments whenever I can find them. From a retrospective viewpoint and in the eyes of others, it might look like I've been planning some training & setting goals etc, but that's definately a reconstruction. Even if I read all the stuff about the right ways of doing it, I don't want to become a slave under my own training regime. It has to be my own personal happy-go-lucky goofy style. So I don't really expect any quality results either. As long as I enjoy doing these kind of activities and believe in the positive side-effects that come with it, then I'm happy.

Currently I'm following Kari Martens on the final part of the running in the Deca Ironman Triathlon in Mexico. After 194 hours, he's in second place, only 20 km's behind the leader. Respect man! Still 80 km's to run, so tomorrow the race is over. Unbelievable! Great inspiration, that makes my coming evening run over 10 km's tonight, to feel like a yawning.

Started the day early in the morning with a 20 km run together with Jörgen. We ran from Mellby via Kåhög and followed the Säve river through Jonsered and along the road to Lerum, where we turned around. The temperature was below zero all the way, but the sun came up in a beautiful way and made it very enjoyable. Good LSD training and I felt better and better for each kilometer.

I even had power to go to the shopping malls at Backaplan with the family afterwards. Not my favourite activity otherwise.

I had a nice relax in the late afternoon, watching 2 Premier League games, Man City - Arsenal 3-0 and Aston Villa - Man Utd 0-0. Cristiano Ronaldo was a big disappointment today. Lost the ball at numerous occasions and threw himself on the ground like a spoiled kid, screaming for Mama or the referee. I admire his skills normally, but it's a shame when he acts like this.

Good news from todays World Cup XC skiing. Markus Hellner won!! That's fantastic for a guy coming from Lerdala. I know his mother Kerstin well.

Thank God It's Friday!

That's what it stands for and everyone in the world knows that, except some Swedes or at least most people up in Skaraborg, who think it's one of the gymnastics or sports clubs in Tidaholm. " Öka takta sista kvarta, Tiahölm Tiahölm Tiahölm" Clever stuff, from clever guys ;-)

Yes, tonight it's extra good that it is Friday, so after getting inside the house I just kicked my shoes & socks off and went to the bottles cupboard and had a few glasses of red wine. Not my normal routine, but since it's been an extra tough week, it's needed.

Cheers Mates!!!!

Yes indeed, I also like the food there, but I think the closest TGIF's restaurant at the moment is in Stockholm. A strawberry Margeritha would be nice now. Cheers again!!!

Yippie!! The first real snowfall of the season came tonight. Very nice big snow flakes came down in an almost movie-style fashion. Fantastic fresh feeling and it lights up the otherwise very dark nights. Nellie has already been out to build her first snowman ever. Jim looked super cool in his fluffy polar bear dress, when the snow came down on him.

I went for a late 10 km run in the soft fresh snow. The snow layer was untouched before I made my footprints along the track. Great sound from the crushed snow under my feet.

Hopefully, it stays for a while, but probably it melts away very soon, like we are used to here in the Gothenburg area. Soon (Dec 4-7) we are going up to the winterhouse in Dalarna for a long weekend, so that will most likely be the first skiing of the season.

I talked to Kwangho in Seoul this morning and it was actually snowing there too. Very early for being Korea. Last winter when we were there, we had some wet snow for a day or two only, plus some frosty days.

I look forward to a cold and white winter with lots of outdoor activities.

Today was a strange day at work, due to the announcement yesterday that 350 employees will be made redundant and even more external consultants will lose their assignments. Our customers are cutting their budgets dramatically due to the global financial crisis and business downturn, so we just have to adapt to that situation. That's not illogical, but it hits lots of people very hard. Lots of talking and speculations about what will happen, all over the office today, but in general it felt like the information from the management had been perceived in an acceptable way. The most important thing right now is to make sure that we can endure this phase with positive enthusiam and come out stronger when the crisis is over. The situation is not unique for our company, so I'm patient and optimistic. Time to focus on spirit more than ever before.

When the going gets tough, the tough gets going!