(I will add some photos tomorrow on this blog posting)
So Lidingöloppet 2010 is over. This is the long story.
Preparation
This week was a true taper week. I ran 18km last Saturday and 10km last Sunday. I haven't done any running this week. Had a business trip to Ukraine and couldn't find time to squeeze any running in my schedule. This might have been one of the factors of success.
As I am on the LCHF diet I haven't done any kind of carbo loading. Yesterday I ate a lot of normal LCHF food and I started the day today with egg and bacon.
11:00 today
Arriving to Lidingövallen. They had promised us rain and 13 C. This was completely wrong. It was sunny and probably around 18 C. Perfect conditions! I decided to have shorts and my standard Nike t-shirt. When I got my stuff at Lidingö (chip etc) I decided to skip some part of the LCHF diet since I hadnt had any kind of lunch. I bought two small protein cookies. They tasted awful (and had a lot of carbs...40%).
11:15-12:00
Nice time. Preparing for the race. Number on the tshirt, chip on the right shoe, drinking a lot since I hadn't been drinking since 09:30.
12:00-13:00
Walked to the start at Koltorp. Perfect time wise. Had plenty of time to go and make a dump and the weather was really nice.
13:00-13:58 (the first 10km (58 min))
I hope you all know how the course is. The first 10km is pretty easy but not as easy as some say. Some really nastý hills. Its also notable that the first 10km is not 10km, its actually 10.35km (which means appr 2 minutes more of running time). I decided to follow the flow which meant appr 5:45 pace. So many people and it wasn't possible to pass people. I felt much better this year compared to last year. When I passed the 10km mark at 58 min I understood that this will probably be a good day. One thing that bothered me was my heart rate. It was high from the start. I think I was all the time >170 in HR! Normally nowadays I want to be at appr 150 HR. I took one drastic and important descision. I said to myself. Do not run slower now! The body feels good. Go for it!
13:58 - 14:52 (10km-20km (54 min))
This is a really nice part of the course. The first 5km are really nice and easy. I tried to push it here. I actually think that I did one or two sub 5 min / k km! I had some 5:11, 5:13 etc. I ran fast and I felt that I was fast! Passed a lot of people. I also realise that I am really fast downhill. I kind of rush downhill. I would say that every hill downhill I probably passed 20 people today. So between 10-15km I had a good time today.
The km 15km - 20 km are much tougher, you might say the toughest of Lidingö. This is where the legs are prepared and killed before the big hills after 20km. But I felt good! And I said to myself. El Maco - kick it in! I listend to some Iron Maiden and was really really fast. I didnt care about cramp feelings that might come after 25km.
14:52 - 15:47
You often say that Lidingöloppet starts at 20km. As you might remember there is a gigant hill after 20km. I ran all the hills today. Passing tons and tons of people that walked. I was now in the zone. I had good music and I really forced myself to just do it! I ran and ran and ran. Aborrbacken was good also this year, ran the entire hill and I could kick it downhill after that hill.
The last 3km were sweet! There is a big hill as you know after 28km. This was no problem for me today. Last km is downhill and I almost sprinted!
All in all a fantastic race. I could easily walk after the race. No cramp feelings at all. Could I have done this faster today? Well check my GC posting. The HR is crazily high. And yes - the first 10km was 58 min but then you have to understand that its actually 10.35km.
My average pace today was 5:30! 5:30! That is FAST!
Guys! Comments please!
Why do I call this race "A Tribute to Lasse Lantz"? Well five years ago I told a collegue that I would beat his 5 Stockholm Marathon and 5 Lidingöloppet in a row. Guess what. I met him yesterday (he has left Ericsson and I havent talked to him in two years). Guess what he said? He didn't do 5 Stockholm and 5 Lidingö in a row. He did 5 Stockholm Marathon and 4 Lidingö! Today I finally passed Mr Lantz. I now have 5 straight Stockholm Marathons and 5 straight Lidingöloppet. Without you Lasse I wouldn't have done this! Thanks mate!
El Maco
You are the king of Lidingöloppet, no doubt about that. Ok, you wrote that you where "HR-high" allready from the beginning, exactly the same thing happened to me in Växjö last year. I was on my 85%-level very soon after start, but I also felt fresh, so I did continue without slowing off exactly like you did today. 5,30-tempo in Lidingö is fantastic, you most be in very good shape right now :-) ......
SvaraRaderaSorry, Marre was logged on !
SvaraRaderaCongratulations with a great race ! Correct me if i'm wrong but, I think you now possess the record of Lidingö on LR. Can you comment on your experince during the run with the low carb diet ? HR of 170 in the first 10K sounds completely crazy...are you sure the monitor was accurate ?
SvaraRaderaThanks Mr W. No I am not at all the fastest on Lifetime Runners. Mr 3:19:57 did a fantastic 2:29 a lot of years ago.
SvaraRaderaIt was great race. My HR was >170 from the start. No nothing wrong with the HR monitor. My max HR is 201. For example when I ran Stockholm 1/2 marathon back in 2007 I had an AVERAGE heart rate of 190. That is high!
El Maco, an inspiring report to read!
SvaraRaderaIt seems like the LCHF has been good for your performance, contrary to what might have been expected.
What happened to the rest of the Lifetimers? No one dared to follow you to Lidingö? //Jan E
Congratulations El Maco, great race and great time. Actually if we speaks "nutid" this time is a record and definitely hard for us to beat. My 2.29 was back in 1999 and thats history now. Hope i will be able to run lidingö with you next year, would be great, Lidingö is my favourite race even though i only ran it once.
SvaraRaderaGreat race! Wouldn´t have had a chance to beat you this time. Reading your report makes me feel sorry I wasn´t able to run. Will go for it next year!/ Mr Mizuno
SvaraRaderaSorry 3.19.57, I forgot your exceptional longstanding result. El Maco, what I was wondering was if the HR monitor went "bananas" like mine did a few days ago, when I started the run it went up to 180-190 for the first 8 minutes (my max HR is 177) and I know for sure the the real HR was not over 135. I think the monitor sometimes goes bananas if the electrodes are too dry and doesn't make good enough contact.
SvaraRadera