Listen now, this is instructive !

Ever since the book ELSK AT LØBE was completed I have had two goals for my marathon running: 1) to do a sub-4 hours and 2) to attempt a sub 3.45 realizing that such a feat could very well be out of my reach as for now. Goal 1) was DONE in Vancouver Marathon with my friend Vagn Kirkelund (who just completed Chicago Marathon, the last of the five World Majors for him, congrats) and wouldn’t you know it, goal #2 was pinned with success this very past weekend in Amsterdam. There, I had yet another pro pace-bunny, Mogens Pedersen of Denmark, to help me achieve a stunning 3.42.39 as a new personal best (PB) time.

So what is the catch here ? Well… that the theory in the book works ! I could point out five or six sentences that have transformed my mindset as a runner completely. Indeed, my whole life is changed ! It is indeed very pleasing to see and feel a direct connection between the things being changed and worked on and the results, the marathon results. If I should highlight just three things it should be 1) weight reduction, 2) training with high intensity and 3) constant focus on the “metabolic fitness”, the latter being an important new concept in the context of running and an extremely important concept for your overall health and avoidance of the so-called life-style illnesses of the modern world.

There are also some subtle details that play a part. E.g. my shift to the phenomenal ECCO BIOM B shoes when running for time and the positive encouragements and help from my many marathon friends, e.g. Niels Høg Henriksen whom we see on this photo (and the ECCO BIOM Bs on my feet).

I could mention a number of other things and factors… but I will keep them for myself a little while longer… and just relax for a bit and enjoy the memories from Amsterdam Marathon 2011.

You find a full report here: Amsterdam Marathon 2011 – pictures.

It is often said that men can’t multitask. That is obviously nonsens ! We can e.g. drive a car and think about sex, be in a business meeting and think about sex, and we can even have sex and think about sex with others So don’t say we can’t multitask !

So what has this to do with running ? Absolutely nothing ! Well, perhaps a little bit. Beceause if we change the word “sex” with “running” we are getting where I would like to be the next two years. We are in The State of Mental Running. That’s what I will call it, anyways. A State where thoughts about running are present in your mind at least subconsciously all the time and where many – not all ! – of your decisions and actions throughout the day are connected to your training and goals as a Runner.

Importantly, your subconscious Running Sensor is questioning everything you choose to eat and drink – with the end that you probably choose to eat a bit differently than “if not”. Basically, your Runnning Sensor will be responsible for keeping you on track with your goals both as a Runner and as a Human. So now you may ask: where do I get this Running Sensor, how do I find into this Running State ? The answer is simple: in your Mind ! You just have to decide !

Well, that’s what I have done. I realized after the writing of the book (ELSK AT LØBE) that things would only change for me if I changed my thoughts and actions. This is merely repeating that if you want different outcomes in your life, you have to undertake different (new) actions – and different actions start in the Mind with different thoughts and mind-sets.

So the next two years I will opt for a revised Running State for myself. I will indeed be multitasking on how to improve my running technique, on how to get more traning into my normal working days, on dropping those extra kilos and so forth. I will be reading and cross-referencing running literature with self-improvement books and again cross-referenced with Music and other means of getting into “states”, into the famous FLOW as coined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. I will be a Runner 24/7/365 and I will  not settle for less 

More will follow on this topic – The State of Mental Running or, for me, Marathon Multitasking. Make no mistake: this is not just a spacy mental excercise or superficial words on a blog. This is the essense, the destilate, of the teachings from the book that will be used in the hard and patient training and strenghtening of my body with the declared goal to run a sub-3 marathon before 2014. This sounds like a ridiculous goal for me to achieve – just making it even more compelling.

I’ll catch you out there.

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. This past weekend I was lucky enough to win.

Not only did I participate in the extremely beautiful Thorshavn Marathon on the Faroe Islands and with a quite good effort, no, I also gained some new friends up north and I learned a lot about the life on these islands way up in the Atlantic Sea. As you can imagine from these sample photos…

… it’s hard not to like the spectacular nature of the Faroe Islands.

The race itself, Thorshavn Marathon, is organized by the local running club Bragdid. The field was mostly populated by local runners from Bragdid and the “competing” club Treysti (from Klaksvik) but also counted a number of international runners from e.g. Norway, Denmark and Italy. After a short roundtrip “downtown” Thorshavn…

… we settled for a ride in the country side and I must say: what great out-doors ! LOL !

The marathon was quite tough, actually, with a great number of hills of miscellaneous mortality but running in sunshine and with the view of the Atlantic Sea was a very serene experience !

Well across the finish line I could thank Pól Sundsgard for a terrific race and weekend (and thank you to all my other new friends up there !).

I strongly encourage you to consider this race on your to-do list, especially if you collect island marathons. Here you find my full report from Thorshavn Marathon 2011

Various articles have been added to the press section.

I am especially delighted with my contributions on the new ambitious website “Motion Danmark”, a new and important country-wide initiative to get people to be physically active. Added also is various articles on the book ELSK AT LØBE.

You may enjoy the reading listening to the beautiful song below. I’m not sure if the lyrics was written for me but I guess it could have. Both ways.

I guess it’s like five years back since I last ran a halfmarathon. So, Sunday in beautiful and for once sunny Copenhagen I entered such a race and boy, WHAT A RACE !!! Frankly, I think the organizers SPARTA managed to pull off the best-ever running event on danish soil.

The race started at 11.00 hours…

… and took the runners through some scenic parts of Copenhagen…

… including the turist attraction Nyhavn…

… and finally the finish line with tons of people cheering their lungs out. GREAT STUFF !!!

I managed to complete in 1.56.58, not too bad since I had run a full marathon just the day before.

You can read more about my Powerade Copenhagen Halfmarathon and Saturdays Vestegnsmarathon following the links. Enjoy !

A scenic part of Vestegnsmarathon 2011.

As indicated before, I do have a very strong intuition at times. I “know” things before they happen or at least fully unfold. This is handy in some situations, troublesome in others. Especially hurtful is when I “see” bad actions, bad intentions, poor friendship behaviours, lousy love-affairs and the like way up front. And I guess I blame myself for not pulling the bullshit-break sooner than I mostly do. I actually give people too many chances… knowing that they will misuse them… and still end up like the fool. Speak about having good intentions with a shitty result !

On a larger scale I think as a parent that is important to evaluate what we pass on to our children, both actively and passively.  Children copy our behaviour and they make decisions that can last a lifetime. So it is far from trivial which values we carry.

Those of you who know me quite well know that I carry Integrity and Perseverance as very high values. I do NOT take the easy solutions. I am unbribable. For the same reasons I will tend to lower deceit and mistrust and it is for sure a fact that if you position yourself outside my circle of trust, you’re out for life. I may probably forgive you (or myself) along the time but you will still never re-enter the circle. Luckily, only a handful of persons thoughout my lifetime has taken this “trip”… underscoring the severity when I say “out”.

I truly believe that Life means “include”, but I do also have standards and they are not for sale. Not for sale for superficial friendhips, not for sale for flattery, not for sale for public attention, not for sale for manipulation, not for sale for “convenience”,  NOT FOR SALE ! So yes, my kids will be fed the values of Integrity and Perseverance, alongside with Honesty, Physical Activity and the love for the Nature. Core values of the old world, perhaps.

My Children will also be encouraged to exploit stuff themselves. They are well at it already, and outpowering their old man. Isn’t that nice ! That is the way Life should be: the next generation superseeding the old. But “we” old ones can still evolve, we can still transform. To this end, I am about to. But unsure in what way. But it will be a huge Transformation. As it has happened a few times before in my Life, strong voices call from “the other side”, like prerecognitions of a Personal tsunami completely overflowing my Reality. I try to dismiss these voices (mostly appearing in Dreams) – but all efforts are in vain.

So I have to find out: what is the next Transformation ? What is to happen ?

The Phoenix will fly !

Some months are quiet, some are busy. I guess this August of 2011 will be a busy one. It has opened quite busy for sure, not only with respect to the stock markets world wide and with the events in London these past few days, but also for me personally in, nicely, more pleasant ways.

Firstly, I have  the honor to be the feature story in the biggest running magazine in Denmark, Lobemagasinet, and even figuring on the front cover. If you read danish, do invest, the article is very well written, actually.

The first weekend of August featured a double marathon for me, two tough races and two very special events indeed. Saturday saw the debut of Strynø Marathon, a superbly well organized event on a small island just south of Fyn, Denmark. Read all about my experiences from Strynø Marathon – and as the photo below indicates: it was a tough one !

(Photo: Ib Stokkeby)

Sunday came the unusual race at and around an old military air camp. Furthermore, the race was a celebration for two very good running friends each grabbing their marathon no. 100, namely Morten Pihlsbech of Denmark and Susanne Gren of Sweden. The day started out rather awfully with gusting showers and hard winds, but magically everything cleared up and we could cheer Morten and Susanne in somewhat sparkling sun in the stunningly beautiful nature at Avnø, Seeland, Denmark.

I think I managed quite well in this very tough race. See my impressions of the day here.

A few weeks back I had the pleasure to “win” a pair of Ecco BIOM B running shoes. They arrived this week and I took them on a 5 k run immeadiately. My gosh ! This was for sure the best ever first-time run in ANY pair of shoes. The shoes are build from yak leather and are crafted to support Natural Running, read more on the Ecco website. They have a very comfortable fit and the heel is rounded to avoid the “break” of the traditional running shoe. Just looking at the shoes is a different and intriguing experience, try for yourself below.

A rather detailed training plan is supplied with the shoes…

… however, I was to thrilled by their unique fit as to dare a full marathon in them in my run no. 2 in them, probably not something everyone should do, and I was really excited to see what that would bring ? Thus, yesterday, I completed a full marathon in my new Ecco BIOM B shoes and lets put it short: it was AWESOME !!!

It is quite clear to me that this is the shoes that I have been needing for far too long… and this is the shoes that I will use in my attempt in October 2011 to run sub 3.45 in Amsterdam Marathon. I will update my blog here with my experiences with these Ecco BIOM B shoes and will describe the shoes in more detail later as well.

For now, I send my kindest of thoughts to the World Runner Jesper Kenn Olsen who made this possible for me. Jesper is currently in the middle of his World Run II, running also in the BIOMs.

Turning 25 is always nice, today I did it again for the 9th time, marathonwise. The event was a small local race near Copenhagen and I had the pleasure of the company of Birgitte Munch Nielsen for a good part of the run, Birgitte being the most experienced female marathoneer in Danmark. Sadly, however, my out-of-form showed rather early and I had to struggle quite a bit to secure the race.  Thus, my 25-list looks like this now:

25 27.08.2006 Landskrona (Sweden) Pictures
50 30.06.2007 Kristianopel (Sweden) Pictures
75 20.04.2008 Zürich (Switerzerland) Pictures
100 02.11.2008 Skovmaren (Denmark) Pictures
125 26.04.2009 London (England) Pictures
150 19.09.2009 Vänersborg (Sweden) Pictures
175 21.03.2010 Rome (Italy) Pictures
200 22.08.2010 Blokhus (Denmark) Pictures
225 24.07.2011 Skinnermarathon (Denmark) Pictures

The historical note to this weekend is of course related to the sad events in Norway and the loss of Amy Winehouse. In a larger context running marathons (as I do it) is merely like kids playing, a luxury in an often harsh and brutal world. My respect to the victims and to Amy.

Yesterday, the World witnessed the sad and brutal attack in Norway including a bombing of Oslo and a mad man’s shoot-down of a large number of youngsters on a nearby island. The immediate reaction is disgust, sorrow and anger and wishes for hard punishment if not torture or worse.

Thinking a bit further, however, brings me to other thoughts. Firstly, WHY  do incidents like the one in Norway happen ? HOW should they be avoided ? And how should we really react ? I think the “immediate” answers are given above but that the true correct ones are to be found elsewhere. They are to be found at persons like Jesus, Gandhi and Dalai Lama. The only universal answer is: love – and forgiveness.

Which sounds absurd, I know. But isn’t it so that we react with self-protection when we are hurt ? And that “hurt” most often means “loss of love” to some extend. And that this self-protection then evolves into isolation, fear, hatred … all kinds of malfunctious stuff in our psyche ?  That seems to be the common experience, I believe. The only way to break it is… by loving. Loving as an out-going and active feeling from yourself and in deep accordance and harmony with the universal values of Mankind, love as from the state of Grace, as from your personal Pieta with the Globe.

Let me be a bit blunt: most of you are complete ignorants – and be happy for that, I tell you ! Most of you do not know the true sorrow of loosing nor the real impact of Death. You only know your fears about it (if even). But let me tell you this: at the time a person losses everything and says goodbye to Life, only one feeling is present: Love. Love to Life, Love to the near-ones, Love to situations and shared experiences. Love.

So yes, we have to try to embrace everything with Love, even when it seems impossible. Let’s all use the events in Norway to raise the level, not lower it. Let’s go for the greater universal values and truths. Let’s go for Love.