Mt.Kinabalu (4095,2m)

I finally climbed I finally climbed another mountain – wohoo – I feel so alive! Climbing high mountains really are that I’m living for, and my biggest passion in life. I do not know how to explain it other than magical. This particular mountain wasn’t that high, but still quite hard to climb. We used only three days from sea level to 4095,2m and back down again. I can assure you my poor leg muscles felt stiff and sore, it’s been a long time since they‘ve been like that. But I  healed, and it was a super training for my upcoming Aconcagua climb. I felt fit all the way and didn’t lose my focus or energy. We had great weather almost the entire trip, only when we left our base camp to go back down did it rain… or I’m not sure it classifies as rain... it showered! We literally walked in a shower and a river for 3 hours – funny 

In addition to the climb, I also traversed the world highest via ferrata. THAT was amazing; at one point it has a 200m drop! It was bit scary, but oh so breath-taking. I could do that over

and over again.

We (a colleague and I) flew to Kota Kinabalu Friday morning, and stayed at a resort at the foot of the mountain the first night. It was so nice to finally breathe cool fresh air again. I must say, KL is very nice, but the air is not… so this was a delicious relief.Early morning the next day we were picked up, and drove to the National park. Mt Kinabalu is one of the world’s heritage sites, and is in a very good shape. We got ID tags to wear at all times, a packed lunch and started to walk slowly. The road to our base camp was quite hard, steps

almost all the time, and a steep climb. Pretty hard if you ask me. Especially with the high temperatures! Luckily we walked in jungle in the shadow almost all the time. It ws a nice walk, we saw loads of squirrels, strange flowers and interesting rock formations. Apparently Mt. Kinabalu is mostly granite with other rock above; the granite is warm so the shape of the other layers looks very interesting. Sometimes I wish I knew more about geology to understand it all 

After walking in about 5 hours we reached our base camp; the Pendant Hut. We had dinner, and went to sleep around 7pm. I slept like a baby for 7 hours and was more than ready to go when we started at 2:30am 

We put on our head torches and went outside in the cold, step by step we climbed towards the summit. It was a nice climb, not to hard and not very easy. You could feel the altitude and the pressure in the body – just perfect! A few minutes before sunrise we reached the summit and what a morning! It was absolutely breath-taking! We could see miles and miles and the colours… I have no words. Look for yourselves ;)

After a short while we started the descending, and met our via ferrata guides. I took the long route, while Bjørn took the short one. As mentioned above, it was soooo cool! I’ve never hung in a wall, only supported by a harness with 200m drop behind me… The traverse took almost 3 hours – and I loved every bit of it 

Mt.Kinabalu was a perfect mountain, and I recommend this trip top anyone being near here. Or far for that matter, you just have to travel longer. Food was nice (It’s Malaysia you know), guides was nice and accommodation was nice. Last but not least, the mountain was very nice, and the view spectacular!

KL city life

As some of you know, I´ve spent the last two month in Kuala Lumpur, working. I travelled here 28^th September, and am going home the coming Thursday; 28^th November. I love Kuala Lumpur, one of my favorite big cities in the world, but I really can´t wait to come home. I don´t always appreciate it the way I should, but there is something special with living in Norway: nature right outside the door, and almost no pollution. At least if I compare it with this big city – concrete, cars and noise… I´m ready to go home J

So, what have I´ve been doing while staying here… first, work takes a lot of my time, and that is the way it should be. I´m having a great team here, that is really working their buts of and takes on all work I give to them. I´m really proud of them and are looking forward to the future and all what will happen J Other than working, I´ve been focusing on my very soon upcoming trip to Argentina. I´ve been running, swimming, played tennis, been in Krabi, Thailand, climbing and… I climbed a mountain! Wohooo! A colleague and I climbed Mt. Kinabalu (4095,2m) in the beginning of November. That was amazing, I´ll create a separate post about that climb. All mountains deserves their own space J

Also while being here, Jakob Urth, a friend (think I mentioned him earlier) managed to be the first Danish person on Mt. Shishapangma (8027m)! Congrats Jakob – you are truly an inspiration J

All comes to an end, and my KL city life is soon ending too. This trip has been great, I learned more about the Asian culture, I´ve been eating tons and tons of wonderful food, I´ve made new friends and I have literally not been bored a second. If you ever get the chance, come visit Kuala Lumpur, and Malaysia. As they say in the advert on TV: Malaysia, truly Asia J

Not as I wanted it to be...

To start with the hard facts, I did´t make it... my goal... something was wrong, and I also did something extremely stupid. I really just want to forget about the whole day, but... since I hopefully have learnt something about it, I´ll tell you what happened.

I woke up early the 21st September, and ate a nice and healthy breakfast. Then I went outside to look at the marathon runners, and to check out the new North Face shop in Oslo. Well, maybe it isn´t new, but I´ve never been there ;) I ended up with some new fantastic mittens called Himalaya mitt - I don´t think I can ever freeze in those. Happy :)

After this I had a light lunch and prepared myself for the run. I felt fine, strong and ready mentally. But... then I did something stupid, I jumped into the group before me, the ones wanting to finish by 1:40... and followed them when they started. Out into simple words, I stared to hard. When we all ran together I didn´t feel the pace... and it felt fine... until almost  6-7km. Then my feet started to feel as they do after 15km. I looked at my watch for the first time, and was shocked - it showed 200bpm!! After 6km!! I stopped instantly and started to walk, I needed to get my pulse down this second... but the damage was already done. I couldn´t relax, my feet went super sour, and all motivation disappeared. The next 14km are the hardest I´ve ever run... everything hurt. My head, my knees, my hips and especially my mind. How could I do something like that? I hated myself for not trying to run harder, to let myself listen to the pain, to wanting to give up. If your mind get into a state like that, it is like running miles and miles in upstream. Nothing at all is OK, and you feel like crap.

When that is said, I did finish at 1:57:29 (net time) and are more or less happy with that, all taken into consideration. 

I talked to a trainer friend a few days later, and he said that normally when your pulse jump to something like that after such a short time, and you do not run as you have a lion chasing you, something is wrong inside. Your body chooses to work on something else, than wanting you to run. I might have had a small flu, fever, or similar. The reason why I did not not feel it could have been me wanting to run really bad, and also wanting to finish within my goal. This relaxed me a bit, and I a not so mad at myself any longer. I know I can do this run with the result I want... to make that happen I´ve already signed up for next year Oslo Halfmarathon - BRING IT ON!!

Am I ready?

So, tomorrow I travel to Oslo to run another half marathon... in fact, THE half marathon... I am ready (I think), and hope to beat my time from last year; 1:49:21. I'm also a bit scared... what if I do not make it? Humm...

Well, I've been training for this, and here is how my last week and half has been:

Startet of on Monday (last week) with a 21km run around two lakes; Stokkavannet and Hålandsvannet. They are both on gravel and quite hilly. I love running this run, and tires to do it every now and then. Today I ran at a fast'ish pace and managed to finish at 1:35, which I am very happy with. The run was not stressful, I managed to keep it steady, had a stady pulse and finished without being exhaused - loved it!

Tuseday I had another own bodyweight training with Troy. It's amazing how small movements can make me so tired! Muscles I didn't know I had burns and I am almost not even moving. Hopefully it's what I need to get stronger :)

Wed, Thu and Fri I didn't train at all. Pretty sore muscles... and had some long nights at work, plus was suddenly invited to Kaizers Orchestra - can't say no to that ;)

I spent the weekend with my family on a cabin in Røldal. I wanted to go there to hike in the moutains to boost my "walking up hill" muscles. It was super even with heavy rain and low hanging clouds. Walked a few hours both Saturday and Sunday and felt refeshed and strong afterwards. It's just so lovely walking alone in the mountains, feeling your body work and enjoy the nature. We truly live in a fantastic country :) I also got to test my new ultralight shell clothing and are extremely happy with them. Not a single cm was wet afterwards :)

This week I've been training with Troy, plus had my second part of the brattkortkurs. I decided not to run, and save my strenght for Saturday. Hopefully I'll find it was the right descition...

First steps towards mountain climbing

This week has been crazy... last year we were chosen to arrange Aker Solutions annual trasurehunt and dinner, and it all happened on Friday. I must say, coordinate 22 teams into 5 posts, order food, drinks, filmcrew, arrange all post descriptions into envelopes and buy all kinds of weird stuff is much more stressful than you think. But it all went perfectly well, and as far as I know everyone had a supercool trasurehunt, dinner and party afterwards :)

Trainingwise I had a few days off after the halfmarathon, but was back with Troy on Wednesday. We did a drill of "own bodyweight" exercises and promise you, it's been a long time since I did any kind of strenght training. I loved it though, and really felt my body needed it.

Today (Sunday) I did the first part of the Brattkort course. All inndoor climbers in Norway need this course to be able to belay others. I really learned alot, and are looking forward to start climbing more. Well, what I really want to learn is to climb outside on cliffs and ice, but.... I have to start somewhere, and belaying others is key to climbing. Hopefully the autumn will hold back a few weeks so that I can have at least a few climbs outside before winter is approaching ;)

Inspiration!

I just want to share with you...

My very good friend (who was our guide on Elbrus, and also will be on Aconcagua); Jakob Urth, is just now in Kathmandu, Nepal to start his new adventure "Himalaya Challenge 2013". This project is BIG, he'll climb two mountains above 8000 meter by himself, meaning no oxygen, no fixed ropes and no guides. I am so impressed about his honesty, respect and passion for mountains, people and nature.... he truly climbs these mountains the way they should and deserve to be climbed.

Follow Jakob on his adventure here: http://www.topas.dk//himalaya-challenge-2013.html, and read his diary here: http://www.topas.dk//himalaya-challenge-2013-dagbog.html

I wish Jakob a wonderful trip and adventure, and I am sure it will be both challenging, tough and extreme, but also magical, amazing and fantastic - Live your Dream :)

First milestone done!

Yesterday I finished the first milestone towards Aconcagua; Stavanger halfmarathon. As you know I have not been training to much after the summer, so I was very curious on how it would be running a long strech like that. I finished on the time 1:58:03, and are very pleased. My legs felt fine all the way, I tried to keep a steady pace and keep the pulse low. I saw early I could never beat my Oslo time, so I foucsed on running steady and keep up the spirit.

I find it amazing how you sink into your own thoughts and stop seeing what is around you when running such long runs. My sister, Kine, asked me how it is to be at 2km and know you have 19 to go... and not give up... how to explain that? I'm not sure what others do, but I do not let myself think negative thoughs. I believe if you start paying attention how it feels, how long it is to go and the way to get there it is over. I force myself to think positive, convince myself it is a nice run, set milestones in the race, focus on running towards the finishline, and not counting kilometers. Days before the run, I picture the route in my head, and find a spot where "the turn" is. With that I mean where I stop running from the start, and start running towards the finish line. For me this helps. Running this long is a mental game, and after doing it now 6 times I feel I've found what works for me.

My next race is in Oslo 21st September. There my goal is to beat 1:49:21... which is my best time ever. I know I must work more on my stamina before that, so the coming weeks I'll focus on interval training and semi-long runs. If you have any tips for me on how to boost stamina, I'm happy to hear about it :) 

So, you may wonder, how do the feet feel today... honestly, my hips are killing me! It's like I'm 100years old, with a iron belt tight around me. Other than that I'm not sore at all, knees and ankles are perfectly fine, and no muscles hurts. It's only the hips... but I'm sure after a few days rest I'm fit for fight again :) This coming week I have a lesson with Troy, my PT again. I'm looking forward to get started with focusing on building strenght and to do something different than only running. I need more than running skills to carry heavy gear up mountains ;)

Resting... to become stronger :)

This summer has been quite busy, I mean, it has not been a relaxing vacation where I lay on a beach, drinking beers and eat loads of food. More the opposite ;) So, when I started training again with my new PT (I'll tell you more about him later), and didn't find the extra gear, I figured I need to rest to become stronger. The past few weeks I've been only running a few short runs, climbed a little in the nearby mountains, and eating ALOT. It has been lovely, and now I feel fit and strong again to start my heavy training :)

Next Saturday, the 31st, is my first halfmarathon of the season. I'm really looking forward to it, but are a bit anxious about the finish time... My best run ever is 1:49:21, in Oslo last year. I know I cannot beat that, but I hope for a time under 2 hours at least.

Wish me luck!

One place we have to start...

So, this is my first blogpost... don't know how to start so I'll tell you about my future plans :) As you probably have read already, I'm in love with mountains. I tried Kilimanjaro (5895m) with my dad last year, and Elbrus (5642m) with my friend Jorunn this summer. Both were fantastic, and we reached the summit! Climbing this high is not easy, even if is not technical. You really meet yourself on the way, and you have to convince your insticts that it is safe to climb higher. I cannot describe the feeling... but it is this feeling that makes me come back for more.

Both trips were with Topas Travel, a Danish adventure company. Perfect guides, perfect tourmembers and perfect adventures. Visit www.topas.dk if you want to learn more about them, and their adventures.

The first thing I did after coming home from Elbrus, was to book another Topas trip, this time to Aconcagua (6962m) in Argentina. Aconcagua is higher than the ones before (quite a bit actually), you carry more gear yourself and you stay longer on the mountain. I'm also sure it will be much harder mentally. I want to travel with Topas one more time to learn more about these high mountains. I am as earlier mentioned a rookie, and it is easy for me to do mistakes. I know and understand I have very much to learn. Therefore I find it safest to travel with a guide who knows the mountain very well and has loads of experience, has seen all types of people, knows how to motivate and can teach me all I need to know. Later on, I will need all these skills, and more, to adventure out on my "own" expeditions. 

I really can't wait to get going! Departure is around 10th January 2014, and I should be back in Stavanger, Norway, 31st January. Before that I need to train alot to make sure I am fit, strong and understand the mental aspects of a trip like this. I won't go into details now, but you'll get what I am talking about later on :)

Hope to see you back on my blog every now and then. I'll try to update at least every week to have you follow my journey.