My Mountain Marathon Training Online Program – Week 1
7 May 2019

My Mountain Marathon Training Online Program – Week 1

Many people are dreaming of freedom and a more active lifestyle, running in the mountains, living their lives fully. But a few do it…  

In this series of blog posts, you can follow Katinka, a 45-year-old twin mom from Sweden that decided to make a change of direction in life and go all in for Skyrunning.

Skyrunning is not just for elites and anyone can do it!

This is Katinka’s Skyrunning journey…

I fell in love with mountain running year 2017 when I run my first Mountain Marathon, “Kia fjällmaraton 43 km, 2 100 m”. The feeling of moving in the beautiful mountains mastering a challenge like this was something totally new to me. A feeling of true happiness and something that I definitely liked to do again.

This year I decided to do this for real, making Skyrunning my lifestyle. Doing more mountain running and less computer work. I wanted more out of life. Explore my limits physically and see how good I could possibly get (even though I’m a late starter :-). My general goal this year is to move from a beginner level of mountain marathon runner to a medium level.

I’ve been training a lot all year (about 5 times a week, 3 running & 2 gym prep) and I’ve got great help with the gym prep training from my local personal trainer Ulrika Andersson, at SATS Sports club.

From the first of May last week I escalated my training even one more step and I have started to train with Fernando Armisen, a personal trainer from Spain specialised in Trail and Mountain-running. Me here in Sweden and Fernando in Spain, we are working together online using my training watch and the Trainingpeaks app as a tool.

Here you can follow my training program and my progress week by week. Keep in mind that this is my individual program and not a general formula that you can use straight away. The videos are just for inspiration and should not be taken as instruction videos as I’m a beginner and in the middle of a process…

This is week 1 starting of my online training with Fernando…

Preparations and technical equipment

I started out by filling out my medical forms, my training status and my goals for the year. Just so that Fernando could get a picture of where I stand today.

As technical equipment the training watch was the first thing I needed to get. I bought a Garmin Fenix 5 Plus Sapphire Titan. I chose that one because it is a god training watch, fits with Training peaks and because it has Spotify on it (I like to run with loud music). As a training app we use Trainingpeaks and here Fernando plans and programs my weekly training schedule and do all the analyses online.

The advantage with having a personal trainer that keeps an eye of you is that you can train as much as you possible can without necessarily getting burned out or injured. For me it is also a good way to push myself outside my comfort zone as I train new things each training session, instead of doing the usual stuff that I always do.

I would call it SMART training!

My races and goals for the year

1 June, Santana Sky race (23 km, 1672 m), Madeira

30 July, Peak Performance Vertical K (5 km, 1000 m), Åre/Sweden

3 Aug, KIA Fjällmarathon (43 km, 2100 m), Åre/Sweden,
(Time goal: 6:30 compared to winner time 4:00, my time last year 7:49 and my time 2017 the first race 8:45)

24 Aug, BUFF, 50 km, 2900 m, Bydalen/Sweden
(The goal is just to make it through the finish line)

The importance of gym prep

The gym prep will be an important part of the program in order to prevent injuries and absolutely necessary for me to increase in performance.

Improving running economy and reducing the great muscular fatigue that it is produced in uphill’s and especially in downhills, where muscles suffer a lot working on eccentric mode is also very important.

I learned that lesson on my first mountain marathon. I got cramps and I totally damaged my muscles. After the race I could hardly walk and I also suffered from DOMS (Delayed onset muscle soreness) that is the pain and stiffness felt in muscles several days after unaccustomed or strenuous exercise. The soreness was most strongly 48 hours after the race and stayed for about 14 days. I also gained 3 kg in weight temporarily which I taught was strange and it took me one month to get fully recovered.

For me personally it’s even extra important with the gym prep as my body is not perfect. Ever since my pregnancy with my lovely twins 8 years ago, I’ve been struggling with pronation, hips problems and scapula problems. Now it’s 95 % good, but I’m still struggling with those parts.

Training week 1

Wednesday

Easy run
Warm up and then running low to medium pulse zone testing out my pulse zones (including stretch).
Total time: 1 hour

Playing soccer (extra)
Total time: 1 hour

Thursday

Gym session 1

  1. Glutes activation with mini band
  2. Hips – Strength, mobility, flexibility
  3. Go up to a bench
  4. Walking Lunges + Squat sumo
  5. Glutes with bridge level
  6. Scapula push ups

About 3*15 on each exercise.

Total time: 1 hour

Walking (extra)

Total time: 1:20 hour

Friday

Trail / Hillwork (11 laps in a small slalom slope in Stockholm city, 86 m in vertical gain)

Distance: 7 km
Gain: 900 m
Loss: 900 m
Heart rate: Min: 73, Avg:154, Max192

Total time: 1:30 hour

Saturday

Rest day

Sunday

Easy run
Low to medium pulse zone in 3 different blocks, cool down, stretch.
Distance: 6 km
Total time: 1 hour including warm up and stretch

Monday

Mountain bike on trails
Low to medium pulse zone.
Distance: 13 km

Total time: 1 hour

Tuesday

Gym session 2

  1. Glutes activation and strength
  2. Hips mobility, flexibility and strength
  3. Core strength
  4. Back of thigh strength
  5. Shoulder blades
  6. Gemelos in step with one leg

Total time: 1:30 hour

Training with Ulrika, SATS Värmdö.

Check out week 2!

My Mountain Marathon Training Online Program – Week 2

Happy SkyRunning!

/Katinka

Facts

Name: Katinka Nyberg

Nationality: Swedish

Age: 45

Family: My husband Fredrik and my twins Tom & Matilda 8 years

Country/town: Stockholm, Sweden

Your team or sponsor now: SkyRunner

Occupation: Founder SkyRunner

Background: Entrepreneur in IT

Education: Backelor of science, IT

Facebook page personal: https://www.facebook.com/katinkakvist

Facebook page: hhttps://www.facebook.com/skyrunner.nu

Facebook group: SkyRunner Adventurers https://www.facebook.com/groups/320548848596214/

Webpage / Blog: https://arduua.com/

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