Fjällturen 70km

This weekend we have been down to Funäsdalen for the race Fjällturen. I raced here last year aswell and this year i ran the 70km distance istead of the shorter 58km i ran last year.

We stayed at the same cabin as last year, really awesome accomodation.

The race went really well, it didn’t rain as much as last year and the track were a bit different, to my advantage. I was a bit worried as it rained up until the start but it magically stopped direct when we started.

The 70km distance is the same track as 58km, it’s only a bit longer after the 58km passing. I passed the 58km marker at 2 hours and 59 minutes, if i have finished there and then i would have been at place 16! The time from the passing at 58km is the time that will be sent to Cykelvasan for further seeding.

But the race continued and i took it a bit easy and finished at place 25 at a time of 3 hours and 40 minutes.

I couldn’t be more happy with my results. I had awesome legs and the bike responded great!

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Mörksuggejakten

This weekend we have been traveling down to Dalarna and Rättvik to compete in a race called Mörksuggejakten. It’s really nice in Dalarna, i like the landscape and the racetrack.

I raced in the 75km class and managed to finish at place 80 at a time of 3 hours and 10 minutes. A really great race and my legs are on top right now.

I was a bit scared of the track beforehand, everyone talked about the massive climbs on the track, once there they were not that steep and i managed to cut some people off during the climbs. i also managed to beat some of the really good racers from my local ”Happyride Östersund” gang, awesome!

This will surely seed me furhter up at Cykelvasan this year.

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Midnight Bike Ride

Yesterday our local Happyride gang decided to go for a midnight ride to experience the really short night (darkness) period as the sun almost never sets.

We metup at 22:30 an biked until 02:00. I also took the bike home so jumped into the bed at 03:00 after almost 85km.

Some short break to take in the nice weather and the sunset/rise. I’m bikehigh today after spending an amazing night with new and old friends.

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Jämthjulingen

Today i have been participating in a Road bike race called Jämthjulingen. Its a 40km race around the lake-end here in Östersund. I ran this race last year aswell. I lent a roadbike from my former collegue Nils.

I was a bit sore after the race in Ã…sarna only 2 days ago but i got a good start and managed to hang in the top peloton the whole race. They sprinted me out during the last kilometer. I finished at place 18 at a time of 1 hour and 3 minutes and thats really great as i haven’t trained on a road bike this year.

Really great legs.

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Åsarna MTB Challenge

Today we have been to the local village Ã…sarna to compete in Ã…sarna MTB Challenge. Both me and Ebba competed with good results.

I competed here Last year aswell but didnt finish the race. I missed a turn and cycled the wrong direction, so i had to end the race, it also rained which made me end it. So this year I had to take revenge on the track.

This year i managed to get through the whole race (30km) at place 16 at a time of 1 hour and 36 minutes. i had some trouble with the chain during the race and lost one place in the end.

The race is really fun but the markings could be a bit better for next year. Some people missed a bit of the track and i see that as cheating as they got better time than those who biked the whole track.

Photo: Ã…sarna IK Facebook

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Lidingölloppet MTB 2016

Yesterday I participated in a mtb race in Stockholm called Lidingöloppet MTB. Its a 63km XC race around the Lidingö Island. This was the first real mtb race for me this year, i don’t count the Rogaining race as a real race as that took place during winter, outside of the summerseason. I was also able to race with my new bike for the first time and all i can say is that it respons really well during races aswell.

The race was amazing, fun course and i had really great legs the whole race. I finished at place 161 at a time of 2hours and 53 minutes.

I must admit that i was really nervous before the race but we were greated with great weather and great atmosphere at the arena.

I traveled down to Stockholm with my brother in law and we stayed at a hotel on Lidingö. a really great weekend and i couldent be more happy with my results. Lets kickstart this season!

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Frösö Rogaining

Today i have been participating in a Rogaining race on Frösön.

The race is a smaller version than normal Rogaining competitions. You can choose to run or travel by bike around the Island. You have 4 hours to go and should collect as many points as possible. All the different markers on the map are worth different points. If you arrive late to the finishline (i.e after 4 hours) you loose points each minute.

I entered with my friend Simon, we planned a route and collected some expensive markers and left out some smaller.

We made it to the finish a couple of seconds before 4 hours. We finished on 3rd place and i won the lottery price. A stay for two at the new hotel in town. Supernice!

We really hope they will arrange a race during summer aswell.

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2015 Year in review

It’s time to summarize this year, the year of 2015. A lot of things have happened during this year and i will try to keep it short under a couple of headlines below.

Training

This year has been all about me and about starting to feel and perform better. I have felt that I couldn’t keep up with myself and all the things i wanted to do during 2014. I have had the ”need to train” thought for a long time but never set down my foot and starting to workout, mostly because of lack of knowledge within training and being lazy. I think many people can relate to this scenario.

During the end of 2014 I started following some athletes and interesting local sports persons on social media and got some inspiration and got pushed to actually sign up for a gym and head out for bike rides myself, they all made it seem so easy so why couldn’t I also be an ”athlete”.

Said and done, during the first couple of days in January a new gym opened 50 meters from my home, I signed up and started to train in the gym, it was to close to be lazy. I gained knowledge and self esteem by seeking information and inspiration online.

I found myself getting good results and feeling a lot better in a short period of time. During the first couple months I barely could stand on a crosstrainer or run more that couple of meter without getting really high pulse and have to stop and catch my breath but it keeps getting better.

Right after the winter, when all snow melted away I put out the bike from the garage and started to ride by myself. At first i found it a bit boring but with some good music in my ears and some challenging routes around my neighborhood i got a hang of it.

I have always been fond of cycling and always wanted to get to train and compete in cycling and MTB in particular, so during the year i bought new bikes and signed up for a couple of races. As you all may have read already the first races were not so good performance wise, but I gained a lot of experience and got to see how other people train and compete.

I competed in a couple of MTB races around Jämtland. I have gotten better during the year, with every race new experiences and knowledge was gained and I feel really comfortable to continue this newly found love next year.

The main goal was set to enter and finish the Cycle Vasalopp (cykelvasan). During August I competed and raced the 95 km at a time of 4:16. Not that great in comparison to all the high-end cyclists but once again i did it and have something to beat next year now that i know what its all about and have more time and knowledge to prepare.

During the later half of the year, after summer, I was a bit afraid to loose the great training i was experiencing but I kept going and trained both cycling and at the gym.

I got in touch with a local group of people called ”Happyride Östersund” thanks to some of the local MTB people I follow and get inspired by. These people deserves a shout-out as they are great people and great inspiration, thanks Helena and Hasse.

The group contains a lot of people with Cycle interest that get together to train and discuss cycling. I have gained a lot of new friends and really think this is an awesome way of keeping the happiness in training and cycling.

I couldn’t have been more happy with my decision to start training and pursue the dream of being a cyclist. I have gone from overweight to normal (95 to 77kg) and it feels great to have lost almost 18kg during 2015! I cant wait to get out there in 2016 and get better results and cycle even more.

Family

This year I have started to care and involve myself a bit more in the family life. Not that i dint do this before but other years have been more about work and making a good living by making a lot of money to get and having the family floating.

But when MÃ¥ns was born I decided to dedicate my time to the family and start taking care about my relations within the family and also in friendships. I have still worked a lot this year so I cannot really say that I achieved my goals in this area. I will try to fetch them during 2016 instead.

But to summarize; I have gotten a bit better during the year, having a proper vacation and starting to be a better family father and a respectful husband.

I think the fact that I started training and taking better care of myself have reflected on my family life and i also have stopped working so much and started to say no to things have made up time to spend with family.

We had a really nice time going to Mallorca for vacation this year. I wish we could go back as it was really really nice. We have to wait a bit more and go again the fall of 2016.

Work

The last year of work have been a really though and hard for me. I have been really unhappy with my work, been feeling depressed and sad almost every day going to work.

So i have signed for a new job starting in the begining of January. I hope it will bring me back the fire and happiness.

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Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas to all my followers! I celebrated the christmas morning by taking an early bike ride this morning with bike and headlight around Lockne Lake (approx. 65km)
Its a really nice ride and one can see spectacular views during the sunrise, i got filled with energy and christmas spirit during the ride. Snow, great weather and happy people all around.

Have a great day all bike fanatics, hope for some hard packages this Christmas.

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Hämtat ut ny cykel

Det var ett tag sedan jag skrev här nu. Det är inte för att jag har slackat eller varit lat, jag har bara inte haft något riktigt intressant att berätta om. Livet går vidare i  snabb takt och jag försöker hålla jämna steg med allt. Familj, arbete, träning och allt runt det. Jag kan relatera till alla som talar om vuxenlivet som ett stort pussel.

Idag plockade jag ut min nya cykel från den lokala cykelaffären. Jag har investerat i en helt ny Trek Superfly 9,8 2016. Det är en riktigt fin cykel det lilla jag har hunnit testa den hittills, det är verkligen lätt och snabb! Denna cykel kommer definitivt att skala av några minuter på nästa års tävlingar, skall bli riktigt spännande.

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Locknetrampet 2015

Today I have raced around the Lockne-lake in a race called ”Locknetrampet”.

There was really nice weather and the day could not have been better. I gave it my all and finished at place 9 (out of 50) at a time of 1 hour and 47 minutes. I hanged with the top people almost half the race before i got a bit too tired in some hills and let them go. I finished only 9 minutes after the winner so i’m really happy with my performance.

Now i will go on vacation to Spain and Mallorca.

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Cykelvasan

Yes, i did it!

I raced the 95 kilometers from Sälen to Mora in really nice conditions. I should have started at 12:05 but when I came to the start area in Sälen i tried to reseed with  my good performance from Fjällturen and it succeed, so I seeded from start group 51 to 21 and got the start number 6331. I started at 09:30 instead, everything went so fast after that so i didn’t have the time to get nervous.

I’m so happy but I’m also disappointed that i didn’t reach my goal of a finish time between 4 hours and 4 hours 15 minutes.
I finished the 95km race at a time of 4 hours and 17 minutes at place 4709 wich is pretty good anyway.

Will write more details here later.

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Lofssjön Runt

This week me and the family have been in Lofsdalen, at my in-laws cabin. It has been quite good weather during this week but some rainy nights so it has been a really great ending of my vacation period.

I spent two days in the downhill tracks since they have had a Bike weekend event here with clinics and round tours of all tracks. I have a lot of Go Pro videos of my sessions recorded, so I will cut it and give you a sneak of the result later. I can say that the jumps and speed feels bigger and more intense than they appear on video. I had really high expectations but got a bit disappointed by the ”result”. Well i’ll share it further on.

During Saturday I entered a Mtb race called ”Lofssjön Runt”, its a race around the lake of Lofssjön. I signed up for the tougher race, a 50 km long trip around the lake on hard gravel road and some forest parts/tracks. During the last 10 kilometers we raced up the mountain, Hovärken and then down one of the easy downhill tracks.

I have been a bit sick during this week, sore throat and a bit fever in the beginning of the week. This have of course affected me so my body did not respond to well during the race. To top it off, it started raining like hell during the race. I felt like downgrading from the tough race to the exercise race instead (only 42km), but i changed my attitude and forced myself to do the tough race anyway.

I led a crowd of people almost the whole way around the lake and got many ”thank you” for a great drag during the 42km long trip before i went uphill and they went to the finish line. during the climb uphill i had strong legs but the body didn’t feel ok so i took it a bit easy and saved myself. There was a lot of rain and the stones and tracks were slippery up on the mountain so i could not run as fast as i would have liked.

Last year I entered the 42km race and finished at a time of 1 hour and 59 minutes. This year i raced further, but if i had not done the same trip i would have raced almost 30 minutes faster at that distance. It should have taken around 1 hour and 31 minutes this year.

This year i finished at a time of 2 hours and 26 minutes, i aimed at a max of 2 hours and 15 minutes so i’m a bit disappointed but I made it although my body wasn’t 100% ok. The weather also made it worse and during better conditions i would have made my goal of 2 hours and 10 minutes.

Now i will head home and start the preparations for Cykelvasan that start in one week. Nervous and excited!

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New Downhill bike

Today I received my new Downhill bike, i’m so stoked to go try it in the tracks. It behaves fantastic when i tried it here on the backyard.

I have been looking at the Specialized Demo 8 bikes for a while but i felt that they where a bit too expensive for me. I currently run a Scott Gambler 10 so i decided to go for a newer version of that bike as they are a bit cheeper than the Specialized bikes.

Said and done, I ordered the new Gambler but the next day i got an email from the store telling me that they could not find that bike at any reseller as it was out of stock. SO we started looking for alternatives and they offered me a Specialized Demo 8 I Carbon 2015 to a reduced price.

I could not say no to that deal and i’m now a proud owner of a Specialized Demo 8 I Carbon. The Öhlins rear suspension is really great and easy to adjust. The Boxxer fork is also nice and i think i dialed them perfectly.

There is a big difference between running on old equipment and new. Handling the new is like cutting through butter with a hot knife as the old one feels as a cold knife instead.

Picture is from the unpacking as i’m trying it on the car to see that the cycle mounts fit the new frame. It’s really a great bike this far, in a couple of days i will test it in Ã…re Bike Park.

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Give up alcohol

I have in the previous months decided to stop ”using” alcohol. This decision is not because i have a problem with it, I just feel that i’m old enough to step away from it and focus my days at something else.

I feel that my training is going a lot more easy and I have more time with my kids as crazy as it may sound, but after a night out one gets tired and at least one day needs for recovery before one can train or go play (hard) with the kids.

A couple of days i was out with a couple of friends at Storsjöyran at their restaurant/bar week called ”KrogstrÃ¥ket”. I stayed away and only drank alcohol free wine/beer that night. It felt kind of weird not tipsy but afterwards it felt wonderful.

And to be honest, there is a lot of good tasting wine/beers out there that are 0-alcochol.

Clean and healthy is the new way of living, there is a bonus in saving some money as well.

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Vemdalen Bike Challenge

Today the family headed to Vemdalen for a competition called Vemdalen Bike challenge.
I raced in the 22km category along with up on Vemdalsskalet, in the cross county tracks around Vemdalen. It was a 10 km long track that was repeated two times.

It had rained the day before the race so there was a lot of water in the pits. It was intense and lot of climbs in the tracks. It fitted me perfectly but i had hard competitors. I got here thinking it wouldn’t be so many elite runners but i had mistaken, all the familiar faces where there which was fun but i hadn’t expected it.

Ebba also raced in the children category. She was very proud afterwards and got some candy and a price from the raffle.

After everyone had finished there was a lot of prices to hand out, everyone got a price and that is really nice and not often seen on competitions.

it was a really nice race and i finished a place 17 out of 32 in my category (only men), 19 of 42 (women and men)

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Fjällturen

Today I have been participating in race in Funäsdalen, a race thats called Fjällturen.

We arrived yesterday and have been staying at Funäsdalen Ski Lodge, i really recommend this accommodation/apartments. All family joined in, even my wife’s sister came along and joined me for a 15 km round during Friday evening.

Ebba also raced in the children category during Friday afternoon. She was proud after finishing all on her own, and winning a medal and some candy.

This is a Cross-country race that starts inside Funäsdalen village and finishes in Ramundberget. I raced in the 58km category, there was an 70km category as well and i’ll try that one next year. This race is said to be the most beautiful race around because of their nice views, but unfortunately we did not see anything of that because of rain and fog.

The track was really nice, really muddy and wet but i can imagine it to be amazing during good weather conditions. This race was tougher and more forest/singletrack than Ã…returen, the track contained 2 big climbs and a couple of smaller ones. We did climb around 1300 meters of altitude in total.

We raced in forests, up on mountaintops and down in muddy slippery ski tracks. It got a bit cold during all the rain and wet passages. I had great legs and could have given even more speed/power but the track didn’t allow more due to the conditions, better to race safe than falling and potentially hurting myself/others.

I really liked this race and the arrangement around was really great. It’s a bit different racing when there is many participants as one can easily find someone to join and help/compete with. There was around 600 people starting in the race (all categories) and i finished as 102 out of 316 in my category, 160 in total race.

i’m really pleased and i hope i can race these tracks in good conditions sometime. I will definitely race here again next year.

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Ebba has learned to cycle

I’m so proud. My little girl has finally learned to cycle on her own without support wheels. We went to the local soccer field to kick some ball and train on cycling. It took one try and then she made it on here own.

After that we trained to start in inclined terrain and to stop and adjust speed. Now she masters it all and have spent the afternoon on the bike. I think she is as proud as here father.

We celebrated with ice-cream, yummy!

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Ã…returen

Today I have been racing in Ã…re. This competition is new and have never been arranged before, so we are a couple of pioneers that have raced this course today.

Me and the family stayed at Holiday Club Hotel in Ã…re so we should make it to the starting line without all the stress. MÃ¥ns and Ebba didn’t sleep to well so i was a bit tired during the morning. It took at least a couple of kilometers to get the body going.

The course was 52km long, start and finish was at Åre town square. The course went from the town square up to Fröå mines and then down to Undersåker were we turned back to Åre. When we reached Åre again we went uphill to Tott and then further up the hills towards the town square, a total of 600 height meters to climb during the last 10 km.

It have been raining a lot the last couple of days so the course was a bit slippery. We made a total of around 1100 hightmeeters climb during the course so i’m happy that i did it without ”hitting the wall”.

Overall i think it was a good race but it could have been more single track and/or forest tracks and less gravel/asphalt passages. But for a first competition it was a really great arrangement by the organizers.

I finished on place 58 of 70 (that got to the goal). Next week I will attend Fjällturen in Funäsdalen, a 58 km race.

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