Base period second block: done! + A new challenge never met before..

A successful three weeks ends today and I have managed to get in the planned hours, ending with this week consisting of 13,5 hours of various training. Might be the biggest volume I have ever had in a week's time, and I have managed to balance the training and intensity mix so that I actually feel quite fresh. But next week is recovery week and I hope to already now see a increase in fitness after next week. I think I will include a 5km test run or something similar, plus a weight test another day, and do a follow up 4 weeks later to see the progress.  

I am going to keep this year's training scheme quite simple and go with the 3+1 system throughout the season, only to vary intensity coming towards race season, and of course bearing in mind taper periods leading up to the most important races. 

This weekend there was finally enough snow, and I got to log five hours of cross-country skiing. It just amazes me every time, how effective of training it is, and what a lot of fun too! And being out deep in the forests enjoying the silence and beautiful nature, there just aren't many things that can beat it. Truly rewarding spiritually as physically. 

I just got another task as well. My beloved wife got her first road bike last summer, and is eager to participate in the Lillehammer-Oslo leg of Det store styrkeprøvet, which is by far the biggest one day road bike competition for all ages and levels. It consists of 190km and we will bike it together, but first we have got around 20 weeks to get fit enough to safely manage through the race, which certainly is not a walk in the park, I myself struggled massively in the ending parts of the same race last year, out of energy supplies and being far from my summer peak fitness.. but the motivation seems to be there, and that is half you need, now I will schedule a simple training frame to get her on track and to ease the training by having focus on given tasks and training runs. We'll start with focus on proper technique to get the routine to sink in, then it will be much more comfortable to take the training outdoors once the snow is gone, and she'll have with her a solid fitness base to build on towards the race. A really fun and interesting new challenge actually, as I have no "coaching" experience for others than myself up to now :)