Per Harald - Home

And the winner is...

Here are the answers of the advent calendar 2018. I want to thank all of you who sent in answers and participated in the calendar. In the end it was a tight battle for the win, with less than an hour separating number one from number two, and a total of twenty answerers. Top five will be posted in the bottom of this article, but first, the correct answers:

Hard facts 2018

In my training routines the date 3rd October always marks the beginning of a new training year. It’s time to make a summary for 2018, time for planning 2019 and time to start working for some future results.

No pain... No gain??

Strong, fast, precise... Some Swiss guys coming from the side, the pace is increasing, it’s all about catching the group who started two minutes ahead. You feel the rush in the body, the legs starts screaming, but as response you push even harder. You raise your head, looking for that open hill in the edge of the forest, than BAM! The moss on the bare rock slips under your foot, and you’re free falling. Like in slow motion you understand you are about to plant your face in a big, sharp rock half a meter above the ground. The pain from the crash comes instantly, it’s like your brain is turning on every nerve in your whole body.

Wow!! Fantastic days in St. Moritz!

After the concussion, I have finally been able to get into real training mode again! What a feeling! For weeks I was feeling like a wild wolf in a cage. Restless, irritated and extremely motivated to start the training for the big goals in the autumn. Tired of the beating in the head and frustrated to see week after week passing by without being able to take advantage of them. I promise you, for a runner it’s a tough feeling, but the gratefulness when everything works again is a lot stronger! You feel alive, like the chains are broken, the beast is set free and the wildness inside could finally find a way out! For me, it ended in a fantastic training week in Engadin with 251km of running.

Rehab and training summary May/June

First a short update after the collision during the sprint at O’festivalen. I can rapport that the man I met at full speed head to head looks to be a tough guy! I did some research and contacted him the day after the race. He got a cut over his eye and had to sew two or three stitches, he did it without any anaesthesia and was at good mood. I guess orienteers are a though breed.

Knockout sprint...

The last important sprint of the spring season was the sprint during O’festivalen in Oslo. It was the last chance for qualifying to the races in Latvia in the beginning of July, and definitely one of the highlights in the summer. And it all started so well!

The dark Finnish forest!

1860 teams in the men class, 1600 teams in the women class, and a total of almost 20 000 runners fighting for honour and glory in the deep forest of Lahti, Finland. The terrain was expected to be really difficult with a lot of different challenges, from deep depressions and dense areas with small birch trees, to diffuse contours and extremely good runability with tall pines.

One... Single... Second...

This weekend the Norwegian sprint championship in orienteering took place in the city of Stavanger. For me it was one of the highlights of the season, and I had high expectations in front of the races. I have developed far this year in the sprint, and I had a clear goal for the weekend. I wanted to go home from the championship with a medal around my neck and a spot in the camp with the national team in Latvia the following week.

Monster sprint!

Some days I need to have some extra spices in my training, something extreme, something that makes me cheer when I am finished and breaks the regular pattern of the training weeks. Today was such a day!

8th at Tiomila, what a night!

Tiomila is one of the ultimate challenges in the orienteering world. It’s cold, it’s dark and it’s a brutal fight each year to see which team could take home the victory after ten legs and over 100k of orienteering, mostly in the dark. The team is never stronger than its weakest link and it’s a relay where boys become men, and men become heroes.

3rd at WRE-sprint Stockholm

Some days after tiomila Kristin and I decided to run DM-sprint Stockholm, which was also a WRE-sprint. The start line had a lot of good sprinters since it was a World Ranking Event, and I felt it was a good chance to get a quality sprint, where you got the possibility to fight against the best.