The joy of contrast in training

From the house I can see that the mountains are covered with snow, I can hear snow dripping from the roof and birds singing their spring tunes. Spring is in the air, even though it´s just February. I kind of like it, even though it´s way too early and I know that we will probably have tons of snow and a second winter coming in March.

I tie my running shoes and go for a dirt road run with no snow at all, I can even see the tiny white snowdrops coming up. In the afternoon I drive higher up to go skiing. Contrasts at its best!

I love contrasts, and I do believe it can make us better if we adapt them into our training.

I believe that challenges make us stronger. When I started to run professionally more than 10 years ago now, I realized that I lost most time on the uphill. My favorite training was long scrambling in the mountains, so to start doing short uphill intervals was kind of new to me. I wasn´t good at it, but I started to challenge myself and I became stronger. So, this has been my go to when it comes to training. I figure out where I want to go, look at my strengths and weaknesses and what I must do to get where I want. 


I think it can be interesting for all of us, to change up the training a little, to do what we’re not used to! 

If you are someone who loves short faster sessions, maybe you could plan a longer and slower, more exploring trail run with a friend to change it up.

Are you the one who dread shorter faster runs? Try a session on the track with a bunch of friends or a running group!

Do you suffer when running uphill? Train on that and make it fun!
My favorite uphill sessions are:
6 x 4 min, 4 x 10 min or 12 x 2 min.

I still haven’t found my favorite flat session yet, but 2 x 5 km and 10 x 400 m are my go to!

I wish you a lovely end of the winter!

Emelie