My story begins in late november 1999, November 21st to be exact. But before I go on, I should tell you that this was the year I also got married. That happend on the 10th of July, only four months earlier. I had been in my church alle weekend with a whole bunch of other people and had a great time. In the evening I did not feel very well, and went home around 5 p.m.

As the night came and I was going to bed, I had just gotten worse. My body was hurting and I did not sleep more than a couple of hours that night and became very frusterated as I usually do when I can’t sleep.

When I woke up my body was hurting even more, I didn’t have a temprature, but my feet and hands were numb. So I walked my way to the doctor only 400 meters further down the street.

The bloodsamples I took did not say anything else besides form what I allready knew – I was sick. But the doctor told me to come again if the numbness got worse – it did. Two days later I found my way back to the doctor, only this time I had to take a cab – I had no possibilites of walking all those 400 meters whom I usually can run in about 49 seconds since I used to train athletics.

In those two days I had gotten a lot worse. My body was hurting even more and I could not walk, sit, lie down, sleep, eat or do just about anything without complaining – it was terrible! After doing some more tests and talking with a specialist in neurology, my doctor decided to send my to hospital. At that point I could not stand upright, and when I closed my eyes I couldn’t keep my balance. I was getting much weaker. When I tried to get into the cab to go to the hospital, my muscles were so short and stiff that I bearly could find my self to get into the car and my body was hurting even more. In the hospital lobby I almost fell over when I tried to deliver the note from my doctor, and I was put on a bed in the ER.

After waiting for something that felt like hours, a doctor came and examined me. After this there is little I remember before I “woke up” on December 31st 1999.

Befor I go on there are a few things you probably should know about what happened. After I was sent to hospital and examined, I rapidly got worse. It took only from Thursday to Sunday before my respiratory muscles also were paralysed, and I was in need of a ventilator. But between Thursday and Sunday, I cant remember a thing even though I actually have experienced it!

Also, all of December went in dreams, a bit like the Matrix; you are so sure that the dreams you have are real! I know this seems a bit strange, but this is how it was. I actually thought I woke up i Sweden, in Arvika! Why? Because one of the nurzes had talked to me an told me where she was from! Back to December 31st 1999! At that time I had been so fully stuffed with morfin and dormicum, that I was totally gone allthough I can remember things. For example, I remember that my wife and a friend of mine came by all dressed up for the new millennium. I of course was hopelessly tired and just wanted to sleep. So I was probably one of the few people in the world that were not awake into the year 2000.

As the time passes I get better and better. And in the end, on January 17th the ventilator is removed and I can breath by my self again! All in all i had 7 weeks on the ventilator. You can just imagine the happiness it was to get rid of it! In those weeks I had been “awake” in more or less 2 1/2 weeks still using a lot of medication and just beein able to rotate my head and lift my shoulders a bit. You might think this situtation was horrible, and it was. But, there is more to say about it. I was not alone! And I dont mean that my family was there or anything; God was there and watched over me.

I felt extremely safe allthough I could not do anyting. I couldn’t smile, eat, talke, barely move. But God was there for me! All around my family and friends had been praying for me – and would you know, it sure helped. The doctors and nurzes could tell as well. Not in any other room in there were such safety and strength and so much smileing as it was in my room! Allthough the situation was hopeless, I never lost hope because I knew I was safe in the hands of God.

Let me give you an example. In the beginning of December, when everyone just thought I was gonna be on the ventilator for only a few days, my father “got” a worse from the Bible. In James 5 it says that we shall be patient like the farmer that waits for the springrain. Which of course is in April. Remember everyone thought I was gonna be well very quickley! On April 26th I can walk for the first time without any support! Oh, happy day!

January 27th was my last day at the acutehospital were I had been for such a long time. Now I was transferred to a rehabilitationhospital called “Sunnaas”. In the beginning I got better rapidly, and took my first steps on February 24th. I was in need of two people supporting me and my fysio to move my feet, besides a huge walkingcheer. I took 8 steps. But as March came, things became different.

Because I could not be so active, I got hight Calsium in my blood and got very tired and weak. In March I eaven got worse and could not eat by my self. My arms just would not let me! All of March was terrible and I really needed something to cheer me up. As it seemed, I got it.

When April came, it all turned. In just three weeks time, I managed to get on my feet againg and could, as I said, walk on April 26th allthough I was still very week. But in only a month I was ready to go home from hospital after about 7 months away from home.

However, there is one really annoying thing about RunKeeper. The pace. The wonderful, yet terrible pace. I can’t help myself. If I don’t run with a pace at about 5 min pr. km it feels like it was wasted. Although I know it is not. As if that was not enough, I made a stupid choice this evening. It is spelled tarmac. I can already feel it, my legs are hurting and reminding me of what might happen when winter comes. No more gravel, only tarmac. But maybe, just maybe, a few centimeters of snow will make it runnable?!

How on earth would I manage running a marathon? How do people do it? How long would you have to train to be able to do it without totally ruining the week after? Links and tips are appreciated!

Looking back at my days of glory, where I easily did 60 sec on the 400 and every hour of training was spent with spikes, it is a bit sad to see that I have totally lacked motivation for the last 10 years.

Now it feels like something is missing if I don´t run every other day.

PBs of old:

100m: 11:21
200m: 22:41
400m: 49:25
800m: 1:56:5

There is of course a great disadvantage in beeing used to high speed; I can´t get enough of it. If my pace is not sub 5 min pr. km it feels like I have not been running, and I get disappointed in myself as my pace is currently not under 4 min pr. km in a 5 km run.

That is now. Change will come. Soon.

It´s all about the pace, I told myself, and started out at 6:30 pr. km, a pace I kept for the whole run. However after just about 6 km it was clear to me that this was not my day. My legs where hurting and at about 9 km there was nothing left. My stamina was OK, but my feet were killing me!

How could this happen? Most likely I did as I should not have done, I overdid it. I put in to much distance before I was ready, and now I have to pay dearly. Why can´t I learn?

The solution for me, I believe now, will be running slower and shorter, but more often. In that way I can increase distance without killing my feet. At least that is what a presume will happen.

Anyone else with experience in this field or with thoughts about how to best plan an increase in training?

Runkeeper actually helps you find out! In your weekly view of activities, you will find a certain point where milage is getting too steep! At this point a red lamp must be lit, and you should enter a period of restitution.

You can see the increase in milage from the week of Sep 13 until it decreases in the week of Oct 4 (starting a period of restitution). A new period of break-down starts Oct 18 and my milage is growing each week. But what now? Time to end the period of break-down and enter a new period of restitution. If this does not happen, the body will not adapt and you will in time become overtrained.

When each period of breakdown starts, it will start on a higher level than the previous period of break down (Sep 13 and Oct 18). And this is how to develop your shape slow and easy!

Use the Runkeeper statistics to determine when you breakdown should end and a period of restitution should start.

In the last episode one of the caracters have a rather interesting quote:

” All I want is that you want to be here.”

This made me think; do we always live our life in the moment? All too often I find myself thinking about the futer, what will happen tomorrow, I am looking forward to this evening. And what happens when the moment I have been thinking about arrives? I start thinking about a new moment.

And like this your whole life can go past without you actually beeing present at all. It is all about beeing. To be or not to be. That is the question.

Among the latest additions to Runkeeper, is the possibility to join a Street Team. Add people to your  Street Team by navigating to their personal dashboard (mine is found right here), and then invite them to your Street Team.

There are currently quite a few possibilites that have not yet been explored by the Runkeeper team. Allthough they are a number one in listening to their users, there is quite a bit of secrecy out going concerning witch features they are working on. Check out their website at runkeeper.com for more on that. However, a few of the possibilites as I see them, are as follows:

• Searchable users database, including the total number of users and total number of activities
• More statistic possibilites. The possibilites are countless! I´ll mention a few: Activity leaderboard based on public activities and distance, pace and presets such as 5 k, 10 k, 21 k and marathon.
• The time over distance-feature has been mentioned often in their forum, but nothing seems to happen. Which, I must say, is a bit dissapointing for us faithful users.
• More good feature-requests can be found here.

So, Runkeeper-team – let´s see what you have got before LeWeb. Start make those features happen!