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Kategorie: Skating

Catching up with Christofer Eriksson

It didn’t take them too long. 04:28:16 for 90 kilometres of skating is fast. Doing this during an icy and unpleasant Swedish winter night does not make it easier. Swedish Biathletes Oscar Brandt and Christofer Eriksson won this years issue of the Nattvasan. A team-of-two competition on the famed Vasaloppet course, the Friday ahead of the big race. This version of the Vasaloppet is a unique one and creates its very own magic. I catched up with Östersund-based soldier and biathlete Christofer Eriksson to hear what happened on this “different” night out.

runssel: When you did the Vasaloppet back in 2008 (Finishing time 04:50:13) you were on your own and the visibility was slightly better I guess. 10 years later you come back to race the course again. This time with Oskar Brandt and by night. How did that come about? 
Christofer Eriksson: I heard about the Nattvasan race last year and the concept really appealed to me. Since I’m competing in biathlon with skating technique, I thought this race would suit me well. My friend Oskar Brandt is also a good biathlete, so I thought we would have a good chance to finish in the top ranks.

Winners Nattvasan 2018 – Oscar Brandt and Christofer Eriksson (Picture: Nisse Schmidt)

runssel: Leading up to the Nattvasan, how did you guys train? Any specific simulation to copy the unique requirements of a competition like this? 
Christofer Eriksson: We didn’t do any different training from our regular biathlon training, except taking it a bit easy the last days before the race. Both me and Oskar have competed in the patrol competition during the Military World Championship in biathlon, so we are familiar in competing together as a team. Our army experience about the importance of teamwork and maintaining a high ”combat value” was also very useful.
Since you compete together you have to communicate a lot during the race to be able to ski as fast as possible without someone falling behind – you can’t just do your own race like in a regular biathlon/ xc-skiing competition.

Christofer shortly before the start in Sälen. (Picture: Pär Wikström)

runssel: You took the lead early on. Did you guys follow any specific tactic? Were you skating behind each other? Who was leading? What was the most challenging thing?
Christofer Eriksson: We were a bit surprise to get the lead so early in the race, that wasn’t our tactic from the beginning.
After we got the lead we decided to go with a high and steady pace and changed the lead skater regularly to keep the pace high. For me the most challenging factor was the cold, Oskar had some problem with dehydration and muscle spasm after our hydration packs froze early on. Because of our iced-up backpacks we were forced to stop at the aid stations. Hence we knew that we need a pretty big lead to the other teams.

Not a usual Friday night in Sälen. The Vattvasan 2018 is underway. (Picture: Nisse Schmidt)

runssel: What kind of equipment did you use and why? Looking back, would you change anything?
Christofer Eriksson: The big difference for this race was that we had to use headlamps and our own hydration packs. We use headlamps during some of our training sessions, so we were accustomed to that. The difficulty was how to prevent the hydration packs from freezing in the cold. We made some modification using insulation for the tube and the bladder, but the tube froze after about 1 hour into the race. That became a massive problem that slowed us down since we had to stop at the checkpoints to hydrate. The best would be to have a support team along the way with hydration and energy. We had some energy bars with us and had decided to eat at least every hour during the race. It felt like I burned more calories than I thought I would – the pancakes in Evertsberg saved my night!

Finished. By any means… (Picture: Pär Wikström)

runssel: Your winning time of 04:28:16 was about 4 minutes slower than the winning time of the main race two days later. Are you planning to come back next year to go faster and defend your title?
Christofer Eriksson: It was a really great and fun race, but we haven’t decided yet if we will race next year since our main goals are still within biathlon circus. But I really want to do the race again and ski faster, now with the experience I think we can cut the time by at least 20 minutes in the same weather conditions. But it’s more difficult to do a really fast race like this when you’re in a team and not “co-trained” for it, but if both team members are strong and well coordinated with a perfect team work – you can ski very fast!

runssel: What is on the agenda for the rest of your season?
Christofer Eriksson: We have the last competitions in the Swedish Cup and Swedish Championships. Then we have the Military World Championship in Hochfilzen, Austria, in April.

Checked: Norrøna 29 dri3 Coat

Casual and useful can go together. Since I picked up this exquisite chunk of gear I fell in love with it. The plain simple and hands-on approach is perfectly executed with this coat. The Norwegian gang of Norrona shows how its done properly. Despite considered as a “urban” jacket, the 29 Dri3 Men’s Rain Coat offers a lot more. I took it to the mounts as well as to work. The clean style is great and shows that useful outdoor equipment doesn’t need to have unexciting shapes and mind-numbing colours. The well shaped 2 handwarmer pockets combined with the small chest and back pockets give enough space for all needs and are placed pretty perfect.

The three-layer Dri3 membrane feels great and saved my ass (yes, also that part of the body thanks to the lovely length…) not only during a jaunt to the grocery store but also while hiking in the mountains all day. I also valued the light and flexible material as you can roll this coat up pretty easily and compact.

Norrona shows how to combine style with function.

Little Product Clip

Racereports

2015
01 – 43rd Dreikönigslauf Dielheim
02 – 33rd Rheinzaberner Winterlaufserie -15k
03 – 48th Fleiner Cross Serie – 1st Race
04 – 29th Mitja Marató de Granollers
05 – Trail du Hohrodberg
06 – Summer Biathlon Hüffenhardt
07 – Trollinger Marathon Relay
08 – Utö SwimRun

2014
01 – 48th Fleiner Cross – Serie
02 – Dirty Race
03 – Baden Württembergische Crossmeisterschaften AKA County XC Champs
04 – Ecco Indoor Trail
05 – Rome Marathon
06 – Hammer Trail 50K Bornholm
07 – Trollinger Marathon Heilbronn
08 – Zegama Marathon
09 – Engadin SwimRun
10 – Stimme 5K
11 – Ö Till Ö
12 – Tuttlinger Silvesterlauf

2013
01 – Dirty Race

04 – German Wintertriathlon Championships

15 – Trail Marathon Heidelberg

2012

20 – Silvesterlauf Forchheim

2011
01 – Eircom XC, Dublin

02 – Raheny 5

2009

01 – Naas Wheelworx Dirty Duathlon, Naas
02 – 25th Annual Raheny Five, Dublin
03 – 32nd Annual Gate River Run, Jacksonville, USA
04 – Marathon Rotterdam, Netherlands
05 – BHAA RTE 5 mile, Dublin
06 – Belfast City Marathon
07 – Hellfire and Brimstone
08 – Leixlip 5k
09 – Three-Rock Ticknock
10 – Trollinger Half-Marathon Heilbronn
11 – Lisburn 10K
12 – Irish Runner 5 Mile, Dublin
13 – St. James’s Hospital Run, Dublin
14 – Frank Duffy 10 Mile, Dublin
15 – Dam tot Damloop by night, Amsterdam, Netherlands
16 – Adidas Series Half Marathon, Dublin
17 – New York City Marathon, USA
18 – La Saintelyon, Lyon, France

Skate Almighty

Possibly I never skated more as I just did during this 4 day Reece around Oberstdorf’s slopes. I just tried Nordic Skating for amusement when I was in Vancouver last winter. Since then I appreciate that activity a lot. With some holidays left I decided to devote those days to “full body sport”. Now I look back at well over 150 kilometers on snow outshined by unspoiled sunshine.

Slipping. Stumbling. Skating!

In the hunt for some powder and plenty of leisure skating miles, I drove down south to the town of Oberstdorf. Remarkable weather matching the snow and a satisfactory amount of slopes are serving the starvation for some long anticipated cross exercise.

Stay tuned for more pics and Nordic Skating awesomeness.

Tune of the day: I’m totally into David Hasert’s stuff theses days. Go and check his soundcloud!

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