This summer's training camp in St. Moritz had a different start than normal for me. I used the first 5 days to get back into race walk training. After my hamstring injury in the beginning of June I was happy to be able to race walk 10km the day before we came to St. Moritz. The four weeks training camp went pretty well. Only one workout was changed, my hamstring started to cramp again. it was better to stop that workout. All though I had been injured most of June I was able to train all the hard workouts at the same level as last summer in St. Moritz and the slower workouts got better and better every week. It was nice and good to have Susana Feitor and Sabine Zimmer to train with.

The first 10 days we had a Norwegian Physiotherapist, Vibeke Røstad, with us. That helped me a lot :-) We made a deal with the Australian race walkers Nathan Deaks and Luke Adams, they could use our physio, and Erik and I could use their physio, Toby. He came to St. Moritz just days after Vibeke left and we could get treatments from Toby the last ten days of our training camp! Perfect for all of us :-) Especially for me, because my back was bothering me and made my left hamstring tight. It was good to be able to get help from Physiotherapists that are used to work with athletes. Thank you Vibeke and Toby.

It was fun to be in St. Moritz with so many race walkers on an international level, we were always between nine and 13 international race walkers from Australia, Germany, Latvia, Norway, Portugal, Qatar and Slovakia.

Click here for Pictures from St. Moritz

When we came home from St. Moritz I got an ear infection and I had to take antibiotics :-( Just good I was supposed to have some easy days and it didn't affect my training. On the 10th of August we had Norwegian Championships. I walked 3000m in 12.34. A little bit faster than planned, but I felt good and didn't have to push to walk fast. My back was ok and then I had a good rhythm :-)

Stephan and Erik flew to Japan on the 13th of August, I stayed home until the 18th, then I flew alone to Japan. When I arrived in Marugame, 3 hours south of Osaka, Erik and Stephan already had 6 days there. They had found a good course for race walk training just behind the hotel. We started training at 7:00-7:30 every morning, then we had breakfast and at 10:00 we took the bus to the stadium to be together with the rest of the Norwegian Team while they were training. We did our afternoon workouts at or from the Stadium. We jogged several times together with the Norwegian runners. A good team feeling :-) When Erik and Stephan traveled to Osaka three days before his 20km I joined them and continued my pre camp in Osaka. This was absolutely the best for me. Every second day I got acupuncture treatments from our Physio. This was very good for my hamstring and my back. And during the race I had no pain.

I can't remember any international race where I have been less nervous than before the start in Osaka. I felt very well acclimatized and ready to race. As expected the Russian girls took the lead from the start. Several times we were told that we had to do four laps in the stadium before we could leave the track and go out to the 2k race walk circuit just outside the stadium. The Russian girls wanted to leave the stadium after two laps, and after three laps, but the officials could stop them. Behind the Russian girls most of the top level international girls stayed together in one big pack. We started really slow. I guess most of us had respect for the heat and the humidity. I wanted to push the pace already at 4k, but decided to be patient and save some power for the last 10k in the heat. Maria Vasco from Spain was the only one who dared to push early and at the end she did everything right. After one hour it started to rain, some of the athletes felt refreshed, I felt that my legs got stiff. All though my legs felt very heavy I was still able to keep my pace. And at the end I finished fourth, behind a dominating Kaniskina (RUS), a Shemyakina (RUS) who got saved by the rain and a Maria Vasco (ESP) who did a perfect race. I was happy to see that all four girls in my international training group placed top 8. Susana Feitor was fifth, Ines Henriques (both POR) was seventh and Sabine Zimmer (GER) was eighth. After the race I was not sure if I should be happy or disappointed to be fourth after such a good start of the season. But after my injury in June I think it was good to be fourth at the World Championships. It's my best result at the Worlds ever :-)

Norway had three race walkers in Osaka, with four starts. My brother Erik Tysse got eighth in the 20k and fifth in his first major 50k race :-) Trond Nymark was eight in the 50k.

Race walk results from Osaka:

Men 20 km 26th of August