I had back problems during most of last season. I didn't want to take these problems with me into my last Olympic season and therefore I felt that I had to do something to get my back fixed. After Saransk I did. And I had to take a much longer break after the season than what I would normally do.

After my long break I started building up with a lot of strengthening training, then I started alternative endurance training and when we felt that I was ready, I started race walking again. Since Christmas I am back to "normal" race walk training. And from then on I was able to increase my training week by week. In the beginning of January I started to feel much better in training, but in the middle of January I felt that something was not like it was supposed to be. And I was right.... I got an infection which made everything feel hard and heavy. My heart rate was higher at a slower pace and I was very tired. This lasted for three weeks, but then suddenly the antibiotics had done it's work and I felt fine again :-) These were some tough weeks, but I made it :-) And that was just in time before the altitude training camp in Flagstaff/USA from the 15th. of February.

I have only been training easy long distance training before Flagstaff. I only did a threshold test the tuesday before we left home. This test showed that I am on the right way, but that I am 6 weeks behind, compared to last year. This was exactly like we expected and I had a good enough level to go to altitude.