Great news

Two wonderful years with freediving and travelling was made possible with the sponsor help from Nordea. A few days ago I got the best news I could get from them, that they wanted to sponsor me for another year. On December 21st I had a meeting with the bank director in Gjøvik, Jorun Slora Løkken, to sign a new contract for 2008.

I feel very fortunate and pround that Nordea has seen the potential in me and wants to help me on the way to getting even better in freediving. This is what makes going to worldchampionships happen, even when I'm on a student budget! So, big thanks to Jorun and Nordea for sponsoring me.

It's all in the mind

I woke up feeling tired, with stiff muscles and not much energy for the days training in the 50m pool. But I went.

Stig Severinsen and I were the only freedivers in the pool, so we started off with some pure swimming training (as we need one person for safety while doing dives, and we both wanted to get warm first). Despite my already heavy legs, I wanted to do at least one longer dive.

I first did dive to 75m, which surprisingly didn't feel too bad. Stig asked if that dive was supposed to be the long one, and then I thought "no way, I'll show him I can swim further". The next dive I found back to some of the fighting spirit that I've felt missing lately. I wanted to dive furter, and didn't care about the contractions or heavy legs. The turn at 100m was so nice and comfortable, and with a few more kicks I came up at 112m.

It was one of those small victories that might seem unimportant for others, but means quite a deal to you right then. So cheers! And to anybody who's looking for the key to achieve better, I'd say it's all in the mind. In turning it back the right way...

Step by step

After The Long Night of Apnea, I took one week off before I went to the water again. Then I begun itching to start working on the issues that had kept me from performing like I wanted to. So I went back to training, but started very slow. The sessions were doing mostly swimming, some technique and relaxing in the sauna. Step by step I started increasing the distance from 50m to 75m, but working on staying confortable and relaxed.

Now I'm finally back to really enjoying the trainings again. After spending 3-4 weeks swimming and diving just a little further every time, I feel my confidence is building up again. And the result? Sunday I did 4*75m and 2*100m, and the last one with a turn. It's not great distance or anything, but I did those dives feeling so much stronger than before.

Tuesday I even did static. And something strange happened, I got into the zone again. Didn't start the training with any expectations at all, the time didn't matter. I wanted to be able to deal with the contractions, unlike the last to competitions.

I was thinking about all the good things in my life right now, all the things I'm enjoying and the things I'm looking forward to. And I cleared my mind and told myself to live this very moment, right now. What I wanted right then was to experience the dive.

And I did. With a very calm mind and my focus on nothing at all. I did 5 statics and increased the time slowly every time, ending up on 4.15. I wasn't pushing or stressing or having doubt, just diving. So I was very happy with that.

I'll keep the training up for another week, and then it's time for a christmas break!