Questions & Answers with Jonn Are Myhren

April 2, 2008 by Niels-Peter Foppen

In this issue of Q&A an interview with Jonn Are Myhren, currently ranked 35th in the IOF World Ranking, starting 2008 member of the 2008 senior elite group of the Norwegian national team. We spoke with Jonn Are about his recent moving to Lidingö and the club change to IFK Lidingö, trainings during the winter, and his expectations for Tiomila this year, and more…

Ultimate Orienteering – In 2007 you and your girlfriend Annika Billstam decided to move to Lidingö. Your goal was to find a place to live, as well as a club that give you the possibility for a 100 % focus on orienteering in combination with 50 % focus on work. Are you completely settled in Lidingö right now?
Jonn Are – Moving to Lidingö got more complicated than we expected. Most of all because of problems to find a suitable apartment. We wanted to get a good price and a good location. You know, I have grown up in the forests of Norway so it is important to me to live in a relaxed area with nice environment for my morning jog! Finally we managed to find a nice place and now we look forward to move there in the beginning of April. The location is perfect in relation to club activity and work for both Annika and me.

U O – Does your club change to IFK Lidingö meets your expectations?
J A – The first period as a part of Lidingö has been really promising. The club exists of kind people who are very committed to the club and helpful to new runners. The mix between ages and ambition levels make the atmosphere very nice. In addition, every week there are high level elite trainings made by experienced coaches.

U O – Last weekend was the spring opening for the World’s elite, the start of the season, during the Spring Cup. During the winterperiod Jonn Are has been training in Sälen and South Africa. How do you look back to your winter season?
J A – The first part of the winter went very well. Especially the trip to South Africa made me get a good rhythm with good training habits. I could feel my running strength improving more and more every week. Even if I didn’t train very much orienteering my performance proved to be good on orienteering sessions during the training camp we had with the national team in Portugal.

Unfortunately, a combination of lots of work and a period with the flu followed by hard training suddenly became too much one day in the end of February. Without much prewarning I suddenly felt really sick in the middle of the forest when running a night training session. I got scared. Because of this episode I decided to take a full training brake and do some tests to check that nothing was wrong with my health.

All tests tell that nothing is wrong, but still I don’t feel fully recovered. I only do easy trainings and it seems like I have to do changes to my training plan this spring as well. Anyway, I have learned that running orienteering is something really important to me. Now I will listen more carefully to my body as I increase the amount of training.

U O – Last year you focused on the middle distance, which resulted in an outstanding performance at the World Orienteering Championships in. Will you focus on the middle distance this year too? Or is your aim to develop also on other disciplines?
J A – Running for the Netherlands the last couple of years gave me lots of valuable experience. It is obvious that the middle distance suits me best. This year I plan to develop my qualities on this distance even more, but I am also interested in running other distances. I dream about running relay. In the end it is up to the coaching team to decide which disciplines I get to run in big events.

U O – In about a month the 63th Tiomila will take place in Rosersberg. I assume you will be part of the 1st team of IFK Lidingö? What leg do you prefer to run at Tiomila?
J A – Tiomila is really big in every Swedish club, and also to me. I hope to get an important role in the team. Because of the trouble I have had lately I assume I will have a night leg. But that is absolutely okay with me; I am particularly fond of the atmosphere on the night legs.

U O – What are your expectations for Tiomila this year?
J A – Lidingö will not be among the favourites this year, but I think we have a positive trend in the team. We have young talents and benefit from experienced top level runners such as Fredrik Löwegren and Johan Näsman. I guess they play a similar role as Petter Thoresen has had in Halden for many years. It feels like we are about to build something big.