Dagen började med att jag efter frukost tog mig an dagens halvmaraton träningspass, vilket innebar att springa 25-minuter i tempot 7:15/km. Jag gjorde detta på löpbandet.

Senare på eftermiddagen var Ellie och jag ute och gick augustis sista runda.

Efter dagens rundor, kom det ett vykort från Viking – Invasions.

In the chaos of the Viking invasions, the kingdom of Wessex, sitting in the southwest corner of England, became the only Saxon realm to put up serious resistance to the new threat. This was partly thanks to geography; the Wessex coast was spared the worst of the Viking sea raids, and their territory lay furthest from the Great Heathen Army’s advance. Furthermore, Wessex had proven its ability to defeat the Vikings in the field and had swallowed up the old kingdoms of Sussex and Kent, as well as superseding Mercia, its historical rival. It was also led by a competent king, Aethelred, and his younger brother Alfred, destined to succeed and surpass him. 

The advancing Vikings first struck Reading, a town just across the border, lying on the south bank of the River Thames. Here, the local earl was able to resist the first assault, and the Vikings retreated to a fortified camp 19 mi (30.5 km) to the southeast at Englefield. The ball was in the Wessex brothers’ court. They took the initiative and attacked.  Although they almost breached the fortifications, the Vikings fought “like wolves” and drove the Saxons back.

Aethelred and Alfred retreated east in good order to the Berkshire Downs, an area of rolling chalk hills near Reading. Bagsecg’s Viking army followed them, taking the Ridgeway, an ancient road that led straight over the top of the Downs into the heartland of Wessex. If their kingdom was to survive, the brothers needed to stop the invasion here, at a battleground that would be known later as Ashdown. 

No one knows exactly where the battle took place, but a good contender is between the Blewburton and Kingstanding Hills. At the top of Blewburton Hill is Blewburton Camp, an Iron Age hillfort with massive earthwork ramparts and ditches that still make a strong fortress. It’s believed that Aethelred camped his forces there, whilst Alfred camped at Kingstanding Hill, which may have provided him with a commanding view over the Norse army coming up the Ridgeway, and an opportunity to cut them off in a pincer movement as they advanced towards Aethelred’s shieldwall.

Asser tells us that on the day of the battle, the Viking Army formed into two divisions: one led by Bagsecg, the Viking king who had brought over the Great Summer Army, and the other by his jarls. The Wessex forces, enjoying a slight numerical advantage, copied them and drew their forces into shieldwalls. Alfred was to attack the earls, Aethelred the king.

The first part of the battle started in confusion – Aethelred refused to bring his forces to battle until he heard Mass in his tent, telling his frantic advisors that he was ‘not disposed to abandon the service of God for that of men’. But the Vikings were advancing, and Alfred realised that he could not wait any longer. He charged the enemy ‘with the rush of a wild boar’.

Just as Alfred’s soldiers crashed into the Viking shieldwall, Aethelred’s banners appeared on the other side of the hill. The two forces met, ‘the one side bent on evil, the other on fighting for life, and dear ones, and fatherland’. Again, they fought fiercely, and the Saxons came out on top. Bagsecg, along with most of his jarls, was slain on the battlefield. 

The Saxons pursued the enemy to Basing, hoping to end the invasion once and for all, but the Vikings won the fight and drove the Saxons back to Reading. That winter, another contingent of reinforcements arrived from Scandinavia, and the opportunity was lost. Despite their defeat at Ashdown, the Vikings still had the advantage.

A few months later, Aethelred, after a turbulent and certainly stressful five years on the throne, died. The Saxon tradition (loosely followed) was that brothers succeed brothers to the throne, and so Alfred was acclaimed king by the people of Wessex on 23 April 871. Now the young man, just 21 years old, will face his greatest test, as the Viking hordes turn their attention to the northwest and invade Mercia. In just a couple of months, the Mercian king flees to Rome, and the Vikings conquer the country. Wessex stands alone, and the Great Heathen Army is massing on its borders.

Idag var Tina och jag på husvisning i Svedala. Området hette Nygårds dammar och visningen gällde nybyggnation av hus.

Vi hade sett ut en av de lediga tomterna till salu och fick gå in i ett av de ännu ej färdigställda husen. Tyvärr var det inte ett sådant hus som det var tänkt att vi skulle bygga, men rummen var ungefär i samma storlek.

Vi kom ganska snart fram till att rummen var alldeles för små för våra ändamål, så vi började titta på annat.

Jag gick motvilligt upp denna tidiga lördagsmorgon., för att bege mig ut på dagens träningspass.

Samma typ av upplägg:

5-minuters uppvärmning.

10-minuters löpning i lugnt tempo.

5-minuters löpning eget tempo.

5-minuters nedvarvning.

Det blev en runda innan jobb idag. Ännu ett träningspass med:

5-minuters uppvärmning / gång eller löpning.

10-minuters löpning i lugnt tempo.

5-minuters löpning i eget tempo.

5-minuters nedvarvning.

Efter att ha hoppat över lördagens träning, så fick jag motvilligt dra mig själv i kragen för att komma ut och göra söndagsträningspasset.

5-minuters uppvärmning.

10-minuters löpning i lugnt tempo.

5-minuters löpning.

5-minuters nedvarvning.

Det gick sådär. Höll ett ganska lågt tempo men blev trött som bara den och fick gå lite efter de 10-minuternas löpning.

Lördagen den 22 augusti var det dags för vår förening Tre Kronor Fans att ha sin sommarfest.

Även i år var vi i Klågerup hemma hos Emelie & Magnus.

Vi började kl. 13:00 med att bjuda alla ankomna på korv med bröd.

Kl. 14:00 startade vi med femkampen; Yxkast, Drop-Sticks, Discgolf, Burkar och Cornhole.

Samtidigt med femkampen startade Tipsrundan.

Båda dessa aktiviteter drog ut på tiden, så i stället för att vara klara vid 17:00, blev vi färdiga 18:00.

Medan Magnus skötte grillen, passade en hel del på att bada. Vissa åkte i med kläderna på!

Då bjöds det på grillat och i samband med det kom det ett ösregn av dess like. Tur att vi satt upp tält så att vissa kunde sitta kvar. De som inte fick plats satte sig där inne.

Efter maten kl. 20:00 blev det dags att spela Bingo.

Felicia vann två gånger, Tina Johansson likaså. Elin Johansson vann en av gångerna (då Tina J lämnade över till nästa eftersom det var hon som köpt in priset.)

Därefter blev det prisutdelning till 1-3 plats i fenkamperna (Barn + vuxna), samt till vinnarna i tipsrundaan.

Placeringar:

Femkamp Barn: 1:A Gabriel Ryberg, 2:A Samuel Ryberg, 3:A Adrian Larsen.

Femkamp Vuxna: 1:A Emelie Ryberg , 2:A Per Axelsson , 3:A Nina Axelsson.

Tipsrunda Barn: 1:A Samuel Ryberg.

Tipsrunda Vuxen: Tina Johansson.

I stort sett efter prisutdelningen så började folk dra sig hemåt. Klockan var mycket och de små skulle hem och sova.

Trots vädret, en lyckad tillställning med både regn, tårar sol och skratt.

Begav mig ut i mörkret, strax efter kl. 05:00 för att ta mig igenom dagens träningspass.

5-minuters uppvärmning.

15-minuters löpning i lugn takt.

5-minuters nedvarvning.

Efter denna lilla runda kom det en collectible från Viking Invasions.

Idag var det så dags att fira Gabriels 12-års dag. Det blev till att sitta ute denna soliga dag.

När alla gästerna gått, begav en del av oss ut på en promenad. Gabriel testade sina nya inlines, medan Samuel cyklade.

Efter denna promenad grillades det!

Nu kom också den sista comic:en från The Conqueror Events – Avengers – The Infinity Gauntlet utmaning, samt slutcertifikatet efter slutförd utmaning.

Inte nog med det, så kom det en liten samlarbild från Vikings Invasions.

Sist men inte minst, kom ett vykort från Ellie’s och min Harry Potter utmaning!

Denna lördag var det dags att se Eva Rydbergs sista föreställning på Fredriksdalsteatern.

Tina och jag hämtade upp Sonja hemma hos dem och begav oss av till Robert & Carina.

Tillsammans körde vi sedan i samma bil till teatern, där vi såg föreställningen ”Hjälten från Öresund”.

Vi satt på rad 5, platserna 1-5.

I pausen blev vi placerade vid bord 10 och 11, där vi intog de förbeställda smörgåsarna. Räkmacka, eller sillamacka (som Sonja tog).

Efter föreställningen begav vi oss av hemåt igen, och vi körde Sonja hem innan vi själv kom hem.

Idag var det dags för det andra träningspasset i Garmin-Coach 0-5k träningsupplägg.

5-minuter uppvärmning.

5-minuter löpning i lugn takt.

5-minuter löpning.

5-minuter nedvarvning.

Efter denna runda fick jag ytterligare två collectibles i Infinty Gauntlet utmaningen, samt ett nytt vykort i Vikings Invasion utmaningen.

As the winter of 869 arrived, the Vikings marched south to East Anglia, taking over and fortifying the town of Thetford. Edmund, the local Saxon king, had managed to postpone a war with the Vikings in 865 by providing the Norse with steel and horses. But as the old joke goes: 

Q: What’s the best way to make a Viking come back? 
A: Pay him to go away.

Realising that this time the Vikings weren’t going anywhere, Edmund gathered his forces and struck Thetford. The battle was fierce, but eventually the Vikings, led by Ivar and Ubba, gained the upper hand, and either killed the Saxon king on the field of battle or captured and executed him.

A later 10th-century biography of Edmund tells us that the king was captured after the battle. The invaders demanded that he renounce his Christian faith and share power. Edmund refused, and so was tied to a tree, shot with arrows, and decapitated. The Vikings now claimed a second Saxon kingdom, slowly but surely surrounding Mercia and Wessex.

The received story of King Edmund’s death forces us to take another step back and consider the facts. The account we have of his martyrdom was written by a French bishop in the 10th century, and the manner of his death is suspiciously close to that of Saint Sebastian, who was also tied to a tree and decapitated after refusing a pagan ruler’s demand that he renounce his faith (this time the Roman emperor Diocletian). Edmund’s legend continues with a pious wolf taking possession of the king’s head and calling out “Hic, hic, hic” (here, here, here) to the king’s followers. Then, when the men placed the head next to the body, it magically reattached itself.

With this story’s spread across the British Isles, King Edmund the Martyr became the first patron saint of England. His cult grew quickly in the decade after his death, and his story of resolve inspired the Saxons in the face of this apocalyptic new threat. More than that, the story of Edmund’s sacrifice was shared by all the disparate Saxon realms, and this bound them together. This was a first step in the creation of a shared Anglo-Saxon identity that stood in opposition to the invaders. As the Vikings ravaged the British Isles, they were creating the English.

Then, in the summer of 871, more bad news for the Saxons: a great host of reinforcements, led by the Viking king Bagsecg, had arrived in East Anglia. This was the Great Summer Army. With their forces bolstered and their spirits high, the invaders turned their attention to Wessex, their last serious rival. In January, the Vikings left East Anglia and crossed into Aethelred and Alfred’s kingdom.