151 miles since 9th of March...

since yesterday night the 150 mile or actually the 8 pack of Roctane Ultra Endurance Energy Gel mark is reached ;-)

and some nice "trails" were done!
especially the one on Sunday which had a lot of elevation gain and some great conditions for ski touring!
...as I was the only one without skitouring equipment besides Raven, a friends dog (well, my Avalung, shovel, probe and beacon was with me) I was kind of standing out from the crowd ;-)
...really enjoyed the uphill although it was quite frozen (did it in 1:51 hrs); then some distance back down and up again with friends; and down and up again the last section; on the way down I had to fight due to the sunny weather and firn conditions. good workout definitely!

view from the Marterlkopf (2445 m) down to the starting point of Hinterthal (1030 m)

me at the summit; first human being that day. Raven was a bit faster ;-)

 

view back up to the Marterlkopf (summit in the middle); did the section from the Torscharte 3 times

and now: departure to Italy, Garda Lake for some nice and sunny trails and some more climbs but without snow ;-)

100+ miles since 9th of March ;-)

...a week of running every day
...a total of 107 miles 
...thanks to the GU 100 Thousand Mile Challenge ;-)

the trail when I hit the 100-mile mark

 

 

 

me at the same moment (after some Roctane Pineapple)

keep on running!

GU 100 Thousand Mile Challenge Progress Report

...5 days into the challenge.
A total of 3245 runners and already 22,883 Miles!!
I guess the 100,000 might be done end of this month ;-)

Do my best to contribute to the total milage.
Currently I'm in 3rd place with 75 miles ( including quite some trail sections and some consumed GUs ;-)

Keep on running
And enjoy the sun-ups and -downs!!!

20120312 Jungfernsprung

GU 100,000 mile challenge!

tomorrow will start the GU 100,000 mile challenge (9th of March till 9th of April)!

whoever wants to contribute to a total milage of at least 100,000 miles is very welcome!
and if one achieves 100, 150 or even 200 miles will get some GU Gels...
...YES, I'll contribute!

for details check that link:

http://www.strava.com/challenges/gu-100-thousand-mile-challenge


aiming for the 200 miles ;-)
and because of that, a rest day today...

some impressions of last weeks (again!) changing conditions here in Austria:

a bit of (half) frozen trails near Fieberbrunn

some perfect dry conditions in Graz

 ...looking forward to some good trail conditions the coming month
AND the trail running camp at the Lago di Garda in Italy end of this month!!!

various trail conditions and some vertical gain

last week was a low milage week, however there was some vertical gain ;-)
and a fun range of weather conditions as the spring-time seems to be here at least for the southeast of Austria!


Tuesday: some midday slush up and down the Schöckl trail

Wednesday: same trail but at night, so basically pure ice (perfect to test my new crampons)

Thursday: some more temperature rise (~+8°C) and some sunshine, so running in shorts the first time this year. felt just great!!!

Saturday: raining most of the day. at night the Vertical Up 2012 took place: running up the famous Streif race track of the ski downhillers with the equipment of your choice (http://www.verticalup.at/).
...although it was pretty soft, I decided to go with spikes (actually flexible crampons) and poles.
Loads of fun and hard breathing. My first real speed workout this season ;-)

http://www.verticalup.at/

http://www.verticalup.at/

1st place: Urban Zemmer (ITA) in 0:34:41... WOW!
30th place: me in 0:44:24 for 3312 m of distance and +860 m to climb.
not too bad for a long distance fellow ;-)
  
Sunday: nice recovery run in heavy snowfall. great trails (thanks to the unknown for digging those out!) with loads of remaining snow in Tirol.

all in all a week with a lot of variations in weather and trail conditions with focus on the vertical.
just 38 km, but +3164 m climbed in just 6:32hrs...
actually on 3 climbs of a total of 120 min and less than 8km I managed to do 2200 m vertical ;-).

enjoyed it! and look forward to some more runs in shorts ;-)

final race schedule for 2012

...got a starting position (lottery) for the Chiemgauer 100 Miles (27th of July)!
and will try to go again for 1st place (this time I already know the trails ;-)

so finally my race schedule for the 2012 season is fixed.
- Zugspitz Ultratrail to get used to the distance
- Irontrail (3 weeks later) to try to get beyond the 200 km! in the beautiful mountains of Switzerland
Chiemgauer 100 Miles (2 weeks later) to defend last years results and enjoy this great ambience;
and as the big finale the UTMB 10th edition! really looking forward to this ;-)

...lots to be motivated and train for!

a first competition (or actually fun run, cause this is way to short for me to compete with the experts) this weekend: Vertical Up (http://www.verticalup.at/)! running up the Streif / Hahnenkamm (Kitzbühel) with whatever equipment you want to ;-)
...I'll go for spikes and poles.

...some winter training. perfect blue sky and the first on the trail (although it is midday ;-)

...some new shoes for winter motivation

finally got my pair of MT 110s to start into the season. really interesting shoe and the outsole works much better  than the one of the old 101s as far as I can tell now (besides along the icy spots ;-) 

probably not really related to this particular shoe, but new equipment in general that boosts my motivation to get out of bed early in the morning when it is still dark; however there is a second reason: perfect sunrise and the occasional glow of the trails. Just a beautiful time for running (especially if there is that little snow as here on the eastern margin of the Eastern Alps!)

 

my conclusion: when trails and faces are frozen (-10°C), the sunrise is the most beautiful ;-) 

forgot an important thing (especially in winter): be the first to leave a mark on the snowy trail ;-D

20120207 morning session