How much energy do you spend on a multi-day foot race? I tried to estimate the expenditure first, using a back-of-the-envelope calculation before stumbling over a study researching exactly that. Fun with bananas.

The Swiss Peaks 360 foot race is done. Finished after 5.5 days of madness, covering a distance of over 360 km, 25900 m elevation gain, 26900 m elevation loss. Deprived of sleep, but enriched with an intense experience; body fatigued, but mind inspired. Time to look back on this unique adventure in the spectacular scenery of Valais in Switzerland.

The specific period of training for this year’s edition of the Swiss Peaks 360 foot race is complete. Time to look back, taper, and fine-tune the preparation for the big adventure in the gorgeous mountains of Valais in Switzerland: over valleys and passes from Oberwald to Fiesch, Eisten, Grimentz, Grande Dixence, Finhaut, Morgins to Le Bouveret.

How to find out whether my training is effective? A casual investigation into whether I can use frequent Strava segment efforts in order to see whether the ratio of heart rate versus speed shifted between two training seasons. The results look promising.

What I called the support period in my preparation for this year’s edition of the Swiss Peaks 360 foot race is complete. Time to look back, assess progress, shape the last training period before the big adventure, which will bring me to the vast mountaineous landscape of Valais in Switzerland.

How to plan the training sessions for the weeks ahead? I hacked together a web app which allows me to do just that. The app helps me to plan the training progression according to established training principles, supporting modes such as running, hiking, cycling. Apps for the purpose exist commercially, but it was fun and instructional to roll out my own.

How to find out whether the effort put into training actually increased performance? I asked myself whether there is a shortcut to testing benchmark protocols, whether in the lab or in the outdoors. As you may already have guessed, shortcuts are rare in training. But sometimes, it’s fun looking for one.

Two weeks left in what I called the base period in my preparation for this year’s edition of the Swiss Peaks 360 foot race. Time to look back, subjectively and objectively, assess progress (or the lack thereof), and thus set the foundation for creating a more detailed plan for the upcoming training period.

In 2023, I intend to contribute more to the running community, again. The opportunity to do so presents itself through leading one of the crews in the trail running club I joined last year, the trail-maniacs, ever so aptly named.

Poised to experience the Swiss Peaks 360 foot race again in 2023! An epic journey through Valais, covering 360 km and an excess of 26,000 m of vert in less than a week. One thing is certain: preparation is necessary. As a self-coached hobby-athlete, sketching the training remains up to me.

After completing the Swiss Peaks 360 foot race, it’s time to contemplate what I learnt from moving through the mountains of Valais over a distance of 360 km and a vertical gain in excess of 26,000 m, in less than 6.5 days.

This year’s challenge is approaching: Swiss Peaks 360. After recovering well from “the plague” in early July, and coming to terms with the turmoil it caused to my training, I decided already a few weeks ago: It’s a Go.

Hit a roadblock 194 days into the training cycle, and 160 days after my previous post. Turns out the COVID-19 pandemic wants me, too. I am grateful, that so far, the pandemic does not seem to make me give as much as it makes others do. Nevertheless, time to reflect on the training so far. Time to poke a bit into available research on how to safely return to what all athletes want: get back out, and continue.

How to bring some hills into your home? Such to train for hiking using box step-ups when stuck at home? After surprisingly long Internet research, I finally found a compact, wooden, pretty-enough “plyo box” . Even though plyometrics wasn’t what I had in mind.

Punishment. Today’s theme is voluntary punishment. The last stage of this footrace is framed by rain and snow. After two days of sunshine tralala, the adventure gets a new facet. Impressions from Day 3 of the Swiss Trail Tour.

The longest stage of the Swiss Trail Tour is awaiting me. Spirits are still running high, although my legs remember the effort from the previous day. How is it going to turn out today? Impressions from Day 2.

Nine months after signing up, after nine months of training, race day has finally come. Spirits are running high. I can’t wait for the start of this footrace. What does the first day have in store? Only time will tell. Impressions from Day 1 of the Swiss Trail Tour.

What does Darth Vader do on a treadmill? Breathe, breathe, breathe. This week, I treated myself to the futuristic world of performance diagnosis: I wanted to learn more about where I am as a hobby runner, how to improve from there, and how applied science in sports works nowadays.

Without feedback, you can only achieve what you already know how to do. With feedback, you can achieve what that you do not yet know how to do. I believe that feedback loops are at the core of any development. In this post, I am sharing my thoughts on incorporating objective feedback into long distance running training by visualizing data from Strava in Google Data Studio.

After more than a decade of running, I figured it’s time to understand how training actually works. Unsurprisingly, after digging through three books on the art and science of exercise, I have changed how I train for the Swiss Trail Tour this year. Maybe such research will change your training, too.

Having signed up for the Swiss Trail Tour in September, I am wondering whether this is a comeback to ultra running, or rather the beginning of something else? Either way: why do this, and how to prepare for three days of trail running─and hiking─a total distance of 103 km and 6000 m elevation gain?

Just for fun: what happens when you fit a SARIMA model (using statsmodel) over past Strava running activities in order to predict remaining running distance in 2020? Not much happens beyond the nourishment of my interest in predicting time series.

In the past years, finding some way to train hill running prior to races was difficult for me. I tried office staircases but they were boring and the air was dry and stuffy, so I failed to follow my training plan. Ever since moving to Switzerland, this is no longer a problem. I ran some statistics over activity data pulled from Strava, and the results are promising.

How do the macronutrients we eat─carbs, fat and protein─turn into energy that the muscles can use as fuel? How to answer this question without failing to see the forest for the trees? In this post, I am trying myself at a high-level abstraction based on the book Lactate Threshold Training by Peter Janssen.

What happens if a computer scientist tries to understand more about the heart and lung supplying the muscles with oxygen? The computer scientists applies graph theory. Out comes the flow conservation principle, and─woosh─there’s a diagram relating cardiac output, oxygen consumption and oxygen intake.