Training Log Archive: Stijn

Les Chapieux to Courmayeur via Col de la Seigne. Fi had to catch the bus from Courmayeur at 14:30 so we did quite a bit of jogging again. Another spectacular day with more snowy peaks and glaciers as far as the eye could see.

Really enjoyed the hike/run and would highly recommend it - pack light and enjoy :-) 10000m ascent total!

Les Houches to Les Chapieux via Col de Voza, Les Contamines and Col du Bonhomme. Met Fi at 11am and she joined us for the last 2 days. Very pastoral day but got our alpine dose again over the final col. Fran recovered impressively overnight - she could barely walk when we finished in Les Houches at 8pm the day before!

Trient to Les Houches via Col de Balme, La Flegeres and Le Brevent. Big day with epic views of the alpine peaks (including Mont Blanc) all around us. Hardly any running today due to all the ascent. Had a long day out - 12h20m door to door. I'm only logging our moving time.

La Fouly to Trient via Champex-Lac and an unexpectedly steep climb called Bovine. Had some easy runnable terrain early on but we were mostly hiking the 2nd half. The weather opened up a bit with some epic views of the surrounding peaks covered in snow.

Tomorrow it's over the Col de Balme into the Chamonix Valley and the Brevent Ridge.

So we're aiming to do the 160km Tour du Mont Blanc in 5 days of hiking/jogging. Somewhat slower than Xavier Thevenard's 20h34m UTMB record but somewhat faster than the 11 days which most hiking groups take.

Day 1 was from Courmayeur in Italy to La Fouly in Switzerland via 2 big climbs (Bertone and Grand Col de Ferret). We started in the rain with some gloomy conditions, but got some pretty spectacular views throughout the day. Plenty of snow and mud around as well, which made the going a little slower. I am carrying 10kg in a 30l pack for both of us so the 50/50 running-hiking strategy is working well :-)

Weather is supposed to be glorious for the next 4 days!

Rented bikes and cycled into the Chianti region of Tuscany. The bikes were 1x7 so we had to do some grinding and pushing up the steeper hills. Gorgeous day which was topped off by a 6-course gourmet lunch with wine pairings at Badia di Passignano. Life is good :-)

We still had to ride back to Firenze after lunch and did so in a semi-sozzled state. Lucky it was mostly downhill...