Yesterday we went to near Maribor in Slovenia for a quite extensive ski mountaineering training. In preparation for sellaronda we climbed the Pohorje 3 times for a total of 1700 m of ascent. This training was very hard so I have to do some more endurance training until March 6^th.

Tomorrow I will take part in my first ski mountaineering competition. “Just” 800m of climb this time. Looking foreward to it.

While my training is proceeding almost as planned, on last Sunday I used the possibility to test my shape again by running at a cross competition, this time in near Carinthia. The course of the competition went quite different than in Murska two weeks ago. I tried to impose the speed from the beginning because the terrain was quite heavy and therefore an advantage for us orienteers. So I was leading almost all the way. But in the end I felt quite tired and could not increase speed. Luckily I managed to reach the finish with a small lead. Shape is increasing but still some work to do.

Now I'm looking forward to a nice trainings camp in hopefully warm Spain next week.

What to say about my training until now. I started as planned in November. After some weeks of good running training here in Graz I decided for alternative training when back home during Christmas . Weather was fine and conditions almost perfect. I tried some ice climbing, ski mountaineering, climbing and snow running.