tom wagner
               mountain ultra trail runner

Blog Post

baby ultra or not? Hahlici Trail

thomas.wagner • Jun 06, 2017

this was originally posted on the 15th of June 2015!

nach einer Definition in Wikipedia: An ultramarathon , also called ultra distance , is any sporting event involving running and walking longer than the traditional marathon length of 42.195 kilometres (26.219 mi).

naja, somit zählt der Hahlici Trail doch zu einem Ultra, oder!? Oder nicht!?

GANZ EGAL, es war eine geniale Veranstaltung, eine sehr abwechslungsreiche und perfekte Strecke und die Hitze tat ihr übriges gleich nördlich von Rijeka!

…bin echt happy mit dem 2. Platz und einer Zeit von 4:47:24 Std für die 45km und +/-2000m. Und es war mal wieder eine gute Ausrede nach Kroatien zu fahren, Land und Leute zu genießen und nebenbei noch mit Stefan, Babsi und Silke an der Premiere des Hahlici Trails teilzunehmen. Alle drei „begnügten“ sich mit der 18km Strecke, wobei Stefan sich sogar den Sieg sichern konnte (Congrats!!!) und die Damen sich super gut schlugen (Bravo les filles!!!)

Wie auch schon beim Istria 100 Miles musste ich mich Marjan Zupančić geschlagen geben: Chapeau zu dieser Leistung.

Kurz was zum Trail selbst: erst ging es gleich mal nach einer kurzen flachen Aufwärm-Passage 1000hm bergauf; wunderschön, steil!

dann leicht bergab und dann wellig eine Zeit lang dahin. Einiges auf „Forstwegen“; aber kroatische Forstwege sind nicht mit unseren zu vergleichen und dürfen wohl unter Trail eingeordnetet werden.

loser, grober Schotter machen das Vorankommen schwieriger als man auf den ersten Blick erwarten würde… croatian fire road!

Bei etwa km 25 gab es die 2. Labestation und bei diesen Temperaturen (gut 32-33°C im Schatten) dringend notwendig. Nach weiteren einfacheren Passagen ging es zum höchsten Punkt der Strecke. Off-Trail einfach den Markierungen nach. Genial. Genial anstrengend! Von dort primär bergab. Es war heiß, echt. Endlich wieder auf einem laufbareren Trail („Forstweg“) liefen neben mir 2 Hirsche und 2 Hirschkühe her und entschieden sich dann vor mir den Weg zu queren (überspringen). Ein geniales Bild; leider nur in meinen Erinnerungen und nicht auf der Kamera festgehalten. Schade. Aber somit ist mir klar warum auf dem im Starterpaket enthaltenem Schlauchband ein Hirsch aufgezeichnet ist 😉

Irgendwann war mein Trinken dann auch aufgebraucht und ich sehnte mich nach der 3. Labestation. Zuerst aber ging es wieder mit der „kurzen“ Strecke zusammen und der downhill begann wirklich. Und es wurde immer heißer. Neben Wildpferden ging es steile Wiesen hinunter; ein wunderbarer Anblick.

Endlich dann die letzte Labestation und obwohl es nur mehr 4 km ins Ziel waren, war eine kurze Pause dringend notwendig um mich etwas zu rehydrieren (leichte Schwindelgefühle sind bei diesen Temperaturen nicht zu ignorieren). Gestärkt ging es auf die letzten Meter die ich etwas gelassen anging, weil Marjan eine 1/4Stunde Vorsprung hatte und ich dies auf den letzten 4km wohl nicht mehr wettmachen würde und ich bei der Hitze nichts riskieren wollte (so hab ich mir 2013 doch (fast) ruiniert).

Also konzentrieren und Platz 2 nach Hause bringen. First looser oder einfach der 2. Gewinner. Ganz egal; schön dabei gewesen zu sein!!!

…ein wunderbares Wochenende mit Freundin, Freunden, neuen Gesichtern und genialen Trails rund um die Kvarner Trail Region. Land (& Meer) und Leute sind definitiv eine Reise wert!

DANKE für diese tolle Veranstaltung!

alle Bilder von der homepage des Veranstalters. Danke!!!

By thomas.wagner 04 Jan, 2023
everyone is familiar with those indexes / indices, right!? and so what!? top 1%? ok, sounds cool. nothing more. grateful that I live a life where running is a fun side hassle that allows me and my fam to explore some awesome places. speaking of awesome places: sooo excited to toe the line at Western States Endurance Run 100 Miles this June. so better focus on the training and once again apologize for not being very active on this / my site. but I will keep trying... best and happy trails, tom
By thomas.wagner 07 Apr, 2022
... 20 to keep you in the race...
By thomas.wagner 19 Jan, 2021
pretty cool to see your own self on a cover of a trailrunning mag, right!? honored to make the cover of the current issue 01/2021 of the Trailrunning Szene ;-) ...potentially not only the cover is a good one but also the content; go check it out!
By tom 01 Jan, 2021
...there is actually a load of cool gear out there and I'm fortunate enough to be able to play with much of it; but actually my gear of the year 2020 is a pretty simple, but pretty important one. No; its not a shoe, but likely an even more important piece of gear for a (trail)runner: a handheld! Some sort of a bottle with some sort of a strap to attach it to your hands.
By thomas.wagner 11 Dec, 2020
I’m actually pretty bad in bragging about myself. Anyway, I was nominated for the Austrian Trail Awards due to my 2020 performance; especially because of winning the Chiemgau 100 Miles . Nothing too special IMHO (a german version of a race report from the local press can be found here ). By actually thinking about it a bit more in detail, this individual win in this strange period of COVIDian times simply could imply a bit of luck that day on my side and not many other runners chasing that win… …maybe. But there is actually a bigger picture to look at. Not only 2020 in itself and not a single performance for sure. So, as I am anyway super late in writing a “race report” about the Chiemgau 100 (s)Miles, I thought I might as well use this “opportunity” of being nominated for the Austrian Trail Awards ( find out all about the nominated girls and boys here ) and dig a little deeper why this performance is at least in my opinion not only luck but maybe also some hard work over years; actually decades... Running 100 miles during COVIDian times can actually be seen as sort of the most appropriate way to practice “distancing”. Starting blocks during the Chiemgau 100 aren’t introduced in 2020, but are a way of allowing us runners to choose the right time window for the first “loop” to be ready for the second part that aligns with the 100 km course. Every full hour between 2 (this year 1) PM and 8PM, a small group of runners departs… At 7PM, it was only 3 of us. And no, we did not take it slow and easy really; although Flo (the winner of the 2019 edition) and I at least tried to convince the other one of that. So the night was sort of “hot” already and the next morning did not bring us any cooler temps really. In the end it turned out to be a pretty hot day and thanks to my crew chief a lot of ice in my hand bottles, in my neck bandana and under my hat made me keep moving forward. Long story short, after 22:09:32 h I made it back to the start line in 1st place. Super happy about it! So grateful about another 100 miles victory; about another awesome long day out on the trails. That was now number 7 in total and besides a win (my 100 miles PB in 19:49:43 h) and then course record at the 100 miles of Istria in 2016; it was my 6 th win here at the Chiemgau 100 Miles. And this is where likely luck does not explain the whole story anymore. My first win was back in 2011 (a decade ago!). Again in 2012 (tied with Lars Donarth), 2015 , 2017 , 2018 (still the course record in 21:19:44 h) and this year, 2020. In 2014 , I managed to hold on for a second place behind Rudi Döhnert. And yes, I also DNFed at this race once; after ~100k in 2013 . Figure 1 shows my times over the course of a decade (!) running/finishing the Chiemgau 100 Miles. And although this is not how trend analysis should be done properly, it is at least reasonable to argue that I did not get much slower over the course of a decade. That’s sort of cool and please allow me to be a little proud about that “trend” ;o) ...I will do my very best to keep that trend alive in the years to come. Long may you run !
By thomas.wagner 22 Sep, 2020
super excited to join this group of atheltes and learn from the past! for more details see https://alpfronttrail.com/
By thomas.wagner 10 Aug, 2020
Matthias Krah and I, after finishing / winning the 100 km and 100 miles, respectively. Super happy with the long day out (22:09 hrs) and likely will take a day or two to process it all. ...a little "report" will follow asap! in the meanwhile, happy trails to all of you! photo credit and big thanks to @summitsforthesoul (Florian Schütz)
By thomas.wagner 23 Jul, 2020
...this will be awesome! virtually AWESOME ! HERE is a link to the detailed programm! ....don't know how I made it into that list of all this badass athletes around me ;-) Go an check out the line up and register early! will be great fun to listen for sure and I'm sure that the one or the other thing can be learned from any of us! keep running single tracks and keep showing up! happy trails in the meantime and stay healthy!
By tom 20 Jul, 2020
...there might not be much going on concerning races and the like; so enjoy being outdoors, train for the sake of training and breath cool air up high or sweat a lot down low. ...maybe try an FKT (fastest known time) or simply explore the playground near you. Eventually we will be toeing the start line soon! fingers crossed that this will be rather sooner than later. In the meanwhile, run to add life to your days! happy trails!
By thomas.wagner 29 Mar, 2020
A few thoughts (and maybe recommendations) about a number that seems to show up in three of my “passions”: 80 / 20 A ratio that might be relevant for three of my passions: coffee, hydrogeology and running long... 1) Coffee : 80 % bio arabica / 20 % bio robusta Right now, we do have some additional time to think about things in our live, we didn’t before. Not saying that I’m working any less hours. However, the home office actually demands a different work flow and required this week a sort of emergency order for coffee to keep me working. This is actually when the 80/20 ratio sort of appeared in all these three “disciplines”. I ordered four different coffees (250g each, whole beans) at a local roastery called “Paul&Bohne”: one was a 100 % arabica, one a 50/50 arabica/robusta, one 90% arabica, 10 % robusta and the final one, the “Lendblend” was a 80/20. And I must admit, I like the 80/20! A personal preference - nothing more, nothing less. 2) Hydrogeology : 80 % older, longer stored water / 20 % event water Currently, I’m working on a project about a soil substrate map of Styria (Austria) we try to complete somehow despite all the necessary measures necessary during COVID-19. But usually, my research focus is more on spring catchment characterization and there is a manuscript currently under review (“Active rock glaciers as shallow groundwater reservoirs, Austrian Alps”) that I check its status on a regular basis. Long story short: springs may react on recharge events differently. Some show basically very little fast response on event water and the spring hydrograph is rather dampened. Other springs, like many karst or rock glacier springs do show a much higher variability in spring discharge usually related to preferential flow paths. Interestingly, the percentage of event water (fast flowing through the aquifer after storm or snow melt events) in at least some of these catchments is ~20%, meaning that older, longer stored water (with usually higher mineralization) is ~80% of the runoff. This is definitely not a number that holds true for all spring catchments, but at least some I had the chance to study (Wagner et al. 2016, Winkler et al., 2016). 80/20, but others are more like 60/40, but basically never 100 % event water. However, during drought periods (or actually periods of no to very little recharge) spring flow or actually river runoff might be 100 % groundwater contribution… We might come back to this when there is time to think again about our climate crisis and not the COVID-19 anymore. Ideally, the latter might show that we can live with a little less (add here travel, meat, etc.) than we used to… 3) (Ultra-) Running : 80 % slow runs / 20 % high(er) intensity Just reading the German version of “Training for the Uphill Athlete – A manual for mountain runners and ski mountaineers” by Steve House, Kílian Jornet and Scott Johnston that I bought for Silke because she didn’t like to read the English version, there is an obvious focus on establishing an endurance base, meaning we all should have a good base built before even do the faster, high intensity stuff. If we did a good job in building this base, we need to keep the balance between the “slow” runs and the “intense” ones. And yes, this ratio is 80/20. When you think about what “polarized training” suggests (there is reasonably strong evidence that it is very beneficial for endurance athletes (Seiler, 2010) and potentially for recreational runners too (Munoz et al., 2014) to train that way), you should spend a lot of time (80 %) below your aerobic threshold (AeT), and only a 1/3 of the remaining time between AeT and lactate threshold (LT) and the other 2/3 remaining above LT. I must admit, I like the 80% but often have a hard time to push really hard during these 13% (or actually two high intensity sessions a week). So hopefully race season is coming soon again to get that percentage up again. So what should this 80/20 ratio tell you ? …definitely no “conclusion” here from my side, just simply an observation of me (coffee), myself (hydrogeology) and I (running long) that the ratio 80/20 might be a “good” one… ...maybe right now, all these "passions" do not really matter that much and we should all use 80% on " family time " and reduce intensity (unnecessary stress) in our lives in general to (below) 20%!? Fingers crossed we all will be out on the trails soon again, enjoying our coffee at a campsite, and not having work and hobby getting too close to each other as it is right now, where home & office is the same and it is hard to disconnect from work. Stay healthy and stay positive. And if this post did not make any sense to you, at least it might have distracted you a little from the current situation… Happy home and hopefully happy trails soon! Cheers, tom References: House, S., Jornet, K. and Johnston, S., 2019. Training for the Uphill Athlete – A manual for mountain runners and ski mountaineers. Patagonia Books, Ventura, United States. ISBN: 978-1-938340-84-0 Seiler, S., 2010. What is the best practice for training intensity and duration distribution in endurance athletes? International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance 5(3): 276-291. https://doi.org/10.1123/ijspp.5.3.276 Munoz,, I., Seiler, S., Bautista, J., Espana, J.m Larumbe, E., Esteve-Lanao, J., 2014. Does polarized training improve performance in recreational runners? International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance 9(2): 265-272. https://doi.org/10.1123/IJSPP.2012-0350 Paul & Bohne: https://paulundbohne.at/ accessed 25.03.2020. Wagner, T., Pauritsch, M., Winkler, G., 2016. Impact of relict rock glaciers on spring and stream flow of alpine watersheds: Examples of the Niedere Tauern Range, Eastern Alps (Austria). Austrian Journal of Earth Sciences 109(1), 84-98. https://doi.org/10.17738/ajes.2016.0006 Winkler, G., Wagner, T. Pauritsch, M., Birk, S., Kellerer-Pirklbauer, A., Benischke, R., Leis, A., Morawetz, R., Schreilechner, M.G., Hergarten, S., 2016. Identification and assessment of groundwater flow and storage components of the relict Schöneben Rock Glacier, Niedere Tauern Range, Eastern Alps (Austria). Hydrogeology Journal 24, 937-953. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10040-015-1348-9
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