Recovering from Swedish Alpine Ultra
The weeks following Swedish Alpine Ultra haven’t been entirely smooth sailing. Right after crossing the finish line, it was brutally obvious that my body had taken a severe beating in the arctic fells. Even the modest 200 meters between the finish arch and our rented cabin felt like an expedition in itself. We stayed in Abisko for a few days to hike easy with the kids and soak up the mountains, but as the days ticked by, the deep ache in my feet refused to settle down.
A week after the race, I laced up for an easy test jog. It felt okay for the first couple of kilometers, but soon my feet flared up with sharp, throbbing pain, and by the time I limped home they hurt intensely. After a couple of weeks, walking was completely fine, but any attempt to push distance quickly triggered the soreness.
Because of that, I chose to play it smart and take things very easy. I logged nowhere near the training volume I had envisioned between Swedish Alpine and TDS, and naturally, pre-race jitters have started to creep in. But priority number one is toeing the line with healthy feet—and if that means going in slightly undertrained, so be it.
High-Altitude Shakedown on Le Brévent
Now my wife and I are in Chamonix on holiday, soaking up the electric atmosphere of race week. On our first day, we climbed Le Brévent via Col du Brévent and ran back down. Total tally: 20 km and just over 1,700 meters of vertical at an easy, conversational pace with light footsteps. The sheer scale hits you immediately: this has absolutely nothing in common with flat park running around Stockholm. Believing I could be genuinely competitive in alpine mountain ultras without dedicated vert training is laughable.
The Challenge: Sur les Traces des Ducs de Savoie
As for the race itself, Sur les Traces des Ducs de Savoie (TDS) stretches nearly 120 km from Courmayeur in Italy to Chamonix in France with a daunting 7,250 meters of elevation gain. It is widely considered significantly more technical and rugged than both CCC (which I ran last year) and the main UTMB race itself. The gun goes off at 06:00 on Wednesday, August 26th.
My final preparations consist of easy shakeouts, resting the legs, and relaxing in an unbelievably inspiring mountain town.
Anyone wishing to track the race live can do so via Livetrail—my bib number is #8107.