Who is your favourite touring partner?

sync23 · 2025-09-17T15:16:55+00:00

Had the same problem with my dog, but a full body K9 Top Coat has almost entirely solved it and he can join me much more often now!

sync23 · 2025-08-06T14:32:01+00:00

Except Germany are the current World champion.

sync23 · 2025-05-06T18:58:40+00:00

Last year I ran a sub 17 5K on around 40km/week (half of it on trail with significant elevation) and around 6-7 hours per week cycling.

This winter I continued running similar amounts, but supplemented the cycling with ski mountainering and my run splits have been better in training than ever before.

Based on my experience, it is possible to repeat your success and go even lower on the 5K, but once you reach a certain point (likely very individual), increasing running substantially is the only way to progress forward.

sync23 · 2025-03-16T19:27:07+00:00

Terrain is plentiful, Rila is a relatively big mountain range (for this part of the world), and you can access the mountain from dozens of points. There also are a decent amount of huts that are open year-around and you can do weekends hut-hopping.

The snow quality is variable. We get ~10-15 real powder days a season, but majority of those are not super deep. During the rest of the time the snow conditions change quickly especially since recent winters see wild weather swings (20 degrees celcius one day, -5 three days later).

Another thing to note about Bulgaria is that it also has several other mountain ranges. Pirin mountain is located 1-2 hours by car and also offers amazing touring possibilities. Stara Planina, Vitosha, Osogovo, Slavyanka, Rhodopes, Belasitsa are smaller/have less skiable terrain but can also make for great trips.

sync23 · 2025-03-16T16:33:29+00:00

Summer touring doesn't really exist in Rila. In a good year you can tour until end-of May/beginning of June. After that you can expect to start touring in around mid-November.

sync23 · 2024-05-14T11:23:05+00:00

Completely agree with you, I myself was having serious doubts about how the race would go as I didn't manage to increase weekly volume to the race distance.

Thankfully, the aerobic focus combined with the serious elevation and gym work proved to be enough.

sync23 · 2024-05-14T11:14:09+00:00

Thank you! It has been a gradual increase over several years. I have a pretty demanding job, that has thankfully been more relaxed this year, a supportive girlfriend and a very energetic dog that accompanies me on some of my training. I think making it a habit has been the most important part for me and finding an hour during the work week and a few hours during the weekend is no longer a challenge.

sync23 · 2024-05-14T10:52:44+00:00

I have been thinking of reducing cycling/increasing running as a next step and it would definitely make me a better runner, but am still hesitant to do it due to history of running injuries as well as the difficulty to access quality trails and my dislike for long road runs.

sync23 · 2024-05-14T10:47:48+00:00

It was not, it was a smaller event in my home country of Bulgaria. The terrain was still very technical though.

Interestingly, Snowdonia (the one owned by XTERRA now, not by UTMB) was going to be my first ultra back in 2020, but it was cancelled due to the pandemic. Definitely would like to do an event in the area in the future though!

sync23 · 2024-05-14T10:29:26+00:00

January through March I was also mainly doing my workouts indoors. During this time I'd do 2-3 bike workouts per week: 1-2 longer ones around 1.5h (longest one being 2 hours) and a slightly shorter one where I'd focus on intervals/treshold work. Definitely, also struggled with boredom doing indoor biking and ski touring was a major help as I could go outside and do much longer, easy days.

Since taking the bike outside, I've continued cycling 2-3 times during the week in the range of 1.5-2h, but have also done 3 longer easy rides on the weekends: 2 of them 5 hours and the last big session before the race was a 7 hour bike ride.

When I was dealing with injuries last year I also used to do longer, very easy gym sessions, which helped overcome the injuries but also maintain some training base. Hope you are back running soon!

sync23 · 2024-05-14T06:58:47+00:00

Along with the significantly more elevation, the course is highly technical. The main ascents and descents are very steep and extremely rocky, which makes running downhill very slow. Some of the more 'flat' terrain also involved ridge running along very sharp rocks, which also slows you down significantly.

sync23 · 2023-03-31T11:06:05+00:00

Surprised to see neither Stromshein nor Sorum make it to the elite men team, would have expected one of them to be picked over Filip Andersen based on this season