Holly Zimmermann

Adventure racing is anything but mainstream. A multidisciplinary endurance sport far removed from civilization that tests the mind as well as the body. The 2021 Master course of the Nordisk Adventure Challenge in Silkeborg, Denmark was simultaneously the European Championship of Expedition-Length Adventure Racing, raising the level of the competition across the board. With a point-to-point distance of 575 kilometers, an 80-hour time limit gave us three and a half days to complete the course, which left little to no time for sleep. So what exactly is Adventure Racing? Well-known in some parts of the world, it is still an obscure sport here in Germany. Also called expedition racing, adventure racing is a team sport involving the main disciplines of trekking, mountain biking and paddling, but often include climbing, abseiling, swimming, inline skating, horseback riding, skiing and whitewater rafting, among others. Teams are generally mixed in gender and made up of two to five people, ...

The question I am most often asked is not “ How do you train for running in the desert?” nor “ How do you stay motivated during those long runs? ”, but rather two simple words, “ What’s next? ” And from those who know the type of races I prefer to run, they ask the question, waiting with bated breath, hoping that I will dazzle them with something off the charts. No pressure there. Bu honestly, I don’t choose races for the ‘Wow’-factor, I keep my eyes and ears open as to what is out there, waiting patiently until I hear of a race that sends a chill down my spine, and then I know it is the next one. Choosing races of such magnitude with any other motivation I think would make it impossible to invest in the amount of training, planning and preparation necessary to pull it off. During my down-time this past winter I created an Excel spreadsheet with all the race options that interest me including all of my standard short-distance races in and around Regensburg that I run with my...

(Click here to read this article in English) Regensburg Landkreislauf 2017 Oberndorf nach Kallmünz • 74,4 Kilometer • 800 Höhenmeter Sieht nicht so schlimm aus, wenn man sich die Zahlen ansieht. Nur 800 Höhenmeter über dieser Distanz ist fast flach. Verglichen, während des Hochkönigman Ultra Trail (85km / 5000m), in der Mitte des Rennens, gab es einen 1000 Meter Aufstieg auf knapp über 3 Kilometern, das ist ein 30% Anstieg. Also, natürlich, dachte ich über den Landkreislauf, 'Ok, ich kann das ziemlich leicht machen und vielleicht sogar etwas aggressiv angehen.‘ Ha, ha. Denk nochmal. Jedes Jahr schaue ich die Strecke des Landkreislaufs vorher an, indem ich die Etappen entweder laufe oder radl. Dieser Ablauf ist wichtig mich mental vorzubereiten, und um sicherzustellen, dass ich mich während des Rennens nicht auf die Markierungen verlassen muss und mir Sorgen mache, dass ich eine Abzweigung verpasse, da ich bereits eine Geschichte habe, mich verlaufen zu haben. ...

Regensburg Landkreislauf 2017 Oberndorf nach Kallmünz · 74.4 kilometers · 800 meters positive climb Doesn’t look so bad when you look at the numbers. Only 800 meters elevation over that distance is almost flat. Comparatively, during the Hochkönigman Endurance Trail (85km/5000m), in the middle of the race, there was a 1,000 meter climb over a distance of just over 3 kilometers, that’s a 30% grade. So, naturally concerning the Landkreislauf, I thought, ‘Ok, I can do this one pretty easily and maybe even approach it somewhat aggressively’.  Ha, ha. Think again. Every year I check out the course of the Landkreislauf by either running the stages or biking them beforehand. It is important for me to be able to mentally toss it through my mind as well as to make sure I don’t have to rely on the markings during the race and worry that I may miss a turn, since I do have a history of getting lost. This year I did not get a chance to check out the entire course, only the...

Back in late fall 2016, as I was contemplating my race calendar for the upcoming year, I shared my thoughts with my coach and he said, “Sounds good. That gives us time for three months of base training.” What exactly is base training? And how important is it?  Base training could principally be described as ‘training to train, not training to race.’ It is a period used to strengthen the muscular and aerobic systems and get the body prepared for the greater stresses that are applied when training to race. The goal of base training is to develop a runner’s aerobic potential to its maximum before implementing anaerobic training, which fine-tunes the body to run at greater speed. Cross-country skiing is a great aerobic exercise Physiologists experimenting with endurance athletes at Cologne University found that fine muscular endurance can be attained by exercising continually for long periods, i.e. two hours or more at a time (not split up within a day, but can be a ...