Twelve days to go to the MUT Festival, 1 month to ERYRI Snowdonia and 2 months to the Dolomiti Extreme Trail. It’s time to work on my leg strength. It’s time to create mountain legs.

Okay, I live in one of the flattest parts of one of the flattest countries in the world, so going outside to train my mountain legs doesn’t make any sense. To be honest, I can’t think of any hill I can drive to within 30 minutes. There is not even a dyke around here to run up. The only thing I can come up with is the stairs of the watchtower in the Lommelse Sahara in Belgium, just over the border.

Trail running in the Ardennes

That’s precisely the reason Sara and I went to Spa at the end of February for a trail run weekend. At least in the Ardennes we had some altitude. These days we’re busy filming new yoga courses with Vera Bettiol and Nicola Artico, here in the studio, so there is no time to go to Belgium. Luckily I can train my mountain legs at home as well.

It’s not the same, I know, but it’s better than nothing. During the Sussex ultra I discovered my quadriceps, calves, glutes and hamstrings can use some extra strength. Strength training is something I can do at home. Lunges, squads, step-ups, calf raises, stuff like that will do the trick.

Mountain legs

So, at this moment I’m designing my mountain legs series. At the MUT festival, where I’m running the Mighty Marathon of 45 kilometers and 1.300 meters of altitude, I will test my new legs. If I am happy I will keep training them in anticipation of Snowdonia. I heard running up Mount Snowden (Wyddfa) is brutal, so that will be the ultimate test. If I’m happy with my leg strength after that race, I’ll share my series of exercises with you.

For now, keep on running.