I cannot say much about my fitness, I seriously have no idea if I'm fit or not. I can manage a 20 mile walk, even though my feet a killing me by then. Back in the day when my car was actually heavier than me, I had good stamina. Cross-country running was the one thing in school sports, where I always got top marks. It's not like I did go from nought to sixty since day one. Take the evening route for instance. A week ago I finished it in about 2 hours 45 minutes. Yesterday I did it in 2 hours 14 minutes and that included several stops to take pictures and a 10 minute break. I'm steadily increasing the pace. I didn't go flat out from the start. I'm thirty eight now and not even counting my obesity, I'm not in the best of shapes. By the time I hit 40, I want to be in some shape that remotely matches my appearance 6 years ago.
The short-time goal for this summer is, that the waist-strap of my backpack shall actually fit around my gut. Even if I extend it to it's maximum length I still can't close it around my waist. That has to change, pronto.
The long-time target is to rebuild muscles and stamina. Sometimes around my 40th birthday I want to run a marathon. During my army-time, when I didn't yet generate my own gravity field, I did several 20 mile cross-country runs in full gear with a 15kg machine gun on my back. Of course I'll never get back into such a shape again - after all I was 19 back then - but a marathon should be possible at 40. I know people, who do that competatively at that age.
Here's some impression from yesterday's 5.6 mile lap.
![Image](http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/83/photo0004m.jpg)
This is the view from my hotel room.
![Image](http://img860.imageshack.us/img860/5594/photo0005v.jpg)
Shortly after the start. The little creek to the right is called
Haßlach and the halfway point of the route is up in the mountains at its spring.
![Image](http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/3505/photo0007ki.jpg)
The 5.6mile route is basically a 4.6 mile loop tacked onto the easy 2 mile route that I jog in the mornings, making it figure-8 shaped. This is where the two loops meet. I'll first veer off to the right up the moutain for the 4-mile extra loop. On return i'll go straight ahead for the last mile of the route. The mountain you see ahead in the distance is the one that I climb twice on saturdays.
![Image](http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/4301/photo0009a.jpg)
About 25% into the extra loop. Down in the valley is the path of the return leg. The little tarn on the right is called
Ursee (lit.: prehistoric lake)
![Image](http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/7555/photo0013xu.jpg)
The return leg through the valley. To the right is the hill the previous pic was shot from. The little shed belongs to an estate that is called
Mösle-Hof, which I'm pretty sure was a decent name some 300 years ago, but unfortunately, in todays swabian dialect it means 'little c*nt estate'. Pretty unfortunate choice of name, if you ask me...
![Image](http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/8724/photo0015r.jpg)
This isn't a modern art attempt at showing a man in an indecent situation, but one of several wells along the route. The log is hollowed out, serving as a basin. It's ice cold water from a mountain spring. This place is the halfway mark of the easy route, meaning it's only one more mile to the finish. I took a longer break here. I came in at 1:40h and since I usually do the easy (2 miles) route in about 30 minutes, I shall soon break the 2 hour mark on the long route.
The little path left of the well is, where the "black trail" (the difficult 6.2 mile route on saturdays) is separating from the other two. It's the start of a hefty two mile ascend averaging 9% gradient. I'll tackle that one twice tomorrow.
![Image](http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/5222/photo0017ib.jpg)
Just a quarter of a mile from the finish. This is the final descend back into Lenzkirch. That cross on the right seems to be some sort of important place for the local religious folk. There's a Virgin Mary figurine in the base of the cross.
Wheather permitting, I'll post pictures from tomorrows long trail, with a highest point of about 3400 feet above sea level.
Cheers
![Image](http://www.arabrab.ch/Smileys/Walking.gif)