Going Long ... Breathtaking Nature

Everything great tends to come to an end to let a new great things begin. I am driving back home on Friday so today was my last really big day. I was very happy with how I did yesterday in the hill workout (AM) and progression/fartlek run (PM). Today was long run split in two, I had to do my morning run super early as I was picking up my mom in Bolzano at 8:30 am! So 6:25 I was already on the go or on the run. Oh my body took lot of time to wake up, I could definitely feel the harder effort from yesterday. Did 5.5 miles and off to pick up mom and we were just in time to have very late breakfast at 9:30 ... I was starving!!!

Worked on my computer and after noon I was off for 20+ km of running through the beautiful mountains of Alpe di Siusi. I chose the Paul Tergat track to be main part of my run, it is ranked as "hard". I now understand that means that I won't be able to run some parts which was exactly true due to very steep climbs or descents and narrow paths. But it was totally worth it as you can see the beautiful scenery I got to see all the time on my run:

Running down, to run up again on the opposite side :)

Crossing the small stream just few steps from ever present cows :)

Running through a horse pasture was super exciting for me as I love horses! Here is one youngster :)

Love the views :)

Turns out the youngster was hungry and going to suck on his mother's milk ... I have never seen that live for horses from such a small distance.

Map & altitude graph of my run today pictured in eVito app, here is the Garmin Connect link ... quite some climbing over the 21.5 km (13.4 miles) :D.

Not exactly cute ... more like done, exhausted yet happy :)

After refueling (rice, tomato & tuna followed by dessert of rice, apricots, apple and banana ... yep long run super hunger :D ) and taking bath ... I promised my mom to take her out for an Aperol Spritz in the afternoon sun. I took the athlete's version - Aperol with sparkling water, no wine, no prossecco :)

And some food action, photos of today's dinner, I ate about half of the risotto and had a salad not pictured here :) Food at Seiser Alm Plaza is really delicious!