After the Everest expedition my enthusiasm was great. I was motivated, I felt good when I returned to Switzerland after two long months in Himalaya. Other than last year I did not feel burned out. I knew what I wanted: I wanted to run. Jungfrau Marathon, New York Marathon, K78 Swiss Alpine in Davos: All these runs stood on my program. Fast I was able to increase the intensity in my workouts.

I became better and faster. My goal was to run better, more efficiently, more ergonomically, faster. I have been running a lot in the past weeks, too much. And I always had pain in my forefoot. I thought it was because I was running on flat terrain. So I changed and run uphill until the pain went away. This was somehow ok but the pain came back. Until I could hardly get out of my bed. After half an hour the pain had gone. While running it was the same. The first 10 minutes I had pain, then it got better. Until just a week ago.

My physiotherapist and coach Simon Trachsel suspected bad news. Unfortunately he was right: My forefoot is totally overstrained and inflamed. The diagnosis means for me a forced break. For the next 4-6 weeks I must completely take care of myself. No running. No climbing. This is a new experience for me. Never I had serious problems. But now my body says stop. Until now it was always the mountain who set the limits.

When you train this way the physical overstrain is the greatest danger. More is not always better. Maybe it was utopian to believe I could do all this runs. I have to accept this matter of fact. At the moment I can’t change anything about this. I will do my best to change this situation as soon as possible and I hope to be able to train soon again.

Until then I have to rest. This is maybe not too bad.