The life of the Swiss marathon pro Christian Kreienbühl is aimed at a clear goal: to participate in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. This fall he’s planning to qualify with a time of 2:14 at the BMW BERLIN-MARATHON.
We visited Christian for a few days at his training camp in the Swiss Engadin to gain an insight into his training routine.
Around St Moritz, the big names of the Swiss and international running scene meet for their training camps. Everyone knows each other and sometimes you train together and keep an eye on each other. You’ll pass each other on the morning run and secretly fight for a CR on the main practice laps.
Christian completes many of his workouts along with two close allies and Swiss Running Stars: Youngster Adrian Lehmann and warhorse Tadesse Abraham. The three benefit from motivating each other, especially on the workouts that hurt:
Shared pain is only half the pain.
But it is not only the collaboration of the athletes that makes St. Moritz an ideal training camp location. In addition to perfect infrastructure and quality of life, there are other advantages: the climate in the summer is very run friendly and the altitude at 1800m above sea level turns the stay into an altitude training camp as well.
The scenery is breathtaking and there’s virtually no distraction from training. No other place in the world allows you to focus on the prescribed workouts as much as here. Crystal clear and ice-cold streams and fountains in front of almost every house invite one to cool down after your workout.
Christian is a Strava member from the early years. You can follow him and each of his workouts – his activity profile is impressive. Two solid workouts per day are standard, the list of his CRs grows almost daily. Clearly he is serious, and is thus a real inspiration for all runners who fight through highs and lows while preparing for an autumn marathon themselves.
At the end of September the BMW BERLIN MARATHON is the upcoming milestone for him on his way to the olympic goal. In order to get his ticket, he has to achieve the Olympic goal time of 2:14 set by the Swiss Athletics Federation Olympic. The conditions for this goal are certainly great in Berlin, the fastest marathon course in the World where Christian has a personal best of 2:15:35 and admits he’s in much better shape this year.
Christian is consistently executing his training plan that will prepare him for a personal best: with tempo workouts around the airstrip Samedan (the route is almost flat), sprints and workouts on the track as well as long runs on the scenic hiking routes of the Swiss Engadine.
After this 4-week training block in July and the three days in which we were able to follow his training Christian exudes calm and confidence: He seems to know that he is on the right path to achieve his dream.
We will be cheering him and look forward to seeing him more Strava.
Christian is also registered on the Strava-BMW BERLIN MARATHON Race Page with already 18 other athletes to date that share a target time of under 2:30.
Photography by Antton Miettinen.