INTERVIEW | Daniel Jung: “The whole project was wonderful”

Daniel, how are you feeling so soon after these hardships?

I'm doing surprisingly well. I don't have any problems with my muscles, but I notice that my whole body still needs recovery. I'll definitely sleep a lot in the next few days and see that my body gets back into a normal sleep rhythm.

After such enormous effort and exertion, the body certainly needs a long break to recover. Do you do anything in particular?

Nothing special, I'll give my body the time it needs to regenerate over the next few days and wait until the lactate is broken down. For sport, I will do a bit of cycling to get a different movement into the joints and muscles. I won't start training again for another 10 days. Injuries often only occur afterwards if you start training again too quickly.

The beautiful panoramic view along the Tyrolean High Trail. © Facebook

What was the best moment about this project?

It's always difficult to say when you're on the road for so long. There are many beautiful moments, for example when you are feeling well and can really perceive nature. At the same time, you realize what you can experience because of your fitness. The climax and the highlight is certainly the arrival at the finish line, where the whole burden is finally lifted off you and you know that you have reached your goal. It's definitely an emotional moment when friends and family are waiting for you. Here you are often close to tears. However, you have to consider the whole project as beautiful.

The adventure didn't just have good sides. You had a crisis while running. How did they overcome this?

I had a very good time on the first half of the route. Then I probably made a mistake and didn't take enough breaks. When I decided to take a longer break, it was already too late. I then tried to get some sleep in the Schneeberg hut. But I was so tired that I couldn't sleep. After a few hours in the Schneeberg hut we continued, but I realized that I was completely exhausted and I was feeling really bad. Daniel Jung at the end of his strength. © Facebook

Now I had to make a decision: either I run to a certain point and take a longer break there, or I finish the project. Since the goal was actually to complete the route and the time was only secondary, I decided to take a twelve-hour break in the Josef Pixner bivouac. Here I realized again how important sleep is and how much energy it gives you.

A crisis like this must also be quite difficult mentally. What's going through your head?

You have to be mentally brutally strong for such adventures. At some point you can no longer think positively and you are only concerned with your own tiredness and exhaustion. This tiredness then passes into your head and you can no longer imagine how you are supposed to move forward and manage the climb. The best way to get out of such a situation is to set small goals and use these attempts to motivate yourself again.

Will you run the Tyrolean High Trail again?

Yes, I will definitely try it again. Next time, apart from one person who accompanies me and looks after me at certain points, no one will know anything about it. This time I wanted to take everything with me and therefore had a backpack that was far too heavy. In addition, all the media attention and all the trappings with a film crew created a certain amount of pressure and that's not my style. Normally I start for myself and then report back on what cool things I did and experienced. But I learned from this experience and will come back even stronger. Interview: Florin Pfeifer

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INTERVIEW | Daniel Jung: “The whole project was wonderful”

Extreme athlete Daniel Jung ran the Tyrolean High Trail in record time last week. A beautiful but also painful adventure at the same time. SportNews spoke to the 34-year-old about the event.

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