With the Olympics here and the Men’s Marathon on August 12 only 8 days away, we interviewed marathoner Günther Weidlinger, who has been training in St. Moritz, Switzerland before arriving in London to run the Olympic marathon.

Günther Weidlinger

Here are some highlights of our interview with Günther:

Günther, how are you feeling now that Olympics are here and your race is in 8 days?

Thanks for asking, I am feeling great at the moment. The training is going quite well, and I am excited about every session and of course the race.

Why did you choose to train in St.Moritz, what is so special about this location?

St. Moritz has the perfect conditions for endurance athletes. The plateau is perfect for long endurance runs and the surroundings make every training an amazing experience. Running tracks, paved streets and gravel roads in combination with the mountains and a swimming pool with sauna… what else does an athlete need!?   

How many training sessions have you been doing a week?

I have been training about 12 times per week; that is around 800 km. In the morning I do mostly longer or faster trainings; then in the afternoon I do easier runs.   

What is the moment when a person can say that they are in good condition?

You recognize it during the training. When the legs are fine during the hardest training sessions and the heart rate is moving in the correct way, then I know that I am going to reach my goals in London. Of course there are good and bad days. Good days don’t go unnoticed, bad days will be quickly forgotten.

Günther, thanks a lot for your time and all the best for your big race!  We look forward to following you during the marathon and watching you achieve your best marathon time yet!

 runtastics, Günther will be running LIVE with runtastic thanks to the LIVE tracking function, stay tuned to our Facebook fan page and cheer him on! He will be excited to receive all your encouragement!

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There’s less than a month remaining before the Summer Olympics – 21 days to be exact – and runtastic is getting into the Olympic spirit! The games will run from July 27 – August 12 in London, and for the first time ever, all 32 sports will be streamed live on both NBCOlympics.com and the BBC Sport website.

Here are the highlights we’re looking forward to most:

• runtastic founder and CEO Florian Gschwandtner has been selected to run in the Olympic torch relay! The relay began in May when David Beckham lit the flame in Cornwall and ran the first leg, and has been going since. The torch will travel 7,500 miles over the course of 70 days before the flame is lit at the opening ceremony. The 8,000 torchbearers were nominated by people they know, and chosen by the Olympic sponsors and organizers, for their contributions to their community. Florian will run July 22 through the London Borough of  Redbridge. Check back in a few weeks for a blog post from Florian describing his once-in-a-lifetime experience carrying the torch.

• Avid runtastic user Günther Weidlinger will represent Austria in the men’s marathon. He’ll face some very tough competition, including world-record holder Patrick Makau of Kenya; Geoffrey Mutai, also from Kenya, who won both the Boston and New York marathons in 2011; and American Meb Keflezighi who won the silver medal in 2004. Read about Günther’s training regimen here and be sure to cheer him on Sunday, August 12!

• Given our love of running and biking, the triathlon is of course one of our favorite events. In the women’s race, 55 fierce competitors will strive for gold by swimming 1500 meters, biking 40 kilometers and running 10,000 meters. Emma Snowsill of Australia is the woman to beat – she finished more than a minute ahead of the field at the 2008 Beijing Olympics – but we think the US ladies are up to the challenge. 2011 ITU Athlete of the Year Sarah Groff is a serious contender, having finished third in the 2011 ITU World Championship Series, but we’re most excited to watch Laura Bennett, who’s back for more after her fourth-place finish in Beijing. At 37 years old, Bennett is more than holding her own against the younger competition. We admire her and can’t wait to watch her August 4.

• Can anyone beat Jamaican world-record holder and three-time Olympic gold medalist Usain Bolt in the 100 meter dash? Two seemingly unlikely Olympians will try –- both are among the fastest men in US track and field history, but neither was expected to make the team. Justin Gatlin won Olympic gold in 2004, but in 2006 he was banned from competition for four years for steroid use. Tyson Gay won the 100 meters at the worlds in 2007, setting an American record of 9.69 seconds, but is still recovering from a hip surgery last summer. Now both have beaten the odds. Gatlin claimed first in the US Olympic trials with 9.80 seconds, and Gay took second, just 0.06 seconds behind. Will their comebacks continue in London? And how will they stack up against their international competition? Take less than 10 seconds of your day to watch the Men’s 100 meter dash on August 4 (preliminaries) and August 5 (finals).

What events are you most excited to watch? Let us know in the comments or send a tweet to our new US Twitter handle @runtasticUS or our international handle @runtastic.

In October 2011 Günther Weidlinger successfully qualified for the Olympic Games 2012 in London with a great time of 2:12:23 in the Frankfurt marathon. At the moment runtastic is Günther’s great partner to work out and reach his limits in the Olympic preparation training camp in Spain.

Far away from the Austrian cold winter climate Günther starts his training camp in Chiclana/Spain today and will travel back home to Austria on March 3. The first rough training sessions will already be done in  the first training week. Actually Günther Weidlinger will start his first two training runs tomorrow and on Sunday (February 18 and 19) live with the runtastic PRO app. The two sessions will go live between 9:30 and 10:00 a.m. Follow Günther in real time on the runtastic fitness site, cheer him on and push him to his limits. This way you can become part of Günthers training for the Olympic Games 2012.

“runtastic is my faithful partner in all my runs. I will run about 400 kilometers during my training camp. I’m looking forward to a diversified and effective training in Spain.”, says Günther Weidlinger.

Fascinating live sessions in Spain are waiting for you – don’t miss them. We will keep you informed with further trainings reports on our runtastic Facebook Fanpage.

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A couple of weeks ago runtastic welcomed a film crew from Microsoft at our headquarters in Linz, Austria. After two full days of filming we compiled information on what we do and how we do it. Also, we made a video featuring Günther Weidlinger, the fastest Austrian marathon runner who qualified for the London Olympic Games 2012 using the runtastic Windows Phone 7 App during his training.

In order to give you a greater insight into our company, runtastic invites you to view the following video. You will learn how team runtastic works, about our apps features and why runtastic is your perfect personal running and fitness coach. Explore the wolrd of the mobile app development and look behind the scenes of how runtastic develops and designs our products.

Also Günther Weidlinger, Austrias fastest marathoner who qualified for the 2012 London Olympic Games on October 30, 2011, with a marathon time of 2 hours, 12 minutes and 23 seconds in Frankfurt. He uses the runtastic Windows Phone 7 App throughout his training to track his routes, get feedback and stay up-to-date about his performance. The runtastic voice coach along with the runtastic live cheering give his family, friends and fans the ability to root him on and push him to his personal best. This live-tracking and cheering feature of runtastic is important for athletes like Günther because he can stay in touch whith his fans who cheer him on during his training sessions and trainings.

After finishing a training session, Günther analyzes his session with his coach directly on the runtastic Windows Phone 7 App or on the runtastic fitness website. For runtastic the work with professional athletes is very important to continue to put out the strongest apps to help benefit our users. This is the reason why the runtastic apps are the ideal sports companion for beginners, intermediate and pro athletes.

Here you can find the direct links to the videos:

runtastic video – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41ueeUOsDWI

Günther Weidlinger video – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpGQB9G_mT0