Bogdan Ibanescu

Ultra running demands more than just legs. Bogdan works with S&C coach Andrei Chiorean on a three-phase periodised programme — anatomical adaptation, general strength, and competition-specific prep — designed to bring him to peak form on race day, not just race week.

The goal is resilience, not aesthetics. Posterior chain strength, single-leg stability, and asymmetry correction are the foundations. Two to three weekly sessions, structured around his running volume and race calendar, keep the body absorbing the load that ultra distances demand.

Between training blocks, Bogdan manages Olivo Coffee Culture — a specialty coffee bar in Cluj-Napoca built around origin-forward espresso, careful extraction, and a space where people actually want to stay. The menu changes with the seasons, the beans rotate, and the approach never wavers: no shortcuts.

Managing a café and running 100-mile races turn out to require the same thing: showing up every day, caring about the details, and building something that holds up under pressure. Olivo is where Bogdan channels the same discipline off the trail — one cup at a time.

When he's not on the trail, Bogdan trades running shoes for a 4x4 and heads deep into Romania's Carpathian backcountry. Overlanding — self-sufficient, vehicle-based travel into remote terrain — scratches the same itch as ultra running: solitude, self-reliance, and landscapes that remind you how small you are.

A rooftop tent, a week of food, and no signal. That's the reset. Whether it's the Transalpina ridge at sunrise, a forest track in Vrancea, or a river crossing in the Apuseni mountains, the goal is always the same — go further than the road allows, and stay long enough to actually feel it.