Training Log: Torino

A tough class, had my limits mostly when being too long on my knees or with exercises bending my knees.
Very little upper and lower back movements with bands. Hard to do and isolate certain back muscles.

A quick bike ride up to Cormondrèche to meet Urs and the kids, then back down.

Tried to do a hike that was described as a nice 6 km loop along marshes with lots of animals and birds above Evian, but we never found it. Somethings are just the French way and are abandoned or not working or not signed.
So we went down to the lake to eat our sandwiches and had an ice cream on the lake. Very beautiful, but everything, everywhere is packed. Lots of mothers get spoiled.

Biking to the Event Center on a beautiful day!

Sprint Bike-O race: wanted to focus and not make any mistakes (as yesterday). It was a nicer wood than the day before, some mud still but a nice trailnetwork some full of roots other full of pebbles. So in spot there was lots of bumping along but I pushed my pace all the time and concentrated and came through without a mistake. Very happy in the finish with my 2nd place (the first girl I will never beat unsless she falls off or makes a mistake like forgetting a control).
It's a good feeling to feeling llike I am on my way back to previous times. Just need to work on my shape, speed and strength. :-)

Biking back to the EC and car. Stopping by the stream eating our sandwiches. This is a beautiful area in a big basin surrounded by striking mountains. Not the real high ones, Mont Blanc is not far away.

*Biking up to the start. It was advertised to be 3 km and 300 m climb up the mountain, but I was there a half our early!

* we were doubly hit with bad luck yesterday, Ascension Day which is a holiday all over. At lunch I got a message that the hotel we had booked on the other side of Lake Geneva, had cancelled our reservation because they were overbooked. Grrr. I immediately set to work to find another place which was almost impossible as everything was already taken given the longer weekend, Mother's Day on Sunday and the beautiful weather.
Eventually, I found something, rather overpriced but whatever. I needed to be at the start at 10 am 300 m climb higher than the EC, whew.
That evening eating a plate of spaghetti on the other side of Lake Geneva at the "new" place, I got a message that our reservation for the following 2 nights (3 days till Sunday close to the EC of the Bike-O) has been doubly booked and somebody moved in today!! I couldn't believe my ears and was truly devastated. That couldn't be, just seems a huge coincidence and a bad joke but must be the truth. We had no accommodation and everything is filled up:-(.
I set to find something for the following days and eventually found an Airbnb in Thollon, about 12 km from the EC (I had wanted to be close to socialize). We booked it and in the morning the confirmation came in.
But needless to say, I didn't sleep much that night. Not the best preparation for a competition weekend that I had planned and set-up over 4 weeks ago.

The Long bike-O race: I was the first starter at 10.01 and made a mistake right from the start. Turned around but was slightly confused with the map but followed a road then a trail eventually climbing up to No.1. From there almost the top of that mountain it followed a trail along meadows over a shoulder going on in the back. As one could ride through the grass I soon (too early) cut into a forest aisle where my control should have been. But it wasn't and the little trail petered out. So I turned, went steeply up the hill through the grass (very tough) to a ridge and found the correct aisle into the forest and my control. A huge mistake.
From there it was down the trail in the forest along a steep slope and I pushed the pace to the other side of the mountains where the town (Bernex and EC) were far below. I stopped after the control because the line covered the entirety of the map (1:15'000) and I had to figure out on this confusing part of the mountain how best to get there. Eventually I zig-zaged all the way back down on the road, turned left and up again to my next flag. However, as I tended to do as I didn't seem to be used to that scale, I turned in too early and made an extra loop. Eventually I found the trail leading up to the control following one gal from my category. we both needed to push the bike up but she was much faster. I need to train more to keep up eventually. On the way back down I was way much faster and caught her again. From there back to town and the finish I really pushed it again, found all the flags and was so relieved that I did it without a fall. Urs was very relieved too, to see me. Came in 3rd and had to go to the award ceremony in the evening (lots of French here, of course as some events were the French Championships).

Went for a bike ride close to our apartment with Urs to find a spot with a view to look over the lake of Geneva from this side (facing North) which was unusual. But we found no spot and it was muddy in spots and a steep uphill pushing the bike at the end. I was getting tired.

When we moved into our apartment, I somehow tried to make the beds and realised that there are no sheets nor towels! Hmm. I texted the owner and he eventually said that it was mentioned in the descriptions. I had no idea.
Another problem to solve: I texted some of the orienteers present at the competition and in their camper vans whether they had a spare set linens or sleeping bags. It seems that lots of people got involved trying to help us. Urs even went to a few hotels in our town but they showed him that they were short of sheets themselves and were washing and changing beds all the time. It was a crazy time for them.
So after the award ceremony we went to a huge store and bought new sheets. Boy did I sleep well: finally in a bed with a full belly in new sheets. It really was a trying time these last 24 hours.