Training Log Archive: Torino

A nice evening run on the blue very rocky trail high above the Areuse Gorge. It's a slow trail and I was happy with my time which was normal. Tomorrow microsurgery on my right ear for removal of a carcinogem tumor. Yikes.

Decided to continue my slow running series to get back into some sort of running form. Went on the normal loop. Felt strong and did not take that much effort but time was disappointing anyway.

Didn't need much recovery time after the disastrous performance yesterday. Went out on a rainy Sunday afternoon to take pix of Urs hanging posters of his party for the upcoming election in our little town (Milvignes).
Felt quite good mostly running on pavement.

Another nightmare of an orienteering "race". It was technically very difficult and one had to know with each step where you were. I thought I did.........
Found #1 with no problems, everything made sense; then followed slightly NW in a gully, passed a control and climbed onto a trail. Followed the trail with cliffs on the side until I found an easier spot to head north to my flag. It looked so easy on the map but in the terrain which was green on the map and full of rocks, gullies, holes, pits, cliffs and more rocks. I must have passed my flag at least 1-2 times but didn't see it. I looked for a little terrace or flater place in that slope but could not make one out. Found a flag (42) at the end of a cliff, and followed back down a bit to my control but found none. Searched and searched, went back to the trail, everything fit and went back into the rock/cliff green jungle on a compass bearing (it shouldn't have been far), but no luck. Checked out more until realised I was getting close to the top of a significant rock face down to the lake (!). Checked on my compass and saw with horror that I had gone north instead of south in my search. Totally lost and somewhat scared as I was all alone in there where nothing made sense anymore. (I started almost last.) Calmed down and told myself to go now strictly south and I MUST hit a trail. It took awhile climbing down cliffs, skirting rocks and pits until I saw a clearing and a trail. Whew, found myself exactly where I wanted to come out! So why couldn't I find the control?? Had enough as already 40 min had passed and jogged down, took in a control along the way and as it was a lot more open with good visibility, could make out all the cliff faces and rock towers. But I had lost interest to find more flags and eventually headed down to the finish. Quite depressed and disillusioned.
It turns out that many more had searched for that same flag and some also gave up. Monika (my ride to the meet) also searched for 10 min and didn't know where else to look and gave up and while going down to the trail she stumbled onto the flag which seemed not at all in a smallish place, but still on a slope.
We were very lucky with the weather as they predicted very cold, strong winds and steady rain/snow. (It had snowed record high snow depth in the Alps). So I was prepared with more clothes on, but it turned out to be all dry by the afternoon and the strong winds didn't bother me in the woods. So happy about it. I put a thick foam on my right knee to protect it from hitting rocks and roots and it helped a lot as it couldn't be helped in that terrain.

A jog on my loop (shortened) to check on my knee. The wounds are pretty much healed, the knee still looks bruised. Only on right outer side down towards tibia there's a slight pain on the inside. Not the meniscus but maybe a bursae sac that is protesting. But I have pretty much full mobility except the places the new skin is stretching.

Rode on my other, smaller mt.bike (the one I do touring with and has saddlebags on but is very, very light) to Neuchâtel to give my knee an easy workout but mostly doing mobility. It went really well. Had a meeting, then rode back home.

Had a much better race today, though was tired from yesterday and felt like the muscles didn't give the strength anymore.
Starting to #1 was bad and slow, could not even get up the hill and walked for 50 m. To #2 I made a mistake with the small trails and actually took the wrong one about 30 degrees off. Realised my mistake but didn't go back but kept going and went back to my control on a small trail back. Afterwards, no bigger mistakes, maybe some route choices as some were quite tricky and still don't know which option would be better.
Coming down towards the last control, I had to navigate a 180 degree right-hand turn and went either too slow or too fast or was braking at the wrong moment, but the back wheel slipped from down under me and fell with my right leg under the bike into the gravel and dry dirt. Ouch. I had injured my right knee 3 weeks ago with a strong hit on the knee cap and a bruised capsule. It was still somewhat tender and slightly discolored.
But now, I added to this poor knee several open skin wounds (it bled quite a bit, but was full of dirt) and a huge bump to the inside bursa (probably) and lots of pain to the knee overall. Eventually, got onto the bike again and rode into the finish (another slip and fall on a narrow short single trail, but this was grassy). Headed back to the school immediately and trying to keep the knee moving before it swelled up too much. Cleaned it out under the shower to examine the damage and got it desinfected. A few days rest will do the trick probably and clean the wounds.

PS: the course was much more tricky today and required constant attention . Ah, btw, I also won which was a relief after yesterday's disappointment.

C • Glad you won, but ... 3

Swiss Long Champs Bike-O: this was not an inspiring course, pretty much figuring out how to navigate to the next control chosing the correct parallel forest road and check on climb. Had a bad beginning and never really caught this deficit. The two other women were always stronger and faster on these simple courses where one had to ride with strength. I still lose 1-2 min/km on a simple fast forest road, it has been that way for many years now. I will probably never overcome this lack of strength.

Intervalltraining first running along while Lena was riding her bike, on and off fast; then helping with CO discovery for kids (6-10 yr olds), teaching and following along on courses, sometimes explaining then again a full sprint (for me! ;-)) then checking out where we were and how to proceed. Fun day and not what I'm usually doing but still challenging, 8yr old girls can already be very fast for a while. With the boys I have no longer any chance when they're 6+ and somewhat running on a regular basis.

Part 1 of my "biathlon", biking up to the start of running.
A beautiful day!

Part 2 of my "biathlon": fast hike/jog/run on very rocky trail along the Areuse gorge and back.

Part 3 of my biathlon: zooming on my bike back down home.

I was helping out with the discovery orienteering class Sandra was holding. There was a big group of 6-10year-olds. This time I got two girls of 9+ and they caught on really fast. Did several sprints to catch them or keep up with them, etc.

Followed Henri's suggestions from yesterday to go do a bike-training in this wonderful weather. I felt good and did an uphill training.
(@Henri, merci pour ta proposition d'hier. J'ai eu du plaisir de te revoir et de causer un peu.)

C • Wow, good for you! 2

Biking fast to the O-meet (sprint Swiss champs) from our wonderful hotel Arenenberg (with castle and museum of Napoleon lll). Near Konstanz and Kreuzlingen, I couldn't find the bike path anymore and there's such a chaos of traintracks merging in a triangular fashion. I alsways rode towards a border crossing and knew I should not cross. Eventually, I turned to a different map app and things started to make sense again and I found the meet site. (the rules were very strict which way to enter, wearing masks and which way to leave after the race so not to communicate with the other crowd. A strange feeling being outside of big school and sport buildings and not allowed to enter. But thankfully, we CAN run in O-meets and in September 4 Swiss Champs are scheduled one weekend after another.)
Made it to the start with 6 min to spare, whew! Was so flustered having lost my way.

Sprint Champs: started out well, but my legs were full of lactic acid after the stress of not finding the competition center and being tight on time. But soon I relaxed and could run better. A little mistake on #5 but then everything went well. It was actually quite easy but as controls were close to each other, I had to check the codes conscientiously. Then came the last third and had more and more trouble: went to a control on a fountain which seemed nicely on my way but it wasn't correct. Saw mine over a fence in another park and had to detour to enter it. Then the same thing on a wall to a bike parking along a building and I had to go around to see it. And then the second last one I thought it was on the corner of a building but it was on the other side of the fence just an armlength away (but my arm was till not long enough), so had to find an entrance through the fence. All in all, I estimate that I might have lost at least 3:30 min or slightly more.
Was placed at the bottom third in our still very competitive class, but I was just happy to orienteer again and was enjoying it. Towards the end, I felt like I could run nicely again. My diesel engine does not warm up before having covered 2 km at least..............

C • Falle 2

Slowly biking back with Urs, tried to get to the lake and have a coffee and cake, but we didn't make it through the park. So we went on following the bike path and paying attention (seeing the places we both went wrong as he had to search for the CC went different routes than I did an hour before). Stopped in Gottlieben besides a chocolate factory where we had our latte macchiato and a cake. Then quickly home.
After yesterday's sunny and hot day, it was overcast today, luckily with no rain and still kind of warm in the upper 15-19 degrees (as opposed to yday's 25-26 degrees). But a good time we had.

Did the Vaumarcus-loop again in beautiful weather. Had "trouble" the last 30 min to push the pace on the way home. Tried to stay in highest gear but just couldn't keep it up. Oh well, one gear down is not bad either.
What a beautiful day, the lake had an incredible blue color, one could see Mont Blanc, people were swimming in the lake and the grapes are almost ready to be picked. The vineyards are again off limit (à ban). It's supposed to be a great year for vine. (A sidenote: lots of vine growers have not been able to get rid of their vine from last year due to corona as they couldn't sell it to restaurants or privately because of the lockdown. Now, their caves are still quite full and they have to find a solution to store the new crop which is going to be abundant.)

C • I think I could help them i... 2

No training really, just a note to myself: helped with an initiation class of 6-10-year olds done by Sandra. I had four 5-year old girls and first we compared photos with the actual thing (fence corner, lamp post, playground, etc.) and the sign used on the O-map. First the ran from control flag to the next with great speed but eventually they slowed down. We first did the whole loop around the big school grounds. Then there was a regular short course where I went with 2 of the girls. Good intervall speed ;-).

Gentle try to jog again. The knee behaved, it healed a lot within those 2 days but it is definitely bruised and still somewhat swollen. Happy with the outcome , just need to be a bit more patient.