Training Log Archive: Torino

Woke up that morning with stabbing headache over the right eye. When I got up, I felt dizzy, disoriented, unfocussed, basically didn't know what hit me! As a way of relaxing my head a bit, decided to go on a jog along the Aare, very safe course, as I basically could barely see where I was going.
I realised now for the first time that my right eye was somehow messed up. My first thought; did I have a mini stroke last night w the headache?

We celebrated Christmas Eve w Urs's family which was pretty hard to do as nothing remained focussed. And my head got so tired from it all.

On Christmas Day, we decided to head for the emergency in our hospital. Doctors were puzzled as I seem to have 2 issues: the infect was treated and is now better.

Today, after more tests it seems clear that I have "trochlear nerve palsy" a parallysis of that nerve that feeds one of the 6 eye motion muscles. it means my eyeball sits a bit higher and it is also rotated a big outwards.
So strange. I can barely function but things seem to improve a bit, and I can even be a bit longer on the computer. Tomorrow, I will have an MRI to check on probable causes (tumor, aneurism, lack of oxygen, trauma).
We'll see, but it definitely changes one's whole life when one can't see clearly (double, fuzzy, etc).

Warm day and even sunny! All the snow is gone again except some icy patches in the woods.
Did the Elfenauloop from home and ended at the garage to pick up the car.

C • No Snow :( 2

Teaching 3 strength classes today and I participated quite a bit also. Mostly the evening one was very challenging with the top "athletes" in my groups. The same program as yesterday, multi-functional combination moves on balance boards, pillows, etc.

Teaching of the core strength class which was quite good and challenging as I did combined moves on a balance board, the mini tramp or the fitness ball.

Later, the senior Nordic Walking class, and we went up a bit on the Harder until it got too slippery from melting ice on the trail.

Woke up in the middle of the night with stabbing, burning pain on the diaphragm. It calmed down somewhat with a heating pad, but felt still miserable and with a headache.
Had a touch of a flu, slept 3 hours during the day, and it threw all my Christmas card writing or wrapping out the window. Dragging through the day.

Missed going on a run outside again. So much to do, shop, prepare, etc. Plus, I woke up somewhat in an odd mood, feeling something like beside myself. Decided to get on the mini tramp and watch another movie after the ski cross-country races.

Spent part of the day in town as some friends came down from Interlaken to the " big" city of Bern for shopping, and had some very good lunch at a nice place.
Went running into the fading daylight in 10 cm of new snow. Nothing fast as the ground was very uneven.

Nordic Christmas singing: a dedicated group went Nordic Walking towards Wilderswil on the Plattenweg looking down onto the Christmas decorations in the area, then we met another group in a historic building in the woods for some Christmas caroling and cookie sharing! Very nice :-)

Teaching good yoga class, nice flow.

Busy day and I couldn't get myself to go out into the cold for running, so I decided to do some running on the mini trampolin: alternating faster running for 5 min with slower and jumps and balance hops.

Teaching 3 classes with core conditioning; the last one, Nordic Fitness, was quite intense.

Teaching a core conditioning class which was quite intense, then Nordic Walking with the seniors to Goldswil and then going over to Carlo's place to celebrate his bd!!

Wanted to go and do an assessment "time trial" on a measured Finnish track (soft with wood chips filled track) but it was all iced over and either slippery or filled with deep holes from foot prints that were iced over, so I quit after only one lap. I thought I do another 2-k measured loop on a little road but that was pretty much the same. So I just went running and find long stretches that were clear of snow and ice!! Funny, that only in that northern part things were so slippery.

C • Icy conditions 2

Did the Gurten loop. For some reason, I was slower than before. I noticed before coming down which was slow anyway because of the icy steep trail in spots.
I might consider going up this way in the winter as it is easier to climb on ice than coming down. Most of the rest of the trails or roads were snow/ice-free.

Had a vacation day at home (I have 3 that I need to take till the end of the year), but slept so badly, the 4th night in a row I can't fall asleep until way after 2 am, so I was very very tired today. Had the urge to go run anyway. The last 3 days we had very balmy temps with deluges of rain which melted away over 40 cm of beautiful snow. The Aare was very high today. The sidewalks were clear, only in the woods there was some snow left.
Dragging while running and seemed to have been very pale. Did the Elfenau loop from home.

Did a 12-hour train ride to Silvaplana and back to check on the apartments and the house I had rented for the after-Sama-wedding where we will be going to spend a week with Sandra's US O-friends and Marc's Finnish O-friends and family. I was glad I went and made sure the 23 beds I committed to rent are adequate.
Funny, the train left at 8:30 am in Bern and exactly at 8:30 pm my train pulled into Bern again. Did a lot of reading, organising and knitting ;-)!!

Teaching 3 classes, but as I did a circuit in each one, I had to do a lot of talking and little exercising myself. Did a lot of squats on the soft cushion where a partner was needed.

In Bern it was pouring rain and getting really warm, melting all the beautiful snow. But in Interlaken, where it had snowed very little the past week, there was no rain!
NW with my senior group along the Aare to the wooden bridge and through neighborhood of Unterseen back.

Went to the Bremer woods and did an exploratory "run". The loop I usually do also consists of a 17 k loop and I had planned some time ago that I should starting to move up with my distance and times I usually run. This was the perfect day just before another front started to snow first and tomorrow should wash all away with rain.
I stopped quite often, chatted with people and ran through an area I am not at all familiar with. Especially along the Gäbelbach it was very pretty with the snow and the creek.
I also ran on the edge of highrise buildings in suburbia West-Berne, a place that is very unusual for Switzerland with buildings 25 stories high looking like bee hives.
The trails were very hard to run on, hardpacked and slippery despite my running in the spiked Innov8s. My muscles hurt a lot at the end, this was an endurance-strength jog.

Mini tramp while watching the second part of the movie (million dollar baby; I kind of got hooked up even though I don't like boxing at all, but the actors are great). Did intervals with jumps and running form such as knee lifts, heel lifts, slalom, etc. Time passed quickly.
I re-discovered the mini tramp last year in PT and I benefit from it as the landing is soft and I can practice my running form which I never do anymore.

Same run as last Saturday in lots of snow! It also is quite cold, -5 degrees but the sun is out a bit.
The trails are very uneven. As I haven't run in almost a week, I felt out of it and slow at the beginning but started to "warm" up after about 15 min. Stopped a lot to take pictures.
This week has been very snowy and very cold. it was hard to get out and do anything besides finding your car under a heap of snow and shoveling it free. On top of it, I also had to work on Wednesday afternoon, so I stayed in Interlaken overnight which was good because the roads were bad that evening and the next morning.
PS: for Linda: on the one map you can see exactly which house I live in; it even has the #22 on that house. So cool!!

C • cool! 1

C • Note to Mary Jo 6

I was teaching the fitness yoga class in the morning and had an incredible dizzi spell. Also felt quite sick. Somehow, I pulled through and avoided any laying down (I let the others do it) and any balance poses.
After a Coke and some quiet work at the computer, it all passed!! Yipee :-).
NW in the evening to the ruins of Wyssenau, all flat which always seems to hurt my back.

C • What is NW? 2

Had to work today to organise the Christmas decorations. As we had done good pre-work, this did not take as long as anticipated. (this is a huge job for a hotel of that size)
I had also planned to go running but snow hat set in and it was very cold (still), so I resigned to a little mini tramp just to move around a bit.