Training Log Archive: Torino

7 pm, hiking up from Véronique's house in La Chaux-de-Fonds up onto the Jura top under the stars, looking over the panorama, then continuing on a small, gnarly path through some woods to Les Maillards, a farm-restaurant in the middle of nowhere to have dinner and celebrate New Year's! So nice to be out and walking with this small group (we were eight).

Run in the sun above the fog. It's always so nice to be able to escape. I even saw primroses in bloom!! We've had this dryness without any rain or precipitation for over 6 weeks now. Even in the Alps there is no natural snow. People are skiing on these bands of artificial snow which is very hard. The meadows are either green or brown depends on the altitude.

Exploratory run where I haven't run yet before (skied or biked, yes!). Followed the x-country ski track markers on nice, green grass most of the time but it was way slower than the forest road. Lots of stops f picture-taking.
Nice outing.

Easy hike with Urs to Mont Racine and back down to the Alpine hut.

Running from the Swiss Alpine Hut cross-country up and down to the trail where I came up on a week ago and followed the same track back down to a paved road and then along the terrace back to where Urs was waiting. Very nice loop.

A quick 2 km rowing during a busy day; did 2x4 min the fish game for warm-up and cool-down.

No energy today :/(

Last lesson before winterbreak and it was very calming and insightful. Not much motion, but felt great afterwards.

Went over to La Brévine (which is mentioned in all the textbooks as the coldest spot in Switzerland) because today the newspaper ran an article about the black ice on the lake and that is was safe to get across it. The black ice builds because we have had no snow and it was all brown and green all around it, but the temperatures at night were cold enough. So, one could look through the ice and see the pebbles, branches, fish, grasses which was really cool. Lots and lots of people on the lake, it was a festive atmosphere. And the air temperature was almost 10 degrees warmer than in the fog where we live where it was below zero and grey and sad. Nice sunshine.
I stopped a lot along the way to take pictures or sometimes going across a field or a fence. Once, two calves or beef about my height were so curious, checked me out and galloped away again, full of joy and energy which attracted a whole herd of their brothers and sisters which was way too many for me as they always came and wanted to nudge me (or play with me) and I opted to head for a nearby fence with barbed wire and dove under it. I ran along a wall of rocks and they followed a bit on the other side wondering where I had gone. I was glad we had that stone wall between us though ;-).

C • sounds like fun 2

The regular loop in the woods w/o running downhill home.

Another quick workout for 2 km rowing. But I warmed-up and cooled-down with a "fish" game (like pacman but here, big fish eating smaller fish) for 4 min each.

Another exploratory run/hike up towards Mont Racine on another side I had never been. Really pleasant. But I took a trail across into the woods to connect to another forest road but the trail dead-ended at a boundary mark. So I climbed up cross-country through thick woods to the meadows above and ran across meadows to a nearby dirt road. I should have gone up higher to almost where I was on Wednesday to begin with. But no harm done. I had some raindrops (about 15 of them) but also sunshine and some strong winds.

Another hike/jog due to my cold/cough. But I am recovering nicely. The sun and warmth up high does wonders to the physical and mental health. We're just stuck in fog and the temps around zero to 4 degrees. Luckily, in a very short time, 10 to 20 min, we're up and above the layer of greyness.
Went over Mont Racine and went exploring most of the time cross-country as there were no real trails where I wanted to go and get back. Wonderful, but no snow in sight!

The usual yoga class. Today was especially good, she had us in a flow of vinyasa moves w v long stretches at all angles. My connective tissue was talking to me and somehow let go. This is getting better. Have to keep up the tin yoga at home too f some day better running.

The cold/cough caught up with me and woke up with almost no voice.
In the afternoon wanted to escape the fog and look for sunshine which I knew was not far away. Did a loop jogging flat/hiking up and jogging cross-country in spots and came back right at the car. Beautiful scenery late afternoon with the low sun and shadows.

Took it easy today bc I have been fighting a cold/cough since Monday. Still felt hard doing the uphills being slower than usual. But just wanted to be outside and in the woods after few days inside.

C • Canottaggio 4