Training Log Archive: Torino

Checking out the course for next Wednesday's race of the Tour du Canton; wow, is this going to be a lot of uphills, I thought it would never end. But very nice downhills afterwards on small trails. I'm going to pass a lot of people on that again. But I'll lose lots of time and places on these long, steady uphills. Today was an absolute beautiful day, very pleasant and so flooded with light and sunshine in the Val de Travers.

Recovering from 2 days of intestinal distress and had a bit of energy back. Went for a bikeride through the vineyards to check out damages on the vines (I was curious what was and wasn't visible), but I felt that the hard frost had done only little damage to the young shoots which seem to be the most delicate and important ones for assuring good grapes. But saw some damage to the flowering apple- and cherry trees which had been blooming so beautifully because of our mild March and April weather.
Quite an interesting ride which finished in the little town of Auvernier where a street market and open air restaurants were set up.
Then quickly home and off to Berne for a busy afternoon/evening.

First of Tour du Canton series; it was cold, with burst of snow then sunshine, then wind with snow again. As we were mostly in the woods, we were well protected.
The same loop I did on Sunday just a little longer as I had started higher up. Lots of steep uphills right after the start and after 1 k, then gradual uphill and some downhills. I had trouble at the beginning and did not settle into "my" pace until after 3 km. Towards the end, we had 2 very steep and longish downhills that I could really enjoy and passed a lot of people. Tried to take the running form and momentum into the following passages and was so happy that I could run a good last 500 m into the finish. That kind of "speed" was new to me for the last several years. Was happy when I finished even though I'm again probably in the last 5 % of the runners as I was last year, too. At least this year they have a 60+ class.
I will probably be sore tmrw.

Starting-up again with classes after school vacations. I always feel like I just want to remain quiet, meditate or just lie on the mat. Instead it feels like an effort to do the 30+ minutes of vinyasa yoga and other exercises .

O-race near Thun. The course was kind of easy, one followed a trail then in to the flag. And the controls were very visible. I was surprised that not more could run my time, so I came in 2nd of 12. Felt good anyway and as I was rushed to get there and back home, I was glad that it went so smoothly.

Took the bike to get to the start as it was fairly far.