Training Log Archive: Torino

Biking to the start. I got there already freezing with numb fingers and soaked through feet. What motivation to do a bike-O race. The start was at a cemetary (!) and I found a covered entrance with a locked door out of the wind and put on more clothes and wool gloves under my wind-resistant gloves.
But when everything gets wet together with a strong northerly wind, there are different "laws" of trying to keep warm.
I started anyway.

C • Eine 2

Long distance Bike-O today: there were warnings since days about this day due to the dangers of the weather. And it sure was wet from above, biting wind and about 3 degrees. It wasn't very long as long distance bike-O go, but the elevation gains predicted of 365 m on 9.8 km promised a steep up and down on a short distance.
And it was exactly that and I pushed the bike uphill a lot (and others did too) and I also hopped off the bike a lot on the downhills on the muddy single trails, as I was almost faster, but surely safer that way.
I started right behind the other gal in the same class and saw her pretty quickly. But I had problems at the beginning, felt kind of weak and had to wait till my diesel engine got into gear. After the 4th control, I caught her then passed her on the downhill on a paved road. And she decided not to do the next loop back uphill on the next hill but went home for a warm shower (she already had already told me that she would not finish as it was too tough ahead of time). So, I was the only competitor in my class to finish as the other 2 women didn't start at all.
It was an "epic" race, quite tough, technically very hard to ride due to the mud and because of the steep uphills in this dismal weather.
It turns out a good training for me. And my fingers warmed up despite the wet gloves. But the toes were borderline frozen.
What an adventure in eastern Slovenia.

Event: SG MTBO 2019 WRE/WMS World Masters Series
 

Warm-up to the start in light rain but still warm. Feel good!

Middle Distance: south of Slovenj Gradec. I was curious because I was warned of the abundance of roots and trails that one had to keep track of unless one was lost for a while.
After the start I immediately got a taste of those roots and I bumped and biked along the trail until I got more comfortable and also careful as they were slippery. I fell only once when I tried to map-read and didn't see a root and fell immediately almost over the top but could save myself by falling sideways. Well, from now on I was going to not read the map while riding. So I memorised the way I wanted to go for a little while and stopped to read the map again. This was a good goal and I advanced quite easily and without mistakes. It was a good and challenging course which I enjoyed. I quickly passed the gal who started ahead of me which motivated me further.
With a sense of accomplishment and a little pride I crossed the finish line.
But the hammer hit when reading out my badge: #8 was missing! I went straight from 7 to 9 which was actually quite a difficult route technically. Going to 8 would have followed the road and down to the flag and from there on a trail to flag 9.
I was so angry at myself, I just didn't see the connecting lines from 7 to 8, I can't say anything but being disillusioned. Such a disappointment as both days count together and I would have won by at least 10 min today.
Oh well, I wanted to leave right away and go home as cold and nasty weather is supposed to hit. But I recovered slowly in the afternoon with more motivation again.

After coming back exploring some of Ljubljana's most famous sites, we were ready for some catching of mountain air, so we hiked from our guesthouse to the top of Straza mtn. We missed the most direkt trail and so went all around. Very nice view from the top. Then I dared to take the toboggan down (it was really steep in the curves), but I forgot to start my Garmin again. It would have been fun to see the speed ;-0). Back along the shore to our place.
This day was way nicer than predicted, so we took advantage of it and did our touristy tours. It's a beautiful corner of the world.

C • Lake Bled 3