Training Archive: stoneIn the 31 days ending 2006-12-31:
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| F | S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | |||||||||||||||||||
Sunday Dec 31 | ||
| Running 3:00:00 [2]+1000m | |
| Start of our expedition up to Volcan San Jose.
Together with Hans, a 45yr old german from Bavaria, the plan is to conquer this volcano close to Santiago. It is 5873m high, and we have planned 5 days in total, according to descriptions of the ascent in the internet, and to what other mountaineers here have been telling me. As this will be my first experience with high altitudes, I am a bit nervous about all this, how my body will react, what it'll be like to spend several days up on a mountain, etc. All in all a totally new experience for me! We start out at Baņos Morales at 2000m above sea level, after driving from Santiago at 500m in the morning. The goal of the day is the Refugio Plantat, a small mountain hut at 3130m. 1000m of altitude in a day sounds like nothing, but with at least 15kg on your back, things look a bit different...;-) And even seemingly simple things as crossing rivers of glacial water can be much more complicated than you think, if there is no bridge and you want to avoid wet boots for the rest of the tour. One of those little details we learned every day. After about 5 hours of hiking in great weather and surroundings and getting used to the backpack, we arrive at the refugio. There are some other people there, most of which are chileans that hiked up there to celebrate New Year. And Nelson Sanhueza, a 70 year old local guy who I already met last week when we were in this valley. This guy definitely deserves to be called a 'legend'. He's a south american pioneer here in the Andes, did almost all the mountains here that mean something in the mountaineering scene, and knows (or knew) various mountaineering legends such as Edmund Hillary or Hermann Buhl (some german who did some crazy stuff in the 30s). And the most amazing thing of all is that even though he's never been out of South America, he seems to know everything about the Alps, Europe, well, basically the whole world ('I read a lot of books and talk to people who come here'). He told me things about Zermatt and the surrounding mountains that I know only since I was at SOW last summer. Really impressive. He doesn't climb high mountains anymore, but in the summer he's up at the refugio for many days, giving hints and valuable tips to climbers wanting to go up to San Jose or Marmolejo (6100m, the worlds southernmost 6000+ peak). By lending us a walkie-talkie, he was also to be our contact to the outside world up on the mountain. And he doesn't sleep in the refugio, instead stays in his small tent all the time, sleeping on some shitty mat. I always thought that I don't like to sleep in tents anymore because I'm getting older, but I guess that doesn't count as an excuse anymore ;-) We also met a couple from Switzerland who wanted to do the same tour as we did, but they had to give up at 4400m due to problems with the altitude. They were up on the mountain for 6 days in total, trying several times to go further, but didn't succeed. Seemed a bit strange to me, but very soon I would get to know what they were talking about. There was a small New Years eve celebration, some guys even carried beer and huge pieces of meat up there! Cool stuff! After getting used to the heavy load on my back, I felt perfectly fine when walking, and slept quite ok up on 3100m. I think this was actually the first time in my life I slept above 2500m. | ||
Saturday Dec 30 | ||
| Running 55:00 [3]11 km (5:00 / km) +300m 4:24 / km | |
| evening endorphine run. Felt real heavy, the heat here is killing me, 35deg during the day and not below 30 in the evening. | ||
Tuesday Dec 26 | ||
| Running Intervall 20:00 [4]5 km (4:00 / km) +300m 3:05 / km | |
| increased and varying speed. Wanted to do intervals, but already running normally I felt real heavy uphill, so that was already some kind of interval. On the other hand, I have never been so fast for the loop, so maybe I just ran faster than normal. | ||
| C • Not bad... 2 | ||
| Running 35:00 [3]7 km (5:00 / km) | |
Sunday Dec 24 | ||
| Running 2:00:00 [2]+1000m | |
| another hike, nice stuff!
A not so nice thing was that yesterday, someone stole my camera in a restaurant. That definitely does it. In 3 weeks here I've been robbed my necklace and my camera. I seem to be very attractive for this, with my appearance it's like I have a huge sign on top of my head saying "tall & blond = rich --> should be robbed". I really try (or have tried) to give trust to people, be open and not have prejudices that the other person might be a criminal (even though even chileans tell me to be careful everywhere). But sad as it is, it seems that it is not possible to think like this here. From now on, I guess I will have to view almost everyone as a potential thief, unless I want to return to Switzerland naked... :-((( | ||
Saturday Dec 23 | ||
| Running 2:00:00 [2]+1000m | |
| hike in El Morado National Park. Nice place! But when you don't have good maps and there aren't many trails you can take, it's not so easy to find a good route... ;-) | ||
| Note | |
| Christmas is approaching here as well. But for the first time, I don't feel any christmas spirit at all here. Ok, there are lots of lights in the streets, christmas trees, and even (german!) christmas songs in supermarkets and in the streets, but in 30+ degree heat, that's not Christmas to me ;-) Anyway, it's interesting to experience this in a totally different way for once.
Progress in spanish is going pretty well, this past week and the next one I have a teacher for myself, which is super efficient and also quite tough, doing conversation and grammar 4hrs in a row every morning! I'm real happy with how much I learned so far. Although it differs from day to day; some days I seem to understand everything and speaking is fluent, and on others, I have to search for every single word in my brain. This is something that seems to be normal, as everybody here at the school has the same experiences. Also, it depends a lot with whom I'm speaking - the teachers at the school and some chileans (strangely, women much better than men) I understand very well, but sometimes on the street or in restaurants, it's real difficult to understand the locals... but people always tell me that if you understand the chileans, besides perhaps the cubans you will understand every other spanish speaking person on the planet ;-) There's one week left here, then after New Year, travelling time will begin! | ||
| C • Ah si... 1 | ||
Wednesday Dec 20 | ||
| Dancing 1 [5] | |
| Salsa class.
Hmm, ok. It was definitely not salsa what I did last time... only when someone showed me the real basic steps, I realized that I have no rhythm and absolutely no idea what I'm doing (but you can actually dance like that, seems to work ;-)). But there seems to be some logic behind it, so it can be learned. Anyway, learning this is going to be a real challenge. It will require lots of sweat, blood and tears to get my neurons connected in a way that my body does salsa. But I've always liked challenges, and life is full of them... ;-) | ||
Monday Dec 18 | ||
| Running Intervall 18:00 [4]5 km (3:36 / km) +300m 2:46 / km | |
| Intervals, 2 x ca. 7-8' plus some shorter stuff in the end. Bit rusty in the beginning, but then ok. | ||
| Running 45:00 [3] | |
Sunday Dec 17 | ||
| Running 3:00:00 [2]+1800m | |
| hike with the 'Deutscher Andenverein Santiago' (most people were chilenos) up to a nearby mountain. Took us 9 (!) hours for the whole thing I could've done in 3hrs, because as usual it's the slowest person determining the speed... so it was pretty boring, but at least I could use my spanish and some guys had pretty decent speed. | ||
Friday Dec 15 | ||
| Running 55:00 [3]11 km (5:00 / km) +300m 4:24 / km | |
| endorphine run up to el Cerro. Felt pretty good, although due to a cold I didn't push hard. And felt better afterwards. | ||
| Strength 30:00 [1] | |
| as usual, some upper body exercises after the run. | ||
Wednesday Dec 13 | ||
| Note | |
| Tango class. Very interesting, I liked it. It's slower and somehow the rhythm seemed easier to me, well, at least the two basic steps. The difference to many other dances is that the woman really also has to be able to dance; in others, it's most important that the man can lead well. Maybe due this fact and because tango is much more formal than salsa, for example, this dance seems to be smth for people aged 40+, so maybe I'll wait with this for another 15 years... ;-) | ||
Tuesday Dec 12 | ||
| Running 1:15:00 [2]13 km (5:46 / km) +100m 5:33 / km | |
| evening run with Victor. He showed me some nice smaller trails in the park of El Cerro. You could easily do a 3h training here, really cool. But after he told me that besides the numerous dogs (which are really calm and used to runners and bikers) there are also tarantulas in these woods, I think I will avoid the really small paths in the future... ;-) | ||
| Running Intervall 15:00 [5]4 km (3:45 / km) +300m 2:44 / km | |
| did some intervals on the way up. 3x about 5' (I was told not to take any valuables like a watch with me). Pushed pretty hard, was tough in the end, but felt much better than last week. What a difference some decent regular exercise can make. | ||
| C • nice work! 2 | ||
Monday Dec 11 | ||
| Note | |
| Augusto Pinochet died yesterday. He headed the rightist military regime that ruled Chile from 1973 to 1989. He is a very controversial figure especially here, but also in the rest of the world.
Here, people either love him, because it is said that due to his government, Chile nowadays is the most developed, economically strongest and politically most stable country in Latin America, or they hate him, because he was basically a dictator and several thousands of people were killed, tortured, or just disappeared during his reign. There were some violent demonstrations here in Santiago yesterday between supporters and opponents. Many people said to me when I arrived that it'd be best if he just died, only then can Chile really start to forget and go on to the future. Now he's dead, and we'll see what happens. Actually, he was in the military hospital, which is only about 500m from where I live. So I was really part of history in the making ;-) Pinochet came to power with the help of the CIA, because before him, Chile had a socialist government headed by Salvador Allende, the first socialist ever (!) to be be elected by the people of a country. Quite interesting, considering how many communist countries there already were in the world at that time. In 1973, when the cold war was not so cold, the US had strong interest to get rid of Allende, because they were afraid that Chile would become another Cuba and the communist movement could spread to other countries in South America. Again, some people think this was really a danger and Pinochet was necessary, many others (basically all chileans I've met so far, although I don't know so many yet) think just the opposite. | ||
Sunday Dec 10 | ||
| Note | |
| heading back to Santiago on another 10hr ride. Again lots of party with Bob Marley II :-)
I didn't speak much spanish this weekend, as most people were from Switzerland, Germany, Holland and the US. I've been here for only one week, but it's amazing how many people I've gotten to know in this short period of time. Probably more than I get to know in 2 years back home! The coolest thing of all is that there are totally different people here at the school, people I'd wouldn't meet anywhere else - for example the girl who worked at the London Stock Exchange, the guy from NASA, the 46yr old woman who owns a bar in Luzern and travelled for 7 yrs in China back in the 80s, the guy who hasn't done anything in the last two years (if hanging around and drinking beer doesn't count as 'doing smth') and doesn't have any plans for the near future, the 19yr old who just finished high school, the guy fighting forest fires up in Alaska and the Rocky Mountains, etc. Definitely very interesting, also to realize how different a person I am now compared to when I was 20 or 25 ! some more pics: our guides: http://www.denissteinemann.ch/archive/pictures/SA0... http://www.denissteinemann.ch/archive/pictures/SA0... | ||
Saturday Dec 9 | ||
| Running 2:00:00 [1]+1500m | |
| Together with 3 other people from our group (all of them swiss...), we got up at 6 in the morning after a short night after the azado to climb up to the Volcano Villarica. The volcano is very well known here because it has a perfect conical shape and there's always some smoke coming out on top. Furthermore, it's covered with snow all year long all the way down, even though it's only 2800m high. Quite strange, so I asked the guide why this is so, and he said something about the southern hemisphere having less landmass and therefore there is supposedly more snow in the south than in the north at equivalent latitudes, but I'm not sure I (or he) got it right.
We booked a tour, and when we arrived at the bottom of the volcano, I saw what I somewhat expected to see: dozens, no, hundreds (I am not exagerating) of people wanting to go up there. So we basically walked up there, REAL slowly, one after the other. It took us more than four hours for 1400m climb, and we were one of the faster groups. To be honest, it was quite boring and also annoying when people were complaining already halfway. And in my opinion, also careless, since they basically pulled some people up there who were already dead after 200m of climbing. I don't want to think what would happen if some guy has a heart attack up there, I didn't see any helicopters anywhere. It is quite steep in some places, and it's all in the snow. It's simply a huge business for the people here. BUT: besides all this, it was a GREAT experience! The weather was fantastic, and it's quite impressive to look into a crater on top of an active volcano!! I wouldn't want to do it again this way, but for this one time it was a great experience. And also, it felt pretty good to see once again that even in 'bad' shape I can climb this mountain faster than 99,9999% of the world's population ;-) views from the volcano: http://www.denissteinemann.ch/archive/pictures/SA0... http://www.denissteinemann.ch/archive/pictures/SA0... http://www.denissteinemann.ch/archive/pictures/SA0... http://www.denissteinemann.ch/archive/pictures/SA0... http://www.denissteinemann.ch/archive/pictures/SA0... http://www.denissteinemann.ch/archive/pictures/SA0... http://www.denissteinemann.ch/archive/pictures/SA0... http://www.denissteinemann.ch/archive/pictures/SA0... | ||
Friday Dec 8 | ||
| Note | |
| Arrived after a 10hr ride during the night in buses which were shaking like hell whenever there was a small stone on the ground... not much sleep this time... but it was quite cool, one of our tour guides was smth like the reincarnation of bob Marley, he played reggae music the whole time and we partied during half the ride :-)
Pucon is one of the most touristic places here. It's really beautiful, in many ways it reminded me of places in the Alps. Definitely not what I expected to see in South America. Same thing with the prices in restaurants or for tours... We went river rafting in the afternoon, which was quite cool. In the evening, we did an 'azado', which is the chilean version of a barbeque: mountains of meat, meat and some more meat. If you're a vegetarian, you'll have a hard time here. azado: http://www.denissteinemann.ch/archive/pictures/SA0... | ||
Thursday Dec 7 | ||
| Running 1:10:00 [2]12 km (5:50 / km) +300m 5:11 / km | |
| easy evening run with Victor up to el Cerro. He seemed to be a bit tired today ;-) but I also felt already much better than yesterday.
Heading off for a weekend trip with the school to Pucon in the south, about 800km from here. | ||
Wednesday Dec 6 | ||
| Running 1:05:00 [4]14 km (4:39 / km) +300m 4:12 / km | |
| morning run up to Cerro San Cristobal, this time from home. Felt ok in the beginning, and couldn't resist pushing harder uphill, but after 3k I had to slow down, as I felt real heavy in the 30deg heat and I had to realize that it really is 5k up there, seemed shorter last time. Tired after the run, I'm in really bad shape. | ||
| Dancing 1 [5] | |
| Salsa class. Yeah, this is cool! Wasn't really a class, the teacher just showed some moves and then let us dance something... it's not so hard, most important thing is to turn off your mind and stop thinking (which is not so easy for a computer geek like me) and just go with the rhythm, just do it.
I'm not sure if my legs were actually doing real salsa ;-) but at least the girls seemed to like it and didn't run away ;-) right now, my repertoire of different steps and moves is quite limited, so I hope to learn more in the future. Salsa classes will definitely be a fixed part in my comeback plan in the spring. Tango is up next in a week. | ||
Sunday Dec 3 | ||
| Running 50:00 [2]10 km (5:00 / km) +250m 4:27 / km | |
| First training already on the second day here in Santiago :-) Not many people run here in Chile, but by coincidence one of my flatmates (35, works for the chilean economy department) runs about 3-4 times a week, so I didn't say no when he wanted to go for a run :-) There is a large hill, Cerro San Cristobal, in the middle of the 5-million city, it's a little bit like Uetliberg in Zurich. There is a cable car up there, but also a road where (at least on weekends) lots of people bike or run up to. Would be real nice for a time trial on the bike, 5km and 250m climb. Speed was quite easy, but it felt great to move the legs after travelling for almost 35hrs and sleeping 15h afterwards. Great view of this huge city up on el cerro!
I'm trying to speak spanish as much as possible, and I'm surprised how much I can already understand and speak. Seems like practicing by myself using the internet in the last couple of weeks was worth it, as I got thrown into the cold water here right after arrival at the airport, when I didn't find my transfer bus and instead got ripped off real badly going to the city by taxi. Checking exchange rates BEFORE arriving might be a good idea next time... and in the evening, when we went to the city center, someone robbed my necklace I've had for 10years... not a great start, but I've already learned two important lessons. It's kind of hard to hide in the masses here with my height and the blond hair... But already I really like this place, school started today and there are evening activities almost every day. Salsa class is next on Wednesday ;-) | ||
| C • sounds great 2 | ||
