Friday Nov 30 |
 | Unspecified 4:00:00 [0] | |
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| Vacation in El Quesir, Egypt on the Red Sea! Nice sunshine and warmth in the 70s, however, sometimes with strong winds. 5 days of snorkeling twice a day for 30-60 minutes seeing great and colorful fish, the eagle rays that were part of that riff, some lionfish and a huge huge huge ugly tremendous moray which was appr.3m long and as thick as a tree trunk! I must have scared it as I did not see it and it crawled out of the hole right under me when I tried to take a picture of a lion fish. I was horrified but also fascinated!
We also did a 2-hour mountain bike ride in the desert. |
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| C • Ooooo 1 |
Thursday Nov 22 |
| Yoga 1:00:00 [2] | |
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| Teaching weekly yoga class; nice smooth flow with lots of strength.
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| Running 41:34 [3]9 km (4:37 / km) +80m 4:25 / km | |
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| Quick run over lunch on Gnome-sheep trail; feel quite energetic but maybe this is from anticipation for tomorrows trip to Egypt, the Red Sea, snorkeling, desert, and dolce far niente for a week! (I am heading to El Quesir). |
| Nordic Walking 1:00:00 [2]6 km (10:00 / km) +30m 9:45 / km | |
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| Nordic Walking with my group up to Heimwehflueh. |
Wednesday Nov 21 |
| Yoga 30:00 [2] | |
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| Giving private Yoga lesson; about 30 min effort during the full hour. Feels terrific! |
| Strength 45:00 [2] | |
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| Teaching the weekly conditioning class today with a circuit, one exercise 2x45 sec; 5 stations, then 1min of intense cardio (like jump roping or juming jacks); great workout. |
Tuesday Nov 20 |
| Running 41:28 [3]8 km (5:11 / km) | |
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| Run at lunch with jun.owner (s.zimmermann); feel very tired and dragging first; I'm on my break anyway, so we chatted for a while, then I did my own thing. Nice cruising and enjoying the scenery. |
| Nordic Walking 1:10:00 [2]6 km (11:40 / km) | |
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| Beautiful evening Nordic Walking at a good pace with my Tuesday group along the Aare to the Lake of Thun and the ruin of Wyssenau. The moon was out and the waters were completely still, great scenery and wonderful to walk in the dark. |
Monday Nov 19 |
| Teaching classes 30:00 [1] | |
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| Teaching 2 classes and do circuits with them. Participate occasionally, mostly with trap training and some core strength. Have stiff and painful neck and left trapezius area. Only 30 min of effort for me, as I'm correcting form and coach quite a bit.
Note: Evening Hotel staff party. All are dressed up, with games and dancing; quite fun, but I'm the only one who is a generation older than everybody :-(, so it was hard in spots to fit in. I dressed up as a vampire and was taking most of the pictures. Left at midnight, others were partying through the night. (we have about 130 hotel employees from housekeeping, service, kitchen, administration, front desk, and my lonely positiong in sport and fitness) |
Sunday Nov 18 |
| Downhill skiing 1:30:00 [1] | |
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| Second day of ski testing on the glaciers of Saas Fee; not as cold as yesterday, so a lot more skiing. In the afternoon, I feel like all the "spiderwebs" in my muscles and brain evaporated, and do quite a bit of good and fast skiing :-)). |
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| C • Lucky!!!! Are you still Te... 7 |
Saturday Nov 17 |
| Downhill skiing 1:30:00 [1] | |
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| Downhill skiing in Saas Fee on 3600 m on the glacier at the Mittel Allalin; incredible weather but very very cold; Skied appr. 3 hrs, but effort prob. 90 min. My quads were hurting, and it showed that it was the first downhill effort of the season. |
Friday Nov 16 |
| Running 59:38 [2]8 km (7:27 / km) +400m 5:58 / km | |
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| The sun actually came out, and I went out quickly for a "run". Going up towards Bleiki but only make it to Ruedi's hut as there is 20 cm of snow and ice and made for treacherous running.
Other than that, with the high pressure system over Switzerland and the cold biting North-East wind, there is always a compact fog-cloud cover that hardly ever dissolves until the weather changes. Up in the mountains it was a gorgeous day with fresh powder and blue skies, perfect for x-c skiing. But I'll go skiing for 2 days in Saas Fee (testweekend for a certain brand of skis). |
Thursday Nov 15 |
| Yoga 1:20:00 [2] | |
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| Teach 2 yoga classes; felt so very good :-)). Actually, the classes and personal training was longer, but I figured that's how much I actually moved myself and got a benefit out of it. |
| Nordic Walking 1:10:00 [1]7 km (10:00 / km) | |
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| Nordic Walking with my group along the Aare to the lake of Brienz; VERY cold, froze my fingers because I had to stay with the slower group, and I never really could warm up, but I put it down as a 1-effort because I had to cover the distance anyway. It had snowed so much here, most ski areas are opening up this weekend with at least 3 feet of snow!! But it is freaking-cold with a North wind that makes your bones shiver. |
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| C • cross country skiing too! 3 |
Wednesday Nov 14 |
| Strength 50:00 [1] | |
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| Teach conditioning class with core strength and upper body exercises.
All day it snows and rains, and it is clammy and cold. |
Tuesday Nov 13 |
| Teaching classes 45:00 [1] | |
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| Again, teaching two classes. I am amazed, again, how sore I made myself yesterday! I am trying to always find new exercises and ways to challenge the same area, which then creates sore muscle fibers. |
| Running 55:38 [3]11.0 mi (5:04 / mi) | |
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| Run at lunch, first dragging, then find a rhythm and better. 29.49 down to lake and 25.49 back. |
| Nordic Walking 1:10:00 [2]7 km (10:00 / km) +80m 9:28 / km | |
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| Take my NW class to Goldswil and over the high train bridge; snowy and cold, but still great to Nordic Walk in this weather once one is outside! |
Monday Nov 12 |
| Teaching classes 1:00:00 [1] | |
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| Teaching the two core classes; got sore muscles on side and upper stomach again. I was also really sore on my shoulders and upper arm from painting this weekend.
Evening intro to diving in our pool :-) |
Sunday Nov 11 |
| Running 34:16 [3]7 km (4:54 / km) +80m 4:38 / km | |
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| In Bern, do little loop Elfenau - Aare - back. Catch moment between snowfall am and rain late pm :-). Saw one of the 4 lynx again in the animal park (Dählhölzli zoo).
18.10 and 16.05 back |
Saturday Nov 10 |
| Strength 10:00 [2] | |
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| Only in the hotel industry in Switzerland do they require you to come in on a Saturday to help renovate the staff room!! (and NOT be paid for it!!). So I scrubbed the ceiling, painted some walls and again part of the ceiling, and my shoulders, neck, arms and hands are so sore, tired and hurting that I decided that this is a workout, just not the kind I'm used to.
Luckily, I am no more going in, I need my Sunday resting a bit, and the following weekend, I'll be snorkling in Egypt :-)). |
Thursday Nov 8 |
| Yoga 1:10:00 [2] | |
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| Teaching Yoga class; feel very good, concentrated and energetic. Sweat is pouring down in droplets! Very good workout. |
| Nordic Walking 1:10:00 [2]6 km (11:40 / km) +350m 9:02 / km | |
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| Go with NW group up to little hut and nail a sign onto it! Now, it is officially "our" Ruedi's hut! Somebody even brought some white wine to celebrate this occasion in style!! |
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| C • Hi 3 |
Wednesday Nov 7 |
| Nordic Walking 1:30:00 [0]4 km (22:30 / km) | |
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| Teach a NW introductory class; still don't feel like running and just keep on working over lunch!! |
Tuesday Nov 6 |
| Teaching classes 30:00 [1] | |
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| A little trouble waking up, then driving to Interlaken to work. I barely feel any jeglag, amazing.
Teaching 2 core classes, no running today, did not feel like it and I am on a break anyway until December. |
| Nordic Walking 1:10:00 [2]7 km (10:00 / km) | |
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| Nordic Walking in the cold and dark at 7 pm :-(. Almost does not rain ;-) |
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| C • Seems like Swiss land is ge... 1 |
Monday Nov 5 |
| Unspecified 1 [0] | |
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| Amazing, within 7 1/2 hours from Washington, I was landing in Zurich! It was 8 am here (2 am VA time!), getting on the train to Bern and staying there. Nap in the morning, then unpacking, organising, laundry, grocery shopping and finally doing my taxes before crashing at 11 pm.
It was a wonderful trip, seeing a lot of familiar faces and chatting and all. |
Sunday Nov 4 |
| Orienteering race 47:34 [5]4.1 km (11:36 / km) +150m 9:48 / km | |
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| Today, I am prepared for everything and I feel kind of reluctant to even start as I did not want to be as disappointed as yesterday. Cautious beginning but the course is lots of fun. It is more open than yesterday, but the green had not bothered me that much, it is just part of these woods.
Bareley a mistake todayand I try to push it but feel my lack of shape as I only started with real training this August and I am lacking a base.
Sharon still beat me by 5 minutes, amazing! I'm still rusty in terms of competitive speed in map reading and executing, but that will come back. I have one or two longer routes which might have cost me some time compared to Sharon's. I have to file on my rust ;-)).
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Day 2 Brown Y - Splits |
Saturday Nov 3 |
| Orienteering race 1:28:42 [3]4.1 km (21:38 / km) +150m 18:17 / km | |
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| A very bad race; I'm full of anticipation but grew more disillusioned after each control. Orienteer quite well to #1 but don't see the flag; start relocating, find my attackpoint (top of reentrant) and go back to controllocation, still don't see it. Hmm, start circling, relocating, ending up in the same area until at one point I finally can make out the bag! Ok, I need to concentrate even more and be VERY careful: good orienteering to next control, I know where I am, make out the different shades of thickets, get to the control circle and the same story: don't see the bag. Rats! Same "game", circle, relocate, get back to the same area until I finally see it. Make a mistake to the next one and correct it. Look at the course now, and realise that the next 2 controls should be easy with 100% attackpoints. Head in from a meadow and, again, don't find the bag. Relocate from the cabin and nothing. This is crazy! What's with my eyes?? By now, I feel like sitting down and crying. This never happens in Swiss meets that I can't see the bag when I am so close. I keep circling and see it a little further up than I expect it, when I was looking in the light green thicket as it shows on the map.
The next control I look for on a compass bearing from a water tower. By now, I'm not surprised that I miss it. I am very careful, try to make out the different shades of green, realise that it is on a shallow "back" or saddle, realise where it slightly dips on both sides but can't see the flag. What am I looking for? a rock pile, I am starting to look for rocky ground, but nothing. By now, I am ready to quit, but I just don't want to go through the thick green out to the road. So I wander around, I am getting cold now, then somehow I see the bag, and notice a 40cm high rockpile. (a needle in a haystack?). The rest is an unmotivated walk through the woods, somehow I'm still glad that I got all the controls. But I'm not proud of it.
How does Sharon do that? She has half the time and found the bags with no problem?? It's a puzzle to me. One has to be used to this kind of orienteering.
I found the course to be interesting, good course-setting, challenging legs but the control placements totally off. I would have tried to locate control locations that are more defined and then hang the bags a little more visible (I don't mean visible for hundreds of meters, but reasonable within 5to10 meters). It also seemed to me that that problem was not on all the courses. Some courses had reasonable times, but others were totally questionable when looking at the overtimes and great differences between the different places. |
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Day 1 Brown Y - Splits |
Friday Nov 2 |
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| Event: US Champs
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| Orienteering 19:39 [4]2.1 km (9:21 / km) +55m 8:16 / km | |
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| New O-race, same old, same old: battling with Sharon! ;-)). My brain was still very fuzzy at the beginning, I could not shake it during my warm-up. I was warned that it was not the typical Sprint-O I am used to here in Switzerland (or my favorite street-O in Venice for that matter). Small mistake to #1 as I was not aware that I was on "my" trail as it seemed too indistinct, but corrected it fast. My splits are slower than Sharon's up to the 6th control, then I got a clear head and could start to speed up. Unfortunately, I'm punching a wrong control as I did not pay attention for a moment, but realise the wrong number. Stop for a moment and lose my concentration and momentum. Then, I force myself to get going and soon go to the correct one and finish ok.
Still lose 40 secs on Sharon, amazing to me the shape she is in and how she keeps on running and running.
Nice Sprint-O in the woods at the beginning with fast decisions and changes of direction. |
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Sprint Brown - Splits |
Thursday Nov 1 |
| Unspecified 1 [4] | |
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| Flying to Washington D.C. :-)), start some of my shopping while waiting for Christoph, then driving to Triangle and crash about 3 am Swiss time! |
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| C • After my flight was cancell... 1 |