Training Log Archive: MTBjen

Finally (2 weeks after getting the trailer to Esperance) got Edmund a helmet this morning. Then finally (after 2 years) got around to changing the tube on my flumpcycle and cleaning and servicing it ready for its new role as a trailer-towing bike. Finally finally I can take Edmund riding!
Then found out that the skewer on the back wheel of the flumpcycle is too short to allow trailer towing, and that the helmet is too bulky to allow Edmund to sit in the seat without causing more neck injuries than it is meant to prevent, so I took him for a ride on the bike path behind the yeti and without a helmet. I could've done that 2 weeks ago!
We rode to Twilight Beach enjoying the stonking tailwind. Then rode slowly home. The hills are short but steep and frequent so I will be strong in no time. It is hard work towing a sleeping person - now I know how tRicky feels in ARs.

I got all excited about entering the state champs. So excited that rather than you know, checking stuff, I booked my flights for a random weekend that was not the state champs weekend.
I guess if I can't change them I'll just have a nice random holiday in Perth :-)

C • You forgot to mention... 3

Now in 2 months I have swum 2.5km of the 35km to Woody Island. Might need to pick up my pace a touch to get the rest of the way in another month.
John came and gave me some useful advice about flapping my arms more outwards than middlewards, after which I actually moved through the water, so i might make it to Woody after all.

Ran from home to blue haven and back, not pushing half a pram, but pushing a whole pram but just on the way back. The way back was much harder. I almost stopped to walk on a hill but there was the prospect of running past someone on a bike, so I did that, and then had a rest at the top with the fine excuse of having to rewrap T2's feet which looked like they might have suddenly got cold. Stopped at the park on the way home too, with the fine excuse of having to let T2 have a play, even though he would probably have rather had dinner sooner.

Lots of really pretty walking with the backpack along the beach and around rocky granity headlands, which was a lot of fun but just not the stirling ranges :-(

C • :-( 2

Beautiful evening after a long day inside. Ran from middleton beach out towards emu point on the bike path then back on the beach. John pushed the pram, it is obviously easier pushing a pram cos I had a hard time keeping up :-)

A special kind of torture involving a flimsy and probably disintegrating plane, gale force winds and some mildly nauseating aeroplane food. The strength routine involved squeezing john's hand hard enough to draw blood while keeping the rest of me relaxed enough that the baby wouldn't wake. Also thinking through in detail the hundred ways I might be about to die, and working out whether it would be better for us all to die or for T2 to survive and why haven't I written a will? But still responding calmy to john's calming logic ("remember that plane that fell out of the sky and all the passengers ended up stuck to the ceiling, well they landed safely and so will we...")
Urgh.
But the rest of the trip was just brilliant! In retrospect the long international flights with a squirming baby were great fun.

Gorgeous clear sunny day today so after T1&2 had their morning nap we caught the steep train to Alpiglen and set out walking towards somewhere. After ten min we retraced our steps to the train station and headed off walking the other way, zigzagging up the hill and along the base of the Eiger north face to the glacier train station. Brilliant scenic walk but pretty busy. Heaps of tourists all walking the downhill way, and they all said hello to the baby but none took photos of him today. Had a look at the eiger/monch/jungfrau panorama then walked down the hill to the next train station, where there was a bakery.
Caught the very slow train back down the hill. Tired now.

C • bakery 1

Caught the cable car up to the plateau east of town and walked the slightly hillier route to murren. Started out hot and sweaty but got colder and rainier as we went on - T2 and I glad for our new all-encompassing poncho however much John might have ridiculed the idea :-)
Plan was to go up to the James Bond themed revolving Schilthorn lookout with its panoramic views of the eiger, monch and jungfrau, but the webcam just showed a lot of revolving mist. Caught the cable car down instead and walked home down the valley instead, watched sone people jumping out of planes and lots of Americans being american, and stood in a queue briefly before deciding not to pay $25 to see a waterfall. The trickling stream coming away from said waterfall implied a less than overwhelming waterfall. Impressive area even with all the clouds, looking forward to some better weather tomorrow!

C • Nice walk 2

Last day and probably the most technical, from Foppa to Flims in the forest full of rocks. Really enjoyed it and apart from a couple of stupid moments was reasonably clean, if a bit slow. Comfortably in the top half of my class so my best run too. Hot today.

Nice evening potter with John carrying the backpack. Caught the bus to flims waldhaus and walked via Caumasee and along the edge of the rhine valley to the scary lookout at conn, then home. Awesome to have so many brilliant views in such a short walk, and also so much interpretative German signage which John kindly translated for us. Now full-bottle on Swiss badgers and ants.

Another lovely map abovethe tree line from Nagens cablecar station. The hardest bit was the 20min uphill slog to the start. I made a relatively straightforward course much, much harder than it needed to be, mostly looking at the view and thinking about the pretty waterfalls instead of concentrating on the map. Also walked the steep uphill finish chute so 3:2 now.

Another lovely walk in a very different sort of landscape. Only it rained most of the time because John came along. I won't make that mistake again!

John sickly today so I had Edmund in the backpack, hence the slowest km rate EVER despite not getting lost much. Another great map, halfway up the mountain at plaun. Really super steep, slippery, thick forest full of giant rocks. Took a while to calibrate because rocks had to be about 3m to be mapped, and pits at least 2m deep. Probably the most difficult nav I've done and even harder with the distraction of trying not to fall over or walk the baby into a sharp branch. I tried hard to stay out of the way of runners (there weren't many of them anyway, everyone standing around looking confused) and most people were really polite, only one old man pushed me hard from behind on a steep slippery slope so I swore at him and he ran off. Grr. One control I couldn't get to at all so someone passed the SI brick up to me!

Brilliant fun. Must've come thoroughly last. In john's absence I am now 3:1 up in the finish chute comp, despite stopping to take a photo in the chute today.

T1&2 just wanted to eat and sleep today so I rented a hardtail trek and went exploring. I decided the chairlift was the soft option, so rode from flims past the first chairlift station at foppa and then on to startgels, about 500m of climb. Met a man halfway up searching for his backpack that he'd dropped off the chairlift - he needed directions - he'd got lost on the way since his map was in the backpack :-) Getting to the very top of the downhill track didn't seem worth another 200m of climb so I joined the track there and pottered downwards. Awesome track, 14km of downhill with heaps of really well-constructed north shore stuff and technical rocky root-covered sections that were either unridable or at least completely wasted on a hardtail rental trek with sneakers and no gloves. But it was brilliant fun nonetheless and the views were amazing too. Need to try this later in the week on a downhill bike but perhaps with the chairlift.

Best o map ever! All on detailed rock at the base of a glacier at 2500m. I was 5min late for the start but didn't get caught up in the cable car breakdown like T1 and 2. I managed to stay in contact with the map but was very slow. Big blow out at control 9 when I lost contact, but was much cleaner after that. So much fun. Patches of snow were a great novelty too and useful to relocate from.

C • Were the snow patches mapped? 6

More rogaine training! After waiting for a while I caught the horrible steep cable car partway down to meet John after his long morning in queues, in case the baby was grumpy. He wasn't, he was having a great time in the cable cars. So I went back up in the horrid steep cable car so that Edmund could play in the snow. Then to avoid another horrid steep cable car trip Edmund and I walked the scenic mountainous bit. There were lots of views, some scary cows and horses, and more perfect weather. Caught the chair lift and gondola to the bottom. Edmund slept for the entire walk but woke up and tried to climb put of the chair lift, argh.

My favourite O day ever, pending tomorrow when there will be a glacier. We caught a gondola and a chair lift to the top of Crap Something which wasn't, it was just perfect and the clouds lifted to reveal an amazing panoramic view and john's start triangle far, far below in the valley. My start luckily not there, but there were plenty of contours later. Managed to stay in contact with the map and not panic too much when I saw the fourth leg, which was about 4km long with at least a million contours and dotted with cows of doom and their horrible bells. Detoured a bit for the cows and more for the cliffs. Tried to run in the finish chute but it didn't work, so unless John breaks his ankle out there we will be 1:1 today.
It was so lovely!

Rogaine training! I should be fine to keep up with Pip now, as long as the rogaine goes for 2 hours and is all downhill, and Pips sleeps in my backpack the whole way, waking only to sing an occasional song. T2 and I walked back from the bottom of the chair lift. Had an early adventure before I decided to go back to the mapped trail rather than abseil off a cliff into a river 200m below. Lovely walk. Felt like I earned my free soup at the end though.