Training Log Archive: MTBjen

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.