Training Log Archive: Bash

Sleep deprivation training. Vienna-London-Toronto travel day. Started with 4.5 hrs of sleep, then 24 hrs on the go before getting to bed in Palgrave. The only potential training opportunity was at 4:50 a.m. when we discovered that the door leading out of our 5th floor hotel lobby to the stairway was locked from the inside with a key that had been taken away. The hotel knew we were leaving early for our flight, as they had ordered our taxi for 5 a.m. and asked us to pay in advance, mentioning that nobody would be at the desk when we left. After searching around for solutions, we were about 60 seconds away from making the decision to kick open the tall (but thin) historic wooden double doors when I found a secret alternate route to the stairwell through the hotel's kitchen and laundry. Pretty irresponsible of them if there had been a fire and all the guests had needed to get out quickly!

Nice to get back to Canada and visit my parents when we picked up ThunderDog and BulletDog in Brantford. Thanks to Slice for house sitting!

Walking tour of Vienna with 'Bent. Out all day, but we only scratched the surface. Highlights included an exhibition of the Terra Cotta Warriors from China, Hofburg Palace, Sachertorte from the Hotel Sacher, Italienischer Eiskaffee (ice cream & coffee treat), amazing architecture and streetscapes, a moonlight orchestra concert (we stood nearby, but didn't have tickets), the Rathaus music film festival with all kinds of international food stands, and an Internet cafe where nobody was smoking at all - quite rare! Perhaps I could count some strength training, considering all the times that I had to fend off men in Mozart suits, agressively pushing concert tickets for that evening. If you shook your head, they would stick themselves in your face again, "What? You don't like Mozart?!?" After the 20th time, I was tempted to say, "Not anymore!"

Bike tour of Graz, Austria with our friend Neil Bird, who moved here from Canada in early 2005. We had a chance to try out his beautiful bike commute from the country, which mostly follows dedicated bike trails through forested hills east of the town. He has a 30-minute trip each way in summer and winter - wow. Nice town without much tourism from English-speaking countries, even though it's the 2nd largest city in Austria (about the size of Hamilton). I didn't want to be a wimp, so I gritted my teeth and agreed to ride on city streets and bike paths all day, in spite of my pathological hatred of biking in traffic. The bike paths were great, and I'd love to come back to Europe and tour one or more of the long distance, dedicated bike trails. The city streets were another matter - just as bad as I'd imagined, except that the drivers are accustomed to seeing bikes, so the odds of getting hit are somewhat less than at home.

As it turned out, the one road-biking-related disaster was entirely my own doing. After crossing dozens of streetcar tracks without incident, I finally misjudged the best direction when I had to cut into the street to avoid some construction. I crossed the track at an angle that would have been OK for a mountain bike, but that wasn't good enough, and my tire got sucked into the track and I went down hard on the pavement. 'Bent gallantly stepped out to block oncoming traffic. Sigh... A bit of blood on my elbows and knee, but the only worrisome injury was a sudden, unnatural stretch of the soft tissues around my hip which made it hard to lift my leg to go upstairs. Stupid road biking. Stupid Bash. Actually, it was still a fun day, and I'm really glad we did our city tour by bike. But when Neil suggested that we could also tour Vienna by bike tomorrow, I smiled politely and started reading about the walking tours. Even though I'm a country girl at heart, I should (hopefully) be able to WALK safely in a city. We'll see!

A very cool day! We put our bikes in the special bicycle car on the train to Landeck-Zams, then rode the train up the Inn Valley for 75 minutes. Then we rode 79 km back to Innsbruck, much of it along a dedicated, paved bike trail - sometimes with a few local vehicles passing by, and sometimes riding on quiet roads through little villages. I'm told that there are trails like this all around Austria and Northern Italy. What a great way to explore the countryside without getting pushed around by trucks and buses! I had a few equipment problems near the start because it's been years since I've ridden a road bike or used platform pedals without so much as a toe strap to lift the pedal. After I finally figured out what my capabilities were, it was loads of fun!

Rode our rental bikes back to the hotel in preparation for tomorrow. For someone who almost never rides on roads outside of adventure races, it was a challenge to take on the traffic in downtown Innsbruck!

Everyone smokes in Austria. We miss Italy, which is far more progressive in non-smoking laws and environmental initiatives than we had ever imagined.

Thunderstorms with hail during the night - glad we missed being out in those! We did the hike out with our German and Italian crew. We went down another 1500 m in elevation, but the trails and roads were well-graded today, and it didn't feel so bad. I was just thinking of this as a hike out to the road, but this area was lovely in its own right. Our guidebook says that the steep, partially vegetated limestone towers are reminiscent of China, which seems reasonable, although I haven't got firsthand experience. It also looked a bit like photos I've seen of Machu Picchu.

When we got to the road, we had officially finished the Alta Via 1! There are 8 or 9 Alta Vias (high routes) in the Dolomites, but this one is considered to be a good one to start on. Most of them require some climbing equipment for the via ferrata sections. I'd definitely come back and try another one of the Dolomite routes some day, and I'd recommend it to anyone with average or better fitness who doesn't mind paying hotel prices while they backpack ($30-50 per person per day, including dinner and breakfast). It is possible to do shorter or longer stages each day than we did, since there are so many different rifigios.

Oh, and the severe storms really DID come in the afternoon, so our plan worked out. There were photos in the newspaper of a section of road that had washed out, so I think it was bad even by Dolomites standards.