Inferno Triathlon, mountain pass bike tour, and trailrunning

I have had a week with a lot of amazing experiences and adventures :-) It started with Inferno Triathlon last weekend; 3.2 km of swimming in Thunersee, road biking over Sigriswil, Beatenberg, and Grosse Scheidegg, mountain biking over Kleine Scheidegg, and finally 25 km of running and 2300 metres ascent up to Schilthorn, ranging almost 3000 metres above sea level. In total about 6700 metres ascent and 155 km competition. It was a perfect day, sunny, and with a beatiful view and a great landscape the whole day! My legs were not top fit; maybe not 100% recovered, and they haven´t had real triathlon training since beginning of june, so it wasn´t the best performance of me this day, but I didn´t expect that either, and more important, the legs felt good, and I really enjoyed the competition and the day, ending with a nice evening in Mürren/Gimmelwald.

Finished :-)

Taking a swim, the day before

  

Transition zone 2 of 3

Enjoying a nice view and a coffee in Wengen
the day after the competition

Arriving the finish

Mountain biking at Kleine Scheidegg

After Inferno Triathlon, Tomas came visiting me from Norway, and Tomas, Lars and me went to Davos, where we had an amazing bike tour over 8 mountain passes, almost 7000 metres ascent in total and 284 km over two days. The weather was great, the view was great, the company was great, and amazingly the legs were great too :-) We went over Flüela-, Often-, Stelvio-, Foscagno-, Eira-, Livigno-, Bernina-, and Albula- pass.....:-)

Berninapass

Albulapass

 

Flüelapass

16 of 48 curves to go, Stelviopass......

 

Top of Stelviopass :-D

On the way to Livigno

 

After finishing over bike tour, Tomas and me was ready for hiking and trail running, we had two very nice runs from Davos, on Weissfluh (2843 m) and Peschahorn (2979 m), a bit more than 50 km´s, and one 30 km run in the nice little village St. Antönien to the spectacular mountain Sulzfluh (2818 m). Of course ending every run with a swim. I have had a very very nice "recovery" week.... with Tomas and partly Lars! :-)

On the way to Sulzfluh....:-)

Running down to Tilisunahütte in Austria

Uphill running, Davos

Enjoying the view from Sulzfluh

Reached Weissfluh

Peschahorn, quit steep...

Bathing in mountain lakes
belong to summer 

Trail running in an amazing landscape

Exciting months coming

What next...? As most of you probably know, I quit my job at the end of july. So here is a update about my plans for the next months....It will be an exciting time....

It all starts with summer vacation in Switzerland in august. I have had and will get visit from Norway, I will do Inferno Triathlon on saturday (17^th of august) – should be possible to follow the race here: www.inferno.ch, and else move out from my apartment.

Then, in september, I will start to work as volunteer worker at alpine farms, first in Fiesch, then in Embd, in Zermattal. I am really looking forward to that. There will be hey making, harvesting, working with animals, maybe some production of agriculture products like cheese :-) I will also have some free periods/days in between, where I get visit from family in Norway, and else plan to enjoy the swiss mountains :-) 

The first two weeks of october I will work (volunteer) in a mountain cabin in Lötschental, Anenhütte. The cabin is at 2200 metres altitude, so it is maybe not the best season for visiting the cabin as it could be somewhat cold, or even snow at this time, but it could be nice weather too. However, either I will work with serving visitors at the hut or with closing down for the winter. In any case, it is always nice to stay in the mountains! :-)

Papaya growing (picture from Aid in Action)

The last part of october I will do the last preparations for the probably most exciting time period, or at least the most different.... In the end of october I will go to Africa, also for volunteering working. My plan is first to do some days of hiking in the Mt Kenya mountains, before I go to Ngumbulu (a bit aoutside Nairobi) for helping the villagers in project regarding processing and selling fruit- and vegetable on the bigger markets, and building up a business centre. You can read more about the project here; Aid in Action. It is a really interesting project, and I admire he people working with this!

After a couple of weeks in Kenya I will go to South Africa, Cape Town, where I will work with a sport development project with children from grade 1 to 7 in the Western Cape region. I guess I will end my Africa travel with some days of vacation in the Stellenbosch-region, and then be back in Erope in the beginning of december.

Ready for Inferno Triathlon... :-)

And after that, we will see... :-) But first to come is Inferno Triathlon, also including mountain biking. I haven´t been doing that for a couple of years (just one day training two weeks ago), so that will be spennede, but I am looking forward to the race:-) Hopefully the weather will be OK too...

Updates from all my adventures and experience and impressions will follow here....

Alpe d´Huez Triathlon, and vacation in France

Last lap on the way to the finish

One month after Swissman, it was time for my second adventure-triathlon-competition for the year, Alp d´Huez Long Distance Triathlon. Not completely, but still somehow recovered after Swissman.... And at least, very motivated, and really looking forward to the triathlon. The weather was super nice, and the area around Alp d´Huez too! :-)

The day started with, somehow unusual, 22 km cycling to the start area, by Lac de Verney, a 14 degree cold "power station lake"at about 600 metres altitude. Not my favorite temperature by swimming (Yes, by bathing/cooling down it is nice, but for 2.3 km swimming it is too cold...) My swim wasn´t very good, but at least there were still plenty of bikes in the transition zone when I arrived, although plenty were already on the way cycling too.

On the bike, happy :-)

The bike part started with a long, slightly downhill, before the first mountain pass of 1000 metre ascent came. The whole bike leg was nice, sunny and warm. We went over two mountain passes before the Alp d´Huez climb started, and my legs were feeling really OK. Alp d´Huez is some of a mountain pass! 14 km, 1150 metres ascent and 21 serpentines..... And not really moving "forward" as by other passes, only upwards, you can almost see the top of the pass from the bottom.... Still, it is quite nice and motivating to cycle. Pretty steady steep, and all the curves are marked with a number, starting with number 21, and then counting down, so the time actually went pretty fast. After 115 km on the bike I arrived the town of Alp d´Huez at 1850 metres altitude, and with the 4th best bike time (in my age group), very satisfied. And still sick of gels and bars, I got energy from biberlis and dried apricots instead - mmmm, really enjoying that meal:-)

Still going strong... :-)

Then it was time for the half marathon, consisting of three laps, a mixture of asphalted roads and mountain paths, and with a beatiful view of the mountains!! It went up and down all the time, but not long hills and not steep. I ran a bit faster than expected, the course was also a bit easier than expected, not pushing too hard, and really enjoying the nice surroundings. With the 3rd best run time I finished as number 4, at a time of 7 hours, 53 minutes, finishing healthy and happy! :-)

Just finished

Alp d´Huez was a great competition, nice course, and good organised, to be recommended!

Nice after-race offers

Still, I didn´t went only for the triathlon, but I actually had a whole week of vacation in France, with a lot of great experiences, nice mountains and lakes, bathing, swimming, super weather,
good food and drinks and good friends!

Celebrating :-)

Before Alp d´Huez we were spectators at one Tour de France stage. That was fun seeing all the people, the atmosphere and so forth, and the cyclists too, although we didn´t see much of them...:-)

On the way to Tour de France

Knitting and waiting..:-)

Annecy - a nice little city

Afterwards I was visiting a good friend of mine and her family having a house by the lake of Annecy, very nice there too, and very nice meeting her and her family.

Breakfast on the terrace in
Alp d´Huez

Then we (Lars was joining me) went too Alp d´Huez, also a nice city, with great surroundings. And a very special city, an enormous amount of hotels and restaurants, but still nice:-) We stayed here for 3 nights, having a nice hike the day after the competition, and of course including a bath, in the cold Lac de Blanc....

Bathing in some degrees warm Lac de Blanc

After Alp d´Huez we went to Chamonix, hiking and running, and enjoying the view if Mont Blanc. And I even saw steinbock!! :-) Both male and female - really cool! :-) On the way back to Switzerland we stopped for a hike by the Trient glacier, and I ended my vacation with a bath in Lac Leman, ice cream (as each day on the vacation...) at Lars´ terrace, before I set of back to Zürich after a great week in France!!!

Hiking and recovering in Alp d´Huez

Hiking and running with the view of
Mon Blanc :-)

Mont Blanc area

Swimming in Lac Leman

On the way to Chamonix

Lunch :-)

  

Steinbock

Trient glacier

  

Restitusjon og trening igjen

Dovrefjell, med moskus
i bakgrunn :-)

Etter Swissman var planen feiring med familie og venner og et par korte fine fjellturer. Slik gikk det ikke akkurat. Det ble heller et par slappe, kraftløse dager, men formen var i det minste fort stigende. Mandag klarte jeg å spise igjen, og da kommer sakte men sikkert energien og kraften tilbake også. Onsdag, 4 dager etter Swissman dro jeg til Norge, for å treffe venner, noen (siden sist) nyfødte nordmenn, og ikke minst for å feire bryllup. Omtrent samtidig kom matlysten og apetitten tilbake også, og med stigende energi kunne jeg både gå trilleturer med barnevogn, leike med Aasmund, fadderbarnet mitt, og få med meg en gåtur med moskussafari i Dovrefjell. Perfekt restitusjon med rolige dager, bittelitt beveglse, god mat, og ikke minst mange gode venner, og et fantastisk bryllup!

Kongsvold i nydelig sommervær

Brudepar og gjester fredag kveld

Gornergrat

Og i Sveits kom jeg tilbake til en fantastisk sommervarme. Sakte men sikkert, godt ladet opp med solenergi, er jeg blitt klar for litt mer aktive dager igjen. For eksempel en bitteliten svømme-/bade-tur hver dag i utebadet over gata:-) En og annen liten sykkeltur, og to flotte dager i Zermatt med løping og gåing i fjellet der, samtidig med heiing på Lars og andre deltakere i Zermatt Marathon (Ja, det funker fint å være tilskuer også....:-) ). Nå syntes visst akillessenen at det blei litt i meste laget...., men da er det jo bare å nyte finværet til bading, svømming og sykling og soling! :-)

Løpetur ved Zermatt, selvfølgelig med
Matterhorn i bakgrunn, Matterhorn
"er overalt" her... :-)

Løpetur ved Zermatt - flott! :-)

  

Og en velfortjent, tror jeg, is i
Zermatt etterpå!

Kan det bli bedre...? :-)

Og om en drøy uke bærer det avgårde til Frankrike, da for en kombinasjon av heiing, litt trening, bruke litt krefter i en konkurranse igjen, og fjelltur!