Sports

This year, as I walk and hike with others, and as their activities are shown along my own, in the list of participants, so I begin to follow people I know on Strava, Komoot and other social networks focused on sports. Notice how I didn’t call them social media. The reason for this is simple. We’re sharing GPS tracks that are categorised by sports.

This weekend I saw that one or two people I know seemed to do group activities and I felt left out, because I had not seen them advertised on GoSocial or Meetup.com. Either that or I wasn’t attentive when they showed up.

I saw that there is a hike taking place nearby. I would have really liked to join it but I would have been participant eleven with a limit of ten people. I wanted to participate because it would have required walking to Nyon, and taking the train de St Cergue to St Cergue and then walking for a few hours, before taking the train back down and walking home. Both my carbon footprint and my travel time would have been small and the environment would have benefited.

Yesterday I wore the Suunto Peak 5 alongside the Apple Watch SE rather than the Apple Watch SE and Garmin device as I usually would. The reason for this is that I want to continue playing with Suunto devices, and I’d like to wean myself off of the Apple Watch, for at least a week or two.

In the process of doing this I was reminded that although the Apple watch is pivotal within the iOS app ecosystem Garmin is very well connected with other services. I share Garmin data with 11 services. These services are Adidas Running, AllTrails, Asics runkeeper, Decathlon (added today), komoot, Nike, Ride with GPS, Strava, TrainAsOne, Walk the Distance and Zwift.

Doing the Via Ferrata(VF) on Sunday, and then hiking down was physical. For a start, I was doing a Via Ferrata, something that I have done once, before, within the last six or seven years. The hike down was also quite physical. Combined the VF and the hike tired me.

62 Hours of Rest

According to Sportstracker I needed to give myself 62 hours to recover from the huge effort. It’s over 400 minutes of exercise, of which some of it was walking at up to 1900m for the first time in years. I could feel that I was out of breath where I usually did not struggle.

On Friday I organised a Via Ferrata at the Via Ferrata du Moléson and it went well. I met new people including people that were not part of the group. The weather was cool so there was no risk of heat stroke or dehydration.

What made this VF so relaxed for me, is that I was behind someone who was afraid, so I continued at a relaxed pace behind. It gave me time to look at the landscape, to take pictures and to speak with someone who was stuck behind us. I wasn’t in a rush, and luckily neither was the person behind.

Yesterday I went for a bike ride and I was head towards Gland via Genolier but changed the route due to a dog walker when I wanted to turn East. I turned West instead and noticed some people and flags by Crassier. I thought “Was there an accident” as I also saw a police car. Eventually, as I saw more and more people standing by the side of the road I understood that it was for the Tour De Romandie. At the 25km from Geneva marker I took a picture of the sign.

Today I came across the concept of Soft Hiking. Unlike Hot girl Hiking soft hiking is about just going out for a walk. It’s about getting moving, no matter your level of ability, or fitness. it’s about getting into the habit of not sitting around. 

They write about looking at nature, stopping for a snack or to sit on a bench, to enjoy being outdoors rather than indoors. 

https://metro.co.uk/2023/04/17/forget-hot-girl-walks-soft-hiking-is-now-trending-on-tiktok-18624769/

I am part of the problem. I am one of the reasons for which people want “soft hiking”. I am part of the problem because I walk fast, because I like to move fast and efficiently over challenging terrain. I find that up to 3000m I am a fast walker, compared to many, but that after 3000m of altitude I slow down and become normal. 

Today I went for a run earlier than usual and had to deal with mischievous shoelaces. They decided to come undone at least three times during the first three kilometres before I finally got them to behave.

I went for a run earlier than usual because rain is forecast for this afternoon and if I go after lunch then I get rained on. I prefer not to run in the rain, if I can avoid it.

Yesterday I tried running and walking in high winds. I have cycled and walked in high winds but I had not yet had the sensation of running in high wind and it is quite interesting. In cycling you feel that the wind pushes your bike to the side, and you counteract the wind.

With running in high wind I found that if I ran with the wind then my body behaved as a sail and I could feel the wind pushing me faster than usual. Of course the legs and cardiovascular system need to keep up. It’s when you turn perpendicular to the wind that it becomes interesting. As the feet lift the ground the wind pushes them laterally so that the right foot bangs into the left leg. I had to avoid tripping.

Normally I walk from village to village. My walks can take me through four to six villages per walk. I walk from village to village in part because I live in the middle of a landscape where walking from village to village is easy.

I had doubts about today’s run because I can feel various parts of my legs. I can feel that they are under a different strain than usual, due to the running. I felt fine when I was running, but after sitting I could feel ligaments and tendons. I find myself considering taking proper rest days where I don’t walk at least ten thousand steps as I think that running and walking puts a lot of strain on my body. It could simply be that I need to perfect my running technique.