Sola 2012, track number 6 rank: I survived!

So, 5th of May 2012 was not my end of the world. I am still here, and very happy I ran my 11.1 km in 1 hour and 11 minutes and 32 seconds! On the track everybody overtook me, except for 6 people: two of them were tourists on the track, one a lost dog. Nevertheless, I scored 81 absolute positions better than the initial team rank and 236 better cumulative. Now that I started running, I will not give it up so easily! Also because Endomondo and Google track satisfy my nerd side while making sport! Click on the picture post for a better view!

Call me Iron Man

Running, biking, sailing, canyoing, climbing and flying. Skip the last three, still yesterday 50 kms biking from Zurich to Rapperswill via Forch were “something” to remember. Check out the route pictures here!

Polar WearLink BT and Endomondo : the only HRM without problems

Android HRM (heart rate monitoring) apps tested on i9001 Galaxy:

- Google tracks
- Cardio Trainer (CT)
- RunKeeper
- SportyPal Pro
- Endomondo

Losing the HRM signal and never getting it back:

- Cardio Trainer
- RunKeeper

Losing the HRM very frequently and getting it back sometime:

- Google tracks
- SportyPal PRO

Losing the HRM rarely and always getting it back:

- Endomondo

So, I paid 3.67 CHF for Endomondo PRO and got running without having to check the stupid HRM anymore! With Endomondo PRO you get very nice graphs and statistics like the one shown in the blog post. On the other hand, it is clear blue tooth technology is not yet perfect for HRM and Android.

Polar WearLink: better with RunKeeper or Sportypal Pro?

Last Monday I ran 12 (!) kilometres, the first 5 tracked with RunKeeper, the rest with Sportypal Pro. Here how I rate the two android apps:

RunKeeper Pros:

- FREE
- Very good BT link with Polar WearLink
- Fast satellite lock and accurate GPS

RunKeeper Cons:

- Basic data analysis
- Basic data presentation

SportyPal Pros:

- Deeper data analysis
- Nice data presentation

SportyPal Cons:

- Trial version
- Weak BT connection
- Low fidelity GPS tracking

 

Tested on Galaxy I9001

Sportypal pro plus Android smartphone plus Polar WearLink: perfect way for training

… especially for somebody not really excited by running itself… like me “Sportypal pro” is the only app I tested not losing the BT signal from the Polar WearLink. When I started training one month ago I could run 6 km in 1h 10′ being dead at the end. Now I run the same distance in 35′ without getting exhausted.

Hopes to survive the SOLA are rising up

The death curse of May the 5th could hit also in 2012

2000 – Gino Bartali, Italian cyclist
1981 – Bobby Sands, IRA activist/terrorist
1892 – August Wilhelm von Hofmann, German chemist
1821 – Napoleon I Bonaparte, emperor France
1786 – Pedro III, King of Portugal
1309 – Charles II, the Lame, King of Naples
1194 – King Casimir II of Poland
984 – Gerberga of Saxony, Queen of Western Francia
311 – Gaius VM Galerius, emperor of Rome, dies at about 50

… why did I chose to run the SOLA this year on the 5th of May  ???

Biking around with Mr. Archimedes, Mr. Dunlop and Mr. Faraday!

New plans for 2012: going to work by bike. Uphill and downhill for half an hour to go, the same to come back home. Was it possible with my 21 year old bike? No.

Therefore I bought this jewel. Tonight, while admiring my new steel (aluminium?) horse, I came to the conclusion that bikes comprises some of the best human inventions so far, spanning several ten thousand years of human research.

1. The wheel, being probably the oldest. Thank you, oh Mesopotamian engineers!
2. Metal casting, not only for swords – again from Babylon times I suppose.
3. The chain, the first was for slave or for gold necklaces?
4. The lever: genius Archimedes!
5. Cog wheels! Again, thanks Archimedes!
6. The dynamo, where electric and magnetic fields come together. Thank you Mr. Faraday!
7. The light bulb, well, now the L.E.D. – developed in Marconi‘s lab and by Oleg Vladimirovich Losev!
8. Disk brakes, at least for my super duper bike, firstly made by Sir Lanchester!
9. The tire, from natural rubber to modern ones, thanks Mr. Dunlop!

Well, thinking about all of them will never make me feeling alone while biking

Lenzerheide: from blue and white to black and white

If you are a freak skier i.e. you like:

- waking up early enough in the morning the be the first on the slope
- giving lunch time the smallest time possible
- covering every slope possible
- being the last on the slope going home

… then you will appreciate the skiing map of this post

Here is the dinamic map with pictures. Here are the pictures. Enjoy!

Five plus five reasons why spending your winter holidays in Valtournenche and Cervinia, the Italian Matterhorn side

1. When in Zermatt, on the Swiss side, the weather is stormy and ski slopes are all closed, in Valtournenche you can still ski.

2. If you are a beginner in snowboarding, Cervinia slopes seem to be easier than Zermatt

3. Can you understand the origin of the name “Plateau Rosa” ?

4. The options for cross country skiing in Zermatt are more professional, but forget about “polenta con porcini” after it.

5. From Valtournenche or Cervinia you can cross the national border and ski on Zermatt slopes … and vice versa – but Cervinia nights are only in Cervinia…

After watching the pictures of our winter holidays 2011/2012, a few first-hand hints:

1. Rent a flat in advance in websites like this one. We had a very good experience in “Singlin di sopra”, a tiny village between Valtournenche and Cervinia.

2. If you bring your shiny new car to Italian Alps in winter, don’t be surprised tourists will by accident let their sky fall on your ex shiny new car.

3. Don’t buy ski pass lasting more than a day. Weather is very unstable at 3,500 m.s.l. – so it is better you choose your activities day-by-day

4. In case of bad weather, you can always practice cross-country skiing at the bottom of the valley, in Cervinia or much better on the pretty circuit of Champléve.

5. Between 25.12 and 6.1 very nice entertainment evenings are organized in Valtournenche and Cervinia. Go for them!

And finally, it is true Italians do not respect queues, do drive even worst on snow and let their skies falling down on your ex shiny new car – nevertheless we bet food and housing quality / price cannot be beaten by neighboring countries.

Where is the fluffy, white snow in Europe 2011?

I live in Switzerland, I *pretend* skiing in winter. Where the Hell is the snow??? Swiss media already talk about drought, energy loss due to low water levels in rivers and lakes, fish massive death, fire danger in forests and winter tourism moving away searching for snow… but where else??!