Projects besides work

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This weekend was my first one at home in more than a month. It felt good to be able to sleep in, I can tell you. I’ll be off for Monte Cucco on Wednesday, where the Hanggliding Pre-Worlds are taking place at the moment, but in the meantime I thought I could tell you about the personal training I started two weeks ago - as I had promised.

In June, my doctor had allowed me to start running again. I had wanted to do running training with a personal trainer for a while, I had thought about that even before my crash. So I thought this was a good moment to get started.

I tried two different trainers. Both of them were good, training was fun, and they seemed to have plenty of experience and also seemed to know a lot about the subject. I chose one of them, Mark, because his concept appeared to be extremely sound and professional, and because he is also a triathlon trainer. I had been wanting to do a triathlon for a long time…

Anyway. I met with Mark before I left for Australia. In preparation for that talk, I had to fill in a long questionnaire on sports and competitions I had previously done, training goals, restrictions, and so on. We had also talked on the phone. So when we met, he asked a number of questions in order to find out what my status quo was, and what my goals were.

Two days after coming back from Australia, we had the first training session. We meet once a week for an hour in a sports stadium with a tartan track. The schedule contains exercises for endurance (which is running, of course), but also for technique, coordination, and muscle strength. The endurance part is hard work because I was not allowed to run for one and a half years. So we started off with 400 metre intervals with some walking in between. That is hard work, but even tougher are the exercises for the muscles. The lesson usually finishes with stretching.

When we’re finished with the training, Mark gives me “homework”, so I have to go running at least one more time per week, better twice. I am also supposed to go to the gym, which I do twice per week. And he gives me some more exercises for my muscles and coordination that I am supposed to do at home.

So my life contains a lot of exercise at the moment. But I have a goal. All those of you who have known me for a while will not be surprised. Katha needs another thrill 😉. I decided to participate in a triathlon next season. It will be a short distance one, which consists of 500 metres swimming, 20 km cycling, and 5 km running. And the best thing is: I will work towards that goal with my friend Simone. She is a lot fitter than myself and will leave me far behind, but that doesn’t matter. We will prepare together, and it’s going to be fun. Hard work, but also a lot of fun! I’ll let you know as soon as I have a date and location for that triathlon.

As I don’t have any nice pictures for you this time, I’ll post some pictures paraglider pilot Lothar sent me, from a triangle he flew not far from Berlin, and from a flying holiday in Spain.

By the way, in Ager, Spain, the European Hanggliding Championships took place from July 9th till the 24th. The winner was Gerolf Heinrichs, followed by Tom Weissenberger (both Austria), third came Attila Bertok (Hungary). Team results were: 1, Italy; 2, Austria; 3, Switzerland. Congratulations to the winners! You will find more information on that on the official homepage.

During that comp, Gerolf wrote a letter to the OzReport about the Freaking Bloggers that made me crack up laughing. Have a look, for all those who know the pilots he writes about it will be even funnier.

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Photos

Triangle 1
Lothar flying a big triangle in the area of Berlin. (Picture: Lothar)

Triangle 2
Another picture taken on the triangle by Lothar (Picture: Lothar)

Sierra Nevada
A paragliding holiday (Picture: Lothar)