Schnuppertraining im Kunstturnen 2014

The trial day for Kunsturnen for this year is finally announced. As a matter of fact it's been on the web site for quite some time now, though it is only now that you see it's posted in public, one at my bus stop this morning. Apparently it's a yearly thing that new potential gmynasts or Turnenrinen in German are sought for to join the local team / association.

Schnuppertraining or test training (or rather test session), is are open to girls of around the age of 5 to come and observe a resgular training session and if interested and and eventually selected could join the regular training and compete in numerous competition over the period of spring and start of summer.

In August 2013, I wrote a post about my daughter Lana joining the team with hectic training of 4 to 5 times a week for roughly 4 hours each. She's doing really well and is now recognised as one of the key gymnasts in her group. She joined very late at the age of 7, but fortunately able to pretty much skip two years to be where she is now.

Rigi Tour 2.0

10th of May 2014 marked another milestone in my venture into mountain biking. Together with 4 other colleagues/friends I conquered the top of the Rigi mountain for the second time, 8 months after the first attempt. Reaching the peak wasn't the biggest thing as I knew I would make it one way or another - as I had anyway done it once. But to reach at a much quicker speed, non stop in the last phase and with reserved strength and energy was what counted most. 

With Rigi, the last roughly one third of the journey is the most challenging where you have to climb for about 4-5 km of steepness that could easily make your eyes tell the brain to just give up. I knew as long as my legs didn't hit the wall and my heart rate remained at a good level, all that could fail me was my mental strength - it's all up in the head. I kept telling myself not to look ahead but down until I reached peak and I'm proud to say I did it well. With people along the way giving moral support, it was a great feeling and a huge sense of achievement. This Tour was the ultimate assessment of my fitness level after 12 months of life style change, the same 12 months after my very first mountain biking experience. 

I'm looking forward to Rigi 3.0 :) 

Cannondale Jekyll Carbon 1 (2012)

Talking about high end enduro mountain bike, this is the ultimate machine - Cannondale Jekyll Carbon 1. It's a 2012 model, but it's damn gorgeous. The frame is fully carbon making it really light at 12.3 kg, and to top it all, even the handlebar and the crank arm are also made of carbon - how about that?! The fork is with two mode of 150mm and 120mm making is perfect for any conditions. The rear shock is made specially for the bike and it also comes in special two modes for climb and descend. 

I never thought I would even be riding a top end bike such costing originally around 8000 CHF. I managed to borrow this second hand unit from a local shop for Rigi trip in the weekend - it's gonna be a great tour.