Instead of Calgary…

Tuesday was supposed to find us on the plane to Canada, a long planned (and well deserved) holiday, 2 weeks of being pampered in our friends’ house, 2 weeks of talking about life, universe and everything, drinking good wines, hiking in Banff, exploring Alberta, playing with kids (5 girls alltogether in B’s family and mine)… But the chickenpox epidemy here in Pinzgau dramatically changed our plans: Yesterday morning, S woke up with 1 suspicious dot and before we finished our morning coffee, there were 7 of them and then 10 and 35 all over her body. We stopped counting them, unpacked our bags, called the airliner to check out of the plane and started feeling miserable.

It took us a few hours to recover and to absorb this change. And to explain to all 5 children that the long planned super holiday is being cancelled – or rather postponed. Each of us had her own way to deal with the situation: S was too tired to think about it, E was really really sad, V went gold panning and I hit the treadmill. Bad day.

Luckily, bad times in our house never last long. Especially on sunny days when I have time to close the front door behind me… So I hit the road/trail with my little pony Mibo again. And again, it was fun! What is it that makes you laugh when kickbiking? Easy workout passing Lengdorf, Uttendorf and through the forest path to Stuhlfelden, returning on the Tauern Radweg back to Niedernsill. And 10 minutes later repeating the first bit with E bravely biking behind in front of me. Some 30 km in total and great great fun! As the matter of fact, I repeated the routine today again, 30 km towards Kaprun castle and back home with exactly the same effect: smile on my face.

Weekend in the Alps

Our outdoorsy life has gained yet another dimension: after developing the running bug, crossing lakes with the inflattable canoe, V’s ski instructor training and a new mountain bike (all in course of several months), we have finally secured a mountain apartment for ourselves. It is located in Piesendorf, Salzburgerland, about 4 km from Kaprun and Zell am See and it is GREAT. More posts on HOW great it is will follow as we will explore the surroundings in the coming months but here already something to start with. This is our view:  We spent there a great weekend furnishing, arranging 1000 things and getting to know our neighbours. But most important was that we went running and hiking: 

Ski, swim and bramboraky

I know this blog should be predominantly about running but there are so many other things in my life that take place, too. After several months without visiting my mother who lives in Prague (I don’t like driving in winter), last Thursday we hit the road again as mom offered us to cook bramboraky, the traditional Czech ‘potato pancakes’, the one meal we cannot resist :-).

After 9 hours on the German highway, the fabulous smell of fried rasped potatoes with garlic, herbs and pieces of chicken meat (my mom’s special variety of bramboraky) guided us home. We spent a nice Friday in Prague, walking around, visiting friends, enjoying the first spring days. And then on Saturday early morning we hit the road again, this time to Zell am See and Kaprun for some more skiing.

In Kaprun, a new huge spa was opened recently so we had to visit. We spent 3 lazy hours there (there goes my Saturday running…) during which we hardly managed to swim 500 metres (”Honey, lets swim a bit otherwise I have nothing to log these days”) and the only thing that came to mind after that was enjoying a nice glass of beer in the near pub.

On Sunday the guilt feeling (no running since Wednesday night) combined with blue sky made us get up early again. We could see the Kitzsteinhorn Glacier bathing in the morning sun and although nowadays I am really keen on running, so far NOTHING beats the feeling of fresh crispy snow under my feet and high snowy mountains around me. We allowed ourselves the luxury of half a day skiing knowing we still had 10 hours to drive home… and it was absolutely worth it.

Now on Monday evening I am logging and blogging and hopefully still finding time for some running. My body won’t be fooled by any other excercise.

P.S. Back from my evening run. Rule to remember: do NOT drink water after eating plums (or do not eat too many plums).