Category: Ordinary life

It’s about me, myself and i

Veluwe traverse

Veluwe traverse

Since at least 2015 I have been thinking about walking in a single push from Rheden to Nunspeet, traversing the whole Veluwe in the South-North direction.
I did a few attempts, all of them ended close to Apeldoorn for a variety of reasons.

Until on the 1st of September 2019, after having watched the TMB on YouTube the day before, I decided it was time for a real attempt.
The weather forecast was good, days still long, I was alone at home and feeling right, so eventually I woke up early on that Sunday morning, took the train from Amsterdam to Rheden, and walked the whole day.

The walk was enjoyable for the most part, I felt pretty good until a bit before kilometer 50, but then hit a metaphorical brick wall, my legs became rubbish, and walking the last 6/7 kilometers was hard.
Also, at that point I could not eat anymore, I believe to have chewed my last Clif Bar for 20 minutes or so.

However, although painfully, I managed to walk the whole way from Rheden to Nunspeet, ending my hike on a sunny bench at the train station.

You can even check the activity in 3D with Suunto.

Liberazione

Liberazione

Every year I face this same question: what would I do if it was my turn to give myself up to fight for freedom, against tyranny and fascism?

I still don’t know how to answer. I hope that, if the day will come, I will be as brave as the people that came before me, and fight for us. Like the people of the “Brigata Maiella“, for example.

Still at home

Still at home

Well, still at home here in Europe. And if you are reading this at the same time (technically a while after, but not too much) you are probably also at home. So, we are probably not doing much except working, if we work from home.

I am still training though, lots of strength work at home, and long runs and walks alone in my neighborhood. People are much better at keeping distance now, so going out became much easier.

But why I wanted to write this post is because it’s April, and usually in April I donate some money to projects I support. And with less social interaction, my consumption of media has also increased, so contributing to the livelihood of the people producing those contents is a good thing (IMHO).

And the two recipients of my (little) donations for 2020 are:
1) the Enormocast, the one and only climbing podcast, been listening to it for years, and learned so much about the lore thanks to Chris.
2) Runalyze, amazing (online) training analysis tool that I have been using only since Q4 2019, but really like; and it works for much more than running.

Also, big kudos to the TimeGhost crew (whom I support by being a patron on Patreon) for producing exceptional content. Been watching their productions since they began posting them (and watched “The Great War” before), and their content is great, quarantine or not.

Stay home

Stay home

Is the covid-19 here to stay? I have no idea, and zero expertise, so I am not going to comment about this.
But I really enjoyed watching a recent episode of the “Joe Rogan Experience” with Michael Osterholm and I suggest you to watch it, if you haven’t, cause the guy seems to be knowledgeable about the topic 🙂
Basically, just listen to experts, and don’t trust all the terrible advise spreading online.

However, I am just posting because I don’t do it often enough, and wanted to update the interwebs about what’s going on in my household.
Currently we are not quarantined in the Netherlands, but it may happen soon.
We are already working from home, and my office will be closed for few weeks.

Climbing gyms are still open, at least the non university ones, but I haven’t been in one in a while.
My training has been basically running and walking in the neighborhood, and strength training at home.
I am quite glad I bought myself (for my last birthday) a Beastmaker 1000, so I can keep the fingers strong until I will have the chance to go out and climb.
I am also doing lots of box step ups with weights, and in general following one of the Uphill Athlete plans, the same one I used last year with very good results.

The question is, will I be able to go climbing this Summer?
Again, I don’t know.
Seems difficult at the moment, especially considering my main objective for the year was in South Tyrol, but after a few disconcerting days I decided to keep training for all Summer goals.
If everything is solved in a month or two, then I will be in good shape to have a shot at my goals.
If not?
Well, then I will stay in shape, and be ready for the Fall, Winter, next year, or whenever things will be good enough.

And especially if things will get worse, and we’ll have to spend weeks or months at home, keep training will be important for my physical and mental well being.
I have been training with a purpose for four years now, and it keeps me grounded, so I will keep training for the time being.

Have a good day friends, stay safe out there, and stay motivated, because for our bodies not to succumb to the virus, we also need our minds to be strong.

Update: minutes after I wrote this post, all gyms in the country have been closed for, at least, three weeks.

Mount Kinabalu summit

Mount Kinabalu summit

Got some free time while living in Singapore, and decided to climb Mount Kinabalu.

Always thought my first four thousand meters mountain would have been in the Alps (and last year even attempted to climb Gran Paradiso but failed due to a bailing partner), or at least a glaciated experience. Well, considering I am at the equator it was more of a tropical experience 🙂
Pretty cool, though. Although I prefer to just get to a trail and climb on my own, the logistics there were perfect, and I had nothing to complain.

You can even check the activity in 3D with Suunto.