I don't always get around to writing a post when I first have an idea for one. It is over a week since the last time we went cross country skiing. I was going to post about one of the treks I/ we took a few times.
There are a couple reasons we have not been skiing recently. Firstly, Spring is starting to hit and the snow is starting to melt. The snow that is still around freezes overnight and becomes icy and crunchy. It really isn't fun for skiing on. I have seen some people out still, and they appear to only be the ones who are exceptionally skilful.
The second reason that I have not been skiing is that my right hand and even my left hand a little, have been causing me real pain recently. This first starting occurring when driving at times in the last few years. I thought it was a circulation problem, because my hand would go numb with pins and needles and would always improve when I wiggled my fingers around.
Skiing put pressure on my hands and the last few outings caused me significant pain. Needless to say, I have been resting my hands. Even swimming has caused my hand to go numb. I went swimming only once last week, but decided to kick much harder than usual and to use a very light stroke. To my surprise I swam a lot faster and it was a lot harder work. It was probably a good way to discover how important kicking is when swimming.
The summary on my hands is that I have some carpal tunnel syndrome going on. Melody has been bandaging my hand up at night, but it would be good to buy splints.... if we could find them. The pharmacies don't have them. At the moment I don't feel like some kind of wild goose chase around the city, looking for a needle in a hay stack. So I have asked my sister to send me something from Australia. My sister also has suffered carpal tunnel syndrome, and it is apparently genetic.
I have bought some new running shoes in anticipation of running training soon. Melody and I have set a goal of running ten kilometres by the end of Summer (August). This fits into my goal of competing in a triathlon by the time I am 40. An Olympic distance triathlon is 1.5 km swim, 40km bike ride and 10 km run. The swim I can already easily do. The run I should be able to do by the end of Summer.
On the island in the middle of the Yenisei river there is a good bike circuit. I rode there a few times last Summer but plan to ride there more regularly this Summer. I anticipate it will take longer to prepare for a 40k bike ride, which at a guess will probably take about 2 hours.
Two hour ski trek. The trek is 8 kms return approximately, and I am sure that a more experienced skier could do it faster. But it is still definitely a good work out.
Here are a few aerial shots that will give you some context. You can look on Google Earth to get more context. Look for Krasnoyarsk, just north of Mongolia and Kazakhstan.
This first shot is to give you a view of Akademgorodok where we live. We are in the south west of the city on the north or "left" bank of the river. We are technically still a part of Krasnoyarsk city, but our community is a little self contained and has a town like feel to it. There are two main roads cutting diagonally through this picture. The northern one is Svobodni Prospekt. The university is on this road about 30 minutes walk from home through the forest. We live a little closer to the southern road, which is Ulitsa (street) Kirenskovo. South of this road is "lower Akademgorodok" we are in "upper Akademgorodok." These are just colloquial names, because we are further up the hill than lower Akadem.
In between the two roads is upper Akadem. We are roughly in the middle of the picture in a building that looks like a zig zag, in the far bottom left of this collection of buildings.
There are a couple reasons we have not been skiing recently. Firstly, Spring is starting to hit and the snow is starting to melt. The snow that is still around freezes overnight and becomes icy and crunchy. It really isn't fun for skiing on. I have seen some people out still, and they appear to only be the ones who are exceptionally skilful.
The second reason that I have not been skiing is that my right hand and even my left hand a little, have been causing me real pain recently. This first starting occurring when driving at times in the last few years. I thought it was a circulation problem, because my hand would go numb with pins and needles and would always improve when I wiggled my fingers around.
Skiing put pressure on my hands and the last few outings caused me significant pain. Needless to say, I have been resting my hands. Even swimming has caused my hand to go numb. I went swimming only once last week, but decided to kick much harder than usual and to use a very light stroke. To my surprise I swam a lot faster and it was a lot harder work. It was probably a good way to discover how important kicking is when swimming.
The summary on my hands is that I have some carpal tunnel syndrome going on. Melody has been bandaging my hand up at night, but it would be good to buy splints.... if we could find them. The pharmacies don't have them. At the moment I don't feel like some kind of wild goose chase around the city, looking for a needle in a hay stack. So I have asked my sister to send me something from Australia. My sister also has suffered carpal tunnel syndrome, and it is apparently genetic.
I have bought some new running shoes in anticipation of running training soon. Melody and I have set a goal of running ten kilometres by the end of Summer (August). This fits into my goal of competing in a triathlon by the time I am 40. An Olympic distance triathlon is 1.5 km swim, 40km bike ride and 10 km run. The swim I can already easily do. The run I should be able to do by the end of Summer.
On the island in the middle of the Yenisei river there is a good bike circuit. I rode there a few times last Summer but plan to ride there more regularly this Summer. I anticipate it will take longer to prepare for a 40k bike ride, which at a guess will probably take about 2 hours.
Two hour ski trek. The trek is 8 kms return approximately, and I am sure that a more experienced skier could do it faster. But it is still definitely a good work out.
Here are a few aerial shots that will give you some context. You can look on Google Earth to get more context. Look for Krasnoyarsk, just north of Mongolia and Kazakhstan.
This first shot is to give you a view of Akademgorodok where we live. We are in the south west of the city on the north or "left" bank of the river. We are technically still a part of Krasnoyarsk city, but our community is a little self contained and has a town like feel to it. There are two main roads cutting diagonally through this picture. The northern one is Svobodni Prospekt. The university is on this road about 30 minutes walk from home through the forest. We live a little closer to the southern road, which is Ulitsa (street) Kirenskovo. South of this road is "lower Akademgorodok" we are in "upper Akademgorodok." These are just colloquial names, because we are further up the hill than lower Akadem.
In between the two roads is upper Akadem. We are roughly in the middle of the picture in a building that looks like a zig zag, in the far bottom left of this collection of buildings.
This shot is just to give you some broader context to show you our geographical relationship to the rest of the city, and how much forest we are surrounded by.
A little out of order... :)
We live in the building just above the magnifying glass icon.
To the west of us the forest goes on for hundreds of kilometres. We could theoretically ski for days if we felt like it.
Points A (red) to B (blue) are the start and return points of the trek. Point A is in Studgorodok where the ski rental baza is. Point B is the Biathlon stadium. (Biathlon is cross country skiing and shooting, it's an Olympic sport.)
One of the ski trails. Many of them go up and down small hills.
The biathlon stadium. There are a couple of courses that go into the forest from there, one for 3.5 kms, one for 4.5 kms. We haven't got to trying those yet, it may have to wait for next Winter.
A new resort is being built at the biathlon stadium. Possibly this is intended to be for people who want to rent skis and have lunch, coffee etc.
A view of Akademgorodok below from the skiing trail.
There's nothing like a perfectly sunny -5 C Spring day for cross country skiing.
Getting too warm for a hat even.
2 comments:
It's so great for you that the forest is so near. Living in an apartment can be so confining to it must feel good to know the forest is not far away. It looks lovely and you look like happy skiers!
Yes it is Sue-Ann. I swear it is what makes living here enjoyable for us.
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