e is away....: The Hills are Alive...

Yesterday we dropped off Frederick in Hinter Tux; a town 2.5 hours from here, for his week-long racing camp.
Here is the schedule: rise at six a.m.; get yelled at in Austrian dialect, do knee bends while your friends at home are with bikini clad girls bobbing in turquoise seas or at tennis camps, ski on a glacier at 10,000 feet, watch a video review of skiing; attend a group meeting in which you are reminded not to visit any bars or the girls' section, go to bed at 9 pm sharp.
Frederick is delighted.
"We might get TWO roommates!" "The hotel is four stars! "(Losing a star is great news to a kid: more candy in the lobby. )

We dropped him off at his hotel which is named the Bad Hotel. The cracked him up: Bad means Bath in German, and in this case refers to the hot spring pool here. His room is a double, but the bed looks a lot like a very large single. So for his first sleep away camp, there are no marshmallows or dances or ghost stories; just exercise and sharing a bed with a stranger (we found out only later that he got an 11 year old Austrian as a room mate-good news).

Arrival in lech was great; we love it so. Of course Instagram photos from the south of France look tempting.. with all that sun and those attractive people; but there is something so insanely relaxing about this much exercise. The mind is finally, mercifully, quiet.

Dinner with Schneiders last night (see below) lemon risotto; lentils; salads: all very Thomas worthy. We were in the pleasant company of Gerald The Gay Guy from Zug (GGG). He and I are going to organize the first gay pride parade of Zug, the next town over (think lech but smaller). He thinks there are only two gay residents..so even with me as the grande poobah waving from a float, and Elmar's cows behind, we should be able to wrap it up in under a half hour. GGG asked if I thought a rubber suit was too much for a Zug (poplulation 150) gay pride parade.
I said what any fourth generation San Francisco girl would say, namely:
"If you don't wear one, I will honey. "

Today Thomas started my half marathon training in earnest...horrible. I woke up in the night and thought, maybe I should take a melatonin...(a trick I use at altitude sometimes). Trouble is, it was already almost 5 am..so at 7 when I woke for real..I was a mess. Thomas brought coffee after coffee, pouring the sacred brew into my eyeballs; but it was as if I was in a dream. No matter: the show must go on. Before we left, he warned me that the point of the exercise would be pain. He is of the opinion that my heart is in shape, but my mind is weak; uncommitted to the cause of leaping around mountains at break neck speed. To this I plead guilty. Also unrepentant. I mean..why? what's the rush?
But I did what I was told; and believe me I was not happy. Thomas thought my heart rate should be at 160, but I could not get it there. This is good news/bad news. It means exactly what he thought: I can't get the body to stress itself; at least not while stoned on melatonin.
We hiked for a very fast (my fastest ever, at any age) 2.5-3 hours; and were both walking funny upon our return. After a long stretch and shower, we indulged in a fat Austrian lunch on the terrace; and then I took a nap-the kind that is so deep, you don't know if you have slept or not. Heaven.

Frederick called and offered cryptic monosyllabic answers to my questions; then said he had to go play cards in the 40 minutes of free time they get a day.
Tomorrow dinner with the great Frau S; more walking; more napping; more sun, more rain.