This year was not too bad for us despite the two strict lockdowns. During the first one we actually exercised more than usual: since we could not go for long runs, we made sure we went for the allowed one hour run every morning. However, during the second lockdown in the fall we were not equally active because of the bad weather, and the darkness in the mornings. So, overall for us this year has not been that different from others. We did some traveling, only less flying and train traveling than usually.
Because of the travel restrictions we also explored France more; when the first lockdown was over we spent one week hiking in the Central Massif, and then did a three-week bicycle tour in the Loire Valley in August. And a shorter bicycle tour on VéloDrôme. After the second lockdown we followed our pre-Christmas tradition of skiing in the French Alps — this time in Les Saisies in Savoie instead of our usual place Le Monêtier-les-Bains in Serre Chevalier valley in Haute-Alpes. This last week of the 2020 we are hiking around Aix-en-Provence in Bouches-du-Rhône department in PACA region.
Altogether this year we did 3225 kilometers in 482 hours, including running (1518km), hiking (478km), bicycling (1217km), and skiing (11.6km), with total ascent of 56km. August was the most active month with 900 kilometers in 90 hours. Unfortunately, skiing season was cut short because of bad snow conditions and the lockdowns.
Happy 2021 to all our readers! May it be different from 2020.
(We have some exciting new projects coming along in the beginning of the year. More about that later …)
Epilogue
When we first learned about the corona virus, especially how the number of cases was escalating in Italy’s Lombardy region, we were actually in Antholz-Anterselva in South-Tyrol, Northern Italy. A day before our return to France Austria (another hot spot for COVID-19 cases at the time) closed borders with Italy, but opened them again the next morning (our train was coming from Austria). We had no problems getting to Milan, but got stuck there, since no trains were moving anywhere within Italy — our bus connection to Grenoble was from Turin. We just kept following the departure times telling us that our train to Turin was 60 minutes late, then 70, 120, 190 … After about three hours we saw an unscheduled train appear on the board, leaving to Turin. The conductor did not even check our tickets but rushed us in when we asked if we could board. We had missed our bus to Grenoble hours ago, and did not bother to find another one, so we spent a nice evening in Turin.
Maybe it is the isolation, and working mostly from home, but we’ve been super healthy for the whole year. We also got ourselves tested in November for COVID-19 when the city of Grenoble offered such an opportunity.