La Bicicleta

by Carlos Vives & Shakira. If I think of summer 2016, I will have this song playing in the background 🙂

As a beginner cyclist–my first biking trip was four years ago, only one year after I learned how to ride a bike–, I’m quite satisfied with the biking trips I did this summer: Bolzano-Terlan-Bolzano (30 km), Bolzano-Salorno (34 km) and Saarbrücken-Sarreguemines (20 km). Through these trips I learned that my current limit is 30 km, and on the last two trips I took a train back home 😛 . Well, baby steps, next time it will be 40 km.

The picture on the left–my cousin Dhika and Simon– was from the first trip to Terlan, right after I defended my thesis, so I was feeling super free and happy, and in the I-can-do-everything mood. The right one–credit to Daria– was from the last trip to Sarreguemines, in which I was the slowest one in the group 😀 , but I still enjoyed it a lot. The weather was super nice (for Saarbrücken).

I learned my limit quite harshly actually, from the second trip (until Salorno). I was quite sure I could make it to Mezzocorona, just 8 km more, but first I wanted to have a short break. Unfortunately, I stopped too close to the (quite) steep riverbank, and my cramped leg failed to bear my weight, so I tumbled down. Thanks to some bushes I didn’t get wet 😛 , but I paid my price because some of the bushes are stinging nettles.

Anyway, that doesn’t stop me… I will definitely go for another bike trips! 😉

Secondly…

Yes, I’m addicted to Zumba! 😀 I’d been wanting to try it since last year, and finally last month I had a courage to join a course here, offered by the Saarland University sports center. I didn’t know that I would have so much fun!

One Zumba class (once a week) usually lasts one hour, and we would have to follow several different choreographies with different background songs… hip-hop, reggaeton, salsa, samba, etc. The choreography with “La Bicicleta”–quite similar with the moves in the above video– is my favorite, because… it’s the least demanding one, haha.

Actually, I also enrolled to the “Rücken- und Funktionsgymnastik” course, basically sets of back exercises for an hour. We started with running around the gym, for… maybe 10 minutes, then we did 2 sets of continuous 10 different 2-minutes-exercises, with 5 minutes break in between the sets. The exercises are mostly in the planking position while moving our arms, legs or head. At the end of the first class–which.. ehem.. also the only class I joined :p–, I almost fainted. That was the first time I experienced a blackout ^^; I thought I was going to die! 😀 So yeah, up until now I’m still afraid to try the course again, hoho.

But I will definitely continue my Zumba course! *moving my hips* *singing along “…latiendo por ti…”*

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