Giro Donne 2009
Places to find race information, in case I slack in the posting department. All efforts will be on the bike, sorry blog-readers, it is all about energy allocation.
"If its not fun, why do it?"
Places to find race information, in case I slack in the posting department. All efforts will be on the bike, sorry blog-readers, it is all about energy allocation.
I guess these past few months have desensitized me to long travel days before races. For instance, two weeks ago, I traveled 11 hours to get to a 2hr road race and a 20 minute time trial. I just completed my 17 hours of trains from
My standard philosophy is that I like to keep my time/miles in the car less than the miles I spend on a bike on any given day/week. I do not know how time/miles in a train fits into this scheme I have created for myself. Is my footprint considered less, since I am using mass transit? I don’t know.
So how do reduce the impact of travel? Well there are a lot of tricks, and I probably look like an idiot doing them, but it works for me. Here are some of my tips:
-Every transfer and every time I stand up, I stretch.
-Music. Not my bumping beats - those get me riled up. My current travel selection primarily comprises “Explosions in the Sky.”
-Podcasts, i.e., Coffee Break French, NPR Science Friday, NPR on Health......NPR has some great podcasts.
- A book. Sometimes one that I can depend on putting me to sleep.
- Sleep which requires:
-Therma-rest compressible pillow.
-Ear plugs.
-Bandana to cover my eyes.
-Traveling to bike races includes traveling with a bike. Bring a lock because you can’t keep your eye on the bike the whole time (yea, sometimes a bandana is covering your eyes).
-Sunglasses, in case I want to fool the people around when I am sleeping, “No I am not sleeping, I am watching you and keep your hands off my things.”
-Alarm clock, so I don’t sleep through my stop; it’s not like a plane were everyone gets off at the same time.
-Copious amounts of water. To ensure that I drink my water: I bring all of the water that I should drink for the day. This is quite heavy, but I don’t want to carry it, so its gotta go down the tubes.
-Food for the entire day. Tuper-ware is an amazing thing. Boiled eggs usually come in handy here for protein.
-Camera.
-(I am going here, sorry, but its important) Bring your own toilet paper – the trains run out of it ALL the time.
-Which leaves us at: hand sanitizer.

Second, and more important question: Why can’t they walk without bobbing their head? If I didn’t dislike the species to begin with, this behavior solidifies my disgust for them.
I LOVE
The minute the train crossed the border, the architecture, landscape, and people changed, and it is much more up my alley. I foresee establishing myself here. What a beautiful country.
(This is the view from one side of the train......
.....and this is the view from the other side.)
Even the food at the train station looks irresistible, but I am holding back on the panini/pizza as I am not training today and I don’t have euros to be throwing out the window on temporary indulgences.
I am writing this blog on my third of four train transfers.Now that I am in
Yea, this is going to be good.

Lesson Learned: 15 seconds of being in your head too much on a Cat 1 climb gets you nowhere.