Greece to Paris to New York to Monaco to Paris.......

Wow, I'm tired just writing all that and thinking about those trips. However, it also makes me smile since they each had great adventured in their own way. It has been a while since I updated, so I'm going to hit the highlights of the past few weeks for me.

Greece: I ended my last post on a kind of negative description about Athens. I have to be fair and say that overall my trip to Greece was great. Athens left a bit to be desired, but my drive up to Lamia was good. It involved, in brief, my car breaking down, 4 cars wide on a 2 lane highway, a visit to a company located on the Aegean Sea, a 2 hour lunch 10 meters from the Aegean Sea (did I mention we walked into the kitchen and picked the fish we wanted to eat from the refrigerator.....it was still dripping with salt water....) a swim in the Sea after work, and then a nice drive back to Athens....

Paris: So, most of you may know that I'm going to be participating in the Monaco Half Ironman Triathlon the 3rd of September. So, I've been going on some long rides, which aren't easy in Paris. I did, however find a great ride that goes out to Versailles and through the country side past Versailles. It's not a really hilly ride, but there are some decent views and the country side helps me escape the city both physically and mentally. Plus, how often will I be able to start a sentence with "So, this morning I rode out from Notre Dame, past the Louvre and the Musee D'Orsee, saw somebody juggling under the Eiffel Tower, and went around the Venician Ponds at the Palaise de Versailles and back this morning......."

Sticking with the cycling theme, this past weekend was a 4 day weekend since today, Tuesday 15th or August, is the day of the Assumption which is a national "bank holiday" as they call it here. I didn't have much time to get ready for it because I had kind of forgotten that it was a holiday. So, Friday afternoon at the office I decided to see if I could get train tickets and a hotel in Monaco and go check out the race course. Low and behold, after 30 minutes of searching I had train tickets on an overnight train Saturday night from Paris to Monaco and a hotel for Sunday night. My return ride was another overnight train Monday night getting back into Paris this morning.

After the plans were set, I spent Saturday running some errands and resting, since I'm still getting over some jet lag from my 5 day visit to New York (More on that trip later). So, I had all day to prepare, but of course at the last minute I was still trying to figure out what to take and how to get it all to the train station with my bike. So, I decided to ride there. With my duffel bag on my back and camel back hanging from my neck I looked like an accident waiting to happen.... luckily that didn't happen and I hopped on to the train 10 minutes before departure. Perfect timing ;) The train ride was pretty uneventful, which means it was good. I had a bed, no one was snoring, and I woke up around 7 am as we were coming into Cannes. I had already planned that as soon as I arrived in Monaco I would drop off my stuff for storage at the hotel and hit the bike course for the Monaco Triathlon. http://www.halfironman-monaco.com/
What I hadn't planned very well was eating. I basically had dinner (a falafel) at 8 pm Saturday night and a banana and Apple Sunday morning before getting off the train. That is not exactly the best way to prepare for a 56 mile bike ride. I knew it when I started, but I though I could get through it with the gel's and 1 banana that I was taking with me.

The Ride: I'm going to make this a little bit brief since I plan to make a full race summary after the triathlon. As a summary, the ride kicked my ass!! There really is no better or softer way to say it. I was completely wiped out by the end and it took me over 4 hours to complete (my goal for race day was originally 3 hours or less..... ) The Monaco bike portion is far from flat. Check it out at the official website http://www.halfironman-monaco.com/ In the first 14.5 Kilometers the ride rises 2000 ft. This part alone took me an hour since I was saving energy for the other big hills on the course. The elevation profile shows some nice down hills that pretty much match the uphills, which should help even out the ride, but the downhills have so many hairpin turns that I never got over 33 miles an hour and was riding the breaks hard around some really tight turns. So, the downhils where not exactly free and easy rest periods. About half way through the ride there is a feed point and then a 2 mile steep uphill climb. I think this is going to really surprise anyone who hasn't done the race course ahead of time. I was out of my seat almost the entire 2 miles. From there it was up and down and up and up and then a long down hill with wind blowing in my face, so I was actually working pretty hard to keep a good pace going down hill!! The last hill comes around 40-45 miles into the ride and it's pretty long. By half way up I was out of liquid and sick of gels (although I had only had 4 of them and the banana). I made it to the top and then it was home free to the bottom.

Positives from the Ride: You may think I sound pretty down about my ride, but I actually feel o.k. because I had a few things going against me.
1. I hadn't eaten almost anything in over 12 hours when I started the ride and the dinner the night before was far from a pre-race dinner.
2. I was completely self supported during this ride so I started out the first big climb with a full camel back, 2 full water bottles, 6 gels, a banana, leatherman, spare t-shirt and shorts, and a bunch of maps and bike tools. It doesn't sound like much, but probably over 10 lbs and I'll only have 1 or 2 full water bottles the day of the race.
3. Even though my legs still felt pretty fatigued today, when I got back to my apartment I had some breakfast, went to church for the Assumption, and then went for a 13.3 mile run and completed it with an 8:20 min/mile pace and felt really good! I actually did the last 3.3 miles at a 7:45 pace. So, I'm hopeful that with some proper nutrition and rest before race day I will be able to accomplish my goal of under 6 hours. Not a stellar time, but I think it's a reasonable goal for the conditions. I have faster goals, but not that I'm willing to share until after race day ;)

O.k. it's time for bed. I will leave you all with this last story. Today I had a craving for Subway (Eat Fresh - not New York), so started over to one I had seen a while ago only a block from my apartment. As I was about to cross the street a young girl asks me "Do you speak English" which is a common line I've seen a bunch of kids using to get peoples attention. As soon as you say "Yes" they show a piece of paper with English on it that is asking for money. Definitely looking for the American or English tourists. Anyways, I usually see the same kids and hadn't seen this girl yet but I knew the shpeel. I said I had no change, which was true, and was about to leave when I noticed a diamond that was embedded in her front tooth!! So, I asked "how much did that cost?". She quickly got a very guilty look on her face, closed her mouth and made some sort of motion as if to say that it was just there but had nothing to do with the change she was trying to gather...... So, news flash to pan handlers.... leave the "ice" at home! haha ... it did make me laugh though.

Abiento! ( I promise to fill in everyone in on James and Christina's great wedding up in Thousand Island, NY next time.... although a lot of you were actually there, so no need for a summary of how much fun it was for all of you ;)