Gotta love the feeling of a good Build period.  It’s been a while.  Eight months, to be exact. 

Eight months ago was the Build for the Country Music Marathon.  But since finishing that race, training has been very unfocused, occasionally non-existent.  And that’s what works for me.  I’m typically the opposite of everyone else, building and peaking for some great late winter, early spring races.  Summer is not for me.

Basically it boils down to the fact that I generate a lot of heat when I run.  A lot.  When it’s 30°F (-01°C), I’m still in shorts, although I will start out with a long sleeve that typically gets pushed up to the elbows just a few miles in.  Once it reaches 20°F (-07°C), I’ll cover the legs up and start thinking about a full cap.  The range in between 20-30°F will get me to put on different ear coverings and occasionally gloves (that usually don’t last but a mile).

Summer races?  Forget it.  Unless they also involve a swim and bike.  Then I just deal with the run.

So here I am, in the middle of December, building for my next race.  Mid-December, when most of you are taking a break from the year’s schedule, just thinking about your upcoming Base schedule, hoping not to put on too much weight during the holidays.  Me?  I’m realizing that I’m not eating enough to keep up with the additional 2,000 calories a day that I’m burning above my daily caloric needs to stay alive and function.  Simply put, I need to eat more.  Easier said than done, unless I start eating at Burger King every day (no thanks).  But I’ve got to fuel to race.

My next race?  A 50K (that’s 31 miles for y’all that only use the Imperial system) on January 31st, 2010.  Fifty kilometers is not a huge race for me (after last year’s 41-miler and last March’s 60K (37.2 miler), but something to focus on.  The 50K is just for fun, mainly to see how the Germans run their races.  And to give some focus to my training.

So this weekend was my first 20+ miler weekend of this cycle, getting ready for the race.  That’s when I know I’m building strong.  Instead of single long runs, I function better with “double-long’s”, which are two days in a row of long runs.  That’s every weekend for the next five weeks. 

My first experiences with double-longs are almost two years ago and they’ve served me well.  One thing I’ve learned since then is that I can actually build to 32-mile weekends (22 on Saturday, 10 on Sunday) and recover well.  Much better than if I do a 24-26 miler on Saturday and take Sunday off.  I guess I’m weird that way, since it flies in the face of every training plan put out there by the experts.

So here I am, at the tail end of this first Build cycle.  I’m now entering my “recovery” week, which I definitely need.  Amazing how I can enter this weekend completely knackered, yet still push through comfortably.  Saturday morning it was everything I could do to drag my carcass out of bed.  But I did, had a bit of breakfast and some coffee, then headed out the door.  The first few miles were slow, but that’s OK.  By mid-way through the 13.1 mile run, I was cruising, powering up and over the overpasses (it’s pretty flat around my house, so I find the hills where I can).  I finished strong.

Today, I was hobbling for the first hour or so.  I guess that’s a sign of aging, but I refuse to accept it.  Although it’s inconvenient, it works well with goals of my second long run of the weekend, which is to get the body used to running hard and fast when it’s tired and sore.  So Sunday’s run is always with the goal of running a negative split (i.e. run the second half of the run faster than the first half).  Sounds easy, until you do it with 15-25 miles of running in your legs in the previous 24-30 hours.  It builds a skill that comes in very handy after 20 miles in any race of marathon distance or further. 

So that’s the framework for the weekend now.  This weekend, it was 13.1 miles on Saturday, 8 miles on Sunday (that’s 21.1 miles for the math-challenged amongst you).  Since next week is a recovery week, I’ll back off to 9 miles on Saturday, 6 miles on Sunday.  After that, the next Build begins, so it’ll be 15 on Saturday, 10 on Sunday.  And so on over the next few weeks.  Then to race.

So enjoy the holidays, enjoy the food, enjoy the drink.  Most of all, smile when you drive past that lonely runner out there in the snow and wind.  Because most likely they’re someone just like me, who’s schedule is offset six months from yours. 

Nope, not these types of studs:

Yes, they are studs.  Just ask them.

But these types of studs:

Those are Schwalbe Snow Studs (700×38C’s).

They’ve been sitting in my garage for close to three months, waiting for winter to get here.  Finally it has arrived, with a bit of flurry today and dropping temps tonight.  The rest of the week looks to be colder, with highs in the low 30’s (F) and lows in the mid- to low-teens (F).

So that means that the ground, soaking from weeks of rain, is going to freeze.  Which will make for some interesting commutes to/from work.

(and yes, I did wash the bike after this pic was taken.)

Best viewed in slideshow here.

A lovely town.  One you must visit, although it’s still not my favorite Italian city.  That spot (so far) is reserved for Verona, just an hour up the autostrada towards Milan.  But other than speeding through Verona, Goddess and I didn’t make it there this trip.  But we will.  Plus, there’s a lot Italy we have to explore.

And a lot of great wine.

So anyway, Goddess and I arrived on a Saturday evening.  After checking into the hotel to find our hotel room very cramped and reeking of cigarette smoke (both typical Italian hotel experiences), we headed off to find some dinner.  We got a recommendation from the lady working the hotel’s front desk and off we went.  We think we found the place that she recommended, mainly because there really weren’t any other options in the small downtown area of Mogliano Veneto.  We arrived “American early”, meaning around 7pm, which is at least an hour or so earlier than anyone else in Europe shows up for dinner.  So we had the place to ourselves. 

The food was good and the wine was better.  Apparently everyone else knew too, because the place filled up quickly after 8pm.  We enjoyed taking our time, but apparently not as much as the wait staff.  Once we were done, we asked three separate people and waited 25 minutes for our bill, even though they kept walking by not very busy.  It actually took us getting up to walk out before they moved.  Funny how that works.

So the next morning we headed off into the city.  Visiting Venice by train is the way to go, since parking VERY expensive (more later) and once you’re in the city, you can’t drive anyway.  So it’s better to get delivered directly to the grand canal with no traffic hassles.  And here’s the welcome:

As you can see, it’s pretty busy, even though it’s only 9am.  The tourists are already bustling around, making the walkways quite crowded.  But not unbearably so.

Goddess and I had rushed out of the house and had left behind my Venice maps from my last visit, which was just over ten years ago.  The beauty of the city is that it couldn’t change that much in ten years.  Sure, the shops may change owners, but the cathedrals, squares and markets would be in the same place.  So we had to buy another map.  At tourist prices.  And that became a recurring theme over the next two days.

Once we got walking, we noticed that there were people running down the alleys, each wearing a race number.  Very odd, considering the large number of tourists.  But these folks were clearly in hurry to get places, so they were definitely racing.  We watched a few and realized that it was an orienteering race.  The folks had their map and compass and would have to pause to get their bearings before taking off again.  It was fun to watch them weave their way through the crowds.  Some even at a pretty brisk run.  And I’m sure they enjoyed the ramps from the Venice Marathon, which was held just two weeks before.  I know those ramps made it easier to get over some of the bridges than actually running up the steps.  Hell, it made it easier for us to walk.

We worked our way to Piazza San Marco, passing canal after canal after canal.  One thing I found interesting was how green the water appeared.  It almost didn’t seem natural.  But it certainly was.  Even out in the open water, it was a different shade of green, but nowhere as bright as within the small canals, framed by the pastel colored buildings.

Once we arrived at the Piazza, we decided it was time to sit down and watch the world go by.  We sat at one of the cafés and ordered our coffees – me a Doppio (double espresso) and Goddess a cappuccino.  The total was €18, which works out to about $27.  Tourist prices. 

At least we got water and a chocolate with it.

But it wasn’t all bad.  We sat for the better part of an hour watching people go by, taking in the view of St Mark’s Basilica and clock tower.  We did what we do best – people watch.  One nice surprise was to see a young Asian couple, newly married, parade out and get their pictures taken in front of many of the buildings. 

Lovely couple.

After a while, we decided to head down along the waterfront.  Outside of the canals, this to me is the best view in Venice.

That’s the Basilica di San Giorgio Maggiore in the background.  A phenomenal complex that I’ve yet to visit.

So, being the tourists that we are, we decided to do the gondola ride.  If you go, beware that it is not cheap.  Bring the suitcase.  But it’s worth every second.  I’ve spent many hours roaming down side alleys, through doorways and into hidden courtyards.  But this is a completely different view of the city.  At one point our gondolier actually apologized for a jet flying overhead on its approach into the airport; he was upset that it shattered the calm.

But unlike the movies, he never sang for us.

Again, worth every penny.

And those of you who’ve traveled with me know how much I hate doing the touristy things.  I’d rather explore the back alleys.

Which is what Goddess and I did the rest of Sunday, well into the evening.

And we returned Monday.

Monday was definitely different.  The city shifted energies, away from a tourist-focused city to a living, breathing city on Monday.  The markets burst to life, the canals were packed with boat traffic as deliveries were made, and children filled the streets on their way to/from school.  And the tourists were still everywhere.

So we went the other direction.  To the point that the locals were looking at us funny, because it’s pretty obvious when two blonde folks are walking down a back alley in Venice that they aren’t locals.

And we’re better for the experience.

If you subscribe to National Geographic, then you saw this past Augusts’ article “Vanishing Venice”.  A wonderfully well-written, well photographed article (as you’d expect from NG) that delves into the disappearing native Venetian population.  But we caught glimpses of them at every turn.

Plus we got away from the tourist prices.

Believe it or not, this lunch (wine included) cost less than our two coffees in Piazza San Marco.

And we had it the tables all to ourselves along the side of a canal.

It was too cold for the Venetians to come out to take our order.  It was in the mid 60s (Fahrenheit for you snarky comments [you know who you are]).  But we sat out, sans jackets, and enjoyed the lovely day.

Soon it was time to make our way back across the city to look at carnivale masks. 

When I was here in 1999, I found one that I wanted to get Goddess.  We were dating at the time and I wanted to bring her a bit of this part of the world.  So I found the one I wanted to get her, then decided to go out and do some comparison shopping.  When I returned to buy it, the owner had taken her lunch siesta, but had hung the sign that she’d return at 2pm.  Well, 2pm came and went.  By 330pm I had to leave for the airport to catch my flight, which I did without the mask.

So ten years later we were in the store, picking out the ones that she wanted.  She walked out with a few.  All beautiful, including one that’s freaky (to me) when she puts it on.  But those will remain invisible to y’all until we find an opportunity to wear them.

But here’s one that was on the wall.

After that, we headed back to the garage to pick up our car.

Where we needed a suitcase of money to spring it free.

Since we had checked out of our hotel that morning, we couldn’t leave the car in their massive parking lot of four spots.  So we drove it to Venice, full of suitcases, then parked it in one of the towering parking garages at the city entrance that had a flat rate for any amount of time for under twelve hours.  The flat rate was the low, low price of €24 (that’s $36 USD).

From there we did a fine, fine job of getting lost in northern Italy.  But that’s a different story that involves not updating our GPS with new maps since we bought it.

But I won’t tell that here.

Next stop, a few places in Northern Italy (once we figured out where we were).

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BTW, you can click on each of the photos above.  The ones with the borders around them will just take you to a larger version of the image.  The ones with the blue lined borders will take you to my website, where a few other images are loaded.  I’ll be adding more in the coming days.  And if you see one you like, please consider buying it.  I’ve gotta pay for the parking somehow.  ;^)

Wow.  It’s been a busy month.  The first week of November was enjoyed here at home.  The rest of November has been enjoyed elsewhere.

Running and riding have definitely taken a back seat during the past three weeks, but it’s time to kick it back into gear.

The next few posts will show you a bit of what we’ve been doing, but here’s the Reader’s Digest version.

First off, a week of professional development in a lodge high up in the Bavarian Alps, just across the border from Salzburg, Austria.  Staying at the lodge was a bit eerie, considering it was a hideout for Dietrich Eckart, a man who considered himself Adolf Hitler’s mentor.  There was even a picture (right) in the lodge of Hitler and a couple of his cronies looking up at the  lodge.  All that aside, it’s a beautiful area, although it was gloomy every day except for the morning we drove out.  We were high enough up the slopes that we were in the clouds the whole time.  Luckily Goddess and I would be see more of the area a week later.

Next was a quick overnight back home to wash clothes, repack and scoop up Goddess for the next couple of weeks.  We were off the next day to say farewell and thank you to someone who has served her country for more than 20 years.  What better reason to get together and celebrate?  Well, we did.  But we also played it a bit safe, since Goddess and I had a long drive ahead of us the next day.

By the next evening, Goddess and I were enjoying real Italian food and great wine in Mogliano Veneto, just two stops up the train line from Venice.  Unless you’ve got a suitcase full of money, staying in Venice is really not an option.  Especially if you have a car that you need to park.  Well, I packed well, but no suitcases full of money.  So we stayed outside the city.  That worked fine too, since we just left the car parked and used public transportation.  A bonus after enjoying a glass (or three) of wine.

So after two days of exploring Venice, we headed up the road to another work-related conference.  While I sat in meetings, Goddess explored the countryside and brought a few cases of local wines that she liked back to the room.  At one point we actually discussed mailing some clothes home so that we’d have room in the car for the wine.  That’s a sign of a good trip.

Once that conference was over, Goddess and I pointed the car north, drove through Austria, and ended back in the same town (Berchtesgaden) that I was in the week before.  A beautiful town.  Luckily the weather had cleared and the Alps were visible the entire time.  Unfortunately, not much snow.  But that was OK, since we were able to hike.  After a couple of nights there we pointed the car towards home.  But didn’t make it (yet).

Instead, we stopped for a few nights in Munich.  It truly is a wonderful city.  We made the most of our time there, although one evening of touring the beer breweries really impacted our sightseeing the next day.  We’ll need to go back again to see a few of the museums, but we also know that if we don’t make it back, we definitely did our best to get the feel of the city and we’d be satisfied with that.

Finally, we made it back home and basically collapsed.  Just in time for Thanksgiving, even though the cupboards were bare and the turkey was frozen.  Luckily some friends called that morning and invited us over for dinner and conversation. 

Anyway, that’s the month in a nutshell.  I’ll be posting pictures and words from our trip in separate posts in the coming days.  It’s really been a while (over three years) since I’ve shot so many images in a trip.  So it’s taking me a while to get back into the groove of processing. 

Plus, naps keep getting in the way.  ;^)

Before there aren’t any.

That goes for running stores too!

Yeah, right.

h/t to Gale Bernhardt.

The tough part right now is that I honestly don’t know how next year is going to pan out.  So it’s tough to schedule races. 

For all of you that have already entered and paid for their Ironman’s, Half’s, Marathons, Ultra’s, etc., in 2010, I’m truly jealous.  For various reasons, I just can’t plan that far out right now.

But I stumbled across a portion of the 2010 schedule for Germany. 

So for those of you nearby (or willing to travel), who’s game for a 50K (31 miler) on January 30th?

It’s through countryside like this:

Wow!  This is the longest that we’ve taken to finding our groove after a move.  We’ve been in Germany for four months now and we’ve been on the go.  Constantly. 

We’re OK with that, but now that winter is fast approaching, we’re learning to slow it down a bit.  We’re still without TV, but we’re going to keep it that way.  We’ve found that we’re just fine without it.  And every time I go on a trip somewhere and I have TV in the room, I’m quickly reminded of how much of a waste of time programming really is.  Even when we do have it, I usually just keep it on a news station.  Well, I can do that over the internet when I want.

The last post was a month ago?  Wow, the time has flown.  That was right after our trip to Amsterdam, where Goddess and I spent my birthday enjoying Belgian beers and watching the wildlife.

Soon after, I was off to Bavaria for a week of work.  Long days those were.

And the week after we were off to Italy for a quick work visit, then back in time to head back out to Bavaria for another work visit. 

Lots of miles in vehicles lately.

Here are some of the pics from these trips:

That last view was from a lunch stop in Tyrol, right before we crossed the border into Austria.  Quite an interesting day of contrasts as we left home with temps in the 60’s, got snowed on at lunchtime, then ate dinner in Italy in 70-degree weather.

With winter rapidly approaching, the days are quickly shrinking.  I’ve never lived this far north (50º N) before, which is in line with Vancouver.  I didn’t really think much about it until the other day when we were driving into town and I saw the car’s shadow in the late-afternoon sun, pointing directly in front of us as we were driving northeast.  Then I looked at our sunrise/sunset tables to see what times they would be in the coming week, since we turn back our clocks tomorrow (a week before the US).  Even this early in fall, sunrise will be at 7am and sunset will be just after 5pm.  So that means my commute both ways will be in the dusk/dark hours.

Speaking of commutes, for those who I haven’t told, I’m strictly by bike these days.  When we got here, we looked at cars that I’d be willing to pay for and realized that for the price, I’d rather pick up a good cyclocross bike and ride the 9.1 miles to/from work.  It’s worked out well, since the commute by car is typically 30 minutes and the commute by bike is typically 35 minutes.  I’d definitely rather ride the bike.  Regardless of the weather.

So I’m riding Jake (no, I don’t name my bikes).  That’s the bike’s name.  Jake.

As in “Jake the Snake”.

Jake’s treating me quite well.  My weekly commute comes in just under 100 miles if I hit both morning/evening for all five days.  Some weeks it doesn’t work out that way due to other plans, when Goddess comes to pick me and Jake up at work. 

And the commute serves me well.  I’m wide awake when I get in to work in the morning.  In the evening, by the time I get home, I’ve left whatever work issues I have at work, so I’m ready to spend the evening with Goddess.  The best part?  None of that stress of dealing with idiot drivers on the road.  Instead, I get miles of forest and farmland.

Goddess did have to laugh (at least a “I tolerate this” laugh) when I started stocking up on winter riding gear.  By the time all was said and done, between Jake, clothing and lighting, we could have bought a nice car for me to commute with.  But I certainly don’t want it that way.

Speaking of lighting, get rid of those rollers and trainers and get outside!  Yeah, I know it’s easier to hit target heart rates or maintain wattage while riding indoors, but you’re still riding indoors.  So get a good set of lights.  I was using OK lights, but especially after a few close calls in the forest with deer that I never saw darting in front of me, I knew it was time to upgrade.

After years of using halogens and then the new AA-powered LED lights, shell out a bit of money and buy a good set.  I looked at quite a few options out there, considered what I need now (deer avoidance) and what would keep me safe in the dead of winter, I settled on the Stella 300 Dual’s.  They will sear the retina of any deer that dare stand in front of me.  Seriously.  With these babies, have absolutely no issues seeing anything and everything in front of me.

With the twin headlights, the trails open back up.  Even at 20-25mph, I can’t outrun these lights.  Dense fog is a different story.  But I have no problem seeing.  The left light is a wide flood beam, so there’s plenty of peripheral view.  The right light is focused, so I can aim it right down the trail as far as I can see.  With three different settings (Hi/Med/Lo), plus strobe, I see whatever I need, plus set up a mid-forest disco if I need.  And as far as safety? I’ve had large trucks coming the other way pull over to the side of the road and stop until I passed. 

How’s them apples?

I typically use them in “race” mode, which means that instead of having to cycle through each of the settings, I can switch directly from Hi to Lo with a quick push of the button.  That’s handy when I meet an oncoming cyclist in the forest.  Hopefully I’m not blinding them.  But now I reach down and cover the flood light so they don’t get too much light; I can still see plenty beyond them with the spot.

Once I’m in town, I switch to low beam and have absolute zero worries about being seen by an oncoming car or the ones sitting at the intersections.

Outside the bike, lights and clothes, I’m ready for winter.  We’ve only dipped below freezing once so far, down to –02C (that’s 29F for you that can’t do metric).  I didn’t even have to break out the heavy gear and I was still sweating when I got to work.

But I’m waiting for the ice to set in.  I’ve already got my studded tires sitting in the garage, waiting to be put on the wheels.  Without a solid freeze cycle forecast, I don’t see the sense in putting them on yet.  But once we see it, they’ll stay on for the winter.

Well, that’s about it for now.  It’s mid-afternoon, the day is nice and Jake needs a serious scrub down to get all that mud, “horse mud” and road grime off.  Plus, braking sounds horrible right now with all the grit in the pads.

Wow, it’s been almost two months since the last post.  But if you read the last post, you’ll know why.  At first our self-imposed disconnect from the world was just that, self-imposed.  Then it became a matter of dealing with a monopoly – Deutsch Telecom, the “friendly” face that brings T-Mobile to the world.  When dealing with a monopoly, just remember that the customer’s needs only come first, well, never.

But we may see some movement this week.  I’m not holding my breath.

In the meantime, we’ve been busy and have seen a few things.

- Garmisch, Germany.  Goddess took a side trip across Austria to do some wine shopping and sightseeing in Italy.

- Neuschwanstein, Germany.

- Amsterdam, The Netherlands.  You must go if only to visit the Ann Frank House.  Goddess and I will tie the whole story together soon with a trip to Auschwitz.

Pics will be uploaded once we have a connection at home and I have time to process them.

We hope all is well with you!