How to get around in Flanders

Belgium has a very good public transportation system. It starts at the airport in Zaventem, a suburb of Brussels. Here you can just go down the escalator -or elevator- and find the train station. There is a train to Brussels every fifteen minutes and from Brussels you can get to anywhere in the country. Brussels has three train stations: Noord (North), Zuid (South aka Midi) and Central. North and South are the main transfer stations and from there you can find trains that go all over Europe.

You can buy a ticket at a vending machine, a teller window, or even on the train if you are in a hurry. When you step on the train, you have to ask the conductor to buy a ticket-if you don't ask they may charge you for fare evasion. Belgium uses the EURO currency as does most of Western Europe. Taking your bike box on the train is quite easy too, but if you do it is better to avoid morning and evening rush hour on the main lines.

Alternatively you can rent a car. Renting at the airport is convenient but more expensive. A good trade-off is to rent from one of the many rental agencies that have offices at nearby hotels instead. Budget rent-a-car is one of these and their offices are at the Novotel in Zaventem. By locating their offices off the airport, they can offer better prices. Getting to the Novotel -or any other airport hotel is as easy as walking to a shuttle. Budget has a roomy shuttle that can easily transport you and all the luggage you cared to bring to the Novotel. Once there you can pick a car that suits your needs.

You do not really need a car and it is quite possible to get everywhere you want to go by using public transportation. Once you have built up your bike, you can use it to get around. But be careful because bike theft is quite common in Belgium, especially in big cities. Cities with universities such as Gent, Antwerpen and Kortrijk, have an even higher incidence of bike theft and thieves have been known to sweep in with vans and load them up with bikes. It is not advisable to leave your expensive bike outside when you go shopping.

Fortunately most cities are laid out in the medieval star pattern with a central market square and radiating main streets. If you need anything, simply walk to the center where all the activity is. During summer cities have a market day, when merchants put up stalls and sell anything from clothing to sausages and fresh veggies to brooms.

Bed and breakfast places often have bikes for rent. Sometimes the use of a commuter bike is included in the price. Commuter bikes are set up for shopping and getting around. They have wide tires, a basket for goodies, and chain and spray protectors so you don't soil your clothes. If you plan an extended stay you can often buy a used commuter bike for as little as EUR20.

Getting to and from races is just as easy. Wherever you stay you will be well within riding distance to several races. Riding to and from the race is a good way to warm up and cool down. If you stay anywhere in Flanders, you will find races within a 25 km-30 km (15 mi-20 mi) radius nearly every day of the week. Having access to car will give you extra options and you may be able to pick better events, but the difference won't be all that significant for the most part.

One good thing about a car is that you can bring tools or spare wheels. That is less of an advantage than you may think. In most races, when you flat you are out. The speeds are so high and in the youth categories (nieuwelingen and junioren) so near the top end of what you can reach with your restricted gearing, that getting back in is all but impossible. The races also show little or no letup and usually speeds are near max from beginning to end.

The best thing about a car is protection from the weather. That is almost essential in the spring when the weather can be quite miserable. In summer it often does not matter much as temperatures stay high most of the time. You may still get wet riding to and from a race although often storms are transient and waiting 20-30 minutes can make all the difference.

Belgium has rain year round, and in the spring many storms come in from the Atlantic. It is often cold and windy when rain storms hit. Having a car will allow you to get to races dry and warm. When you race in springtime in the rain you will often need a car to warm up afterwards too.

Opening weekend

This upcoming weekend is opening weekend for the cycling season. It is marked by two races, the first, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, formerly known as Omloop Het Volk (both are newspapers and Het Nieuwsblad bought Het Volk recently and renamed the race), and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne.

Unfortunately, although I will be in Belgium, I probably won't be able to see either one of these. The reason for my visit is the somber task of attending the funeral of my brother in law, who recently died of cancer.

I read today that two teams, Het Landbouwkrediet and Quickstep were out on the course of the Omloop to see what conditions were like. Belgium suffered through a long harsh winter and the roads are in poor shape. Het Landbouwkrediet team apparently suffered 11 flats, although Quickstep -a more experienced team one could say- suffered none.

Quickstep's big guns were not present, preferring to stay in Spain until the weekend, something management did not object too. Clearly Tom Boonen is familiar with the course and even though there were minor changes, and lots of new potholes, Boonen will have the support of his team to take care of that.

Meanwhile here in Northern California, it is raining too, albeit a bit warmer than in Belgium. Thursday I rode on rollers for 45 minutes. Friday I ran 9.5 miles in the hills. Saturday I again rode on rollers for 45 minutes, going quite hard for about 30, and on Sunday I drove Alistair to the Ronde van Brisbeen crit, where he rode in the rain. Afterwards I went running in the rain. I ran a 10K and I was soaked. Yesterday was sunny and warm and I rode 31 miles on Alistair's new bike, just to check it out. It feels great although I need to become more familiar with the SRAM shifting.

Today I rode 1:03 minutes on rollers. Now I have to get ready for my trip to the home country and the sad task of burying my sister's husband.

Five storms in a row

This week we got hit by five storms in a row. One for each day of the week, starting on Sunday. The one on Wednesday was particularly bad, dumping tons on water and causing flooding and mayhem everywhere. On top of it all the temperatures dropped steadily as the week went on and now we are braving 40's to low 50's as a day-time high.

For those of you who live where there is a real winter, 40's may sound balmy, but to us, Northern Californians, it is downright cold. Needless to say, people's blogs and facebook pages overflowed with stories about daring-do survival and building character. I for one, chose to stay inside instead.

Given that the human body does very little, if any, cold adaptation, and that cyclists living in colder climes migrate South every winter like the starlings do, I wonder what the use of suffering in the cold really is. But to some of us though ones, it seems a proof of moral fiber (not to say manliness so as to be politically correct).

On Wednesday and on Thursday, I ran 8.5 miles on the treadmill, trying to keep an 8 mph pace. For some odd reason I seem to have a lot of trouble doing that now. Whereas I could run 8.2 and 8.3 last year, this year I have yet to run over 8 uninterrupted. Today, I ran 7.75 miles in the hills, as the storms finally disappeared. Nevertheless I still had to deal with drizzle for the last 3 miles.

Compounding my treadmill problem is that the new machine has a tendency to go out of alignment and the belt then moves to one side or another. When that happens the only option is to stop and adjust the tension on the roller. However, it appears to me that the vibrations of running undo the adjustment and after half an hour or so, a new iteration is needed. I hope a mat will remedy the situation. This never happened to my (equally cheap) previous treadmill.

However it is clear that this improved version means more useless gadgetry on a cheaper frame. The Healthrider I owned before had a steel frame, whereas the Reebok (don't be fooled they are both Icon treadmills) sports a lot of plastic instead.

Riding in the rain

It's one thing to ride in the rain in Belgium. If you didn't you wouldn't be able to ride very often. But in California, things are a bit different. First of all there are more dry days than rainy days so if you just sat out the rain, you would barely see the difference in your training. So therefore riding in the rain becomes a test of character. Every self-respecting California racer will post at least one comment on Facebook to show how brave they were (or are going to be) enduring rain.

Yesterday was one such test at the Early Bird Criterium in Fremont. It rained all morning long and then some. We decided to go late and arrived at noon. There was barely anyone there and if it hadn't been for Team Specialized, one of the co-promoters, there wouldn't have been anyone at all except maybe the San Jose BC Juniors who all left early, wet and hypothermic. The riders that were still there at noon, were invariably cold, wet, and muddy. They looked miserable. By the time the pro-1-2-3 race rolled around there were 13 die-hard souls left, more than half of them from Specialized. No pros, they knew better.

Although the afternoon races were dry, by that time nearly everyone was so soaked and cold, racing was no longer in the cards. Everyone looked like the pros did in last year's tour of California, dirty and numb. There is a reason why they moved the Tour to May.

Yesterday was the first day of rain in a while and we are told to brace for a whole week of nonstop rain that may bring mayhem and flooding to the area. This morning I experienced the first of it. One of our overflow drains was clogged and the patio flooded. I spent several hours out there bailing water. Not fun. Because California storms, unlike the steady drizzle to mild rain one sees in Belgium, are vicious water dumps accompanied by gale force winds that bring down trees and power lines. Belgium rain is not fun for sure, but it is quite a bit different from a Northern California soak. A water repellent jacket is usually enough over there, unlike here where nothing but plastic, held down with duck tape, can provide meaningful shelter.

Last week I spent most of my time at the JP Morgan healthcare investor meeting so my workouts were low key. On Monday I rested, on Tuesday I ran 5 mi on the treadmill before going to the meeting. On Wednesday I rode on rollers for an hour, and on Thursday, after the meeting ended, I finally went on a real 30 mi bike ride, testing out my new tubeless tires.

Friday I rode my mountain bike for 20 miles in Redwood Park and Saturday I rode another 40 mi on my tubeless road tires. I am sold. I have been riding tubeless on my mountain bike for over three years and I can't say enough good things about it. It appears road tubeless will be equally satisfying.

Sunday, when the rains started I ran for an hour on the treadmill before going to the Early Birds with Alistair.

(Photo credit: Jennifer Lanier)

Roller derby

We had an exciting week here in Northern California. After several days of 72F/22C degree weather, an Artic storm blew in and suddenly we had snow, icy wind and freezing temperatures. The water on top of our rain barrels froze, and there was snow on Grizzly Peak when we woke up on Monday. When the ice finally cleared, a series of rain storms brought wet weather from Vancouver to Tijuana. I don't think I have ever seen a weather map like that. Storms along the entire Pacific coast.

Fortunately I had just completed a couple of hard weeks so now was a good time to take it easy. On Monday I rested. Then on Tuesday I ran for 8.75 miles in the hills. Snow, sun, and extra bright fall color on the trees were mixed together. it was an awesome sight.

On Wednesday I rode hard on rollers, averaging 276 W for the hour. The garage was freezing cold. On on Thursday and Friday I rode for 1:30 concentrating mostly on a smooth fast cadence. On Saturday and Sunday I ran, first 8.75 miles and then 7.25 miles. Saturday was fairly dry and much warmer than earlier in the week, but Sunday's run quickly turned wet and foggy. Visibility was less than 10 yards on Grizzly making the run quite dangerous in spots.

When I got back I had to go out and find Alistair, who had gotten lost on a bike ride and was out there without much light in the driving rain. It was more than a bit worrisome as the fog was thick with practically no visibility, and most of the turns were deeply flooded. I was quite relieved when I found him near Fish Ranch Rd. Fortunately the rain jacket had done a good job and he was warm albeit a bit tired. Riding the Berkeley hills in this type of weather is not advised. Cars go off the road all the time, and in the past month alone, we have seen two go off the road, down the side of the hill.

Lake Placid

It took me exactly 24 hours to get here. I left my house at 2:45P on Tuesday to catch a 5:52P to LA. After a long layover I caught the red-eye at 9:45P to Newark, NJ, where I arrived early in the morning (5A local time). I had to wait until 10:45A for a ride to Lake Placid and that ride arrived at 5:45 in the afternoon on Wednesday. 24 hrs to the minute. I could have traveled half way around the globe...

I ran on the treadmill on Tuesday morning for 45 minutes. I included a fast 5K in 20 minutes, with the first mile at 10 mph. I did nothing on Wednesday, other than take a shower, have dinner and fall asleep. It is pretty here, but rather cool (in a temperature sense) and quite wet. We have had rain twice already.

This morning I swam 1.2 miles in Mirror Lake, very nice and clean and with a buoy line that went all the way across the lake so you could follow it. Open water swimming with pool-like convenience. It was fun. Unfortunately it won't work that way on Sunday and I am sure the line will be pretty busy. The lake is small enough that 2,000+ people will create a whirlpool-like current, or at least that is what the locals say. It may very well be true.

Then I registered and picked up my bike. In the afternoon, we drove the bike course. Early on there is a 9 mile downhill and our tour guide had this great idea that we should ride it. It goes through a rather narrow canyon with lots of traffic, but the descent is fast enough to keep up with the cars, or so they say.

Once again, reality was a bit different. There was a rather strong headwind and then, as if by magic, it started raining as soon as we started riding. That made for a very treacherous descent with lots of traffic trying to squeeze by, and a tremendous soaking. I was totally wet by the time we reached Keene, the little town where the road flattens out. My shoes were full of water, my socks soaked, my race suit drenched, and I was very cold to boot. Not fun. Certainly not something I would do for 112 miles. At one point the rain fell so hard that it stung like hail -or maybe it was hail.

Less than 9 miles, all pretty slow due to the wetness and the headwind and I was toast. So much for that. There is rain in the forecast for Sunday as well. I can't wait;) Where is Arizona when you need it?

´t Oud Konijntje

Today was my mon´s 80th birthday. I woke up early this morning and went on a two hour ride. It was pretty cold and it started drizzling soon after I left. The drizzle turned to rain a bit later. I got pretty wet, quite cold, and very muddy. I rode to Kluisbergen, and from there to Ronse and then back to Oudenaarde and home. Even though the weather was nasty I had good fun.

We went to a two star restaurant for lunch. The name of the restaurant is ´t Oud Konijntje, and it is located in Waregem. The food was excellent, the setting wonderful, everything top notch. Even so I found the two hour bike ride as satisfying as the rather expensive overindulgence.

Ice

The weather is pretty miserable today. Overnight the biggest winter storm of the season rolled in with gusty winds, driving rain, and chilly temperatures. Not fun. I am sure the Tour of California riders are wishing they'd gone somewhere else to ride.

I took Annelise and Andrew out to the ice rink to fulfill a long standing promise. We skated -or pretended to- for about 1:30. I fell quite a few times and have some minor bruises on my right elbow, and left hip. Although I was never a very good skater, it seems I am not getting any better. More like a serious regression really. Be it what may, it was quite fun and we had a great time.

Tomorrow I am off to Belgium for 10 days. Not good for training:)

Rain, hail and cold

We had a pretty miserable weekend. Not as bad as some parts of the country but it is cold and rainy. Today it hailed. Not good. I was home alone -with kids- over the weekend so there were limits to what I could do.

On Saturday morning, the weather was still fine and Alistair went for a ride. By the time he came home however, the weather had turned so I went to the club and rode 45 minutes on the stationary bike, followed by a half hour treadmill run (a 45/30 combo).

On Sunday, Alistair went riding with his team mates and I rode my rollers for 1:25 minutes. I rode moderately hard and burned 1,111 calories in the process. 

Today I went to the club again and did the 45/30 as I will call it. 45 minutes cycling and 30 minutes running. The running is so-so and I can hold about 7.5 mph for half an hour. Then my calf starts hurting and I need to stop.

Monday Monday

Another very wet day. Started out relatively dry but then it came pouring down. Had to visit a client for lunch so I only had time for a short workout. Ran 6.5 miles on the treadmill at the club. Burned 777 calories in 46 minutes. Nice and smooth. I am tapering now and having other obligations is a good way to keep me from over-training.

You know there is always that temptation right before the race to do a little bit extra. Like studying a bit more before the test. But in racing, it is better to rest. So I need distractions. My visit to Fremont was an ideal distraction as it took up most of my day.

As for other news, a good article in the NY Times today about stretching. You may know I do not believe in stretching and I never stretch. Now there is evidence that stretching may actually harm you. I already told you it doesn't do anything, but this article says it is no good either. They suggest warming up instead.