My current home base is a small village called Durbach, located in the black forest region of south east Germany near Offenburg – the site of the 2nd Mountain Bike World Cup.  Now I don’t want to clog the blog with tales of non-skiing adventures, so I will bore you with the details of my training venue first…

Our apartment is on the outskirts of town with views of rolling hills covered with vineyards and orchards.  Spring is in the air, with colorful blossoms, warm sunshine and green forests – it is really beautiful and refreshing.  The nature of the rolling hills means that there is some fun and challenging running terrain – great for natural intervals!  

As an environmentally friendly act (the real reason being my own selfish desire to train), I have been commuting home from the world cup race venue by foot. The venue is not far away – about a 30 minute jog on the most direct flat route. However, running the same route everyday in such a beautiful place would be a crime, so I have taken it upon myself to explore the network of mountain bike and deer hunting trails which weave through the forest, up and down hills and across ridges.  It isn’t hard to stretch the journey home to well over an hour – as long as I am home in time to massage the athletes of course!  On Friday I followed a dirt road up a long gradual climb right out of the valley – the last section of the climb was a perfect 20 minute effort to the top of the ridge, where I found myself experiencing a spectacular view over the German countryside which was well worth the effort!  Today is the day after the MTB race, and also a rest day for me… we all know that coach JD doesn’t want anyone launching into to much running too soon… no one wants an overuse injury before the next training year has even started!

One of the simple pleasures of life in Europe is going grocery shopping!  Part of my job involves making sure the cupboards are stocked to feed the hungry racers.  There is a fine selection of fresh and local produce, and even if I have a little difficulty with the label, chances are pretty good that it is going to taste great! So the favorites list this week consists of my top 5 foods from the store:

1. Cheese – With my limited German language skills I can manage to ask for any Käse recommendations… a quick taste test just in case, and then you can request as much of the huge block as you want!

2. Muesli – America really needs to do something about the quality muesli situation.  Best when combined with himberre joghurt (which is worthy of its own mention), and can be eaten for breakfast, lunch, post-training snack, or sometimes dessert in this household!

3. Pizza – I know it isn’t from the store, but I have a theory that the closer you get to Italy the better it gets.  Remember that I started in Australia, which is a long way away – and I thought pizza was pretty great there! Bellisimo!

4. Bread – European fresh baked brot everyday for these racers!

5. Chocolate – No explanation required!  Actually, this should definitely be number 1.

I guess I should mention that the world cup was yesterday which is, after all, the reason why I am here!  The boys put in inspirational efforts, particularly Adam, who finished 14th after riding an aggressive first lap from starting in 49th position and continued to ride within the top 15.  There was pumping music at the feed zone and some technical terrain for viewing the action… it was great fun!  Next stop will be in the hills and mud of Belgium. Tchüss!  

Felice

Hi all,

As you may or may not be aware, I have a new, fun and exciting summer gig with the Giant mountain bike team.  This involves accompanying the athletes around USA and the world for lots of mountain bike races!  I massage and provide general support for a great group of people, and I am trying my hardest to help them race their best.  Currently, I am supporting Giant XC mountain bike athlete Adam Craig as he commences his assault on the 2009 World Cup.  Stop number one for the World Cup was last weekend in Pietermaritzburg in South Africa – about an hour inland from the city of Durban, in the luscious, beautiful and sunny KwaZulu Natal region.

Having never traveled to the African continent, I didn’t really know what to expect, other than the advice and safety warnings from my concerned Aunt who has traveled to various African countries on numerous occasions – which consisted of a general warning that my regular training choice while on the road, running alone first thing in the morning, was not an option!  But it didn’t take me long to realize that South Africa is an amazing place, so I thought I would share a list of some of my favourite and amusing things that I have found. 

1. Zebras – What isn’t cool about zebras?  You would be cool too if you could get around town with a black and white striped coat while sporting a Mohawk!  I saw them in the park while running in the nature park this morning and they calmly strutted off the path out of my way. Yeah Zebras!

2. Geckos – There is a little Gecko that must live in the banana tree outside my window.  He crawls in the open window and scurries across my wall – turning himself the colour of the wall if he hangs out there for a while, so all you can really see are his eyeballs.  I wish I had Gecko feet and could climb walls and tress like my little gecko friend.

3. Sunshine – My pursuit of endless winter around the globe from Australia to the northern hemisphere has resulted in many consecutive winters and some seriously pasty white skin.  I have endured one summer since 2001, and the count is 12 winters in a row now!  So I must admit that I was concerned about my ability to tolerate temperatures above freezing.  But the sunshine here in Pietermaritzburg is reminding me of how nice hot weather can be, and I have now embraced the chance to enjoy the heat while following an awesome summer sport.  

4. Bike race atmosphere – The people of South Africa came out in force to witness the first mountain bike world cup on their continent.  All of the athletes put in great efforts in hot and humid conditions on a hard packed dirt course, and it was great to see the support from the crowd.  Hometown athlete Greg Minaar was the star of the downhill event, and Burry Stander was the crowd favorite in the cross-country race.  Placing 1st and 3rd in their respective events, the South African spectators certainly had a lot to cheer about, and good reason to party into the night! 

5.  Meat – For those that know that I am a reformed vegetarian, you may never have thought I would be saying this – but I had the best steak I have ever eaten last week.  What else would you expect from a restaurant called “The Butchery”.  Luckily I gave up my vegetarian ways a year or so ago, otherwise I would have missed out on the amazing steak – which cost only $10!!  I was not the only person at the table who claimed that it was indeed the best steak ever.  The boys on the team loved it so much that we actually returned to the restaurant for the following 2 nights, and numerous other menu items where enjoyed including carpaccio, ribs (a large serving was actually ordered as a starter – much to the surprise of the waitress!) delicious black field mushrooms, seafood, chicken and escargot (I skipped the snails, but apparently they were great).  However, I recommend not being in a hurry, as efficient service unfortunately is not something that the staff were concerned about, but we are relaxing in South Africa – who cares?!?

6.  Avocado trees – In the backyard there is a huge tree, with thick branches and dark green leaves, which is fun to climb.  While eating dinner under the tree the first evening we arrived we noticed fruit hanging from it… having never seen an Avocado tree (I admit I never had really considered what sort of plant an Avocado comes from), we looked up wondering – is that a huge lemon?  Just remember: watch out for falling Avocados – they land with a loud thud – and it seems like they could probably do a bit of damage.

7.  Robots – Instead of the term traffic lights, they are called robots!  At first I was a little confused when given directions to the tourism office: go past the town hall and turn at the robots!  I was a little unsure about obeying the orders of a robot… but it turned out to be just traffic lights, so I am not worried about world domination by robots just yet.  The terminology lead to us creating a few more space age names for technology – for example, the security fence with remote control gate at our hotel  (complete with barbed wire, electric fence and metal spikes) is now termed the “force field” and the internet is referred to as “magic” – which, in some cases, simply does not exist!

8.  Monkeys – I know I have already listed a few animals, but monkeys are also pretty cool.  Just not as cool as zebras or geckos – simply because I am actually a bit scared of them!  Our host informed us that they sometimes gang up on female people.  At first I thought he was pulling my leg and making it up, but he was serious!  However, creatures that can make swinging and leaping through trees look easy and are worthy of a mention – I just speed up a little when I run past a bunch of them so they don’t get any cunning ideas of pouncing on me!

9.  Challenging training locations – After my Aunts warning to not run alone in the streets, I had to get creative with my training ideas.  Some handy theraband elastic straps provided by Therapeutic Associates have enhanced the usual hotel room circuit workout – thanks Chuck!  But to avoid boredom, I went in pursuit of some new locations.  Luckily, Adam gave me the hot tip to run in the nature park where he had found some sweet single track paths, that seemed safe enough… this lead me to the zebras, monkeys, impalas, ibis and lots of grasshoppers and amazing wildflowers.  Furthermore, the hills make for some tough natural intervals.  And finally, thanks to the lovely people at Virgin Active – they gave me complimentary entries to work out in the airconditoned comfort of their health club!  Nice!

10.  World Cup – Did I mention that the opportunity to play a role in the World Cup is awesome!!  Not only witnessing the racing of some of the best cross-country and downhill mountain bikers in the world, but getting to help out is an amazing and fun experience.  Location number one, South Africa, has been great. I am looking forward to more fun at the next stop in Germany – I will keep you posted!