I also tested out a GPS for the first time today. From now on, if I
want, I won’t have to guess how long the trail runs are. Today was a
quickie, just 3.2km, took 40mins, and was hilly.

On the way home I didn’t try to avoid the meltwater creeks and my feet
got pretty cold from being ankle deep in ice water. The cold water
doesn’t seem to bother Dot.

I was so proud of myself for exercising, when I got home I treated
myself to 6 Leffe blonde.

Previous Next Close Elevation profile 3.3km run

Previous Next Close Google Earth aerial view

We had a GPS from Marc, which is awesome, but we didn’t plug it in and it turned off just as we came to a junction on the autostrade near Venice. We ended up going the wrong way, or so we thought… when we got off and rechecked the GPS it turned out we were pretty good. We arrived at our B&B which is a really funky little place in the old city of Treviso. Treviso is cool, I like. Sheri is grumpy and jet ‘legged’.

Today we walked the city, checked out the sites, visited the original Pinarello store and went for a run around the old city wall. It was a good run. Later we took a nap, had a snack and went for dinner where we had the local specialty ravioli with radichio sauce, bean soup, grilled chicken and vegetables (lots of vegetables). Sheri liked dinner.

Tomorrow we head into Venice, about 20km, and watch the Giro prologue TTT. Should be good. I got an Italian mobile the number is: 348 912 1458.

I put up the pictures on another post.

Posted via email from 7thgroove’s posterous

Sheri pointed out that in 6 weeks we are going to Italy and she has intentions to ride some pretty big cols. And she expects me to be able to keep up to her… not in speed but in endurance capacity. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m fast in any way… but I tend to go a bit quicker than Sheri. What I can’t do is go very long, at all. Sheri kicks my ass in the endurance department. Which is why she has concerns. You see if she wants to climb 20km passes in the Dolomites we’ll be riding for 2.5 to 3hrs. And she doesn’t think I will be able to do that. I agree with her.

Anyhow in keeping with the fatman project’s transparency here are my rather pathetic digits from my first two gittin’ back at it trainer rides. EW would call me a wussy for two reasons here, 1) because I’m using a power meter device 2) And well, because I’m just an out of shape wuss and I got no wup-ass.

Previous Next Close Sheri at the top of the Grind

Previous Next Close Gondola view on the way down

Previous Next Close Another Gondola view

Previous Next Close Sheri and Pinner on the ride down

It was really cool, the views at the top were amazing. I’m even more sold on BC now. Its been a fantastic vacation. Here are the stats on the grind:

Distance: 2.9km
Elevation gain: 853m/2800ft
Time: 1:07hr/min

Oh, and yesterday I did a 45minute trail run with Sheri as well.

Tonight I’m going to make some assless Prince pants with my niece. We’re going to get hopped up on sugar and wreak havoc on the rents.

Vancouver island is beautiful in the summer.

Yesterday I ran with Sheri and she was completely blown. I had to send her home. She is reacting to something … she thinks its mosquito killer chemicals in the beaver ponds. Anyway, Dot was with us and she wouldn’t run with me. She ran away back to Sheri. I don’t know what to make of that. Dog is bonded with Sheri I suppose.

Oh, Floyd Landis lost his CAS appeal today. FL is f*cked, you could say that if you were pro floyd or con floyd. Venga Venga let’s move on now.

So 50 minutes today is by far my longest run so far. I felt really good. Granted it may not have been so much of a run as a fast hike…. I spent a lot of time just walking quickly behind Sheri and not really running. Still it was fantastic, the HR was definitely up and it was a good work out and a fun time in the woods with my ladies.

It absolutely poured rain for the last 10 minutes or so… but the forest canopy is so dense right now it was just like a drizzle under the trees. And it was warm today, so I didn’t really care that it rained, it was actually kind of fun.

I setup a twitter account for the club and me and Mark got our twitterberry app setup. I’ll hook the young man up with twitterberry in Philly and hopefully we’ll get some timely updates posted to the club site in the next week. We’ll be tyring to create a lot of content and interest for the club over the next stretch of racing.

I’m going to be away for two weeks on this stretch. Hopefully I won’t lose the plot like I did last time.

As an aside, today’s stage in the Giro happened on year to the day that I was in Mono, on the backside of the Passo Mortirolo. And the stage today went right through the town we were in and past our hotel. Here’s some photos from last year in Italy:

The Mortirolo

Jenni at the Mortirolo

Andrew on the Mortirolo

Stelvio Descent

It’s the same thing skiing and bike riding. You have to be fit to flow. And I miss that. I don’t think you need to be ‘race’ fit to get flow, and that’s the main thing I want back now—flow.

On another note, I was reading my gmail and I rarely look at the ‘web clips’ that are discretely shown at the top of the screen but today one caught my eye. It was hilarious. “I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” Douglas Adams. I’d never noticed before that they have ‘Daily quotes’. I thought they were always ads.

I watched the second stage of the Giro today and was chokedChristian Vandevelde lost the jersey. But watching the Giro I realized again that it has way more drama and character than the tour. F*ck I wish more races got their due compared to the Tour. You’d never see the big GC contenders battling for a stage win so early in the Tour.