Veld Meisterschaften!

Well, today was the big day. We got up, had some breakfast and prepared for the race. It was quite surprising that the snow was still around, but it was in really rough shape. The girls went first, and I watched for awhile. We did really well, with Rebecca Duseault (2004 Olympian for nordic ski) placing 6th... nice!
The men's race was shaping up to be pretty crazy. Lots of fast guys, plus the run was all on pavement and trails. Sure enough, it was high speed from the get-go. I hung in pretty well throughout that leg, until the third lap, when I really started hurting. Then, it was on to the bike, which was another speedfest. All big ring, all the time. Just roads - some paved, mostly dirt. Drafting played a big role and I was happy to hang with an Italian and a Spaniard for pretty much all of it. Once the bike was over, I was still ahead of Mike Kloser, so I was second American, but I heard him come into transition behind me, so I knew we'd ski together for a bit. The transition was pretty rough because my calves were cramping really bad, mostly from the hard run I think, but it didn't help that it was about 50 degrees and sunny. Once I got on the ski, I lost touch with the Italian immediately. He was going really well. It was so sloppy and nasty. Definitely the worst ski conditions I'd ever seen. However I settled in and caught a few guys. Mike ended up catching me, but I couldn't hang with him. He eventually caught Brian, who was really suffering. We ended up 21-23rd places, all in a row. Pretty good improvement over last year. The crowds were really great - very loud and lots of people. It was definitley a fun, well organized event. All we needed was REAL winter tri weather!
Relay is tomorrow. Hopefully my legs aren't totally shot from today's running.

Day Two...

Thursday was a pretty good day. Not terribly eventful. After a big breakfast, I set up my bike and went for a little spin around Kniebis. It is a very small town, so that didn't take long. However I did find a bakery, where I bought a really good pretzel, and I got a bottle of wine at a little market. It was very foggy and cool. Definitely pretty grim weather. Nevertheless, I made it outside to run and ride the courses. It is quite evident that we will be running and riding on grass and gravel terrain. However, they are working round the clock to truck in snow to groom for the ski. It's amazing. Everyone talks about how industrious the Germans are, but there's definitely some truth to that. It will be a snowy highway running through an otherwise completely brown and grassy forest. Pretty funny.
Later in the day we went down to Stuttgart. We needed to buy some race tops for our uniforms. Fortunately everything else arrived with our shipment from Craft, so at least it wasn't as bad as last year's swimsuit debacle. We drove around for awhile until we finally found a place to park. The shopping area was really cool. They had a big walking mall and lots of stores. It seemed like a really nice city, but we only had time to see a little of it. We had dinner at a restaurant that served modern fusion cuisine, which was fine. Nothing authentic, but good nonetheless. I did have a really solid German beer. Can't remember what they called it but it was nice. We got back a little late last night, and I had some trouble sleeping. Hopefully the legs feel better tomorrow morning. Not sure whether it's the walking or the restless night but they're kind of tight today. I'll see the ski course today and, best of all, tonight is the parade of nations!
P.S. Let's hear it for Scotty, hanging in with the big dogs of the Tour of Cali! Keep it up homie!

Germany Update

Well, things aren't looking to great here in Deutchland. The weather is quite bad. It is very warm and foggy, and you really have to try hard to find some snow. I have no idea what we are going to race on. Should be similar to last year's race in Italy in terms of crazyness. Oh well. The place we're staying is really cool. Plenty of room with good breakfast. I just finished up some bread, jam, meat and cheese. Plus, some muesli is on the way! Hopefully today we'll get a better sense for what the courses will look like. I'm not feeling very optimistic about it, but either way I'm sure we'll be racing on something. Just got to suck it up.
meow.

Best V-Day Ever

This Valentine's Day was already primed to be a solid improvement over last year. Mainly because I actually had a date this time around. Even better, we were going to a Colorado Avalanche game. Little did I know that it would turn out to be even more amazing than I could have ever imagined.
As Kate and I walked up the escalator inside the Pepsi Center, an official looking guy approached us. I thought he was trying to sell something so I was all set to ignore him, but before I knew it, he asked us if we wanted to participate in a contest at intermission... Heck yes! It turns out that we were going to be doing a trike race on the ice during the second intermission. Sweet! It was going to be a relay and we were competing against two other couples (of course, it is Valentines Day).
So, after anxiously sitting through the first and second periods, we headed down to get set up for the race. The trikes were pretty sweet. Quite big and bury with large tires. I imagine that nothing else would do on the ice. We put on some hockey helmets and Avs jerseys and went out on the ice.
It's quite surprising how rough the ice gets during 20 minutes of play — really easy to walk on in fact. It was also really impressive seeing the players at that level. Those dudes are huge!
Back to the race. Kate was doing the first leg. She had a pretty good start but got stuck behind the girl in first. The transition area behind the goal was really tight so we were still behind when I set out to chase down first. Unfortunately, I couldn't make up the gap and we ended up second. We thought we could win, given our collective training and experience, but that just proves that you can't take anything for granted! It was so sweet to be down on the ice that I watch my favorite team play on every week. The only bummer was that we couldn't keep the jerseys!

CAF off to the Races

The Chamois Army Fort is finishing off the last half of February with some sweet racing action...
This weekend, Kiel is off to the Valley of the Sun Stage Race in Arizona, contending for the overall title.
Next week, I'm leaving for Germany (scheisse!!) to race in the Winter Triathlon World Championships with team USA... USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! I'm on the team with some pretty legendary folks – Mike Kloser, Brian Smith and Rebecca Dussault (she's an Olympian!). It should be a pretty fun trip. We'll be in Freudenstat, which is in the Black Forest, down by Switzerland.
But even crazier than that, our very own 80's throwback superstar, Scott, is leaving Thursday to race in the Tour of California! Head to head with Boonen, Leipheimer, Julich and a bunch of other wankers.
Good luck to all!

meow.