Tuesday Jan 15
The boys got out early because of the forcasted rain. I thought I should do sprints, but also wanted to do the group ride. So I left at 11:20 to get 1.5 hrs in before the group ride, and to try to get some time in before it started raining. It sprinkled a bit and waited till just before 1pm (the start of the group ride) to really start raining. I met up with the group ride at the church in Begjinisjik (probably misspelled) at 1pm. There were only 10 riders (including me.) Alex, the brit from the Teilt-Winge house was there along with Mike Garrigan the Canadian National Champ. The roads were wet now and I was getting hosed in the face from the spray and the side wind... NOT pleasant!
I decided to turn around and ride home at 1:40. I figured 20 min home + 2:10 so far = 2.5... that's fine. But somehow it took me 40 minutes, or something, to get home with missing turns and such... well I got 3 hrs in and was absolutely forzen by the time I got home. I hopped in the bath immediately and thawed myself out. Then had a huge lunch and read for the afternoon. Joscelin cooked her famous curry for dinner, then we all watched the Treviso cx World Cup from November 2007. Total road race with a couple of steep hills in the middle, bunch sprints for every category. I hope the race is muddy for us in a couple of weeks... supposedly it has been raining...
Wednesday January 16
Headed out with the boys at 10 and rode with them for 1hr. The sun was poking through the clouds, so I got a better sense for the lay of the land. We went out through Westerlo and looped around and back. Then I headed past the house (towards Booischot) and right on the bike path (which is an old railroad bed) towards the canals north or east, I still can't figure that out yet... the sun hasn't been out enough for me to totally get my directional bearings. I did 6x30+30 intervals. These are 30 sec standing start sprint over geared, wind it up and sprint for 30sec then maintain effort seated for another 30 sec, with 3-4 min recovery. They are hard, hard enough to make you feel naseous. I then headed back towards home on the path and kept riding till I had 2.5 total.
Came home, ate a lunch of toasted bread with butter, honey, avocado and an egg omelet on it. I then headed out to the bakery in search of rogge brood for Joscelin (a special dark very heavy bread that Jos likes.) I went to my favorite bakery in town and they were out. So I went to the other bakery in town, the one across from the church and a lady who walked in the door while I was putting the kickstand down on the town bike got the last loaf of this rogge bread! So I went back to the first bakery and got another kind that was similar, but lighter. Then I rode the town bike (this one with a higher seat than the last time I went out on a borrowed town bike) to the butcher in search of ground turkey. They only ave ground cow, ground baby cow, and ground pork. So I choose the pork. After all it IS the 'other white meat' right? With all my purchases strapped onto the rack of the town bike, I rode home and made salad dressing. Jos was headed to Blauberg so I went with her for something to do and in hopes of seeing new people! We walked in the door to a welcome greeting from Greg Keller, Brandon Dwight (from Boulder, Co.) and Kurt from the east coast. They were very surprised to see me walk in the door with Joscelin! Greg's blog is "Mud and Cowbells" if you are interested in hearing other stories of 'cross in Belgium. They are actually going out and doing other fun things while in Belgium, un like myself. I am being a good bike racer and sleeping, eating, training, eating, resting and eating in that order. So we hung out there for a while, Jos got some house things sorted out, I picked up some broccoli at the market next door and we headed home. I started cooking as soon as we got home. I made salad with sliced carrots and homemade vinaigrette, gnocchi with pesto and a red sauce with ground pork, onions and broccoli. We ate dinner early, and I made a point of heading up to bed around 8pm to read for a while and turn out the light at 9:30
Thursday January 17
Got up at 8 this morning after a great 10hrs of sleep and got on the computer early to catch up on emails. The for-cast called for rain at 12 so I planned on being on my bike by 10. After a 30 min yoga/sit ups session I headed out the door at 10. I forgot the map today... the first day out with out my security blanket. It's not like I use the map to find what road I am on and then find my way home, but I use it to see the names of towns to head for. The names here are so foreign that it's hard to remember the ones in a 10k circumference of Westmeerbeek, the ones that will get you near enough to Westmeerbeek to have a sign for it.
I headed down the rode to the right past Tim and Jos's house and in 5 minutes ran into the Boulder guys from the Blauberg house! They were just out for a 1hr spin (they are racing on Saturday at the Masters World Championships in Molle.) So they flipped around and I rode to Blauberg with them on the route 86/87 that they had been following. You can just follow these little bike routes all over Belgium. It's great, tiny little roads, dirt roads, a few little trail cuts, really sweet loops! I left them in Blauberg, turned around and came back on the same route. I then headed towards Herentals, then towards Begjinidijkt, but ended up in Booischot. I followed a route on the way back and popped onto the bike path (old railway.) I guessed I should not head towards Aarschot, but the other way towards Herentals, then a bit down the path I saw a little brick building that I recognized from yesterday and I knew I needed to head the other way. I flipped around and headed home. Got back just after noon, beat out the rain, showered, and ate my lunch of toast and eggs.
Then watched the second half of "Catch Me If You Can" on Shaun's computer with the boys then put in some computer time researching my competition on the UCI website. From just one world cup result, I have moved up in the world ranking from 43rd to 30th! I might be able to move into the 20's if I have a good race in Hoogerheide this weekend! Shaun cooked tonight. We had pasta, peas, and some ham product that looked like prosciutto that he chopped up, cooked, and mixed in. It turned out quite well. That's all for now, thanks for reading! -Rachel
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