Sunday, June 29, 2014
My 60th Birthday (Loud, Fast, Built To Last)
Christiansted Harbor.
Stoker Kim agreed to allow me to do something special for my
60th birthday so I looked for a “destination triathlon” that I could
do and then enjoy the destination location during R&R after the event. I also was looking for a challenge to make it
all worthwhile.
After searching a bit I landed on the Captain Morgan St.
Croix Ironman 70.3 Triathlon on May 4, 2014.
A 70.3 used to be called “half-Ironman” but the name was changed to “Ironman
70.3” for some reason. The distances in
the swim, bike and run are exactly ½ of those in a standard full Ironman
distance event. If you are interested in
why these distances are what they are a good explanation is
here.
My intensive training started just after the winter holidays
with a lot of running and bicycling in the garage on a trainer. Our winter was brutal by Washington, D.C.
standards so I was wise to buy a trainer and start working as there was almost
no warm outside training weather prior to the event.
My goal was to train as much as possible without causing an
injury from excessive training and to lose as much weight as possible without losing
strength for training or radically decreasing my wine consumption. It was a delicate dance indeed. Things went pretty well. The weekend before the race I felt strong and
light having worked my way down to 160-lbs. of twisted steel and sex
appeal. Then I had my ………
Very Awful Horrible
Training Day. The Saturday before
the race I went on my final training workout: a “bike/run
brick”. My plan was to bike about
75-miles hitting the steepest hills in my area to exhaust my legs and then run
a half-marathon. This workout to
celebrate the end of a long and intense training period ended in near disaster
with two crashes: one on the bike involving a Honda minivan and one on the
run. It was fairly traumatic with a
session in an ambulance after the bike wreck and Stoker Kim taking me to the
emergency room to close up a nasty gash in my chin from my running fall (Stoker
Kim: “Crap, I can see the bone. You are
going to the ER Captain Jim.”). And my
ears were ringing from the two impacts of my head with the minivan and
pavement. I am just now getting to the
point that I can discuss it without getting upset. But discussing it takes about three beers so
it is too long of a story to put here.
Ask me the next time you see me and beer is available.
Me at the end of my last training session.
And the cherry on top of this ice cream sundae of a day is the fact that I got the traffic ticket for the Honda minivan incident. My court date is June 20 and I will update this post with the results of that adventure when it is finally over. I don’t want to jinx myself but I don’t see how I can loose. I was in a bike lane and the minivan driver didn’t check their side-view mirror to make sure my lane was clear and turned in front of me going into a driveway. I don’t give a damn if she did have her blinker on. That doesn’t give you license to turn in front of a bike in the bike lane. I had a bad feeling about this whole thing when I got out of the ambulance to find one of the responding cops assisting the lady that hit me carry her groceries into her house. When they came out they were chatting about their kids and what camps they were going to attend over the summer vacation. I didn’t have a fighting chance in this situation. We shall see how this all goes with da judge.
Everything was in doubt after my very awful horrible training day because I was badly injured and my strategy was to fix my
bike, go to St. Croix, rest and hope for the best. My shoulders were very bruised and sore and they
made ugly noises when I moved my arms in a simulated swimming motion. I feared that there was internal damage. I followed my plan and didn’t do any physical
activity until the Friday before the Sunday race when I slipped into the pool at Carrington's Guest House and attempted to swim a few strokes.
My right shoulder just before attempting to swim. The left was equally ugly.
But the view from the hotel pool at our guest house, Carrington's, was good.
My shoulders were still very sore but there was good news in
that they seemed to work OK and they felt better after my easy trial
swim than they did before I entered the pool.
Based on that I certified myself fit, ready to go and very lucky. After my brief swim Stoker Kim and I went to Jump-Up where we saw Moko Jumbies.
Moko Jumbies.
The St. Croix Triathlon is known as one of the most
difficult and competitive 70.3 events in the world (athletes came this year
from 32 countries) so I had my requirement for the race to be a challenge
covered. Adding to the challenge was
that this was going to be my first attempt at this distance and the course is
renowned for being difficult with very steep hills, fierce headwinds and hot
weather at a time of the year when North America is just beginning to thaw.
There is lots of advice about the event from experienced
participants on the web. If you are
interested in reading the
technical stuff go here. Almost
everyone says to take it easy on the bike leg and try to save some leg strength
for the run. I tried to take that advice
but climbing the hills, including one called “The Beast”, and fighting the
headwinds required expenditures of excessive amounts of energy no matter how
you did it. Many people used a strategy
of walking the steepest hills on the bike course to save their legs for the run. It makes sense as walking isn’t much slower
than struggling up in your lowest gear and some extra legs for the run would be
welcomed. But I didn’t come all this way
to walk my bike up hills so that didn’t happen.
I planned to ride it all (The Beast, Lowery Hill (twice), the headwinds,
all of it) and I didn’t touch a foot down until reaching the “dismount line” at
the transition area. For a good video
shot about half-way up The Beast go here.
Yes, I paid for it on the run which turned into an exercise
in survival. Instead of the usual
swim/bike/run I did a swim/bike/OHMYGOD.
I never felt comfortable on the run and struggled for all 13.1-miles. But I did survive it, never walked and have decided to place the experience squarely in the
“Total Success” column. Finishing and
enjoying the experience is justification for taking the motto that is the
subtitle of this post which Stoker Kim has already corrupted it into “Loud,
Fast, Full of Gas” and (the one that hurts the most) “Loud, Fast, Mostly
Ass”. But, anyway, I didn’t make up my new motto
and just stole it from a portly gentleman’s Harley Davidson T-shirt.
The swim was great. Warm, clear and calm water, which is the long way of saying "perfect".
The bike was challenging as expected.
The run, well, I got to this point eventually.
St. Croix was a joy.
At first Stoker Kim and I were both a little disappointed with its
slightly shabby exterior. It took a few
days for us to begin to look past the exteriors of the buildings to what lie
within. Inside there were wonderful and
friendly people, vast history and surprisingly interesting restaurants. And I got to share it all with friends who
came to spend the week at a lovely house we rented.
Da crew. Stoker Kim, Buster, Jean, Clare, Michael, Dona and Curt.
Da house. "Ocean Paradise Found". Really, that's its name.
An example of the good and unique attractions of
Christiansted is the Club
Comanche Hotel. We went there for a
“wine walk” during the Jump Up celebration the Friday before the triathlon. The wine walk was cleverly designed to get
visitors into and through the various sections of the Comanche which includes
gardens, a bridge over the street to another section of the hotel, bars (including
one in an old sugar mill and one in a former colonial medical quarantine
facility) and other portions of this beautiful and historic building. While there we met the manager of the
Comanche, Gayle, and her favorite employee (handyman, bar tender, front-office
eye-candy, cabana boy) and husband Stan.
After that we had the pleasure of having dinner with them twice and
visiting their home. The Comanche is
located in the heart of Christiansted and I recommend considering it if you are
going to be visiting St. Croix.
We all went snorkeling at Buck Island.
Buster and Curt
Stoker Kim
Buster
We saw fish...
and a shark...
and a barracuda.
Another example of looking beyond the exterior to find the
good stuff is the restaurant Savant. It is first-class and we had dinner in their
garden which is a ruin of an ancient building that has been very tastefully
decorated and landscaped. It was an
intimate surprise and I highly recommend it.
Other recommendations in Christiansted are The Pickled Greek (bar and great
Greek food with the best Gyro that Stoker Kim has ever had), Twin City Coffee (tell Ms. USVI
Captain Jim says hi), Kim’s
(for local food) and Galangal (fine
Indian where Stoker Kim planned my birthday dinner).
Birthday dinner at Galangal.
Kim's for local food.
Twin City Coffee.
I can’t heap enough praise on St. Croix and Christiansted. I felt at home after a short while there and
look forward to returning. If you are
looking for a Caribbean vacation spot consider St. Croix. You can see a view of it yourself (from the
end table at Rumrunner’s on the boardwalk in Christiansted). And, if you are looking for a very
challenging Ironman 70.3 triathlon consider St. Croix.
Here are some final miscellaneous photos.
Our neighbor Kip returns on his stand-up board...
with dinner.
Another neighbor on her stand-up board with her two dogs.
Thanks for visiting.
Da Captain
Legal Update: I
attended traffic court on Friday, June 20 to address the ticket I received when
I got cut-off by a minivan on my very
awful horrible training day. I was
victorious and the judge dismissed the charge for “failure to pay attention”
that was pending against me.
But it was a completely unfulfilling experience. I carefully prepared my case and had maps
showing that I was riding in a designated bike lane and citations from Virginia
traffic law that specifically allows bicycles riding in a bike lane to pass
slow or stopped traffic on the right and that requires a person turning right
to occupy the lane farthest to the right and to yield to any traffic in a lane
to their right. I also had photos of the
scene to clearly document that justice had not been served by me being
ticketed.
I sat in the courtroom for a couple hours because the
officer issuing the ticket didn’t show up and neither did any witnesses or the
person driving the minivan that cut me off (I wouldn’t have shown up if I were
her either). Since there was no
opposition the judge dismissed the charge, I said “thank you” and left.
I think this was the plan of the ticketing officer. When he gave me the ticket he advised me not to pay it and to
go to court. My guess is that he never
intended to appear as he knew that by him not showing up at court the charge would be dismissed and he avoided the awkward situation of having to give his fellow officer’s friend (the driver of the minivan) a
ticket.
But, I didn’t get to confront the person that injured
me. I didn’t get to show my brilliant maps,
legal citations or photos and I didn’t get to tell the judge that the police
officer gave the ticket to the wrong person.
But, I have healed completely and the case is dismissed so I
am going to put this behind me and consider myself very lucky to have no adverse
effects from this near disaster.
Friday, July 19, 2013
Burgundy France
Stoker Kim
and I just completed a great tandem cycling trip to Burgundy, France with two
other tandem couples: Carol and Randy and Curt and Dona. We used tour company Discover France to
arrange for a “self-guided” trip along the “Route des Grands Crus” from Dijon
to Beaune with an overnight stop in between in Vosne Romanee. Our trip was from June 30 through July 7.
“Self-guided”
means that we had hotel arrangements planned and Discover France moved our
luggage to the new hotel when we changed.
They also gave us planned riding routes and a GPS for each bike with the
planned routes installed, a trip brief with a local representative upon our
arrival, one dinner at the hotel in Vosne Romanee, an emergency number to call
if needed and probably a couple of other things I am forgetting.
The name or
our tour was the Discover France Burgundy Gastronomy and Wine Tour (see: http://www.discoverfrance.com/regions/burgundy_cycling_tour_sgp1.html) which we modified to spend more
time in Beaune which Stoker Kim and I loved last time we were in the area. We felt we didn’t have enough time to explore
Beaune and the surrounding area and asked Discover France to modify their
normal itinerary and get us there two days earlier so we could spend more time
there. We also got the 4-star hotel
upgrade to keep Stoker Kim happy.
 |
| We always seem to find ordnance on these trips. |
 |
| The courtyard of our hotel in Beaune. |
As my previous
blogs tend to concentrate on bitching about minor complaints I am going to try
to change the format and discuss the things I liked the most first and save the
bitching for the end.
Timing the Trip
Last time
Stoker Kim and I were in Burgundy the small villages were almost all deserted
and this lessened our enjoyment as it was difficult to find a café or bar that
was open for lunch. In many villages the
flowers were watered, the fountains were running, the streets were maintained but
there were no people and the café, patisserie and post office were shuttered
and locked. We took that trip later in
July and we had much better luck this time as most of the villages were open
for business.
Helpful
Travel Tip: We
noticed this time that the schools were still in session as we could hear kids
in the playground in many of the villages we passed through. My theory is that the town can’t close while
school is in session and that everyone loads up the Peugeot and goes on
vacation as soon as little Pierre and Madeline are sprung for summer vacation. Check the school schedule and plan your
summer European trip accordingly.
We found
many establishments willing to serve us lunch and drink. Some photos follow:
The Rides
The riding
in Burgundy is great. We rode from
village to village through the vineyards along mostly minor roads or, better
yet, on vineyard roads used mostly by the field workers. If Disney built a “FranceLand” for bicyclists
this would be it.
There are
hills in this area. The Discover France
routes were doable on a tandem but we took the “easy” and “moderate” routes and
were challenged several times. We never
took a route marked “difficult” and that was a good decision. Some random shots of the rides follow:
Wine and Food
The eating
and drinking was memorable. This is what
you would expect but that doesn’t make it any less great. We traveled through the famous villages of
Marsannay, Fixin, Gevrey-Chambertin, Morey-Saint Denis, Vosne Romanee, Nuit St.
Georges, Savigny, Corton and many others.
Finding great food and wine was easy.
Other Good Stuff
Discover
France delivered on almost everything that was promised. For the few negative details see the section
on “bitching” that follows. Here are
some of the things that went very well:
·
Ride
brief – We were briefed by Florian who did a great job. He was very knowledgeable of the area and
gave us some great tips like a specific restaurant to visit on our first day’s
ride which was memorable and a recommendation to pack a picnic lunch on another
day when he knew that restaurants would not be available.
·
GPS
– They worked great. I followed the GPS
exclusively and we were never lost.
Stoker Kim and the others had important additional information from the
written routes but for general directions the GPS were a big help.
·
Hotels
– We paid extra to stay in four star hotels and they were very nice.
·
Maggie
– Discover France’s US-based consultant was a great help with train tickets and
many other things that I will not remember but are greatly appreciated.
·
The
bikes – For the most part our trip was mechanically trouble-free. I had a rear tire fail on day one and that
was easily replaced with one of the two spares that I brought. Carol and Randy had a brake failure and some
teething problems with their new bike but overall everything worked. Helpful Travel Tip: There is a good
bicycle shop in Nuit St. Georges that had replacement brake pads for Avid disc
brakes. If you are in the area and need
parts they can help you. I don’t
remember the name of the shop but our hotel found them easily on the Internet.
This is what traveling with three tandem bikes in suitcases looks like:
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| Disassembly at the end of the trip. |
 |
| My tandem in a suitcase. This is my complete bike except the wheels. |
·
Beaune
– A beautiful ancient walled city with most of the ramparts and moat still
intact. We stayed within the walled “Old
Town” but outside has many attractions also.
Some photos of Beaune follow.
 |
| Beaune has a great street market on Saturday. |
 |
| The result of the Saturday street market. |
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| Our hotel in Beaune: Le Cep. |
Bitching
As promised,
I have some bitching to do. Here goes:
·
Discover
France should know that clients 60+ years in age riding tandem bicycles can’t
enjoy themselves on the rides they called “difficult”. I know that because we were sometimes at our
limit on the rides graded “moderate” and I spoke with a couple of riders on single
bikes who were also maxing out on the “moderate” rides. This is billed as a “gastronomy and wine
tour” and even the “difficult” rides should be doable with half a bottle of
Puligny-Montrachet in one’s gullet. We
never tried a “difficult” ride but that is because we are experienced and know
better. I can see less experienced
tandemers getting sucked into trying a “difficult” ride and having a bad day.
·
Dinner
in Vosne Romanee sucked. This dinner was
the only one provided by Discover France and the hotel restaurant ripped off us
and Discover France. We had nice
appetizers but the main course a pan-fried steak of poor quality. Most of it ended up half-chewed in our
napkins as it was so tough that it couldn’t be fully consumed. This experience was made more disappointing
by comparison to our last trip where the one Discover France meal was at a
different hotel in Nuits St. George and it was memorable. I know that for a fact as Stoker Kim and I
still talk about it. The hotel
restaurant in Vosne Romanee managed to deliver the only meal during the entire
trip that we want to forget.
·
The
desk clerk at the hotel in Dijon sucked.
He made a good recommendation for dinner but that is a pretty easy
task. What he didn’t do was show any
concern or consideration for me when I needed help.
Four of us with seven large suitcases (we had two tandem bicycles
included in the contents) had just arrived at the train station in Dijon to start
our trip and couldn’t find a taxi to carry us and our excessive baggage to the
hotel. We waited around and, having been
there before, I know that the hotel La Cloche was only about ¼-mile away so I
volunteered to leave the others and run there to get assistance.
The hotel clerk called a taxi but he was on the phone for a long time and
I didn’t have a good feeling. After
waiting for about ten-minutes I asked him about the outlook for getting help
for my travel partners who were still waiting at the train station and he said
that it was Sunday and taxis are a problem.
He suggested that I wait some more.
About 15-minutes later a black Mercedes van pulled up. It was a tour operator dropping off his
clients. They chatted for about
5-minutes about their day and said good-bye.
The hotel desk clerk came out and was talking to the van driver and I
was sure he was asking him to help me with my problem but the hotel clerk went
back inside after about another 5-minutes and the van driver started to drive
away. I ran up to him and asked if he
could help me.
After some talking he said that he wasn’t a cab driver but he
could give me a tour of the train station and back to the hotel if I was
willing to pay for his services, wink wink.
I was happy to get his help so I paid what he asked and we rode down to
station.
My problem is that the hotel desk clerk didn’t seem to care
that their guests were ¼-mile away with a lot of luggage and no way to get to
the hotel. The trip from Dulles Airport
to Paris and then from Paris to Dijon on the train was easy compared to that
last ¼-mile. And he was friends with the
tour van driver but never even thought to ask him if he would oblige with a favor
and help out his guests. I had to do
that on my own.
I always hear that hotel desk managers in Europe are very
professional and will do anything for their guests. This guy did nothing for me and didn’t seem
to care. He is responsible for my trip
getting started with a bad experience.
Paris
Our trip
ended with a couple of days in Paris before flying home. We had more great food and wine and I got to
take a morning run from our hotel, up the Seine and around the Eiffel
Tower. It doesn’t get any better than
that.
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| This photo and the next are at the beautiful Galeries Lafayette department store |
Thanks for
visiting.
