Altitude of race course

I’ve had a few MTB races in the past including a 24 hour team event, but after 3 consecutive hours of racing on the saddle the ball game shifts into a new level. I noticed that my legs starting cramping after a 2 hour, 3000 foot, ascent to the apex where the downhill started. I polished off my 300 oz’s of hydration around mile 13 without knowing the distance till the next rest top and this is when things went awry. I noticed that my heart rate dropped below 135 bpm when it should have been averaging 175 bpm so my heart was ready to attack but my body was lacking energy to deliver. After another 7 miles of exhaustion I finally reached the must needed rest stop. I shoveled in about 300 raisins, 5 oranges, 2 bananas, and another 300 oz of hydration and felt soooo much better.

Here is a picture of the fearless NI team that attended this race. As you can see, we all had our game faces on except I’m stuffing my face with a powerbar.

This was by far one of the best organized races I’ve been to from the volunteers and race markers to the pasta party and awards ceremony. I hope to attend this race next year with a few extra bottles of water!

The final results are here

In Italy, it’s all about service at the pump. Instead of allowing the auto-motorist to fill up their own vehicle they have decided for safety reasons that trained gas pumpers should do it instead. Therefore, Antonio, while smoking a cigarette, walks up to my car in his greasy overalls and asks for the key to unlock the gas tank. With the distinctive throaty voice of a chain smoker, he asked me “pieno?” (which translates to “fill ‘er up?”) I responded with “si, grazie” and then proceeded inside to purchase a candy bar. After paying the absurd 94€ gas bill, I gave a fair well salute to Mr. Dbag Antonio and headed on my way.

After about 150 feet I made it back on the highway and started to eat my snickers bar when I noticed someone pulling up beside me in the fast lane honking their horn and pointing frantically behind me. I took a look in my rear view mirror and my car had magically turned into a coal burning locomotive. Black smoke was bellowing out from all angles, and started seeping in through the doors. 200 feet out the car lost all functionality and I coasted another 100 feet where I waited till the smoke cleared before I went back to the gas station… Antonio must of missed class on diesel day.

400€ later, I had my car towed to the mechanic and took an hour taxi ride home. Tomorrow I’ll have to sort out how I’m getting my car back…

All and all we had a great time! Chad, a long time buddy of mine from Stillwater, and some coworkers from NI Italy decided to spend the day ice skating to escape the hustle and bustle of big city shoppers making their last minute purchases for Christmas.

Then Chad and I headed up to the Swiss Alps (Cervinia) on Sunday for a little snowboarding and skiing action. The weather was absolutely perfect and we grabbed ourselves a few Bombardinos.

I’m not sure if it was the Bombardino or double black diamond that Chad and I accidentally went down but we got separated on the back side of the mountain and Chad almost ended up spending the night in Zermatt. They close the lifts after 3 pm for skiers to cross back over to the Italian Alps from the Swiss Alps and Chad was about 15 minutes late. Needless to say, we pulled the I’m American Card and got him back across. If you see him sometime, make sure to ask WHY he was 15 minutes late…

After shouting a few choice words at myself, I realized only two options were left. Drive the two hours back to Milan and then make the 3 hour drive back to the Dolomites OR forge on like Jeremiah Johnson and sleep on the hot coals left over from the nights fire. Actually, the coals idea sounded great in theory but in reality trying to bury hot embers a foot underneath your tint is a BAD IDEA. Trust me!

Instead I took every piece of clothing I had in my backpack including the 3 pairs of underwear, curled up in the fetal position, and froze my ass off.

Anyhoo, I made a short video with the only available space left on my memory card and captured some fantastic shots of the Dolomites.

Nothing, that is, except for luscious wheat fields, crumpled clay hills and the ribboned vineyards of the Barbera grape, stood in the way of Ringo, Cicho, and Tom, our truffle hunting German short haired pointer dogs. They tactfully perused the dank woods of Moncalvo tirelessly. The sniffed out 4 white and two black truffles in a 2 hour time period. Unfortunately, they were below regulation, and also the rain drought hasn’t helped either. Without rain, the fields are less brittle making it more difficult for the dogs to pick up the scent.

Speaking of scent, you either love it or hate it. Some have assimilated the smell of truffles to primal musk, overripe cheese, or ozone while opponents claim it mimics the male pig sex hormone, and for that reason, female pigs have been used historically for the hunt; however, more recently it seems like most truffle hunters are transitioning to dogs. Tirone, our guide, has 5 dogs born and bred specifically for truffle hunting. They aren’t cheap either; an adult trained German Short-hair would run you around 5G’s. This is only a small investment if you consider a single truffle hunter bringing home around 5 kilos of white truffles a year… 10,000 bucks!

Afterwords, Tizzy and I were fortunate enough to enjoy the Fiera del Tartufo. In the Piemonte region, 1000′s of mushroom, cheese, and wine lovers alike follow the October Fiera across small villages throughout the region. This turned out to be fascinating… yet expensive. Bring your bancomat cause I easily spent 100 Euros on truffles, cheese, tartufo oils, honey, and roasted chestnuts. YUM!

Additional photos can be seen here

I hope all is well State side! I’ve been really busy at work the past week gearing up for the recruiting season, but you must always make time on the weekends to play! Just last week my belongings from the US finally arrived including my bicycles, unicycle, and kiteboard so I decided to go for a ride. I made the hour drive up to Dervio (Eastern shore of Como) for a little kitesurfing adventure. Dervio is infamous for its strong and steady winds upwards of 20 knots. In Dervio, you can’t miss Kitezoo one of the best windsurfing / kitesurfing shops in Italy. The Friendly staff of 4, Giordano, Costante, Manuela, and Edit will hook you up with all the gear necessary for a successful flight. They even offer boat launches from the center of Como for ideal wind conditions.

Occhio Alla Lingua

After a long day of kiting, I decided to break out the uni and go for a couple rounds!

Per Risparmiare…

Well, it has been about 10 years since I have been river rafting on the Colorado river so I figured it was time for another. Last weekend I took the team on a day trip to Valsesia, the Italian Swiss Alps. This was awesome! The water temp was a bit chilly but after seeing the first level five gorge that our tour guide put our little 8 man raft through, water temp wasn’t an issue.

We hit the river at 0900 for a briefing on how to control a raft, how to swim back to the raft when you get thrown out, and how to use your paddle. Once we had these tasks mastered it was time to begin. We split up into two groups of 4 and 5 and were on our way! It had been raining for the past three days so the river was at its maximum strength and our tour guides with Eddyline were incredible! Everyone had a blast and only a few people had trouble getting back in the raft once they went overboard… that was probably because their arms were tired from paddling. Haha good stuff!

After three hours of raging rapids, jumping off bridges, and enjoying the scenery we arrived at our destination. All this excitement worked up our appetites but no need to worry… Eddyline had prepared us with copious amounts of BBQ! I’m not sure if the rafting or the food was better?!? We stuffed our faces for the next 2 hours and made the drive home.

I think next time it might be cannoning?!?! WE WILL SEE!

Weekend in Florence with Riccardo.

This was fantastic! Last time I was in Florence was with my sister 2 years ago during our graduation trip. This time, I made the trip with a local, Riccardo, who made it extra exciting. Riccardo and I work together in Milan and he invited me to join him in Florence for a weekend at his families house. Obviously I said yes and Friday after work I made the three hour drive to meet Riccardo and his family.

Friday
What amazes me the most about Italian families is the connection to ones home. Riccardo, who is my age, has lived in this house his entire life and his mom and dad have lived their since marriage (30+ years)… and before that it was his grandma! His mom cooked us some of the best meals in Italy that weekend and I will never forget the Tortellini. Also, as soon as I arrived, Riccardo’s mom pulled out a bottle covered in dust with the old style metal-cased cork and offered me a glass of ‘Vin Santo’, aged 25 years! Vin Santo is an Italian dessert wine, and this traditional Tuscan wine is made from Trebbiano and Malvasia grapes. I’m not really sure how to describe its taste except some kind of cross between white wine and Liquor. Bellissima!!

So later that evening we headed to the center for some REAL Florentine steaks. It was very similar to a T-Bone from Ruth Chris but served only one way… rare. If you’re not fond of bloody meet then steer clear, but I thought it was amazing! Complemented with a Sicilian bottle of Nero d’Avola and potatoes covered in Olive Oil can only spell one word… paradise! At the end of dinner, two of Riccardo’s friends, Maurizio and Caterina showed up for a few drinks and then we decided to head to the center.

We took a walk to Santa Croce where we were going to meet more of Riccardo’s friends but first we had to make a pit stop at the most famous coffee bar in Florence.

Then I touched the “porcellino” for good luck… we will see! We stayed out for a little while with Riccardo’s friends and then we called it a night because we were going to wake up early and hit the sea on Saturday.

Saturday
I couldn’t believe it but we were able to drive to the sea in under an hour from Riccardo’s house in Florence.. Makes you realize how much smaller Italy is than the US. We went to Riccardo’s favorite beach… Castiglioncello and grabbed a quick panini and Becks for lunch. At about the same time a completely new experience slapped me across the face. A giant cloud came from the sea and blanketed the beach with fog.

Like a tornado, it lasted for about 20 minutes and visibility went from miles to feet. That was probably one of the most bizarre experiences I have ever seen but Riccardo acted like it was normal. Needless to say, I thought it was cool.

After about 4 hours of too much sun, we decided to head back to Florence. We took the scenic route home this time through Orciano, otherwise known as Chianti.

We got home, had another home cooked meal and got ready for downtown.

Side note: I’ve been made fun of numerous times for calling the center of a city “downtown”. Does anyone know why we call 6th Street downtown and not the center? I really need some help explaining this to anyone who hasn’t visited Austin.

Now, something new I learned about Florence is that they close down the center to all automobiles except mopeds after 10:30 PM. For the past three years during summer they have had to close the center due to overcrowding. So, the only way to get inside is either walking or MOPEDS! Fortunately, Riccardo had two mopeds and we decided to rip it up!

Once we arrived, we met up with Denise, Sandra, Maurizio, and Caterina at Piazza Strozzi and had a mojito.

Overall, Florence has a population of about 500,000 people, and has the same young energetic atmosphere as Austin. The only difference is most of the building are 300 years older! : ) Later that night we went to a fashion bar where we met even more people! One who happens to be a roller skate queen. They have professional ballet performances where everyone is on roller skates. Anyway, we plan on checking this out next time we visit Florence.

At around 3 AM we called it quits and headed home for some late night grub. I’m not sure why but crescenza, bread, and tomatoes were outstanding at 3 AM in the morning.

Sunday
Finally we headed up to Piazzale Michangelo and had some lampredotto. Lampredotto is only made in Flornece an it reminds me of a hot panini with a unique green and red sauce smothered on wild boar. Yummy!

Well, I had a couple of ‘firsts’ In Italy over Easter weekend. I’m not sure you knew this, but in Italy the Monday after Easter is National Picnic Day, or Pasquetta meaning “little Easter”. Everyone and there dog (literally dog) goes outside for a picnic.

Another ‘first’ this weekend was my trip to Napoli. I decided to catch a train down to Napoli to spend the weekend with some friends from Oklahoma… pause… Oklahoma you say? YES, Okies are everywhere! Jennica, a friend I met back in February during a trip to OSU “over heard” me talking about Europe and it turned out that her parents live in Napoli and she was coming with her best friend Heather to visit them over Easter. Long story short, I met up with Heather, Jennica, and her fam for the weekend.

Now, I complained about traffic in Milan but I think Napoli has it beat. Jennica’s dad was definitely a seasoned driver because he still had both side mirrors. I would say that every 3rd or 4th car we passed was missing either one or both side mirrors from the narrow streets and cluster bomb of cars.

On Saturday, we took a ship (the one you see me pointing in above) to Ischia and headed to Negombo, a day spa. (quick disclaimer – day spa was not my idea) This day spa turned out to be quite interesting. We walk in, look through an entire page of massages in Italian so I had no idea what I was looking at (I probably wouldn’t know if it was in English either) so I told the receptionist I wanted a deep tissue massage. So, after we scheduled our massages for later that day we decided to catch some rays and go for a swim. The Mediterranean is still a bit nippy, but Jennica decided to “voluntarily” (wink wink) jump in with me.

Now its massage time and 60 year old Mario calls my name. Apparently, this dude was the best for deep tissue massages. I personally don’t have a problem with a dude giving me a massage, but when it comes to getting ready for the massage I need my personal time to get ready. Well, Mario didn’t think so. If you have ever had a massage in the states, then you now that they give you 5 minutes to get ready in private, but in Italy modesty doesn’t seem to exist. Needless to say, the massage turned out well for me but Heather and Jennica say otherwise. All I heard was something about paper thongs and soft hands but I’m sure you can ask them. After it was all over we hit the Turkish Bath.

I keep asking myself why people find these things relaxing?!? First, you walk into a room that’s approximately the temperature of the sun and you acclimate yourself to the feeling of breathing fire. You know the feeling you get when eating a strong breath mint and breathing in through your nose? Well, that is what every pore on my body felt like. THEN, you actually go into the Turkish Bath! I’m not sure which Turks invented this “situation”, but they’re crazy! Now that we’re at the temperature of the sun and things are blurry… possibly from the steam rising off the marble or my brain frying like an egg I spend about 5 minutes in there and had to leave. I stumble out 10 pounds lighter and drenched in my own sweat. Definitely a ‘first’ for me.

The next day we woke up early hit Sunday morning mass and took a road trip down the Amafi coast. This was beautiful! We started at the furthest point South and drove all the way up past Sorrento. This is where we decided to stop have lunch at Maria Grazia. This was probably one of the best meals I have had thus far in Italy. Instead of trying to articulate my words to describe it I would rather let you read the menu on the link. INCREDIBLE!

Afterwards, we caught the sunset on the beach and got ready for National Picnic Day on Monday. Jennica’s mom is awesome! Not only did she make us an incredible dinner the night before with Turkey, Pasta, Olives, Salad, Sweet Peppers, Cheese, Vino, and Mandarincello (my fav!!!), but she also made us a picnic Monday and guess where we ate? OUTSIDE!!