Czech Trip Day 5 - FOOD

We arrived to Znojmo, Czech Republic (Karel's hometown) on Thursday August 4th and his first meal request from his mom was SVÍČKOVÁ. Karel's dish (pictured above) was the classic version whereas mine was made vegetarian.

Until now (when I looked it up for this article), I had no idea how this meal was made.

"Svíčková is a famous sauce from Czech cuisine, made from root vegetables and heavy cream. It’s thickened with roux. Svíčková sauce is eaten warm poured over a beef slice, accompanied with bread dumplings. You can also garnish the final dish with lemon, cranberries, and a scoop of whipped cream."

I love this meal (vegetarian version) because it's so incredibly tasteful. It's also very comforting for Karel - it brings him a lot of great memories.

Mindfullness has many definitions but one that speaks to me is from this article that states "being aware of what is happening both inside your body, heart and mind - and outside in your environment, without criticism or judgement. Mindful eating is a form of mindfulness."

For Karel, food serves an added role when he is in Czech. It's not just for fuel and for nourishment but it brings back so many wonderful memories. From the dishes prepared by Karel's mom to ice cream and candy bar selections in the grocery store, every bite takes him back to a time and a place.

For me, I want to celebrate Karel's culture and rituals. The only way I can do that is to maintain a good relationship with food while I am in Czech. To do this, I must eat mindfully. I can't read the ingredients or food labels (everything is in Czech) so besides asking Karel if something is vegetarian and OK for me to eat, the only way I know how something makes me feel when I eat it is to savour every bite and to really focus on what I am eating.

I love trying different types of spreadable cheese, pastries and yogurts - discovering which one tastes the best or which one makes my tummy smile. I don't know if a food or meal is 100 calories or 1000 calories so instead, I listen to my body and my body tells me when I'm satisfied.

My food related decisions are created based on my senses - not from rules, guidelines or ingredient lists. For many people, the act of mindful eating could feel overwhelming and scary but with practice, it can help foster a great relationship with food. By focusing on the how and why of eating, you can better understand what foods help you to stay healthy, fueled and satisfied - fostering a deeper appreciation for every meal.

To help get you started with mindful eating, here are a few simple tips:

• Engage the senses and remove distractions - turn off the TV or screen or put down the book. Sit uninterrupted.
• Eat slowly. Savor the flavors, aromas and textures. Reconnect with your senses.
• Chew each bite at least 10+ times. Taste your food. 
• Ignore any emotions, thoughts or feelings around food. Simply enjoy the experience of eating without guilt, anxiety or inner commentary.

When the mind is calm, you are less likely to eat in an emotional, restrictive or all-or-nothing way. Awareness brings clarity, which helps with food related decisions. When your mind is calm, you are more compassionate toward yourself and less judgmental.

During every trip to Czech with Karel, I learn how to eat more mindfully. It's not about changing the food I eat but changing my thinking around food.

DOBROU CHUŤ (That's good appetite in Czech)

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Czech Trip - Day 3 MTB

 

I was so excited for Sunday. A long ride on our mountain bikes. 

After checking out of Airbnb #1 (to check in to Airbnb #2 in the afternoon - I wasn't able to book one for our entire 7-day stay in Znojmo) we drove just outside of town to Karel's friends house - Jirka. We enjoy seeing Jirka everytime we visit Znojmo for two reasons 1) I get to see Visty (Italian Greyhound) and her baby Bianca 2) Karel gets to talk bikes with Jirka. Karel and Jirka share a similar love of Colnago bicycles. They used to race together when Karel was a teenager. 

Another friend joined us (Stephen) and we set out for a long ride around 9:30am. Although Karel is somewhat familiar with the roads, it was great to have Jirka as our tour guide as we were able to see so many great sights and several beautiful look-out points. I've seen a few of these spots in past trips, but never by mountain bike. I am used to riding on very technical single-track courses so it was a nice change to be on different off-road terrain. We rode for almost 3.5 hours and covered almost 40 miles and over 3400 feet of elevation gain. Although the area is not "hilly" we had to climb up several 18%+ grades to get to lookout points - it was all worth it. We also visited the Iron Curtain, which always makes me stop and think about Karel's upbringing in a communist country. 

When we visit Czech, I really try to embrace being a local. Although we brought sport nutrition from home, we enjoy trying new products. Jirka gave us each a sports bar to try (mine was banana and peanuts and Karel had apricot) – it was really good. We had our sports drinks in our USWE hydration packs.

Near the end of our ride, Jirka took us to a beautiful lookout point where we could see all of Znojmo – a location that Karel had never been to before. It was the perfect end to our long ride.

When we arrived back to Jirka’s house, his wife had a meal ready for us – chickpea curry with rice and salad. It was so good.

At 3pm, we headed back into town with all of our stuff to check in to our next Airbnb, which is where we will stay for the rest of our time in Znojmo (until Thurs). After unpacking, we walked around downtown and then picked up a pizza in town – it was amazing. The dough was so good and I really enjoyed the tofu topping on the margherita pizza. We finished the entire pizza.

We haven’t been sleeping that well since we have arrived. I think our internal clocks are still a bit off and getting used to not having AC (we have several fans). We went to bed around 10:30pm but it was a restless night of sleep. We seemed to sleep a bit better toward the morning hours as it got cooler outside. With the pool opening at 10am, we were in no rush so when we woke up. Karel went for a short run to help wake him up and then we walked to the grocery store (there’s a store at every corner) to get a few things. I’ve been having yogurt, muesli and fruit for breakfast. After breakfast, it was time to drive to the pool for a swim workout. 

Hello from Czech Republic!

 

We’ve traveled to Europe every other year since 2012 to visit Karel’s family (and in 2014, 2016, and 2018 we raced Ironman Austria and in 2018 we also raced Challenge Prague). Packing for this Europe trip was a bit different compared to years past. With all the recent issues and complaints with international travel, packing was not as easy as throwing everything into a suitcase.

With two bikes (we brought our mountain bikes for Xterra European Championship and we are renting road bikes for Haute route – more on this later) and two suitcases to get us through two races and 4 weeks in Europe, we needed to account for the chance of lost/delayed luggage. We both brought a carry-one with all our race stuff – mountain bike and road shoes, helmet, 3 cycling kits, Xterra race kit, 2 pairs of regular clothes and other race stuff. We packed our sport nutrition in our checked bag, with the rest of our everyday clothing and a few more cycling kits. For this trip, we ordered 4 Apple Air tags ($99 on Amazon) as well as tag key rings and bike adapters (for under the frame bottle cage) so that we could track our bags and bikes throughout our travels. The app is free and you get real time info on where your stuff is as well as when it’s handled/moved. This would give us peace of mind that we would know where our luggage was at all times. 

Karel packed our Biknd bike cases to be 50 lbs so that our bikes could travel free on Delta. Packing our mountain bikes was really easy for him in these cases – much easier than tri bikes. The Biknd cases are soft cases but reinforced with airbags inside for extra protection. The only downside is that there are only wheels on one end so you have to lift one end and pull the case to wheel it.

We did most of our packing on the weekend (and by we I mean I packed on Saturday, Karel tends to wait until the last minute to pack so I was proud that he actually started packing on the weekend – but finished on Tuesday) and then did a good cleaning of the house on Tuesday. We have a few different pet sitters for the cats while we are away and my mom will have Campy.

On Wednesday morning, I went for a 40 minute run. I didn’t have time for any longer so I did 8 x 30 sec hill repeaters to add some quality and intensity to the run. Karel planned to do a workout but he didn’t sleep well so he tried to get a little extra sleep in the morning.

After packing up our Jeep (leaving one extra seat for Karel’s mom to return home with us for 3 months), we said a long good-bye to the furries. It’s so hard to leave them. We dropped Campy off with my mom who lives a mile away and then we made the 2 hour drive to Charlotte, NC for the first of two flights to Prague Czech Republic.

We drove to our friends house – Kelly and Meg Fillnow – and arrived around 11am. I gave us a buffer of around 30 minutes in case we had any delays before heading to the airport at 11:30am. Kelly drove us to the airport (in our Jeep) and she will be keeping our car at her place for the month. So thankful for them to save us some money by not having to keep the car at long term parking. We arrived to the airport just before noon and there was no line to check in for our 3:50pm flight. I wanted to give us at least 3 hours before boarding due to all the delays and issues at the airport lately. We checked in two bags each (bike + suitcase = both were free) and by 12:20pm we were all checked in. Karel and I signed up for TSA pre-check ($85 for 5 years) but only I was approved within a few days – Karel’s application is still awaiting approval – it can take up to 60 days) so I got to go through the TSA pre-check (which was a breeze) and Karel went through the regular security check. 

Since we had over 3 hours until we boarded our flight, we got smoothies (and Karel had a pita sandwich, I brought a PBJ bagel sandwich) and worked on Training Peaks until it was time for us to board.

I selected Comfort Plus seats (front row) for our flights – a luxury that I will always pay for when traveling. We both napped for our 80-minute flight to JFK.

When we arrived in JFK around 5:30pm we walked from gate 40 to 26 for our next flight which boarded at 8:30 (9:30 take off). We would be getting dinner on the plane but we were hungry so we purchased food from a vending machine – and it was really good! I got hardboiled eggs from Vital Farms with my bowl and Karel got chicken. After we ate, we learned that our gate changed to 38 so we walked back to where we landed in JFK and worked some more on the computer until we started to board. 

As we were waiting to board, we started to track our bags with our apple air tag. It was fun to see our bags/bikes being moved in Charlotte. But when we were in JFK we noticed that our bikes were still sitting near gate 26 (our original gate) and our suitcases were near 38. This had us a little concerned but they still had time to move the bikes over 12 gates.

Tracking our bags in Charlotte - everything was on our plane.

We got settled in our seats and continued to track our bikes….which were not moving. Around 9pm, we were getting a bit stressed so I approached the flight attendant and showed her our bikes on the app and asked if there was anything that she could do. Without hesitation, she contacted a gate attendant from her phone and continued to send her messages for the next 20 minutes. Finally, around 10 minutes before the door closed to the plane, we received notification that our bikes were on the plane (along with our suitcases). If it wasn’t for the Apple Air Tags, we would not have known that our bikes were still sitting at another gate. And we had proof that our bikes were there for the flight attendant to notify someone to help us out. When we finally took off, we felt relieved and could relax on our 8-hour flight to Prague.

We fell asleep pretty quickly but woke up for our dinner around 11pm. I requested a lacto-ovo vegetarian meal online (special meal) and it was delicious. Karel got the chicken dish and he said it was pretty good. After we ate, I started to watch Marry Me but was too tired to pay attention and slept on and off for the rest of the flight. With 90 min to go, we woke up for “breakfast” – they gave me a plain bagel as my vegetarian meal so I asked for the egg sandwich that everyone else was getting for some protein. I watched a bit more of Marry Me (I love a good RomCom) until we landed in Prague.

It was smooth going through customs (Karel has dual citizenship but since he’s with me he uses his US passport) and then our bikes were waiting for us in the luggage area (and our bags came shortly after we got our bikes).

Our good friend and athlete Roman (who lives outside of Prague) had his assistant pick us up and he was waiting for us when we walked out of the terminal. We are very lucky that Karel has so many wonderful people in Czech who help us out when we travel. It saves us money as well as stress. I feel asleep in the car in route to Roman’s house (Roman is traveling but we will see him next week at the Xterra race) but woke up in time for a popsicle and mineral water at the gas station. Karel enjoyed a non-alcoholic beer with his popsicle. After arriving to Roman’s house, we checked out his new endless pool (which took over a year to arrive and install), Karel checked out Roman’s new Mercedes and then Karel had an espresso before it was time for us to pack up our “rental” car from Roman and make the 2.5 hour drive to Znojmo – Karel’s hometown to see his mom. Karel’s mom is so excited to see us and feed us. On Sunday, as Karel was skyping with his mom, she asked us what we wanted to eat when arrive. 😊

Our new car. 

Just kidding! This is our car for the next few weeks ;) It's a stick so Karel will be doing all the driving. 

It's been 4 years since Karel has been home (Czech Republic) and three years since seeing his mom. Sadly, his dad passed away unexpectedly from Covid in Feb of 2021 and Karel was unable to travel home due to border closures. This trip will not be normal for us as we are used to spending time with his mom and his dad (who lived in the same town but in separate flats). Although Karel is excited to be back home, I know it’s going to bring a host of different emotions for him. We are really looking forward to our time in Europe and I’m excited to share our experiences with you.