From Vienna to Nice

A blog post I wrote before the Haute Route.....

International travel can be very unpredictable and stressful so I've been mindful to give ourselves plenty of time whenever traveling to somewhere new. With a 7:25am flight in Vienna Austria on Friday 19th, we decided it would be best to spend the night at the airport hotel on Thursday 18th. The airport is only around 60 miles from where Karel lives in Znojmo (he lived just a few kilometers from the Austrian border) but it takes a little over 90 minutes to travel there. I wanted to get to the airport at least two hours before our boarding time of 6:45am so the hotel sounded like a much better option. Plus, we would be able to sleep in an AC room (for the first time in 15 days, since arriving to Europe) and we were craving a good night of sleep since we haven't slept restfully since arriving. 

After arriving to the airport, we parked our car in the P4 parking garage. I booked our parking online so that we would save a bit of money by doing it in advance. We received a QR code to get into the parking garage and that went very smoothly. I did the same thing when we flew to St. George in May in Charlotte, NC and we were able to park in the hourly parking lot across from the terminal for about the same price as long-term parking. We then walked a few minutes across the street to the NH Vienna Airport hotel, we checked into our room. It was so nice to feel the AC. 

At 6pm we had dinner in the hotel buffet (which was way overpriced but we were so hungry). It's been really nice in Czech because the Czech crown (currency) is in our favor as the US dollar goes a long way. Especially in Karel's town of Znojmo, it's very affordable for us to eat/sleep/travel. 

After we ate, we watched the Collins Cup documentary online and then went to sleep around 9:30pm. The night wasn't too restful as I was nervous about the airport experience the next day but it still felt good to sleep in AC. The alarm went off at 4:10am and we walked across the street to the terminal at 4:30am. Austrian Airlines is strict with luggage weight and the size/weight of carry-on's so we made sure to meet all regulations. We carried on as much as we could of our Haute Route gear in the case of lost luggage. 

The check-in process was very smooth. There was no counter to report to but instead, we checked in ourselves, printed our boarding passes and our luggage tags, fixed our luggage tags on our suitcases and then dropped off our bags at the counter. I purchased a "fast track" security ticket with our parking pass for 10 euros each as I was worried about going through security and while it did expedite the process, we would have been fine without one. After going through security, we had around 1:45 until we boarded our flight. 

Karel and I did some work on Training Peaks for our athletes from 5am until 6:30am and then around 6:45pm, we boarded a bus that took us to our plane. We then boarded our Austrian Airlines flight and around 7:30am we were off to Nice, France. I slept most of the flight and Karel read a Czech cycling magazine that he brought with him. 

With this being our first time to France and first time to Nice, it was beautiful to see the sea and all the mountains. I couldn't help but think that we would be biking over many of those mountain passes. 

We arrived shortly after 9am and I felt the stress lift off me after we received our luggage. I was a little nervous about taking the tram to the city to get to our hotel but I used the Rome2rio app to understand the tram and I also found another blog to understand how to buy tickets, etc. We bought our tram tickets for 1.50 euros each and when we were about to board, we weren't pushy enough and the doors closed on us so we had to wait another 10 minutes. The tram took about 30 minutes to get to our destination (which was Garibaldi square) and then we had a 0.4 mile walk (plus a little extra until we found the right way to go) to our hotel. 

The Haute Route booked all of our accomodations as part of our package so we added on an extra night to our Nice hotel - Aparthotel Adagio Nice Centre. Although we arrived around 11am (well before our check in at 3pm), our room was ready and they let us check in early. 

The room had AC (yippee) and a small kitchenette which was nice to have. After unloading our stuff, we were hungry for a meal so I found a brunch restaurant called Les Clay. We sat outside and I enjoyed pancakes and eggs and Karel had a bagel bread sandwich. 

After we ate, I was so exhausted that I napped for about an hour. I wanted to sleep all day but Karel wanted to go to the sea and I couldn't resist the opportunity to swim in the Mediterranean for the first time. 

We walked to the Port of Nice and checked out the beautiful yachts before heading to the rocky beach. The water was incredible blue and refreshing and super salty. It was amazing to just float on our backs in the water. We enjoyed swimming in the ocean and laying in the warm sun. 

Around 3pm we left the beach and had lunch at a restaurant (not sure of the name) as Karel was really wanting some fish. There wasn't much on the menu for me so I enjoyed pizza and salad (I can always opt for Pizza ;) Karel learned how to "eat" his fish from the waiter and he really enjoyed his meal. Mine was also delicious and I finished it all but two pieces (Karel finished those slices for me). 

We then walked around the city, I got us lost again as we tried to find the LIDL grocery store and we arrived back to our room around 7pm for a light snack (yogurt, fruit and muesli). 

We slept amazingly well and woke up a little after 7am on Saturday morning. Only one more sleep until we start the toughest amateur cycling event, the Haute Route Alps! 

From Znojmo to Prachatice

For our last three days in Znojmo before heading off to our next destination (Prachatice), we spent our time around family. After our Mon morning swim, we went to Karel’s mom’s flat for lunch. I had a lentil dish and Karel had a dish with meat. We then went back to our Airbnb for a short time and then walked to Karel’s nieces flat to visit with her and her son and husband. I loved seeing her beautiful four cats - one was a giant Maine coon. We chatted a bit (she speaks English) and then went to the park. We got ice cream on our walk back to our Airbnb, before walking to the grocery store to get a few things for dinner.

On Tuesday, we went for a short off-road run around the town. I was pretty tired during the run so we took several walk/stop breaks for pictures. Karel’s brother took a train/bus in from Pribor for the day (and night). We gifted Karel’s brother Jirka with a new pair of Hoka trail running shoes and a Trimarni tank. Jirika enjoys trail running and bike expeditions. After lunch at Karel's mom's place, Karel and his brother went to his dad’s cemetery and enjoyed a beer at the pub that their dad frequently visited (downstairs from his flat). This was Karel’s first real beer in over 3 years and while he didn’t really enjoy how it made him feel, he enjoyed sharing memories with his brother. While they were at the pub, I worked on the computer and took a short nap in our Airbnb With it being warm out and the noisy streets (and window’s open when we sleep), we haven’t had a good night of sleep since arriving to Czech. We are constantly tired and hoping that one of these nights we will sleep restfully.
For dinner, Karel and I went to a restaurant in town and Karel enjoyed a traditional chicken breast wrapped in potato and I had vegetables and pasta.

Wednesday was a pretty chill day. We went for a ride on the single track trails behind the only hospital in town. We did a few hard efforts to get the legs ready for the race on Saturday. We then went for a brick run (trail run). I was pretty tired after the bike ride and my legs were tired while running. After eating lunch at Karel's mom's place, we then went back to our place (Karel’s mom came with us before heading to Karel’s nieces place to babysit her son) and sorted through our clothes for our next leg of trip. Since we didn’t need to bring everything with us for the next week of traveling we sorted through our stuff and packed only one suitcase along with our race stuff for the Xterra event. In the early evening, we walked into town and enjoyed our last evening in Znojmo.

On Thursday morning we woke up around 5:45am and left our place around 7am. The drive to Borova Lada took around 3.5 hours. Depending on where we travel in Czech, the miles don’t go by really fast. For this trip, we were mostly on two lane roads, traveling through many villages and often getting stuck behind tractors and trucks. While you can pass on these roads, there are still a lot of slow downs. We were pretty exhausted and tired by the time we got to our cottage. A friend of Roman’s has a second home in Borova Lada and he let us use it from Thurs – Sunday. He was going to join us (along with Roman and two other guys) but they would come on Friday after bike riding from Prague to the house (over 100 miles there and then biking home on Sunday. They had a car following them with their clothes and food). The cottage was super cute and it was so nice to feel cooler air and for it to be so quiet (which was a big change after living in a city for the past week). After unpacking, we (along with our friend Honza who was also doing the Xterra race) drove in two cars to Prachatice – which took ~50 minutes. We picked up our race stuff in the town of Prachatice and then drove another 35 minutes to the start of the bike course. Because of the point to point bike course, we left one car in town and all rode in Honza’s van to the race start/bike start. By the time we got on our bikes, it was after 2pm and we had been traveling since 7pm. Karel and I were very tired. We are almost on the verge of tears because of how exhausted we were. But when we got on our mountain bikes, we quickly woke up and felt the good energy enter our body. What a difference it makes to move the body!

For the next 2.5 hours, we rode the entire Xterra bike course and all I can say is wow. The course was not super technical (there were a few small sections with rocks and roots that required skills and strength to get over) but what was so physically demanding was the long steep climbs. There were climbs on pavement, grass, rocks and dirt that were well over 20% and lasted anywhere from 2-5+ minutes. We took several stops to regroup (with Karel leading the way and having a blast on his bike). There were also several sections with signs before that read “DANGER” and to Karel, this meant “FUN” as the section was a fast, rocky, steep downhill. While I felt like I could handle the entire course with my skills (a few times I needed to get off my bike to walk through a section that I was too tired to get the strength to work through), what I lacked with high power on the climbs. My legs were so tired and my body felt empty. A big difference between mountain biking and biking in the Ironman is that in the Ironman, I rarely feel my heart beating fast. But in mountain biking, my heart is always beating hard and I’m breathing heavy. It requires so much effort to get up these steep hills and navigate over roots, rocks and other elements. This feeling is very new to me and something I’m getting used to. After 16 years of building my aerobic engine for Ironman, I know I need to really work my anaerobic threshold to better handle the punchy and hard efforts needed in mountain biking.

The bike course finished with a packed gravel downhill section with a few berms and then on the pump track before heading on the cobblestones and into town.

After the bike, Karel and Honza took our car back up the lake (another 40 minutes there and back) while I walked in the town and picked up pizza. I took advantage of the extra time and free WIFI at the pizzeria (we don’t have wifi at our cottage) and downloaded the videos from my GoPro to the app on my phone. After Honza and Karel returned, it was after 7pm and we had been on the go since 7am. We had a 45 minute drive back to the cottage and by 9pm, I was so ready for bed. It was so nice to sleep in a quiet bedroom with fresh cool air. We slept great!

On Friday, we enjoyed sleeping in and then went for a short trail run in the National Park. After the run, we walked into the small town and had blueberry dumplings for our lunch meal – which were incredibly delicious. We all cleaned our plates! 

As for the rest of the day, I used my hot spot and got ahead with a little work and Karel got our bikes ready for the Xterra race. It was a little interesting trying to replicate my normal pre-race meals in Czech, especially for an event that I had never done before. Whereas I have my Ironman and 70.3 pre and during race nutrition down perfectly, I need a lot more practice for Xterra. Roman and the other guys arrived to the cottage around 7pm but I was already asleep as I was so exhausted and tired. I had a good night of sleep and even though I slept in until almost 7am, I was still a bit tired in the morning. Since not sleeping well for a week, I feel like my body is still struggling with sleep. I was very nervous for the race, especially not knowing what to expect and racing in the European Championship. Karel also felt a bit nervous, even though he has much more experience than me (this was his 5th Xterra event).

At 8:30am, we left our place and headed to Prachatice for my first Xterra race. Race report coming soon!

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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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.