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. 

Czech Trip Day 2: Brno

 

On Saturday morning, we woke up to light rain - which was refreshing since Friday was incredibly hot outside. The air was cool and the sky was cloudy. We started the morning with a run around the town - which was more like sightseeing for me. We ran for ~45 minutes and included several stops for pictures of gardens (and one longer stop to look at the cutest kitten and momma). 

After we cleaned up, we drove ~60 minutes to the city of Brno to meet Karel's niece Lenka and her husband and son. If you'd like to read more about Brno, here's an article. 

After meeting Lenka at the parking lot by the train/bus station, we walked through town to a restaurant for lunch. We had lunch at Forky's - a 100% plant based bistro. It was so great to be able to choose any option from the menu. I had a power plate w/ quinoa protein bites and Karel had a tofu curry. We shared fries. 

After lunch, we walked up to the top of a hill to tour the Špilberk Castle. We first took a tour of the museum and then went below the castle to tour the Prison. We then walked to see the Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul.

Around 4pm, we headed back to Znojmo. We needed to fill our car with gas (diesel) so we got a few snacks at the gas station - popsicles and my favorite poppyseed "bread." 

It's race week - in Czech!

                             

Wow - I can't believe I'm saying this but we are racing on Saturday in historic Prague!

When we planned our 5-week trip to Czech to visit Karel's family and race Ironman Austria, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to race the 2nd running of Challenge Prague to conclude our race-cation. This will be an exciting opportunity for Karel to race in Czech and I have a feeling it's going to be a race to remember as you can't beat the location and the views we will see on the swim and run course are going to be incredible!

As for training, it's been an interesting past few weeks. I felt I recovered quickly for Ironman Austria as my muscles felt rather good the first week  but then again, we also did very little exercise and then the next week was rather light. However, that second week was a bit frustrating for me because my muscles felt ok but I was still feeling incredibly low in energy. It was just an empty feeling that I knew wasn't normal for me but something that is common post Ironman - the highs and lows of Ironman recovery. One day you feel great and then the next day you feel like someone sucked the energy out of you. Oddly though, I was feeling rather good on the bike and swim but running was slow to feel my energy level rise. I respected my body with freedom to just run without structure, walk whenever I wanted and I also ran on the trails because I love trail running, I give myself permission to run at various paces based on the terrain and it allows me to be in nature and it's less impact for my body. We've also been biking a lot because it's how we can combine sight-seeing, move blood and also take advantage of the many bike-friendly routes. Three weeks after the Ironman (this past week) included all structured training sessions (with a purpose to each workout and most sessions with a main set) and I was pleased that my body has been responding well (finally) and feeling fresher with each passing day. I've also made sure to fuel well - which isn't hard when we have such a great selection of feel-good food, including homemade meals prepared by Karel's mom.

I was asked by a Trimarni follower how our bodies will react to racing so close to an Ironman and my response was "that's a good question!" I've never raced a half Ironman (or anything less than that distance) after an Ironman in one season. And the only time I have raced after an Ironman was another Ironman (~8 and 10 weeks for the two times I did it, respectively). So this will be a new experience for my body but I'm also not going into the race with any expectations or pressures. I want to have fun and also treat it as a training day where I give my best knowing that I just did a very tough effort at Ironman Austria and I still have another Ironman left this season in 7 weeks (Ironman Wisconsin). I want to make sure that I can recover quickly from this race to get back into my Ironman training when we settle back into the states the following week. I also need to be respectful of my body that I can't dig deep or take any risks at this race as I am still carrying around some fatigue from this past week of training after the Ironman - and it was a big week of training for me. As for Karel, he is still recovering from the Ironman but he has a long season still ahead of him with Augusta 70.3, the Ironman World Championship 3 weeks later and then Ironman Florida 3 weeks after that so he won't be doing anything silly but still giving his best for the day in a competitive setting. It's going to be a fun experience for us both.

Here are a few pictures of our last week of training in Czech. I am just loving this different training environment with outdoor pool swimming (lately it's been short course meters), running in the Podyjí National Park and riding on the very bike friendly roads in Czech and Austria. 

Feeling so safe riding on the roads here. Thank you cars! 

It's time to catch you up!

I can't believe that we have been in Europe for three weeks! We still have a little over two more weeks left of our European race-cation but it's nice to have finally settled into a good daily routine. Karel and I are not "vacation" type of people so although we are trying our best to relax and recharge and do some sight-seeing, it's not practical for us to step away from our coaching and nutrition business not to mention the difficulty we have escaping structure in our daily structure. So here's a little update on the past two weeks......

Post Ironman
The two days after the Ironman were rough. We were sore, tight and did I say sore?..... but every day it got a little better. Luckily, we were both able to sleep fairly well on the night of the Ironman so that helped a lot with recovery. We also did a lot of walking but the 5 hour drive from Klagenfurt back to Karel's hometown of Znojmo, Czech republic was a little uncomfortable. But thanks to some delicious coffee/cappuccino from McD's (yes - I said it, the only time I'll stop at McD's is in Europe for coffee) and some pastries, we survived.

With Karel having his family (aside from his brother) and many of his childhood friends living in Znojmo, we are lucky to have a place to stay anytime we visit. We stayed two nights with his friend (who has whippet puppies!) before heading off on the road again. We were able to get in some work, spend time with Karel's dad and get in a swim workout at the local outdoor pool (long course meters) on Wednesday (43 minutes/2500 meters). Although my body felt low in energy still and a bit stiff, it felt really good to loosen out in a cold pool. Post Ironman, I was still feeling tired during the day and would often get waves of highs and lows, but able to sleep ok during the night.

Ironman Frankfurt
Since we knew that Karel's friend Roman was racing Ironman Frankfurt (the one we stayed with on the first night of our arrival after our lost bikes issue), we couldn't pass up the opportunity to spectate, especially with such a packed pro field. Plus, I've never been to Germany so I thought it was a must-do opportunity.

We woke up really early on Thursday to get to Roman's place (outside of Prague) around 9am. We left his place around noon (after stopping for lunch) and I enjoyed my first trip in a camper van! I had some important work on a project to get done on the computer so that kept me busy for the entire 6+ hour drive. We finally arrived in the late evening and it was nice to stretch out the legs for a walk before heading off to bed - in the camper van. Roman had a hotel room booked in the town of Walldorf (about 15 minutes from Frankfurt) so we stayed in the van for one night and then booked a hotel room for the rest of our stay.

Karel enjoyed hanging out with Roman and the other 3 Czech guys racing the Ironman, whereas I enjoyed being in an Ironman atmosphere. The Frankfurt setting was a bit overwhelming with the Ironman being in a downtown setting so Karel and I were happy that we weren't racing (and only spectating) as it was a little stressful getting around. We also enjoyed having an outsider view as spectators of a European Ironman as our only experience is at Ironman Austria as athletes. It was neat to visit the expo and check out different vendors and to feel the Ironman hype. This certainly helped with the typical post-Ironman blues that are felt after a race (especially a race that doesn't go as planned).

It's crazy how bright it stays at night (it doesn't get dark until after 10pm) and how early it gets bright (well before 5am) where we are so it didn't make for easy sleeping, especially since we need to leave the windows open with no AC (no place where we stay in Europe has AC). But once again, we were ok with this since we were not racing. Luckily in Klagenfurt, we were on the top of a mountain which made it really cool - plus the weather was rather cool in the evenings and mornings which was pleasant.

As for workouts, we went for an open water swim (not at the race venue since that was not open for athletes before the race) at a nearby lake to the race venue. The water was very refreshing so we didn't swim with our wetsuits. It was nice to swim with Karel's Czech friends - although we swam a bit more than them since they were just splashing around and getting use to the water. Karel and I swam about 15 minutes. Afterward, we had a delicious lunch with the group before heading back to the hotel. We got some work done before heading out for our first run post Ironman (five days post race) which was a very easy 22 minute/2.5 mile run around the town. Although the legs were a bit tender, it felt good to run as we had been doing so much sitting and walking.

Karel helped the guys out with their bikes as a few had mechanical issues before the race (day before) and afterward, we headed out (with Roman) for a ride. This was our first ride post Ironman (Sat). Roman joined us for the first 45 minutes or so and then Karel and I went back out - exploring around the airport (on the bike path). We rode for about an hour and fifty minutes with the last 20 minutes just playing around on our bikes (exploring).

It was nice to have the rest of the day to ourselves as we got a lot of work done and could get to bed early before our spectating race day. Oh, I almost forgot! We also figured out how to use the train and we took it to the next town to check out the aquatic center. There was no designated place to swim so we just played around (let's call it pool open water swimming) and laid around before walking the 3 miles back home on the bike/walking path. It's so nice to be able to easily get from town to town (by feet or bike or train/bus).

Karel woke up early (4am) to take the guys to the swim start and then he returned back to the hotel. We stayed in the hotel until around 10am before heading downtown to Frankfurt. We decided to "watch" the first part of the race online on Ironman Now (Facebook) and also get in a short run (22 minutes/2.6 miles). It was a long day of spectating but an awesome experience!

Znojmo, Czech Republic
On Monday (8 days post Ironman), we returned home to Karel's hometown and it felt good to finally be stationed in one place. We are calling Znojmo our "home" for a total of 17 days as we booked a place from a friend of a friend in the city. It's nice for us to be able to spread our stuff and have a work space while still being able to spend time with Karel's family. Our typical routine involves waking up (without an alarm but to the sounds of the chirping birds) around 5:30/6am, getting work done for a few hours (while eating breakfast) and then working out. After our morning workout(s), we eat lunch (prepared by Karel's mom at her place) and then head back to our place to get more work done. Then, it's time for Karel to watch the Tour de France (Czech version of course) with his dad at his place. This is some great quality time for Karel to spend with his dad, talking about what they both love - cycling. Before his dad had hip surgery, he raced until he was almost 74! He will be 78 this year. Since Karel's town is small, it's not uncommon for Karel to run into a childhood friend - someone who he hasn't seen in over 20 years! Karel has been doing a great job translating for me and has only forgotten to switch from Czech to English a few times. I always enjoy grocery shopping in Czech - trying new foods and yumming over some old favorites.

As for workouts - to be honest, my body was still recovering all this past week. Sunday (7/15 - two weeks post Ironman) was the first day that I actually felt like I had energy and my body wasn't suffering. While the workouts we have been doing are unstructured (more like exercise), I have continued to go through highs and lows during the workouts - and throughout the day. But Sunday was the first day I finally felt fully recovered. While it's easy to want recovery to be quicker, I need to respect the time that is needed to heal my body. Even though my race didn't go as planned and I didn't meet my expectations of the race I felt I trained for, I still owe it to my body to let it recover. If anything, because I ran on empty for over 20 miles, this is even more of a reason to get my energy back through lots of nourishment, fuel, hydration, sleep and rest. The blood flow has been good as my muscles feel good and the niggles have gone away. We worked out every day last week except Saturday, which was a planned all-day trip to Vienna which included a lot of walking - it was exhausting to sight-see!

As for workouts this past week (days 8-14 post Ironman)....

Monday: 41 minute swim/2400 long course meters swim
Tuesday: 2:17 hour/37 mile bike in the AM. 35 minute/4.6 mile run in the PM
Wednesday: 2:34 hour/42 mile bike
Thursday: 58 min trail run followed by a 47 minute/3000 long course meters swim
Friday: 2:23 hour/42.5 mile bike followed by a 14 min brick run (1.5 mile)
Saturday: Day off/Vienna
Sunday: 38 min swim/2400 meter long course swim followed by a 61 min/7.6 mile run

And lastly - FOOD!
Oh - we have been eating well here. Fresh, local and homemade. And it's all so delicious! I'll save those pics for the next blog. YUM!

Grocery shopping in Czech

Nearing the last day of our European race-cation which included 1 week in Klagenfurt, Austria and over 2 weeks in Karel's home town of Znojmo, Czech Republic (with only 2 of those days as an overnight trip to sight see in Prague), I thought it would be fun to reflect on my many eating experiences that I have enjoyed, while on vacation.

It's going to take me a while to put all my food pictures into one blog (I'm thinking I'll let the food pics do the talking) so I wanted to share what it is like to grocery shop here in Znojmo, Czech Republic.

While I love eating new foods and meal creations when traveling, I find it important to understand the culture behind food. Whether it's understanding the agriculture (which is an important sector of the economy) or simply learning how to the food gets from farm to table, it's all very exciting to me.

With the "local" grocery store just a block from Karel's mom's flat (and in route to his dad's flat), we visited the store frequently. Sometimes it was just for some fresh bread and pastries whereas other times, our shop included items for Karel's mom (to make our lunch - she started cooking around 8am each morning) or some light items for dinner.
As for shopping for produce, we often stopped by a market, either in town or on the side of the road. 

And, we did a little shopping form nature (Mother Earth doesn't charge!) while riding our bikes.




The mornings are very busy at the grocery store as lunch is the biggest and most important meal of the day. The town pretty much shuts down for lunch and it's typical that most people stop their day (working and at school) for a sit-down lunch. 

To get your cart at the store, you insert 5 or 10 crowns (or 1 Euro) into the cart to unlock the cart. When you return your cart and insert the key, your coin pops out. This eliminates loose carts in the parking lot and having an employee go out to the parking lot to return the carts to the front of the store. 

If you only need a few items from the store, like meat, cheese, bread and/or pastries, you can shop at the front of the store as there are two counters with these items.

The grocery store is set up similar to what I am use to with the produce in the front but the main difference is that you (the customer) weigh your own produce when you select it, versus the check out person weighing everything for you. You put your produce on the scale, select the type of produce and then the machine prints out a bar code which you stick on your bag.
This makes it very quick and efficient at check out.

There is no shortage of fresh bread and pastries at the store. Shop late at night and there is little left.
Everything is made daily and spoils quickly so shopping on a daily basis for fresh bread is just part of this culture. Buying bread in the bag once a week is not typical, although there are a few "packaged" breads. 

While the pastries make your mouth water, they are not overly sweet. This is a nice change from the typical pastries that everyone associates with being overly sweet and packed with sugar.



You bag your own bread and can mix and match in the same bag. The check out person knows which bread is what so it's very efficient at check out .



Here's the packaged bread section. 

Oh the choices. 

I absolutely love the deli and cheese section at the grocery store, which I think is pretty typical here in Europe.
Rather than having one person behind the counter, slicing each cut of meat or block of cheese, everything is ready in the morning.
There's at least one person per section in the meat and cheese area, and they simply use their hands (with gloves) to grab how much meat and cheese you want, weigh is, wrap it and you are on your way.

(For reference for pricing, 1 US dollar = ~24 Czech Crowns. Food is very inexpensive for us here. But keep in mind that they use the metric system. Gas, on the other hand, is very expensive). 

Beer is cheaper than bottled water. 

And speaking of water, you can choose how many water bottles you want without having to buy a big packaged of water bottles. Mineral water is very popular here in all types of flavors. You don't have to worry about food dyes and artificial flavors as they are banned by the European Union. 

Of course, there is a section of candies and chips and other cereals but aside from the chocolate candy bars (which bring back found memories for Karel), we haven't bought much snacky food, if any. 

There's a huge frozen section of meats and cheeses and yogurts. 

And eggs are not refrigerated. 

At checkout, you pay if you want a bag (about 5 crowns) so it's typical that everyone brings their own bags. Also, about 80% or more of people pay for everything in cash here. Credit cards are not very popular. 

After our grocery store trip, we walk home with our bags and get to cooking and eating. 

European Race-Cation

It's been a busy last few days but we are finally settled into our rental home in Klagenfurt, Austria. And in case you didn't know - we are in Europe!

(I apologize now for any typo's or sentences that do not make sense. As you will read - I am still a little sleep deprived but slowly adjusting!)

We started planning our European Race-Cation last June after Karel and I registered for Ironman Austria. We had such an amazing experience in 2014 when we raced our first international Ironman together and seeing that we combined it with visiting Karel's family in Czech, we couldn't wait to do it all over again. 

But this time we brought my mom to share this race-cation with us! 

On Saturday afternoon we rented a mini van (although it turned out to be a passenger van - thanks Karel for driving!) for all our luggage and bikes and on Sunday morning, we headed down to Atlanta.

On Saturday evening, I had a little scare as I called Delta/KLM for the third time in the past 3 months to remind them once again that we would be traveling with our bikes and that I would need a vegetarian (lacto-ovo) meal for our flight. When the Delta agent on the phone told me that they needed 48 hours notice for our bikes and that they didn't have any record that we were flying with our bikes (according to KLM - our 2nd flight from the Amsterdam to Vienna) and we wouldn't be able to fly with our bikes. Say what??!! I nearly had a breakdown as we were driving to Atlanta at 9:30am on Sunday and I had called Delta twice letting them know about our bikes.
Finally, around 9pm on Sat evening I received a call from Delta that we were ok to fly with our bikes. My heart nearly stopped for a few hours but even with the good news that we were good to go with our bikes, I still had trouble sleeping. 

After our 2.5 hour drive and a bit of stress with all the things that we had to do before sitting on the air plane, we finally arrived at our gate around 1:30pm for our 3:10pm flight to Amsterdam. We prefer to minimize the layovers when we fly with our bikes and many times, it's cheaper to fly from ATL and to either rent a car or do off-site parking. 

We grabbed a late lunch (salad with tofu pictured below and a mozzarella and veggie sandwich - not pictured) and by 2:30pm we were boarding our plane.
The check-in with our bikes was smooth and we just love our new Scicon bike bags. Seeing that Karel is always the one to pack and assemble our bikes, he found it super easy to use and all he had to do was remove the wheels - yes, that easy! The bag came with a lot of accessories for keeping the bike secure and padded in the soft case. The case is extremely easy to move around which is nice when you have a lot of luggage. We typically go to the hourly parking when we check-in with our bikes as we can just bring in our checked bags and bikes and then go park and head straight to security. It makes for a less rushed experience. 

Karel was super excited to see his family for the firs time in 2 years. 

The flight was uneventful but relaxing. I can't remember the last time I had 8 hours to just watch movies/TV - I enjoyed every minute of it. Karel and I both prefer aisle seats but this time around there were no two aisles open for us to sit next to each other so Karel sat in front of me (to the right) and my mom and I sat in the middle row of seats.

I have to say that my lacto-ovo vegetarian meal was delicious. I had cooked kale and carrots with a black bean patty, along with a salad, fruit, a roll and cheese. It was not salty or heavy/greasy so it felt nice in my tummy. 

Seeing that we left ATL at 3:10pm, we arrive in Amsterdam around 5:45am (or 11:45pm EST). I had yet to sleep which not a good thing because by the time we headed to Vienna, I had gone over 24 hours without sleeping. We were served a light breakfast before landing in Amsterdam and once again, I enjoyed my vegetarian breakfast of orange juice, a banana and a tofu and tomato sandwich. 

We have traveled through Amsterdam twice before in route to Prague but never have we flown into Vienna, like we were this time around. 

Thankfully, I was able to take a short 1 hour nap on our 1:25 hr flight to Vienna but I knew my body was not happy being so sleep deprived. 

We had our last stressful moment as we were waiting for our bikes to arrive and thankfully, there they were! Yay!! (fellow triathletes/cyclists know this feeling)

Karel had one of his friends from Znjomo pick us up at the airport and sadly, it was rainy outside so we couldn't enjoy the ~80 min drive to Karel's hometown. 

Finally - reunited with his mom! 

Of course, as soon as we arrived, Karel's mom was ready to serve us lunch (their biggest meal of the day) and we were ready for her delicious home cooking.

We started with the traditional soup before the entree and this time I had vegetable soup with homemade noodles and Karel and my mom has the same soup but with beef broth. 

And for lunch, asparagus sauce with dill, an egg (beef for Karel and my mom), a dumpling and boiled potatoes. Oh so good! 

And of course, there's always something more in Karel's mom's kitchen - homemade apricot bars with fresh apricots from the garden. I must say, I love the treats in Czech because they are not overly sweet or salty - a big difference from the treats in America. 

After resting at Karel's mom's, we then walked over to Karel's dad's flat so that Karel could catch up with his dad. Neither of Karel's parents speak Czech so Karel is our translator. I often feel bad for Karel because it is a lot of work to translate and sometimes his brain forgets to switch (he will speak to his parents in English and to us in Czech).

Of course, no visit is complete without some treats. 

After visiting with Karel's family, we took my mom to her hotel/penzion where she would stay for the night (I joined her) - super cute. I absolutely love Karel's hometown as there is so much charm, history and beauty. Although this is my third time here in the past 4 years, I still get excited when I walk through his historic downtown. 

We had a light dinner (which we picked up some of it at the grocery and then Karel's mom made a meat and cheese platter) of couscous, asparagus, fresh bread and cheese. 

And one of Karel's favorites - rice and apricot cake (it's not sweet like cake so think non-sweet rice pudding). 

And she keeps on baking!
Homemade oatmeal, raisins and dried fruit cookies and gingerbread cookies (once again - the cookies are not sweet - just perfect. Honestly, it's hard not to feel great when you eat them - especially since they are prepared with lots of love). 

It was an eventful night on Monday as our hotel was filled with kids who were being super noisy all throughout the night. I was so exhausted and tired and tossed and turned in bed for hours until finally, around 3:30am I kinda fell asleep for a few hours. Needless to say, my mom and I didn't sleep as well as Karel (at his mom's flat) who slept 12 hours! Oh the fun of traveling internationally.



Karel and I had plans to run in the morning (Tuesday) to wake-up the legs but with him sleeping until almost 10am and me not sleeping, a workout was not in the picture.

So we ate instead :)
Fresh bread from the grocery and the most amazingly tasteful scrambled eggs (seriously, the eggs in Czech are amazing!)

After packing up our rental van, we made a stop at the local grocery in Znojmo (the food is much less expensive in Znojmo, Czech Republic compared to Klagenfurt, Austria) and around 3pm, we finally hit the road for our 4.5 hour drive to Klagenfurt.
Did you see our passenger van that we took to the ATL airport? Well, this one is even bigger...and a stick shift. Thankfully, Karel can navigate that big fan through the tiny streets of Europe :) 

The last time Karel and I drove to Klagenfurt, it was cloudy and rainy. This time, it was beautiful and sunny so we watched the mountains grow until they finally turned into the Alps. 

Now you may be wondering why I am so excited to be at McDonald's. Well, when was the last time your McDonald's looked like this??? (see below)

Fresh pastries? 

Fresh muffins? 

Fresh croissants? 

Fresh smoothies?

Yep - this is McCafe - not your normal fast food stop on the road!

If you didn't know, you have to pay to use the restroom at many places but here, we got a voucher to buy more coffee at McCafe. 

Fancy bathroom! 

Yum! 

This will be the ONLY time you will see Karel smiling over McDonald's coffee.
Mr. Czech here is very picky with his coffee!

Here are some of our pics in route to Klagenfurt. 

We finally made it to our airbnb in downtown Klagenfurt (right near the town center and only 2 miles from EuropaPark - race venue) around 7:45pm to check-in to our 2 bedroom flat.

After a late dinner and some unpacking, we finally went to bed around 10:30pm. Although I am still adjusting to the time zone, I think I fell asleep around 11:30pm and had a good 6 hours of sleep (the days are long here - the sun goes down after 10pm and then rises around before 5am) - slowly, I am finally getting on a sleep schedule and hopefully will feel more rested by race day on Sunday. 

I'll do my best to keep you updated with our travels via my blog when I have WiFi in our flat but for quicker updates, you can visit the Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition Facebook Page (and Instagram - @trimarni where I am sharing our daily pics of our adventures.