Addendum to Know Your Course: Run Down Hills

If you're training for a hilly course, it's sometimes not the uphills that hurt, believe it or not it's the downhills! The worst after-race pain I've ever had is when I drew a downhill leg on a running relay that lost over a 1000 feet of elevation in a couple of miles. I could barely walk for a day or two afterwards.

Many athletes train using hill repeats, but when they do they run up the hill but walk back down. Downhill running uses different muscles than either flat or uphill running, and those muscles need training too. So if you're training for a hilly course, don't forget to run down hill!

As a side note, a couple of years ago we biked through Umbria and Tuscany in Italy with the kids. One of the things we loved were these signs "warning" us of hills ahead. As you can see, the signs were usually not necessary (could you actually miss the fact that there's a hill looming ahead of you?). We called these signs "boobs ahead" just because of the image on the sign and the kids got a kick out of spotting them. Since pretty much all of Tuscany is hilly, we saw them frequently (and grew to fear them at times when we were getting tired!)

Yesterday I ran almost 3 hours of hilly trails around town (our area resembles Tuscany in more ways than one - lots of hills, lots of wineries, ah if we only had more gelato) and am happy to report that I'm barely sore at all this morning. Hooray for hill training!

It's Been Awhile!

We just got back on Tuesday (morning, about 2:30 am, ugh!) from our Italy trip. I've started typing up my daily journals from the trip, and putting the entries (with photos of course, I think I only took about 4,000 of those!) up on my Blue Skies Blog. It was definitely the trip of a lifetime.

I did haul my running shoes all the way over there, with the idea that I'd take an early morning run in Rome, maybe down to the Circus Maximus (jet lag nixed that idea, unfortunately) or somewhere along the way, but realistically we were just too busy! So I hauled those running shoes back home and did go for a jog on Tuesday, and probably will hit the pavement again today.

The second week of our trip was the biking portion, and that all went amazingly well (even if you count in the times we got lost and the times we had to push the bikes and trailers up the steep hills of Tuscany!). We biked 165 miles that week from Asissi to Firenze (Florence) with all of our gear. The kids were real troopers, even on those unexpected side trips and detours. They were very excited to get on the bikes each and every day and see what the day would unveil to us. We cycled through vineyards where the grape harvest was in full swing, and ate lunch under shady olive groves.

Everyone in Italy was extremely friendly and helpful when we were on the bikes. The drivers were amazingly courteous (American drivers, please take note!) Even on narrow windy roads, a truck or car would follow us for miles at our 15 mph until they could safely pass, with nary a honk or unfriendly attitude. Though they drive very fast (compared to here) and seem to take road signs and lane lines with a much more liberal interpretation, the drivers there are very aware of everything around them (scooters zooming around the edges of the lanes, pedestrians stepping out, cyclists on the roads). We got loads of people slowing down and shouting out Bravo! or Complimento! out the window to us. A far cry from many drivers here who will just see how close they can come to you without knocking you off your bike.

One regret I have is that on the last day of our vacation, we were in San Giovanni Valdarno and that morning they were having a bicycle race on the "strada bianca" or white gravel roads of the area. There were six racers staying at the same place we were, loading up on pasta the night before. There were race options from 38k to 200k, and I would've loved to have seen it. Well, truth be told after cycling on all of those roads with the kids on the tandems, I was about burning up with jealousy for those bike racers, I wanted so badly to snap my fingers and have my own trusty bike appear, get on it, and roll out over those beautiful hills and valleys myself! Maybe some year I will go back...

But for now, we had an excellent time. I'll be putting up our detailed experiences on my other blog, and the kids are definitely hooked on bicycle touring, which was one of our goals in this whole thing. We are thinking that next summmer we may tour down the U.S. west coast on the tandems. We could easily haul our camping gear as it wouldn't weigh any less than the luggage we were hauling there (even though we managed to fit all of our clothes for four people for three weeks into two carry-on sized suitcases!)

Training Rides

Not quite as sexy as my race bike but this has been my ride for the last few weeks. We're almost ready to head to Italy with the kids and our bikes, and we've been out rolling through the local hills with the kids on the tandems (only resorting to pushing them up a hill once so far). Those of you athletes with young children... there is hope! It all started with a Burley trailer, then a tag-a-long bike, then we got them their own little two-wheelers, the training wheels came off and away they went. They've biked around town with me for years, replacing car trips to dance classes or homeschooling events. They've both competed in fun kids triathlons. Now they're ready for the ride of their lives.

We've got directions, books, maps, and a brand-new GPS. We've got spare tubes, tires, chain links, and brake pads. I've had Italian lessons loaded on my iPod for every run, walk, or quiet moment hanging out the laundry for the last two months. We're as prepared as we're going to be. And on Saturday we roll out of here for three and a half weeks in Italia. Wow!

Waving To Italy

I don't spend a lot of time checking my blog stats, but every now and then I do and get a fun little surprise. Like this week I discovered that my nifty little triathlon checklist is being visited by bunches of Italian triathletes from a triathlon forum over there. So I thought I would just give a wave to all of you from this side of The Big Pond. Hello Italy!

My family and I will be biking through your lovely countryside on our tandems this September, which I am really looking forward to. I am even practicing my Italian daily so I don't have to say "Scusi, parlate inglese? Io parla italiano non molto bene" all the time. And if you're ever in Oregon, USA, drop me in line and I would love to give you a tour through our own beautiful cycling wine country!