While traveling and racing in Europe I'll depart from the usual style in the next few blog posts - most likely embodied in even worse sentence structure than before and voyages into random, unedited ramblings.
George and I arrived in Bruxelles yesterday and took the fifteen minute train ride to our base camp in Leuven, Belgium. It's a small medieval town with lots of good food, beer, a track, and excellent trails that branch and meander into the dairy cow occupied Belgian countryside (I'm at home, being from Wisconsin). One of the first things we did was rent bikes for the next month. Everyone here rides bikes complete with fenders, a handbell, and bike rack, and having one makes us feel part of the community in Leuven. Plus they're 15 euro / month, a steal.
Any good traveler knows that you're on that country's time when you step off the plane, and it's no different for runners. Many of the athletes living with or near us in Leuven arrived this week after racing the US Championships in Sacramento last weekend and are competing in the Flanders Cup meeting in Oordegem on Saturday. We'll be jetlagged for the race, but in my mind it's best to get on schedule quickly rather than take long naps to catch up.
Yesterday, George and I occupied ourselves with a run, people watching and espresso beside Leuven's central cathedral and finding bedding for our dorm rooms, although we did pull the sweat shirt for a pillow trick. We cooked a dinner worthy of the old times at training camp in Tallahassee: Chicken, rice, and veggies in a pan. Plenty of pricey meals including meatball salad, raw beef sandwhiches, and mussels and frites await us this trip, and getting groceries saves tons of money, especially in Europe.
Today I did a pre meet run of 50 minutes, strides and a 400 in 58.9 to wake the body up after traveling. I'm breaking out the USA red, white, and blue Reebok spikes for the four races on my tour here. Pride in country is essential around Independence Day and after Belgium sent the US home from the World Cup on Tuesday. I felt heavy and sluggish on the run, but after strides I began to feel like myself
again.
Tomorrow is a 1500 in Oordegem which is a good race to start with. The plan is to relax, find the rail, and close the last lap well. Once I've busted the rust at a shorter distance and overseas, I'll run one last hard session on the track next week before another 1500 in Kortjirk on Saturday. Then it's onto the Heusden 5000 on the 19th. In between I plan to go on a few day trips to Germany, France, and perhaps Switzerland.
For planning and funding the trip I thank Zap Fitness and everybody who supports the non profit running center in Blowing Rock, NC. Because of Zap's running camps and the donations made by runners, campers, and people interested in improving American distance running, George and I are able to go overseas for three and a half weeks to race the best in the world during an experience of a lifetime. Zap's product is it's elite athlete team, and our trip is proof that its model for support is working very well.
Racing Schedule:
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| My trusty steed Libertas for the next three weeks. |
Any good traveler knows that you're on that country's time when you step off the plane, and it's no different for runners. Many of the athletes living with or near us in Leuven arrived this week after racing the US Championships in Sacramento last weekend and are competing in the Flanders Cup meeting in Oordegem on Saturday. We'll be jetlagged for the race, but in my mind it's best to get on schedule quickly rather than take long naps to catch up.
 |
| George and I in front of Leuven's Town Hall |
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| Danny Stockberger and I discussing Game of Thrones at Koffie Onan |
Today I did a pre meet run of 50 minutes, strides and a 400 in 58.9 to wake the body up after traveling. I'm breaking out the USA red, white, and blue Reebok spikes for the four races on my tour here. Pride in country is essential around Independence Day and after Belgium sent the US home from the World Cup on Tuesday. I felt heavy and sluggish on the run, but after strides I began to feel like myself
again.
Tomorrow is a 1500 in Oordegem which is a good race to start with. The plan is to relax, find the rail, and close the last lap well. Once I've busted the rust at a shorter distance and overseas, I'll run one last hard session on the track next week before another 1500 in Kortjirk on Saturday. Then it's onto the Heusden 5000 on the 19th. In between I plan to go on a few day trips to Germany, France, and perhaps Switzerland.
For planning and funding the trip I thank Zap Fitness and everybody who supports the non profit running center in Blowing Rock, NC. Because of Zap's running camps and the donations made by runners, campers, and people interested in improving American distance running, George and I are able to go overseas for three and a half weeks to race the best in the world during an experience of a lifetime. Zap's product is it's elite athlete team, and our trip is proof that its model for support is working very well.
Racing Schedule:
| July 5 | Flanders Cup Oordegem | Oordegem, Belgium | Outdoor 1500 |
| July 12 | Flanders Cup Kortrijk | Kortrijk, Belgium | Outdoor 3000 |
| July 19 | KBC Nacht | Heusden-Zolder, Belgium | Outdoor 5000 |
| July 21 | Flanders Cup Gent | Gent, Belgium | Outdoor 3000 |
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