Grounded!

On the plane, off the plane, switch gates. Then in the new gate they announce "all you folks going to San Francisco will have to wait, we're sending you plane to Paris instead. "

Packed!

Ben: Ready to go!

NAN: Ben suggested I add my 'goals.' Although I usually have goals (i.e., target achievements)for races, but not for vacations, still it's easy to answer: I want to enjoy my biking vacation in the French countryside and see Lance and the other TdF riders in the flesh. Throw in as much riding as suits my abilities (i.e., enough challenge with as little injury as possible) because I just love to ride, especially with good friends and my husband. Toss in as much wine and good food as I can handle each night wihtout tipping the scale or waking up impaired. And top it off with a fun few days in Paris starting with the Tour finale. My sister Maryann and brother-in-law Wodel who will fly in from Berlin to meet us - an added treat. Climb the Tourmalet? If I do, awesome, somethingI can say I did for years to come. (I'll be the first one to be surprised that I managed it.) If I don't? No problem. I'll still have fun. How can you not? French countryside, Paris, Tour de France, French food and wine, aaaand my bike! What's not to love.

Goals

Ben: Killer asked what my goals were for this little ride. Simple, very simple: Col de Aspin/ Col du Tourmalet combination on 7/19 which is part of Stage 16. I have always wanted to climb the Tourmalet (Ventoux too, but next year). And the Col du Soulor/Col de Aubisque combination on 7/21 also a Tour stage (17).

The Tourmalet day is 3 days into the trip. Jet lag will, hopefully, be behind me and it's early enough that exhaustion shouldn't have set it. The Solour/Aubisque combination follows a relative rest day and is the last big scheduled climb of the trip.

This isn't a race. Just getting to the top and back down with a solid effort equals a successful ride. If the bike is good, if I'm good, if the weather is good then everything else is secondary.

Oh, and as I am regularly reminded by my spouse, taking the time to look around and enjoy the view is good too.

Talk

Ben: Good post ride meeting to go over the route for the trip. The morning's ride had been fast and very humid with a bout of atmospheric theatrics forcing a caffeine stop.

Dry kitchen, fresh fruit, cute if skittish King Charles Cavalier spaniel worked to keep the meeting positive, if boisterous.

Talking through a trip day by day, climb by climb gives concerns a chance to be presented, talked over, hopefully laid to rest. It's the stuff we know we don't know that's scary and the stuff others discount as scary that can be frustrating and maddening. Just go read the posts about climbing.

Negotiation, discussion, consensus, argument make group travel much more fun than solo. Unraveling tension.

2.5 weeks to go. J wants to fit in 2 more 100 mile days and more. Lack of mountains, lack of grades in a land of flat pushes us towards endurance rides as the last effective way to build some strength. Would love to get three back to back days of 80 or more miles each.

One, two more chances to prepare then the real thing is here.

Maybe if we take a dog?

Training, Packing, Training

Ben: Before the packing and during, if you're that kind of person, comes the training. This has been a tough winter and spring for training. The usual - weather, darkness, work; got compounded with some difficult life cycle events.

Balanced, more than balanced, by kids excelling, the love and support and understanding of family, friends, and strangers. Hurt made bearable with long, long rides.

The bizarre thing about training is the more you do the harder it gets. The distance, pace, effort needed to get to the point of improving just moves further out in front of you.

It takes discipline and it really helps to train with folks you cannot bear to disappoint to stay at it. It helps if they like to say "oh let's do that hill one or ten more times" 50 miles into a ride. I am convinced 'self improvement' is a chimera.

So here we are about 3 weeks out. Like N I'm an early packer. Packing pulls the future into the present. "Gee, what jersey to wear for the Tourmalet?" Pick a jersey and you have to climb that mountain. You've seen it in your head.

The bin for "stuff maybe I should take" has been collecting gear for months. The "Road Rash" kit is built. Materials for packing the bikes gathered. I think I know what plan to get for the iPhone. Tickets and a hundred other details attended to.

Fun.

Now it's just finish the training plan, fold the clothes into the suitcase, pack the bike and watch for the thing that's going to blindside us at the last minute and be ready to roll with it.

Time is short!

NAN: Okay, clealry we haven't been updating much, so I'll try to get the ball rolling again. I have one bag on the floor in by bedroom and have started to pack. Crazy, I know, but that is my MO - pack early - packing is my physical connection to dreaming about traveling. (Ok, and I'm a little too organized sometimes.) Already too much to bring. Bike gear and supplies will take up 3/4. How many tubes should we each bring? Uh, how many bottels of Advil? Bandages? Tubes of antibiotic?? Ah, well, the perils of cycling. . . Training largely derailed this spring by numerous family events and most recently the flu. But I am still looking forward to squeezing in some long rides and hopefully some hilly ones before mid-July rolls around.